Her tears still fell, but they didn’t register with me.
Not like they once did.
We were well and truly finished.
I got sidetracked with club business that gave me a headache on my way to see Detective Stark, which meant by the time I finally tracked her down and stood in front of her, my skull felt like it had been hit by a sledgehammer a hundred fucking times. Between the bullshit that had gone down with Ivy this morning and the hours I’d spent on club shit, I was in no mood for her to say no to my proposal.
Isabel Stark was grieving the loss of her husband. Well, to the world she was. She’d taken a few days off, so I found her at her home again. She was not grieving the loss of her husband. She was cleaning her oven when I got to her.
She met me at her front door with cleaning gloves on, her hair a mess, and more light in her eyes than I’d seen the last time I called on her. Staring at me through her screen door, she said, “Are you here to finish the job you came for the other day?”
I arched a brow. “If you’re asking me if I’m here to put a bullet in your head, the answer is no. However, if you’re asking if I’m here to save my club, that would be a yes. Do not send me away without giving me what I want, Isabel. I’ve had a fucking shit of a day and you won’t like the consequences of an incorrect answer.”
She unlocked the door. “You better come in then.”
I followed her into the kitchen where she pulled her gloves off before looking at me, and asking, “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to drop the fucking case against me and my club. I want you to walk the fuck away from it and never look back. And I’ll fucking pay you to do that.”
She considered that. “It’s tempting, but I don’t need your cash. My husband left me a great deal of money. So much that I don’t have to work another day in my life if I don’t want to.”
“Well that leaves you and me with a big fucking problem then.”
She took a deep breath. “No, not really. Not if you agree to a deal I have for you.”
“What?”
“I’ve worked my job for too long now that I know how shit goes down. I put you away, and maybe some of your club, it still doesn’t fix the problems on the streets. You guys are a dime-a-fucking-dozen. And you just keep coming at me. I’m tired of working the system legally and never achieving my goals. I do this job so my daughter can be safe from men like you, but I’m jaded and don’t buy into the bullshit anymore that what I do makes a difference.” She paused for a beat. “But then you showed up here to kill me and didn’t go through with it, because of the very reason I do my job—because you want to protect my kid from bad people. That surprised the hell out of me, Zachary. I did not see that coming from you. So here’s what I propose—I leave you out there doing your thing, and while doing that, you help me keep the streets clear of as much bullshit as you can.”
“You want me to work with you?”
“Not officially. This would be between you and me only. I’ll bury the case against Storm, and in return, you’ll do everything you can to keep the assholes you work with in line. You appear to have that power, so I figure why not use it for good as well as whatever the hell else you use it for. Keep the streets free of war, and I’ll keep you free of jail.”
“Fuck, that’s a big fucking ask. Streets free of war aren’t something you’ll ever see.”
“I understand that, but I think we can agree you have the power to control a lot of it. You just need to decide to do that.”
“I guarantee you our ideas of war are two different things. Some of it is necessary, and that shit I won’t ever stop. So if this deal is gonna go down between us, you need to understand that sometimes I’m gonna handle business in ways you won’t like. Having said that, I’m all for keeping motherfuckers in line, so I’m on board with that part of it.”
“Good. We have a deal then. And now you can get the hell out of my house and never come back here. In future, you have no reason to come to me. I will come to you if there is a problem.”
I moved closer to her and dropped my voice to a dark rumble. “If I have reason to come to you,
I fucking will. Do not make the mistake of thinking you have any power here. You don’t. If this deal goes south, I will find another way to get what I want.”
Without waiting for a response, I turned and strode towards her door.
I’d taken a few steps when she said, “Thank you.” The words were delivered with a softer tone, and I knew she wasn’t referring to anything we’d just discussed.
Looking back at her, I gave a quick nod, and then I exited her home.
I never imagined the day I would get into fucking bed with the cops, but here it fucking was. I would play this game with Detective Stark and see where it got us. If she tried to switch her rules up at any point, I’d abandon the deal and force my own upon her. But for now, this would do.
26
Lily
“What the fuck is that music?” King asked, entering his kitchen on Wednesday night.