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“Because I have nowhere else to go,” she says quietly, in Spanish too, making me feel like even more of a cunt. “And there aren’t enough years left of my life to list out all your sins, Francesco Lastra.”
Touché.
No one speaks as I circumnavigate three more cars to keep the others in sight. Even so, I can feel them inching away.
Reluctantly, my foot eases off the pedal.
I had my hands on her.
The only woman I’ve ever wanted was right there next to me.
Thirty seconds later, we could have been in this car and heading for the nearest airport.
But I have a dead family and a debt of vengeance, too.
“She’s still alive, Lastra.” Viper lowers his weapon and gestures for me to come off at the next exit. “They won’t kill the bait. She’s too valuable to them breathing.”
“There are worse things they could do to her than death.”
I think of her husband’s penchant for breaking bones, and I nearly snap the steering wheel in half.
Fuck, I need to calm down.
Pulling off into a McDonalds car park, I find an empty bay. Jamming a much-needed cigarette into my mouth, I find I can’t bring myself to light the damn thing with Bambi staring daggers at me in the rear-view mirror.
Jesus Christ.
Yanking it out again, I crush it up with my fist and kick the car door open. “I have a child.Wehave a child,” I declare roughly, tossing the cigarette away to inhale that shock revelation instead.
Lost years.
With her.
With him.
Viper’s gaze is drilling into my back. “Who told you that? Rossi?” He holsters his gun and rips off his tie as I fall back into the driver’s seat and stare mindlessly at a young couple arguing in the next bay. “The Italian knew he was a dead man walking. Sometimes, the dying will say anything to make you feel their pain.”
“I believed him.”
“Dying man, Frankie. Don’t underestimate the desperate. Some of the stuff people have said to me when under my knife would make a sinner a saint.”
“No saints here.” Climbing out of the car, I snap my jacket together. “Did you know?”
“About what?”
“My son.”
My son.I have a son.It feels like I’ve been punched in the gut by the truth.
There’s a pause as he swipes his fingers across his jaw. “Don’t go there, man.”
It’s my turn to pull a gun on him now, moving so fast he doesn’t have time to blink. “Are you going to make me ask it again?”
He glares at me but doesn’t make a move for his own weapon.
“Frankie, stop! Please don’t hurt him.” Bambi shoots forward from the backseat and wraps her arms protectively around his shoulders. “Viper’s not the one you’re hating on here.”
“Shiiiit, okay, I knew she had a kid.” He holds my gaze as he says it. As if honesty this late in the game will make it any better.
