And I want to unload every chamber in my gun at them.
Normally, I wouldn’t feel so furious about getting tailed. Over the years, I’ve come to recognize it as part of business. An inconvenient part that meant things were soon to get very fast and very exciting, but still just another part.
But the thought that they would have the audacity to tail me right now fills me with fury that I have to force myself to hold back from my face. The reason is sitting right next to me. With Serena in the car, I feel a protective instinct rear its head inside me. It’s not a new feeling. I knew it well when we were teenagers. I forgot how powerful it made me feel.
These men dare put Serena at risk, and if it comes to it, I won’t hesitate to kill for that. But for now, I carefully plan out a path in my head that will take us through traffic where I know I can lose them. All it will take is a little patience.
I’m so caught up thinking of Serena’s safety that I almost forget we’re heading out on a date. That just makes me all the more furious at the bastards behind us for intruding on a moment with Serena.
“So,” Serena’s voice snaps me out of my concentration a moment, “I’ve gotta admit, you don’t strike me as an aquarium kinda guy.”
I raise my eyebrow at her. “No?”
“No, something about the rippling muscle and guns don’t scream ‘I love dolphins’.”
“Dolphins are alright,” I say simply. My face is still, but I can see her cracking a smile out of the corner of my eye as if she can’t tell if I’m joking or not.
“But you’ve been here before, right?” she says, glancing at the road.
“Once.” I take a turn, hand on the gear shift, and I’m at the other end of the road taking another turn by the time I see our pursuers come into sight. I’m gaining ground.
“Oh. Did some starfish owe you money or something?” she asks with a smile, and I can’t help but feel a grin tug at my lips.
“Seal, actually,” I say, and she giggles. It’s nice to hear her joking, feeling at ease with me. But every time we share something lighthearted together, I can’t help but feel that nagging voice at the back of my mind. It reminds me that I the closer I get to her, the more I could put her in danger.
I can’t let that happen. But I can’t abandon her, either. We’ve opened the Pandora’s Box, and I’m not prepared to lose her again.
To let her go again, I correct myself.
“Really, though, who convinced you to go check out the fish?”
“My uncle,” I say, my smile fading into a more wistful one as I think back to him. Along with Serena, my uncle is one of the few people I can think of in this country and feel happy.
“Carlo?”
“You remember him?” I say with a smile, glancing over at her before glancing back to the rear-view. Damn it, they’re back on us again.
“You talked about him a lot,” she says, “seems like a really nice guy.”
I give a half-smile, thinking back to my teenage years. “Yeah, yeah he is.”
“So what, you take your old uncle to the aquarium for his birthday or something?”
“Opposite,” I say, leaning back in the seat. “When I first got here—to America, I mean—my uncle wanted to show me the sights, and for some reason he thought the aquarium was a good place to start. I think I was...thirteen? Fourteen?”
“Ohhh my god,” she says, grinning broadly, and I know she’s picturing my punk-ass getting dragged around New York by the old man.
“I was a little shit,” I say with a laugh, thinking back to myself fresh off the ‘boat.’ “I think he didn’t realize what age I was at, and he kept trying to get me interested in all the sharks and jellyfish and all the dangerous ones. All I did was grouch around the place. Every time he tried to show me something, I’d fuck off somewhere else or swear at him with some of the English words I learned.”
“Wow, you were bad,” she giggles, and I shake my head, chuckling.
“He got back at me, though. When he started teaching me his carpentry, he drilled me, constantly.”
“Wait-”
“No, not literally,” I say, “it was just intense. He wouldn’t accept anything less than perfection. He’s a poor man, but I’ve never seen carpentry better than what he’d make, and he expected me to be able to do the same. I was getting there, too.”
That wasn’t the only thing Uncle Carlo taught me, either. There were other skills I got from him, skills that made me so good at what I do now. Uncle Carlo has a lot of secrets Serena doesn’t need to hear about. Not now, at least.
“Wow,” she says, and I notice she’s looking down at my hand on the stick-shift. “I always wondered what made your hands like that.”
“Like what?”
A little color comes to her cheeks. “Hm? Oh. I dunno. Rough. It’s...kinda nice.”
I smile, feeling quiet pride swelling in my chest, and she twirls a lock of hair around her finger for a few moments of silence between us before speaking up again.
“Are you sure you’ve been to the aquarium before?” I hear her ask. Despite the situation, I smile. I was wondering when she’d notice. She’s sharp. She always has been.
“I am.”
“...are you sure this is the right way?”
“Yes.”
She just stares at me blankly for a few moments, and I realize that I can’t hide anything from her. It’s better that she know, anyway—easier to keep her safe when she knows what I’m watching out for. “Look up at the mirror and tell me if you see a black sedan three cars behind us. Be subtle.”
Her body tenses up immediately, but she manages to look up at the mirror without jerking around. “Yeah.”
“It’s been following us since about five blocks from where we left.”
“Shit, really?” she hisses, and before she can say anything else, I reach over and take one of her small, slender hands in my rough fingers. I give it a squeeze, glancing over at her to smile.
“Let me worry about him,” I say calmly. “I might not have been born here, but I know the Bronx better than these stronzi from over the river.”
She nods, and I shift gears and pull out of traffic through a side-road when I have the chance. It’s a quick move, and I soon have us out onto another road that lets me weave through traffic a little more freely.
“I know a way Dad used to take us when things were...kinda heated,” she says suddenly, and I’m so surprised I look over at her with a raised eyebrow. She looks a little unsure of herself, but she nods to the road up ahead. “About five blocks down, take a right. I think I remember it pretty well.”
“Serena…”
“I’m sure about it,” she says with a little more confidence, and I crack a smile.