by Ethan Egorov
Trent looked like he was getting more pissed off by the moment. Kristina didn’t know what to say or what to do about it other than just tell the truth. In just a few hours, she’d be on a plane hovering over the Pacific Ocean, and she wouldn’t have to worry about any of this except on her terms, and her terms would most certainly not entail her reaching out to Trent.
“You know what really upsets me?” he finally said.
“What’s that?”
“You’re just up and leaving town like it’s nothing. That’s what you always do. You’ve gotten really good at running, Kristina.”
God, here we go again.
Before that insult, Kristina might have been willing to empathize with Trent and take a few steps back. She might have been willing to stay behind after dinner to talk to him and make sense of everything.
But with that insult, it was like they were back to being juvenile teenagers all over again. It was like they couldn’t escape their old behavior patterns, and even with the benefit of age and time, there was no escaping their unhealthy relationship for each other.
“Oh yeah?” Kristina said, agitated. “Well, so what? Maybe if you gave me a reason to stay, I’d change my mind!”
As soon as Kristina had said those last four words, she both regretted them and silently thanked herself for saying them. For whatever reason, those were the words that finally got Trent to shut the hell up— to do something much bolder than anticipated.
Before Kristina could raise her voice any louder, Trent pressed her further into the wall and placed both hands on her shoulders again. This time, however, he dipped his head closer to hers and engulfed her mouth with a deep, fiery kiss.
Somehow, their hearts always came back to each other. To her own surprise, without really thinking about it, she deepened the kiss and ran her fingers through his dark hair. She then pulled away from caressing his cheek and feeling the stubble which had grown out through the day. There was a moment of silence between them as Kristina stared into his electric eyes. It was as if both simultaneously wanted to fall into the moment and make sense of what the hell had just happened.
“Kristina . . .”
But as soon as he spoke, as soon as that same voice that had insulted her said her name, she snapped back to reality. The kiss was nice, but it was just that. It was nice. It wasn’t anything else. It didn’t mean anything more. It just was a physical sensation.
“Trent,” Kristina said. “We’ve been through all of this before. You know I can’t stay. I’m not built for a white picket fence.”
“So what?” Trent said defiantly. “Neither am I. You understand the darkness in me that no one ever could. You know there’s something dark in my blood. I mean, look at what my biological family has done just this week. You calm the beast. All I’m asking is that you stay just through the weekend and see if you change your mind. I know I can change it, Kristina.”
Kristina leveled her gaze at him and smiled. Trent really could be a sweet guy when he wanted to. Just as it wasn’t hard to see why they were bad for each other, it wasn’t hard to see how he could easily charm her back.
That just made it all the harder for her to acknowledge that she needed to take a step back.
“You always were the sensitive one, Trent. You drive a hard bargain, but . . . I can’t.”
It killed Kristina to realize how much those two words actually hurt Trent.
“Just like you have that darkness, I have that itch to roam,” she said, which was absolutely true. “New Zealand this week, maybe Singapore the next, the week after that, who knows. I’m not the marrying type. You just have to accept that.”
Trent pulled her close once more and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. He then exhaled deeply. It was an incredibly tender gesture and very sweet, and unfortunately, it meant that Kristina had to put in double the effort to resist its effects.
“Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where home is. You only have to say one word, and I’m yours, Kristina. I’m not going anywhere either. I’ll be here.”
“No, Trent . . . don’t you dare wait for me.”
Her words could not have been firmer or stronger. There was something so weak and so sad about a man saying he would wait on a woman that she couldn’t help but feel pity for him. This was not the point in time to be a bitch to Trent, but it was absolutely the point in time for her to make things as clear as possible.
“Is that why things went south with Rachelle? Were you ignoring her and thinking about all the other possibilities that could have been with us? Because that’s no way to live, Trent. I want you to live your life. If fate brings us back together, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. But don’t you dare depend on fate.”
Kristina wasn’t about to say that Trent looked on the verge of tears. Trent wasn’t the crying type, and he definitely wasn’t the tearful type about a relationship. But looking into his eyes, she could see she had split his heart in two.
But in time, she trusted he would work to heal it for himself and become a better man. He had too much going for him to have his heart be so strongly attached to a single person. And if he did, then perhaps he just wasn’t the man that Kristina had thought, a realization that would ultimately make it easier for her to move on.
She hoped.
“Now, come on,” she said, nodding her head in the direction of the other Salvatores. “Let’s go have dessert before the place shuts down. You know Antonio gets cranky if he doesn’t get dessert after dinner.”
They walked back to the table and found Tommy and Dad engaged in what appeared to be a spirited conversation about poker.
“We’ve been waiting for you to come back to start dessert,” Antonio said. “Tommy and I were just having a bit of a disagreement on cards. But in any case, that is neither here nor there. I propose a toast.”
Kristina smiled as she grabbed her glass of champagne. She tried not to look at Trent as his father spoke, but she still felt sad and a little guilty for the pain that seemed to be going through his face.
