Bennett Mafia(80)

I still hesitated.

“Go,” she croaked. “They’ll send Tanner back to me, and I’ll try to talk him into flying the coop, but I can’t beg you again. I’m dying here, Ri. Just go. Seriously. Kick my brother’s ass when you find him too.”

When she reached for the radio, I was out of time.

I backed away, still feeling wrong, but I knew I needed to go.

When she raised the radio to her mouth, I turned. I was full-out sprinting within seconds.

I’m coming for you, Dad. I’m coming for you.





CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE


I heard the guards shouting and dogs barking just as I ran down the last hill. A rusted white minivan was pulled over on the road with only two tires on the gravel, and I knew that was my ride.

As I jogged toward it, the back door opened.

Blade greeted me, a dark green blanket full of camouflage ribbons thrown over his shoulders. He waved me in, and as soon as I was inside, he gave me my own blanket.

“Hi!”

Carol sat behind the wheel. Dark red sweatpants, a banana-yellow hoodie and her hair in curls wasn’t even the icing on her disguise. It was the cigarette between two of her fingers.

Carol didn’t smoke.

“Let me guess,” I said, trying hard not to smile. “A tired, middle-aged mother.” It was good to see them, both of them.

“Yep.” She blinded me with a smile so I could see her yellowed teeth, and she pointed to the bags under her eyes. “And this isn’t makeup. I stayed up two full nights for you.”

“The alarm was raised?” Blade looked into the woods behind us.

I moved to the side. “She’s not coming. She rolled her ankle and couldn’t make it the rest of the way.”

“That’s too bad.” Blade reached around me, shutting the door, and then he lay down in the back. “Get down here.”

There was a whole setup of boxes and bags of Christmas ornaments. Nestled in between everything was enough room for two people to lie down. I knew as soon as I got down there, he would reach up and pull the rest of the stuff over us. They’d made the back look almost like a hoarder’s minivan. It was perfect.

I began climbing back. “Drive north. They’ll expect you to go south or even east. Go the opposite direction. We can hit the interstate and make up time that way.”

Carol shot me a look in the mirror. “Pffft. You act like this is my first day on the job.” She waved me down with her cigarette. “Get down, you mafia-kept woman, and let me rescue your madamhood.”

I grinned at her. It was nice to see them again.

Blade tugged me the rest of the way, and a second later he’d pulled the boxes and everything over us. A wood frame held everything in place and kept the weight off of us. We had a cozy little cocoon down here.

A second later Carol was coughing. She muttered, just loud enough for us to hear, “I’d make the worst smoker ever.” Another smattering of coughing. “Okay, guys. It’s about to get cold. I have to open the window.”

A draft hit us moments later.

Blade tucked the blankets more firmly around us.

He lay beside me. In the past he would’ve suggested we share a blanket to conserve heat. He didn’t make that suggestion today, and I knew Kai was the reason.

There was a sadness in Blade’s eyes, one I hadn’t seen before and was hard to see now.

“Are you mad at me?”

He closed his eyes, rolled to his back. When he opened them again, he wasn’t looking at me. “No.”

“You’re sad, though.”

Did Blade love me? I didn’t know. Kai said he did, but it wasn’t my place to ask. The only thing I could control was whether I stayed with Kai at the end of all this. I should’ve regretted what I’d done, but I didn’t have it in me. Not anymore. Not after being with him for the last week, waking up in his arms, being claimed by him. I felt all those dark and delicious sensations rolling around inside me all over again.

No. I couldn’t regret Kai. At least not yet. Not until he did something so bad there was no turning back.

Was that wrong?

Even that question felt bleak to me.

Kai had a pull over me that I couldn’t put into words.

“What does the Network think?”

“I don’t know what—”

“Come on, Blade. Like you haven’t hacked your way into those emails. This is me asking.”

He was quiet a moment.

“They think you’re compromised, but there are some who want to bring you back in, make you an asset.”

They wanted to use me, turn me against Kai. While I stayed with Kai.

“He traffics in women, and drugs, and guns. I mean…” Blade turned to me. His words were fierce. “How can you be with him, knowing that? He is what we stand against.”

I could’ve explained that Kai didn’t traffic those in, except guns. I could’ve explained that he wasn’t a bad man; he just did bad things. That he was the leader of his family, of the council, and he did both of those jobs to keep his family alive.

But I didn’t. My loyalties were now with Kai, and he would want me to say nothing. An ache formed in my chest at that realization.

I loved him. I had fallen in love with him. Even now, even as I was sneaking to follow him, I would go back to him.