“Why would you need proof of that?” Cole exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table again. “I’ve felt so much guilt the last two years over putting him away. I did it out of spite, just because I could. Don’t you realize how heavily that’s weighed on me?”
“I do,” Harvey confirmed solemnly.
“Then why didn’t you say something then?” Cole huffed. “Why did you ask me to take the heat for him? You made up that entire story, like he was going to be joining the business with you and you needed him. What was all that?”
“A test,” Harvey said directly.
“What test for you have I ever failed?” Cole said loudly with expressive arms, standing up from the table. “Why would I ever side with that piece of shit man who has never done anything for me? What did I have to prove? What hadn’t I proved to you by then?” Cole’s anger was all over his face. “I just wanted him out of the picture! And then you asked me to take his sentence? That’s not a test Harvey. That’s some bullshit penance you wanted held over me to give you power.”
“I wanted you in jail, Cole,” Harvey admitted. “I honestly thought out of your loyalty to me, you would do it because I asked you to.” I looked over at Cole who just stood there, shaking his head in disbelief.
“That’s sick,” Cole said through gritted teeth.
“That’s the only place you would’ve been protected from what was supposed to happen,” Harvey replied cryptically. “I had received correspondence from your father when he got out of jail. The message simply said he’d already taken one of my boys from me, with a promise to take my other boy. You. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“I still don’t understand what you’re saying,” Cole breathed.
“I wanted you in jail for something petty, just briefly, so there was no way you would be a suspect for what I had planned to happen. I’d made arrangements for your father to ‘disappear’ the following day. I vowed that your father would take his last breath before anything happened to you. I set up a bad job, hoping you would be picked up for it to get you out of the picture so you couldn’t be tied to your father’s disappearance in any way. But instead, when things went bad you pinned your father. That messed with my plans, but I thought if I could convince you to take the heat, I could still proceed with what I wanted to do, but you didn’t go for it, and your father was sent back in.”
“So what now? What does this all mean right now? He’s been released again. He’s already out. What are we doing?” Cole asked Harvey. “And don’t you lie to me about anything else. Just tell me what we’re going to do.”
I still sat in silence, trying to follow everything being said. This was such a messed up situation on so many levels.
“Your father needs the justice he deserves, for everything he’s done,” Harvey stated calmly. “The guy he’s working for, Burton McClellan…”
“Wait, Burton from the poker game? The guy who gave up Sonita?” I interrupted, trying to make sure I understood the connection.
“Yes, that Burton,” Harvey continued, “he’s been shorting our payments and causing trouble. He’s been interfering with our business, and you know I don’t tolerate that. The fact that your dad is mixed up with him too, that just makes this all the more easier to rectify. Burton has six hundred thousand dollars that belong to me, you know that,” he said towards Cole.
Cole nodded in return.
“So the job is two-fold. We get back the money, and I make sure your father is permanently out of the picture,” Harvey stated.
“You’re going to murder him?” I shrieked. “I feel like I shouldn’t be hearing this. I don’t want any part of this,” I said nervously, shaking my head.
Cole looked at me with apologetic eyes, and it felt like there was so much he wanted to say to me, but he didn’t speak. I hoped once we were alone he would be more willing to talk all of this over with me. Hopefully he wanted no part in this as well, but his expression told me otherwise.
“I know you mean a great deal to Cole,” Harvey said to me softly. “But he’s not safe right now. His father wants revenge, as do the people he works for. And if there’s a target on him, there’s a target on you.” I noticed Sonita slowly raise her left hand and touch the scars on her face. I could see so much sadness in her eyes. “Sydney, this is the best thing for you both. We will finish this now, and he will be set free. Otherwise there is no end for the violence that surrounds him.”
“I still don’t understand,” I said quietly.
“One of two things will happen,” Harvey replied simply. “If the job goes well, like I plan, I’ll get the money I’m owed and Cole’s father will be paid off. He will disappear. I have no plans to harm him Sydney, I just simply need him to vanish. There’s a difference.”
“And the other scenario?” Cole asked, still maintaining his stern expression.
“If he doesn’t take the money, then his disappearance will be forced,” Harvey replied hesitantly. “But one way or another, he needs to be out of the picture.”
“What if I won’t help you? What then?” Cole demanded, shaking his head.
“That’s not a risk worth taking,” Harvey answered. “Cole, so many things… The scars you have, the motorcycle accident years ago – none of the things you’ve been through were accidental. They were all done intentionally. Your father has had people working for him the whole time he’s been in prison, and he’s been connected to Burton since before he even went in. The blackmail threats I’ve received, those won’t end until your father is removed from all of this. Those people are all out for me, Cole, but you know they’ll go through you to make that happen. They know hurting you hurts me, and they aren’t afraid to do that. Not even your own father.”
I thought back to the night Cole followed me home from that West Cove dive bar. I thought he was just being protective and crazy, insinuating someone would hurt me just to hurt him. Now in this conversation, I saw Harvey treat him in the same overprotective way. And Sonita’s face – that was clearly an attempt at someone’s retaliation against Harvey. I suddenly felt less safe now than I ever had since meeting Cole.
