Page 104 of Saving Sophia

“I do,” Hayden agreed. “Doing this the legal way is going to require paperwork and warrants and probable cause. I just don’t have enough. It’ll take time.”

“We don’t have time,” Griff said.

Hayden nodded, looking at him warily.

“I can make a call,” Griff said.

I hesitated. The need to get her back was like a tornado inside me, but what Griff was offering could have a steep cost.

Griff and Vincent were half-brothers, like Hayden and me. But unlike us, they weren’t orphans. None of us talked about the time before we came to live with Aunt Carol and Uncle Joe. We all understood somethings were best left in the past.

Right after high school, they both left home and all but vanished for years before showing back up when Uncle Joe got sick. We didn’t talk about that either. Wherever they’d been, it was a dark place. We had suspicions, but, because Hayden was a cop, it was all best left unsaid.

Hayden’s phone rang. “Fuck, it’s my captain. I have to take this.” He slid his finger across the screen before bringing it up to his ear. “Detective Valero.”

He grimaced and waved to us to continue without him.

“Are you sure that’s a call you want to make?” I asked Griff.

He shrugged. “Valerie isn’t going to take a murder rap without a fight. I’m just offering information for a favor. It doesn’t have to go farther than that.”

“You know Valerie Vasili?” I tried not to think of the implications.

“Don’t ask stupid questions,” he grunted.

Whatever this was, Griff was on a dangerous, slippery slope. I knew it, and he knew I knew.

“I love you, brother,” I said simply. He looked uncomfortable, like I knew he would, then he looked away.

Hayden was shaking his head and starting sentences without finishing them, his phone pressed hard against his ear.

Griff watched him pace in the tiny kitchen a few steps away. “Hayden can’t be involved.”

I nodded.

Griff pushed off from the couch. “She’s a good girl. She makes you happy. I’m gonna go make that call.”

28

SOPHIA

I was back. Back at the club. Back to serving drinks. Back to wearing the stupid toga uniform and those awful gold platform gladiator sandals. Callie was dancing on the stage, her eyes blank, her face covered in thick makeup that almost covered the bruises on her cheek. Almost.

The only difference was that we were in Mr. Roscoe’s VIP room, where he could keep a close eye on us while he conducted business. The same VIP room he killed Nik Vasili in. The same VIP room that had changed my life forever.

Club regulars sat around, drinking and lounging while the blue neon flashed and the music pounded. Blank-eyed Roman statues lurked in every corner, every alcove. Before Mr. Roscoe told us they housed hidden cameras, their empty stares had made me sad. Now they lurked like scary reminders. He was always watching. No hope of escape.

He stood at the floor-to-ceiling one-way window, overlooking the club’s main floor like a petty lord surveying his lands, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Brad lingered next to him, like the kid that desperately wanted to sit at the cool kids’ table in the cafeteria. I almost felt sorry for him until I saw Callie touch her swollen cheek and tug a strand of her hair as she danced.

I loaded champagne flutes onto my tray from the bar, staring at the bubbles rising in pale fluid, not quite able to believe I’d held the hand of the man I loved in another state less than twenty-four hours ago.

Mr. Roscoe snapped his fingers at me, waving me over. I sniffled and forced myself to walk over to him.

The moon-faced man joined the group from where he’d been lurking in the shadows, and each of the men took a glass. I tried to slip away, but Mr. Roscoe slid his free arm roughly around my waist, pulling me in tight. His cloying scent of bergamot and tobacco filled my nose, and I tried not to gag.

“A toast?” He raised his glass, his arm like a steel band around me as I tried to pull away. “To our little maid, finally coming home and getting her story straight.” He gave me a dangerous smile.

“To my little accomplice,” the moon-faced man added with an ugly laugh.

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