DELIVER(88)

Anguish took hold in a series of wails, raging in her throat, shaking her limbs. He’d tried to save Mom. He was a f*cking victim of his own father’s greed. Why had she thought he’d kill her? He never would’ve done that. He loved her.

Oh Jesus. Fuck. Fuck. Look what she did to him. “Oh, Van. I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t take it back. The bullet. The blood. She clung to his limp body, weeping, nose running, her heart shredding.

Arms came around her chest and pulled her to her feet. She elbowed him, dropped to her knees, and hugged Van’s waist. He gave her a few more minutes to release a torrent of sobs. Then his arms were back, wrapping around her and dragging her up.

He half-walked, half-lifted her to the sink, dragging her blood-soaked hands with his under the water. “I know you’re not thinking clearly, Liv, but we need to make a decision and act quickly.”

She wept in breathless starts and stops, staring at the pink-tinted water spiraling down the drain.

With his body wrapped around her back, his hands slipped over hers, rubbing her arms and rinsing away the evidence. “We have two choices. One, we go to the cops. Mr. E is brought in for questioning. His corruption may be embedded amongst his peers or he may be working on his own.”

“And Mat— Livana? If he were incarcerated, he could still kill her.” Goddammit, she hurt. Her head. Her heart. This shit with Van shouldn’t hurt this badly.

He tore off some paper towels and dried their hands and arms. “Two, we look up his address and stop him ourselves. By whatever means possible. Right now. Before he tries to call Van. It’s the safest option for Livana.”

Turning to face him, she gathered strength from his eyes and curled her hands around his neck. “Then it’s the only option.”

“Agreed.” The resolution in his taut expression matched his voice. “Mr. E tracks both of your phones?” He pulled her phone from his pocket.

“Yeah. Leave it on the counter.” She scrutinized their clothes for blood. Both in dark t-shirts, the smudges were inconspicuous. With a final glance at the blood-soaked body on the floor, she pressed a fist to her chest and blinked away the watery ache in her eyes.

“There’s a handwritten Austin address on the back of the news article.” He held it up. “Mr. E?”

She closed her eyes. “God love you, Van.” And goddamn him. He wasn’t making it easy to walk away on sturdy legs. She grabbed his car keys from the counter and headed toward the garage. “Van’s phone stays here. Mr. E is in contact with him hourly.”

Josh remained a breath behind her. “If his phone is here, Mr. E will know he’s here. You’re hoping he doesn’t call?”

She punched the code in the keypad and grabbed two long scarves from the hook beside the door. “Yeah. It’ll buy us some time to make the drive to Austin. Or if he does try to reach us, maybe he’ll think we’re asleep.” Van was asleep. Forever. Fuck, she should’ve been relieved, but the ache behind her breastbone burrowed in with brass knuckles.

Fifteen minutes later, she parked Van’s Kia in the Daddy’s Grill parking lot outside of town. The sun clung to the horizon as the gray cast of night crept in. She left the engine running. “I’ll be a minute. Try not to let anyone see your face.”

He glanced through the tinted windows at the three cars in the lot and said, sarcastically, “I’ll do my best.”

Inside, the waft of cigarettes and bar-b-que thickened her inhales. She stood before the only pay phone in the area, pumped it with coins, and lifted the receiver.

“Who is this?” The smooth, feline voice answered on the first ring.

“It’s me.”

Silence.

“This isn’t—” Liv cleared the rasp sticking in her throat. “This isn’t my usual call.”

“No, I don’t expect it is.” Camila’s tone was casual, but worry lurked beneath the surface.

“I need the house cleaned.” The tears broke through. She wiped them away. “There’s a mess on the kitchen floor.”

A gasp pushed through the line. “Your boy?”

“No. This one was never mine.”

“Oh.” A pause. “I feel like I should be happy.” Camila sniffed. “I feel…”

“Same here. I’m on my way to finish this. You have about an hour before the house gets crowded. Two hours tops. Code is 0054.” In a perfect scenario, they would kill Mr. E and sneak off into the night. If she were busted during an assassination of the police chief, she would use the slave house as evidence in her defense. But she didn’t want to explain two bodies. If she failed in her attempt, she didn’t want Van discovered by Mr. E. “Is the time-frame doable?”

“It will be.” She thought the line disconnected, but Camila’s voice came back. “Be careful.”

“Thank you.” For everything. The phone went dead.

She drove in silence for ten minutes before Josh breached the conversation she’d been expecting. “I’m trying to understand what you’re feeling right now and what you felt for him exactly.”

“I’m not sure I will ever understand it.” Van protected her from Mr. E in the best times, and her body bore his bruises on the worst days. Above all, he gave her a daughter. “I loved him and hated him with damaged devotion. He was embedded in my life for seven years. You don’t rip that away and feel nothing.”