Page 44 of When We Fall: Part Two

The guys sat, clearly feeling a little awkward.

“What can I help you with?” I proceeded, staring them down.

“My name is Elijah,” the one on the edge said. Dark hair. Dark eyes. All black clothing. “These are my friends. Christian,” he gestured to the one next to him before moving down the line. “Memphis, and Dmitri.”

“Dmitri,” I said. “Russian?”

“Da,” Dmitri replied. “But I’m not one ofthoseRussians. I hate the fucking Ivanovs.”

I surveyed him for a moment, taking in how he looked. Dark hair. Gray eyes that looked like the color of a storm. And built. Fuck, the guy looked like he enjoyed bench pressing cars in his spare time.

“What can I help you with?” I asked, tearing my focus from Dmitri and looking back to Elijah. I could tell he was the leader. Not only was he first to speak, but he also had a no-nonsense way about him that just screamed control.

“We want to work for you,” he said. “I’ll be blunt. We use sugar. We believe in the product. We want to push for you. We want to enforce for you. Collect. Rough up people you need roughed up. Whatever it is. We want in.”

I said nothing as I stared at him.

He didn’t waver.

“What else?” I finally asked, knowing there was more to it than that.

The guys all shifted, telling me what I assumed. There was definitely more to it.

“Our girl,” the one called Memphis spoke up in a deep voice. “She’s been missing for years. She was our best friend. We have reason to believe Matteo De Santis has her.”

I sat forward and narrowed my eyes at him.

“And why do you think working for me can help you with this?”

“Because we want more,” Christian spoke up. “We want to be able to gain more information on her whereabouts.”

“So simply ask,” I said. “Why would you want to join this life?”

“We were built by these streets,” Elijah said. “We grew up on them. We own them. We know them. But what’s more,we’re willing to die to get our girl back, and if you give us the opportunity, we can prove to you how loyal we are.”

“What’s your girl’s name?” E asked from behind me.

“Indigo,” Elijah said, “Indie.”

Christian rifled through his jacket pocket before pulling out a photo and handing it over to me.

I took it and stared at the image of a beautiful young woman, maybe fifteen at the most. Hair black as pitch and hanging to her waist. Vivid blue eyes. Far smaller than the guys who towered over her by at least a foot in the photograph.

“Tell me what happened,” I said, placing the photo down in front of me.

“We all grew up on the streets. Indie had a foster dad who used to hurt her. He owed De Santis a lot of money. He owed Ivanov, too. One day, Indie went home and that was it. We never saw her again. Rumor has it that Matteo De Santis and his men paid a visit to her foster father. After beating him nearly to death, they took Indie with them. We’ve been looking for ages.”

“So for ages you’ve known she was with Matteo De Santis?” I asked.

“Not really,” Memphis said. “We only just found out a few months ago. For a long time, we thought her foster dad sold her off to Everett Church, but that turned up nothing. It wasn’t until we found her foster father and beat the shit out of him that he told us that Alessio Valentino took her on Matteo’s orders.”

“I see,” I murmured. “And working for me helps how?”

“Access,” Dmitri said. “Status. No one fucking listens to us. We want to be heard.”

“You want to be feared.” I settled back in my seat again.

“Lorenzo, please,” Elijah said. “You’re right, but it’s more than that. What if you had a girl you cared about? Wouldn’t you want to find her? We worry that terrible things have happened to Indie. She’s a sweet girl. She’s soft. I-we could never forgiveourselves if we didn’t do whatever we had to do to get her back. It’s been five years. The horrors she must have lived through…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Our word is gold. We are loyal. We want to make a bigger name for ourselves. We want to bring her home. Give us a task. We’ll complete whatever it is.”