The apartment’s walls are bare, which goes along with the rest of the place, as it hardly looks lived in. I recognize a crash pad when I see one. Not that I expected this place to be Memphis’s true home, and maybe that’s a really fucking positive thing right now. Because she’s just worried about what’s missing rather than feeling violated by her space being broken into.
At least, I hope so.
I reach the bedroom, and it’s a repeat of the kitchen. Every dresser drawer is open. Clothes all over the floor. Bedding and mattress slashed. Feathers from the pillows leave a dusting of white on top of it all. The walk-in closet is trashed, and so is the bathroom.
But thankfully, there’s no sign of anyone.
Sirens wail in the distance, and I jerk around to look at Memphis. “Cops are coming. What were they looking for, and did they find it?”
She snatches up something from the mess on the floor and rushes to the bed to climb atop the ruined mattress. Using a metal fingernail file, she unscrews the vent cover above the bed and tosses it onto the pile of fluff.
“They didn’t find it!” Triumph rings in her tone as she removes a file folder.
The sirens grow louder as I join her on the bed, taking the screws from her and replacing the vent cover as fast as I can.
“We’re running out of time. Grab a bag. Bury the file, preferably in a hidden compartment if you have anything like that, and fill it with whatever clothes aren’t trashed and whatever else you need. You’re not staying here.”
I offer her a hand to climb off the destroyed queen bed and tell her the plan. There’s no room for fuckups, and we need to be on the same page.
“It’ll take the cops hours to go through the place, but I want your shit out of here before they pull up. I’ll run your bag down to the car through the side door, which is probably how they came in, if they knew about your camera in the entryway. I doubt we’ll see a single face on your feed that’ll help. But first, give your statement to the cops and call the building super. As soon as the door is secured and the cops are out of here, we’re going to my place. Got it?”
Memphis nods and shoves the file at me. “Give me two minutes.”
True to her word, I’m walking out of the apartment building three minutes later with a suitcase. Yuri stows it in the trunk just as a squad car pulls up.
14
Memphis
Iwait outside my apartment for Cannon to return, along with the cops, but something’s nagging at me. After taking a few steps down the hall, I knock on Randi’s door.
“Randi, can we just talk for thirty seconds before the cops get up here?”
I consider she might have left to avoid all the commotion, but then I hear her argue through the door.
“Why? So you can lie to me some more?”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I promise I had a good reason.” Although I’ll never tell her what it was.
Her door opens an inch, and the fastened chain blocks part of her face. “I thought we were friends, Drew. Or whoever you are. I don’t even know your goddamned name. That’s not how friendship works.” She shakes her head, sending her silver-and-black hair flying. “I told youeverythingabout me, and you justlied.”
“I know. I know.”
Part of me wants to tell her why, but I’m not an idiot. The company she’s keeping means she can’t be trusted with the truth under any circumstances. But still, I like Randi, and I don’t want her to end up mixed up in something that’s as bad as the Rossetti family.
So instead, I ask, “That guy in the restaurant, he was the same guy from the bar?”
Randi lifts her chin. “So what if he was? I can fuck the same guy more than once if I want.”
“He’s not a good guy, Randi. I know you might think he is, but he’s dangerous. Please don’t see him again.” She doesn’t have to accept my apology, but I pray she at least heeds my warning.
This knocks a guffaw from her throat. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?He’sdangerous?Look at your own situation. Who did you roll up with?” She clucks her tongue, and her eyes shoot daggers over my head. “Oh, wait, that’s right. You know exactly who he is because I told you everything I knew when you pumped me for information. Nice.”
“I know you’re pissed. But please, just listen to me.”
Footsteps and men’s voices echo from the stairwell as Randi shoves her door shut. I stop it with the palm of my hand.
“Please, Randi. Just be safe.”