“This is it, Harvey,” Cole said firmly. “This is the very last thing I will be a part of. But only with your guarantee that I’m out after this. Completely. Forever.”
“You have my word on that Cole,” Harvey agreed. “This is it. You will be released from all of this. But this goes down tomorrow night, so there isn’t any time for wavering. You participate, and this is all over.”
Cole looked at me and I didn’t know what to say. I knew there was so much I still didn’t know. But I didn’t want to know. All I wanted was for things to go back to how they were – the last couple months we spent splashing in the summer sun, and learning about each other under perfect, starlit skies. Somehow in an instant we seemed so far away from that and I hated it. I knew I would give anything to get that back – that’s what I wanted.
“I’m taking Sydney home,” Cole said bluntly, reaching out for my hand.
“What about the lovely pie you brought?” Sonita replied warmly.
“You guys enjoy that on your own,” Cole said dismissively. “Syd, come on.” I stood up from the table and reached out for his hand. “I’ll be by tomorrow,” he added towards Harvey, and that was it. Within sixty seconds we were headed back to my condo on his motorcycle.
“What are you thinking?” Cole said softly as we entered my house.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t understand any of this. I just want to wish it all away.”
“Can we go up to the roof?” he asked with sweet eyes and an exhausted smile. “I want to lay by the fire with you.”
I nodded and we headed to the rooftop, stretching out on the sofa next to the fire pit like we’d done so many other nights.
“I feel like I’m losing you,” I said quietly, tracing my fingers lazily across his chest.
“What happened to our promise? Me and you at the end, no matter what, rig
ht?” He grabbed my hand and pulled it up to his mouth, gently kissing it. “That hasn’t changed.”
“Do you ever wish you hadn’t met me?” I asked honestly. It was a valid question. Maybe I was trying to change who he was. Maybe he wouldn’t be caught up in all of this if I wasn’t trying so hard to pull him away from it all.
“I’ll never have that thought,” he replied shaking his head. “Look, I know all of this is messy. It’s ugly and it’s complicated. I know that. And yeah, I wish I never got you involved in any of this. I hate myself for that. But not at the cost of giving you up. I knew when we met, I wasn’t good enough for you. I wasn’t worthy of your love then, I knew that. But for some crazy reason, you chose me anyway, just on the promise that I would be good enough for you eventually. I know I’m still trying, but don’t give up on me.”
“I can’t give up on you,” I shrugged. “Trust me, this would be so much easier if I could. But I feel like I’m making this worse for you. Like you have one more thing to deal with. I just wish this was all…. simpler.”
“Boring people have boring love stories,” he snickered, squeezing my hand. “Just think of the story we’ll tell our children someday.”
“Geez, you move quick,” I teased. “Who knew we’d go from tacos to felonies to planning a family.”
“I didn’t say the kids would belong to us jointly. I meant you could tell your kids and I would tell mine,” he said with a sarcastic laugh. “Why would I want to have children with you someday? They would come out all smart and good. Bleh.”
“But they’ll also have tattoos by the time they’re ten and a vocab full of curse words,” I teased back. “They’ll be well balanced.”
He leaned down and kissed me, interrupting my smile. It amazed me the way he could talk about our future together when I wasn’t confident we’d even survive another forty-eight hours.
“I’m going to fix all of this tomorrow,” he said softly as he pulled away from me. He stared at me as he said it and I believed him. “I’ll go to Harvey’s and do what I have to do. One way or another, tomorrow will be the last day of my old life. The entire life I knew before I met you – all of that will be left behind and then it’s just you and me.”
I kissed him again, memorizing the way his lips felt against mine – the way his hands felt as they grazed my skin – the way he breathed in the silence that surrounded us.
“So I just wait until you call me and tell me it’s all over?” I asked curiously.
“Hopefully,” he replied quietly.
“Cole, I want something better than ‘hopefully,’ you’re scaring me.”
“If something happens, don’t freak out,” he explained. “I’ll call you when I can, but I’m just saying if you don’t hear from me right away, don’t panic.”
“Cole, what are you saying?”
“I’m just trying to prepare you,” he said, touching my face. “These things don’t always go how they’re supposed to. I’m just saying don’t panic right away if you don’t hear something. If things go bad, I may not be able to contact you right away.”
“Cole, what’s your part in all this? How can things go bad, what does that mean for you?”
“I’ll be okay, I promise,” he said reassuringly. “I just don’t want you coming by Harvey’s or something trying to find me if I’m unable to call you tomorrow night. Not until everything clears. Look, if you don’t hear from me right away, or by Thursday morning let’s say, go to Antonio’s. I’ll get communication to him somehow, only if I can’t reach you for some reason. I’ll find some way to keep you in the loop, but just be patient. That can be our backup plan.”
“It starts and ends with tacos, how ironic,” I said lightly. My stomach was in knots but I was trying to suppress my worry.
“Nothing’s ending,” he said sincerely. “It’s all just beginning.”
CHAPTER 18
Cole and I slept under the stars one more night, as if everything was ordinary. But I swear he held me a little tighter and his lips lingered a little bit longer against mine.
