Chapter Thirty-Four
I wondered if that was how
forgiveness budded; not with the
fanfare of epiphany, but with pain
gathering its things, packing up,
and slipping away unannounced
in the middle of the night.
Khaled Hosseini
Minka’s quiet as we drive back to the safe house. It’s on my mind to say something, but I notice a car following us once we reach a one block perimeter to the safe house, and I have to push the thought aside.
“Take the wheel for a sec,” I tell Minka.
“What?!” she asks, the alarm clear in her voice. “I’ve never driven a car!”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two, you jerk! I’m a New Yorker! We don’t drive.”
I smile at the sass in her voice. Aside from earlier in the day, she’s been tamer than usually today, and I was worried that taking her on a date might pacify her defiance.
I look her in the eye, so she knows I’m serious. “I’m going to let go of the wheel. If you don’t take it, I can’t guarantee we won’t crash.”
I let go of the wheel, and her eyes widen.
She grabs it, shouting, “You asinine jerk!”
I laugh, my head turned away from her as I dig through my go bag and say, “Careful. Your Wilton is showing.”
Surveying my options, I grab a knife, my colt and an EMP gun from the bag before swiveling back to the front seat with my goods.
Minka’s eyes widen as she takes in my selection. “Oh, my God. You’re crazy. You almost killed us for that?! What are those for?”
“I didn’t almost kill us. You’re a natural driver.”
“You weren’t even watching me drive!”
“We’re alive, right?”
“Unbelievable. And this date was going so well.”
It was. It still is. I was going to drop her off at the door to the safe house, like I’m pretending to drop her off at her parents’ house; give her a kiss that would blow her mind; and then, jokingly sneak in a minute later.
But now she’s about to watch me kick some ass, and isn’t that better?
I take the wheel from her and drive past the alleyway to our safe house.
“Are we going somewhere?” Her eyes light up when she notices that we passed our place, and I’m tempted to take her someplace else, to make this night last as long as it can. “Gun range?”
“Someone’s following us.”
Her eyes widen, and she stares at my weapons again before relaxing in her seat, a resigned sigh escaping into the air.
I hand her the EMP gun, even though I’d love the opportunity to use it for the first time. “Want to shoot it?”
“I’ve never shot a gun before. My aim probably sucks.”
“It doesn’t shoot bullets. It shoots an electromagnetic pulse, so your aim doesn’t have to be too good. Just shoot in the direction of the car when I tell you to.”
A sly grin spreads across her face, and holy shit, I think I’m in love with this woman. Okay, maybe not, but I could be. I can see this going there, and I’m eager for every little moment that she surprises me. Like right now, when there’s excitement in her eyes when there probably should be alarm.
“Hold onto the Oh Shit! handle,” I warn, before slamming on the breaks and using the momentum to swivel the car one hundred and eighty degrees, so I’m now facing the car that was following us.
I take in the widened eyes of the driver, his mouth slightly agape as he quickly presses on the breaks of his car, and it halts with a sudden jerk. His face says it all—he’s in way over his head. But I’ve never been one to have mercy. This guy decided to come after me while I’m with Minka. With that thought in mind, I rev my engine, and the other car begins to reverse. I follow it at an increasing speed. Beside me, Minka’s face is flush with adrenaline, and she’s never looked more beautiful to me.
“Can I shoot it?” she asks.
Her burgundy hair is blowing wildly in the wind, her flushed face is a rosy pink, and the EMP is delicately nestled between both hands, and she’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
I bite back a grin and say, “Almost.”
I turn my wheel a little to the right and pick up speed, so my front left bumper is next to his front left bumper, and then I start to turn the car in his direction. He adjusts his wheels, shifting the direction of his car, so I don’t bump into it. When he realizes where I’m leading him, he tries to turn another way, but it’s too late.
I’ve back him into the dead end alleyway adjacent to our safe house. He revs his engine, a threat that he’ll ram us down, but I call bullshit.
Just in case, I tell Minka, “You can shoot it now.”
She sticks the EMP gun out of the window, the size of it a little too big for her, and I watch her struggle to balance it with a slight grin on my face. A few seconds after she pulls the trigger, the other car’s engine starts to die.
“How are you not upset about this?” she asks, her eyes eagerly devouring the scene before us.
But I am upset. I just hide it well. Instead of telling her this, I say, “I was prepared for something like this to happen.”
I just didn’t think she’d be there when it did, and fuck, that makes me mad. And as the adrenaline fades, I realize how fucked up this is. I put this woman in danger. If she gets hurt, that’d be on me, and I know without a doubt that I would never recover from that.
My expression sobers as I stare at the opposing car, allowing my anger to simmer beneath my skin, hidden to everyone but me. Unfortunately for the guy in front of us, he’s the source of my anger, and I’ve never been one to forgive and forget. It must run in the family, I can’t help but think in the back of my mind.
The driver rolls down his window and sticks both of his hands out for me to see. He places one hand on the roof of his car and uses the other to unlock the car door from the outside handle. I wait impatiently as he steps out, my gun at the ready just in case.
When he’s completely outside of the car and pressed against it, I get out and approach him, Minka following closely behind me. I cuff his hands together with a zip tie I grabbed from my go bag and lead him into the safe house, using him as a human shield in case any intruders got in while we were gone, though I suspect not, because I haven’t gotten an alarm alert on my phone.
After I clear the room and am certain that only Jax is in here, I grab a bag for Minka and toss it to her. “We have to switch safe houses.”
