by Nicole Fox
If not, maybe she would decide to leave on her own and start over somewhere new, away from all the drama. I wouldn’t blame her for that. Who could?
Either way, she and I had to go our separate ways.
“You know it’s the only way,” I said, hoping she understood that I wished to God that things could be different.
Chapter Twenty-One
Christy
He was leaving. I felt like every time I thought about it, I would add the silent me to the end, because that’s what was really happening, wasn’t it? After everything that we had been through together, he was leaving me behind. I wasn’t selfish enough to think that it had everything, or maybe even anything, to do with me, but I still resented the fact that he couldn’t take me with him.
I could pick up and start over in another town. In fact, I’d done it before, and I was fine. Well, I was fine until this entire mess had happened. King didn’t want me to come with him because of some misplaced sense of chivalry, or maybe some archaic idea that he was protecting me, or maybe just because he didn’t want to ruin my life. What he didn’t understand, though, was that I was entirely too involved in the situation, and with King himself, to ever be willingly left behind.
Frankly, I was offended that he’d ask that of me. Didn’t he know me at all?
He’d said that I should stay behind, but what would I do then? I had no job, Rossi and his goons were after me, and Romano was thrown into the mix as well. My whole life here was a disaster.
If anything, I’d probably have to move away, too. Starting over didn’t scare me. The thing was, I didn’t want to just move. I wanted to go with King, help him hunt down his old crew, and get vengeance. I wanted to clear his name and let him go back to living his life like a free man. Ever since I’d met him, he’d had some kind of weight hanging off his shoulders, and, for once, I wanted to see him free of all his burdens—really, truly free.
I had an idea, too. I wasn’t just all talk. King may have thought that I hadn’t planned anything out, but I had a firm idea of how we could solve our dilemma. What I needed, though, was for him to listen and get rid of his ridiculous notions of leaving me behind. Or leaving at all.
The truth was, I didn’t think we even had to leave. Rossi had said the police would be after us soon, so that meant they weren’t already. Sure, we didn’t know how long we had, but that still gave us a bit of time to execute my plan, and time was all I needed.
If King was intent on hunting down his old crew and taking Rossi out of the picture as well, there was no reason why he couldn’t do both at once. In fact, that was exactly what I was going to suggest to him.
King’s crew were our only solid link to Rossi, and the only way we might have something on him to take him down. We had to use them to our advantage.
It was a perfect idea, and I knew it would work if King gave it a chance, but somehow, I was unconvinced that he would.
He was so intent on leaving me behind and getting revenge on his crew by himself that he refused to see that he wasn’t making the best decision.
Well, I refused to let him ignore me any longer. I would just have to make him listen, and that was all there was to it.
# # #
I barged into King’s apartment, thankful the door was unlocked, and stormed into the bedroom where he was flinging some clothes into a bag. I’d never been inside his apartment before, but now was not the time to dwell. I was on a mission, and I wouldn’t be leaving until King agreed with my plans.
“Christy?” he asked, as he whipped around. “Jesus, what are you doing here?”
“You’re not leaving. Stop packing.”
“Christy,” he said sadly, dropping the clothes in his hands and giving me an exhausted expression. “We’ve talked about this. Would you please let it go?”
“No, I’m not letting it go! I have a plan, and it’s going to work.”
“Don’t you understand, Christy? I’m a wanted man. There’s a fucking reward for anyone who hands me over.”
Well, this just kept on getting better. I hadn’t realized there was a reward for turning him in, but that just made my plan even greater.
“Good, because I’m turning you in,” I said harshly.
“What?” he yelled.
“I’m turning you into the police and getting the reward for myself. I could use the money. You know that.”
“This isn’t the time for games!”
“I’m not playing with you. Stay and help me with my plan, or I will go to the police, turn you in, and collect the reward.”
“You wouldn’t,” King said in disbelief.
He was right. I was completely bluffing, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. There was definitely some guilt in my stomach over how I was tricking him, but sometimes things just needed to be done. If coercing him was what it took to keep him from leaving town and to keep him out of prison, then so be it.
“Try me,” I said flatly.
There was a moment of silence as King debated my words. He was definitely trying to decipher whether or not I was serious, but I was determined not to give anything away, so I stared at him with the most unexpressive face I could muster.
It must have worked because a second later he said, “What do you want?”
I could tell by his slumped shoulders and tone of voice that he was conceding, and I didn’t even bother to suppress my triumphant smile over the fact.
“I have a plan to clear your name, and get our revenge,” I said, putting a slight emphasis on the word ‘our,’ so he knew that there was no way I was going to stay out of it.
“I’m listening,” he replied, like he had any other choice.