I had the early shift at the clinic, and I hated peeling away from him before the sun was even up. It felt like the world’s cruel way of reminding us that there were limitations to what we got in life – a reminder that time could in no way be controlled by people.
I kissed his sleepy lips and I could feel his face turn up into a smile. “I’ll wait to hear from you,” I tried saying confidently, though I’m sure he picked up on the slight waiver in my voice. I knew he would let himself out once he got up and around.
“Syd,” he said softly, grabbing my hand as I began to turn and head out, “you’re the girl I’m going to love forever.”
My eyes filled with tears and I gently squeezed his hand. “See you soon,” I whispered, unsure of when that was. I left quietly and headed to the clinic.
I was on edge for most of the day, despite it being a pretty routine work day. It was strange not to have Sam around, I still needed to get used to that. Oh what I would give to have her present through all of this. I felt so alone despite such familiar surroundings and I hated it. Dr. Nikki asked twice if there was something I wanted to talk about, but I declined conversation both times even though I had so much weighing on my mind.
At the end of my shift, I popped my head into Dr. Nikki’s office and she called me in, asking me to have a seat.
“I think I know what’s going on,” she said as I sat down in one of the yellow arm chairs sitting in front of her dark wooden desk.
“I can’t imagine you do,” I said lightheartedly.
“Fall semester starts this week,” she began, clearly not letting me out of some type of discussion. “You changed your plans. I know Washington changed for you, but what else? Is this some kind of remorse about not heading back to school? A lot of people go through that after they graduate while they’re trying to figure out what they want to do.”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I really haven’t given it much thought recently. But I know deep down I’ve been struggling with what to do. Sam had such a direct plan laid out, and she’s off doing that, you know? I feel like no one tells you what it’s really like after you graduate. Four years of school and I’m in the same place. It’s like I’m not moving. But I’m happy, so that’s something, right? But so much has changed over the last couple months.”
“Is this about that boy you’ve been running around with?” she asked with a sly grin. “Boys like that have a way of messing with a girl’s plans.”
“I know,” I smirked. “But my plan was cloudy when we met. If anything I feel like he’s trying to encourage me to go after what I ultimately want. But I just don’t feel ready. I feel like on my own I’m just not ready.”
“So let someone help you,” she said compassionately. “What do you want?”
“I don’t know, a normal life? I never thought that would be too much to ask for,” I sighed. “I just want a simple life. I want to eventually open a rescue where I feel like I can make a difference. I want to watch the sun rise and set. I want land and trees and a garden and animals everywhere.”
“I completely understand that dream,” Dr. Nikki said sympathetically. “You can have all that you know. You have what it takes.”
“Yeah, but can I do that here? I can’t fit very many animals in my two-story condo,” I said lightheartedly. “I just don’t know what direction to go. Do I get more education? Do I work for someone else’s rescue first to become more prepared? Do I even have to have an answer to all this right now?” I laughed.
“The funny thing about life is that it decides so much for you,” she replied warmly. “I followed a guy here when I was twenty-three. We were going to be ski instructors and live out our days on the tops of mountains.”
“Really?” I asked surprised. She’d never mentioned anything about that before. “So what happened?”
“I found a dog on the side of the highway with a new litter of puppies, and I vowed I
would take care of all seven of them. Meanwhile the guy I was with found a brunette. So I quickly learned when one thing ends, another begins,” she snickered. “I knew then I wanted to go back to school for Veterinary Science and that was my calling. I know it’s cliché, but always go with your gut, and the rest works itself out. I’m a firm believer that’s always the answer.”
“Thank you,” I replied sincerely. “For everything. You’ve done so much for me. Whatever direction I decide to go, I just want you to know how thankful and appreciative I am of everything.”
I said goodbye to her and headed back to my condo, replaying that conversation. It seemed like weird timing to have that discussion, but I was grateful we did.
As I walked into my house, I noticed a small box with a note on my end table. I picked up the card and read it.
Just to make sure you don’t forget our promise.
I opened the box and pulled out a beautiful thin silver necklace chain with a plain silver ring on it. The inscription inside the ring immediately caught my eye. Just you and me. It was simple, but yet so perfect to me.
I took a quick shower and tied my hair up, putting the necklace on as soon as I was dressed. I loved everything about it. I couldn’t wait to thank him later.
I knew I needed some kind of plan for the rest of the evening. Sitting around waiting for Cole to call would eat my brain. I needed some kind of distraction.
I talked to Sam on the phone for about a half hour. She was all settled into her new place in Oregon and she sounded so happy. I didn’t want to bog her down with my current frustrations, so I glazed over my recap of all that had happened since she left and let her gush about how amazing her new campus was and how excited she was for all the change she had going on.
Afterwards I dialed Brandt, and he agreed to go out to a movie with me. I hoped that would shut off my thoughts about Cole and whatever he was up to.
My big mistake of the night was allowing Brandt to pick the movie. A two and a half hour superhero flick was not what I had in mind. After the movie we hit up a local Mexican restaurant for a late dinner.
The Falling Kind Page 17