Page 12 of A Fine Line

Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t immediately reply, so I press, “I need to know, sweetheart. I need to know why you’ve been a slave to such evil for so long. What has driven you to make such huge sacrifices that you’ve given up on your own life?”

She stares back at me for a few long moments, then nods. “Yes. She’s entirely innocent in all of this. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.”

I search her eyes, noting the deep pain there then ask, “Do you have any idea where she might be?”

She shakes her head, the sadness on her face intensifying. I’d heard from Darius that she has a daughter. He’d given me the few details he had before I went in search of her. And I get it, the need to protect those you consider yours, the lengths you’d go to do so. And as fucking pissed off as I am that Lilith got taken out in the crossfire, I can’t begrudge her need to protect her own child.

I still fucking hate her, though.

“Do you at least know the last person she was with?”

“Yes. I have a short list of people who are most likely to have information on her whereabouts. I also have a list of less obvious people, but I’m hopeful that the first list will know where to find her because the second list–” She stops talking, obviously choked up by emotion, and I stare at her as the implications hang in the air.

I don’t want to ask, but I have to. “Do you have proof of life?”

She winces but shakes her head. “No. Not for months now. And many of the people who would most likely know her are dead. If nothing else, they’re in hiding.”

I grab some bread and put a couple of slices in the toaster. I slide the butter dish and knife toward her, “You’re on toast duty.”

She gives me a small, watery smile and nods as she moves closer to me. She waits for the bread to finish toasting, and I divvy up the omelet between two plates. She says from over my shoulder, “For fuck sake, Tony, did you make a twelve-egg omelet?”

I glance at the plates in confusion. “I don’t know. Maybe nine. Why? Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am. But there’s no way I can eat all of that.”

I raise a shoulder dismissively, setting the egg pan in the sink as I say, “Eat what you want, and I’ll eat the rest.”

The bread pops up, and she snatches it out of the toaster, slathering butter across each piece. Then she asks softly, “So you’ll help me? I’ll do anything.” The knife clangs against the counter, and then she’s right beside me, looking me in the eyes. She waggles her eyebrows as she says, “And I mean anything.”

I turn to face her and lean my back against the counter, my arms crossing over my chest as I look her over. As much as I would love for her to owe me. As much as I would like to have her at my beck and call for literally anything, that’s not how I fucking operate. So, begrudgingly, I shake my head and say, “First of all, let’s get a few things straight. I don’t take sexual favors as payment. I certainly wouldn’t use sexual favors as leverage because that wouldn’t make me any better than those fuckwits who already touched you without your permission. I won’t coerce you or blackmail you to open your legs for me. I’ll hate fuck you day in and day out if that’s what you want, but not under duress. Do you understand that?”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Second, you will give me both of those lists at the same time. You don’t decide what I do with them. If you have a gut feeling that someone on that list doesn’t deserve to die, don’t put them on that list. Because they’re all going to fucking die.”

Her eyes widen, and she opens her mouth to say something, but I raise my hand to stop her. “Third, I went to great lengths to locate you and bring you back here for two reasons: one, putting you in the box was satisfying, even knowing I couldn’t do much with you once you got out of it. And two, I don’t believe all this shit with Nettie died with Vincent and Dmitri, and I’m sure you’re the link that will get us to the brain of the entire fucked-up organization.

“And finally, I still fucking hate you. I hate what you did. I hate what you represent. I hate the fact that your actions in some way led to the death of someone my people cared about. You hurtingthemis what I find unforgivable.”

She waits a beat before responding, obviously considering her words before speaking. “I know it’s no consolation, Tony, but I hope you believe me when I express how sorry I am about Lilith. Maybe it doesn’t hurt me in the same way it hurts Antoinette or Agatha or even you, but it hurts me in a way that reverberates through my very being because I know, in some ways, I am responsible. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a murderer. And if I was going to be a murderer, there’s a pretty big list of people that I would’ve taken out before her. Even as fucking crazy as she was, she was good.”

“Maybe. Someday. But I wouldn’t count on it. I’m not as reasonable or forgiving as Nettie. And I don’t have any kind of attachment toward you like Darius might. And don’t even get me started on your fucking brother.”

She frowns at me, clearly taken aback by my statement as she stares at me and retorts, “My brother? I don’t have a brother.”

Now it’s my turn to stare at her in confusion. “Yes, you do. Jayme. The other reason I was forbidden from outright killing you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I suppose the number of things I don’t know about myself is long.”

“I’m not gonna get into it with you right now,” I say, wishing I hadn’t brought it up. “I’ll let Jayme do all the explaining when the time comes.”

“And when will that be?”

“I don’t know. I’ll reach out to Dare to find out what’s going on there.”

We sit down and eat in companionable silence for a while. She manages to put quite a bit of food away, then she pushes her plate over to me. I place her plate on top of my empty one and then rise and walk to the kitchen. I open a drawer under the counter and pull out paper and a pen before returning to the table and setting it in front of her and say, “You can start that list now.”

She looks from the paper to me. “What list?”

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