“You good?” I asked her.
“Yeah, but damn that’s a mess,” she said, nodding at the dead men and blood on the floor of her apartment.
Wilder stepped over the bodies and closed the front door. Eyeing me, he said, “We need to get this shit cleaned up before any cops turn up.”
I called Griff. “We need some help here, brother,” I said when he answered.
After I filled him in on what had happened and he told me J and Nash were on their way, he said, “This complicates shit.”
“Yeah.”
“We need to start calling in favours, Scott. Once Julio figures this out, we’re gonna need our backs covered.”
Fuck.
Not the way I wanted shit to go down.
12
Scott
I stood at the end of our bed and watched as Harlow slid her dress over her head. Something was different about her, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it. After I’d dealt with the mess at Scarlett’s home last night, I’d headed straight back to Trilogy and she’d been beside herself with worry. I’d never seen her so consumed with fear before, but hadn’t been able to convince her to share those fears with me.
As she smoothed her dress, she looked over at me. “How long do you think Scarlett will have to stay here with us?”
I’d made the decision to bring Scarlett with us when we left her apartment last night. No way was she safe in her own place. Not until we dealt with Julio. “Hopefully not long.” I hadn’t shared with her the events of last night except to let her know Scarlett wasn’t safe.
She watched me for another couple of moments before finally nodding and saying, “Okay.”
I moved to where she stood and wrapped my hand around her wrist, halting her as she took a step away from me. “Are you pissed off with me for bringing her here?” I couldn’t read her and it frustrated me.
“No.” She tried to pull her wrist free, but I gripped it tighter.
Christ.
Why won’t she talk to me?
Pulling her close, I ran my free hand through her hair. “Harlow, what’s going on? You’ve been off ever since I got back from Scarlett’s last night.”
She sighed. “It will sound stupid.”
“Try me.”
After a moment of hesitation, she finally opened up. “I have this weird feeling deep in my gut that something bad is going to happen to you. Last night I was really worried and then you came back with Scarlett and said she wasn’t safe, and I’m still feeling sick with worry. You never exaggerate things, so for you to bring her here tells me you’re worried, too.”
I let her wrist go. “It’s true, I am worried. But we have this covered¸ so I want you to go to work and try not to think about it too much, okay?”
Her eyes searched mine and then she said, “I will.”
“Can you take Scarlett with you? I don’t have enough men to spare one to stay with her today.”
“I’m happy for her to come to the café with me, but good luck convincing her to do anything.”
She had a point – convincing Scarlett to leave her apartment last night had been a tough gig. “I’ve got an idea of how to talk her into it. Let’s see if she goes for it.”
Loud banging on the front door interrupted our conversation, and I left her to see who it was.
“Mr Cole, we finally meet.” Two cops stood on the other side of the door. I knew they were detectives because I’d come across one of them before.