Page 36 of Seek Him Like Shelter

“Yeah. Is that okay?” she asked, plowing through her omelet like she’d been starved for weeks.

“Yeah. I am just going to suggest that you have him drive you around a little bit first, just to make sure you’re not being followed here.”

“Oh,” she said, face falling. When the light hit her just right, I could still see the shadow of her bruise. But I was pretty sure that if someone didn’t know it was there, they wouldn’t be able to tell. “You think they’ll follow me?”

“I’m hoping not.”

“What if I do see someone following me?”

“Call me,” I told her.

“But…”

“Let’s not create worries that might never come to pass, okay? I’ll follow the enforcers today. They’re the ones who shot at you, and who likely broke into your place. If they aren’t anywhere near your work, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding.

“I will text you if they are there, so you know not to come out, or to come out in a crowd, and then I will give you instructions from there.”

“You’re good at this,” she said, exhaling hard and rolling the tension out of her shoulders.

“Part of the job, I guess,” I told her. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe,” I assured her. “Hopefully, you can get your boss to confide in you tonight, though. In which case, you can just quit going there and can just hang here where we know you’re safe.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding, but looking a little sad.

“Hey,” I said, waiting until those blue eyes of hers lifted to look at me. “I’m not trying to rush you along. Even if you get the recording and give it to the police or the press, you are free to stay here as long as it takes for you to figure out your next move.”

“You don’t think the police are going to take down the Bratva, do you?” she asked.

“No,” I told her. “I’m not trying to be a pessimist here, it’s just the reality. Big organized criminal empires don’t fold overnight because of one scandal. The man your boss is trying to get off his charges was a high-ranking member of this family. They’re getting on just fine without him.

“Not even when the law got all high-and-mighty in the eighties, using RICO to bring down the mob, did the whole thing just crash. It went through growing pains for a while, sure, but it never went anywhere. The same can be said of the Bratva.”

“So I will never be safe in Brooklyn again,” she said, eyes sad.

“Hey, I’m never going to say never here. Who knows what could happen?” I asked, thinking of gunning all the fucks down myself just so she could walk free without fear again. But that was some crazy shit, so I shoved those thoughts right down.

“Yeah,” she agreed, finishing her food, and reaching for her coffee. “It’s probably best to just focus on the next step right now. Which is getting Michael to confide in me. And on that note,” she said, checking her phone, “I really need to order my ride and get going.”

She did that, feeding and loving on Kevin—the lucky fuck—before rushing out to meet her driver.

I went out with her, fighting the urge to follow her to work, knowing that anything that connected the two of us was going to mean trouble.

“El,” a voice called, making me turn to see Renzo walking toward me, brows raised, keen eyes saying he’d just seen Elizabeth take off. “You got something you want to talk to me about?”

Shit.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Elizabeth

I was in the back of the car at two after eight.

I’d let everyone leave early again.

Michael hadn’t deigned to show up to work at all, so I figured why the hell should we all waste our time? Especially when my plan was for him not to win his reelection. On the account of him being impeached and awaiting criminal charges.

I felt guilty making everyone pull a normal workday knowing what I knew. But, then again, we were all getting paid for our time, so I guess it didn’t matter. The only people I truly felt bad for were the idealistic interns who actually believed Michael’s campaign promises. Though, if they worked side-by-side with him and heard all the things we all did every day and still believed him, the real problem was their gullibility.

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