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Chapter Nine - Luca
Anybody even vaguely familiar with my household could quickly see something’s up. I haven’t had this many guards on duty at one time in a year. Now I’m glad Jock pushed me to replace the ones we lost, like the poor guys who happened to be in the car with my family when the bomb detonated. Just two of many who were lost in the weeks after that. So much loss.
And here I am, preparing for even more of it.
“How are we with the extra eyes on the warehouses?” I ask Jock once he’s finished giving me a rundown of our current status.
“Everything’s moving along the way it should,” he assures me. “The cops on the payroll are watching in shifts. They know to reach out to me the second anything looks even slightly suspicious. Same’s true down at the docks. We have two teams guarding the shipment going out tonight and another three guarding the one coming in before dawn.”
“Good. I want them paid double for this.” He only lifts his eyebrows but doesn’t say anything, choosing to make a note of it rather than make the mistake of questioning me.
There’s a brief knock at the study door before it begins to open. Even at this time of night, I can’t get a little peace and quiet from the constant demands. “Damn it, since when do you barge in here?” I bark.
It’s only when I see the doctor poke his head through that I regret the outburst. “Excuse me,” I amend. “I didn’t know you were still here.”
He looks like he wishes he wasn’t. “I’m sorry to intrude. I thought you’d want to know I stopped in to see the patient and she’s doing very well. There isn’t much more she needs from me at this point. I’m confident in signing off on her now.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” I exchange a glance with Jock. “I trust payment made it through to your account without any trouble?”
His coloring darkens. “It was very generous of you. Unexpected, even.”
I have to ignore Jock’s look of surprise. “You earned it. Thank you again. Hopefully I won’t have to call on you for a while.” Though if things keep escalating, it won’t be very long.
“Generous of you?” Jock murmurs when we’re alone again.
I shake my head. “Don’t worry about that. You don’t need to know about everything.” His jaw twitches but he chooses to turn his attention to his phone rather than challenge me. A smart move on his part.
I’m almost glad he was here when the doctor came in, though, as much as I don’t appreciate my right-hand man forgetting his place in the food chain. If I had been sitting here alone, I would have been tempted to ask too many questions. How does she look? How does she sound? How are her spirits? Does she need anything?
Does she hate me the way she should? The way I do?
It’s a physical pain, the thought of her. Something I carry with me no matter what I do, no matter where I go. The sheer force of will it takes to keep from going to her late at night, early in the morning, and all the times in between.
It’s better this way.
And now, I have to move on to the next phase of a plan I would rather cut off my right arm than execute. But it’s for the best. It has to be this way. Until now, I haven’t spoken a word of it to anyone, still on the fence. I’ve had a week to muster up the balls to go through with it. She doesn’t need my weakness now. She needs me to be strong for her, and there’s only one way I can do that.
“She has to go.”
Jock absorbs this without reacting. “Okay. What did you have in mind, exactly?”
“Now that the doc says she’s well enough he doesn’t need to treat her anymore, she can go.” The words threaten to get stuck in my throat, but I force myself to push through. “I don’t want to see her anymore.”
This is for the best. I have to believe it’s for the best. It doesn’t matter how I feel. That’s the last thing that matters for a man in my position. Nobody gives a fuck about my feelings, nor should they.
“Let me get this straight.” He sets down his phone, folding his hands with his elbows propped on the arms of the chair. “You’re willing to let her go without collecting on any of the money you’re owed?”
“I don’t give a shit about that anymore. You know better than anyone that’s the farthest thing from my mind now.”
“Understood, but that’s still a great deal of money. You’re essentially letting this sonofabitch off the hook—”
“I already let the sonofabitch off the hook, didn’t I? What difference does it make now whether she fucks half the guys in the city? He still got off scot-free, so let’s not pretend this was about him.” Amazing, really, how clear everything is now. Situations like this do tend to clear my head in a hurry.
“Then we’ll have to make sure the two of them never see each other. He can’t know she got out of it, or else word will spread. Everybody is going to know you’re a soft touch—”
“Watch it.”
“You know what I mean. That’s what they’re going to think.”
