Page 35 of Indebted

“I told her to stay at my place and keep herself hidden, just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“In case…” Wait a minute. “Shit. Here I am, stuck in a rut with the way I’m thinking about this. What if it wasn’t him at all?”

I look at Luca. “What if it was Greg? Oh, damn it, why didn’t I think of Greg?”

“The ex?” Jock asks, and I nod.

“The last time I talked to her, she said she might have to go back to her place and pick up some things to pawn, some jewelry or whatever that she was still holding onto. Like I said, Greg took everything, so the only money she was living on was mine. If it ran out, and if she went back there…”

“And if that sonofabitch knew she had valuables,” Luca finishes, snapping his fingers before pointing to Jock. “Do me a favor. See if he’s placed any bets lately.”

“Oh, you don’t think he’d be that stupid, do you?” Vincent asks. When the three of us look at him in unison, he winces. “Fair enough.”

“That bastard,” I whisper. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is. “Deanna was so trusting. He must have known she had valuables at the apartment. She could’ve walked in on him, or vice versa.” For obvious reasons, I haven’t yet gone to the police about any of this. I’m not sure what to say to them if they asked questions. But now I wish I had, because I would like to know if Greg took her things. We might start looking at pawn shops in the area, something beyond sitting here and feeling useless.

“I should have put him out of his misery at that garage,” Luca mutters as he takes a seat at the desk.

“I mean, I’m not going to disagree with you, but we don’t know for sure.” Look at me, trying to be diplomatic. I don’t know why it matters so much, but I don’t want any of them thinking I’m some hysterical, emotional creature. I don’t need them writing me off that way.

“Sure we do.” Jock waves me over to him, then holds his phone out. “Take a look.”

Somebody sent him a list of Greg’s recent bets. “That bastard. That stupid, stupid jerk.”

“He waited all of three days after we paid him a visit,” Jock confirms for Luca, who only growls. “And he’s already fifteen grand deep.”

That absolute loser. “Why would he go back to the same bookies he already owed so much money to?”

“Everybody else probably cut him off,” Jock sighs. “The way I thought we did.”

“Thought?” Luca asks him. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of his scowl right now.

Jock scowls straight back. “Sorry. I guess there were a lot of other things going on. Besides, according to the books, his account was clean, so there was nothing stopping them from taking his bets.”

Just like that. All it took was selling another human being to wipe the ledger clean. Is Luca deliberately avoiding looking me in the eye, or is it my imagination wanting it to be that way? Because I want him to feel the effect of this. I want him to understand how a seemingly easy business decision had very real consequences.

“I want him found.” Jock accepts this with a quick nod, then gets up and steps out of the room to make a phone call. When I look at Luca in surprise, he explains, “Of course, we know exactly where to find him. If he’s not at home, we’ll check the garage. If he’s not there, we might have to pay a visit to his parents.”

I can’t keep from gasping. “It’s not their fault.”

“He was warned.” Our eyes lock, and his are unblinking. “He was warned.”

Vincent makes a big deal of clearing his throat much louder than he needs to. “I think I need to be anywhere else but here right now. But I’ll stay close,” he adds in a high-pitched, nasal child’s voice. Obviously, he’s not too happy about Luca ordering him to stay put.

I’m not too happy with him right now, either, so I can relate. Jock is still in the hallway, so there’s nothing stopping me from whirling on Luca with my hands on my hips. “That’s not fair.”

I guess I expected him to fight back. To roll up his sleeves and get handsy with me the way he did when I first came here. All he does is sigh while rubbing his temples. It’s almost like a mask falls away, which makes me wonder why he’s letting it fall away now, with me. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but fair has nothing to do with it. If life was fair, I wouldn’t be the one sitting in this chair right now. My father would. A lot of things would be different.”

I walk around the desk, perching on the edge almost directly in front of him. “You can’t punish them for what he’s done. I only met them one time, but they seemed like a really sweet couple.”

“A sweet couple who raised a monster who may or may not have almost beaten your sister to death.”

Good point. “It still seems wrong. They’re older. I’m sure they don’t have anything to do with his gambling.”

He groans but still doesn’t lash out or anything. “Don’t get the wrong idea. The point is to pay them a visit and make sure he knows they’ve been paid a visit. This is about threatening him, not about hurting them.” His mouth tips upward at the corners. “Now, he doesn’t need to know that part. It generally works better when they don’t know that part. I have no interest in hurting civilians.”

“And I can believe that? That’s the truth?”

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