“Suppose you don’t need any of old Dan’s counterfeit money then huh?” she said lamely.
“Guess not,” he murmured. “I’ve placed that money in my safe in the study, by the way. Remind me to show you. Sounds like an interesting place, where you live.”
“Oh, it’s that all right.”
“You like it there?”
“The people are really nice. It’s where I grew up after I went to live with my grandma and grandad.”
“How old were you?”
“Four. My granddad died a few years ago. My grandma died ten months ago. I miss them all.”
She really needed to change the topic before she burst into tears.
“Should I go to the police about Luther?”
Spike switched off the TV and turned to look at her. “What?”
“Well, he was talking about hurting you and Steele. I mean, maybe I should speak to the cops.”
“Cops aren’t going to do anything based on something you overheard. He didn’t out and out say he was gonna hurt us.”
“What about his plans? We can’t just let him take up where his father left off. From what you and Steele said, his father basically forced women to sell their bodies for sex. He bought women, took advantage of young girls. We can’t let him do the same.”
He tapped his finger against the remote and turned to look off into the distance. But he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t going to just let it go, surely.
“I can’t let him do that,” she told him. “I have to stop him.”
“Luther Franklin is a slimeball. He’s annoying. An idiot. A pissant. That doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous. You’ll be going nowhere near him.”
“But—”
“Steele said he will take care of him. He doesn’t want him selling skin in his city. He also knows that Luther had something to do with the rat in his ranks. But he’ll likely figure out who the rat is first. Maybe even feed him some bad intel to get back to Luther. Don’t know.”
“So I just have to sit around and wait? Like with this Devil’s Sinner guy? Will Steele take care of him too?”
Spike grunted. “Yep.”
That’s all he was going to say?
“How?” she said with frustration.
“Sick of being here already?”
“No, it’s not that.” She had things she had to do.
“I’ll talk to Steele. See what his plan is. But you need to know that you’re having no part in any of it, understand?”
His protectiveness was kind of surprising and charming. But at the same time, annoying. Because as nice as it was to have someone care about her, sitting still and doing nothing wasn’t something she was good at.
17
Today, she was making lunch.
She felt pretty useless. She’d basically been told she couldn’t help with Luther or Corey. She didn’t know how she was meant to point out this rat when she was hidden in Spike’s house. And there was very little for her to do here.
Basically, she was sitting here twiddling her thumbs.