He doesn’t start talking until Killian has steered us off campus, the hum of the engine the only noise in the cab. “Word came down last night, Rath. Got another job.” He makes a rolling motion with his hand. “Well, an extension of the last.”
“No.” I look back to see Dimitri shake his head. “My debt to Daniel is paid. I’m done.”
“Wait.” I turn in my seat, looking between them. “What’s he talking about? What job? What debt?” From the tight set of Killian’s jaw and Tristian’s cold gaze, they at least have an inkling of what’s behind this visit.
Dimitri gives me a shuttered look. “Baby, it’s just some old shit. Nothing to worry about.”
Raising my eyebrows, I say, “There’s no such thing as ‘old shit’ when it comes to Daniel. You know that.”
Nick’s unsettling gaze stares me down. “At least your Lady’s more than tits and fists. You should listen to her.”
“That’s it,” Killian says, hand slamming down on the turn signal.
“Dude, chill,” Tristian says before he can pull over. “Tell us what the job is so we can drop your ass off on the nearest street corner.” …where you belong. He doesn’t say it, but I see it in the curl of his sneer.
Nick turns his head, meeting Dimitri’s gaze. “Daniel’s merchandise needs moving again. As you know, it’s a two-man job.” There’s a crack in his armor when he looks away, something worn and weary falling over his eyes. “Jesus, sometimes I think it’s a three-man job.”
My stomach fills with dread as I look at Dimitri. “What kind of merchandise? He doesn’t have you running drugs or something, does he? Because you can tell him no. You should tell him no.”
Dimitri gives me a long, blank stare. “It’s not drugs,” he says, but no other information is forthcoming.
I look at Tristian, who’s avoiding my gaze, and then Killian, whose attention is pointedly fixed on the road ahead. The only one who’ll actually look me in the eye is Nick, who lets out this ominous little laugh.
“Man, you guys haven’t told her shit, have you?”
Killian snaps, “She’s none of your goddamn business.”
But I am, and Nick makes this clear when he jerks his chin at me. “I was supposed to fuck you that night in the pit, but Romeo over here couldn’t handle it, so he paid Daddy Payne a fat stack to take my place.” Sniffing arrogantly, Nick lifts a shoulder. “But you know Daniel. Money’s never enough for him. He wanted something else.”
I glance at Dimitri, my stomach sinking. “What did he want?”
“Officially? A favor. Unofficially?” Nick barely reacts to the elbow Dimitri jabs into his ribs. “Leverage, probably. He’s had all of you by the balls, in one way or another, for as long as I’ve known him.” He glances at Dimitri, and if I had to decipher the expression on his face, I’d say he looks resentfully impressed. “Except for your boy here. That’s a plus to being born and bred in South Side, I guess. Everyone already expects the worst of you.”
That can’t be true. The whole reason I agreed to the show in the pit in the first place was to protect myself and him.
But Dimitri doesn’t know that.
A tight ball of anxiety winds in my chest as I stare at him. “What did you do?”
The expression on my face must say enough, because he looks away, setting his jaw. “Daniel has another… asset.” He runs his fingers through his hair. It’s a sharp frustrated gesture, made all the more apparent by the flat line of his mouth. “When he couldn’t pin you down back in high school, the Kings found a ‘Plan B’。 He was keeping her out in Ms. Crane’s old Avenue slums, but the Barons needed—”
“Asset.” My voice feels flimsy and indistinct, but I know he hears me. He won’t even meet my gaze. “You mean another girl. A prisoner.” The tension in the cab of the truck is so thick that it stalls out in my lungs.
No one says anything.
Killian parks the truck, but I don’t even think to wonder where he’s taken us. Not until I wrench the door open to a large, empty parking lot in the warehouse district.
Dimitri exits the truck next, reaching for me. “Story,” he begins, but I flinch away.
“And you’re moving her around like merchandise? You know what that is, right?” My eyes must be an inferno when Dimitri finally looks at me. “That’s human trafficking. You’re a fucking trafficker, Rath!”