I motion for him to sit on the stool while I go to the kitchen to grab a bowl and some warm water. I’m no nurse, but I need to clean him and disinfect the cuts on his face.
“Drugs?”
“Yeah. I’m not proud of it, but I was thirteen years old and rebellious.”
“Okay, so you said you stopped at the Shady Skull, why?” I walk back around to face him, placing the bowl between us on the counter. I soak a cotton ball, then our eyes meet once more. “Saw?”
He blows out a breath. “I went lookin’ for those men that night.”
I almost choke on my own spit. “What the fuck? By yourself?”
“Didn’t say that.”
“So, who were you with?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it does,” I say.
“It matters if you know too much, yeah, I don’t wanna put you in danger.”
“How will I be in danger?” I shake my head, then he winces as I dab his first cut with the cotton wool. “And don’t be a baby.”
“I just don’t wanna take the risk, that’s all I’m sayin’.”
“So the people who, uh?—”
“Trafficked me? You can say it.”
I blink, tears welling in my eyes at his candor. “The people who did that to you, were they not already taken down?”
He shakes his head. “They weren’t part of the Mancinis, or anyone else on the MC’s radar. I grew up in Michigan, remember?”
“So, is there a Detroit mafia?”
“Yes.”
I wasn’t really expecting him to know the answer to that. “So?—”
“So the reason I moved here was because the network is always shiftin’. I don’t think the Detroit mafia were involved, as such, but we believe they were the ones responsible for what happened to Chris.” Chris is his step-dad who lost his memory after being involved in a Ponzi scheme, unbeknown to him at the time, he was left for dead and found in a lake.
“The mafia?”
“Yes, and they could’ve been workin’ with the Chicago mob because that’s where Chris ended up when they pulled him out of the lake.”
“What has all of this got to do with tonight and you ending up like this? You’re not getting to the point.”
“Well, I found one of the ex-members of the Detroit mafia named in one of the documents that fell into my hands.” When I make a face, he elaborates. “I’ve been hacking for a long time. I’ve spent years trying to infiltrate locked files and secret emails of some of these organizations that were around when I was snatched. And one of the names on the list was this dude called Reginald Bluff.”
“What a fucking name.”
He snickers. “Well, Regi got kicked out of the mafia, a few years went by, and there was a huge takedown. The police arrested and charged most of the members with various crimes expected of mobsters?—”
“Wait, was Chris implicated?”
“No. Chris was technically dead in their eyes, so they never knew he turned up in the lake.”
“Phew,” I say. “Go on.”