A few minutes later, Sabrina emerged from the shower, wrapped in a towel. She perched on the end of the bed without saying anything for a second, watching me, and then spoke.
“Where you the one who killed those guys?” she asked softly. I didn’t know what to say to her, so I didn’t say anything. My denial was enough, and as I turned around, I could see the mix of fear and relief on her face.
I’d never even hinted to anyone what I did for a living before then. Anyone outside those who needed to know that is. Why hadn’t I denied it? Why didn’t I jump in and try to convince her that she was crazy and I would never do something like that? Her knowing could get me into a fuck-ton of trouble, but for some reason, I wasn’t scared. She met my gaze steadily, and we found ourselves staring at each other for a long, silent moment. There was still time for me to deny it if I wanted, but for some reason, I didn’t. I trusted her. Why? I couldn’t put my finger on quite yet, but there was something about her that made me feel… safe. As ridiculous as that was, it was the truth, and there was no denying it. I turned back to the window and finally spoke again.
“We probably shouldn’t stay here too long,” I warned. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone’s going to figure out that you’re here soon enough.” I shook my head. “We can’t risk it.”
“Where will we go after this?” she demanded, crossing her arms. “You know I have a business to run, right?”
“Keeping you safe is more important than your business right now,” I reminded her gently. “Have you got someone who can run it for you while you’re away?”
“I do,” she sighed, conceding the point, then she lay down on the bed. “Fuck, I’m exhausted.”
“You should probably get some sleep,” I agreed. “We’ll need to move later today.”
“How do you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I couldn’t tell her the full depths of my depravity; let her know everything that I knew and how I knew it. I still needed her on my side, needed her to trust me. She turned over onto her side, apparently too tired to really take issue with anything that was coming out of my mouth.
“You’ll be back, won’t you?” she asked even softer, and I nodded.
“Of course I will,” I assured her. “I just need some time to figure some stuff out, that’s all.”
She yawned, and her eyes drifted shut.
“I’ll see you soon.” I leaned down to plant a kiss on her head and then walked to the door. I had some planning to get on with.
Chapter Thirteen
Even though I was exhausted, I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. I reached out to catch Anthony’s arm before he walked out the door, and he twisted round.
“What is it?”
I pulled him down onto the bed, letting my towel fall away, and climbed on top of him.
“I’m not done with you yet,” I murmured, and planted a kiss on his lips. He was still soft and warm from the shower, and he felt good underneath me. Strong, safe. Worry flickered over his face, but he placed his hands on my bare hips and let his eyes drift down my body.
“I can’t say no to you when you’re like this,” he replied softly, running a hand up my back and leaving tingles in his wake.
“Noted,” I nodded, and then kissed him again. This time, the kiss was less chaste, less sweet. His tongue found its way into my mouth, and his hands cupped my breasts and pinched at the nipples. Before I knew what was happening, he was inside me again, and I was riding him for all I was worth -the only sounds I could hear were of our skin connecting, our breath growing heavier, and the traffic outside, distant and muted, as if it was coming from another world.
He finished inside me, his body growing tense beneath my grasp, and I rolled off of him and onto my side. He nestled into me at once, wrapping his body around mine without a moment’s thought, and I snuggled against him. God, he felt good. What was it about this guy?
Before I had a chance to think over anything further, I must have fallen asleep - the madness of the last couple of days having caught up with me. We slept in each other’s arms until it was dark because when I woke up, I reached around for him and found him missing from the bed.
I sat up at once, my heart beating, and then relaxed as soon as I saw him standing over by the window. The curtain was pulled back a couple of inches, and he wasn’t moving a muscle, staring at something I couldn’t see.
“Anthony?” I asked, my voice cracked from sleep. He jumped slightly, then glanced over at me.
“Oh, you’re up,” he commented, not moving from where he stood. “We need to get going, as soon as we can.”
“Is everything okay?” I pulled the covers around myself, suddenly noticing how cold it was.
“Nothing’s wrong right now, but I have a feeling it’s going to be,” he muttered, seemingly to himself.
“I need to call my assistant manager,” I replied without thinking. “She needs to know that I won’t be at the restaurant for a while.”
He tossed me his phone, and it landed on the bed next to me. I looked up at him, and it suddenly became really clear to me how little I knew about this man. I was about to go follow him across the country just because he believed he could keep me safe. Well, he had so far. I guess I would have to play it by ear. And what happened when I was proved wrong? I guessed it was better than sitting in my apartment waiting for someone to kick the door in and finish me off.
