Twenty-Seven

Flynn

The shot echoed through my ears—the shot that took someone I loved from this world. I fell to my knees, dropping the gun, and covered my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I’d done.

I’d killed many people in my lifetime, but I’d never killed someone I cared about—someone who was my entire world. They say there was always a first time for everything —but this would stay with me for the rest of my life.

“Flynn,” a voice broke through the madness. “Flynn.”

I couldn’t look. I couldn’t open my eyes.

“We need to go, Flynn,” the voice said.

That made me open my eyes and look up at her—but only to look at her.

“What do you mean? Aren’t you going to call this into the police?”

Ava shook her head as she took my hand. “No, baby. I meant what I said. I’m not turning you in—which means we need to go. Now.”

“What changed?” I asked, taking her hand in mine and giving it a gentle squeeze.

She was right—we did need to get the hell out of here. Nicolei was bleeding out on the ground and would die before long.. And of course, I’d shot and killed Colin. We’d both be in deep shit if we stayed.

“Because I can’t lose you,” she said.

Colin was dead. And from what he’d said, the members of the syndicate already believed I was the rat, and without any proof that I wasn’t the snitch—and with Colin turning up dead, by my own hands, no less—my situation got even more complicated.

I took Ava back to the hotel and after retrieving our stuff, we left in a hurry with no official plan in place. We drove in silence, each of us consumed with our own thoughts and feelings. I was in shock, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on that. I was busy trying to come up with a plan. Any plan that was going to keep us alive.

We had the passports I’d secured for us. Meaning, we could leave the country if we wanted to. I would only do that if Ava was willing to go. As I snuck a quick glance at her, it occurred to me that I knew so little about her life—far less than I’d thought—and I had no idea what she would or wouldn’t want to do.

“I’m sorry I lied to you,” she said suddenly, avoiding my gaze by staring down at her hands.

“So you knew who I was the entire time?”

She nodded. “I went looking for you. I needed some answers to some things, blamed you for a lot of my past, and then—well, when I got to know you. Things changed. I realized you weren’t to blame for my father’s death, after all.”

That last part took me by surprise. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Why would you blame me for your father’s death?”

Knowing we’d both lost our parents’ around the same age and time in our lives, I couldn’t have been more than a child when her father died. How she could even consider me partially to blame for his death confused me even more.

But instead of answering me, she turned to me and asked, “Can we stop and see your father? I’d like to speak with him. I need answers to questions I’ve been carrying around since I was a kid.”

My father was back in Chicago, at one of his more private, secure homes in the city. To go back there—especially without knowing what was going on—was dangerous. At best. I was likely going to get me self killed.

“Please?” she begged me, tears shimmering her eyes. “I really need to speak with him. No matter what happens, I need this, Flynn. More than anything, I need this.”

“How do you—”

I wanted to ask how she knew my father—what she knew about him—but she wasn’t talking. She didn’t want to talk about any of that or open up about her past—not until she talked with my dad. And a phone call wasn’t going to cut it. She wanted to meet him face-to-face.

“They’ll be looking for us, Ava,” I said. “After everything that went down, it’s not safe.”

“But Colin was the real snitch,” she said. “And I can prove it.”

“You can prove it?” I asked. “How?”

“I have the documentation saying he was a confidential informant. Of course, it could very well end my career if I exposed it. But since Colin is already dead, maybe...” She trailed off.

“But then, even if you give them that, you’re basically outing yourself as an undercover cop to my guys,” I said, shaking my head. “You think they’d be able to forgive that?”

She took my hand in hers and held it tightly. I looked down at our hands, our fingers intertwined and felt a bloom of hope within me—hope that maybe we could still have something after all. Hope that maybe what she felt for me was genuine.

“I don’t care if they forgive me,” she said. “I don’t care if this ruins my career—especially since my career is pretty much over already. There’s no way of explaining this if I go back to my bosses. I just want to give you your life back, Flynn.”

A knot formed in my throat as I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. She was willing to give up so much for me. To protect me. To save my life. And yet, she had to know that outing herself as an undercover cop could very well get her killed. She wasn’t stupid, my sweet Ava girl. Neither was I. We were going to find a way around this.

“It’s no good. They won’t believe you. It all feels too… convenient and then they’d blame me for faking it all,” I said.

It would be too coincidental and too hard to explain—especially with Colin dead. But even if they did believe me—it would put a target on Ava’s back. And there was no way in hell I’d let that happen.

“I can prove it,” she said.

“And go to prison in the process? Listen, sweetheart. What you’re talking about is illegal and immoral and goes against everything I know you to be,” I said, my voice firm. “You don’t need to get caught up in this. I don’t want you caught up in all of this.”

She was silent for a moment, her eyes wide, like she was shocked I’d taken such a tone with her. I didn’t intend for it to come out so abrupt or harshly, but there was no way I could let her do what she wanted to do. No way.

“Besides,” I said, my tone softening, “I’m not so sure this life is for me anymore anyway. I’ve had my doubts for a while. Maybe it’s time to cash out. Maybe this is all a sign that it’s time to give it up.”

She shot me a sideways look. “What? You’d give it up?”

I couldn’t believe I was finally saying it out loud. It was a feeling buried low in my gut and one I didn’t have the courage to give voice to—until now.

“I think maybe it’s time for the syndicate and me to part ways. And the only way I’ll do that is by leaving the country,” I said. “Otherwise, I’ll have it hanging over my head forever. And I don’t want to spend my life looking over my shoulder.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her tone soft. “Because that means leaving everyone—your friends, your family—”

“Me da’ is dying, and me cousin is dead because of me,” I said, feeling my jaw clench as I spoke. “And my real brother wants nothing to do with me anyway. He’d be better off if I stopped pulling him into the family business. I have no one. No one but you, Ava.”

“Then let’s go. I don’t care where, just as long as I’m with you,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper as she spoke the words I longed to hear. “After I talk to your father, that is.”

I cringed, wanting to tell her there was no way we could do that. That it was too dangerous. But if that was all she wanted before giving up her own life and career to run away and start a new life with me, I was lucky. Especially given everything she’d lose because of me.

“Fine,” I said. “We’ll head back to Chicago first.”

I wasn’t happy about it. It would be dangerous, especially if my men thought I was guilty. They were bound to be looking for me. But once she spoke to me da’ and got the answers she needed, we could start over somewhere new. Somewhere free from all of the bullshit.

All we had to do was survive Chicago.