As he opened the door to his car, his hands trembled. They shook almost as much as his nerves did. He was getting too old for this line of work. And he truly rued the day he had ever accepted a handout from Paul Giancano.
Out of all the jobs he’d ever done for that family, he was sure this would be the one that would send him straight to hell.
Chapter Seventeen
When Xavier left Elizabeth, he was plagued with worry. His news had been too much for her to handle and he couldn't muster the courage to tell her that he would be turning thirty in the next twenty-four hours.
Though he no longer felt the same rage that had been building in him for the past several weeks, he couldn’t ignore the knowledge that it had been there. Even if it had shown itself only briefly.
He walked into the warehouse where he agreed to meet with Dante. Though he was furious with his brother for making such an urgent call when the possibility that he may be saying goodbye to Elizabeth forever, loomed so very close.
“Where the hell have you been?” Dante bit out in annoyance.
“Sorry, little brother. My first time telling the woman that I love that she’s fallen for a half man, half demon. Guess I’m a little rusty in the whole explaining an evil legacy department.”
“Sorry.” Dante shook his head and motion toward Max. “Listen, we’ve been doing some digging on Elizabeth.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you told us to look out for her, man.” Max reminded him. “If we’re going to have to kill you tomorrow we decided to get a jump start on the one thing you made us promise above all else.”
“Damn it! This is all unreal. If this damn legend doesn’t kill me, the stress will. What’d you find out?”
"Nothing too bad, or good," Dante answered. “Her father died when she was young. Her mom sort of lost it. The stepdad was a loser. Your usual screwed up after school special type of story. Despite her hardships, she seemed to get as far away from the bad things in her life as she could and headed out to L.A."
“So why am I getting the impression I should be worried?”
“Well,” Dante added. “This new job of hers. The Top Hat.”
“Yeah?”
“It might not be all it’s cracked up to be. It looked like the operation is run by Paul Giancano.”
“Giancano? As in the Giancano cartel?”
"Yeah, man," Max answered.
“Oh wait. Shit!” A realization struck Xavier hard.
“What is it?”
“Her new boss. The one that she said offered her the job. She said his name was Paul. She might have mentioned his last name, but I’ve been so distracted with… you know, my impending doom and breaking covenants handed down by the Lord himself that I didn’t pay that much attention.”
“There’s more.”
“How much more?”
“A couple of his waitresses have gone missing in the past couple weeks. No one’s heard a peep out of them. They just vanished.”
Xavier looked at them both and began to laugh. It was a bitter and tortured laugh that only the most cynical could possibly understand.
“Are you okay, big brother?”
“Am I okay? Am I okay?” Xavier nudged Max’s shoulder. “Did you hear that, Max. My little brother wants to know if I’m okay.”
Max offered up one of his concerned expressions. “Yeah. I’m thinking we’re both wondering that right about now, man.”
"Am I okay?" Xavier's laughs continued as he paced the desolate warehouse. "Well, I'll tell you, guys. I'm just freaking fantastic!"
Max shook his head. “I’m sensing a bit of sarcasm here, X.”
"Well, what's there to worry about? I mean… I'm a creature not of this earth. I was born from the bloodline of a demon who decided to tempt fate, and the mother fucking, Prince of God damned Darkness thus putting into effect a consequence that might lead my brother to kill me in the next day or so. And on top of all of this, the woman I love… correction,” he held up his hand to make a point with his finger. “The human woman that I love. The one that I am forbidden to fall in love with in the first place has somehow managed to get herself caught up in some sort of trouble with the Giancano crime family. I mean… everything is just flipping great!"
Dante rubbed at his jaw and crossed his arms. “You having a bit of a breakdown there, big brother?”
With wide eyes, he nodded his head. “A big one! It's been brewing for weeks, and I think this is it!"
Max blew up in laughter. Loud, boisterous chuckles filled the warehouse, echoing off of the stone walls.
“Mind telling me what’s so damn funny?” Xavier asked in irritation.
“Sorry, I was just thinking that, well…” he quieted when he saw the aggravated way Xavier stared at him.
“Actually, X. Dante might be onto something here. I mean this is all just a bit overwhelming and despite everything going on you’re not… well… losing it?”
"Oh, I wouldn't go that far. I feel like I'm ready to lose it."
"But you're not enraged, man," Max explained. “Your temper. It's not out of control. You're what, less than twenty-four hours away from turning thirty and instead of all that's going on being the pressure cooker that finally makes you explode, you’re acting more human than I’ve ever seen you.”
“He’s right, X. Maybe the legend isn’t true. Or if it is, maybe it won’t be you.”
“You know, you may be right. I mean I don’t feel… I mean, I have to protect Elizabeth. That much I know. But I don’t feel out of control. I feel more focused than ever.”