I rooted through my bag until I found the scrap of paper with the numbers on it, and dialed Lily.
“Hello?” She sounded confused. “Who is this?”
“Hi, Lily, it’s me,” I replied.
“Why are you calling from a number I don’t recognize?” she asked cautiously. “Everything alright?”
“Everything’s fine, I’m just going out of town for a few days, going to get my head straight,” I explained. “Are you okay to run the restaurant until I get back?”
“Of course.” I could practically see her tossing her hands in the air at the ludicrousness of my question. “You take as much time as you need.”
“Thanks, Lily,” I sighed. “Love you.”
“Love you too. Keep in touch!” she ordered, and then hung up the phone.
“Are you sorted?” Anthony turned to me, and I could see that he looked unnerved - his eyes were wider than normal, and his entire body looked tense.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” I nodded. “Are we leaving?”
“I think we should.” He came over and sat on the bed next to me. “I know this is a lot, but I just want to get you somewhere safe.”
“I know.” I nodded again, and he leaned in to kiss me. For a moment, I forgot about everything we’d been dealing with, and simply lost myself in him. It was becoming distractingly easy to do that of late.
“Okay, let’s get packed, and we can go.” He stood up, and I gathered what little belongings I’d spread out and stuffed them back into the bags.
“What about all that money that you gave the woman at reception?” I asked. “That’s good for a couple of weeks, at least.”
“Yeah, well, it means we can come back here if we need to.” He twirled his key around his finger demonstratively. “And it might throw anyone who’s looking for you off the trail.”
“Who do you think is coming after me?” I asked bluntly, but he deftly avoided the question.
“Have you got everything?” He glanced over his shoulder with his eyebrows raised.
“Got everything.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
We made our way out of the room, down the stairs, and into his car. I noticed he was doing his best to keep me shielded from the sight of anyone we passed by. I felt like a criminal, even though I’d done nothing wrong, and it was an unpleasant sensation.
As soon as we were out on the road again, I felt my eyes drooping shut. I had never had a life as exciting as this - and not the good kind of exciting either. This was the
kind of exciting people paid money to watch over popcorn and soda in the cinema so they didn’t have to live it themselves. I couldn’t say that I blamed them - this was hellish, worse than anything I’d ever imagined. Even with a man who seemed to care about me, and just so happened to be dynamite in bed, life wasn’t easy or fun like this. No, it was hellish, difficult, and pretty fucking terrifying.
I woke from my snooze as we pulled into a gas station, and Anthony quickly topped up the car and went inside. It was still dark out, and I looked around the dim, shadowy space around me fearfully, half-expecting someone to leap out of the dark and drag me away there and then. But no one did, and a few seconds later Anthony re-emerged from the small building. And he was carrying something.
I stretched and craned my neck to see what he had in his hands, but the night was too heavy around us to see before he got into the car.
“Hey,” he murmured softly as if worried that I was still half asleep.
“Hey,” I smiled back, and he handed over what he was holding.
It was a bunch of flowers - small, slightly wilted, but undeniably sweet. I couldn’t help but beam as he placed them carefully in my hands, and I lifted them to my nose to catch a smell. They were peonies, my favorite.
“How did you know?” I joked.
He shrugged “Lucky guess, I suppose. I don’t know where we’ll keep them, but…”
“They can just live on my lap for now,” I suggested, letting them sit on my knees. It felt good to have something comforting and normal, even if it was completely out of the blue.
“You get some more sleep.” He leaned over and caught my chin in his hands, tilting my face so he could look at me. “We’ll be there soon.”
“You want me to drive?” I offered.
“No, you need to catch up on your sleep,” he replied, starting up the car. “Trust me, you’ll probably need it.”
Chapter Fourteen
We pulled up outside the house, and I paused at the wheel. How long had it been since I’d come here? Years? Probably. I had never thought I’d need it again, not after I retired.
Before I had a chance to mull any further, Sabrina stretched and sighed next to me.
“Are we here?” She peered outside.
“Yep.”
“Where are we?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
“We’re at an underground house,” I explained, getting out of the car then opening her door.
“Huh?”
“I brought it a few years back, call me paranoid.” I shrugged. “It’s safe, though. No one knows it’s here, and no one will be able to find you. Us.”
“An underground house?” She got out of the car. “Is that just what it sounds like?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” I shrugged again.
“And we won’t have to go hide anywhere else after this?”
“I can’t see why not,” I replied. “Come on, let’s get you in.”
I hitched her bags over my shoulder and walked towards the door opposite the parked vehicle. There was a large metal entrance that led down to the house, and I keyed in the code and made my way down. She followed me in and jumped when the door slammed with a sharp crack behind us.
