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My mind transports me back to that day, only hours before I met Neil. I suppose that old lady was technically my last con before my life changed forever. I watch the old woman’s mouth, the red shapes it makes.
“I also like to party. Do you have room for one more?”
My eyes lose focus, mind on distant memories. They’ve been coming back more and more since I’ve been here, but I need to remember to use it. To let it fuel instead of break me.
I don’t notice when Killian makes his way over to the table until he’s standing beside me. I look up at him with a small smile, horrified when I let out a small giggle as he works his way into the chair, his large frame a bit too much for the small plastic chairs.
“Sorry about that,” he says.
“Looks like you have an admirer,” I tease, nodding my head toward the woman. He chuckles lightly.
“Takes a minute out of my day to make the old birds smile, so why not, right?”
I nod lightly but don’t reply. Doing things to be nice is a bit outside my realm, but the thought is a sweet one.
“So,” he begins, “As much fun as go-karts were and as much as I enjoy the pleasure of your company,” I raise an eyebrow at that, “Why did you call me? What are we doing here?”
“You mean other than to enjoy the eye candy?” I say, raising an eyebrow flirtatiously. He gives me a level stare and I laugh.
“No sense of humor,” I mock.
“Seriously, Echo.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re gonna be a whole load of fun, I can tell. Seriously, Killian, if we are going to work together, you need to lighten up a bit, first of all. And second, we need a plan. I said I was willing to work together, but more people means more problems. I’ve been doing this shit a long time and—”
His eyes get a touch wider, a question in them about what I’ve been doing so many years, and I flush.
“No, no, that part,” I reply to the unasked question. Before Neil and his boys, the only pains I left were broken hearts and wallets. It was those fuckers who turned me into a killer.
Sighing, I look around the patio.
On the other side is a young couple, side by side with their hands entwined on the table. They have eyes only for each other and the boy is whispering something in her ear to make her giggle. An older man sits at another table, eyes out on the street in front of us, watching.
“Let’s go somewhere else?” I suggest.
“So, Echo,” Killian says as we walk along the beach path. The sun has already set, but the sky shows hints of the day and though there’s a small breeze, it's not cold. “You don’t make a lot of sense to me.”
“Oh? How’s that?”
“What did you mean when you said you’d been doing this a lot of years?”
My lips stay tight as I consider how to answer it. I look out of the corner of my eye at Kilian. He is watching me with an expression I can’t read.
“So?”
I shrug a bit. “Let’s just say I’ve toed the line of the dark side for a long time. I’m sure people look at me and think I’m an idiot bimbo, but there’s a lot on the line here. I—my friend—deserves justice.”
He nods. “And did you ever think to go to the police after what happened to her?”
I shoot a glare at him. “Did you?”
“Yes.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“Like I said before, the Iron Elite is more than just a ‘boys’ club’, as you put it. They’ve got connections everywhere, including law enforcement.”
I don’t say anything to that.
