His voice changed, it was deep, there was roughness to it with an edge of smooth and that was also a change. It had been deep and smooth back in the day. Now that hint of rough said he smoked. It said he drank. It said he lived as jagged as his voice.
But when it came at me just then, there was a vein of soft that brought back the raw.
“Sylvie, we need to –”
I turned my head to him, toothpaste in hand and cut him off to declare, “I don’t do partners.”
“You did,” he returned immediately, his eyes watching me closely. “But he died.”
That sent raw through me again for two reasons.
One, because he was right. My partner died and he did it leaving a wife, a kid and one on the way. Stupid f**k enlisted. Enlisted when we were at f**king war. “Gonna do my bit,” he said. Fucking f**ker got out of the Marines, set up a life where there was a possibility, not a probability, that people would shoot at him and then he went back to the probability, re-enlisting and got himself shot dead.
The other reason was because I knew Creed had checked me out and I didn’t like that. I didn’t like him knowing anything about me. I figured, Knight hired him, he was good at what he did.
So he knew.
Everything.
I turned back to the mirror and loaded up my toothbrush. “Yeah, I did. He died. Learned that lesson. Now I don’t do partners.”
“This shit is what Knight thinks it is, the ride’s gonna be bumpy. You need someone at your back,” he replied.
Maybe but it sure as hell would not be him.
Before shoving the toothbrush in my mouth, my eyes went to the mirror and I returned, “Need it, I got Knight or Rhash,” then I started brushing.
Creed appeared in the mirror behind me and my eyes went up to his in the mirror.
“He might have a mole. As far as his team’s concerned, it’s business as usual for both of them,” he told me something Knight explained last night. “Banks nor Sebring are available to you.”
I shrugged.
“Sylvie, I’ve already been workin’ this job a month. I know that team better than you do.”
That pissed me off enough to pull the brush out, spit out foam then catch his eyes in the mirror again. “No f**king way. You may think you do and they may have secrets they haven’t shared but no amount of digging you could do in a month tells you more than what I know working side by side with those guys for years. You’ve lived the life, Creed, it’s written all over you. You know that. You had something on one of them, Knight would already have that intel. So you don’t have shit.” After delivering that, I shoved the brush back in and kept at my teeth.
“You’re right,” he confirmed. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t something to get.”
I shrugged again.
“You know what hangs in the balance,” he stated and I held his eyes.
I knew but he told me anyway.
“Scenario one, Knight keeps business open and another girl gets it worse than Serena last night. He keeps it open, that shit escalates and girls get hurt. Scenario two, he shuts it down. Okay for him but if he can’t neutralize the threat in a timely manner that means, first, he’s gotta let boys go. He doesn’t need a team that big when there’s no girls to look after. Second, the girls are f**ked. They got no jobs, they got no money then they look for alternate ways to get paid without a man or a five foot two powerhouse at their back. You know Sebring. He won’t put them in danger. He’ll shut down. That club turns over a mint, he’ll survive. Those girls won’t.”
I stopped brushing, spit, rinsed and looked back to his eyes in the mirror as I shoved my brush in the holder. “So I’ll find the mole, if there is one, and I’ll track down the trouble and put it out of commission. You’ve been looking into me, Creed. You know what I’m capable of. This assignment is not outside my skill level.”
“Two working together is safer and shuts this shit down faster than one,” he shot back.
Unfortunately, this was true.
“Then I know a couple guys who I can work with,” I returned. “They’re local. They can hit the ground running. I’ll talk with Knight about them.”
“Again, I’ve had the job a month. I don’t have to hit the ground running, Sylvie. Right now, it’s you who’s catching up.”
Fuck.