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Tony fucking Sandoval is at BIBO. In the flesh. And my heart is pounding. He’s alone, and he thinks he’s coming for her. He doesn’t know I’ll be coming for him. I should call Pres and warn him, but I’m not going to piss him off before I get there. He’ll have plenty of time to be furious when I roll up ready to go.
“Phoebe, I’m leaving. You have to stay here.”
Her eyes widen and she stops in the archway between the kitchen and living room. She tightens her grip on her coffee cup and gulps. “You’re going after him now?”
I’ve been watching his every move for over a week now, just waiting for the right time to make one of my own. But he’s closer now than he has been before, and the fucking gall he must have to think he can come formy girl… He’s as good as dead. “I am. You have to stay here. I won’t take long, I promise.”
“If you leave me here and something happens, I won’t…” She crosses her arms, the cup shaking in her hand. “Nobody knows I’m here and I don’t have a way to talk to anyone, so I’d- I’d die here.”
Closing the distance between us, I push down all the paranoia worming through my head. “You won’t die. People know you’re here. Pres would take care of you. He’ll know you’re alone if something happens to me, because he’s already at the place I’m going.”
“Then what if something happens to him?”
“Baby…” I take the cup from her hand and put it on my desk behind me. “You are going to befine.I am going to befine. Pres is going to befine. The only person that’s not going to survive this situation is the one that thinks he’s going to your job to findyou. I’ve got to get to him before he realizes you’re not there.”
“Okay. Okay. You go but… you better fucking come back whole. I’ll dig up your dead body from the ground and kill you again, do you hear me?”
I hook my hand behind the back of her neck and jerk her towards me. “Kitten, I’m glad to see the claws come out again. It’s been awhile since I saw them. But I need you to sheath them for me until I get back home.” I smash my mouth against hers and hold her close to me, trying to absorb her fear into me so she doesn’t have to feel it while I’m not here.
“Remember what I taught you, okay?” I say, nodding her head with mine. “Five things you see, four things you feel, three things you hear, two things you smell, one thing you taste. Do it over and over the whole time I’m gone so you stay alert. I’ll make it as fast as I can.” With one more kiss, I heave a sigh and force myself to separate from her and head for the door to the garage.
As soon as I get the car onto the street, my phone is ringing. I don’t get a chance to say hello when I pick up before Pres is shouting at me through the phone. “There’s some goddamn guy here asking where Phoebe is. What the fuck is going on?”
“I’m coming! I’m on my way. Don’t let that motherfucker leave.” I’ll kill everyone in that restaurant if Tony gets away from him. I don’t have the time or the patience to be tracking this guy down and running all over the state for him. He’s going to get spooked when he sees Pres with all those tattoos and run.
“Yeah, Reaper is already all over that,” Pres growls, running out of patience the same way I am. “So let me ask this one last time or I’ll have my guard dog kill you when you get here,what. the fuck. is going. on?”
I slam my fist into the steering wheel and shout out my anger as I try to figure out how to explain this shit without losing it. “Goddammit! That piece of shit raped my sister. Phoebe was there. It’s a long fucking story, just don’t let him go.”
“Hewhatyour sister? Don’t tell me you just said what I heard. Reaper, put that motherfucker in the back,” he says to Reaper who must be in the same room with him. “God- fuck! How long until you get here?”
“Ten minutes, maybe fifteen.” I’m too far away and there might be traffic but I won’t know until I’m in it.
“What’s the fucking plan?”
I’ve had too much time to plan to not have a solid answer here, but I didn’t expect him to fall into my lap like this. “I’m taking him back to my place. Phoebe and I-”
“You’re taking Reaper with you,” Pres says immediately, and for no apparent reason.
“What the fuck for?” I don’t need, nor do I want, Reaper inside my house with me while I deal with this problem. I know Reaper is crazy. I know he’s not going to take any bullshit, but I don’t know how Phoebe will handle seeing him. He looks like a fucking demon and there’s going to be too much going on for her to be exposed to that.
“Reaper’s crazy.” Pres seems to think this information is going to make me more comfortable with it, because the crazy person protected his daughter, but the crazy man is going to scare the fuck out of Phoebe and I’ll have to fucking kill him too. Reaper may put up an actual fight. “You might need his help. This guy looks like he just got out of prison.”
“He did!”
“Well, Reaper will help you out so you can take care of your ol’ lady. Did that man touch her? Did this guy touch Phoebe?”
Fuck, even knowing that he barely touched her, the thought of it still enrages me. He had his hand on her. He should never have been allowed to touch her. He shouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near her. I’m going to fucking kill him. I’ll fucking kill him. I’m going to-
“Skids! Did this bastard fuck with Phoebe? I need to know.”
“No! Not like that. Just keep his sick ass there, and I’ll be there soon.” I’ve reached the highway and there is mercifully little traffic, giving me the space I need to pick up speed and weave between the cars that are on the road. “Five minutes.”
“Phoebe isn’t with you, is she?”
“No. It’s just me.” I could never have brought Phoebe along with me for this kind of thing. I wouldn’t be able to do anything but worry about her and try to protect her. My chest tightens and the air gets sucked out of my lungs as I realize that I’m not protecting her. I’m not there with her, seeing her, holding her close to me.
Fuck, anything could happen. I have to trust the safehouse I built to keep her safe, but I didn’t build it with her in mind. If I had, everything would be just a little different. I don’t know what the hell I could do to make it safer for her, but I’d do something. I just have to protect her.
