Page 96 of Together We Burn
Mac frowned. “How so?”
“I was hoping I could hire your guys for help,” I said. Mac sat back, scratching the hair along his jawline.
“I can maybe spare a few men to help out,” he said thoughtfully, then chuckled. “Shit timing though, darlin’.”
“Sorry she’s such an inconvenience,” Alex snarled, slamming his fist down on the table, hard enough that his coffee sloshed over the rim of his mug.
Mac shoved him back a little. “I didn’t say Iwouldn’thelp, dickhead. It will just be a struggle getting guys I trust. Everyone’s sort of up in arms at the moment, and rightly fucking so.” He looked at Jake’s hand, then moved up to meet my eyes. “But for you, for Chris, I’ll get it done. So, what do you have planned?”
It was a fucking stretch, probably the most idiotic idea I’d come up with, but sometimes idiotic ideas were the ones that had the highest chance of actually working. I just needed a couple of his guys with fast bikes and even faster reflexes to do a snatch and grab.
As much as I hated it, hated myself for going through with this, Nate needed to be at the swap. There was no way around it. If I were in Emilia's position, I would want to see the goods before making a trade.
Mac just had to make sure he could pull this off.
I tilted my head to peer up at Jake.
“Call her,” I said, and he took his phone out of his jeans pocket. “Tell her I’ll come tomorrow night, wherever she wants. This needs to be over.”
Chapter thirty-eight
Stevie
Atowerofsquarecinder blocks, grey and dingy looking, loomed ahead as we pulled up to the location Emilia chose for the swap.
The warehouse. The place where all this started and had now, finally, come full circle.
An unwanted shiver travelled along my arms to the back of my neck as I climbed out of the cabin of the truck, turning at the last minute and leaning forward on the seat. Nate’s huge green eyes shone off the little car lights above the open door, wide and nervous.
Fuck, I was nervous too. Not because I didn’t think this would work, but because after tonight, I could lose the last person in my family when she found out I used her son as the carrot to lure out Emilia.
Tugging hard on the seat belt wrapped around Nate to check it was still clipped in place, I tried to smile. He looked so much like his mother right now, it hurt to breathe.
I pushed back the dark hair that flopped over his forehead and looked over his sweet little face. Bravery and determination stared back at me, a level of bravado I would not expect from a child who knew something awful had happened to his mom but had no clue how much danger he was in right now.
Fuck, he was braver than I was. On any other given night, my hand would be steady, my aim would be true, and I would get the job done. But fear, nerves, doubts, things that never crept to the surface when I was working, all crashed into me in waves tonight.
Resting my foot up on the door frame, I rolled up my trouser leg and unsheathed a small blade strapped to my ankle. Running my thumb along the edge, I admired the delicate steel, and the scorpion engraved on the handle before flipping it around and holding the blade.
“Take this,” I said, handing Nate the weapon. “Don’t use it unless you really have to, okay?”
“Wow,” he said, his smile beaming from the other side of the car as he took the knife from me. He examined it, the first ever weapon I’d used to seriously hurt a guy when I started out.
I noticed his missing tooth, the dusting of freckles so similar to mine and his inquisitive eyes, excluding colour, which were the same as Chris’s. He pretended to stab the air a few times before saying, “This is so cool.”
“Don’t tell your mom.” I winked. “She might kill me.”
Before I could stop him, Nate unbuckled his belt and threw his arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. I tensed, unsure what to do, when a glint caught my eye. I untangled his arms and held his wrists, unable to stop the smile from forming on my lips.
“Be careful with this thing,” I said, giving the wrist he held the knife in his fist a light shake. “You almost poked my eye out.”
“Oops,” he said, sheepishly, scurrying back to his seat and fastening his seatbelt again. Jake appeared behind me and dropped his hand to the small of my back.
“You ready, baby?”
I nodded, never taking my eyes off Nate tracing his thumb over the etchings on the handle.
“Nate,” I whispered, drawing his attention back to me. “Stay here until I come get you, okay?” He nodded and glanced down. “Look at me,” I commanded. “Nothing will happen to you, I promise. You’ve just got to trust me.”