She doesn’t protest, and while she packs up her things, I grab my bag and place it by the door. I didn’t bother unpacking when we came here in case of a scenario like this. I grab Jax, whisper a plan in his ear, grab a seat from the kitchen, pull it in front of the couch, and sit him on it before pushing the driver onto the small couch.
As soon as his sorry ass lands on the cushion, I ask, “What’s your name?”
He stays silent, so I grab his wallet from his front pocket and pull out his driver’s license.
“Hi, David.” I toss his wallet and license on the floor at his feet and gesture in Jax’s direction. “This is Jax. He tried his hand at the bounty, too, and has been living with us since. How long ago was that, Jax?”
“I d-don’t know.”
“Guess.”
“A year?”
I hold back a snort at his theatrics. “And why haven’t I killed you yet?”
“Because your girl likes me.”
“Right. My girl likes you.” I call out, “Minka?”
She peaks her head out of the closet, and I raise my gun and fire three bullets in Jax’s chest in quick succession. He falls back, the movement causing his chair to fall with him, landing on the ground with a thud.
I wait with bated breath for Minka’s reaction. I probably shouldn’t have done that in front of her, and it’s certainly an indicator that I haven’t—and probably never will—abandoned my asshole ways.
But something about this situation and today has me feeling on edge. This is the life I lead. I will always be in danger, and I’ll always be putting others in danger. If Minka can’t accept that, then we should end this—whatever this is—now. And… maybe I want to give her a reason to do so, because I know I sure as Hell won’t.
I’m already too far gone, trapped in the way she makes me feel. Her eyes, her hair, the flush of her soft skin. The way her face lights up at the sight of her sister. And her selflessness, completely misguided but there nonetheless.
Minka lets out an alarmed gasp and eyes Jax’s body with shocked eyes. I try to stand there expressionless, to let her see me for the monster that I am, but at the last minute, I unravel. I fucking wink at her, my face angled away from David, and she relaxes and returns to her packing. And goddamn, the way she trusts me just like that is alarming.
But also exhilarating.
On the couch, I see David jerk back in shock from my peripherals, still staring at Jax, though the chair is covering him from view.
“Are you going to answer my questions?” I continue when he nods, “How did you find me?”
“Someone texted me the location.”
“Who?”
“I-I d-don’t know.”
“So, some stranger just texts you my location out of the blue?”
He nods. “Check m-my phone.”
I grab his phone from his front pocket and open up his text messages. There’s a picture of my face in the first text.
Unknown Number: Kill him & I’ll wire $5 million to you.
David: Who is this?
Unknown Number: Half now. Half later.
David: Why should I?
The next text has an image of David playing cards at a casino somewhere.
Unknown Number: $5 million dollars is a lot of money. Enough to clear your debt.
David: How do I know you’re for real?
Unknown Number: Check your bank account.
David: Holy shit.
David: Who is the guy you want dead?
David: Is he a bad guy?
David: Hello?
Unknown Number: 531 E. Williamsburg St. You have 24 hours.
I take in the text, my jaw clenching at two realizations. One, whoever this is has money, which may mean power. And two, the unknown number knows where the safe house is, which can only mean one thing.
“Can I get up now?” Jax asks from the floor, startling David.
“W-what? B-but you were… What?” David’s face is the image of confusion.
I spare him a pitying glance. “Blanks don’t come even remotely close to sounding like the real thing. Next time you consider taking out a hit, don’t. You’re out of your league.”
“They were blanks?” Minka asks, approaching me with the few things she owns. At my nod, she says, “I figured it was something like that.”
Translation: she trusts me enough not to go against my word after I promised not to kill Jax when she asked me not to a week ago.
Fuck.
Someone in this world trusts me again.
I think my heart stutters for a staggering moment, but I don’t want to admit it, because admitting that means admitting a whole lot more than I’m ready for. But if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for her.
I have a hit on me; she’s trying to get her sister back; I’m not a good person, and my reputation is worse. The danger that precedes me will forever get in the way of us, so what the Hell am I doing?
I don’t voice these doubts. Instead, I send a text to one of my guards to deal with Jax and David, take Minka’s stuff from her hands and lead her to the car. We drive in silence, the adrenaline no doubt having left her a while ago. I can see it in the heavy hooding of her eyes as she struggles to remain awake as I drive to the new safe house. A safe house that I set up a while ago, one that only I know of.
And now Minka.
It’s a warehouse near the spot along the Hudson I took her to earlier. The warehouse is rusty on the outside and full of blackened windows, but on the inside, it’s like a home. In fact, it’s modeled after the west wing of Uncle Luca’s estate.
I couldn’t help myself. It started out with laying down the same Carrera marble that laid on Uncle Luca’s floor, and next thing I knew, I was painting the walls the same color, adding rooms to match the layout and even scouring the internet for similar furniture.
For the past seven years, I’ve put my heart and soul into renovating this place by myself. It was a way to pass time when I had no one but Asher and Vincent in my life, and as Minka looks around the place in wonder, I’m grateful for it.
“What is this place?”
My safe haven.
“My safe house.”
“I thought we were just at your safe house.”
“That was Vincent’s. This is mine.”
And it was always meant to be a last resort, but I suppose my life has reached that point. In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t come sooner.
Minka takes her stuff from my arms and sets it down on the floor by the entrance. She turns to face me. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to find the person who sent David after us, and I’m going to take care of him.”
“It wasn’t your brother?”
“No. Only one person knew about that safe house.”
“Who?”
I release an unsteady breath. “Vincent Romano.”