by Sophia Gray
I rolled my eyes. “What do you know about what a six-year-old needs?”
He grew quiet and for a long time I thought he wasn’t going to say anything more. When he did finally speak, it was in a soft tone that was uncharacteristic of him. It radiated sadness that his eyes had only ever hinted at before. “My father was a decent man. Good, law-abiding citizen. He used to tell me that if you wanted to do things right, you did them yourself and you did them honest.”
I raised a brow in surprise, genuinely wondering how a ‘good, law-abiding citizen’ could have raised a cunning criminal such as Ethan.
“I wanted to be just like him. Then one day, a man came by. Dressed like a seventies pimp with gaudy gold jewelry and sunglasses that took up half his face. He shot my father that day and then he knelt down and told me, ‘Only the good die young, son. Don’t forget that.’”
“Oh my god,” I whispered. The urge to comfort him sprung up so fast that it felt like it was trying to suffocate me. I reached a hand for him, laying it on his arm, but he shook it off. He wasn’t done yet.
“I thought he was a liar. That the police would take care of it and I’d get justice for my father.” He glanced at me quickly, then jerked his eyes back to the road. “But all they did was tell me things happen. That I’d better learn to accept it and move on.”
I felt horrible for him. But it didn’t quite add up for me. “If all of that really happened to you, then why would you become a…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to say gangster, because that sounded too harsh, though it was pretty close to the truth.
He offered a lopsided smirk. “Drug dealer?”
I shrugged. “For lack of a better term, yes.”
He shrugged. “At first, I tried to do it my dad’s way. Work hard, save money, do the right thing. I worked as a delivery boy here in town. All through high school and the summer after. It wasn’t very glamorous, but it got me started saving money. One day, I’m delivering a package to some big shot in a high-rise building. But before I even make it up the first flight of stairs, the police are there arresting me.”
My brow furrowed in confusion. “What for?”
“Distribution of cocaine.”
“But I thought you said—?”
“I did. I was one hundred percent above board, but the cops had fettered out a drug deal going down. I went to prison. I’m sure you’ve noticed the products of that.”
When I shook my head slightly, not sure what he meant, he motioned across his chest right where the long scar was. He’d received it in prison. I closed my eyes briefly against images of how that might have come about. When he began to speak again, I opened them.
“I spent four years there. And why? Because a cop was on that drug dealer’s payroll.”
It was horrible to think of. The Ethan I knew was a jerk, manipulative, and sometimes even cruel. But the thought that he was a product of things that had been beyond his control was new to me. “That still doesn’t explain why you would get into the business that had thrown you in jail in the first place.”
“It was easy. Being a good kid had gotten me in trouble, but the drug dealer? He was safe. Protected. I decided then and there that I would be him, this untouchable man. Not my father who died young. Not a good kid that would always take the blame. I’d be the devil and it’s done me just fine.”
I didn’t say anything for a long time. In some ways, his story made me reconsider a lot of things. Was this really the sort of man I wanted around me and my son? Someone who had been in prison and believed that being an upstanding citizen only caused problems? But as I thought about it, I realized none of this changed the Ethan I knew and in the end, it didn’t affect my feelings for him.
“Cody can never know about any of this.”
Ethan nodded his head in agreement and we drove the last few minutes in silence.
Chapter 16
We arrived at The Cut to find Louis’s car parked across the street in the lot outside the empty building. Other than that car, the whole street looked pretty empty. Although this wasn’t a horrible neighborhood, it wasn’t really a good one either so people tended to be elsewhere at this hour. Especially since the businesses in the area had hours like mine.
Ethan made a quick lap around the block to check for any other cars, maybe ones he recognized or looked out of place, then parked in the alley next to the shop. I figured he didn’t want to park right next to Louis just in case someone passed by and thought it looked odd.
Turning off the engine, he popped his door and stepped out. I lingered in the car for a moment, thinking on all Ethan had confided in me. Did I believe his story? Yes, I did. I wasn’t sure if it made me like him any more or less than I did, but it did leave me with a feeling of understanding. I had been screwed for being the “good girl,” too. At least we had that much in common.
Getting out of the car, I caught up to Ethan who was waiting at the mouth of the alley for me, and we headed towards the shop. I grabbed my keys out of the pockets of my jeans, but it turned out I didn’t need them. The door was already open.
I began pushing it and stepping inside, but one of Ethan’s large hands dropped down on my shoulder to stop me.
“Wait,” he said quietly. “Let me check first.”
I was about to tell him that I could take care of myself—even as I felt a little pleased that he was being protective—but then I saw him pull a gun from the waistband of his jeans. Whatever I had been planning on saying dropped into silence. Suddenly, the night seemed more real.
