I returned it. It really is as simple as that. Well, that and the knowledge that if anyone crosses me, I deal with them immediately and brutally, with no excuses.
“You know, you have the face of an angel, Red, but I have the strangest urge to go home and salt my windows,” he admits, making me laugh in surprise.
“Come on, let’s get this ledger and then I’ll show you to your new place.” He reaches over and takes my hand, tugging me down to the building at the far end of the docks.
The lack of streetlights here has me palming my trusty knife and gripping the hilt tightly.
A beeping brings my attention to a keypad that’s illuminated green in the dark night sky. Reid types in a number too quickly for me to catch it, but the whole thing sets off another red flag.
Why exactly does he have the code to get in here? And why on God’s green earth would the previous Gemini be stupid enough to share information about a ledger with someone from another division? I understand the concept of loyalty, even among the criminal underbelly, but this just seems like asking for trouble. Plus, if Reid knows the encryption code the ledger is written in, then it stands to reason the other division heads do too. When Kai said the information inside the ledger would be worthless to anyone who took it, he clearly wasn’t including the other division heads.
Nothing about this scenario makes sense to me, including Gemini’s apparent gang-style killing. This screams setup, which makes me very freaking anxious.
I push those thoughts away for later as the door swings wide. Reid fumbles around for a second before a dim light flicks on and I’m pulled inside.
The fluorescent strip lighting makes an annoying humming sound that would leave me shooting it within minutes if I were forced to work here day in day out.
“The safe’s over here.” He lets go of my hand and moves over to the cheap scratched desk in the middle of the room. Dipping down, he fiddles with what I’m guessing is the safe before standing back up with a notebook in his hand.
“Here it is.” He holds it out to me, so I take it, shoving it into the front pocket of my backpack while he does something else, hidden by the desk.
“Something else in there I might need?” I question lightly, but he stands abruptly and pulls me back to the door.
“Nah, I was just changing the code to something more memorable for you. It’s now your birthday. I’ll change the one on the door too,” he offers, pulling it closed behind us.
“So were you and the other Gemini friends?” I question quietly as he changes the code. He needn’t bother, I’d change it in a heartbeat if I planned on making this place the base of my operations.
“Johnny? Fuck no. The guy was a conceited tool,” he spits, grabbing my hand and leading me back toward his bike.
“You don’t get to where we are by having friends,” he warns me, but he needn’t have bothered. I’m not the naïve girl he seems to think I am.
Coming here tonight with him was exactly what I needed to remind me of the kind of man he is. He wants something from me, just like Zodiac does. It might be the same thing or something else entirely, but whatever it is left the last Gemini dead. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.
Chapter Sixteen
I cling to Reid as he maneuvers his bike along the roads toward what will be my new home.
I breathe in the leather of his jacket and close my eyes, enjoying one of the rare peaceful moments of just being free. When I was a little girl, if someone had told me my life would turn out like this, I would have thought they were crazy. Now, at twenty-one, and with the crushing weight of the world on my shoulders, I wish things could have been different. I wish I had appreciated the little I had instead of wanting to grow up as fast as I could. I wanted to escape that trailer park so bad I could taste it, but now, I’d sell my soul to go back.
The ride takes far less time than I would have hoped, but it’s just as well. Looking up, I realize I’m standing next to an apartment building similar to Reid’s. Another monstrosity of chrome and glass, but I guess I can