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She chose me…when no one else would.
My mom had chosen to run away, leaving me with an evil man. My father had chosen power, beating me into a puppet who would do his bidding.
But Lila chose me, accepting me for who I was, risking pain and danger to stay at my side.
After that, I couldn’t push her away anymore. I didn’t deserve her, but I would hang onto her for as long as she’d let me. I hugged her tightly, needing to hold her as much as I needed to be held.
And if it ever came to it, I’d make that ultimate sacrifice again.
I would die for her.
***
Lila slept in my embrace. I didn’t want to let her go, but it had been a few hours, and I needed to talk to Leo. I slid my arm out and rolled over. I grabbed an alcohol swab from the bedside table, took out the IV drip, and applied pressure on my arm for a moment. I peeled myself out of bed, wincing. Slowly, I dressed in the T-shirt and sweatpants that had been laid out for me on the chair. Finn must have brought them over.
I took two steadying breaths and plastered on my mask, hiding the pain. Then I went to the living room.
The dead bodies were gone, and four of my crew were on their hands and knees cleaning blood off the floor. Another four of my guys stood guard, two at the door and one at each window. And I was pretty certain there were probably another two guys in the hall, two in the stairwell, and a dozen outside.
My top management—Denzel, Finn, Jamal, and Leo—talked around the kitchen table in hushed voices.
Nana whistled as she stood at the stove cooking. “How many burgers did you say, Leo?”
“We could send someone out for takeout, woman. How many times do I have to tell you to stop making a fuss over us?”
“Bah. It’s giving me something to do. I’ll just make them. You don’t have to eat them.”
Leo grinned and shook his head.
A yip had me looking down. A white fluffball looked up at me with button eyes. “Hey cutie, you must be Karma.”
Yip. Yip.
“So, I guess Dr. Hornby dropped you off?” I wondered how they kept the dead bodies and swarms of gangsters hidden from Lila’s friend.
Yip. Yip.She pawed at my foot.
I reached down, ignoring the ache in my body, and picked Karma up. “Is no one giving you any attention?” She nuzzled her head in my chest. Lila was right. Karma was the most trusting dog. “There’s a lot of action in your home today, huh?”
She snored in my arms.
Wow, that was fast.Never seen a dog fall asleep that quickly before.
“Where’s Butch?” I asked the guys around the table.
“Sleeping off a concussion,” Denzel said. “He wouldn’t stop wailing for his precious psycho daughter, so after we got all the answers we were going to get out of him, Finn knocked him out. We didn’t want the neighbors to call the police with a noise complaint.”
I still owed Butch a punishment worthy of his crime. But I wouldn’t do that here. It would get even more blood everywhere, and I didn’t want Nana or Lila to witness it. “Finn, take Butch to the usual place. I’ll be there tonight.”
The guys looked at each other nervously.
Finn cleared his throat. “Well, okay, boss, but…”
But? Since when did Finn question me? “That’s an order. Just do it.”
“Oh no, you don’t, kid,” Nana said.
Finn gaped in horror as Nana shuffled over with a spatula in her hand. The rest of the guys shifted in their seats. Leo grinned.
