‘He’s very particular about—‘
‘Anything he wants, I’ll pay anything, do anything, I’ll work it off. Please, I need help.’ He rested a hand on her arm. ‘Think about what she could be going through. She’s just a kid, think about what they might be doing to her, can you imagine that?’
Yes, Flick could imagine because she’d witnessed some horrors in her time.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Michael Lewis, my sister is Lisa.’
Flick turned to point at the orange sign above The Grill that stood on the corner Michael had harassed her on. ‘Do you see The Grill?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Meet me there tomorrow at ten,’ Flick said. ‘They open for brunch.’
‘But—‘
‘I’m not making a promise. I’ll have a conversation with him.’
‘With him, with Rushe? Take me with you, I—‘
‘No,’ she said. ‘My conversations with Rushe are private, and to be honest, you don’t want to be within twenty city blocks when he finds out that you approached me like this. He’ll kill you... no exaggeration. That wouldn’t be very beneficial for your sister, would it?’
Flick left his side and continued down the street. Unsure if Michael would follow her, Flick got to the next corner and looked back over her shoulder. She saw no sign of a stalker. Just on the off-chance that she might be mistaken Flick altered her route, taking a longer, more convoluted way home, though if Michael had seen her exit their building that morning he already knew where she and Rushe lived.
Her new course toward home would delay her arrival, but Flick now needed the extra time to plan her approach to this development. Rushe would go through the roof when he heard about her day.
Chapter Four
After arriving back at the apartment, Flick tossed her keys into her bag and then threw everything into the closet beside the front door. The melodious murmur of the radio came from the direction of the gym, and she noted there was no food cooking in the kitchen, which meant take out again.
If Rushe had come home from the fitness club he was a member of, just to spend time in his home gym, he was either very worried about her, or he was still unsettled about last night. Except if it had been the former he would have come looking. The first place Rushe would check if trying to locate her was the library, so he’d have found her. Which meant his activity was down to door number two.
To give Rushe the time to come to her if he wanted to, Flick carefully removed her sandals. The noise remained constant and unchanged, so she progressed into the gym doorway. On pushing it aside she saw Rushe lifting weights. If he raised his head he would see her, but he didn’t. There was no way he wasn’t aware of her, the radio was just a hum in the background, a distraction; it wasn’t there for entertainment purposes.
‘Hungry?’ she asked.
‘No.’
For three months, Flick had been spoiled with his attention, and it now occurred to her that she’d come to take that devotion for granted; she had almost forgotten how difficult it was to extract information from this man. When he was being distant, the best way she’d found to deal with it was not to skirt the issue.
‘What’s the King Club?’
The dumbbell in his hand lowered slowly at the same rate his chin came up until he looked her straight in the eye. ‘I’m gonna kill him.’
Rushe tossed the dumbbell aside like it weighed nothing, and snatched a nearby towel to wipe the sweat from his head and chest. Flick kept herself in the doorway and held out her hands in an attempt to soothe him remotely.
‘Kill who? It was my question, answer me.’
‘Who was it?’ Rushe asked. ‘Scott? That manipulative little fucker would do anything for... Did he touch you?’
‘No one touched me,’ Flick said, still braced in the doorway when Rushe reached her position.
‘Move.’
‘No!’
Grabbing her arm, Rushe yanked her out of the doorway to remove the obstacle from his path. Flick got hold of his wrist but he jerked it away, and went into the bedroom. All she could do was follow. Already he was out of his shorts and retrieving clothes to change into.
‘Rushe,’ she pleaded. ‘You can’t shut me out of this. Why did you turn the job down?’
‘I’m gonna make it slow,’ Rushe growled, baring his teeth as he dragged up his jeans and buttoned them. Dropping to the bed he tugged on his clean socks. ‘I’m gonna make him cry. I’m gonna make him beg—‘
‘No! You’re not! You’re going to talk to me! Me, Rushe! You do remember who I am?’
Rushe flew off the bed and closed the space between them in a heartbeat. ‘You are my woman. There are consequences for anyone who harms you.’
‘Do I look harmed?’ she asked, holding open her palms. ‘The only thing hurting me right now is you!’
He faltered. ‘What?’
‘We’re a team, Rushe! If you turn down a job, I deserve to know why. You shouldn’t have a problem giving me your reasons, if they’re valid.’
‘Valid?’
‘Why aren’t we working?’
‘We?’ Rushe asked.
‘I knew what you were when I told you I was coming with you. Remember, in my apartment? You gave me a choice. You told me what this life would be. I didn’t want you to change. But you have, why?’
He took a step backward, then another. ‘I haven’t changed.’
‘Yes, you have,’ she said. ‘And you know exactly why, it’s because of me. The only thing I can’t figure out is if you’re worried about my safety... or if you’re worried about your own.’
‘I don’t give a fuck about me.’
‘I know,’ she said, and crossing to take a seat on the bed Flick took his arm and brought him down to sit at her side. ‘But if something happens to you out there, who’ll be here for me?’