“May our family always remain close and continue to grow strongly over the years. May our enemies be eliminated one by one, so we can finally find peace. May the Lord look favorably upon this request.”
The old man then raised his glass to the table. After the toast, everyone began tearing into a Baked Alaska. Antonio cracked the exterior frozen shell, and then they each scooped out individual portions. As they ate the creamy goodness, they laughed and celebrated having the evening together. Even Trent laughed a little bit, and Kristina had to admit that gave her a warm feeling.
After dessert, Kristina excused herself and gave them all warm hugs. She promised to at least call when she landed in New Zealand, and before she left, she slipped a tiny box in Trent’s jacket pocket.
“Keep this safe for me while I’m away. We’ll talk soon.”
She then did something she wasn’t one hundred percent sure of, but it still felt right in the moment. She leaned up, kissed Trent on the cheek, and held him in a tight embrace. Someday, she hoped he had the mental clarity to detach from what had happened, focus on the good times, be thankful for both the good and bad times, and then move forward with his life. Maybe it wouldn’t happen today, in a week, in a month, or even in a year, but Kristina still held out hope it would happen at some point.
“Thanks,” Trent said as he held her in a tight embrace.
Mercifully, he didn’t try and kiss her or do anything else that would have prolonged the recovery process. The hug lasted a little bit longer than Kristina would have liked, but in a way, it was a sweet step down, a sort of peace gesture.
Kristina made her way out into the street, knowing she had to return to the hotel room to procure her belongings. She wasn’t keen on going back to that place. The first time she had done so after the shooting was too surreal, given the room and windows were riddled with bullet holes. But unless she wanted to fly to New Zealand with literally nothing but the clothes on
her back and the possessions in her pockets, she had to head over.
She nodded to the front desk concierge, who looked somewhat frazzled. But who could blame him? His hotel had just been attacked in the hours before. She rode the elevator up, silently preparing to defend herself if needed.
The doors opened to the long hallway and she made the walk that at one time had seemed luxurious and now seemed downright menacing. She got to the end of the hallway, held her card key to the door, and silently prayed it still worked.
Miraculously, it did. Whoever her client was had either not canceled the room, or the hotel had not gotten around to deactivating her key. Either way, it wasn’t something she was going to complain about or raise hell on.
She moved quickly, clearing the room to make sure no one was waiting for her. It was empty, save for her possessions, which she quickly gathered and then left the room without a single moment for nostalgic remembrance or reflection. That could wait for when she was a few thousand miles in the air.
She reached the elevator, took it down, and went to the front without any problems. She hailed a black taxi cab that pulled up and she got in the back.
“Airport, please,” she said.
The cabbie nodded, started the ticker, and began the bumpy and aggressive ride toward the airport.
Finally free from the stress and danger that had surrounded her just moments ago, Kristina sighed and collapsed into the back seat. The exhaustion of the previous day and a half was catching up to her big time. She had, after all, spent the previous night sleeping in the car, and she hadn’t napped quite like she had thought she would in the hotel room. And even if she had a good night’s sleep, the emotional distress of everything that had happened between her and Trent was enough to make anyone feel like they hadn’t slept in ages.
It was a lot to take in. She knew that when she got to New Zealand, she really had to put Trent out of her life entirely if she didn’t want to have these old feelings flare up when she saw him. If she was destined to like him forever, maybe even more, then the least she could do was make an effort to try and put him out of her mind. Then, if she still had feelings when she saw him, at least she could live with the fact they were truly permanent.
But for now, the green, luscious landscape and mountainous ranges of New Zealand beckoned her. She hadn’t traveled to that part of the globe yet, and she eagerly anticipated the opportunity to do so. She didn’t think it would be that much of a culture shock, especially since people there spoke English, but she still looked forward to seeing what awaited her.
But when the exit for international departures came up, the cabbie missed it.
“Sorry, not sure if you heard me. We’re supposed to go to international—”
“I know,” the cabbie said.
The last thing Kristina saw was the cabbie turning around, stuffing a cloth in her face, and then she slowly lost consciousness.
Trent
After exiting the restaurant, the three Salvatores went to a quiet place on the street. Trent was still reeling from what felt like one of his final conversations with Kristina. It had all happened so fast and so quick, and just like that, she was headed to the airport to disappear across the globe, quite possibly never to be seen again.
It all felt far too sudden and too unfair. Weren’t they meant to be anything more than that? And even if not, didn’t they deserve an ending better than what they had given each other?
It all just felt too knee-jerk, too sudden. Granted, Trent and her hadn’t been official in years. They hadn’t seen each other for a long time before this morning, either. It wasn’t like this was an attempt to rekindle a relationship that had played out over time. This was something that had happened so quickly, in a week. Trent thought it would feel like a dream.
Unfortunately, for the time being, it just felt like a giant nightmare, and it wasn’t helping that instead of being comforted or consoled, Trent’s father decided to use the quiet as a chance to rip into them for some seemingly poor decisions.