Ethan pushed open the door and stepped carefully inside, doing his best to be quiet on the linoleum floor I’d recently had replaced. He got two steps in before a familiar voice said, “There’s more than I thought in here. We’re gonna have to make a couple of trips.”
“Fuck, Louis,” said Ethan who had his gun leveled at the larger man as he stepped out from the back of the shop. “I could have shot you.”
Louis shrugged his big shoulders, clearly unperturbed by Ethan and his gun. I didn’t see anyone else in the shop, so I had to assume Louis had heard us and was talking to Ethan as he walked in the door. Either that or Louis was talking to the voices in his head at which point I was going to call foul. I’d work with assholes, but not crazy people.
“I got started,” Louis explained calmly. “Moving inventory is tricky business.”
Ethan shoved his gun back into his jeans, then motioned for me to come inside. Louis gave me a curious look, but didn’t look wholly surprised. “I didn’t think you would be here.”
I patted at my hair, pushing it back behind my ears. It had looked disheveled enough after my romp with Ethan that I shoved it up into a messy bun, but suddenly I wished I’d taken a shower. It was stupid to be self-conscious in front of Louis seeing as how the man had seen me naked as his boss did some very intimate things to me, but tonight was different. Ethan and I were on a different level now and what we’d done was far more private.
Or was it? I wondered suddenly. I’d promised Ethan was the only one I’d sleep with, but what about watching? Would Louis still act as our audience?
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It had been degrading in a way to have Louis watch us, but a part of me had also been incredibly turned on by it. And though Louis was an ass, he’d grown on me a little. A very little. Kind of like fungus. But cute, pet fungus.
Shaking my head a little, I said, “I’m full of surprises.”
I thought I saw the hint of a smile on Louis’s mouth, but it might have just been the dim lighting. We didn’t want all the lights on, letting everyone know we were here.
The men headed into the back and began shuffling things around. We had to do inventory as we moved everything to make sure it was all there and that we didn’t miss anything, but it was a tiny space. Definitely not big enough for Ethan, Louis, and myself.
In the end, I ended up actually inside the small space passing things to Louis who moved it while Ethan checked it against his personal
list. We had a lot of stock, so it was good that there were three of us there.
We continued for a while like this, checking packages against Ethan’s list and moving them out of the storage space. When the crates were starting to become cumbersome given the small area, Louis offered to start moving them. “I’ll take what we’ve got checked out back to my car, start loading. That’ll give you some space to work.”
“Good call,” Ethan agreed.
Louis lifted a huge crate, his wall-like frame coming in handy. “I’ll bring the dolly back with me,” he informed us, then headed out of the shop towards his car with the crate in hand.
I watched him for a second, then shook my head. “He is a big bastard, isn’t he?”
Ethan took Louis’s spot, setting his clipboard aside. “Nah. He’s not a bastard. His parents were married in some Catholic church four years before having him.”
I stared at him a moment. “Seriously?”
Grinning, Ethan nodded. “Yep. He goes every Sunday, like a good Catholic.”
“Not a bastard,” I amended.
“Not a bastard,” Ethan confirmed.
I started passing Ethan what I could and he’d pause now and then to check something off his list or write something down. After a while, we found ourselves surrounded by crates with nowhere left to put them. “I thought Louis was going to bring the dolly back,” I whined.
Ethan frowned, glancing through the store back towards the front door. “He’s been gone for a while.”
I folded my arms across my chest, feeling a spark of anxiety. “You…you think something’s happened?”
Ethan didn’t answer me. Instead, he said, “Wait here.” Then he pulled out his gun again and headed towards the door. I watched him go, my heart hammering in my chest and my palms sweating. I swallowed heavily when he reached for the door.
It opened before he got hold of it.
A man entered. He was very clearly not Louis, who would have been twice the size of this guy. Ethan reacted immediately, shoving his gun in the guy’s face and grabbing him by the shirt collar. He shoved the man into the wall, holding him against it with the barrel of the gun pressed into his cheek.
“Whoa! Easy! It’s me!”
The voice told me first who it was and then my eyes picked out his features in the dim lighting. The snuff tucked between his lip and teeth. The disheveled, thinning hair. The mild build. “Todd?”
He nodded at my question urgently because Ethan still had the gun shoved in his face. “Yeah, it’s me, boss.”
I came out from my little corner in the storage closet and stepped around the boxes to get a better look at Todd. He looked like Ethan had scared the crap out of him, which wasn’t surprising given the gun in his hand. Poor guy.
Ethan narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously, but released his collar, easing up enough that Todd wasn’t pinned to the wall anymore. He straightened out his clothes, glancing at the gun a little nervously.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Ethan asked him. His gun was lowered slightly, but still gripped firmly in his large hands.
“Louis called me. He told me to do a drive-by of the place, make sure everything was good.”
Ethan frowned, still looking a little uneasy at Todd’s presence.
