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"What happened to her?" I have Rook’s attention now and her eyes watchher face in the blanket

"She did a lot of heroin, that’s what happened to her She wasted away to nothing just as she started to ave it all away for drugs She’d show up here high as fk and I pretended not to notice because I was in denial, or too busy to see how bad it was getting, or ive a fk about the girl beyond sleeping with her in one of the old rooms downstairs And three months shy of her nineteenth birthday, she was dead"

"Oh, I’m sorry, Ronin"

"She died in one of our artistic rooms on the third floor I fired her but I felt sorry for her after and let her stay in a room we rarely used I found her down there, a tie-off still strangling her ar out of her vein"

I take a deep breath and then let it out and take responsibility for what I did Maybe for the first tione because of , but I saw all the signs that she was losing And the weight loss was the first clue The weight loss, Rook, is the first clue in this business that sos, either With depression, and eating disorders, and all kinds of nasty things that plague people who rely on how they look to irls every day I’ to ain it back pretty quick Otherwise I start paying more attention to their habits and if I find out they’re using, I fire thened on both of those contracts I keep an eye on you for your own daood"

I see her eyes flash, ready with the retort, but I’ate this business alone, you’re already dead, Rook Because you can’t This business will use you up and throw you out like trash"

"So you think I’et it I really do You got caught up in so bad and now you think ain And maybe it will, butcause of all the bullshit that happened to Mardee If she had no s, or accept dates with rich losers, or sign contracts to do pn and whatever else she was doing at the end Money won’t save you, Gidge Money is a tool and nothing else"

"Maybe," she admits "But it’s better to have bad options than no options And people won’t save you either, ya know"

I shakebreath "God, that is the saddest shit I’ve ever heard"

She looks away now, her eyes glassy with the threat of tears "No one ca shit about ht now is because I got et up and join her on the couch She turns her back to me so I push the blanket away and pull the robe down to look at the painting on her back "Did Spence tell you what he wrote?"

She shakes her head and looks over her shoulder atto Ronin and Spencer Shrike knows this"

"Oh, God!"

"It wasthe outline of the bird on her back "He was sending ht over Mardee Spencer and I were best friends in high school and halfway through college, but I found out he was the one who introduced Mardee to the local scuh tiet to know the hiet that it was really me who killed her With my indifference"

She drops her head and sniffs

"And I’d do anything to prevent that fro your future But I can’t stop you and honestly, I’ hypocrite because this is how I’ve ht into the partnership Elise and I have with Antoine How I paid for this apartment, the cars, the truck, the bikes, the trips I enjoy a lot of nice things in life because girls like you take off your clothes for guys like Antoine and ain and the last thing I want is for her to feel defeated so I give her what she needs to hear right now "But if you’re going to take another contract, this body painting one with Spence is probably the best-case scenario because I know for a fact that Spencer Shrike is a good guy"

She looks over her shoulder, confused "So you’re not mad about that?"

"Fuck yes, I’ to me You’re free to do whatever you want I can’t stop you I can give you ers--but I can’t

"And Rook, just so you know, I’irl to corner, or control, or use up and throay I’ve had that, I can get that anywhere What I can’t get anywhere is a partner who truststo trap you, you’re wrong I’et as far away from me as she possibly can"

She sits in our silence for wholeher body so she can lookto you, Ronin," she whispers "So scared A few o I looked at irl was"