AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, Dani, that’s not what I want to hear. Because you should know me better by now. Between the two of us, I ain’t the one skipping out,” I reminded her, before tipping her chin up and forcing her to look me in the eye. “Next time you get stuck in that head of yours, I want you to remember something. You do the runnin’. I do the chasin’, baby girl.”
35
“We need to go. Get out on the road. Now.” Connor was trying to play it cool, but the deep stress lines extending across his forehead told metryingwas all he was doing. The man was wound tighter than the tension spring on my forty-two—before I had it modified.
“What do you mean get out on the road? We just got here and you need to rest or that wound’s never gonna heal right.”
He started pacing, which was amusing to watch in a room no bigger than two hundred square feet, including furniture. “That’s not really an option anymore, Dani. They got to my ma,” he said while combing a hand through his hair for the millionth time. I watched a stray lock drop over his eye, only to get quickly brushed aside again before his words finally sank in.
“Who? How?” Not that it mattered. Just because I didn’t have any family left, it didn’t mean I couldn’t empathize.
“Who do you think? As for how, good fucking question. I have no fucking clue. But they know where we are. That we’re here. They had her call the payphone. That’s what I was doin’. It wouldn’t stop ringin’ so I went to check it out.”
We were being tracked. That much was clear. Though for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out the method. We’d tossed our cells before we left the city, stolen a nondescript car after we lost our tail, and hadn’t reached out to anyone other than…
“What about those friends of yours?” Connor grunted as if reading my mind. “Don’t seem all that loyal if you ask me.”
“Yeah? And what about Mr. T?” I countered.
“Who?”
“That fucker still workin’ for Benny?”
“Zeke? Ain’t even a question. Grumpy bastard is like a brother to me.”
“Yeah, well, the guys wouldn’t play ball with a cocksucker like Mulligan on principle alone. Besides, I owe them now. They won’t do anything that would keep me from making good on our deal.”
That had Connor stopping in his tracks, his glare landing on me in a way that had my skin burning. I reached up a hand to rub at the phantom pain.
“What deal? What did you promise them?” He cursed under his breath. “Fuck, Dani, what did you promise them you’d do in exchange for fixin’ me up?”
I rolled my eyes. “Nothin’ I wouldn’t have done anyway. Can we leave it at that?”
Was I being stubborn? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Could I have made up some bullshit lie? Sure could.
Did I want to? Not a chance in hell.
The man needed to learn this was my life. I did what I had to do to survive. Apparently so my self-proclaimed bodyguard would survive too. And if Connor was so insistent on hanging around, it was something he had to accept. Or move the fuck on. I wasn’t gonna stand here and feel judged. Apologize for taking the path less traveled.
I mean, at the end of the day, I got results, didn’t I?
“No, we can’t fucking leave it at that, Dani. If they’re making you do something… something… I don’t know… Because of me—fuck.”
My dark laugh had his eyebrows knitting together as he peered up at me a little too innocently. “No one makes me do shit, Connor. And it’s just a couple of jobs. Which I was more than happy to take on for the right price. They just didn’t need to know that at the time. It’s called leverage.”
“Dani—” he tried and I raised a hand to stop him.
“Nope, I’m not done yet.” It was those damn eyes again. The way he looked at me with a tenderness I wasn’t used to having aimed in my direction. If this was all a game to him, he was sure good at pretending. “I like what I do, Connor. I fucking live it. Breathe it. I could have had it all, you know? Married myself off and spent my days in a shiny fucking tower in any city of my choosing. Could have had the designer clothes, the fancy cars, more cash than I could count. And all I would have had to do was tolerate my husband, perform my wifely duties a couple times a year, pop out a few kids. I would have had my pick with my last name alone.” I spun on my heel.
Yeah, now I was the one pacing. I saw the irony. I just wasn’t about to acknowledge it.
“The last Rossi. Do you have any idea what that meant? What that still means? There are fuckers out there who would kill for my bloodline, the power that comes with it even now. I am mafia fucking royalty, Connor.”
“Why didn’t you?” He tilted his head as he continued to look at me, and I could have sworn he was searching for something. What it was? I couldn’t tell you.
“Why didn’t I what?”
