“Some things are, Devil. Murder is—”
“Sometimes done in self-defense.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. If I was going to convince him to give us a chance, I had to think before I spoke. “Plenty of people are convicted of crimes when they shouldn’t be.”
I saw pain in his eyes as he nodded. “And plenty of people who should be convicted go free. But that doesn’t mean I should stop trying to track down the true criminals.”
“No, it doesn’t, but sometimes there are people the law can’t touch, but someone else can. Sometimes there are people who need to die for the rest of us to be safe.”
“When someone steps outside the law, there’s nothing to control their behavior, no forces to make sure those they kill or hurt or steal from truly deserve it.”
“Sometimes there aren’t any other choices. You know that’s true. You’ve seen it.”
“How am I supposed to know when to ignore a crime or tell if it was committed against someone who deserved it? I can’t make that kind of judgment.”
“No, but I can.”
He shook his head. “You can’t always know. You’re not God.”
“No, baby. I’m the devil.”
Joe glared at me.
“All right. That was terrible.”
“I’m still working on the Milano case. I’ve been trying to find out who Murphy was working for. I have a feeling that will lead me to the murderer.”
I frowned. “You think his handlers murdered Lily and told him to cover it up.”
“Or to pin it on your cousin.”
We’d assumed the men who’d attacked me were sent by the Riccis and that they had been the ones who killed Lily, but we’d never been able to prove it. The war with the Riccis hadn’t been full blown at that point, but they’d been agitating against us. If the Riccis weren’t behind Lily’s death, then we needed to do some more investigating too. “Have you got any leads?”
“I’ve found some connections that make me think the men Murphy worked for were involved in human trafficking.”
Damian Ricci’s son Mario had been working with a trafficking ring. Could that be the connection? I needed to look into it myself before I said anything to Joe. Marchesis didn’t just offer information to the cops, even information about our enemies.
Joe studied me, a haunted look in his eyes. “Please tell me you’re not part of that.”
“Trafficking? Fuck no. Never.”
“You know something about it though?”
“Maybe, but I can’t say anything now. It’s not something my family is involved in. There are lines we don’t cross, and selling human beings is one of them.”
The look in Joe’s eyes was so intense I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. “You promise? Because I can’t—”
“I promise. We don’t want any of that in our city.”
He exhaled and seemed to deflate.
“Tell me you believe me.”
“Yeah, I do. But there are other things your family does that I can’t condone.”
“I don’t expect you to.”
“Really? Because I know your family has people in the department who work for you the way Murphy worked for someone else. Don’t ask me to take your money to make your crimes go away. I won’t be that person for you.”
“I wouldn’t ask that of you, but I would ask you to consider that some cases aren’t worth pursuing. Sometimes the victims get exactly what they deserve.”
Joe took a long, slow breath. “If I just drop this case, drop my pursuit of your family’s involvement, how can I keep doing my job? How can I pretend I still value the things I do?”
“You value justice for victims. You value putting away people who hurt others. Keep investigating, see what you can find out about the person who died in that fire. Promise me you’ll do that before you come for me.”
He squeezed his eyes shut but nodded. “I promise.”
I took his hand and tugged. “All right. Now come with me.”
I led him to the bathroom and started the shower for us. After tugging him under the warm spray, I washed every inch of him slowly and carefully. I wrapped my hand around our cocks and jacked us off, like I had that first night when I’d seen him watching me as I stood on the roof. I held his chin with my other hand forcing him to look at me.
“I need to see you when I make you come.”
There was fear in his eyes. “Devil, I… This is—”
“Too much. I know. But I’m going to do it anyway.”
“Because you always get what you want?”
“Because you need it. You need something in your life that feels this good.”
When he came, worry vanished from his face. The look of ecstasy that replaced it pushed me over the edge too. I worked us until Joe pushed my hand away. He took the soap and washed me as carefully as I had washed him. When we were both clean, he shut off the water, and we stepped out and dried ourselves.