“This feels like some kind of doomsday bunker,” she muttered as we made our way down the stairs.
“It’s not that bad,” I countered as I got to the main part of the house. I flicked the light on and turned around to lend her a hand - she was still a little shaky on her feet from her recent sleep.
“Yeah, actually.” She looked around. The place was small. It had a tiny living space with a kitchen attached, a bathroom next door, and a bedroom with a double bed that pulled down from the wall. She turned to peer at me carefully as I plopped her bag down on one of the chairs.
“Should I ask why you have this place?”
“Probably not,” I admitted. I had it because it was a safe place to hide out from the cops when things got too hot around the collar back in the city. I had purchased it early on, with the cash from one of my first hits, and it had come in seriously handy over the years.
“Am I safe here?” she asked, approaching me slowly. And I knew she wasn’t just asking about this house - she was asking me, directly, if she could trust me. She was in less danger now, with me, than she had been back in the city.
“I promise that I’ll keep you as safe as I can,” I replied honestly, gripping her arms tightly. She stared at me for a moment longer before stepping back.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’m going to go get settled in. Where’s the bedroom?”
“Right through here.” I led her through and pulled the bed out. “Bathroom’s through there when you need it.”
“Thanks.”
I stepped out to give her some privacy and checked my phone. Shit, a message from Leo.
I scanned it quickly, and my heart dropped as I realized what it was. It was in our code - he was assigning me a hit. And I needed to work with someone - the very person who I knew for a fact was targeting Sabrina.
Saffron.
Fucking shit. I ran my hands through my hair, panic coursing through my system. How was I going to get out of this? She would find my location quickly enough, I knew that, and the guy we had to take out was a crime boss, as big as Leo. This was going to be trouble on all kinds of levels. But first, I had to make sure that Sabrina was alright, and try to keep her oblivious to everything that was going on. She was safest when she didn’t know anything.
I plastered a smile on my face and made my way through to the bedroom.
“Hey!” She smiled as she looked up at me, her face relaxed for the first time since I had picked her up the day before.
“What’s your favorite food?” I blurted without thinking.
“Huh?”
“Make a list for me, all your favorite foods.” I gestured at her vaguely. “I’ll go out and get them.”
“You’re leaving me here by myself?” Her face dropped.
“You’ll be safe here,” I assured her. “I just need to go out for a few hours, get this place stocked up with stuff to eat so we can hide out here for as long as we need to.”
“Okay.” She observed me with a hint of suspicion. “Give me a minute.”
I went back out to the living area and paced back and forth. I had received the text maybe two, three hours ago, and the hit was in a city a half-hour drive from where we were now. I was meant to be meeting my partner there in less than an hour. I had a location and everything. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, something was off. Or maybe that was just my intuition screaming at me not to go see Saffron again if I had half the chance. I could dump this whole thing now and run away. Sure, it would put Leo on my tail for the rest of my life, and make Sabrina and me public enemies number one and two as far as he was concerned, but it would mean I didn’t have to do this or see her again.
Before I could dwell any longer, Sabrina’s voice floated out from the bedroom.
“I’m done!”
I hurried back in, managing a quick smile as she held the list out to me.
“I put everything I could think of,” she sighed. “And now I’m starving just thinking about all of it.”
“I won’t be long, I promise.” I planted a quick kiss on her forehead, then glanced down at the list. I could stop by a supermarket on the way back, get everything she had asked for. But right now, I needed to leave if I wanted to have any chance of getting to the meet-up point in time and keeping Leo off my tail.
I made my way up to the car, hopped in, and tore off towards the meet-up point. So many questions were whirling through my head that I could barely keep on top of them. What would it feel like killing someone for cash after all this time? Would I feel dirty and shitty, or would it feel like slipping back into my old shoes? How would Saffron react seeing me back in the game? Where would my next hit be, and would Leo catch on that something was amiss?
As soon as I arrived at the meet-up point, I slipped
out of the car, popped the boot, and clicked open the mechanism that removed the false bottom. Inside was a collection of my work stuff, wrapped in a large sports bag so as not to attract attention. I glanced around and, upon seeing no one, slung it over my shoulder.
I looked at my phone again. The meeting point was around here, but I was early, and I wanted to get ahead before anyone else arrived. Peering up at the building over me, I saw a large ladder leading up onto a secluded rooftop balcony - yes, that would do perfectly. Securing the strap of the bag, I went for the ladder and began to pull myself up.
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