Page 66 of Cruel Hearts

Too bad.

“Are you on my side, Stella?”

I lift my chin. “I’m on Zarah’s side.”

He nods. “Then that’s the side I’m on, too.”

CHAPTER TEN

Zane

Imay never be able to wrap my mind around what Stella has sacrificed for my family. She went with Ash thinking he’d subject her to the nightmare he made Zarah live. Sold to the highest bidder to be treated in whichever manner the pig thought his money entitled him to.

Don’t think I’ve separated myself from them because I’ve treated Nathalie better. I know I’m just as much of a scum as the men who abused Zarah, but my penance and punishment will have to come later. While I should have done something a lot sooner, my sister’s in the penthouse, safe, and no matter what I have to do, she’s going to stay that way.

Mel bursts into the office, surprised the room doesn’t look like a warzone. My cheek hurts like fuck, but I’m a stupid son of a bitch, and it’s what I get.

“Maryanne Wexler was shot by a young punk breaking and entering. The homicide detective I spoke to said they think he wanted money or was looking for something to fence to buy drugs,” she says, standing just inside the door. “A street camhelped the cops pick him up, and the gun on his person matched the bullet found during her...autopsy.”

“I don’t believe that,” Stella says, her hands clenched into fists.

“Being she’s connected to you, I didn’t, either. Unfortunately, whoever hired him covered their tracks, and he’s not talking...ever again. A deputy at the jail found him hanging by his belt.”

Tears run down Stella’s face, and I want to comfort her, but I don’t dare approach her.

Mel didn’t exonerate me.

“That doesn’t prove I didn’t hire him.” I need evidence I’m innocent or Stella won’t work with me. I want her to. I need her to. My chances of repairing our relationship are less than zero, I know that. She looks at me, but she doesn’t see me. I’m only a man who didn’t love her enough to believe her.

I’ll fight for Zarah. I think my sister will come back faster when Stella’s safety penetrates her drug-induced fog.

“I’ll keep digging. There’s a paper trail somewhere. I’ll look into family and friends. The officers at the jail. It could be he had help securing that belt around his neck.”

“Thanks, Mel.”

“Is that what you want me to work on?”

I pause.

She wants to crack Ash’s prostitution ring, and mixing the information Stella gave me about Zarah into it, Ash may have dirtied his fingers with more than only hookers and strippers. His side business could involve buying and selling women. Maybe children. I don’t know the fucked up things Ash is doing, and if we’re going to stop him, we have to do it right.

“I need Stella’s trust before we can work together.”

Mel wants to argue, but as a PI, she sees the value in tying Maryanne’s death to Ash. Another nail in his coffin when we’re ready to go in for the kill.

“Okay. I’ll keep working on it. In the meantime?”

“In the meantime, Stella needs to see Zarah. After all, it was Stella breaking into Quiet Meadows that started this whole thing.”

Stella slants me a dirty look.

Okay, she doesn’t think that started it. I guess for her it didn’t. Pushed onto the train tracks, someone on the roof of this building shooting at her...I’m fortunate she didn’t turn tail and run. It could be that’s exactly what she’d been thinking of doing. Checking on Maryanne to be sure she’d been okay these past five years, then disappearing into the night, knowing Ash would be hunting her for the rest of her life.

If Stella hadn’t cared so much about my sister, I would still be blind.

Stupid and blind. Oh, so fucking stupid and blind.

“I shouldn’t need much time, but an office and a computer would move things along.”

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