The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe

Author:Erin Bledsoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2022-07-13T20:05:25+00:00

I knock on Rob’s door for a full minute before he answers. He looks like he was just starting to get dressed. I glance behind my shoulder at the streets below, searching for Mary or anyone watching, then slip inside and shut the door.

He takes a seat on the bed, where the sheets are still in disarray from our evening together. “Back so soon?” he teases, grabbing our glasses from last night to refill them.

“I don’t want a drink,” I say. “Are you a police informant?”

He drops one glass, and it shatters next to his bare feet, but he doesn’t move to clean it up. “What? I don’t know . . . Who told you that?”

“Is it true?”

His breathing goes ragged, and a visible shudder takes over his entire body. “Who told you, Alice? Tell me who told you!”

“Mary,” I declare with a grimace. Though I knew it to be true coming from Mary’s mouth, hearing it from him leaves a hardness in my gut. A part of me, an insignificant part, hoped she was lying. Rob was supposed to be an exemplary man, too good for me. Honest. Fucking honest.

“That’s impossible,” he insists, finally sinking to pick up some of the glass. “Nobody knows but my brothers, and they’d never tell her.”

“She says she has spies all over the city. She knew things about me too.”

“I don’t understand. I’m careful. Commissioner Horwood recruited me after the war. My brothers thought it was a smart move, having someone on the inside. I balance the line, but I balance it well, and it keeps me from the worst of the violence.”

I pace the room, my feet restless. All this information is flooding my head in relentless, incoming waves. I can’t pause to process it—I don’t have the time. “He trusts you then? He believes that you are done with the family business?”

“He doesn’t doubt me,” he confirms. “And if he ever does, I give him something good, some intelligence that will reaffirm my loyalties.” His expression softens, and he reaches out for me. “Alice, I wanted to tell you. I thought about saying something last night. I wanted to.”

I lift my hand to stop him. “Did you know why Wal and Wag came to The Mint when I first confronted you about it?”

“I swear, I didn’t. We keep a distance to make things look as real as possible.”

He continues picking up the glass carefully. When all the large shards are collected, he fetches another glass from a cabinet but changes his mind midpour and drinks from the bottle.

“I wanted to trust you, Alice. I feel like I can.”

“You can’t,” I tell him firmly. I take the bottle from his hand and down a long swallow until my throat burns, then thrust it back at him. “And it’s smarter that you don’t.”

He shakes his head. “Then what is this between us? If there can be no love or trust?”

“I don’t know,” I admit weakly, chewing at the inside of my cheek. “I know that when you’re around, I feel like I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.