And when Rushe diverted his attention to hers Flick knew she’d hit the nail on the head. ‘You’re reckless,’ he said.
‘You’d do anything for me, I know that. Why don’t you believe I’d do the same for you?’ Still, he didn’t have words and so he got up to pace away from her.
‘Who was it?’ he asked, lifting his head but still not turning to face her.
‘I’m going to assume that Eric and Scott are the men who were here last night, and it was neither of them.’
Rushe turned. ‘So how...?’
‘He’s worried about his sister, Rushe. She’s nineteen and the police are doing nothing. He needs help. He’s desperate.’
‘The brother?’ Rushe asked. ‘Coming to you was a risk; Scott would’ve told him that.’
‘Why do you believe it was Scott?’
‘He doesn’t like me,’ Rushe said. ‘He’d be happy to see me in a jail cell.’
‘If he doesn’t like you, and you don’t trust him, why did you let him in here?’
‘He doesn’t like me but he’s had my back in the past, and he knows I’m useful for him. Work isn’t personal between guys like us.’
‘He makes a fortune from referrals,’ Flick said, recalling what Michael had said about a finder’s fee.
‘Yeah,’ Rushe said. ‘His girl went missing a while back.’
‘You found her?’
‘She left him.’
‘Because of you?’
‘No,’ Rushe said, actually affronted. ‘I don’t have women on the job, I told you.’
‘But you did have sex.’
‘I didn’t fuck his woman. Turns out she was... they weren’t happy, he had debts needing settled... it’s complicated.’
‘I’ve heard that before. She wasn’t happy?’
Rushe shook his head. ‘Not that I blame her. As soon as he got her back... she walked out. He’s never gotten over it.’
‘And he blames you by association?’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But he didn’t like me before that either.’
‘You don’t make friends easily, do you, Lover?�
��
‘Never needed friends, never wanted them. You start to care about something and...’
‘We can’t live in a bubble forever. You take cases in defence of women for a reason. There aren’t enough men like you out there. You need to do this, because no one else will. You worked alone because you didn’t trust anyone. Do you trust me?’ Flick held her breath in anticipation of his response.
‘I’d kill any man who touched you.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ she said, aware that he knew exactly what she did mean. ‘No games, Rushe. Do you trust me?’
‘I don’t know if I trust myself.’
‘You feel responsible for me,’ she said. ‘You care about me, just like you cared about...’
‘I didn’t tell you about that so you could bring it up at every opportunity,’ he snarked. ‘And you’re different, you’re not like that.’
‘Rushe, we’re going to do this. I’m going to do it... I’m asking you to help me.’
‘You’d defy me?’
‘What else is new?’ she asked and smiled, but he didn’t see the funny side.
‘You don’t know what you’re doing out there. You’ll get hurt.’
‘Maybe. I got hurt the last time I got drawn in. But we did the job. I rescued your ass, remember?’
‘This isn’t a game.’
‘If we don’t do this, she’ll be lost,’ Flick said. ‘Maybe they’ll kill her. Maybe she’s hooked on some drug. The family don’t know and they deserve to know. Since when do you let scum like that get away with the store?’
‘You’ve made your point.’
‘What do we do next?’
Rushe, in his hesitation, still wouldn’t look at her. ‘Focus on the details. Check the brother, the family, get the real story.’
‘Ok,’ she said. ‘Michael Lewis is going to be at The Grill, opposite the library, at ten tomorrow morning.’
Rushe shook his head. ‘I don’t want to meet him.’
‘But—‘
‘Eric will tell him I’m on the case. I’m not interested in listening to the snivelling. He won’t tell me anything relevant.’
‘How do you know that?’ she asked.
‘He has a stake in this, an interest, which means he’s biased. I’ll check things out for myself. If I need to talk to the brother after that, I will.’
‘Ok, I’ll meet him alone.’
‘You won’t,’ Rushe said. ‘I’ll tell Eric to meet him.’
‘But—‘
‘There are three positions in a case like this. The family are the pursuer. The defender is the group in possession of the target. Then there is us, the investigators. We don’t give a fuck about the pursuer.’
‘Why not?’ Flick asked.
‘Because if you care too much and fail in the mission it can be...’
‘Your sense of responsibility,’ Flick said. ‘Ok, you don’t want to disappoint them. You keep yourself at a distance.’
‘Right.’
‘So we care about the defender?’
‘Not really,’ Rushe said. ‘We have to obtain the target. After checking out all of the parties, we need an eyeball. We need to know where she is.’
Flick nodded. ‘Lisa has a relationship with Joey Galante who has ties to the King Club.’
‘Yeah,’ he said.
‘Do you think he loves her?’ When Flick’s attention rose she saw how relaxed Rushe’s features were. ‘What? What’s funny?’
‘You’re going to have to resist the urge to...’
‘To what?’
‘Treat every couple like they’re in a Shakespearean tragedy,’ he said. ‘I don’t think he loves her. I’d be surprised if he was still fucking her.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘No, I don’t, but I will. I’ll know everything there is to know about everyone involved before I go near any of them.’
