“You gonna be there for a bit?” I asked, ignoring Teresa as I flew into the elevator, jabbing the close door button as my heartbeat tripped into overdrive.

“Still got some looking around to do,” he said.

“Want some company?”

He had no choice.

I ran down the block, locating Calvin where he was parked, windows twitching in their frames from his music.

I pressed the phone to my chest to slam my hand into the door, making Calvin jump and turn off the music.

“Brooklyn. And do me a favor and don’t talk for a bit,” I said, getting a nod out of him.

His whole posture changed, tightened, likely picking up on my tension.

“Yeah, I think we have some catching up to do. It’s been a while.”

I didn’t like something I heard in his tone.

But I tamped down the churning sensation in my stomach that I knew as fear and forced my voice to be calm and light.

“Yeah, man. I’m on my way. It’s a bit of a haul from my office. So it’ll be about a half an hour or so.”

“I’ve got nothing but time now,” Alen said.

There was a shuffling sound, followed by a muffled ‘nuh uh uh,’ like he’d pressed the phone to his chest to not be heard.

What was he doing?

Was I walking into some sort of trap?

I wouldn’t put it past Alen to get violent. I mean, he had that reputation. But he’d never laid a hand on me.

Still, there was a first time for everything.

And this current Alen wasn’t the same friend of mine who’d given me a way off the streets, who’d helped me slowly become the man I was today.

True, his ‘help’ had never been free.

But up until this point, it had never been violent.

That said, he’d been unraveling for years.

There’d been a time when his arrest would have gutted me.

All I felt when it had happened, though, was relief.

It was all finally over.

Until his name was on my screen.

I should have known better than to celebrate too early.

Alen Hakobyan was like nonstick cookware. Toxic as fuck. And so slippery that nothing ever stuck to him. Especially not charges. He had one of the best criminal attorneys around.

I would know.

It was my money that paid for her.

“Good then. I’m on my way. Wouldn’t you rather meet somewhere else? Somewhere we could get some food or a drink?”

Anywhere but at the club where Saff might see him and call the cops. Or, worse yet, investigate herself.

My stomach twisted hard at that thought.

I never wanted her to know about Alen. Not any more than I’d already told her about the friend who gave me a place to stay and a leg up.