AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Christ, she was good.
“You did, and now I have to clean up your mess. Apology not accepted.”
Porter started crying, and I could almost feel for him. Looking headfirst into your own death was brutal. I’d been there more than once. But when you committed to a cause, you stayed with it. He’d committed to the Marcosas, to Mari, and he’d jumped ship the second a better offer came around, without remembering the number one rule of underground life: traitors didn’t survive long.
“I’m starting to think I’ve been too lenient with you, Porter. All these years of you being a quiet pain in my ass, and I let it slide because money is money. Now it’s time to rectify that.” She pulled her gun from its holster, and I met Dominic’s eyes across the room. Needless to say, we both liked seeing our woman with a weapon in her hand.
“You don’t have to do that,” Porter babbled. “I’ll tell you whatever you want. You don’t have to kill me. Please don’t kill me.”
“I think I do. See, I need a message for Cash, and getting rid of you is the perfect first move. Well, second move, but he doesn’t know about that one yet. I’m going to leave your body as a reminder of who runs this city.” She twisted to look at me. “Can you get all the information off the computer?”
“Sure. Grey could too.”
“Good.”
Pop. Pop.
That was it. Two shots and René Porter ceased to exist. “We need to get the assistant a severance package and some fucking therapy.”
“I’ll tell Grey,” Dominic promised.
With Porter slumped in the chair and Mari’s hands and wrists covered in blood, she turned to us. I was certain she’d never looked more beautiful.
“This is who I am. This is who I’m always going to be. If you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
That was it, the summation of our trip. She wanted to know if we would stay when we saw her ruthlessness.
“I’m in.” There was no choice for me. There hadn’t been in so long. I wasn’t a believer in fate, but something divine had pulled us together, and I’d be at her side until I had to leave.
“I already told you I’m not going anywhere,” Dominic said.
I could see that Mari didn’t take his words as truth the way she did mine, and that kind of trust was a weight I knew I’d have to carry.
The silence was tense and stilted until Mari obliterated it with a single nod. She’d laid down the challenge, and we’d promised to meet it. Now, she just had to see if we’d keep our word.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Mari and I headed downstairs. Dominic stayed behind to arrange for the cleanup, though we were delaying it a few days. Hopefully, long enough for Cash to come looking for his missing man and find nothing but bloated body parts. I helped Mari into the SUV, and my phone beeped loudly as I climbed in behind her.
“What’s that?” she asked, twisting in her seat to see me.
“My mother’s caretaker,” I said, checking the text before deleting it as always. I didn’t like it on my phone. “Just an update for the day.”
The furrow in her brow smoothed, and she reached over the seat to rub my shoulder. “I’m sorry. You didn’t have to tell me.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t hiding it.”
“You know, if you ever want to go see her, but you don’t want to go by yourself, I’ll go with you.” Guilt festered in my stomach, souring the moment.
“You want to visit my mentally incapacitated mother with me?”
Mari shrugged as Dominic climbed into the passenger seat beside Geneva. “I wouldn’t say want, but she’s important to you and you’re important to me. Why wouldn’t I go?”
She started to pull away, but I clasped her hand, forcing her to stay connected to me. To remind me that I wasn’t alone in this shitty world. That I didn’t have to shoulder the burdens of my family on my own. I didn’t respond—couldn’t, really—but I didn’t need to. Not everything between us needed to be said with words, and the same was true for this.
I didn’t deserve Mari, but I was going to keep her as long as I could.
Chapter Thirteen
Mari
