AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bricker’s eyes blaze. “You don’t care about me! Youusedme, Max. You played with my feelings, manipulated me. And for what? To get closer to my Family? To betray us?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I insist, my own voice cracking with emotion. “I was trying to obey orders, both my Boss’s and yours—and as time went on and I…when we got closer, it made things even more complicated.” I pause, to see if that’s had any effect. It hasn’t. “Who told you?” I ask with a sigh.
“I heard it from his own lips. I went to see him today. Wanted to tell him straight out that I wasfallingfor—” He breaks off.
I shake my head. “Whatever Fabi told you, Bricker…it probably wasn’t the real story, anyway.”
“Are you seriously calling my father a liar now, on top of everything else?”
“All I’m saying is that there might be more to it than what Fabi told you.” I try to reach out to him, but Bricker steps back, putting distance back between us.
“Are you the mole? Areyouthe one who’s been betraying us all along?”
Bricker’s question hits me hard, but I summon every ounce of conviction I have and look him straight in the eye. “I would never do that. I would never betray you.”
My voice is steady. Perhapstoosteady, based on the suspicion on Bricker’s face. Inside, I’m a whirlwind of thoughts and memories, images from our time together flashing past like a movie reel. The laughter, the intensity, the vulnerability…
“Believe me,” I beg him, “I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I’m not proud of, including not telling you sooner about my past. Butbetrayingyou? Betraying a crew? That’s something I could never, ever do.”
With a swift movement, Bricker pulls out his gun and points it at me. The world seems to freeze, the only sound a passing car outside, and the low hum of the fridge. I focus on Bricker, take in every detail: the way his hands tremble, the play of emotions across his face.
This is my fault.
“Bricker, come on, now. You’re not thinking straight.”
“It makes sense for you to be the mole, Max. You’re the only outsider in the crew.”
“It doesn’t make sense. Things were going wrong before I got here. You know that.” His grip on the gun tightens. “Think about it,” I go on calmly. He’s just angry. And he’s not stupid, I know that too damn well. He won’t kill me. I’m pretty sure he won’t, anyway. “If I was the mole, why would I have protected you so many times? Why would I put myself in harm’s way for you? Why even run into that bank after you? If I was the mole, I would’ve shot Pony between the eyes and driven away. Left you all to die.”
He hesitates for a moment, and I can see the conflict in his eyes, the struggle between his heart and his mind. But then, as if some invisible hand tipped the scales in favor of darkness, his resolve hardens.
“Leave.” Bricker’s voice is devoid of any emotion. “Go back to the Castellanis where you belong.” I try to protest, to plead with him, but he doesn’t listen. He’s too hurt, too angry. “Get out of here before I kill you,” he spits at last. “The last thing I need is a Castellani corpse to get rid of.”
I can’t reason with him. Not like this.
“I’ll leave. But you’re making a mistake, and I think you know that.” I hold up my hands as I walk slowly around him, heading for the door. “When you’re ready to hear the full story, come and find me. I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
I turn and walk out of the house, feeling like I’m leaving a piece of my soul behind. The door shuts quietly behind me, but the lock sliding home from the other side echoes like a gunshot.
“Thought you might need a ride,” Jack calls over sympathetically, hat in hand, leaning against his beat-up Pinto where he parked it on the street.
“It was that obvious, huh?”
Jack just shrugs and opens the car door for me, his face soft with understanding. “Come on, Pedretti. I’ll take you home.”
“Home?”
Jack hesitates. “Wherever you want that to be right now.”
“Not Redwood.” I can’t face that right now. I need time alone. “I have a place in Glendale. Take me there.” It’s more of a crash pad than a home, but it’ll do as a place to hole up and pick through my regrets for a while. Because right now, I can’t see any way out of this situation I’ve gotten myself into.
* * *
The rain is back the next morning when I wake up.
It smacks against the windowpane, bleaching the day into gray light throughout my apartment. I haven’t been here for so long, it seems foreign to me now. I pull off my shirt—I slept in my clothes—and pause while I’m putting it the laundry basket, remembering Bricker nuzzling into my neck. And then a different memory intrudes.
Go back to the Castellanis where you belong.
