Dirty Money (Bad Money #2) by Ali Parker Page B

the cop, he was in a drunken stupor. Had he always been that way or only when things got tough?
    "Jon? You up, man?"
    "I'm in the kitchen, you fucker. Be lucky you called out. I was going to shoot the minute you turned the corner."
    Marcus moved toward the sound of the cop's voice, pausing and sticking his head around into what appeared to be the kitchen. It was too hard to tell with the resounding darkness. Marcus reached over and flipped on a light, Jon cursing him as he covered his eyes.
    He seemed to still be in his clothes from their meeting at Victor's. He held a small glass in his hand with a bottle of jack open on the table beside him.
    "Drinking isn't going to help." Marcus moved to the counter and looked for a glass.
    "Third cabinet to the right of the sink. Top shelf," Jon muttered before lifting his glass to his lips again.
    Marcus got himself a glass and walked toward the table, picking up the bottle and filling his glass half full. He topped Jon's off and lifted his glass to the other man.
    "To new beginnings."
    "I don't want a new beginning. I want to know what the fuck happened tonight? Where did the girl go that I fell in love with? Who was that bitch with Victor?"
    Marcus tilted his head back, letting the entirety of the cup drain down his throat. It burned like a bitch, but brought him more to life than he had been in weeks.
    "That's the girl I found on the streets years ago. She's simply doing what she must."
    "Fuck that." Jon took a long swallow of his drink. "She didn't have to sit in his fucking lap, Marcus. He petted her fucking pussy over and over in front of us."
    Marcus reached for the bottle, not even sure why he was there all of a sudden. "I don't want to talk about it."
    "Then what do you want to talk about? Why the fuck are you here? You don't even like me, remember?"
    "Shut up." Marcus let out a long breath. "You were supposed to be the good guy that moved her from the best I could give her to a whole fucking lot better, but you didn't. You tucked tail and ran like a fucking sissy girl."
    "Oh. So you're angry and need someone to blame. How about you blame yourself? You already said it was your greed that did this."
    "It was. I hate myself more than I hate you." Marcus finished the glass and picked up the bottle, taking a long swig. He passed it to Jon, who set it back down on the table.
    "Do you love her?" Jon asked.
    Marcus sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and pressed his teeth to it until he tasted blood. Why had he come here? To beat Jon to a bloody pulp? To confess his sins?
    "Yes. I love her in more ways than you could ever fathom. That's irrelevant. I'm a piece of shit and she deserves better."
    "She deserves someone like me? One of the good guys?" Jon pushed the glass away from him and crossed his arms over his chest.
    "You were one of the good guys. I'm honestly not sure what the fuck you are now." Marcus nodded to the file. "Why do you have that?"
    "I needed to know who I was falling in love with. To understand better if there was any hope of redemption in her."
    "And? What did you figure out from a stale file that's slanted to show her as a villain?"
    "That she knows more than she said she did about Seth. That she's had a terrible start in life and lastly, that someone has the most important parts of her past locked up. Is it you?" Jon leaned forward, his blood-shot eyes staring hard at Marcus.
    "No clue what you're talking about. I'm taking the file with me. She doesn't deserve to keep reliving this shit."
    "Have it. It's useless and to be honest with you, she deserves a lot worse." Jon let out a long breath as Marcus stood and snatched the file from the table.
    "You don't know shit about her, Jon. Stay the fuck away. You failed at whatever you were hoping to do. Move on to the next pretty girl that needs saving because this one is off your radar."
    "I agree. Best of luck with whatever you think you're going to do to save her. I'd start with figuring out who took parts of her file