“Crap.” Dante slapped his brother on the shoulder. “Guess I don’t get to kill you now.”
“Maybe not. But if the worry I have building for Elizabeth is any indication, you may get to kill someone after all is said and done.”
The three men nodded in agreement. No matter his feelings for Elizabeth, their vow and duty was still to protect the innocent.
At all costs.
No matter what.
Chapter Eighteen
Elizabeth had just gotten out of the shower when the phone rang. Instinctually she was about to reach for her cell phone until she realized the odd sounding ringing wasn’t from her cell at all.
She peeked her head out of the bathroom and saw the phone that came with the apartment ringing. The old avocado green telephone looked like it belonged in the nineteen seventies along with everything else in her outdated place of residence.
“Hello?” she picked up the receiver and waited for someone to answer, but all she heard was silence.
At least that was what she’d thought she’d heard. But when she listened more intently the heavy breathing from someone came from the other end.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
Still, no one spoke, but she was certain she could hear someone on the other end. "Listen, if you're there, you might as well say something. You called me after all."
Despite her persistence no one said a word. She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it for a moment. Why she wasn’t exactly sure.
Deciding it was a crank call, she hung up the phone and was about to return to the bathroom when she noticed her cell phone wasn’t sitting where she’d left it beside the bed.
Curious, she picked the landline back up, thinking she’d use it to call and find where she’d left her phone. But nothing happened when she placed the earpiece to her head. Dead silence, quieter than she’d ever heard.
"Huh. That's weird." She set the phone back on the cradle, wondering if she'd imagined that it had rung. She never used it. Half the time she forgot it was even there. The only reason the management provided it to the tenants was in case of an emergency. Still, she was sure she’d heard it ring.
Just before she walked back into the bathroom, something stopped her from taking another step. Elizabeth froze in fear when she heard the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen. For all intents and purposes, her apartment was a studio, but
the L-shaped layout offered some privacy from half of the space.
She attempted to swallow a lump of fear which built in her throat. There was someone in her apartment. And whoever it was, she wasn’t feeling the warm comfort and embrace that Xavier’s presence left her with.
Reaching into the bathroom, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body as snuggly as she could. She tried her best to calm the panic which was growing inside of her. She'd given anything to have Xavier there with her, but she had no idea where he went, or when he'd be back. All he'd said was that he'd try to make it soon.
Well soon couldn’t come fast enough as she waited for the stranger to show themselves.
“Elizabeth.” The stranger's low-pitched, gravelly voice sliced through the silence like a knife.
Fear took hold of her, and she started to shake. "I don't know who you are, but I have a gun."
"No, you do not." He answered.
She could feel his presence just around the corner. Her heart sped up at a rate that she was sure would cause her to go into full cardiac arrest.
“What do you want?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
She shook her head, trying to make sense of the fact that in less than a week two stranger men had managed to sneak up on her, leaving her scared, helpless and alone.
“Then why are you here?” She asked.
“I’m sorry.”
His voice. There was something familiar about it. Had he been the man that attacked her in the alley? Or was he someone else she knew?
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because I said I didn’t want to hurt you. And that’s the truth. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then what do you want?”
“But I have to, Elizabeth. If I don’t kill you, they’ll kill my entire family.”
Her eyes widened in fear as a terror much worse than any she’d ever known struck her. She screamed inside of her mind to fight, to not be a victim. She’d almost allowed it the other night. She’d given up. That man could have killed her had it not been for Xavier.
Well, not this time. Not now. She would no longer wait by helpless as she waited for another man to hurt her.
She screamed at the top of her lungs and went racing for the door to the hallway. Flailing her arms around with a fight or flight mentality, she didn’t stop for anything as she ran down the hallway of her apartments and screamed to anyone who would listen.
Shaking from fear and resolve, she came to a halt abruptly. She opened her eyes, not even realizing that she’d closed them and looked up to see Xavier standing before her.
“Baby? What is it? What’s happened?”
Her voice shook, and her teeth chattered. “S… some… one. Someone was… in the… kitchen.”
“Stay here. Don’t move.” Xavier hurried down the hall and flung open the partially closed door of her apartment.
She waited as he'd told her, clutching to her towel as people began coming out of their own apartments to stare. She might've been embarrassed had she not been so scared.
A minute later Xavier came out of her apartment. His look both fierce and determined as he pulled her close.
"Whoever it was is gone. The window to the fire escape was open, and I couldn't see anyone."
She looked up at him. “Are you sure he’s gone?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Did you get a good look at him?”
She shook her head in answer. “No. I was just so scared. I screamed and ran without even thinking. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.”
“And you did the right thing. God, if anything ever happened to you… I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Promise me I’ll never have to find out?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it. Come on, let’s get you inside.”
