Page 125 of Reasons We Break

“You’re breaching probation right now,” Rajan responds. “Gonna tell on you, dude.”

In response, Snake Tattoo grabs the back of the chair and tilts it onto the rear legs. Rajan cringes slightly, knowing what’s coming—Snake Tattoo lets the chair fall backward to the metal floor. The back of Rajan’s head hits, too. Pain shoots through his skull. Zach’s face appears over him.

“Half dead and still so mouthy. Why can’t you just cooperate, huh?”

Rajan blinks slowly at the ceiling. He has no clue what Zach’s talking about. Come to think of it, there was some secret he was keeping from them, but before that...who knows. Has he not always been here? Where did he come from? Is there a world outside this dark place?

“No, sweetheart. It’s just you and me,” his mother says from the corner. He looks at her. “Focus on me, remember?”

“Yo, he’s fuckedup.” Zach laughs. He rights Rajan’s chair, then turns to the others. “Jon, get him some food. A change of clothes, too. He needs to look alive.” Zach turns back to him. “We’re split on whether or not you actually know the bookkeeper. But here’s what we’ve agreed on over the past couple days: Even if you don’t know the bookkeeper, you can give us the next best thing. You can give us thebooks.”

Rajan struggles to wrap his mind around this. Retaliation, that’s what they want. But how?

Zach answers his unspoken question. “You’re going to run a little errand for us. You’ll walk into Lion territory and pick up our ledgers, along with yours. You’ll do it, because otherwise...”

Rajan forces himself to breathe. The Lions are protecting his family, protecting Simran. They can’t touch them, they’re safe—

“Your PO seems like a punctual lady,” Zach comments. “Comes into work at seven o’clock every morning.”

Kat.

Behind Snake Tattoo, Rajan’s mother vanishes.

Snake Tattoo adds, “That bitch is in the parking garage before anyone else. Cameras, easy to loop. Understand?” He gets in close. “I’ll do more than make her cry.”

Rajanknewhe shouldn’t have said anything to Snake Tattoo. He shouldn’t have given the slightest hint that he cared. It’s the same thing that happened with Simran—he was so busy protecting one weak spot he forgot about a different one.

“We’ll be following you closely,” Zach says. Snake Tattoo walks behind him. A moment later, the ties around his wrists snap off. “You have one hour.”

They drag him into a vehicle. When his blindfold is yanked off, he’s in a dingy, windowless locker room. A towel, water bottle, sandwich, and pile of clothes await him on the bench. He’s held at gunpoint while he does literally everything. Despite how degrading that is, he feels somewhat lucid once he’s eaten, washed, and gotten dressed in clean jeans, hoodie, and jacket.

They blindfold him again and drive him off. During that time, Zach explains the plan. When his blindfold is lifted, they’re on the corner of a familiar street, winding up a hill lined with mansions that overlook the mountains. Manny’s house—the place Rajan would bet all the ledgers got moved to after the café attack—is here, and Rajan knows for a fact the surveillance cameras’ range ends a few paces away. The Aces must know, too.

“If you’re thinking about warning your pals, don’t,” Zach says conversationally. “Or Kitty is dead.”

Rajan yawns pointedly before getting out of the vehicle. He’s unsteady at first—four days tied to a chair will do that—but once he’s gathered his bearings, he sets off up the street.

At the front gates, he’s waved through easily. But he feels the eyes following him this time. It makes sense now, after what Nick told him. He’s still seen as a backstabber.

He pats down the neck of his hoodie to make sure his tattoo is showing before stepping inside. As always, there are people milling around. Manny’s house is more of a base than a home—rumour is he doesn’t even actually live here.

He makes it up the stairs uneventfully, but someone bars him when he tries to step into the sitting room. “What are you doing?”

“Errand for Nick. He wants me to get something from the ledgers.” Rajan affects a bored look. “Do you need to call him first? Is he your keeper?”

They look him up and down, then let him pass. He’s been hanging around Nick enough that they believe him. But they still watch him. This will be the tricky part.

Rajan stops at the glass table. There’s a crystal tray with white dust on the edges, clearly recently used. He looks away immediately, willing himself to focus, and his eyes land on something else instead.

Jackpot. Two of the ledgers are here, open, as if someone’s been recently rifling through them. But isn’t there one more? He scans the table. It’s not there.

“What’re you doing in here?”

He turns. And there’s Manny Khullar himself.

Rajan hasn’t seen him in years, but he looks the same. A slick, expensive snake, with rings glinting on his fingers, scotch glass in hand. His expression, currently irritated. Especially when he sees Rajan holding a ledger.

“Running an errand for Nick,” Rajan repeats, and Manny’s expression changes.