♫ Courtesy Call - Thousand Foot Krutch ♫
Monday morning rolled around and I was no more certain of what my next move would be than I was last week. If anything, I was all the more unsure. I’d gotten ahead of myself by taking out Lux’s biggest clients so early in the game.
Then again, I had no idea we’d be in for such an interesting turn events just days later. And unbeknownst to me, things were about to get all the more interesting.
7am.
The sun was just beginning to rise through the clouds. Punching in the passcode, I let myself into the quiet factory and took a deep breath as I surveyed the room. Usually, I’d relished the silence and enjoy a piping hot mug of coffee in the comfort of my office, before the day got started, but today… Today was definitely not one of those days.
The entire place smelled like a giant bottle of whiskey. I don’t mean the usual smells that infiltrated the factory on a day to day basis.
No.
I mean it reeked of whiskey.
Burn your nose hairs, eyes watering blindly type of reek.
With an arm to my nose, I took two steps inside to assess the problem and quickly deduced what happened. Anger consumed me in seconds. The floor was flooded in at least two inches of the amber liquid. Not a couple of random puddles here and there.
Oh no.
The entire fucking floor.
And I’d just stepped my brand new Derby’s in the mess.
Smoke all but billowed from my ears, my hands curling into fists at my sides as I trudged through the factory to the back where Vic housed all the barrels.
Barrels that would now have to be replaced, seeing as every last one had a lovely hole smashed right through the bottom.
I knew who it was before the thought even crossed my mind.
Lux.
It had to be. I mean, who else could be responsible for this?
Ramos was dead.
His boys had long since fled. Either that, or they were doing a fine job at laying low.
In any case, this was hands down Lux’s doing.
“What in the actual fuck is all this?” Vic’s voice boomed from the front of the factory.
Wonderful.
Just what I needed.
On an exasperated sigh, I stalked out from the back, silently cursing Lux the entire way for ruining, not only my brand new shoes, but my slacks and my morning as well.
“What do you think?” I tossed back once he came into view, grappling his attention from the mess at his feet. “Or rather, who do you think?”
Vic’s already irate expression darkened all the more, his upper lip curling in a silent snarl. “Lux,” he gritted out.
“Ding, ding, ding—we have a a winner!”
“Son of a bitch!” he hissed.
Humming, I stepped around him and clapped him on the shoulder en route to the parking lot. “She’s a cunt alright.”
“Where the hell are you going? We need to clean this shit up.”
“Which is exactly why I need to change out of this.” I pointed to my suit.
“Right.” He glancing down at his own suit. “I suppose I should too. When you get back, though, we need to talk.”
My head jerked back. “About?”
“Liza,” he deadpanned.
Her name immobilized me.
I stood there like a mindless idiot, staring at the man that, at one point in time was like a brother to me, like he’d just uttered something in a foreign language or grown five heads.
Holding his stare, I clenched and unclenched my fists. “What about her?”
“She called me.”
“She what?!”
Vic nodded and ambled over to his charcoal gray Rover parked in the first spot, leaning up against the grill. “You heard me, brother. She. Called. Me.”
Fuck.
“What did she want?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“She’s looking for you,” he explained, confirming my suspicions.
“And what did you tell her?” I hedged.
“That I haven’t spoken to you since…well, you know.”
Of course I knew.
How could I forget that?
Flashes of that day, the day I lost my fucking shit and sent my life in a downward spiral, flickered viciously in my mind. I wouldn’t be standing here today if that shit show hadn’t gone down.
But it did.
It was very real, and despite the fact it’d been years since then, it still hurt like hell. It hurt because every painful thing that followed, every person I loved and lost, happened because of me.
“Wanna tell me what’s going on, Rome, ‘cause, I haven’t heard from Liza since before my parents and I left London, so why the fuck is she calling me all these years later, looking for you no less? How does she even have my number?”
“I don’t know,” I gritted out, willing any and every thought having to do with Liza and her vindictive ass out of my mind.
“Bull-fucking-shit, bro. That’s bullshit and you know it! Liza doesn’t just do things without a reason. There’s always a reason, a method to her madness, so what the hell did you do now?”
