“Okay.”
We ran.
I fired repeatedly, but knew my bullets were only glancing off the concrete and the dirt around him. The action still worked well as a diversion because he ducked down farther as he continued to shoot, making every bullet go way over us as we made our way to the car.
Despite the lousy shooting, my entire body was alert, focused, and tense, but what I was feeling was much more than the adrenaline in my system as I opened the driver’s side door and pushed Lia over my seat and into the passenger side.
“Stay down!” I commanded as I climbed in behind her. “Keep your head under the dash!”
Lia complied and the tires screeched as I pulled out of the warehouse parking lot. I heard another shot off the back of the car right as I was turning the first corner and slammed my foot to the gas. I zigzagged through side streets and onto the expressway ramp, topped a hundred miles an hour as I swerved to avoid traffic, and then immediately took the first exit.
Navigating additional side streets at top speed, I constantly watched the rearview and side mirrors for anyone following us. I went back to Interstate 94 and headed south briefly before racing to another group of side streets and back north again.
I tightened my grip on the handle of the Beretta and clenched my teeth. I couldn’t stop my rapid breathing and the feeling of panic in my gut and chest. I glanced at Lia, who still had her body angled low and her head wrapped up in her arms.
My chest clenched, and I checked the rearview mirror again. We were in some neighborhood far to the west of downtown. I hadn’t traveled in this area before, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around at all. I screeched through a couple more stop signs before I yanked the wheel to the side and slammed on the brakes.
Reaching over the center console, I grabbed Lia and pulled her up against me. Her arms went around my neck as I held her tight enough to feel her heartbeat.
She’s alive…she’s alive…she’s alive…
I could barely convince myself.
Shoving the seat back a bit, I slid an arm under her legs to bring her to my lap and tighten my grip on her. I kept wondering if she was going to disappear, and I’d realize this was nothing more than another hallucination. If it was, I didn’t know what I would do. If I lost my shit completely over a dead hooker, how would I survive losing Lia?
I wouldn’t—plain and simple.
My arms gripped her again, and Lia gasped slightly.
“Evan—I can hardly breathe.”
I loosened my grip a bit but only enough for her to be comfortable again. She sighed heavily as she relaxed against my chest.
“Never again,” I mumbled.
“What?” Lia asked.
I wrapped my fingers around her hand and held our hands up together.
“I don’t want to let go of you—not ever. Once we are out of this city and out of this life, I’m never leaving your side again.”
Her grip tightened as I lowered our hands again.
“Where are we going?”
“Rinaldo’s house.”
“Rinaldo? I thought you were…well, staying away from him.”
“Things have changed a bit.”
“He knows?” she asked.
“He knows everything,” I replied. “Gavino also knows I wasn’t really working for him.”
“Did the feds catch him?”
“No,” I said. I glanced at her sideways. “They never showed up. They either fucked something up royally or never intended to go through with it. I’ll deal with Agent Asshole later, I guess.”
“Shit, Evan, what are you going to do?”
“Get you somewhere safe—somewhere with protection for you. After that…well, I’m still thinking about it. I’ve got to find out what happened with Trent, and I need to find out exactly who the guy is who took you.”
Lia’s eyes found mine. Her expression was strange, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. It occurred to me that I had no idea what she had been through over the past few hours.
“Are you hurt?” I asked as I pulled back and reached up to her face. There were bruises forming there, and she had a nasty red mark on her chin. “Did he fucking hit you?”
“I’m okay,” she said quietly.
He’d kept her alive, and anyone just looking for the bounty on her head would have killed her back in the apartment. I looked over the beautiful woman in my arms and knew there were other ways of hurting her.
“Did he…did he touch you?” I asked. My eyes bore into hers, looking for the answer outside of her words.
Her eyes tightened; she swallowed hard, and her breath caught in her throat.
I had to fight with my hands to keep my fingers from crushing her arms.
“Who?” I demanded as my chest tried to collapse into itself. I struggled not to scream. “Who…who was it?”
“He didn’t…” Lia struggled for breath before continuing. “He didn’t…not that—not really.”
I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
“What did he fucking do?” I roared.
“He kept saying…saying he was going to,” she told me. “He pawed at me a bit and said he was going to take everything from you, just like you did to him.”
What the fuck did that mean?
“Who was it?” I demanded. “What did he look like?”
Her eyes focused on mine.
“I thought you knew,” she said. “You were talking to him that one day…”
Her voice trailed off.
“Who?” I yelled again.
“That guy,” she whispered, “the one who came to your apartment before.”
I blinked, considered, and shook my head.
“Jonathan?” I yelled through clenched teeth, not even able to comprehend him doing something like that to any chick and certainly not one he knew was mine. He was always going on about how Nick and I didn’t respect women enough. The only thing I had done to him was spare his life, but all that would change if he touched her.
“Not him.” Lia shook her head. “The really big guy with no hair. The one who showed up when…well, when we were arguing that one day about the neighbor and…and her dog.”
I froze.
She couldn’t mean him. There was no way.
“The one who told you to check into me?” I asked.
She nodded, but I kept shaking my head. None of this made any sense.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Lia, he doesn’t work for Rinaldo. He’s a fucking fed.”
“The one making you do all of this?”
I nodded.
“Why would he…?”
Part of my initial conversation with Trent came back to me. He had taunted me with the suggestion that I had been working for the insurgents and had given them information—the same thing Kevin Davies, the private who had given up our position, had been accused of doing. At the time, I assumed it was just a tactic to get to me, but now I wondered if there was more to it.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m going to find out though.”
I wrapped her hair in my hands and pulled our heads together. I inhaled her scent through my mouth and nose, wanting to capture it forever in my memories. Everything in my head made so little sense, I was half afraid it was still nothing but a dream. I felt wetness in my eyes drop down the sides of my face and into her hair.
Something was happening inside of me, and it was strong and powerful. I didn’t have a name for it, only that I equated it to more of an unexpected, physics-defying sunrise rather than a left hook to the jaw. It was like it had always been there, lurking around my body, but was blocked by everything else. Before I nearly lost her, I couldn’t see it for what it was.
Now it was blinding.
“I love you,” I heard myself say right before I started babbling. “God…I just…I…I love you, and if you had…if he had…fuck…I can’t be without you. I love you, Lia.”