“I know.”
“I came to you for justice. Justice.”
“You’ll get justice.” I get my feet under me and offer Connor my hand. “I swear it.”
“Fuck you yanks.” He takes my hand and gets his feet under him, looking at Sarah while talking to me. “This cunt’s been in bed with traffickers her whole life. She was raised on their teat.”
The way he’s looking at her—with distrust he’s kept hidden this whole time. Now he doesn’t care if we both know how he feels about her.
“I was,” she says softly.
“Sarah.” I try to shut her up before she pisses him off, but it doesn’t work.
“I didn’t know.”
“Sure,” he says sarcastically.
I put my hands on his shoulders. “She’s helping get you your justice.”
“Our justice, mate.” He steps back. “Everyone. And fuck you for forgetting that.”
“Thursday,” Sarah says, shutting Connor’s mouth. “Ten in the morning, give or take. I’ll get you Dafne’s location or get to someone who can get it.”
“No, Sarah,” I croak as if Connor’s hand is still on my throat. She’s started making a promise he’ll want her to keep, and if I undo it now, I’ll seem careless with my own team.
“How?” Connor asks.
“A friend. Her aunt’s a nurse in the clinic. I can find out if she’s there. Maybe what floor she’s on. Will that information help?”
He nods slowly, then shifts his gaze to me. I have his trust now, because he thinks I always intended to send Sarah to her friend for intel. Fuck this. I hate it. I hate being outmaneuvered and I hate that I have to go along with it.
“If we do this,” I say to Connor, “I want guys on every street corner on Thursday. I want them on roofs. I want the NYPD walking the street. If anything happens to her—”
“Yes, boss,” Connor says then turns to her, as if he knows I’m not the one who can tell him. “Where?”
She points her chin up a little. “McKinley Park. On 4th Street, between First Avenue and—”
“I know it,” Connor says, a little soothed. “’Ta, for that. Busy corner. Fully in the open.”
“No, it’s not.” She looks at me, and I’m sure she can read my mind. “Not in the ladies’ bathroom.”
“Right.” He nods.
“Expect two to four mothers,” Sarah adds. “Six to nine kids. An aunt named Clara watching them. No men. No one’s going to be armed.”
“We will be,” I cut in, drawing a line in the sand and highlighting the danger of the situation.
“It’s good enough,” Connor says. “I have it from here.”
He turns and walks out. It’s just Sarah and me. I take her by the chin and look for lies or misdirection in her brown eyes. There’s none.
She inspects my throat as if she knows I’ll never burden her with minor injuries.
Thursday. She’ll never be ready to face the outside world without me by Thursday.
“You got what you wanted, Sarah. You get to see Denise. I hope it’s worth it.”
“Who was Lissey?” Still inspecting, she runs her fingers over my shoulders. Grease-streaked arms and stained hands. Caring for me as if she values me.
“You have to stop snooping.” I pull her hands off me. “She was his sister. One of them.”
“And the Colonia… what?”
“Trafficked her.” I squeeze her wrists. “Do you know what you just did? With Connor?”
“The right thing.”
“You put me in an impossible situation.”
“I’ve been in an impossible situation since we met.” She tries to wrench her arms away, but I have her. “I’m doing everything I can to be useful.”
“Do less.”
“You need to let go.”
She’s not talking about my grip on her arms, but I let them go anyway.
“I’m going into the ladies’ room with you,” I say. “You and all the women in Manhattan need to deal with it.”
“Denise isn’t going to talk to me if you’re there.”
“Get it into your head, Sarah. I am not letting you off this property without me. Ever. Get a credit card. Use a phone. Learn to drive. None of it matters. As long as I’m alive, I’m staying with you. You’re either here, behind these gates, or I’m in arm’s reach.”
“It’s going to be fine!”
“No, it’s not. You have no idea how not fine it’s going to be.” I hold out my hands in frustration as her eyes go bigger with the realization that she’s bitten off more than I can chew. “Look, I can’t teach you anything now. There’s no time, and I just end up fucking you all day anyway.”
“So you quit?”
“I have a different solution to the problem… and I hope you like it.”
CHAPTER 18
SARAH
I came downstairs to find Dario and Willa facing off on opposite sides of the kitchen island, not saying a word to each other across air as thick as cold bacon fat.
“Dario,” I say in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “This was your solution to the problem?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t look at me.
Blood pounds in my ears. My vision gets dark in the corners. If I don’t say what I need to say right now, I’m going to faint or worse… lose my nerve.
“I don’t want to go.”
Suddenly, four eyes are looking straight at me.
“What?” Dario asks.
In the background of the noise in my ears, Willa laughs.
“I want to stay with you.”
“Oh, honey, this man isn’t letting you out of his sight. It would be cute if it wasn’t so vaguely threatening.”
My eyes meet Dario’s for confirmation.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he says.
The thrumming in my ears stops and my vision clears. A little nervous laugh is released from my throat.
“Good, okay,” I say, clapping my hands. “Nice to see you, Willa.” I fill the teapot. “Did you want coffee?”
“I’m all set.”
“Dario? How about you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good.” I turn on the magic burner, because I want tea, and what I want is enough. “Willa, have you seen this? It heats the water but doesn’t get hot.”
“That’s called an induction burner, honey. It uses magnetic—”
“Oh!” I interrupt with excitement. “Dafne started…”
…teaching me about magnetic fields, but now she’s…
“I’m just going to make some tea.” I finish with a dumb narration to fill the hole that the video of my teacher opened. “If you change your mind, just say.”
“Willa’s here to get you started,” Dario says. “She’s not taking you to St. Easy or anywhere.”
“Good,” I say, reaching for the teabags. “I was going to try to figure out the second oven.”