The Fall(66)

“Sucks to be her, because it looks like she wasted her life on me.” My voice was more like a growl, not bothering to hide the f*cking rage and agitation.

“She—” She tried to continue.

“Save it,” I snapped, having heard enough bedtime stories to last me a lifetime. “It doesn’t matter now.” And more importantly it wouldn’t change anything. “You will do this, and you will do it right this time. No one will know and then in a couple of days I will come get her and you will never see me again.”

“Okay. I can do that.” She nodded, wisely keeping all other details about my whore mother to herself.

“Glad you are so agreeable. I need to go.”





The sun was just about to come up and Michael still hadn’t returned. I had no idea where he’d gone or what he was doing, but his suggestion that I go to sleep wasn’t a good one. I couldn’t have even if I wanted to, my brain churned, processing information as I tried to put them into neat compartments inside my head.

It was one step forward, two steps back when it came to him. He had opened up to me and shown me kindness, but he refused to accept he was anything other than a monster. He’d been inside my body, it had eased us both, but more importantly, I’d let him inside my heart.

And yet, here I was, alone and confused and clueless if any of it had even made a difference.

The metal scraping of the roller door opening echoed through the warehouse. And it was strange at how surprised I was that he’d come back. Part of me had expected him to go, leave me and all of this behind and take what was left of my trust fund money. It would have been easier and something he might have even contemplated. It shouldn’t have thrilled me so much that he came back, but it did.

“Did you sleep?” he asked, walking through the doorway and closing it softly behind him.

“Not really.” I sat up in bed, clutching the covers around my chest. “Did you do what you had to do?”

He hated questions, but it never stopped me from asking.

“Yes, I did.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “You’re going to be staying at Saint Margaret’s while I go meet with Jimmy.” He raised his hand to stop me from opening my mouth, knowing I’d want to have a say in what happened to me. “This place is safe.” His hand waved around the room. “But I can’t risk you being here. Jimmy knows some of my aliases and he has people who can find out things. And I’m almost positive that while he hasn’t shown up on my doorstep yet, he would have been stupid not to track my phone when Franco left me in that hotel room. If he didn’t, then he was a fool and he won’t be making the same mistake twice. Any place that can be tied to me is not safe for you. No one will look for you at Saint Margaret’s.”

It had been one of the first times ever he’d divulged information without me pulling it out of him one word at a time. I blinked back in surprise, my mouth opening and closing a few times before I finally found the words I wanted to say.

“How long will I be there? And what will happen after?”

“I will come for you.” He moved to the edge of the bed and sat down. “As soon as I can, and I’ll get you across the border. Those new documents should be ready by then. Once you’re in Canada, you can jump on any plane you want and put as much distance as you can between here and you. You need to stay away for as long as you can, but if I were you, I’d stay gone.”

He didn’t need to tell me that I would probably never see him again. It was more than implied.

“And what will you do?” I stopped short of asking him to come with me again, knowing the answer was and always would be no.

“What I have always done.” He shrugged. “Take another job and move on.”

There was a beat of silence that passed between us, as if both of us had agreed that whatever those words were, they were better left unsaid. But deep down I knew I hadn’t been just a job. Both of us had been affected. Both of us probably a little afraid to admit it, even if it was just to ourselves.

“Do you have everything you need? For the investigation?” His hand rubbed the back of his neck, no doubt uncomfortable in what I had planned to do. No matter how much it was justified, he hated what I was doing.

“Yes, it’s enough.” I nodded. The last few days had been spent creating a solid case for prosecution. Even if only a third of it were ruled admissible, it would be enough to put my father and his friends away for a very long time. “And I’ve left a trail for them to find everything else.”

“Good, that’s good.” He nodded. “I’ll let you get packed up.” He stood, moving to the doorway and leaving the room.

My feet kicked the covers off my body, knowing that I wouldn’t have a lot of time. My bags were in the corner of the room still mostly packed, but I shoved whatever else was left inside before getting out some clean clothes and checking my gun.

I quickly showered, brushing my skin pink as I toweled off and dressed all without him returning. My eyes floated around the small room. Even in the middle of the day, it was still pitch black. The windowless walls starving any light before it had a chance to enter. But it was in here that I’d felt safe, and I knew that I was saying goodbye—never to return. Not to this room or to anything familiar again.