He was right, unfortunately. One-hundred percent right. If my ex did something, there was a story behind it, whether it was true or not. And now, I was going to have to tell him about what drove me out London, because if I didn’t, there’s a chance she might call him again…and she’d tell him without hesitation if he asked.
Better he hear it from my mouth than her false, twisted version.
“I killed Leo,” I said softly, like it were the most natural thing in the world, trudging the short distance between us to post up beside him.
“You what?!” he hollered.
“I. Killed. Leo.” I enunciated, meeting his incredulous stare. “Returned him the fucking favor for what he did to my mum. What he did to Sio.”
Just mentioning my family constricted my chest as though someone were wringing me like a sodden towel.
“Are you out of your goddamn mind? Why the fuck would you do that, Rome? Why? When?”
“Almost two years ago,” I started, gazing off toward the marina as the harrowing memory of that blood bath began flooding me. “Do you really need to ask why, though? You know what went down, mate. Bottom line is, he deserved it. Why do you think he stopped fucking with me after forcing me to bury my blood? It wasn’t because he wanted to. He wasn’t doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He had to leave me alone, Vic. After what he did, he knew I’d come for him. So I laid low, kept my head down. I made myself out to be a man destroyed, someone he’d no longer consider a threat. And he bought it. I made him believe that. I made him believe he was in the clear.”
“And then you hit him when he least expected it. Unprotected. Completely blindsided,” Vic said quietly, pulling me back into the present.
I nodded. “Exactly. He never saw me coming.”
A thoughtful silence fell between us then. Nothing strained or excruciatingly long, but long enough for both of us to process what I’d just come clean about.
“How’d you do it?” he asked after a while, reaching inside the inner pocket of his jacket to retrieve a perfectly rolled blunt and his lighter.
I scoffed as he sparked it up. “What didn’t I do is more like it.”
Vic took a few hits, sucking it in deeper and deeper before letting out a mass cloud. “So now Liza’s out for revenge…” he stated, passing me the cigarillo.
“Yep.”
“How long have you been running from her?”
“A little over a year,” I admitted, taking a long pull.
“Has she had any luck finding you?”
Nodding, I tipped my head back and exhaled. “Why do you think I was so willing to leave New York? I was already looking for someplace new to go when you rang.”
“So you’ve seen her?” he questioned.
“No, she’s not shown her face, but she leaves me clues at the most random times.”
Vic’s head cocked to one side, curiosity painted clearly on his face. “Clues? Like?”
“White lilies, Minstrels, those pink notebooks she used to carry everywhere, packs of Benson and Hedges. The list goes on. Anything and everything that could possibly make me think of her, she leaves it,” I explained, passing back the blunt.
“And where does she leave it?”
“Anywhere she knows I’ll see it. It’s like she has someone following me, memorizing my daily schedule. There were a few times I found some items in my flat, too.”
“She’s going all out then.”
“Seems that way,” I agreed. “I figured she’d have given up by now, what with how long it’s been, but the more time passes, the angrier I feel she becomes. She won’t stop until I’m dead. Won’t be too long until she shows up here if she’s already called you.”
Vic scoffed through his nose as he took another hit. “I’d like to say I sounded very convincing,” he said, holding in his puff. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, but we’ll add her to the list of shit to handle.”
“Adding her on the list next to Lux?” I couldn’t help but laugh, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Fuck me, that damned letter is cursed or some shit.”
“Lux and Liza, two peas in a demonic pod.” He laughed, too, and clapped me on the shoulder, offering me the cigarillo again. “They’re one in the same, brother, one in the fucking same.”
Were they ever.
This whole whiskey charade proved it.
Revenge was clearly their forte and something they weren’t afraid to dish out.
“How did you even meet Lux?” I couldn’t help but ask, because once again, what were the chances he’d find someone in Miami who could pass for Liza’s long lost sister?
Vic sucked in a heap of air through his teeth as I pulled a few hits. “It’s a long story, something we’ll leave for another day. Just know that, when I first saw her from afar, I thought she was Liza. That’s the only reason why I approached her.”
“And when you realized she wasn’t? What happened then?”
“I helped her anyway.” He hitched a shoulder. “She damn well needed it, the poor street rat.”