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It’s always hectic at the clinic, and I feel bad for what I have to do. Kris is one of the best vets I know. She gave me a job when nobody else would, and I hate turning my back on her.
Gabriel checks his watch. “You have three minutes.”
“I have to go. Will you call me when you’ve got Charlie?”
“I’m on my way.”
“Thank you, Kris.” I glance at Puff’s body, forcing down my tears. “You’ll have to––”
Gabriel takes the phone from my hand. “Hello, Kris.” He keeps his piercing gaze trained on me. “The door to Valentina’s flat is broken, but don’t worry. I’ll have it replaced.” He cuts the call. “Two minutes. I suppose you’ll pack light.”
Stress drives me as I shove the few outfits and toiletries I own in our only travel bag. What will become of Charlie? For now, he’s alive. I’m alive. That’s what I need to focus on.
Gabriel’s cronies help themselves to the cookies cooling on the table. Gabriel says nothing. Only his disturbing stare follows me as I move through the room.
I’ve barely zipped up my bag before he says, “Let’s go.”
Adrenalin from the shock makes me strong, strong enough to walk to my brother with confident steps and take his tear-streaked face in my hands.
I go on tiptoes and kiss his forehead. “Remember what I said about being brave. You can do it.” I want to say I’ll call him, but I don’t want to lie. “Wait for Kris. She’ll be here soon.”
Gabriel takes my bag and steers me to the door, stopping in the frame to say to the man who shot Puff, “Stay with her brother until the woman arrives and bury the dog. Have the door fixed before you go.”
The man nods. He’s shorter than Gabriel, but not less muscled.
I look over my shoulder and take in everything I can––Charlie’s haphazard hair, his soft hazel eyes, and the washed-out Spiderman T-shirt––because I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.
2
Gabriel
The petite brunette stiffens when I take her elbow to steer her down the stairs. Her face is ghastly white, and her whole body trembles, but she walks with a straight back. I have dragged men three times her size kicking and screaming to a tamer fate than the one awaiting her. She has guts, but I already knew that from last night.
On the pavement, I take her hand to help her down the curb. Her delicate frame grows even more rigid, but she doesn’t resist. Magda turns her head to the car window when we approach. She startles at the sight of the woman I have in the iron grip of my fingers, and then her expression turns stoic. My mother isn’t happy. This isn’t what she ordered. Tough luck. It’s not going to happen the way she wants today, but I’ve got some explaining to do.
Madga gets out, her eyes shredding me to pieces.
“Put her in the back,” I say to Quincy, handing Valentina over like a parcel.
Magda waits until Quincy shuts the door and walks to where we’re out of earshot. “She was supposed to be dead.”
“I made a deal.”
“What deal?”
“Nine years for Charlie’s debt.”
She blinks. “You’re taking her?”
I cross my arms. “Yes.”
“You want to fuck her.”
I don’t deny it. There’s no point.
“It’s not that simple, Gabriel.”
I saw her. I wanted her. I took her. Yeah, it’s that simple.
“That wasn’t the plan,” Magda insists.
“The plan changed.”
She throws her hands up in the air and starts pacing the sidewalk. “The price was death.”
“Charlie has brain damage.” That’s a tougher price than death. To me, at least. “We shouldn’t have granted him a loan.”
“Well, we did. Retard or not, showing mercy is showing our enemies we’re getting soft.”
“Nine years are not exactly mercy.” Not with what I’m planning for Valentina.
“She has to die.”
“I never go back on my word. People in our business trust us because I keep my word. Rhett and Quincy heard me make the deal.”
The charcoal lines around her eyes wrinkle. “What did you promise?”
“A live-in arrangement.”
“Arrangement?”
“I said she could work back the debt.”
Underneath Magda’s controlled exterior she’s simmering. A vein pops out on her temple. “Fine. You want to play doll? Have your fun, but we’re setting her up to fail. When she does, she’s dead and so is her brother.”
A sharp pain jolts into my damaged hip. I make a conscious effort to relax my body, muscle by muscle.
“Come on.” Magda is already on her way back to the car. “I’ll figure it out on the way home.”
For the first time, I regret never giving a fuck about professional relationship building. I don’t care what people think or about anyone but my daughter, but Magda has always cast the net out wide, catching everyone she can put in her pocket. Her network and influence stretch much further than mine. She carries all the authority in this organization. Sometimes, I have the ugly suspicion the business is the only reason she married my father, so she could take it over. She makes a hell of a tougher loan shark than he ever did, and he was a scary bastard.
