Page 88 of Rough Hard Fierce (Chicago Underground 1-3)
“We need to talk,” he said.
Yes, we did.
“Did you mess with Rick?” I asked.
The shock on his face wasn’t that of a man confused but of one caught.
“Allie, I can explain—”
“No,” I said. “Don’t bother. What I want to know is—that guy at the club, the one who fucked me in the parking lot, did you know him?”
“I knew who he was, that’s it. He did some work for Philip, all low-level muscle shit. I barely knew him.”
He must be really worried, I thought acidly, using all those words that sounded like apology but spoke of betrayal.
“Did you pay him to hurt me?” I asked.
“What? No! Jesus, Allie—”
“Did you ask him to hurt me? Did you know he would?”
“No.” Colin held me by the arms and shook me. “Stop this.”
“What was he supposed to do to me?” I asked.
Colin’s hands tightened and then released. It was only a very small hurt, but it was a reminder that he was still a man, after all. I’d do better not to trust him so much.
“I had no idea you even knew that guy until Jim told me someone had taken you out,” Colin said, his voice ragged. “I followed and found…well, fuck. I found him later and roughed him up a little. Told him not to come back around. And I’ve never seen him since.”
His brown eyes implored me, so fucking trustworthy.
What did it mean if he was telling the truth? It meant his brother, Philip, was a lot more of an asshole than I’d previously thought. And a whole lot more dangerous too. Even more so, because Colin seemed to have no idea.
“Allie,” Colin said, a quiet plea.
“I believe you,” I said. “I’m sorry. I just…I’ve been having a rough couple of days.”
I reached my hand out, unsure of my reception, but he took it and pressed it to his face, breathing in my skin.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “Let me just shower, and it will be over.”
Now I was the liar, because it would never be over.
But I did shower and climb into bed, where Colin lay still and quiet. He wasn’t sleeping, but we didn’t touch and we didn’t fuck. We lay side by side with our words between us.
The worst part, I feared, was that I could not walk away. Not that I even could leave Colin now, but it was more than that. It wasn’t just a question of whether I’d tell the cop to go take a hike. Philip had sought me out for something, and it was clear that the animosity he felt toward me ran deep. All of a sudden the information I’d stolen seemed a lot more valuable.
It was leverage, just like the photos the cops had of me. Except this was leverage against a guy who wanted me hurt.
I wouldn’t do anything as obvious as blackmail with my leverage, though. For one thing I didn’t think it would work. There’d be nothing stopping him from telling Colin what I was doing, and that I’d snooped to get information. Even if Colin were surprised to find out about Tony Yates, I doubted he would trust me much after that.
No, I had to bring the cops down on Philip. I told myself it was about distracting him, about destroying the business that held Colin captive, but it felt more like payback for what Philip had done with Tony Yates.
The cops and Philip—the proverbial rock and hard place. What I needed was for them to go at each other. I wasn’t sure which side would crack first, maybe they both would, but I needed them to hammer each other, not me. I just had to make sure to step out of the way; otherwise, I’d get smashed right in the middle.
FIERCE
Prologue
