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CHAPTER SEVEN

“A dead end is just a good place to turn around.” ~ Naomi Judd

Saros

How fortunate was I? The very man I’d been lifting every rock to find had walked right into my club the day before we were all supposed to be thankful for what we had.

His face was pinched, and fear glimmered in his gorgeous eyes. But he didn’t have to fear me.

“Please, Em, have a seat.”

“I’d like that, but I have to deliver this soon. There’s a deadline I must adhere to.”

I cocked my head. How bizarre. “The package isn’t anything that will expire if you sit and have a drink with me.”

“As much as a relief as that is, I have a time I’m to return.”

I sat in my seat behind the desk, more so to stop me from grabbing the man and running off with him. Cosmo stood by my office door, so Em wasn’t going anywhere.

“And what time would that be?”

His cheek twitched, and he glanced to the right. He was confused by such a simple question.

“Em, were you given a time or just told to return immediately?”

“I…well, I wasn’t actually given a time.”

I motioned to the empty seat. “Then you can’t be late, can you?”

His gorgeous face dropped, his shoulders slumped. It was defeat in its most obvious form. He plopped onto the chair, a man resigned to an inevitable fate.

“You seem worried. How about this? I will take you back to Ramsey’s myself. I’ll tell him I kept you, and that you were exemplary. Maybe I’ll even make the man a deal he can’t refuse, make you look good in his eyes.”

Em snorted. “Right. That won’t happen. I appreciate you trying. I’ll just get back whenever you agree to let me go, and I’ll deal with the consequences.”

That didn’t sound good at all. “I don’t want you dealing with the consequences.” I opened my drawer, lifted the box up, and set it on my desk. “This is what you’ve come to pick up. I’ll let you go right now, on one condition.”

Em perked up, his lips curving. “Yes, anything.”

“You give me your phone number.”

And there he went melting like a candle again. “Oh, yeah, I thought about the fact that I didn’t give it to you last time, but in all honesty, I still can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Ramsey controls my phone. Since he pays for it and all, he can track incoming and outgoing calls.”

I didn’t know Ramsey Brookes very well, only in doing business with him here and there, but I wasn’t liking what I was hearing.

“Are you not allowed to have friends?”

He looked up at me, a small smile on his face. “I’m guessing you’re a pretty powerful guy to be doing business with Ramsey. How would I explain our friendship to him in a way he’d believe me?”

This guy had no idea who I was. I couldn’t remember the last time someone didn’t know me. I wondered—if he heard my name, would he’d know?

“I am not merely powerful, Em. I am the most powerful man in Eastbury. I’m Saros Tancredi.”

His eyes widened…Yeah, he knew who I was.

“Shit.” He stood abruptly. “I really should go. I don’t think it’s smart for us to be friends or anything other than this pickup arrangement.”

What was he so afraid of? I was the scariest person in Eastbury. Even Ramsey knew that. He’d never cross me; it would be a death sentence.

“Em, let me ask you a question before you dart out of here and it takes me another few weeks to see you.”

He didn’t sit again, and he was frozen in place. “Yeah, okay.”

“Do you like working for Ramsey?”

Em bit his lip, and he started wringing his hands together. He was skittish and deeply afraid, but I got the impression he wasn’t so much scared of me in the capacity of what I’d do to him, but more so that he didn’t want Ramsey to know I knew who he was.

“It’s fine.”

“What do you do for him?”

“Just whatever he needs. Usually a messenger or pickup.”

“What does he pay you?”

Silence. Em’s brows dipped and his mouth scrunched up.

“He does pay you, Em, right?”

“ Uhh …not in the typical sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? He pays you in buttons, ice cream?”

Em chuckled lightly, and I very much wanted to hear his laugh.

“No, I do things and he pays for me to live at his home, eat his food. He keeps me clothed, that sort of thing.”

A controlled type of payment. I glanced at Cosmo and judging by the expression on his face, he too saw that something was very wrong.

“Wouldn’t you rather receive money, so you could venture out on your own?”

Em opened his mouth a few times before actual words tumbled out. “May I please go now, sir?”

The man seemed to have a lot of fear in his life. I didn’t want to be another person he was afraid of or a thing he felt he must avoid. I knew where to find him now. I pushed the box closer to him.

“You may, Em. But I’d like to extend an offer to you first. I would like for you to work for me instead of Ramsey. I’ll do all the things he does for you and give you a paycheck so you can decide your own future. Just think about it. I have another package for pickup next week. Hopefully I’ll see you then, and you can answer me.”

He nodded, grabbed the package, and turned to leave. Cosmo was still blocking the door.

“Let him go, Cos.”

Cosmo moved to the side and opened the door. Em ran out of the office without another peek.

Cosmo faced me after we were alone. “Something isn’t right.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“What exactly did Ramsey need from you?”

In retrospect it wasn’t anything huge, but now I wondered what exactly Ramsey Brookes was up to.

“He needed some intel on someone. He wanted to do business with them, but his own deep dive didn’t tell him enough, so for a fee I agreed to get it for him.”

Cosmo took the seat vacated by Em. “Who was the person?”

“Lionel Cummings.”

“The disappearer?”

That was what everyone called him, because Lionel Cummings had a gift for making people disappear in a way that you didn’t know if they ever truly existed, or he could find anyone and gather their every move without you ever knowing he was even there.

“The very one.”

“And what package is he asking you for next week?”

I sighed. “Another background on a Dre Hopper.”

“Isn’t that the son of the governor?”

I nodded. “Sure is.” I cocked my head. “Cos?”

“Yeah, Saros?”

“I think it’s time we do some digging on Ramsey Brookes. I never questioned his needs, but I’m starting to think something is brewing there.”

“On it.”

He stood but turned before he left. “Oh, I meant to tell you. The woman, the one that two of the guys in the alley had her number?”

“Yeah, you guys find her yet?”

“Benny did. Dead over at Motel Dawn, overdosed in the bathtub.”

“A fucking dead-end, then.”

Cosmo tapped the doorjamb. “Only for now, Boss.” He left, shutting the door behind him.