Page 79 of Savior

I guess it is. Well, I’m glad you liked your gifts, Sloane. I wish I could give you the world.

I don’t think God would like you to give away something he worked so hard on.

I can almost see his smile through the phone.

No, I think you’re right. He wouldn’t. Happy Birthday, beautiful girl. Goodnight.

Goodnight, Father Russo.

I feel a million pounds lighter as I lock my phone and close my eyes. I’m toying with fire, and I know it. I need to leave him and the entire situation alone. But I can’t.

I decide he and I can be friends as sleep comes for me.

And that’ll have to be enough.

The next fewdays go by, and I’m in a haze. I text with Luca every moment I can. There are miles between us, and it feels less like we’re breaking some unbreakable covenant. I tell him things I’ve told no one else, and he confides in me how he was already wavering in his faith before he learned I was missing.

Even though he’s on the other side of the city, I feel closer to him now than I did before I climbed out of the rectory window and returned to my life.

Dante swaps in and out with Lorenzo, the other bodyguard charged with watching me. Lorenzo doesn’t seem to enjoy having to watch me when I have shifts at the club, but the girls love him, to his dismay.

He’s very solemn and grumpy, but he’s kind to me when it’s just him and I.

“Do you want the last egg roll?” I ask Lorenzo as I pack the Chinese boxes to take to the trash.

“No, Ms. Sloane, I can’t fit it in my belly even if I tried.

I smirk, taking it to the counter to put in the fridge.

I hear Lorenzo pausing the television. We’ve been watchingThe Walking Deadtogether, and even though I think it’s boring, his banter as we move through the seasons is enough to keep me watching it.

Luca has been preoccupied with remodeling and repairs at the church today, and we haven’t texted because of it. I can’t deny I feel anxious each time I check my phone, and he hasn’t texted. I’ve become addicted to my phone, which I’ve never been to before.

Myra remembered it was my birthday two days later and swore she would come and make it up to me, but half of me knew she said that to make herself feel better.

My life feels better without her in it, if I’m honest.

Though, I can’t pinpoint why. Maybe we’re just growing apart, and I’ve been going through too much lately that she can’t understand.

“Boss?” Lorenzo says, picking his phone up on the first ring. He stands, and my heart sinks as I stare at him for any sign of what’s wrong. “On it. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“What’s happened?” I ask as Lorenzo grabs what I now know as mygo bag.Dante made me pack it the first day he was assigned to me.

“Barone made a move on a few of Brynne’s men. We have to move you. It was only two blocks away. We can’t risk it,” he says, and as he grabs my arm and makes for the door with me in tow, I grab my phone off the counter as we pass.

“But we have to shut the apartment down. Lorenzo, slow down. You’re scaring me,” I admit.

Fear shoots through me like a lightning storm, and there’s not much I can do to tamp it down.

“Look at me, Sloane. You’re to stay behind me. Do you understand me? If I fall, you take my gun and run like fucking hell. You got me? You’re a survivor; I saw it in you the day I met you; you can do this.”

I swallow over a lump building in my throat as I nod.

“You ready?” he asks as the elevator he’d shoved me inside opens on the first floor.

Even though I haven’t answered, he pushes out into the lobby, gun drawn.

“Whoa, man, what the hell?” the desk man says, his hands raised in defense.

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