Completely and utterly intoxicating.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP
My alarm jolts me up into a sitting position, shame coloring my cheeks as I try to wipe away the evidence of my treacherous thoughts.
I’m so unbelievably screwed.
15
TEO
The fallout from attacking the cartel is inconvenient, to say the least.
With the cops watching my every move now, there’s only so much I can do until our contacts higher up can sweep the whole thing under the rug.
In short, I’m having to lie low.
Which means I can’t be seen within a hundred meters of Isabella Natali. Firstly, because that woman has a habit of making me do the stupidest things.
Secondly, because I’m not sure what I’ll do if I see her again: kill her for causing this mess, or kidnap her for real.
Either way, it’s a very bad idea when there are unmarked police cars parked on my street every day.
As I pass them today, I give the hood of the closest car a brief knock and wink at the startled expressions of the police inside.
It’s been a week since the incident, and things have felt suspiciously quiet. That was, until this morning.
“Car’s been parked outside the airport all morning,” Martino relays to me..
“And it’s definitely Natali?” I ask, my phone pressed to my ear.
“Ran the plates twice, just to be sure,” he confirms. “If I were a betting man, I’d put money on it. Leon is returning today, that’s for sure.”
I’d known my luck would run out eventually. The only reason I’ve been able to keep such close tabs on Isabella was because her brother was out of town. Now that he’s back, I have a choice to make: continue to monitor them or withdraw.
Monitoring them was only supposed to be an intimidation tactic, a way to see if they’d give away Ida with their day-to-day operations. But it’s nearly pointless now that Isabella is aware of our presence.
If anything, the monitoring will only provoke Leon into lashing out at us in some way. And as useful as that might be in the short term, I know I’d struggle to leverage him against Ida.
For one, the old bat hasn’t cared to make her presence known so far. For another, I’m not willing to gamble on the fact that Isabella would rather see her brother dead than her mother.
I suck at my teeth as I continue down the road. It might have been easier to call a cab, but the fresh air after days of being cooped up is doing me some good. Besides, I’m close enough to the train, and Martino is still watching the airport for me.
The problem with withdrawing my men from monitoring Isabella is thatI don’t want to.
Because what if she runs off again? What if she gets herself in too deep with the cartel? Hell, what if some handsy asshole tries to bother her at the gym again?
Maybe hell has frozen over after all.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
No. She’s not my responsibility. Her brother is back now. He can look after her.
I dial the number before I can talk myself out of it. Within five minutes, the Guild has dropped out of Manhattan entirely.
It’s a burden off my shoulders. At least, that’s what I tell myself as I make my way across the city.
The building site has come a long way these last few weeks, although I’m still presented with a hard hat and a high-vis jacket when I enter the concrete tower.
