Page 51 of Bronx

I swerve the car over at the next corner of some random block and wait to see if he’ll have the balls to say something else. I held back, kicking his ass properly at the house because Ruby and her wife were watching, but no one is paying attention over here. It’s quiet and isolated. It would be so easy to pick up where I left off.

I don’t particularly understand it myself, but it troubles my soul that Karma and this dude are living in the same city and breathing the same air. It would be so easy to get someone in my family to hack into Ray’s life and turn it upside down.

A few maxed out credit card debts.

Maybe throw in a felony.

And all of a sudden, he’d have a lot more to worry about than Karma.

“I’m not going to let you have her,” he warns in a tiny voice.

I slam the palm of my hand loudly against the steering wheel. “You just won’t stop fucking talking, will you?”

I can feel my darkness enveloping me. I want to hurt this man badly, but I won’t. Karma is not my woman. She’s barely a client. The whole point of this was for me to eliminate distractions so we can conduct our search for Lev. It’s no wonder he thinks I’m sleeping with Karma. I’ve spent way too much time on this tonight.

I sigh heavily to myself and turn off the ignition. “Get out, Ray.”

I watch as he scans the area, probably trying to figure out where he is or if this is some sort of trick, I’m trying to pull.

“I said get out.”

“Before I do, are you going to tell me how you know her?” he asks.

The fact that Ray doesn’t know who I am or where I’ve suddenly come from is eating him alive. There are probably a zillion scenarios running through his mind, but I owe him zero answers. He lost that right when he put his hands on her.

“No.”

“But you know where she is?”

“Yes,” I smile tauntingly at him through the rearview mirror.

“Then there’s something you need to know,” Ray says almost mockingly. “Something I bet she didn’t tell you.”

I don’t bother responding because I realize that he’s just trying to bait me, but before I open the door, so that I can pull him out of the truck my damn self, he says a thing.

A thing that makes me pause.

And question everything I’m about to do.

17

Karma

I feel a bit shell-shocked.

Bronx came home with bloodied fists, a bad attitude, and he won’t tell me much of anything except that I deserve better than Ray and I can’t go back to Ruby’s house.

I would have liked a few more supporting details explaining exactly what happened, but communication doesn’t seem to be a strong part of his skill set.

The guest room is luxurious and the furnishings and bedding make it feel super high-end, like a Ritz-Carlton hotel club suite I once cleaned. So I’m basically hiding out in here after that scene between us in the bathroom.

I mean, what was that, and who am I?

Whatever it was, I figured we both needed some space, so here I lie, nestled in the middle of the softest comforter I’ve ever felt. I move my arms and legs back and forth on top of it like a snow angel, while trying to grow the courage I need to go back out there and get the answers that I want.

Until I get the nerve to face him. Fully clothed this time, I figure I can at least check on Ruby. I just pray I haven’t disrupted her life so much that she dumps me as a work wife. The last thing I need amid all of this drama is for me to lose my job too.

“Hello?”