It dawned upon Cole that he wasn't entirely prepared for the real exposition that involved Rosa's misfortune and what exactly it encompassed. He visibly cringed at creased his brow when Martin's words hit him like a blow to the gut.
"ā¦She was sexually assaulted last night." Burdensome as it was on his conscience, the rising number of women he'd let down, he had to accept it and handle it as it were. He couldn't go back in time and change any of it.
He recalled the impotent and betrayed look in Rosa's eyes from the night before, the shock and the shame. Envisioning his sister pointing a gun at their father made his mind plummet, promptly topped off with the horrible smashing sound that ripped through the rain when he turned to find Skye run down in the street.
As a man it was his duty to keep women safe and in the span of two days he'd forced a handful to participate in murder, thrown his sister to a couple of Russian dogs so they could sexually assault her in front of him
and Martin, let Rosa come into similar harm, and allowed Skye to storm off and get struck by a careless driver. His father always told him there was little time for feeling regret or sympathy but - Cole wasn't as cold as Antonio. He could turn his back on a lot of things but not when it came to deliberate danger falling upon those he cared about.
"
Cole, I'm not sure what exactly is going on because it's obviously more than just Rosa. But I can tell you that I will do everything that I can to help you if you'll let me."At the offer Cole's conscience boiled with macabre plotting. With enough people on his side, he could do
anything. Martin's brains, Jude and Jackson's brute force, Maria's cunningness, Suri's blood thirst. Hell, maybe he could even sweeten the deal and bring Maya into it so she could get ahold of that Russian prick Vlad. Daniel might even prove beneficial to the entire conspiracy.
"You're a good man," Cole finally uttered with translucent, charcoal indigo eyes focused on Martin, "Tonight could get a little messy; so I'm going to brief you to the best of my ability. My dad's been fucking around - I have a little sister. Not Mae. The new waitress, Skye. All of this shit, on top of the little mishap with those Russians, and now Rosa is thrown into the mix with my cousin who belongs to the fucking Chicago department. Someone's gonna' get eliminated, someone has to. We need to eliminate the problems. That's all there is."
He choked on the sentiment he was about to reveal that entailed what happened to Skye last night, but he shook his head, "Mae pointed a gun at my dad last night. Everything's upside down right now. What we need to do is get to Windy City tonight and make sure we have Jude if nothing else. Something needs to be done about this so-called, insubstantial alliance we now have with the Russians. Cause' as far as I'm concerned," he put his hands to his sturdy chest, "
I don't fuckin' want it."
Allegiance to his family came in no purer form than what Martin had just proposed. Cole was going to take all the help he could get. "We'll talk about what we're going to do with this whole association with our foreign
'pals' tonight. I can't fuckin' think straight until they're dead."
With that, he stood up and shoved the chair away from him. "See you in a couple of hours man." He turned on his heel and breezed out of the hospital to collapse into his car. The Occheto's had been steadily digging a grave for years and as it stood at that point in time, it may have been bottomless. But with a few extra hands, Cole might be able to get out of it.
He found himself parked outside of the boutique where, inside, Madame was skillfully racing back and forth in her pumps. The image of a curvy and determined femme never failed to pleasure Cole. Pushing himself from the vehicle, he strode inside, "Suit me up, my French delicacy. I got big plans tonight."
The porcelain-skinned ingenue spun to greet him, fanning her face with eager exaggeration as her cheeks turned a light pink, "Cole! Mon amour! How long it has been!"
"Tell me about it," he said flatly and scaled the racks of Armani suits.
"Do you plan on getting your hands dirty?"
"ā¦Definitely." He smirked.
In a blur of fine fabrics, he came to find himself in a perfect suit that had a fit incomparable to anything else he wore. He smoothed the seams, looking at himself in the mirror as Chantal dangled a pair of gloves in front of him. Laughing at the over-the-top addition, he mused, "Are you for real?" The sultry shop owner only brought a finger to his lips, making him put them on.
He straighten the jacket, staring at his reflection. "Well damn," he grinned and dug out his card to hand over to Chantal. With a shrug, she again shook her head and disappeared into the dressing room, "My treat. Have a wonderful evening!"
Heads turned incessantly as he returned to his car, females making their attraction known like a dog in heat. Smiling to himself he revved the engine of the Ford before coming to notice his phone lighting up. "1 Missed Call." Grabbing for it, he scrolled through to see Aurora's name. He pulled the car away from the curb as he dialed out to see what she called for, headed in the direction of the strip club.