Read Online Unbreakable Hearts by Harper Bentley - Free Book Online

hair. You gonna arrest me now?” She glared at him.
    He took a step toward her, holding his hand out trying to calm her down. “No, I’m not a cop. I just need information on Rico Hernandez.”
    She eyed him for a couple seconds testing his sincerity then frowned and shook her head, letting out a huff. “That fucker? Biggest waste of my time ever. You want information, I can give you information. What do you wanna know?”
    “When’s the last time you saw him?”
    She looked at him for a few seconds, the look on her face making him feel stupid for not understanding. When he finally got it, he pulled a twenty out of his pocket and handed it to her. Upon receiving the money and tucking it into her bra she replied, “Man, he was at the club just the other night. Tried gettin’ all up in my face after my act, tellin’ me that I was nothin’ but trash, nothin’ but a ho, and you know what I did? I slapped the fuck outta that ugly mug of his.” She huffed again letting out a laugh. “Didn’t last long, though. He slapped me right back before Elliot grabbed him,” she said sadly, her hand coming up to touch her left eye.
    It was then that Oz noticed the discoloration around her eye that she’d mostly covered with makeup. “I’m really sorry, Chloe. If you’ll help me, I can keep him from seeing you and hurting you for quite some time. Do you think you could tell me where I could find him?”
    She let out another humorless laugh, like Oz just didn’t get it. “Not like I ain’t used to bein’ treated that way. But, yeah, he’s probably holed up at Hector’s up in Fairhill.”
    “ Hector?” Oz asked. “Do you have an address?”
    “ Ramirez. It’s around A Street and Westmoreland, one of those row houses, the ones with the porches all gated up.” She seemed almost relieved as she gave him the address, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
    “Thank you.” He next pulled out two hundreds and handed them to her.
    She took them immediately , adding them to her hiding place. “If you’re not a cop then what are you?” she questioned.
    “Bounty hunter.” He smiled down at her. She smiled back at him, one that didn’t reach her eyes, but in that moment, she’d actually looked pretty. In any other time or place, she would’ve been a beautiful woman. But it was as if the life she’d led had taken its toll, leaving her an empty shell of her former self.
    “I heard what he did to that girl in New York,” she said quietly. “Raped her then cut her up pretty good. I hope you catch him.”
    “I’ll do my damndest. Thank you, Chloe.” He reached a hand out to touch her jaw but when she flinched, he dropped it. God.
    He left the club feeling sad der than he had in a long time and headed back to his motel room to pull up the address of Hector Ramirez, hoping he could find Rico and haul his sorry ass back to NYC the next day.
    ***
    Wednesday afternoon, Tilly was excited. It was the day before the parade shoot and she was checking all her equipment making sure she had everything ready to go.
    Her mother had called the week before asking if she was going to make it “home” for Thanksgiving. Tilly didn’t really consider Cold Spring her home, so she wasn’t all that sad about having to tell her mom she couldn’t make it. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss her mother and grandmother, she tried to make a habit of getting up that way every three months or so to visit and she’d just been there the month before, so it wasn’t like she was totally rejecting them. And they’d more than understood that she was working and couldn’t have been more supportive.
    She’d hoped that Quinn was going to be home to celebrate the holiday with her, but she was landing in Buffalo probably that very minute and would be renting a car to drive to her parents’ house in Amherst. They were both retired physicians who’d had Quinn in their later years, and seeing as she was their only child, she usually spent