Page 13 of The Killer Who Kept Me

His cheek twitched, and he glanced to the right. He was confused by such a simple question.

“Em, were you given a time or just told to return immediately?”

“I…well, I wasn’t actually given a time.”

I motioned to the empty seat. “Then you can’t be late, can you?”

His gorgeous face dropped, his shoulders slumped. It was defeat in its most obvious form. He plopped onto the chair, a man resigned to an inevitable fate.

“You seem worried. How about this? I will take you back to Ramsey’s myself. I’ll tell him I kept you, and that you were exemplary. Maybe I’ll even make the man a deal he can’t refuse, make you look good in his eyes.”

Em snorted. “Right. That won’t happen. I appreciate you trying. I’ll just get back whenever you agree to let me go, and I’ll deal with the consequences.”

That didn’t sound good at all. “I don’t want you dealing with the consequences.” I opened my drawer, lifted the box up, and set it on my desk. “This is what you’ve come to pick up. I’ll let you go right now, on one condition.”

Em perked up, his lips curving. “Yes, anything.”

“You give me your phone number.”

And there he went melting like a candle again. “Oh, yeah, I thought about the fact that I didn’t give it to you last time, but in all honesty, I still can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Ramsey controls my phone. Since he pays for it and all, he can track incoming and outgoing calls.”

I didn’t know Ramsey Brookes very well, only in doing business with him here and there, but I wasn’t liking what I was hearing.

“Are you not allowed to have friends?”

He looked up at me, a small smile on his face. “I’m guessing you’re a pretty powerful guy to be doing business with Ramsey. How would I explain our friendship to him in a way he’d believe me?”

This guy had no idea who I was. I couldn’t remember the last time someone didn’t know me. I wondered—if he heard my name, would he’d know?

“I am not merely powerful, Em. I am the most powerful man in Eastbury. I’m Saros Tancredi.”

His eyes widened…Yeah, he knew who I was.

“Shit.” He stood abruptly. “I really should go. I don’t think it’s smart for us to be friends or anything other than this pickup arrangement.”

What was he so afraid of? I was the scariest person in Eastbury. Even Ramsey knew that. He’d never cross me; it would be a death sentence.

“Em, let me ask you a question before you dart out of here and it takes me another few weeks to see you.”

He didn’t sit again, and he was frozen in place. “Yeah, okay.”

“Do you like working for Ramsey?”

Em bit his lip, and he started wringing his hands together. He was skittish and deeply afraid, but I got the impression he wasn’t so much scared of me in the capacity of what I’d do to him, but more so that he didn’t want Ramsey to know I knew who he was.

“It’s fine.”

“What do you do for him?”

“Just whatever he needs. Usually a messenger or pickup.”

“What does he pay you?”

Silence. Em’s brows dipped and his mouth scrunched up.

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