Sophie's eyes narrowed as she looked at the two bodies still on her living room floor. "Just what did Giordano want you to do?"
I looked at the bodies, then looked at Sophie. "You weren't supposed to survive to see the sunrise. But I knew as soon as he ordered me, it was time for me to retire, and I knew I had to bring you with me."
Sophie wiped her hands over her pants and stood up. "And if I say no?"
"Then I'd at least ask you to come with me to a new city, somewhere you could set up a new life, a new identity, and then go away. If that didn't work, I was going to give you the backpack." I handed her my backpack and stepped back, keeping my eye on the door. Sophie opened it and gaped, before pulling out the first stack of wrapped twenty dollar bills. "There's exactly one million, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in there. If you want to walk away, it's yours. It's the safe option. Once you drop out of sight, they'll lose interest in you pretty quickly. I'm the one with enough knowledge in my brain to take down criminal empires."
"Or?" Sophie asked, putting the money back and looking me in the eye. I sighed, and squatted down in front of her, wanting to reach out and take her hand but afraid to do so. I wasn't worthy of it, I never had been. But now she knew just what a disgusting creature I was.
"Or you come with me. Sophie, I'm not saying it's going to be paradise. We'd both be on the run for a long damn time, maybe for the rest of our lives. The men I worked for, they have connections all over the world. But as much as it is more dangerous for you, I can't imagine living my life without you. So yes, I'm greedy, I'm a taker, and I've caused enough death that I'm going to be answering to some immortal deity eventually, and I don't expect it to be a pleasant conversation. But I love you, and I want to at least see you to safety."
I watched Sophie ponder it for a minute, her eyes going from the bodies on the floor to me and back. I could almost see the thoughts running through her head, and the concerns she had. Going with me meant giving up any hope for a normal life, that was for sure. Finally, she turned and headed towards the bedroom of her apartment. "Where are you going?"
"To pack a couple of bags. I may be going on the run with you, but I'm going to at least take some of my clothes with me. Unless you happen to carry women's clothing with you in the back of that pickup you've got downstairs?"
"Okay, but I'd like to be out of here in five minutes. If those were Owen Lynch's men, his standard procedure is to send another team, usually corrupt cops, soon after. It covers their asses in more ways than one." I heard Sophie rustling around in her bedroom, hurriedly packing her bags, and I guessed more than a few times just jamming things in. Still, she came back out in less than four minutes, with a backpack and a large gym bag slung over her shoulders.
"If I forgot anything, I'm expecting you to pick up the tab," she said with a half grin. "So where are we going?"
Chapter 7
Sophie
We drove for four hours, until nearly midnight. We had taken the Interstate for most of the trip, stopping for gas once while Mark grabbed some snacks for us from the convenience store. While we munched on Fritos, he filled me in on his plan. "Ever since the first hit, I knew I didn't want to be stuck doing this my entire life. I met too many lifelong criminals in the years I worked for Sal and the Confederation, burned out by paranoia, and turning to drugs or other crutches to try and get through to the next day. So I started saving, and learning how to invest my money. I used a lot of shell corporations and dummy names, stuff I picked up from the same criminals I worked for. I took my laptop with me, it's in the back of the truck, although I plan on chucking it in a fire as soon as we can, just in case. I have a backup system anyway, one the Confederation can't track."
"Just how much money are we talking, anyway? I'm not trying to be a gold digger, but I am curious."
Mark thought for a second, then shrugged. "Well, there's a lot of things I'll have to give up in the city, stuff I bought under the alias I used for my condo. That kind of sucks, since that was a lot of my real estate investments. But my cash assets, my stocks, and my other investments I made under other names. I can't give you an exact amount, but I'd say if I liquidated everything that I could currently liquidate safely.... I'd have access to over a hundred and fifty million dollars."
I blinked, sure he had said something wrong. "A hundred and fifty million? That sounds like baseball player money."