Better when He's Bold (Welcome to the Point #2)(52)

The problem I had with the scenario he was laying out was I knew how busy Brysen was and I had torn apart her old computer. She didn’t even have a Facebook page, and the only e-mail she used was the one all students had access to, which was registered through the university. The correspondence I had been able to retrieve was mostly boring stuff related to school and projects. There had been nothing alarming, nothing lining up with the story this guy was spinning, but his reaction and his immediate agreement to get gone had me wondering what was really going on. Someone wasn’t only stalking her, they were messing with her life behind the curtains as well. I didn’t like any of it.

I looked up as Bax made his way back to where I was waiting. I was going to give him shit for groping my sister in broad daylight, but didn’t get the chance because my phone rang. I didn’t want to answer it when I saw it was Nassir, but I did anyways. Business was business after all.

“What’s up?”

“I need you to get your ass to the District.” He sounded furious.

“Uh, why?” I motioned to Bax to hold on for a second. He leaned on the opposite fender and stuck a smoke in his mouth.

“Because someone kicked the shit out of Roxie and told her to give us a message.”

I felt my eyes get big and I looked over at Bax. Roxie was a girl who got around and made a good living at it. She and Bax went way back, well before she started making her living rolling around the sheets. He hadn’t kept in touch with her since he and Dovie became a thing, but this was going to piss him off big-time.

“What was the message?”

Nassir swore and I heard someone moan low and painfully in the background. He barked at Chuck to find out what was taking the doctor so long, and then came back on the line.

“That this is just the beginning.”

“Fuck. Did she have any idea who it was?”

“She can barely talk. It looks like someone stomped on her face. All I could make out was that she had a normal client, a regular, and when she went to answer the door, it wasn’t him. Whoever did this wasn’t fooling around. She’s a mess.”

No one deserved to suffer like that, even if they had a job that was risky.

“I thought you were watching the girls who worked for you, Nassir. How did this happen?”

“Don’t even start thinking you can question how I manage my business, Race. I do have people on the streets keeping an eye on the girls. If they take new clients, if they get bizarre requests, if they think something seems funny, I don’t let them do anything that might put them at risk, or the operation at risk. Like I said, Roxie said this was a routine date, there were no red flags. Whoever this guy is, he knows how places like the District work. He knew she wouldn’t see a new client alone.”

I swore again. “Who was the original date with?”

Nassir went quiet and I heard him ask the question into the room. There was more moaning, then a sharp female voice telling him he was a bastard. That had to be Honor, no one else had the balls to talk to Nassir like that.

“I think she’s trying to say Marcus something.” Well, shit. Marcus was just making all kinds of friends lately.

“Marcus Whaler?”

Nassir repeated the question and then got distracted as the doctor apparently showed up. “Yeah.”

I blew out a breath. “Marcus Whaler is in a hospital bed right now because I took a tire iron to both of his kneecaps last weekend. What in the holy f*ck is going on?”

“I don’t know, but it needs to end now.” Nassir went from furious to deadly cold. That was when he was at his most terrifying.

“Bax is with me now. I’ll make a stop and see what Marcus has to say. Do you think this is tied to Novak? Could it be one of his guys the feds missed?”

“I don’t give two f*cks who it is. This is our town now, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect it.”

I didn’t disagree with him. “Shoot me a text and let me know that she’s okay.”

I hung up and looked at Bax. His shoulders had tightened up and his dark eyes had deepened in a way I knew meant he wasn’t happy.

I put my phone away and lifted a hand to rub the back of my neck. “Roxie got beat up. Nassir has her down at Spanky’s waiting on a doctor. He says it’s pretty bad.”

He flicked his cigarette away and pushed off the car.

“One of her johns?” His tone was as hard as the look in his eyes.

“No. It sounds like someone set her up to send a pretty clear message to me and Nassir. She said he told her to tell us ‘this is just the beginning.’ ”

He just stared at me for a minute and made his way to the other side of the car. “That’s the thing about trying to get the upper hand in a place like the Point: it always fights back, and more often than not, it’s the innocent that end up getting hurt.”

I got into the car and looked out the window as he pulled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.

“Head to the hospital.” He didn’t respond as the car raced through traffic. “The guy she was supposed to hook up with is there. I want to talk to him.”

“Talking is overrated when a girl gets hurt, Race.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and told him, “It’s the same guy who tried to get out of his debt by hiring the muscle to work me over. He’s not going anywhere, Bax. I shattered both of his kneecaps after I got rid of the thug.”