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Griffin was borne from desperation and hunger, so if I had never known a life living in alleyways, would I have built my empire?
I bring the sweater away from my face, and when I open my eyes, I catch sight of Libby’s watery eyes watching me. I cross the room in four easy strides, and press the sweater to her chest until she accepts it with a soft sob. She cradles it to her breastbone like she would a child, and drops down onto the edge of my bed to bury her face in her hands.
We have shit to take care of, and we don’t have a lot of time.
“Boss?” Olly’s voice finally breaks through. “You there?”
“Yeah. I’ll call Annaliese and have her book flights now. You have the car, so drive me to the airport, then you can continue up and drive the rest of the way home.”
“Yes sir. Anything else you need before we leave town?”
“Nothing.”
The Bishops. The Frankston girl. It’s all been resolved.
It doesn’tfeelresolved, but I’m not going to stay here and execute peoplejust because.The very thing that has consumed my every thought for so long has simply been… nullified.
“There’s nothing left to do. It’s time to go back to work. Get your shit ready, I wanna head out.”
“Sir. Do you wanna know what I found out about Jericho?”
My heart gives a heavy bump that I swear must be audible, because Libby’s head comes up and her eyes – one still swollen – latch onto mine.
My answer should be no. I should pretend this town and the people in it don’t exist, but a habit I’ve held onto for so long is hard to break. “Sure, what did you find out?”
I can almost hear the way he shrugs his shoulders. “I didn’t get much. I figure it’s a password for something. A safe word. Something that doesn’t mean anything to anyone but them. When did you hear it? In what context?”
“Someone said it to someone else,” I murmur. “To calm that other person.”
“Mm.” Olly moves around the room right next to mine and takes my orders literally. He’s packing his things. “Right, that’s kinda where I’m at too. It’s a private word, a safe word. But I don’t think it’s important to us.”
“So basically, you learned nothing?”
He chuckles. “Affirmative. I tried, boss. I really did. But all I’ve got are assumptions. I’ll keep looking. I have feelers out, so…”
“Okay.” I frown when Lib buries her face in the sweater a second time. I don’t understand her mood; she was smiling only minutes ago. She was high on adrenaline after our meet, but now it’s as though she hardly has the strength to sit up tall. “I have to go. Pack up, meet me at Libby’s apartment in an hour.”
“Yes sir.” He hangs up without another word, and makes Libby jump when his heavy fist thuds against the wall that joins our rooms.
“An hour.” Lib wrings my sweater between her hands and holds on so tight that her knuckles turn white. “You’re packing up and leaving in an hour, and that’s all there is to say about that?”
“There’s nothing else to say. There’s just…” I lift my hands and suffer from my first ever bout of…What next? I’ve spent my whole existence fighting for the next thing. To help my mom make ends meet. To help myself survive in the streets with nothing but a pencil and brains. To build a business, to run it and make it thrive, then to learn everything there is to learn about the Bishop brothers until I was certain I would take them out.
But now there’s nothing.
“I don’t know what else to do here, Libby. There’s literally nothing left. If I stay, I might forget my promise to walk away. If I see them in the street, I might forget the white flag I tossed down on the way out of their building.”
“But…”
I stop in front of her when her shoulders bounce and she refuses to show me her eyes. Her back is bowed, her shoulders tight. Kneeling down, I hate the way my heart races at the thought of her hurting. “What’s the matter?”
“You won’t even consider staying?”
Her request confuses me and brings my brows tight. “Why would I stay? What’s here for me?”
Dirty green eyes – dirty, like the rainforest on a stormy day – come up to flicker between mine. They sparkle with hurt. With pain. With deceit. “What’s here?” she questions on a whisper. “You want to know what could possibly keep you here?”
She breaks eye contact when I nod, and lets her head drop with a gentle side-to-side shake.
