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“Listen,” I tell her, closing the door behind me. May as well get right to business. “You can’t stay here.”
“I don’t know where else to go,” she murmurs, wrapping her arms around herself. “I couldn’t stay with my cousin. I didn’t want her to get in trouble because of me or anything. I—”
“I know.” I cut her off. “I mean you can’t stay in Detroit. Ivan’s people could be anywhere. They’ll be looking for you once your pimp rats you out. And you know he will.” That fucker would throw her under the bus to save his own skin in a hot second.
“So, you did it then?” she asks softly, glancing up at me with those tired eyes. “He’s dead?”
I nod. “He’s dead. Here.” It seems like a good idea to spare her all the gory details, and I don’t really want to get into it anyway. I pull out the wad of cash and hold it out to her.
Her eyes get wide as she looks down at it. She doesn’t have to count it to know it’s a lot of money.
“I can’t—” She shakes her head. “That’s so much money, River. I can’t take that.”
“You can, and you will,” I tell her. “I owe you for helping me get this far, and I said I’d take care of you. So here.” I push it toward her again. “Take it and get out of Detroit. Go somewhere you can start over.”
Tears well up in her eyes, and she throws her arms around me. I immediately go stiff with surprise. I don’t like emotions, and displays of gratitude like this are just weird for me. I can feel myself closing off and getting uncomfortable, but I let her hold on for a couple seconds before I gently push her away.
“Look, you helped me out a lot, so it’s fine. I wasn’t going to leave you high and dry. We don’t have to hug it out or anything.”
“Sorry,” Avalon says, wiping her eyes. “I’m just… I’m really grateful.”
“Okay. Well. Good.”
Her hands are shaking when she finally reaches out and takes the money from me, tucking it into an open bag on the bed. Everything else aside, I’m glad that she’s going to be able to get a fresh start. She deserves that, at the very least.
“I guess I won’t see you again, huh?” she murmurs, glancing at me.
I shake my head. “Probably not. Take care of yourself. Maybe try to avoid shitty pimps if you can. None of them will give a fuck about you.”
Avalon nods. “I know. I’ll try. Thank you, River.”
“Sure.”
“You take care, too. If anyone finds out what you did…”
“I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a while. So you don’t need to worry about me. Focus on keeping yourself out of trouble.”
She nods again, glancing at the ugly carpeted floor and then back up at me. “What are you going to do now?”
It’s one of those questions I don’t know how to answer. I’m not trying to have a heart to heart with her, and it’s not like I know. I can feel that emptiness pulling at me, reminding me that for so long, my life revolved around taking these fuckers down. And now my list is complete, leaving me with not much else to do.
But like I said, I’m not trying to get into that with Avalon in this shitty motel.
“Get back to my life,” I say. It’s the best answer I’ve got.
“I’m happy for you,” she tells me with a little watery smile. “You got your revenge. I hope it helps.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “Me too. Anyway, I’m out of here. You should get moving too.”
“Right. Okay. Thank you again.”
I think about shaking her hand for a second, but then I just turn to leave, ready to be done with all of this. Ready to go home. Dog trots along after me, and we slip out of the motel room and back down to the parking lot.
This time, Dog hops right into the car when I open the door, settling himself on the back seat.
I adjust the rearview mirror and look back at him, a little smile tugging at my lips.
“Well,” I tell him. “This is it. We’re free. Time to go home.”
I crank the car up and get us heading back toward my place. I haven’t seen it in a while, and it’ll be good to sleep in my own bed again. I can do whatever I want again, when I want to, without having people breathing down my neck about it.
It’ll be good.
But as I drive, keeping my focus on the road and trying not to let my thoughts steer to the four men I’m leaving behind, it doesn’t really feel like freedom.
