Page 12 of Broken
I wanted to tell him that it was really silly that he tried to pretend he still wanted me dead when he was willing to kill off the members of a gang hebelonged to if they dared to threaten my life, but maybe I didn’t know the whole story just yet. “Why now? Why is everyone after me now and not months ago? That doesn’t make any sense.”
He didn’t say anything. I settled in the chair next to him so I could see what he was doing. A map was on the screen. A red dot was blinking in the middle of it and it was moving. He’d put a tracker on someone.
“Is that our guy?” I pointed at the dot.
His eyes briefly met mine. “Someone close to him.”
“Okay. So this Rosa Nera guy wants to kill me and he has friends. What do you know about him? What’s his name? And don’t say you’re going to handle it and that I don’t need to know anything, because you know that’s not true.”
He was quiet for a moment, but then he sighed. “His name’s Walter.He’s been a member of the Rosa Nera for about ten years. He messed up his chance to become Ingrid’s second because he couldn’t control his temper and she relegated him to a lower rank because he was still useful.”
“So the Rosa Nera truly is still active? Or trying to...?”
“Do you really think we’d go down so easily?” He gave me a long look.We. Great. So he still saw himself as a RosaNera, although it didn’t seem like he’d been doing anything for them lately.
“Who’s the leader?” I asked quietly. The Cobras hadn’t been able to find out if there was one because the Rosa Nera members had spread everywhere and it was almost impossible to tell who’d stayed and who’d moved on. Theo, though... I wasn’t sure what his role in this was. He’d been taking jobs unrelated to the RosaNera, and he was here, but if he still planned to go back or was actually following orders from a new leader...
He remained quiet.
“Is it you?” I searched his eyes when he looked at me. “Come on. You were Ingrid’s second, and I’m sure you were keeping her in check. You’d be the best candidate. I have the right to know if I’m in the same room as the Rosa Nera’s leader.”
“If I tell youthat I am, will you call your friends to come rescue you?” His face was serious.
“And why do you think you being the leader would change anything?”
He focused back on the screen. “I’m not in charge of the Rosa Nera.”
“Then who is?” Maybe Theo preferred to be close to the leader, but not the one actually in charge because that kind of position brought a whole lot of trouble and hewouldn’t be able to go anywhere alone. His men would have to go with him to protect him, and I didn’t think he’d like any of that.
“At the moment, no one.”
“No one?” My eyebrows shot up. That was unexpected. “You can’t agree on who it should be or what?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Fine. But what about Walter? Is he after me because he’s trying to prove himself to the newleader or is he simply following orders? Because if the new leader wants me dead for some reason, then he’ll keep sending people after me. Unless Walter was secretly in love with Ingrid and wants to avenge her death. Then I only have to worry about him.”
“Why is everything always about love with you?” His brow furrowed.
“Because love is a very powerful motivator.”
His eyes met mine.
“It can make people do crazy things and take risks.” I gave him a small smile.
“You’re distracting me,” he finally said. “I have to track down Walter.”
“And until that happens, what are you going to do? Are you just going to tell me to stay here with you?” I looked around the room. Aside from the bed in the small bedroom, there wasn’t anything to sleep on, not even a sofa, and I didn’tthink it was wise to go sleep outside with all that dust and whatever the hell had to be crawling all over the furniture.
He bit down on his lip as he glanced at me. I supposed he wanted to keep me safe here, but he wasn’t so sure about sharing such a small space with me. He hadn’t really thought that through, had he? At least my apartment had a sofa in the living room where I’d slept, buthere... No privacy. And I didn’t have any of my things here anyway.
“If you want me to stay, you’ll have to lend me your shirt or something,” I teased, and his eyes widened slightly, his shoulders tensing, as if he’d just gotten all kinds of wrong ideas. I shifted in my seat, because yeah, the idea of wearing one of his shirts and sleeping in his bed gave me a lot of X-rated thoughts. Maybehe’d even forget I was here and come out of the bathroom naked. Okay, yeah, I didn’t like where this was going, so I cleared my throat.
“Maybe I should go home. I need to tell the Cobras and my friends about this. They have ways of tracking down people like Walter. It’ll be easier to find him if we all work together, don’t you think?”
He scoffed. “Do you really think those idiots willkeep you safe? They haven’t even noticed you’re gone. You could’ve been kidnapped and killed and they wouldn’t even know.” A tic pulsed in his jaw. “Walter probably knows where you live. He’ll find you, and I can’t watch over you and search for him at the same time.” He was really cute when he was worried about me.
“I can go to Vix’s fight club. She has fingerprint scanners and alarms there,and as soon as she finds out my life’s in danger, she’ll help me set up everything so that no one can get to me. We have a small room there and I’ll be fine. I’m sure it shouldn’t take the Cobras too long to track down Walter.”