Tommy grinned like a kid who just won a big prize at a carnival. He was sick, but this was his job. He got to muscle people around and murder when Aton and his family needed.
I thought about the picture in my back pocket. That beautiful woman was going to die. She could have been out to dinner or something right now, not thinking about death. Then again, what if she deserved it? If Aton wanted her dead…
“Come on,” Tommy said. “Let’s get out of here. I’d love to sit and watch my work but I can’t risk anything. This one is serious.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
“None of your damn business.”
We got back into the car and drove away.
Tommy dropped me off at my place and I raced inside. I took the picture out of my pocket and tossed it to the table. I went to the fridge and opened a beer. It tasted like shit. I opened the picture and looked at it again. She was goddamn beautiful. Seductive in her pose. I turned the picture around and there was an address on the back. Handwritten with the name Rose on it.
There was nothing I could do about this. I couldn’t stop it from happening. If I tried, Aton would have me killed in a second. Plus, if he wanted someone gone, they were gone. There was no stopping it. Especially if the call came from above. Higher up in his family. Deeper connections that nobody really wanted to know the truth of.
I drank the shitty beer and walked to my bedroom with the picture of Rose.
I crashed to the bed and tossed the picture to the nightstand.
“Sorry, Rose,” I whispered.
I then felt guilty and had no damn reason to. For all I knew this woman was a murderer. Christ, maybe she had been involved with Shane’s death. Whatever she did, she deserved to die, blown up when she started her car.
I shut my eyes, leaving half a beer behind. I demanded sleep, but my mind thought about Rose. The smell of her car. That smell…
My eyes shot open and I sat up.
Christ…
That’s where I knew the smell.
Rose was the woman standing behind me before the fight with Johnny. She was the one I told to go away.
What the hell was a woman that beautiful doing at a fight?
I turned on the lamp next to my bed and grabbed the picture again. I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head.
I couldn’t stop it from happening… but I could check on things tomorrow. Maybe she was smart enough to somehow survive.
5.
(Rose)
“Someone tried to kill you last night.”
I swallowed hard, pulling the blanket tighter around my body. I sat across from Luke. He looked half drunk or high or something. He had dried blood under his nose and at the corner of his mouth, but I didn’t dare ask about that.
“Why?” I whispered.
“I think we know why,” he said. “Do you want to go down that road again?”
I lowered my head. “No, Luke, I don’t.”
“I got word about it and I stopped it from happening. Well, your car is gone, but you’re not.”
“My car?”
“It was wired to blow up,” Luke said. “Don’t worry though. You weren’t the one inside when it went up.”
“Who was then?”
Luke half smiled. “Let’s just say Marco served out his purpose…”
My stomach felt sick. Luke had sent poor Marco to my car to blow up. He knew it was going to happen and he let it happen. That’s why Luke was evil. That’s why Luke was a murderer.
I had to get away from him. From this life. From everything I knew.
But how? Where would I go? Any little mess up and Luke could pull the trigger. Not just literally with his gun and kill me, but he could come after me in another way. For something I didn’t do… that I was blamed for.
“So what do I do now?” I asked.
“First off, everything is cancelled for you. You’re gone. You need to act like you don’t exist.”
“So I’m stuck in this apartment?”
“Exactly. You don’t leave. You don’t do a damn thing. You need food, call someone. You need a drink, drink water. Got it?”
I nodded. “For how long?”
“Until I fucking tell you,” Luke yelled. “I have to go, Rose. I can’t babysit you anymore. You disgust me sometimes. Everything built in this family and you fucking ruin it.”
“What did I do?” I asked.
Luke slammed his fist on the table and jumped up, sending the chair flying. He pointed right at me. “You fucking killed him. He was heartbroken after Ma died. You were supposed to take over. But you never did. I had to carry his ass. I had to carry your ass. And you killed him. You broke his fucking heart.”
“He drank himself…”
Luke opened his suit jacket and showed me his gun. That was my cue to shut the hell up. “Don’t,” he growled. “Don’t you ever. Someday… you’re going to get it for real, Rose. And I won’t be there to help you.”
With that in the open, Luke left the small apartment.
I was trapped again.
I changed my clothes, living out of another suitcase. That was how I had lived since a kid. Some girls had closets. Some women had bigger closets. Me? I had a dozen suitcases. All packed with enough outfits to last a week or two, with all the feminine stuff I’d need to get by.