They walked down the hall together. His arm around her as strangers looked on. She didn't care what anyone thought. All that matters was that she was safe and with Xavier. For the second time, he had saved her.
She glanced up at him as he shut the door behind them. “You’re getting pretty good at this whole hero thing.”
“Yeah well, some people you’d do anything for.”
Chapter Nineteen
Once inside, Xavier sat her down on the couch and kissed the top of her head. If he survived this week it wouldn’t be for the lack of fate trying to push him in an early grave. The stress alone should’ve at the very least made his hair turn white or something.
“Okay, honey… now tell me what happened.”
“There isn’t much to tell.”
“Just start at the beginning and go right up until the part where you came screaming in the hall.”
She was trembling despite the heat of the apartment. He immediately held her close by, making sure she knew she was okay.
“Shh. It’s going to be okay. I’m here now. You’re going to be just fine.”
He cradled her against his chest. “Just tell me the first thing you remember.”
“I took a shower. While I waited for you I figured I might as well get ready for work. Then the phone rang and…”
Her voice trailed off.
“What is it?”
“It wasn’t my cell phone. It was the landline.”
“Who was it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. They never answered me.”
“Wrong number, maybe?”
“No. I mean… I don’t think so.”
“Just relax. You’re not making much sense. Tell me what happened after you answered the phone.”
“Okay.” She seemed to be calming down as her trembling subsided and her voice became clearer.
“So you answered the phone? Then what?”
"I noticed my cell phone wasn't where I left it. I thought I'd just misplaced it, so I was going to call the number. But that was when I realized the phone was dead."
“The landline was dead?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Didn’t you say that you’d just heard it ring?”
“Yes. I mean… I thought I’d heard it ring.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m just a little freaked out.”
He soothed her hair with his hands. “That’s understandable. My God you’ve been through so much in such a short period of time.”
“His voice.”
“What?” he asked.
“I think I knew his voice. The man. There was something familiar about it. I mean, he only spoke in a whisper, but I was sure that I knew him from somewhere.”
“What did he say to you?”
She gulped loud. “He said he was sorry.”
“Why? What was he sorry for?”
“He said he didn’t want to hurt me, but that he had to. He said that if he didn’t… they’d kill his family.”
Xavier had to hold back his rage. The thought of anyone harming a hair on her head was enough to bring the demon out in him full force.
“Shh. It’s okay. Nothing is going to happen to you. Ever.”
"I just don't understand it," she said. "Why would anyone want to kill me?"
He had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly who. It was the why that he wasn’t very certain of. But the threat to a woman’s life in exchange for an entire family certainly had the markings of the Giancano family all over it.
His phone rang, startling them both.
He saw it was Dante and answered quickly. “Yeah?”
“You gotta meet Max and me down at the warehouse."
“I can’t. Not now. Elizabeth has been attacked again.”
“We know.”
“What? What do you mean you know? I barely walked in on it myself. I got to her just in the nick of time.”
“Max followed you.”
“What? What the hell did he…” Xavier answered his own question before he could finish asking it. He’d trusted his brother and Max to look out for Elizabeth no matter what, and true to his
word he was keeping an eye out.
The knowledge that Max was nearby when an innocent was being attacked certainly spoke well of the present situation. “Tell me Max saw the guy.”
“He did more than that. He caught him.”
“What? Who was it?”
"His name's Lou. Apparently, he was her old boss at the nightclub where she worked, off of Sixth Street."
“Where are you? Have you talked to him yet? What do they want with her?”
“No man. We figured… this was personal. We waited for you.”
“Alright. I’ll be there soon.”
He shut his phone and turned up Elizabeth’s chin with his forefinger and thumb. “Listen, honey. You’re going to be okay. My brother, well a friend of ours… they’ve got the guy who tried to hurt you. I need to go talk to him.”
“I want to go with you.”
"I'd like that too, believe me. But I don't want you anywhere near this man until we know why he tried to hurt you. Just wait here for me, okay?”
He held her close and rocked her body, all the while rubbing his hands up and down her back. The soothing was for him as much as it was for her. Feeling her in his arms assured him that she was okay.
He didn’t want to leave her. The very thought of it was like a knife to his chest. But he had to get to the bottom of whatever mess the Giancano family had her mixed up in.
"Just lock the door behind me, and I'll be back as soon as I can."
“Okay. Just… promise me you’ll come back, okay?”
He tightened his hold around her again at the fear that crept back into her voice. “I promise you, and I'll be back. Wild horses couldn't keep me away."
“Xavier –.”
“Ssh, I know honey. I know.” So tenderly and with so much care he pressed his lips against hers.
“I love you.” She whispered.
“I love you too.”
She walked with him to the door. And they kissed one another one last time.
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