Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Charlotte Mitchell

I wrap my towel tighter around me and tuck the ear just under my armpit. This bathroom is far less disgusting than it was when I moved in here, but it could seriously use an upgrade. Everything is a faded shade of yellow, and I’m seriously wondering if the peeling wallpaper will just give up on life and slither off the walls onto the chipped tiles.

I stand before the tiny mirror and grab my brush from the only drawer on the small vanity. The drawer tries to stick, but with a yank, it opens and almost flies out.

“Fucking thing,” I growl.

Carefully, I work through the knots of my wet hair as I raise my gaze to my reflection and stare at myself. I expected to see guilt after what I’d done, maybe dark circles after whatever hour of the night it is right now, but instead, I find my skin bright. Expression alert, even.

I pause in brushing my hair, wondering what is wrong with me that, even though I want to puke at possibly becoming a porn star, the idea of making sex tapes doesn’t change the way I feel about myself. It should. God , it should, but right now, I feel like a queen.

“You’re undercover, Charlie,” I whisper to myself as I set the brush down next to the sink. This is not a new occupation, no matter how good I feel about it. This is a job within a job and nothing more.

Step inside, Charlie. Find out who you are. Nix’s words echo in my head as I turn from my reflection and shut off the bathroom light. Is this who I am? Is this what I’m capable of? Am I going through some kind of crisis because I’m a broke widow? Or am I really darker than I thought I was?

I have no answers to these questions when I step into the bedroom and I’m faced with the wall I put up minutes before I took a shower. Feenix is written on a sheet of paper, and so is Andre. They’re taped to this wall so I can stare at the letters and hope they rearrange themselves to tell me what I want to know. Normally, they’d be pictures, but since I don’t have any, I have nothing but their first names to go off of.

They’ll get added to too, once I learn more about them.

I stare at Andre’s name like I had before I showered, wondering just what role he plays in all of this. Is this a partnership between him and Nix? And if so, why doesn’t Nix like him?

My eyes skate to Nix’s name. At the interview, he seemed more in charge than Andre. The questions swim in my head, and as with my inner reflections, I have no answers to them. I’ll just have to dig deeper into Nix, ignore these weird attraction feelings, and find my answers. And in the end? I’ll take him down too, no matter how I feel .

The one question I cannot get rid of is: How do I get from point A to point B? How do I get from the porn business to the sex trafficking? Without being caught? Without losing myself? Without falling for Nix?

I blink at that last question and immediately shove it from my mind. He’s handsome and nothing more. And me? Even if I wasn’t undercover and this was a real occupation I was looking for and I went for the bad boys, he is way out of my league.

Rich. Fit. Observant. Sinful.

No. Those aren’t the guys I go for. Those aren’t the guys who go for me, either.

A knock at my door makes me practically jump out of my skin, and my towel nearly falls off my chest. I glance at the clock and see that it’s three in the morning. Panic starts to reside behind my ribs. This isn’t a good neighborhood, and this apartment building is full of criminals.

“Charlie?” a familiar voice shouts through the door.

I breathe a sigh of relief at Miles’s voice and shout back, “One sec!”

Quickly, I tug on my overly large t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and I make my way through my dark apartment to the front door. As soon as I swing it open, Miles’s stress-lined face relaxes.

He pushes his way into the apartment, holding a small, crumpled paper bag that definitely has something inside of it.

“What’s wrong?” I immediately ask as I close the door behind him. The darkness folds around us, and shadows dance across his back, but I can clearly see how tense his shoulders are.

He whips around to face me with a glare. “You didn’t call in when you got back.”

I scowl. “Why are you so angry? ”

“We – you and I – sent you into the lion's den.” He throws his free hand into the air. “When your phone repeatedly went to voicemail, I feared the worst, Charlotte!”

“Shh,” I say, stepping closer to him. “You’ll wake the entire building.”

He chuffs but lowers his voice anyway. “I’m in charge of you. Your dad is no longer here, and I’m in charge.”

I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes at the only father figure I have left. “I don’t need a protector.”

He drops the bag to the floor and reaches for me, gripping my shoulders tightly. “You do, Charlie,” he growls. “You do! You have something to prove, and you’re reckless. Combine those two together, and it’ll be your body I bury next.”

“Why didn’t you just look up my location with the tracker in my glasses?” I hiss. I don’t like what he’s accusing me of, even though I know, on some level, that he’s telling the truth. “That should have eased your mind that I was alive.”

He lets me go and wipes the anger from his face with his palm. “I did, but it’s not uncommon for murderers to return the victim’s belongings to their homes.” He pins me with a look. “You should know that.”

