Free House Rules by Christa Wick Page B

weren't letting me go?"
    "About the time you got the call."
    Something that looks suspiciously like a lie flashes across his brown eyes. Before I can call him on it, he catches my hand and reels me closer.
    He tries to stroke my hair. "I'll send a team into the meeting place. We'll get her out."
    I shake my head, squirming to break free from his hard embrace. "She hasn't been at any of the meeting places. They find out they're burned and Rose is dead -- after they do..."
    I falter. I can't bear to think what Solandro has planned for Rose if I fail or he discovers that I have betrayed him.
    "You aren't leaving." He cups my face with both hands, his gaze intense and his mouth a firm line a whisper in length from mine. "I'll make Solandro tell me where he stashed Rose."
    "No!" Twisting free, I reach for my cell phone. "You can't possibly know what will trigger her murder. It could be something as simple as a call from Solandro that never comes or uses the wrong password. I'm going!"
    "You're not." Luke wrenches the phone away and shoves it into his jacket pocket. "Baby, if he figures out you burned him, he'll do those things to you."
    Getting my elbow between our bodies, I try to leverage away from his chest as I continue arguing. "I'll risk it."
    "I won't." Catching me by the hair, he knots his fingers in it then pushes me against the wall. "You left things out, Marie. Things you didn't want me to know about Rose. The shoplifting, the pregnancy that ended in the emergency room because she overdosed on oxycontin..."
    I close my eyes, but I can't block the truth. Luke's staff was busy while he fucked me. In two days' time, they figured out Solandro's boss, whom I didn't know, and tracked down our identities in at least the last three cities in which we lived.
    Rule number 8 -- There are no fathers and sons at the table.
    No lovers or friends, either. I open my eyes and glare at Luke. "Girls like Rose die every day, is that it?"
    My tears turn the question into an accusation.
    He flinches but doesn't back down. "Yes, Marie. I won't risk your life for the chance to save hers. She may be in on it with Solandro -- you don't know."
    "I know she's my sister." I had worked my hand into Luke's pocket while he argued with me. Pulling my phone out, I start dialing.
    He takes the phone away. Looking down, he sees the first two of the three numbers I intended to call.
    9-1-
    "You're calling the police?" He scowls at me, sensing, but not quite understanding what I am up to.
    I nod. "On myself."
    He has been acting like he cares about me. If he does, it's my ace in the hole to save Rose. I play it. "I have a warrant, remember. And I'm ready to confess to cheating in the club--"
    "Baby, that's not the deal we made."
    He tries to rest his forehead against mine. I won't allow it. I shake my head. Fresh tears stream down my cheeks. "The deal was you would do everything in your power to help me save Rose. Rose -- not me."
    "Love, please don't make me do this." His entire hand shaking, Luke places trembling fingertips against my cheek and presses a long, hard kiss against my mouth.
    I am nearly done in. I want to stay here. I want to be held and cared for by this man. I want a fresh start, but there's no such thing. Closing my eyes, I memorize the kiss. When it is forever imprinted on my heart, I break free and look at him.
    "I'm sorry -- I have to."
    ********************
    A woman in her mid-sixties meets me at the Greyhound bus station with the contact lenses. Red-eyed and coughing, she looks every bit the junkie and I don't doubt for a second that one or more of Solandro's men are in the station to oversee the exchange. I duck into the bathroom, put the case from Solandro in my purse and retrieve a case Masters gave me.
    Inside, two blue lenses float in a watery solution. Remembering the track marks on the old woman's arms, I soap my hands and rinse with hot water twice before I touch the lenses. Once they are in place, I leave the station and flag