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Chapter Twenty
Willow
It is two days until my birthday. I'm actually surprised by the fact that I even remember that. I feel like I've lost so much of myself being dragged back to the UK from the new life I built it for myself in Australia. It's like that was another time or place, another century entirely. I've even begun to forget the names of my regular customers that I served at my pastry shop. But I need a little bit of normalcy. And I know the only way I'm going to get what I want is to appeal to Duncan’s cockiness. And so, I do.
"Duncan, can I talk with you about something?" I still haven't gotten used to using some of the other men like my lackeys. I do have people that end up making my breakfast or running some errands and things of the like, but when I want something, I go directly to a person rather than have them meet me in my office like I'm some unreachable goddess on her throne. Duncan leads me to my office, his stance showing me that whatever I have to say I better say it in private and act like his boss, which I am. The more I delay getting a husband, the more it seems people question me, question what I'm doing and my motives for doing it. If there is a time to show I am capable of making heads roll, it is now.
"Oh, so my birthday is coming up," I tell him, waiting for some kind of response. He looks at me as if I'm crazy for saying so, like why the hell does this matter? So, I proceed to tell him why it matters. "I need a girl’s night out. I have a friend in Australia I haven't seen in a long time, and I know there are other girls, other women and especially a couple who have been leading the Clans. I need some sense of normalcy, and you're going to give it to me." I hope that he will see this as an order, if nothing else.
He crosses his arms over his chest and looks me up and down as if I'm his child. I roll my eyes and stand up straight, getting right in his face, making me almost as tall as he is. Two can play at this game. "And what makes you think that I'm going to just give this to you? The idea of having you doing something normal is dangerous enough right now. The threats against you, we don't tell you about them, but they are there. I promise. But adding other Clan women into the mix, well that's just plain crazy. And…"
I look him up and down the same way that he looked at me. "Because I know that if anything happens, you'll protect us. Don't you trust in your own abilities?” Reaching out to purposefully adjust his jacket, his mouth turns up just a little on the side.
"Okay, then there is a compromise. No high-profile members, you go to a place of my choosing, you have a curfew, and only one friend from Australia. Oh, and you don't tell her anything about who you are and what you're doing here."
"I don't like it, but I guess it sounds fair enough," I answer, keeping a straight face until he leaves the room. Then, I take just a little moment to do my own victory dance. I get to have a birthday party.
***
We have been here less than an hour, and I have already lost count of my drinks. But you know what? I don't actually give a fuck. It's my birthday, and I'll party as hard as I damn well want to. And it seems like Duncan is just letting me do that. He is not hovering and neither are the other men that I know he must have here. I know that he's not just going to leave me so unprotected. But I don't know where they are or what they're doing. They are not hovering or stopping me from doing whatever it is I want, including getting on the dance floor with all these chicks that are here with me. And they know how to party.
It's hard not to tell my friend the truth. I know she knows something has to be up because it turns out that she's the one who's been running my pastry shop in my stead. Someone did provide for that someway. Not that I think it's all about me, and it may be for appearance purposes, but I appreciate it just the same.
I sit at the bar and order a drink, and I turn to see that Duncan is now right next to me. "Don't tell me you're going to be a Negative Nancy now." I turn back to my new drink and begin to sip through the straw that’s in it.
He shakes his head at me and smiles. "No, I just came over here to see how you were feeling. If you're enjoying your birthday."
I pat him on the shoulders as I wobble, trying to stand up next to the bar stool. “Oh, how sweet, Duncan. It's my freaking birthday, and I'm having a lot of bloody fun actually, so don't ruin it! " I call out to him, hearing a chuckle from him as I head back to the dance floor. I know if I don't get out there, I'm going to be dragged there. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I dance to song after song, and I can barely feel my legs. I'm afraid of the time that we're going to have to go. I know we have a curfew, and I have no idea what damn time it is. But I don't want this to end, it's the most normal I felt in a long while now.
But I am soon broken out of my thoughts and my buzz by shouting and gunfire. Faster than I can get dizzy enough to fall on the floor, I find myself in the arms of a big man, luckily Duncan, as I kick and scream on my way out the side door. This club was supposed to be safe. That's why Duncan chose it. A surprise considering I’m never safe. That has been made crystal clear to me now.
We weave in and out of alleys and such until he finally sets me down and lets me walk on my own. We weave through all the different shops, clubs, restaurants, and bars in this downtown area. He's making sure I get far away from the action. But I can't help but wonder what's happened to the rest of the women.
I stop and refuse to move, crossing my arms over my chest. “Why the hell did you get me out and didn't even think twice about any of them? What if something happened to them?"
"I'm not having this fight with you right now; you are too buzzed to fight with me right now. And in too much danger. I need to get you out of here safely." Duncan glares at me, and I know if I don't move soon, he will put me back up over a shoulder. I care whether I live or die, but I just want an answer. I stomp my foot like a child before he speaks again. "None of the rest of the women are Clan leaders; that is the reason why I got you out. You're my job, you are more important whether you like it or not."
"Well, you haven't changed at all." The voice echoes down the alley, and I look to see a face that I cannot compute right now in my tipsy state.
Duncan pulls his gun on the man in the white suit, but I can only stare, frozen. “How are you alive?" The question is aimed directly at the man standing in front of us, Felix, the boyfriend of mine that died. White is fitting considering as far as I am concerned, he is a ghost.
"Happy birthday, Willow,” Felix says to me. I'm simply stuck in place and in complete shock at the fact that he could still be alive. He should be dead. I saw him die. I don’t understand what's going on here.
"Seriously put your gun down. Don't shoot,” I tell Duncan, but he doesn’t oblige.
“With all due respect, Willow, no." Duncan doesn't even look at me when he says it. "I think he may be with the Italians. Who is this guy?"
"He's my ex. He's supposed to be dead. Seriously, how are you not dead? How did you survive? You better give us some answers because I don't think he's going to put his gun down. He will likely shoot you. C’mon, Felix." I'm begging him at this point. I have spent years thinking that I lost my mother and then immediately my boyfriend, and here he is, right in front of me, years later, looking as well as the day he was born. What the hell is this?
"Look, I promise I will tell you absolutely everything. But you're going to have to come with me. You don't have to worry about all this Clan stuff anymore. I know that you don't want it so, come with me, and we can still get married. Let me take this burden from you.” He holds out his hand to me as if I'm going to take it, and I look at it like it's got some kind of huge bug on top of it. How in the hell does he think he could show up, come back from the dead after all these years, and think that we could just pick up where we left off? I'm damn curious about how he survived. I am glad he's alive. But that's not how this works.
I shake my head slowly, but at that same moment, as if he's been prepared for it, he pulls out his own gun. Duncan stands in the way of me being shot. But I don't think that Felix intends to shoot me. I think he intends to kill Duncan. I watched the two men practically wrestle each other, trying to either shoot one another or get the gun away from the other man. Bullets fly. I'm going to have to act in a way I had hoped I would never have to.
I don't know whose it is, but I watch as a gun drops, and I run for it. Their hands are up in the air now, and I can tell that they are unsure of which one of them I'm going to shoot
"If he is with the Italians, Willow there's a good chance that the reason he wants you is to give the Italians the power. I don't know the story if the two of you, or how he supposedly died, but they want the power of the Adame Clan, and you can't give it to them. Whether I live or die here today, you cannot let them have the power," Duncan tells me.
I don't want it to be the truth, but I know that it probably is. I can't kill Felix, I can't watch him die again, but I can't let him get me or Duncan either. The next best thing is shoot him in the leg, and Duncan runs to my side.
“I will be back for you, Willow. You can count on that," is the last thing I hear as we run.