‘What is the King Club?’
‘A consortium,’ he said. ‘They’ve been around a couple of hundred years.’
‘They’re a cult? A secret society?’
‘I suppose you could look at it that way, but again, you’re romanticising it. These are men who want money. They’re involved in various criminal enterprises, but I don’t know the details yet.’
‘You’ve dealt with them before?’
‘Not directly,’ Rushe said. ‘But I’ve had contact with some of their associates a couple of times.’
‘Will that cause problems?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ he said. ‘It’s a far-reaching group.’
‘Ok. So we check everyone out?’
‘I’ll pull up what I can on the system here, but I’ll need a wider—‘
‘I can do that,’ Flick said. ‘You want to know about the family? I can go to the records at City Hall tomorrow. I can research them from the software lab too. I can access official records, credit reports, newspaper articles.’
Rushe’s chest expanded when he took a deep breath and leaned back against the closet door. ‘I’m not sure about this.’
‘You don’t trust me to—‘
‘I trust you,’ he said. ‘You’re great with the paper stuff, the computer; I’ve seen you through in the office there but...’
‘But? A computer search isn’t going to hurt me.’
‘You told me that you didn’t want me to change,’ he said. ‘I can handle this. But if you research these people, look into their lives and their history... you’re going to get invested, Kitten. You’re going to care.’
‘I can switch it off,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen you do it enough times.’
‘You’ll get yourself hurt,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to make a stupid decision based on your emotions.’
‘Like I did with you?’ she asked. ‘I came back for you.’
‘Because I’d have come back for you.’
‘Because I love you.’
‘I don’t want you doing that again. We were lucky last time. Pure dumb luck got us through.’
‘That and my superior powers of manipulation,’ she said.
‘Of me, Jansen, or Skeeve?’
‘All of the above.’
‘We’re gonna take this one step at a time,’ Rushe said. ‘I can’t tell you what’s gonna happen. I can’t tell you what to expect.’
‘I’ll wow you with my research powers.’
‘You do that, Kitten,’ he said. ‘But we have to get one thing clear.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I’m in charge.’
‘Ok,’ she said, and a grin burst to her face.
‘I mean it, Flick; this isn’t poolside, or some loser in a coffee shop. If I tell you to do something—‘
‘I’ll act in our best interest,’ she said. ‘That’s the only thing I’ll promise.’
Flick pulled her top off over her head as she got to her feet, then she unzipped her skirt to wriggle out of it, and out of her underwear too. Rushe’s blood diverted south when his eyes lowered to her bare breasts.
‘Did I tell you to do that?’ The way he asked the question let Flick know that Rushe genuinely wasn’t sure of the answer.
‘No, but you need a shower. Consider me your human loofah.’
Flick didn’t wait for him to react again, she bounded up onto the bed to run over it and jump down at the en-suite door. Things would start to change now that they had a job. Flick just wasn’t sure how easy they’d find the transition.
Chapter Five
Rushe had arranged for Eric to talk to Michael at The Grill, so Flick didn’t attend the morning meeting. Dispensing with that disruption meant Flick could immerse herself in her task at the library.
That morning Rushe had woken her up before he left the house; it was early, maybe around five AM. He never usually woke her. But he had today. He stroked her awake, and Flick had been sure it was a prelude to morning sex, but it wasn’t. Rushe kissed her, then left her alone so he could get to work himself.
Afte
r that occurrence, Flick struggled to get back to sleep. So she went to the computer in their office slash gym to compile herself a list of questions that she wanted to try and answer that day.
Using the home computer made her uneasy, because she’d learned just how easy it could be to trace someone. Their computer had internet, but she wasn’t sure of the protection on it. So instead of taking any risks she got ready and went to the library.
Liam had interrupted her a couple of times, but he finally got the message that she was busy and left her alone. Flick worked tirelessly, and she was surprised by just how much information there was. It seemed every time she tugged on one string a dozen others came loose.
The library was actually open until midnight for use by the college students, but Flick decided to head home at around seven PM. At home, she worked on getting the information she had into files, into an order that might be useful. Rushe hadn’t told her exactly what they would need. He’d said they would take this one step at a time, so Flick would have to learn as they went along.
Flick had cooked for them, but she hadn’t eaten under the assumption that they would eat together. As it turned out, when the front door did eventually open, hailing Rushe’s return, it was almost midnight.
Her impulse had been to leap to her feet, and to run to him, but she resisted it. Rushe hadn’t given her any indication that there would be anything dangerous about his day. But sitting here tonight, with every minute that passed her anxiety level had increased.
Rushe dumped stuff in the closet with a thump. Flick stayed in her place at the dinner table, in front of the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the living room. Still with a pen in her teeth, when he approached the table she turned to observe him. But he didn’t say anything, and her patience wore out, so Flick took the pen from her mouth.
‘Good day?’
‘You’ve been productive,’ he said, nodding at the half dozen files strewn over the table.
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