I sigh and roll my neck. I know he cares for me as if I were his own daughter, but I have this handled. “Nothing bad happened to me, Miles. I’m fine. See?” I hold out my arms so he can inspect me for bruises. He doesn’t.

“Then where is your phone?”

I drop my arms and shrug indifferently. “They destroyed it.”

Even in the dark, I can see his jaw flex. “You’re already in too deep, Charlie. You have no idea what or who you’re dealing with. You’re too green. ”

“You think I can’t do this?”

“I think you have your eye on the prize and you have blinders to the rest. Do I think you can do this? Yes. Do I think there’s a chance you’ll die trying? Also yes.”

I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Did you come here just to yell at me once you found me alive?”

He’s quiet long enough that I peek back at him. “No,” he eventually says. “I had a feeling something happened to your phone, so I brought you a new one.” He picks up the crumbled paper bag, opens it, and pulls out a phone. Passing it to me, he adds, “It’s untraceable except to me. I made sure of it. Do you have my number memorized?”

“Since I was a kid,” I confirm and take the phone from him.

“Good. Only call me on it and delete the history every time.”

I nod in agreement, and we just stare at each other for a while. Both of us are steeped in the weight of what might possibly become of my future, but I break the silence when his truths become a real thing in my mind. “Thanks for the phone.”

“Sure, kid. Did you at least find out anything during your interview?”

Clearing my throat a little, I decide not to tell him about the second part of my interview. He’d yank me from the job immediately, and he’d never look at me the same. However, I think, on some level, he knows it’s bound to happen, and he’s just choosing to ignore that fact. “I have two names.”

“Good.” He pulls out his own phone from his back pocket, and with a quick glance, I watch him open his notes app. He then looks at me expectantly.

“Feenix is the first one. Andre the second.”

“Last names?” he asks as he types them into his phone .

“I didn’t exactly ask,” I grumble.

“Right,” he comments because it makes sense that I wouldn’t. “I’ll ask around.”

“Won’t that give me away?”

He raises an eyebrow. “You’re not the only one who has been working this. I might have someone who’d know.”

“What? Like another addict?” I chuckle at my joke.

“Yes, actually,” he responds as he pockets his phone. “I don’t think you know how far this business of theirs reaches. The more I look into it, the more I’m blown away.”

“Makes sense though.” I twist my lips to the side for a second. “Everyone we’ve encountered who has helped us is hooked on something, and their suppliers are those two.”

“Any clue as to who is at the top yet?”

I shake my head. “No, but Andre and Nix hold a lot of power. Maybe Nix more than the other. At least, it seemed that way, even though Andre tried to strut his authority.”

He brushes a hand over his jaw. “Maybe Nix is our guy. Maybe it’s that simple.”

Why the hell are my hackles rising? I can’t keep the tinge of anger from my voice when I ask, “What? Hide in plain sight?”

He raises an eyebrow at my tone. “Exactly.”

I bite the inside of my cheek as I look just over his shoulder and out the window as if I can see Nix himself just because we’re considering him to be the guy I’ll eventually arrest. I mean, yes, he’ll be arrested, but do I think he’s the top guy? “My gut feeling tells me it’s not him.”

Miles sucks in a slow breath and blows it out. “Don’t go getting attached. It’s only day one, Charlie.”

I scowl again. “I’m not attached.”

He crosses his arms defensively, and the empty paper bag crinkles in protest. “He is not your friend. You’ll do well to remember that. People in this kind of business don’t have friends. I don’t care if he is the friendliest guy you’ve met all year; he will stab you in the back at the first sign that you’ll become trouble for him.”

I hide my cringe well because Nix is anything but ‘friendly’. “I’ll remember that.” I need to get him out of this apartment before he learns that I’m attracted to him, so instead of dragging on the conversation by asking how Rochelle is, I head to the door and open it. “It’s late, and I have to get to bed.”

He nods, sighs out, and crosses the room to the open door. When he reaches me, he pauses and looks into my eyes, and for a second, I wonder what secrets he finds in me. “Anything else I should know?”

I shake my head, not trusting my voice.

I can tell he doesn’t believe me, but he leaves it lying and strides out the door. Over his shoulder, he says, “Call if you need me, and call when you have your next move. Don’t leave me in the dark, Charlie.”

And with that, I shut the door, turn, and lean my back against it. I run my fingers through my wet hair, a little disgusted with myself that I didn’t tell him that I’m attracted to Feenix. Doing so would mean I’m already in too deep. Doing so would get me yanked. Doing so would put an end to proving that I’m worthy of the badge, and I can’t have that. I won’t accept it.

No, I can keep this to myself. I can handle myself and this attraction, and this weird urge to protect Nix will come to an end. Right here, right now, because I will be the one to cuff him in the end just to prove my point.