Page 40 of Outlaw
This condo used to be a safe place to be, even if it’s a virtual prison. I’ll never look at it the same way again. Jesus, I won’t be able to sleep at night here again. A tiny sob squeezes past my throat. Hot, stinging tears push at the backs of my eyelids. Now isn’t the time for a freak-out, but that’s what happens when waves of shock roll in after the adrenaline stops pumping. I’ll never get used to the fact that someone wants me and is willing to kill others to make it happen.
“What the fuck were you thinking, coming back here?” Silas makes his way to me from the far side of the room. He’s angry. A vein is pulsing at the side of his neck and another at the center of his forehead. “You know what? Never mind,” he grumbles before I can answer. “Do you have a storage room or any space in here that locks from the outside?” He asks me.
“No. Well, the balcony, I guess.”
“That’ll do.” One by one, he hauls the men out. Once he’s done, he locks the sliding glass door. “We need to leave,” he says, wiping sweat and smeared blood from his brow. “There may be more of these special agent rejects on the way.”
I run into my room to grab a couple of things. I refuse to go back to the clubhouse, but I’ll accept their help to make it out of this place and make my getaway once I’m outside. My bedroom door is open, and although her voice is low, Cindy doesn’t give a fuck that I can hear her as she argues with Silas.
“That tart caused all of this mess,” she says in a rough whisper. “Do you understand me? She’s not some cute, helpless girl off the street, baby. She’s not Sabrina Temple like her fake ass driver’s license says. She’s Sabrina Rizzo. The Italian mafia. It took me a while to figure it out, but this girl is the Padrino’s daughter. Do you understand me? She’s Romano Rizzo’s daughter. Our most important client. Do you see what that could mean for us? We’re neck deep in shit because you can’t keep your hero hair off for one damn day. But wait, there’s more she forgot to tell you!”
Words escape me.
I can’t accuse her of lying.
It’s true.
I wince as I try to block out the damage my lies and omissions caused. And Cindy looks like she’s ready to spill out the rest too. My secrets are all about to come out in the open. I should have known that she’d take pleasure in ripping off the huge Band-Aid from her son’s naivety. Silas all but forgets his urgent caution that we need to leave my condo. He stands there with a stunned expression, eyes vacant, and I have to turn away. I can’t look at him now that his mother’s about to unveil the rest.
Almost literally.
