Page 123 of Forbidden Wish
“Asking questions uses up scarce goodwill capital. Anyone who talks is taking their lives in their hands. You don’t want any piece of that, do you? Do you want people to die for this story? Do you think Marseille wants that?”
“She’s gone.”
Sersha didn’t blink. “I know.”
Huh, curious, that strong façade gave nothing away. Maybe Sersha was surprised and hid it well… or the woman could know more than she was letting on about Marseille’s whereabouts.
“You don’t know the distraction today had anything to do with the missing women.” Murdered women. “They could be covering for something else,” Steeple said. The Manzanis fingers were in plenty of pies. “Asking around could open another can of worms. Both of you have drawn enough attention to yourselves already. I don’t want more bodies dropping. Enough people have died in the last twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours?” she asked. “Who died—”
“You didn’t hear?”
Obviously not. “No.”
“They pulled two bodies out of the Carlyle.”
“Two?” she asked. Sorrow welled up inside her. “Two people were killed in the fire?”
Though appealing to both of them, no one answered. And there was Sersha’s mask again, tough, unyielding, impenetrable.
“Cause of death is still to be determined,” Steeple said and stood up. “Put your heads together and get something on paper. We’re operating behind the lines right now, and you know how I feel about that.”
Sersha raised two straight fingers in a quick salute. “Under the cover of darkness, boss, you got it.”
He got it? What was…? Sersha came and landed a hand on her shoulder, guiding her out of the office.
“What is ‘under cover of darkness,’ I don’t—”
“Steeple trusts us to do our job,” Sersha said, coming around to take both of her shoulders, arms straight. “And he doesn’t have to know the details. No one has to know the details.”
That threat was barely veiled.
“You killed two people last night,” she whispered.
“Says who?” Sincerity crept in. “Beyond the fact I don’t want people to know about our involvement in what happened last night, you have to watch your ass. Forget my exposure and worry about yours.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means…” Sersha bit the inside corner of her bottom lip. “Look, it means that if you have an attack of conscience and you want to tell the world what happened, you won’t only be landing me in hot water.”
“Lachlan?”
“Yeah, and Jagg, your brother, yourself. Everyone involved last night.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Actually, no. I’m trying to protect you. Because if I’m off the street, out of contact with you and… others, I can’t protect you.”
She didn’t get it. “Protect me from what?”
“From people who might get angry… From people who won’t wait for my say-so to seek payback.” Vex. Sersha’s not-so-secret admirer. The man obsessed with her might take exception to the object of his affection being jailed. “And I have an alibi for last night. Do you?”
An alibi? She hadn’t even considered… “You have someone who’ll lie for you?”
Sersha smiled. “A couple of someones actually. Get your story straight with yours.”
“But we were at the hospital—”
