Back at my apartment, I sit with my feet up and a half-eaten bacon chicken hoagie on a plate next to me. The beer in my hand sweats from the lack of air in the apartment. After a day in Darla's cold place, I don't miss the air conditioning. I miss her, though.
I stare at the dark TV and wonder when I became so clingy. I'm still wondering when someone knocks on the door.
Checking the security camera hidden in the hallway, I see Rafael standing outside my door. He glances around, spots where he thinks the camera likely is and flips it off.
I open the door but block the entrance. "Why so much anger?" I ask, grinning.
"We need to talk."
"About your wife?"
Just as wide-shouldered as me but taller by an inch, Rafael's a big guy. I've faced bigger, though, and his frown doesn't intimidate me.
"Let me in, Troy."
"I've met your mom, Rafe. I'm fairly certain she raised you with better manners."
Rafael's dark eyes terrify many people. They might terrify me too if I thought he'd actually hurt me. The guy was always decent at his core, but since he got married, he's been downright cuddly.
"Please, get the fuck out of the way. Thank you very much, asshole."
"Mama would be proud," I say, waving him inside.
Rafael doesn't sit down after I lock the door. He stands at the window, eyeing the street below.
"Is this about Locke?" I ask, relaxing on the couch.
"I guess. I want to know if you're safe to be around Darla."
My temper burns in an instant, and I plan to revert to a schoolyard form of handling disagreements. While punching him until I win feels right, I choose to keep my face calm and hands relaxed.
"Safe how?"
"She's fragile."
"I sensed that about her, but until you mentioned something, I couldn't be sure."
Rafael rolls his eyes. "This is our first big job in security. You're not accustomed to playing house with our clients. Darla is beautiful, and she's gotten attached to you."
"Yes, she is and yes, she has."
"Can you be impartial?"
"Were you ever impartial during a job? Didn't you make things personal even when they weren't so that you could give a shit about eliminating a target?"
"Making things too personal can lead to sloppiness."
"Sure, but I'm not sloppy. Besides, that's not why you're really here. You know I can do the job, so what gives?"
Rafael finally sits down in the only chair in the room. He's not comfortable with his reason for being here. I wonder who sent him. Did Shelley or Vernon have concerns about poor Darla's crush on the nice killer?
"A woman like Darla needs a soft touch," Rafael says awkwardly. "Trust me that I know this for a fact."
"I can do soft," I say and then add with more intensity, "I am doing soft."
"You like her, Troy. Don't pretend otherwise."
Narrowing my eyes at him, I suspect Minka snitched after all.
"I'm not stepping away from this job so make your point."
"The shrink she was seeing. The male one told her sister that he felt Darla ran that day, not because she saw a chance to get away, but because she was suicidal and didn't care what happened. He claims she remains suicidal. This was one reason Shelley wanted the shrinks changed. She got pissed and said the guy was an idiot."
"He is."
"You can't know what's going on in Darla's head."
"I know more than he does. That guy with his degrees doesn't know what it's like to exist in the darkness of another person's fantasies. To have your life twisted and tortured to make another person laugh. If he understood, he'd know that Darla wasn't giving up the day she ran. She was fighting back."
"Darla isn't going to get better because a handsome man likes her."
"Hell, man, do you really think I'm handsome? Talk about a real ego booster."
Rafael and I laugh, but we remain on edge.
"She's messed up," I say after a few minutes, "but I'm not exactly an example of normal over here. We got rich with blood money and lived our lives worrying about ending up on the target end of a riflescope. Even now, can we really walk that shit off? You and Harlow are living the newlywed life and talking babies, but you know what you were. She came with baggage too. It's why you two work."
"And you think that's why you and Darla can work?"
"Sure, why the hell not? I've never found a type of woman that worked for me. Maybe that's because I never knew a woman like Darla existed."
"I've always felt fucked up people belong with other fucked up people."
"Darla isn't the woman hiding behind her hair and wearing those giant sweats. That shit is her shield. The real Darla is stronger. She just needs time to remember the world isn't the cage Locke trapped her in. Freedom is fucking scary after living in a prison. You understand that as much as I do."
In his youth, Rafael spent time locked in a Mexican prison. He'd been innocent of the charges, but the experience changed him from missionary to mercenary. I'd been a killer for years before I lost my freedom and nearly my life. Even so, the time under an evil man's thumb made me realize how short and often pointless life proved to be.
Now with Darla, I see a chance to take my dull retirement and turn it into a grand adventure. No way will I allow Rafael, and certainly not Locke, to interfere with my plans.
22
~~~
Darla