“Now I remember why I didn’t leave you two in charge of anything sooner in life,” Antonio said, clearly adopting a very different demeanor without Kristina present. “What were you going to do after you saw the break-in? Hunt down every rival gang member in the city and shoot them with an ancient Tommy gun that probably barely fires?”
“We just thought we were going to help you, Dad,” Trent said. “We—”
“Jesus,” Antonio said. Trent opened his mouth to speak further, but it was probably for the best that Tommy grabbed his arm and stopped him before he could dig his grave any further. “Let’s go home. We’ll sort it out when we get there.”
They arrived back at the mansion, Antonio looking around with a foul look on his face. For as peaceful and invigorated as the old man had looked at the steakhouse before the boys arrived, it was pretty apparent they had put a damper on his evening. Hell, it looked like it had put a damper on his life.
But then he started to speak, and Trent realized the foul look no longer had to do with them, but with the situation at the mansion.
“I’m tired, and I come home to find nothing but a mess,” Antonio said, venom dripping in his voice. “This is concerning. My bedroom is trashed. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m too old to be playing these little games anymore.”
So . . . he gets where we’re coming from now?
“I changed my mind,” he said, much to Trent’s enormous relief. “You two handled things perfectly. I think it’s time we stopped playing defense and started playing offense. Both of you are staying here tonight, and I don’t want any static. Hell, I even have half a mind to call and cancel Kristina’s plane ticket. She wouldn’t have to know. And when she does, we’ll have someone right outside the airport to grab her and get her ass back here.”
Trent looked at his father, sympathetically. This war between their families had been going on for generations, and while it was certainly good to have competitors to push you in business, he could understand his father’s want for a peaceful life. The long sleepless nights, as well as the fear of having a bullet between your eyes at any given time, was taxing. It made an old man out of everyone sooner or later.
He wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of Kristina getting in the fray, but he had to admit he wouldn’t say no to the opportunity to have her back in his life.
“You and Tommy go ahead and head to bed,” Antonio said. “It’s late. We’ll all have breakfast in the morning and make plans. Oh, and neither one of you plans anything for tomorrow. If you have plans already, cancel them. I hate to be this way, but that’s an order. Do you two understand? We’re going to get to the bottom of all this nonsense ASAP.”
There was no room for disagreement, not that Trent wanted to disagree. They both nodded their heads in agreement with their father, who was slowly trudging his way upstairs. Trent and Tommy walked to the kitchen where Trent got down two whiskey glasses, put in a couple of cubes of ice, and poured a small amount in each, setting one in front of Tommy.
“A nightcap,” Trent said, as much a chance for him to unwind from all the personal drama as it was from the family troubles. “It seems like tomorrow will be a long day for both of us.”
He shook his head as Tommy took a sip of his drink. The two of them had a lot of long days recently, and it didn’t look like the long days would slow down anytime soon.
“I’m tired of this, Tommy. I’m tired of living this lifestyle. I’m tired of the long nights and longer days. I need to find a different direction in life.”
“Don’t we all, brother,” Tommy said with a chuckle. “Don’t we all.”
Tommy downed the rest of his drink and then clapped Trent on the shoulder.
“Get some sleep, Trent. It’ll be alright.”
Trent scowled at the bottom of his glass and downed the rest of it, secretly wishing he was an optimist like Tommy. Tommy always believed everything would be alright in the end. He probably had a good reason fo
r believing that because things usually did work out in the end for him. He just had that luck with the ladies and everything else.
Trent suddenly wished he believed that everything would turn out alright for him as well as he turned out the kitchen light and walked upstairs, finding the softness of his bed waiting for him.
Trent slept far longer than he meant to, the exhaustion finally catching up to him. He awoke the next morning with the sun streaming through the window. He rolled over and picked up his phone. It was only a little past eight.
He took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling for a few moments, then rolled over and stretched his arms out across the bed. He felt a tinge of pain when he realized the only thing beside him was the extra pillows the housekeeper piled on all the beds. He missed the mornings when he would roll over, and someone— Rachelle, Kristina, someone— would be there, staring at him while he slept. He was most certainly not a morning person today.
Admittedly, the feeling was not as acute as it had been when his birthday night ended without some great birthday sex. But it also wasn’t as calm as it had been before, mostly because of the previous night.
After showering and shaving, he walked downstairs to find his father and Tommy already sitting at the breakfast table. There was a spread put out, and Tommy gave him a broad smile as he walked slowly down the stairs.
Good old Tommy. Ever the cheerful chap.
“Come on and eat. We’ve got a busy day, and I can’t be stopping for you to get a sandwich every five minutes.”
Trent sat between Tommy and his father. They had been reading through the current events in the newspaper and having their after-meal coffee. Trent decided to take Tommy’s advice. He helped himself to a generous portion of scrambled eggs and bacon. He then added a pancake with syrup, some fruit, and, of course, several sausage links. If he was going to be frustrated, well, Trent figured he could at least have some good caloric intake to make up for it.
