“It’d help if you told me what you were bringing.”
“You’re lucky I tell you whatever I choose to tell you, Prime. Don’t forget, you’re under my boss’s boot now.” Carbone turns his back to me. “Until next time.”
He stalks off. I watch the truck pull out, engine roaring as it disappears down the street and away into the distance.
Quiet settles on the lot.
“You okay?” Deanna touches my arm.
“I’m fine.” I walk over and slam the back of the last U-Haul. I make sure all three are locked. “I should get moving. I only thought I’d have to make one trip, but looks like I have more.”
“Want me to drive?”
“Fuck no. If I get caught with a load of drugs in the back, that’s bad enough. I won’t have my wife go down because I’m feeling lazy.”
“Prime, it’ll be okay.”
I climb behind the wheel of a truck and look out the window. “Yeah, maybe it will. See you at home.”
She smiles and waves as I back out and start the first leg of the trip on my own, a long day ahead of me.
CHAPTER 31
DEANNA
It’s a rare Friday with my husband in the office.
Strange how nothing feels different. Same people, same inane break room chatter, same dirty looks in the hallways. None of them realize what’s happening to Prime, but I can see it all, see how ugly it is up close, and it’s killing me.
We’re on the third shipment. Prime runs them all personally, or at least the first leg of the trip. After that it’s people who aren’t loyal to Stellan moving the goods. Each drop seems to hurt him more, make him shrink, and it breaks me seeing him like that.
Watching him suffer to keep me safe.
Prime’s always been big. He’s swagger and aura. He’s got more confidence than anyone I’ve ever met. He walks into a room and knows he has the biggest dick, biggest bank account, and best smile. More often than not, he’s right.
Now it’s like he’s a shadow of that man.
I hate it so much it’s like a cancer in my heart.
“Knock knock. You look like you need a break.” I peek into his office.
He glances up from his laptop. “I’m fine. Looking at reports.”
“Which reports?”
“The ones you sent me this morning.”
I slip inside and shut the door. “Seriously Prime? You’re actually reading my emails now?”
“I’ve always read your emails.”
“That’s straight up not true. I send you reports a week before you need the data on the assumption you’ll take forever to look at them.”
“You’re telling me I’m doing work I don’tneedto do right now?”
“I’m saying—“ I sit on the edge of his desk. “You need a break.”
He sighs and puts his hands behind his head. There’s a ghost of a smile on his lips and I catch a glimpse of the man I fell in love with. “True, doing stuff really takes it out of me.”
