Dirty (11 page)

A girl walked from behind Misha who looked so frail that a strong wind might knock her over.

What the hell had he gotten himself involved in?

Chapter Eleven

“You can’t be serious,” Paul glanced at the girl who upon further inspection wasn’t a girl at all. She might have been short but she was developed like an adult. That didn’t really mean anything in this day and age, but the worn expression on her face told him she’d been around enough years to experience just how craptastic life could be at times.

Misha looked down at his charge and if Paul didn’t know any better, he would have said the Russian eyed her with affection. “Why don’t you go inside? Me and Mr. Winters need to have a little chat.”

The girl looked at him with uncertainty and then back at Misha with a whimper.

“Go ahead. I’ve kept you safe thus far. You’ll have to trust that I’ll continue to do so.”

She hesitated for another brief moment before going inside as instructed. Paul closed the door behind her and turned on Misha. “What the fuck man
?
You didn’t say anything about bringing a stranger into my home.”

“Like I said before, the less you knew the better.”

“But now I do
,
so you owe me answers. Why is she here?”

“I’ll be frank with you. There are some very dangerous men looking for her. I can only keep her safe if I move her around until I can find a more permanent location. I believe I may have found that place but I need a few days.”

“You’re fucking kidding me? Are you trying to get me killed?”

“She’ll be fine for a few days. You have my word that she’ll be out of here by then.”

Paul narrowed his gaze not falling for this bullshit. “Define a few days.”

“Three, possibly four but no more. It bears repeating the less you know, the better for you. I brought her here because no one
would
suspect her to be out in the suburbs. Just keep her inside and if you can avoid it, don’t have anyone over.”

“How do you know I don’t have anyone inside right now?”

“You don’t think I would be foolish enough not to check before bringing her
here
?”

“So you have my house under fucking surveillance?”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I had to proceed with caution.”

“And you can proceed to take this woman with you when you leave. I want no part of this bullshit.”

“Paul, please.” The words were practically croaked as if Misha wasn’t used to begging for anything. It gave Paul pause but he didn’t want to be involved.

“You banned me from the fights, exactly why should I help you out?”

“Is that why you’re turning me down, because of the fights? Honestly
,
it was for your own state of mind. You don’t exactly strike me as the type who could live well with himself if he actually killed a man. Trust me, it takes a special kind of person to live without that kind of guilt.”

Paul raised a brow. “Like you?”

Misha chuckled. “To experience guilt, one would have to have a soul. I sold mine to the devil years ago.”

Paul was not amused. “Cut the bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about your lack of a soul or what you think I should or should not know
.
I think you need to tell me something because the way I see it, at the moment
,
you need me far more than I need you.”

“If this is about the fights, then fine. You’re allowed back
. If
you end up killing someone
,
you’re on your own.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I want to know why I should care about that girl in my house.”

“Because she needs you. Her only crime was being born to poor parents who wanted her to have a better life, so they sent her to America in hopes of that. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize the people they sent her to didn’t have her best interests at heart. Let’s just say that girls like her who are brought over here in her circumstances are forced to do certain thing against their will.”

It took a few moments before Paul actually understood Misha’s meaning. “Holy shit! Human trafficking
!
You’re involved in that shit? Man
,
fuck you!”

Misha raised
his
brow in mock surprise. “Oh, so that’s where you draw the line? You almost killed a man last night and you’re judging me? And for the record, that’s not my style.”

“So how did you get involved with her?”

“Let’s just say I’ve taken a personal interest in her safety. I want to make sure she is out of harm’s way before I can handle business.”

“Is she a witness to something?”

“Nothing like that. But she is of some importance to an old enemy of mine.”

“Do you care about this woman?”

Misha didn’t answer at first but the expression on his face said it all. Paul wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Yes, very much,” Misha finally answered.

He
’d
been
ready to turn the Russian and his friend away, but knowing the woman’s situation, he would have been heartless to do so. “Okay, a few days and nothing more.”

“Thank you. You will be compensated for this.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“Perhaps you’ll want another favor from me soon enough but we’ll leave that for another discussion. In the meantime, she knows not to leave the house. You don’t have to keep her entertained, just fed and out of sight. You may go about your business as usual so as
not
to raise suspicion.”

“This better not cause any disruption in my life.”

“It won’t but in the slim chance that there is any trouble, there will be backup on the ready.”

Great. Someone was watching his house. Just what he needed on top of everything
else
going on with his life. He sincerely hoped this wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

Once Misha was gone
,
he headed back inside to find his new charge sitting on his sofa with her knees pulled up against her chest. Her eyes were wide and she looked around the place as if
someone
were going to jump
out
at her at any second. Paul closed the front door with a firm click which made the woman jump out of her seat.

