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“What?” I say.
“The case file has photos. He took a deal and only got three years, but after what he did, he should’ve gotten life, Dante.Life.”
“Were they capital punishments?”
“Are we talking about the law?”
“Right and wrong,” I snap. “That’s what we’re talking about.”
“Then they were capital punishments,” Colt says fiercely.
I keep driving, sweat sliding down my face, forehead, eyes, and all over me. Colt’s right. I need Mia so badly it hurts.
“Where are you going?” Colt asks.
“To Tony’s hotel. I’ll see if Ritchie’s car is nearby.”
“And if it is?”
“I’ll do what the law should’ve done,” I say. “Take care of Mia, Colt.”
I hang up the phone, watching the road as the city approaches. I could’ve killed him back at the house. I could’ve planted one right in his head, but thenI’dbe responsible for the war. Somebody would find a reason to ice me. That’s the mafia game.
Then what happens to Mia?
Mia, not Ma… I normally would think of Ma first, but I have to be around to protect them both.
Ritchie Amato’s car is parked outside Tony’s hotel, or maybe“lodging house”is the better term. It only has about half a dozen rooms. It’s on the corner of a middle-class block. The front window shows a well-lit café area.
I drum my fingers against the steering wheel, watching the car.
I’m almost at Colt’s house,Mia texts me.I’m sorry we had to leave things like that. Please tell me you’ve got this phone switched on this time.
It’s on,I type, looking between the phone and the car.I won’t miss the chance to talk to you, especially since I can’t see you, my pinup princess.
That was wild, wasn’t it? But I did my best.
You stood up to him,I tell her.You should be proud. It wasn’t easy for you, but you did it.
I can’t believe he thought I would go with him after that,she replies.Actually, I sort of can because that’s the Mia he knows. Before I came here, I had friends. I was confident, but it was all fake. Being away from him, meeting Lexi, and meeting you has made it seem more real. Does that make any sense?
I have to remind myself to look across the street at the car. Her words are hammering into me so hard.Yes, it does. I feel more alive in the last couple of days than I have in a long time. What were you going to say before? At the car? When you told me about your childhood?
I thought you forgot about that,she texts me.
My chest tightens when I think about how she looked in the street, her pain written across her face like she was going to break down into tiny, terrified pieces.
I was going to ask you if it made you want me any less. In hindsight, I think that’s a sick question.
Because the answer’s obvious,I type quickly.I want you for you, Mia. I’d never judge you for something that happened to you. Never.
I just wish I’d been there every time something bad had almost happened to my woman. I wish I could reshape the world so I’d been at the right places at the right times, ready to fight that bastard away, ready to save my woman. There’s so much unfairness in this world.
Which is why I have to remind myself…
No kids, no marriage, no future. So what are we doing, then? Am I just going to take her virginity and then leave her? I could never do that.
I’m going to hang with Lexi for a bit. I think she needs a debriefing.
