I sit in the passenger seat of Ben’s truck.
Complete silence.
This will go one of three ways.
We’ll come out alive with Aria in cuffs, or we’ll come out alive with Aria dead. The last way is not one I want to put much thought into.
I sit in silence to focus. I’m not a man who does this every day.
Shit.
I rub my palms against the thighs of my jeans, the sweat building faster than I can wipe it away.
I need this, though. I need to be the one to take her down. I don't want to kill her; I just want to be the one who looks into her eyes when she realizes she will never get any of what she ever wanted.
“We got a tail.”
I lean my head forward a bit to see the car following behind us. It’s staying at a moderately safe distance. Though, close enough for me to tell who it is.
“Fuck,” I growl.
“It’s Selena, ain’t it?”
“Yeah,” I say through clenched teeth. “Pull over.”
He slows the truck and pulls off to the side of the road. I climb out and wait for Lena to do the same. If she’s fucking smart, she’ll pull over. Her car begins to angle to the side, and she stops about ten feet in front of me but doesn't shut the car off or get out. I look to the passenger side and see Carolina sitting there. I roll my eyes in frustration.
Jesus Christ.
What do these two think they are going to do?
I move to Lena’s side of the car and rap two knuckles on the window indicating for her to roll it down. She hesitates, but then the window slides down. I don’t blame her because I am about to rip her a new one.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I—I—” she sputters.
“I’ve got shit to do, babe,” I say impatiently.
Her eyes narrow. She’s getting angry. So be it. I hit that stage a while ago.
“What are you doing?”
“Doing what I need to. Now, how about you two turn this car back around and go home where you were told to stay.”
“Don’t treat me like a child, Lawson,” she clips.
"Do as you're told and I wouldn't have to."
She turns her head to look out the windshield, and whispers, “I don’t feel right about this.”
I let out a whoosh of breath. “Lena, everything will be fine. I need you to trust me right now and go back home.”
She looks back to me, her eyes soft but full of concern. “Please, just tell me what you are going to do.”
“I’m going to end this.”
“Lawson.”
“Go home, Selena,” I tell her, and turn back for Benny’s truck.
“Lawson,” she shouts out the window.
“Go home, Selena,” I repeat over my shoulder.
I climb back into the truck and wait for Selena to turn the car around. A few moments go by before she angles the car back toward our house.
I let out a deep breath and return my focus to Benny. “I hope to God I didn’t just lie to my wife.”
“What do you mean?”
"I told her everything would be okay."
He smirks. He is seriously one crazy motherfucker. “It’ll be fine. We have the element of surprise on our side.”
“Yeah, that’s what has me tweaked the most. This bitch can seem to disappear in the blink of an eye. I don’t think anything surprises her.”
“Tonight will be the last time we have to worry about this.”
“What if she’s not there?”
“Then we wait.”
Waiting has never been so goddamn miserable.
We’ve been sitting here for what feels like an eternity, but has only been two hours.
We entered this dumpy ass rundown shack with seven guys. Two of them are out back keeping an eye on things, two of them are securing the front perimeter, one is in the back of the house, and Benny and I are in the living room. The entire place is pitch black, even outside. You’d never even know this place was here if you weren’t looking for it.
“Man, she’s not fucking coming back here,” I mutter from my spot in the chair.
There is nothing in this place that indicates she’s even been here besides some clothing in the bedroom.
Benny pulls out his phone, checks something, and then mutters under his breath. I can’t make out what he said. He shoves the phone back in his pocket and talks to the others through the ear pieces they put in earlier. “Rendezvous front porch. Now.”
His attention then focuses on me.
The look on his face has my blood instantly boiling. “Don’t you fucking tell me we’ve been sitting here idle for hours leaving my wife wide open for this dumb bitch to make another move.”
“Law…fuck.”
I don’t bother listening to what else he has to say. I bolt for the door.
When my boots hit the porch, headlights are pulling up the aged path. I spin around to find Benny right behind me.
“She’s going to be hostile. Let her make her move first. Stranix and Rybeck, circle her.”
I turn back to the approaching car stopping just feet from the porch. The car door swings open and a woman steps out.
She leaves the car on. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust with the headlights shining straight into us. When the woman steps around the opened door it is made certain it is Aria standing there.
I take a step forward, but Benny grabs my arm. “Wait.”
It takes all the strength I have to stand in place. I don’t want to hear what this bitch has to say. She’s said too much already.
“I knew you’d find me,” she says, her voice happy. Fucking happy.
I shake my head. She doesn’t get it.
She takes two steps forward.
“I did,” I agree with her.
“Did you leave her?”
My fists ball at my sides.
“Bait her,” Benny whispers only loud enough for me to hear.
Fucking bait her.
I want to goddamn vomit.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Make her believe you,” Benny whispers again.
“Where’s our little girl?” she asks.
The bile rises in my throat.
I can’t do this. I can’t stand here and lie and talk about my wife and my daughter like this.
“She’ll be with us soon,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Are you lying to me?” she asks, then looks around, finally noticing we aren’t alone. “Who are these people?”
“Friends,” I tell her.
“Hey, Aria. I’m Benny. Our boy, Lawson here, told me all about you. Nice to finally meet you,” Benny tells her, and Jesus, he sounds like a goddamn professional at this.
Aria cocks her head to the side.
“Why did you bring them here?”
I don’t know what to say to this.
Benny steps back in.
“Law needed help unpacking some things.”
She takes a few steps back to the door of her car and shakes her head once.
“You tricked me,” she mutters, barely loud enough for any of us to hear.
“No—” I start, but pause when she takes another step backward. I instinctively take a step forward, ready to run after her if I have to.
Ben takes the same step, and she grips the car door.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“Move in! Move in!” Benny yells to his guys surrounding the place. But there is no way they are quick enough to get to her before she climbs into the car. She’s in and slamming the door shut before I can even reach the hood of the car. Benny’s men get there seconds before I do, and it still was not fast enough.
The locks click, and we are fucked. I think to break the window, but she’s already shifting into gear.
“Fuck!” I roar as she skids forward, then whips around, back down the dirt driveway.
“I fucking knew this was a bad idea!” I shout. “We fuckin’ had her, and instead of moving in the moment she stepped out of the car, you wanted me to bait her with that sick as fuck bullshit.”
“Law, fuck, we couldn’t have just rushed her. The same thing would have happened.”
“You got fucking guns, don’t you?”
Benny tilts his head to the side.
Goddamn it.
He couldn’t have shot her.
No one could have.
It would have been us plastered to the fucking wall, not her.
“Let’s just hope she doesn’t do something drastic now that she’s spooked,” I growl and move toward Ben’s truck. “I need to get home to my wife.”
Benny doesn’t delay in seeing to that.
He’s inches behind me and barreling out of the drive and onto the road in seconds.
When he pulls into the gas station to drop me at my truck, he voices his disdain of the evening.
“This isn’t how I wanted this night to go. We were supposed to get her tonight. We've had a lock on her for a few days now, but wanted to make sure we could move in and not have this exact fucking thing happen. Fuck!" he shouts, then dips his head down. "I let the ball drop. This is what I did for fucking years, and I dropped the ball."
Goddamn it.
I look at him, the anger visible. “I know. I don’t blame you. I would have done the same thing.”
“But that’s what’s fucked. I know better, Lawson. I know what happens when shit goes wrong.”
“Ben, don’t beat yourself up. We’ll get her. Now, I gotta get to Lena.”
He nods, and I hop out of the truck, leaving Benny to wrap his head around the events of tonight alone.