it, but no matter how many excuses I come up with, I should have known.
A metal click comes from my right, and Q walks through the side gate with a smirk on his face. I shake my head at him and flip him off at the same time. The conversation we had in his office before I left runs through my mind, and things make more sense now. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew who she was?”
He doesn’t deny that accusation and shrugs. “You know how I am, D. I do what people ask, and that’s it. I don’t need to know anything more than what they tell me, and whatever I learn that has no relevance to the case, I keep to myself. No matter what.”
“That’s normally something I’d appreciate, but I still wish you’d have told me.”
“I wasn’t sure why you didn’t know, and shit, man, with the mountain of problems I’m having with Madeline and how she found out about me, I didn’t want to be responsible for hurting someone like that again. And truthfully, a part of me didn’t want to know ’cause the last thing I need is Gio on my bad side. So I did the job, and that was it. Now, if I’d thought for one second that Bella was in any danger, that’s a different story.”
“Danny isn’t stupid enough to lay a finger on her because he’s obviously well aware of who her brother is.” I prop my hands on my hips. “I hate that Danny had one up on me. He asked why I was the one there on her behalf, and I didn’t get it, so I blew it off as him being slightly insane. And quite frankly, I question my skills a little bit because I shouldn’t have missed it.”
Q laughs momentarily and then holds his hands up as if to say I’ve been there, man. “Trust me, when you find her, find that woman, the one, nothing else matters but her. It’s easy to be so absorbed that you kind of forget anything but her.”
I want to point out that through everything he’s dealing with right now, he hasn’t missed a beat with Madeline. In fact, the reason he’s in the position he is, is because of his keen observation skills.
“Delivery went okay, I assume?”
“Shit, Q. I knew this asshole was a junkie, but what I didn’t know was that he’d be going through withdrawals after about six hours in the car.” No matter how much I know I had to do it, it still doesn’t sit right with me that I handed somebody over to Danny, regardless that he deserved it. I’d do it again if it meant Izzy was safe from all this bullshit. I’ll take whatever marks on my soul I have to in order to keep hers untarnished.
Even though that side of Danny’s business doesn’t sit right with me, and I didn’t ever want to be involved in it, here I am. I drop my head as if I’m ashamed to say it out loud. “Bastard is dirty, but you know what? He takes care of some of the filth that a lot of us don’t want to.”
Q runs his hands through his hair. “I hear that on a level you don’t even understand, my man. A part of the reason I love working at Royal is because of the integrity of the men I know are at my back and because of the integrity of how the company got started. Now with Eric and Mitch, the two of them together is… look, I know I could take my talents and work for the government, but we all know there’s corruption there too. Everyone knows that shit. I don’t want to be restricted and put on a leash so I can’t do what I need to do in order to keep an innocent person safe, because that’s why I work so hard to be the best.
“As much as I see the internal struggle you had about turning Mario over to the wolves, it’s all for a reason. You know you can go home to her, she can come home to you, to wherever the fuck you guys are sleeping.” He chuckles a little bit. “You can lay your head down next to her, knowing that you’re still a good man.”
Chapter 13
Izzy
Gio’s mad, like I knew he would be, but I still need to talk to my brother. I do a quick scan for