Todd shoved his hands into his pockets, almost like a little kid, and added, “I saw the car outside. Figured I’d come in and give you a hand.”
This last little tidbit must have been enough for Ethan, because he relaxed slightly. “Jesus, Todd. Next time call and give us a heads up, or I’ll shoot your stupid ass even when I know it’s you.”
“You bet, boss.”
Ethan turned away from Todd and headed back towards me. “Since you’re here, give us a hand.”
I saw Todd nod and follow Ethan back. I was about to do the same, but my phone went off then, telling me I had a message. Pulling the phone out of my pocket, I checked it and saw it was Jessie.
Stopping by. Cody needs that teddy bear.
I started to respond that I wasn’t home and I would drop it off in the morning when I caught movement in the mirror out of the corner of my eye.
Ethan had placed his gun on top of one of the covered crates. As Ethan reached for a box, I saw Todd pulling something cold and metal from the back of his pants. A gun.
A startled cry escaped me, causing Ethan to turn. Todd popped off a shot, but it missed its mark as Ethan lunged for him. The men struggled for Todd’s gun. Ethan’s large hands practically engulfed Todd’s as he tried to twist the gun free.
But Ethan was stuck between crates awkwardly, impeding his movements. Todd kept his littler, gangly hand wrapped around the gun. I thought he would back up then, try to get away from Ethan, but instead he used his leverage and footing to shove forward with his weight.
Ethan, who was already leaned forward too far in an effort to the get the gun had little choice but to go with the movement, pedaling backwards. Todd used the moment to jerk the gun free of his hand.
It gave Todd enough leverage to push the gun forward into Ethan’s face, making the larger man back over a crate. He tumbled to the ground and Todd leveled the gun at him.
“No!” I cried and moved instinctively. I went for Ethan’s gun, still sitting atop a crate.
It was possibly the stupidest thing I’d ever done.
My cry and my sudden movement was enough to startle Todd away from Ethan and jerk around to face me. As he did so, the gun went off.
I screamed and ducked, forgetting all about Ethan’s gun. Instead, I turned tail and ran for the door.
I heard glass crunching, the high-pitched wail like a siren as a mirror shattered, the bullet hitting there instead of me. Glass fell across the attached countertop like crackling confetti. I made it to the door just as another shot rang out and this time it was close enough that I swore I could feel it moving my hair.
Falling out the door, I ran across the street, doing my best to get the hell away from Todd. Louis! I have to find Louis! I thought wildly.
He had been headed for his car and I was, too, hoping I’d find the huge man there. But as I made it to the mostly empty parking lot, I found Louis’s car with the trunk popped open and a crate left unattended near the tire.
I felt panic begin to build as I heard another shot ring out. It came from behind me and my heart fell as I suddenly comprehended that Ethan was in the store with Todd.
Todd—who still had a gun.
Had Ethan just been shot? I turned around and started back towards the store, realizing how stupid that was since I was unarmed, but I had to do something.
I didn’t make it across the street. Halfway there, I heard a voice. The same voice from earlier that evening. “Hold it right there, sweetheart.”
Tommy.
I froze. I was staring at The Cut, horrified by how still it seemed, but in my peripheral vision, I could see a dark figure holding a gun aimed for me.
He was a dozen steps away, and part of me hoped I was wrong. That maybe this guy was just a bystander. A crazy kid dressed up like a gangster, holding a toy gun because he thought he was being funny. But I knew I wasn’t that lucky.
The man’s face was cast in shadow, his features exaggerated with an elongated nose and deep black pits for eyes. I didn’t want to look at him too closely, didn’t want to turn my head, but I noticed that. Part of me wanted to think if I just held still, he would leave me alone.
But that was a naïve, stupid thought.
“Please,” I heard myself say, but I knew this man wouldn’t listen. I wasn’t even sure if he could hear me. I was as good as dead.
Who would take care of Cody? What would they tell him had happened to his mother? What would happen to Jessie? Is Ethan dead?
When that gun fired and that shot echoed through the empty streets, I was one hundred percent positive I was dead. But while I was waiting for the pain to come or for instant death to take me away, I saw Ethan rushing out of The Cut.
He ha
d a gun in hand and a wild look on his face. He settled a little when he caught sight of me, then I saw his gaze jerk away to the ground near my feet.
My whole body trembling, I forced myself to turn slightly. I caught my breath when I saw a body on the asphalt, dark blood pooling beneath him. “Oh my god,” I murmured. My legs felt like they were made of gelatin, about to give way any second.
The next moment, the one right before I dropped to my knees in shock, Ethan reached me and wrapped his arms around me. He kept me up on my feet, letting me lean heavily against me.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, boss. I went to check out a noise I’d heard around the corner. Got clubbed in the damn head. When I came to, I found this fucking asshole out here pointing a damn gun at her.”
