“It’s better if you don’t know her location.” Jimmy said. I glanced at him and then back to Victor suddenly realizing this was real fucking serious if we couldn’t know where A and the kid were.
“Wait a minute.” I said, dropping my feet from the table as I sat up straight. “You guys aren’t fucking around. Are we like in real serious danger?”
“You can be.” Victor said not sugar coating anything. “That’s why I need you guys away from here.”
“So we are going to stay here?” I asked, looking around the cabin before I looked beside me at Nikki.
“No.” He shook his head and reached for the envelope that Jack had given him. He unclasped it and peeked inside shuffling through the contents, but not taking them out of the envelope. He extended the envelope to me. “Inside you’ll find two cell phones, credit cards, and new identification cards along with a map and keys to the car that’s parked out back.”
I took the envelope and pulled the contents of it out. He wasn’t fucking kidding. There were two brand new phones one for me and one for Nikki. I pulled out the two New Jersey state licenses, one had my picture, and identification the other had Nikki’s however our names were no longer Nikki and Michael. Nikki grabbed the I.D. cards from my hand and looked down at them.
“James Trunzo and Sara Trunzo?” She looked up at her father. “We’re brother and sister?”
Victor nodded towards the envelope insinuating that the answer to her question was inside. I held open my hand and turned the envelope over to shake the remaining contents out into my palm catching the two gold bands as they tumbled out of the envelope.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” I said.
“You want us to pretend to be married?” She asked incredulously.
“That’s a bit more believable than the whole brother sister angle don’t you agree?” Jimmy said as a matter of fact, raising an eyebrow towards me daring me to question the decision.
“Look things can happen on the road and I want you both to be prepared. You could be stopped by the cops on the highway or followed by someone. The reality of the situation is that people from the other family will be looking for you they are going to try to use you to get to me for that reason alone I need you both to stick to the story. You are newlyweds driving down to Florida to visit your grandmother and share the happy news of your wedding with her.” Victor said dictating our story.
“So we’re going to Florida.” Nikki said, trying to make sense of it all. “Are we really going to visit grandma?”
“Yes, Aunt Gina is expecting you guys.” He said. “The car out back is all yours. You can stop along the way down to get yourself clothes and whatever else you might need. I don’t know how long it’ll be before this is all straightened out, but hang tight.”
I could barely keep my dick in my pants as it was and now I had to go on the run with mobsters after us pretending to be Nikki’s husband. I was going to die a slow death I was convinced. I placed the wedding bands along with the envelope that held the contents of our new fictional life on the coffee table and rose to my full height.
“I need air.” I said, sounding as if I was choking on my words. This was entirely too much for me to process. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that just weeks ago I was in Pennsylvania minding my own fucking business and now I was about to go on the lam with Nikki.
I stepped outside the cabin slamming the door behind me. I could handle going on the run that was just going to be temporary. However, what I was having a hard time with was that I had this aching feeling in my gut that Nikki’s life was now my responsibility that while we were hiding out in Florida it was my job to protect the mobster’s daughter. Me the fuck up with no experience whatsoever with this shit. I started to think it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if someone were to shoot me right at that moment putting me out of my misery and all that.
My body flinched at the sound of the door slamming and I glanced at my father taking in his tired features wondering if it was possible for a person to age a decade in twenty-four hours because that’s exactly how my father looked.
“Daddy, there’s something I need to tell you.” I said feeling remorseful.
“What is it, sweetheart?” He said, rubbing his eyes.
“Before they shot up Temptations last night I went to the sound booth to see Rico. He was there with another guy and some girl…” I swallowed, trying to find the courage to confess that this whole mess was my fault because I had misjudged the man I let into my life and the lives of the people I loved. “They were doing drugs.”
My father’s face became stone cold his eyes flickered with something I had never seen before.
“They didn’t know I saw them and they continued to talk to one another. I heard Rico ask if everything was set to go down and then he told the girl to get out of there before whatever it was he was talking about went down.”