She turned around with a gasp and stood. She backed away, eyeing him suspiciously. Paul sighed, “You might as well make yourself comfortable.” He gestured back to the couch. It dawned on him that Misha hadn’t told him anything about her, not even a name.

She didn’t take her eyes off of him as she returned to her original spot.

“What’s your name?”

She stared at him but didn’t speak.

“I’m Paul.”

She remained silent.

It was then he remembered Misha mentioning that she was from a different country. “Great, it’s just my luck that my house guest doesn’t speak English.” As he turned around to head to the kitchen, she surprised him.

“I speak English.” Granted her accent was thick, but he had no problem understanding her.

He turned around. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was trying to figure out if I could trust you.”

“Do you trust Misha?”

She nodded. “As much as I’m able to trust anyone in my position.”

“Do you think he’d intentionally place you in harm’s way?”

“I don’t think so. But I’ve been let down before.”

Her words hit him hard. Trust was something he’d struggled with most of his life. “I understand what you mean. Look, this isn’t an idea
l
situation for me either. I’m a busy man who doesn’t need the disruption of a complete stranger in my home. But now that you’re here, you’re under my protection and whether you believe it or not, I’ll do my best to see
that
no harm comes to you. So at the very least, you could tell me your name.”

Her tongue snaked out from the corner of her mouth in a nervous gesture before she answered. “Orisa.”

“Nice to meet you Orisa. You have a beautiful accent. What country are you from?”

“Rwanda. But I lived in France for a bit before
being
sent to the States.”

Orisa didn’t seem inclined to share anymore information so Paul didn’t press. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head. “I ate before I got here.”

“Okay. Well, let me show you to the guest bedroom.”

As Paul was giving Orisa the tour of his house, his phone rang. When he dug his phone out of his pocket, he saw that the call was from James, Noelle’s husband and his former boss. They’d ended their business relationship on bad terms but over the last couple years
,
they’d actually managed to forge a genuine friendship that hadn’t existed
previously
between them. He had Noelle to thank for that. Through her, James had become human instead of the gigantic asshole he used to be.

It
was James
who
called him. “Hold on Orisa, I need to take this call.”

He clicked on the accept button. “James, what’s up?”

“Where the fuck are you? Noelle has been trying to get a hold of you.” There was an edge to James voice
that
Paul hadn’t heard in quite some time.

“Is there any reason why you’re calling on her behalf? If I’m not available when she calls, I always get back to her at a reasonable time.”

“You could have fooled the fuck out of me. Since it’s been a couple
,
almost three hours since she last called and the paramedics just left a few minutes ago
after
making
sure she didn’t get frostbite from getting locked in the freezer.”

“Wait a minute. You seem to be leaving out a lot of details. Tell me what’s going on?”

“You’d know what was going on if you were here instead of off doing God knows what. Instead my wife was alone in the shop when she was robbed at gunpoint and the thieves locked her in the freezer to give them enough time to get away.”

“Shit. I’ll be right there.” He hung up before James could reply.

<><><>

Simone rushed over to the bakery as soon as Tanisha had informed her that Noelle’s bakery was on the news. Thankfully her friend
,
who was still giving her the silent treatment
,
had decided to show up today and put her hurt feelings aside long enough to inform Simone. While it wasn’t unheard for the occasional crime to happen in this area, no one she’d talked to could remember the last time a store in the district had been robbed.

When she made it to the bakery there were news vans parked on the street and posted in the window was a closed sign. The door was locked as well.

“Don’t bother. I tried to get in earlier. They’re closed. Apparently someone robbed the place.” A woman standing in front of the shop informed them.

“I know the owner. I want to make sure she’s okay.”

“Well, I hope so, because I look forward to a sweet treat in the afternoon and this place has the best cupcakes.”

Simone side-eyed the insensitive woman who seemed more interested in a snack than the well-being of the people inside. “Lady, I’ve got more important things to worry about than you stuffing your face.” She turned her back on the now seemingly offended woman who stomped off.

Simone looked through the window and saw James standing by the counter on his cell phone. She tapped on the glass to get his attention. He frowned looking up from his call. When he spotted her nodded in acknowledgement and walked to the door to let her in.

“I’ll need to call you back, Nicole but make sure you rearrange all
of
my non urgent meetings to next week, two weeks
,
if possible. For the absolute necessary ones, I’ll need you to fill in for me. Make a list of the ones, I’ll have to teleconference into. I’m going to be mostly out of commission for the next week or so, so that I can spend more time with Noelle.”

