Mack

I came to see Danny because I missed her, but also to see if she had been contacted at all. I’d already got a phone call from a family member. I wanted to see if Danny had been dragged into it or not, but by the way she was acting, I didn’t think she had.

“So has anything interesting or strange happened in the last couple of days?”

She looked at me with a bit of confusion and that was as good of an answer as I was getting. She would have instantly known what I was talking about, but she seemed to be pretty zoned out. We’d just made love again, this time in the back of the car and she was still in her happy place. This was the time to ask her anything and I really thought that I was going to find out one way or another. She didn’t seem to know anything though and let me play with her hair.

I’d been satisfied several times, but still I didn’t want to leave her. I wasn’t the type to stay the night with a woman, it was against one of many rules that dictated my love life after she left, but now I knew that I wanted that to change.

“Why don’t I stay the night with you Danny?”

She smiled at me and then disagreed. “No way Mack. I’m sorry, but if you stay the night, we both know that I’m not going to get any sleep and I can’t go into work dragging ass like I did last time. Not twice in a week anyways. I will get in trouble.”

I wanted to tell her that her job brought home peanuts from what she told me and she didn’t need to work anymore. I wanted to take care of her and even with everything up in the air, I knew that I still wanted to be with her.

“Are you turning me down Danny?”

I was a bit incredulous because I couldn’t remember a time when she had told me no. Just the one time when she had taken off and to be fair, I didn’t technically ask her to stay. I wanted her to, truly, but I had too much pride back then. It appeared that it wasn’t too big of a problem anymore.

“No, I said yes to you many times tonight, but it’s late and you promised that I would be home at a decent time.”

I looked out the car window and gestured to her house. “This is a decent time and you are home. I have done what I said I was going to do. But I don’t want this to end, so I was hoping that maybe you would want to keep the party going a little bit longer.”

My voice was sounding a little desperate and I didn’t like the sound of it one bit. I wanted to just grab her up, haul her in the house caveman style and remind her who was in charge. I liked to think it was me, but Danny was making it clear that everything was the same as before.

She leaned in for a kiss on the cheek and I pulled her in for a proper one.

“I don’t know when I will be able to see you again Danny. I have a lot going on right now, but don’t think for a second it is because I don’t want to be with you. I do. Just know that I will call you and see you as soon as I can.”

“Is something going on?”

Now I had her attention and she looked concerned.

“No, nothing to worry about. I just don’t want you thinking that I don’t want you. Don’t ever think that because I’ve never stopped wanting you.”

“Now you make it so I don’t want to leave.”

I gave her another kiss and asked her to stay. She looked like she was going to go along with it, but then she stopped and shook her head like she was trying to shake me out of it. I thought to give her good luck, because I had been trying to do the same with her and I hadn’t gotten very far at all with it.

I watched her walk up to her door and then go in. The light went on in the foyer as she moved into her house. I wanted to go in behind her, take what I wanted and in truth needed from her, but I was not in the right position to do so.

I knew that it was not the time to bring Danny back into my life. But it also wasn’t the time to press pause either. I don’t know if I could. I was going to have to figure something out soon, but for now I was going to take every chance I could to see Danny, no matter the risk. It was selfish, maybe, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to walk away again. I’d done it once before and I didn’t want to do it again.

“Take me to the meeting place. Tony is going to be happy with the price I was able to get for him. I will get my cut and then we will be on our way. I think I will be staying in the city tonight. It’s going to be too late to drive back and I don’t think she will entertain me again tonight.”

I was talking more to myself, but I had that smile on my face. Danny was just as amazing as she had been before. She was the kind of girl that I was always asking myself how I deserved her. I’d been with all types, but Danny was the only real one that I’d ever known. I knew at some point, I was going to have to be just as real with her, no matter how hard it was going to be and how much she wasn’t going to want to hear it.

We rode in silence as we pulled up twenty miles away on the river bank. This time it was open water he wanted to meet at, his paranoia up since I saw him last. I wanted to tell him that everything was okay, but like him, I could feel a change in the air. Maybe he was right. I did need to take some time off and enjoy the proceeds of all of my hard work. It’d been a long time since I was interested in anything beyond making money and making deals. I wanted to run away with Danny and the sooner I got everything wrapped up, the sooner I could do just that.

All I had to do was get through this meeting and then I could move on to greener pastures and a little time off. I certainly had the money to take a break and with the cops onto me, it was best that I moved on from my current occupation for a while. It wasn’t the first time that I had to disappear for a while until it calmed down.