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“Uh yeah. It was. Look er, Giada-”
“Gigi.”
“Gigi… I can’t talk now, okay. I’ll see you later.”
She sighs, sounding a bit pissed. “Okay.”
“Hey.” I say quickly before she can hang up, “I love you.”
I hear her breathe on the other end of the line. “I love you too,” she says as if it’s a wonderful new discovery.
“I’ll see you soon.” I say before hanging up. It hits me that Tiziano is Giada’s cousin. This mess is just… never ending. Lifting my phone again, I call Eric. He finds me sitting by Mark’s body, my hands clasped together, and my eyes closed. I’m not praying – I stopped doing that long ago, when it started to feel hypocritical. I have no hopes of seeing Mark in some utopicordystopic afterlife. All I have left of him are memories of our time together and a wish that he is at peace.
Whatever that means.
I hear his footsteps approach and my heart lurches in my chest. Mark and Eric were cousins, and they were also friends. As much as it hurts for me, I know it hurts the same for him. I can hardly bear to look at him.
He stops, and I can see his shiny wing tips in my peripheral vision. He sighs loudly. “This day was gonna come sooner or later. I always hoped it would be later.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and make myself lift my head and look him in the eye. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
He stares at me, and I see something that used to be warm in his gaze has turned cold. “Yeah. I’m sorry for yours as well.”
“We have to-” I stop as my throat closes up.
“Yeah, I know.” He fumbles in his pocket and draws out his phone. Turning away from me, he calls someone. “Johnny? I need you at…” he turned to look at me, “What’s the address on this place?”
“1457 Mulholland Drive.”
“Right.” He repeats the address into the phone.
“Cleaner? Nah, just transportation. Two separate cars…. Mmhmm… yeah okay. Ten minutes.” He hangs up and turns back to me. “That takes care of the bodies. Gimme your gun.”
I pass it to him wordlessly. He checks the chamber. “Just one bullet fired.”
I nod wordlessly.
Eric sighs. “Look… this will take some smoothing out but in your shoes… I probably would have done the same thing. Now the debt is paid, all we need to do is convince both sides that this doesn’t have to escalate.”
“All we need to do huh?” I said drily.
“Yeah. And that starts with you getting out of town. Now.”
I look up at him in horror. “I can’t. I-”
He lifts up his hand. “Look, you made this mess, I’m fixing it. You do what I tell you. You have your car outside. Get in it. Drive. Anything you need will be sent to you. Gimme your phone.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Eric just looks at me, expressionlessly. With a sigh, I reach into my pocket and hand him my phone. “Go.” He says.
I get to my feet, and I go.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Ijust know something is wrong. The way that Romano sounded on the phone - like something was irreparably broken – scared me. All I can do is pace and wait for him to come for me. He’s taken the car so I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.
It’s past midday by the time I hear wheels approaching on the gravel. With a sigh of relief, I go to the door but my heart sinks when I see Benedetto alighting together with some other guy who looks familiar.
