Looks were exchanged, mumbles pouring from the lips of the kids lower down the pecking order as their leaders assessed us hungrily.
“Fuck,” one of them grunted, his gaze slipping between Frankie and me as the penny dropped. “They’re Romeros.”
The fight instantly went out of them and Frankie smirked like a self-important douchebag. “Good. You won’t mind keeping an eye on my car for me then, will you?” he said, not waiting for an answer as we strode towards the door again.
There was a buzzer, but the door was also broken and hanging open so we headed straight inside and started climbing the dimly lit stairwell.
On the second floor, we walked down a darkened corridor with stained carpets until we came to the right door where I knocked softly so as not to draw too much attention. It was pulled open almost instantly and the dark haired girl we found there blinked up at us nervously before stepping back to allow us to enter. She was vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t say I’d paid a lot of attention to her when we’d met before. Her gaze snagged on Frankie and I guessed she was trying to get a read on this Romero. I’d already proven myself to be better than a total asshole in her eyes, but he was untested.
“Do you have the cash?” she asked, raising her chin defiantly as I looked around at the little apartment. We’d made it into the living room and there were three doors leading off of it, all closed. It was small but clean and I could tell she took pride in the place. My gaze snagged on a box of baby toys in the corner of the room and she cleared her throat as she moved to stand before it like she didn’t want me to see that.
I pulled a roll of hundred dollar bills from my pocket and waved it at her, admiring the fact that she had the balls to demand it even with two of the most dangerous men in the city standing in her home.
She licked her lips but had the good sense not to try and snatch it, adjusting her dark hair over her shoulder as she nodded.
The room was only lit by a lamp and her features were cast in shadows so I reached out to flick on the overhead light, wanting to see the truth clearly in her eyes. She flinched as it came on and my eyes narrowed as I took in the bruises around her throat which marked a perfect hand print against her skin. She had a busted lip and a black eye too and I was willing to bet that hadn’t been a part of the deal she’d signed up for from whoever had done it to her.
“This afternoon I got picked up over on Bay Street,” she said, not commenting on the bruises and just cutting to the point of this visit. “The guy wanted me for four hours and agreed to my rates but when he took me back to his hotel, it turned out I wasn’t there for him. He dropped me off with another guy. Tall, kinda wiry but strong enough to pack a punch when he wanted to and with this stupid ass moustache that made him look like a total dickhead.”
I nodded, her description matching up to my mark and anticipation building in me as I waited to hear the rest.
“He...had that look in his eyes when he saw me, the type that girls who have done this job for long enough know to look out for. I would have refused the job if he’d been the one to try and pick me up but once I was there...” Her tongue darted out to lick her busted lip and a growl escaped me as she moved on beyond what he’d done to her, though it had clearly left more of a mark than just the ones I could see on her flesh. “Anyway, his men called him Duke and when I was trying to put myself together afterwards, I saw an envelope on the side with Mr Polinsky on it, so I thought he was probably your-”
The sound of a baby crying from within one of the closed rooms cut her off and she gasped, shooting me and Frankie a fearful look before another door opened and a second girl hurried out. She darted into the room with the crying baby,