He was silent as he waited for a reply. “Yes. Thank you Nicole. If you can pull this off without a hitch, you can expect a very hefty bonus
at
the end of the quarter.”

Again
,
he listened to what Nicole said in return. “Thank you. I’ll tell Noelle you said that. She’ll really appreciate
it
. I’m hanging up now. I left Noelle alone long enough.” He clicked off and turned his attention to Simone who couldn’t help but overhear his conversation.

“You should give your poor assistant a raise.”

He smiled. “Don’t I know it. After Paul quit on me, I didn’t think I’d
find
another competent Executive Assistant of his caliber, but now that I found her, I’m not going to make the same mistakes I did before. Anyway, I’m glad you swung by. Noelle will be happy to see you.”

Simone barely heard anything besides, the mention of Paul’s name but there was no reason why she should have been surprised, he was after all co-owner of the bakery. “Where is Noelle
,
by the way?”

“She
’s
in the back giving details to the police. Thank goodness I insisted on having those security cameras installed a few months ago.
They really
got a good picture of the thug
’
s face. I just hope the police catch that little bastard before I do because I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“Do you know the details?”

“You know your cousin. She had a new recipe idea she wanted to work on but it was really early. I don’t care how safe a neighborhood this place is, I wasn’t comfortable with her coming out this early by herself. I was going to come with her, but she insisted she’d be fine and that she’d call Paul to join her.”

“So where’s Paul?” Simone looked around the store nervously. She wasn’t sure how to act around
him
after their last encounter.

“He’s on his way.”

“He wasn’t here when it happened?”
She
asked incredulously.

James briefly
flattened
his lips together into a thin line, displaying his displeasure. “Apparently not. Noelle hasn’t told me so herself but from what I gather from some of the staff, Paul hasn’t been around a lot lately.”

“Well, Noelle is in charge of the operation of the place.”

James raised a brow. “Are you defending Paul when he wasn’t here while my wife had a gun shoved in her face?”

“Of course not but you can’t blame him because some punk did this. It could have happened even if he were here.”

“
Or
maybe not
,
if she wasn’t here alone.”

Simone saw no point in further antagonizing James. Besides, she wasn’t sure why she felt compelled to defend
Paul
in light of their last encounter. “So you were telling me the details of the robbery?”
She
prompted to redirect the conversation.

“Yes, well apparently, she made it to the shop before the bakers did and she was working on her recipe when she heard someone tapping on the window. She thought one of the girls had misplaced
her
keys again, but it was some kid who claimed he’d gotten mugged and asked if he could come inside and use the phone.”

Simone groaned. “And Noelle let him in? She’s too nice for her own good.”

“Exactly. Next thing she knows,
he
has a gun trained on her. All she had was some petty cash laying around but the kid took her purse with all her credit cards and personal items. She’s didn’t care too much about the other stuff but he took her wedding band and engagement ring, which was laying on the counter because she takes it off to do her baking. After the kid finished robbing her
,
he forced her into the freezer. Normally the bakers come early
,
but today she wanted to open the shop up a little later as a thank you to her staff for all their hard work. He didn’t take her phone but it was pretty useless since she didn’t have reception in the freezer. She was in there for
a half an hour. It’s a good thing she was still wearing her jacket from when she came in.
If one of the bakers
hadn’t
come in a little early, she might be...” James visibly shook. “I could have lost her.”

Simone reached out and gave James a hug. “But she’s okay. The material things can be replaced. When can I see her?”

“As soon as the police officers finish questioning her.”

Just then Noelle came out to the storefront followed by a man in a suit with a notepad. She assumed he was he cop questioning her.

Simone rushed over to her cousin and squeezed her tight. “Oh my God
,
hon,
are you okay?”

Noelle nodded. “Just a little shaken up, but I’ll be okay. I appreciate you coming over. You didn’t have to.”

“Of course
,
I had to. I don’t know what I’d do if anything were to happen to you.”

“Me either.” James pulled Noelle away and tucked her beneath his arm as if he couldn’t stand to let her go. He turned his attention to the policeman. “Detective, do you think you can figure out who did this?”

“We’ll do our best
,
Mr. Rothschild.”

James frowned looking around. “Where’s your partner?”

“Oh, he had to use the restroom. I’m sure he’ll be out shortly,” Noelle replied. She looked tired and Simone wanted to give her another hug but James clung to his wife like the thought of letting her out of his grasp was unquestionable.

Just then the other detective joined them and stopped when he saw Simone. “Mary?”

Simone felt sick to her stomach.