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“Brown car.” I turned, seeing the brown car in question idling at the curb. I wasn’t sure if it had been there when I’d gotten off the bus, not that it mattered. There was one person in the driver’s seat waiting, his attention focused up at us.
“Let’s do this,” I said, taking a breath and pushing everything else out of my mind. My feet carried me forward, my breaths coming easier the more I moved away from the apartment. I didn’t hesitate as I walked toward the car, pulling open the back door without being told to.
“You done this before, huh?” Stan said, getting into the front seat. The two guys who had held Dad back slipped in on each side of me in the back. I didn’t look at them though, I kept my gaze focused forward on the road ahead as they pulled away from the curb. “Silence.” Stan hummed in the back of his throat. “Smart girl.”
I didn’t answer him. I had no intention of talking to him longer than I had to. Thank God we were only in the car fifteen minutes before they pulled up in front of a row of stores. A laundromat was squeezed in the middle of a corner store and a takeout place. I took in every bit of detail, making sure I knew what I was heading into.
I gripped on to my thighs, my nails digging into the black threadbare jeans I wore. “What’s the—”
“There,” Stan interrupted, not letting me finish. I frowned at him and followed where he pointed on the opposite side of the street.
Turning my head, I tried to figure out what he was saying. There was a restaurant there, but there were only a few cars out there and it didn’t even look like it was open.
“The restaurant?”
“No.” Stan turned in his seat, grinning at me. “The Mercedes parked outside it.”
My heart raced in my chest. I’d do many things, but stealing a car wasn’t one of them. I’d get caught for sure. “I can’t steal it,” I told him, feeling the burning on my cheeks. “I don’t know how.”
“You don’t need to steal the car.” He fished something out of his pocket and placed his gun on his lap. It hung precariously on one of his thighs, and I winced as I imagined it falling to the floor and going off accidentally. Actually, maybe that would be my out. I stared at it, willing it to go off randomly, but a hand grabbing my face had my attention diverting from the shining metal to the man who was clearly the boss of this group. He hung a black fob in front of my face. It swung back and forth. “Take this. Open the trunk. There’ll be a black bag marked with the numbers one-three-nine.” He paused, pinching my face harder in his grasp. “Get the bag. Bring it to us.” I nodded, grinding my teeth when he didn’t let go of my face. “You don’t get the bag; I go back and kill them.”
His threat was loud and clear, not that he needed to say it. It was unspoken, something which I’d learned when I was a kid. My parents’ lives were always used as a threat, and I wondered if it would ever stop. I told myself everything I did was to get out of the life they’d placed me in, but would I truly ever leave? I’d always be dragged back for things like this. I’d always be bailing them out.
He pushed my face away. “Go.” I didn’t get a chance to catch my bearings before I was being hauled out of the back of the car and deposited on the sidewalk. Stan held the fob out of the open window, dropping it into my palm. “We’ll be back in four minutes. Timer is on, princess.”
They sped away from the curb, leaving me all alone with my mission. I could have walked away. I could have run and not looked back. He’d go back to the apartment and get rid of my parents and then I’d be free.
Free of the guilt.
Free of the deadweight holding me back.
But the ache in my chest told me there was no way I’d do it. It didn’t matter what my mom and dad did, they’d brought me into this world. I couldn’t betray that, no matter what they did.
So I took a step off the sidewalk, crossed the street, and headed straight to the Mercedes sitting loud and proud between two other cars. The fob was smooth against my fingers, one button carved into the backside. I clicked it when I was a couple of feet away and the trunk popped open.
My pulse quickened, the fear and adrenaline pushing me forward. I had to be fast, I’d already counted to forty-five in my head which meant I only had three minutes left until they’d be back.
I scanned the parking lot, not seeing a single person. My hand trailed over the top of the trunk and I jerked it up. A light inside illuminated several backpacks. They each had different numbers on them. Shit. What number did he say would be on the bag? I racked my brain, panicking the longer I stared. One, three…shit, shit, shit. What was the last number? One, three…nine! I rummaged for it, and as soon as I spotted the three numbers in the right order, I grabbed it, slammed the trunk shut, and ran back to the sidewalk just in time to see them speeding around the corner.
Their tires squealed as they stopped directly beside me. Stan grinned and held his arms out of the window. I handed him the bag, relief washing through me.
“You did goo—” His eyes widened, his head whipping around to the driver. “Go!” He slammed his hand on the dash and pushed the bag between his legs.
“What the fuck?” I whisper
ed, staring at the license plate as they sped away. The fob was still in my hand, and I turned to look back at the Mercedes, but I didn’t get the chance to take stock of anything because a man was two feet away, heading for me, his hand raised.
Something hard connected with my temple, and even though I was aware of falling, I couldn’t stop myself.
“Call the boss,” a deep voice grunted, right as I was hit in the same spot again, turning everything black.
* * *
MATEO
I lifted the satellite phone off the desk in the command center, cursing silently when I saw Romeo’s name flash across the screen. He knew we were in the middle of a meeting, but what he didn’t know was that Dante had requested it and was currently talking through the speakerphone set in the middle of the table.
“He’s planted devices in my place and in all of the cars,” Dante said as I denied the call from Romeo. I focused back on Lorenzo and Christian who were sitting around the table, listening intently to him. “Mr. Blue said he could hack the devices back and listen in on them.”
