Page 53 of Riordan's Revenge

“I don’t know about that, but she was willing to go back for more. She had goals none of the rest of us did. Ambitions.”

Cassie’s breath hitched. She leaned in. This was important to her.

DeeDee held out the joint in offer and shrugged at our refusal. “Waste of time if ye ask me. All ambition buys around here is time in the big house or a quicker death. Your ma wanted to run her own brothel. She lined up a few of the girls to work for her. Seventeen, and she acted like she could take on the world. Then she got knocked up. Even with a belly out to here she could scare the shite out of some arsewipe who wouldn’t pay for a trick. I’d see her march up to cars and give them an earful. Fearless. Then she had ye. I remember the day like it was yesterday.”

I took the seat next to Cassie. Her hand crept out to twine around my wrist.

Her fingers shook.

“Do you remember the day of the week?” I asked.

“Sunday, right at the end of the month. Cassandra’s mother was Catholic, and she joked that ye were her gift from God.She hid ye, though. Social services were sniffing around. Guess they got her bairn in the end, if she didnae raise ye. I always wondered what happened to her.”

Cassie sat back, silent and seemingly stunned.

“You didn’t keep in touch,” I asked in an attempt to fill in a gap.

“Naw. She vanished one day. She always had an eye out for danger, either from the social or her da. I figured she’d ran from one of them.”

Cassie sucked in a breath. “Did she ever say who her parents were?”

DeeDee’s gaze narrowed, then she sat back. “Don’t go barking up that tree. It isnae worth your bother.”

“Why, are they bad news?”

“Once upon a time, they were the worst kind of bad news, but most of them are dead or serving at His Majesty’s pleasure in Barlinnie.”

A notorious Scottish jail.

“They were gangsters,” I confirmed.

She nodded. “Ever heard of the Spring Hill gang? Your grandfather ran it. Made money from protection, lending money, and dealing. That kind of thing. At age fifteen, Cassandra was told she was getting married. That’s why she ran.”

“Mafia,” Cassie breathed.

“Aye. Leave well enough alone. Ye still have an uncle or two living the life so better stay off their radar.” DeeDee checked her phone. “I have a client downstairs. Is this going to take longer?”

Cassie stood. “No. Here. The money I promised. Thank ye for telling me about her.”

DeeDee snatched the cash and disappeared it inside her dressing gown. “Anytime, sweetheart. Come back if ye want more.”

Cassie hesitated then bent to the coffee table to collect a pen. On a receipt, she wrote something. “If ye remember anything else, anything important, can ye call me?”

DeeDee’s expression shifted. “She doesnae live around here anymore. I won’t see her to tell ye.”

“Ye won’t see her at all. She died a long time ago.”

The sex worker blinked. “Well, shite. She deserved better.”

We left, and I spotted Colin in a doorway across the road, lurking, and at least not calling the police. Though I guessed that didn’t happen much around here.

Cassie strode to the bike and took her helmet, which I’d carried, and shoved it on. Now obviously wasn’t the time for talking. Even if I had words to say, I wasn’t sure she wanted to listen.

Besides, I’d realised something she wouldn’t want to hear. Like her brothers, I had the urge to wrap her up in cotton wool. Lock her away safe where the world couldn’t touch her. If I told her it, she’d probably knee me in the balls.

Cassie raised her gaze to me.

Broke my heart with the weariness in her features.

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