“Do you have a car in the lot? I’ll need the license plate number.”
I give it to her, and I can tell she’s wondering why I’m in Connecticut if I have New York plates. She looks up at me.
“Luckily, I had a rental because I can’t fly home without my ID.”
I make up some random address in Vermont of all places. Whatever. I’m banking on the fact she won’t check. I pull out the amount she tells me, and I grab my key. I have never been so glad to lock a door behind me after I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door handle. I flop onto the bed after dropping my bag on the floor. I lie back for a moment, but my stomach grumbles. I devour my food. Thank heavens for hotel toiletries. There’s a toothbrush and toothpaste. There’s shampoo and soap too. I’m tempted, but hair color takes better on dirty hair. I’m going to take care of that in the morning.
I put the burner on the bedside table beside my regular phone, which I turned off once I got away from the liquor store parking lot. I didn’t want my location services to ping anything, but I want it close just in case. I strip naked and climb between the clean sheets. I’m out within five minutes.
I’m a brunette now with plain brown eyes. I barely recognize myself since I also bought some self-tanner while I was getting the contact lenses. It’s just enough of a tan to make me look like a completely different person. I’m banking on the desk clerk from last night not being there now that it’s mid-morning. I get ready to head out to buy some food to keep in my room.
I guess I’m going to be watching a lot of TV for the next week. I have enough to cover seven days at the hotel and still have money for food and more gas. I’m going to have to go out somewhere every couple days, so housekeeping can get in and tidy the room. I don’t want to draw attention by not having them come in, nor do I need them doing a random wellness check to be sure I’m not a corpse stinking up the room.
What if that woman from last night looks me up? I’m supposed to be on my way home to Vermont. Damn. I need to move somewhere else. This is so much more complicated than I thought. I gather the few things I have, including the used-up hair dye stuff and the contacts packaging. I check out and get back on the road. Where to now?
“What the—”
I lay on the horn as the car in front of me slams on its brakes for no reason on the interstate. I swerve to miss it, but a car rams into me from the back while I swear another car speeds up to nail my front driver’s side. I can’t help it. I rear-end the car that randomly stopped. It’s after the morning commute, so the highway is relatively quiet. There aren’t cars whizzing by. I lean over to get my registration out of my glove box, and a damn good thing I do. The driver’s window shatters before the front passenger one does too. Someone just shot them.
My door flies open, and a man grabs me. My seatbelt keeps him from pulling me out.
“Come on, chica. Don’t be stupid. Get out on your own. You won’t like it if I do it for you.”
I know that Spanish accent. I look over and nearly shit myself. It’s Carlos’s brother, Arturo. And that is a gun pointing at my head. I close my eyes for a moment. After everything I did to follow Luca’s instructions, I didn’t even make it a day.
“I’m going to reach down and undo it.”
I put my left hand up in the air as I ease my right hand to the buckle. The moment it releases and the belt moves past my right hip, Arturo yanks me out. I can’t get my feet under me, so he drags me away from the car. I’m looking around, but all I see are the cars that boxed me in and a swarm of men. They’re speaking Spanish, and I can understand all of it. I may look like a gringa with my blonde hair—at least when it was blonde—but my mother’s Mexican. Like actually born and raised in Mexico. I grew up speaking Spanish at home.
“Mátala ahora y déjala.” Kill her now and leave her.
A guy standing across my car Arturo snaps as he looks around. He glances down at me and sneers. I struggle to my feet as Arturo pulls up on my arm. He continues barking orders.
“Estamos aquí por dejar cabos sueltos. No la vamos a dejar al costado de una carretera.” Leaving loose ends is why we're here. We're not leaving her on the side of a highway.
This guy—the one on the other side of my car with a gun pointed at my chest—sounds like he’s in charge.
“¡Date prisa! Si ese hijo de puta idiota no hubiera perdido tanto tiempo escondiéndose, podríamos haber llegado a ella anoche antes de que Luca la ayudara.” Hurry up. If that dumbass motherfucker hadn't wasted so much time hiding, we could have gotten to her last night before Luca helped her.
He must mean Carlos’s driver hid. How did they know about Luca helping me? I know he wouldn’t tell him that.
“Maybe if you spent less time using your own product, you might have figured things out faster. Put the guns down.”
My head snaps around, and my eyes nearly fall out of my head. Luca’s walking toward me as though there aren’t half a dozen guns pointed at him. He’s looking at me, and his expression makes me wonder if El Diablo—the devil—is his father.
Chapter Three
Luca
I had Gabriele follow Olivia last night. I don’t like him, and I don’t trust him about most things. But he’s our best enforcer, which means he’s damn good at tracking someone down. He’s a hunter, and I made Olivia his prey. But he knows that he’s not to touch her, not to scare her; just keep an eye on her. I had to meet with Uncle Salvatore and give him a heads up on what happened. If it had been a man who screwed up the negotiations by disrupting them, he wouldn’t have given a shit when Carlos shot at him. But a woman—Uncle Salvatore would have castrated me for not protecting a woman.
I’ve done some shitty things lately, especially to Niko Kutsenko’s woman, but I learned my lesson. I learned I will never trust Carmine ever again, and I will never let that stronzo—asshole—control me again. He can tell my secret for all I care. I’m not going down with him again. I’m still redeeming myself with my uncle, so I knew he would understand, and he did. Grazie Dio. Thank God.
Once Gabriele told me she stopped at a hotel in Norwalk, I went out there. I needed to see for myself that Olivia was safe. I could have let it go and just had Gabriele watch her for a few days, but I couldn’t. Something compels me to watch over her myself. I’m glad I did. I knew Carlos’s brother, Arturo, and his boss, Manuel, would figure shit out way too soon.
“Maybe if you spent less time using your own product, you might have figured things out faster. Put the guns down.”
I watch her head swing around to me and wince since Arturo now has his hand fisted in her hair and is steering her to stand in front of him. The only man who should have his hand in her short hair is me. And it should be while I make her scream with ecstasy, not whimper in pain. I’ll kill him just for that.
“Let her go, Arturo. Manuel, you don’t want to do this. The woman is under my protection after your cousin fucked up. If he hadn’t tried to screw me out of what you agreed to, we would have finished before she came out of the store. We had a witness because of him. She’s my responsibility.”