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“We should be clear now,” he said.
I nodded. Now, all we had to do was wait it out. I’d switch cars on my way back to Sarah, but for the moment, it was better if we remained hidden until the police caught the actual assassins.
A few hours later, we got the news.
“My boy Dave says that they’ve apprehended two people. It’s all over the news. Several of the neighbors called the cops when the shots were fired,” Kevin said.
I glanced at my watch. It was after eleven. Sarah was probably sitting at home, worried sick. I forced her out of my mind. In order for this to work, I needed all my attention on the task at hand, not on Sarah. Kevin clicked on the radio. There was a breaking news story about a Mob shooting and the speculation of more to come. The news announcer said two suspects had been apprehended in a Cadillac riddled with bullet holes.
“They always sensationalize it,” Kevin said and laughed. “The car was shot twice. Riddled with bullet holes, my ass. Like they have any idea what anyone in this life is planning next. I guess it makes for a good story, though. Keeps people guessing and engaged.”
“Yeah, and the ratings skyrocketing. Feed them fear, and they keep coming back,” I said grimly. Man, I hated the life I’d been adopted into. “I often wonder what my mother ever saw in him or this lifestyle,” I said bitterly.
“I know,” Kevin replied. He remembered my life before my mother had remarried. She had been poor, but we had been happy.
I sighed. It might not have been what I wanted, but Pauly and his crew always had a way of coming back into my life and creating havoc. Most of the time, it was innocuous, a showing of the peacock feathers to remind me that I’d never be entirely free, but this time it was personal. I’d gotten myself into it, and I’d be damned if I walked away before he was either behind bars or dead.
Chapter Ten
Sarah
Isatinthemaster bedroom and waited for Warwick to return. I hadn’t asked him where he was going or when he was returning, but I grew increasingly nervous as the minutes ticked on. At five minutes to midnight, I crept down to the kitchen and wrapped the scones Maria and I had made and put them in the fridge. I was distraught at Warwick’s absence, but something else, something more significant, played on my mind. I’d been feeling nauseous all day. I never got sick, so this was something new to me. As I closed the fridge, a wave of queasiness overtook me. I sank to the floor by the fridge and waited for it to pass. I pressed my head against the cold metal and closed my eyes. Maria heard me in the kitchen, and I was mortified when she walked in and saw me sitting there, dizzy and miserable.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said as I fought off vomiting.
“Do you have the flu?” she asked, crouching beside me.
“I don’t think so. I never get sick.”
Maria studied me closely. “Are you pregnant?”
I shook my head no. I wasn’t, right? There was no way I’d know this quickly, was there? My period wasn’t late, I didn’t think.
When the nausea finally passed, I stumbled to the bedroom to lie down. Maria brought a cold towel for my head and a bucket in case I got sick. I thanked her and sent her off to her own bedroom before I passed out for the night.
The next morning, I was even more ill. I hurried to the bathroom and vomited. I sat on the floor and assessed the situation. Had Warwick heard me throw up? Was Warwick even home? There was no knock on the door, so I figured I’d been quiet enough, which was a good sign. No sense in giving him one more thing to fret about.
Is it possible I have the flu?It was, but it seemed unlikely. I hadn’t been around anyone except Maria and Warwick, and neither of them was sick. I gingerly felt my breasts. They seemed tender like my period was coming. Well, that was a good sign, right? I waited a few more minutes before I stood and looked at myself critically in the mirror. My eyes looked tired and puffy, and my body ached. I was also suddenly ravenous.
I opened the bathroom door and looked around the bedroom in the morning sunlight. Warwick’s side of the bed was untouched, and the blankets were still pulled up neatly from when Maria had made it the day before. He didn’t come home last night. Panic filled me, and I hastily threw on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. Maybe he’d slept in the other room? We knew our affair would be over soon, and maybe he'd decided it was better to cut the ties now. I wandered from room to room, but there was no sign of him. Finally, I sat in the kitchen, a lump the size of a rock in my stomach. Maria served me French toast and asked how I was feeling.
“Fine,” I said. “Just a bit of nausea is all. It’s probably stress.”
She nodded and patted me on the shoulder.
“Do you know where Warwick is?” I asked.
“No,” she said. Her face registered concern for a split second. “But sometimes he doesn’t come home. He has many places and prefers to move around sometimes. I don’t ask.”
I nodded. My mind flashed to the various pictures of Warwick on the internet with models and other women. Had he gotten tired of me and this drama? Maybe he was at one of his other houses with some leggy blond right now. He was a playboy, according to the media. Perhaps this was his way of letting me know we were through.
Something about that didn’t feel right, though. I knew what we had was temporary, but he’d told me he didn’t want it to be done. Was that all a lie to make me feel better? When we were together, it didn’t feel that way, and it seemed weird to me that he would leave me here with Maria and his security team alone unless something had happened. He hadn’t told me where he was going the day before, only that it had been something about our family war. I imagined him shot somewhere, alone, and immediately hoped he was just out with another girl. Of the two options, that seemed like it was the better one.
I paced the room, anxious for most of the morning, my mind flooded with confusion and dismay. What if I was pregnant and Warwick was gone, or worse, dead? How would I even get a pregnancy test to check? When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I got dressed and put my hair in a ponytail. I had to find a way to get a test. I might not be able to control anything else, but getting one of those and ruling out an unplanned baby felt like I was doing something. I couldn’t sit and wait any longer for someone else to help me. I had to help myself.
Outside, I found Warwick’s hybrid car parked right where he had left it. I returned to the house and searched for the keys. They were tucked in the little box on the dresser. Sometimes it paid to be organized like Warwick. Next, I went around the back of the house and scanned the location of the cameras. I had to create a distraction for the security team, but how? I paused for a moment and thought. On impulse, I whipped my head towards the forested area, pointed, and screamed bloody murder. I screamed two more times and then booked it around the side of the house. As I expected, several of Warwick’s security personnel came running.
