by now. Maybe she didn’t want him to find her. Maybe Linda was right and she didn’t really care about Tony’s mission to find the supplier and was happily getting high somewhere.
Yet he knew she’d genuinely loved Rory. And she’d done a lot to give Tony the credibility he needed to win over Guapo’s supporters. He was indebted to her. And for that, whether she used drugs or not, he owed her.
But for now there was little he could do if Justine wasn’t picking up her phone or situated anywhere he could find her. Tony drove to the beat-up house that served as his headquarters. When he arrived, Carl was passed out on the living-room couch, beer bottles at his feet and drug paraphernalia littering the scarred coffee table in front of him. With a snarl of disgust, Tony shoved Carl to the floor.
After some fumbling and swearing Carl shoved himself up on his hands and knees, and stared at the stained shag carpet in front of him. Then he raised foggy eyes to Tony, blinked and grinned. “Hey, man. Where you been? You are in some serious trouble, dude. Justine’s been on a warpath since you disappeared. Thinks you ran off with some other woman.”
Tony swallowed hard, knowing perfectly well that Justine would know he’d been with Linda. But right now he was still undercover and as such he played his part. “You know what the rules are,” Tony said, his voice low and filled with venom. “Drink all you want, screw all you want, but do not bring drugs in here. I do not want anything at this house that could link us to the business. Are you a moron, Carl?”
This pretense was exhausting. He hated playing the tough guy. Having to be tough. Constantly on alert. Suspicious. It was becoming more reality than fantasy.
Except when he was with Linda. With Linda, he could be himself. Relax. Be gentle. Soft.
Well, not quite soft, he thought with a completely inappropriate spurt of amusement.
Carl sat back on his haunches, his hands resting lightly on his thighs. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist. Justine’s been MIA the past few days, too. She showed up last night, stoned out of her mind and going on and on about having hit the mother lode. Said she understood why her brother had gotten hooked on Rapture. Said you were an idiot for trying to stop the supplier from selling more.” Carl’s eyes narrowed. “Wonder what she meant by that?”
Tony shrugged, though inside he was reeling from Justine’s betrayal. “Who the hell knows? You just said she was stoned out of her mind. Is that what you’re high on? Rapture?”
“No,” Carl whined. “She said she didn’t have any more, so I had to make do with what I could.”
“Did she say where she got the Rapture?” And whether this was the first time she’d tried it, Tony thought. Had she been using Rapture the entire time they’d been working together?
“Some place with lots of traffic. A club.”
“What club?” Tony snapped even as suspicion made his heart pick up speed. He gripped Carl’s hair and yanked his head back, making the man wince.
“Quit it, man, or I’m going to hurl.”
Looking around, Tony spotted an empty beer bottle, grabbed it and broke it against the wall. Yanking Carl’s head back even farther, he held the jagged glass threateningly close to Carl’s throat. “What club?” he asked again.
Carl’s eyes were as wide as saucers and it took him several attempts to speak. “A place called Club Matrix.”
* * *
After taking evasive precautions to make sure he wasn’t followed, Tony drove back to the hotel where Linda was staying. “You might be right about Justine,” Tony told her. “She’s been going to Club Matrix. She might even have been there last night. More important, she went there to score Rapture and she’s been getting high on the stuff.” Pacing, he ran his hands through his hair. “But why? I don’t understand. Why would she take the drug that killed Rory?”
“She might have already been using the stuff when Rory was killed. Who knows? Even if she hadn’t been, she was using something. Plus...well...women will do crazy things out of jealousy.”
Tony stopped pacing. “But who would Justine be jealous of?”
Linda stared at him as if he was an idiot. “Of me, Tony. She was obviously in love with you.”
“What? No. I mean, I know I deliberately misled you about our relationship, and maybe I haven’t been explicit with her about