“You’re planning on tracking down your old crew, right?”
“What makes you say that?” King asked.
I almost scoffed. Of course he would be tracking them down. I’d seen how broken he was when he found out that his old friends had betrayed him and agreed to work for Rossi. That kind of betrayal didn’t go unavenged, especially with someone like King. It was like he’d forgotten that we’d spent so much time together in the past few weeks, and that I knew him as well as I did.
“I know you, King. Do you have any idea how to find them?” I asked, knowing the answer already.
“Not yet.”
“I know a way to track them down.” I smiled broadly then, aware I had his attention now.
“How?” King asked, intrigued.
The fact that he was so ready and willing to listen warmed me, and the guilt that I had felt earlier started to evaporate. This really was the best thing for him, and if I had to resort to blackmail to get King to see reason, then so be it.
“Well, the only person we know that knows where they are is Rossi, right? So, we’ll go and interrogate him.” I said it quickly, in the hopes that he wouldn’t question it too much, but, unfortunately, King picked up on it straight away.
“Christy, we’re not doing that,” King groaned. No, I couldn’t lose him now. My plan would work. I knew it would. I just needed to get King to invest in it.
“Why not? It’s perfect! He’ll tell us where your crew is, and then your crew will help us get some evidence on Rossi. It’s a win all around.”
“Rossi is not just going to give up information like that.”
“Yes, he will,” I said adamantly. “That’s what the interrogation is for.”
King slumped down on his bed and raked a hand over his shaved head.
“I don’t know about this, Christy.”
He may have been uncertain, but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Walking over, I sat down beside him and leaned my head on his shoulder.
“Please, King. Just do this for me. We’ll clear your name, and everything will be okay.”
I knew King was weighing his options carefully as he looked into my eyes, and when he finally sighed aloud, I knew I had won.
Chapter Twenty-Two
King
It was crazy how the course of m
y life seemed to have changed in a few short hours.
I had been ready to leave and spend my life on the run.
I’d been ready to hunt down my old crew and get revenge for my betrayal, no matter how long it took to find them.
I was ready to leave behind Rossi, Romano, and the club.
I couldn’t say that I was ready to leave Christy behind, but I’d accepted it.
Christy had had another agenda, of course. I didn’t know if I was even surprised by now, but some part of me was almost expecting her to storm into my room as she’d done. If anyone else had tried to blackmail me, I was sure that I wouldn’t have taken it as well as I did, but, with Christy, I knew that she just cared about me.
So, as we sat there, staring into each other’s eyes, I found myself releasing a long sigh and mentally preparing myself to say yes.
“Okay,” I conceded.
Christy’s reaction was so immediate and excited that she almost knocked me over with the sheer force of her excitement. She jumped at me.
“Thank you, thank you!”
She may have been happy in that moment, but we both knew there was a long way to go before we would even be close to reaching our goal.
Since I knew there would be no shaking Christy, something that I probably had known from the very beginning, if I was being truly honest with myself, I decided to go all in. What was there to lose, anyway? Either option led to me losing in some way, so I might as well risk everything to fix my life and make Christy happy in the process.
It didn’t take long to finalize our plans to break into Diamond Castle. We both knew that we had as little time to waste as possible, so it would have to be tonight. There wasn’t any point in holding off anyway. We knew exactly when the place closed, when nobody was going to be in there, and the best time to catch Rossi unawares.
We also knew that the place wasn’t completely locked down until Rossi, himself, left, and that was a whole half an hour after everyone else had already gone home. Everything fell into place easily after that, since Christy and I both non-verbally agreed that we would wing it once we were inside.
Rossi wasn’t a big guy and definitely not a big fighter. I wasn’t surprised that he’d had to hire people to do his dirty work and fighting for him.
Christy had been adamant that we use force to interrogate him, but I had a feeling that it might not even be necessary. Rossi was a coward. It was as simple as that. I was betting that. as soon as he found himself alone and outnumbered, he would tell us anything we needed to know.
It hadn’t escaped my mind that I could just kill him tonight and go to Romano, who would probably help clear my name. The only problem with that was that I didn’t know if he would want anything in return for helping me with my problem with the law. Also, I wouldn’t be able to track down my old crew. There was no way I was going to let their betrayal go without a fight.
I didn’t completely trust Romano either, and I was reluctant to use him for anything. The fact that he wanted me to kill a man was enough for me to know that I shouldn’t be dealing with him at any time. The best-case scenario would be a situation where I found a way to hand Rossi off to the police, or at least get him out of the way, and clear my name at the same time. Then, no murders would take place. I wouldn’t be on the wrong side of the law, and I would be able to sleep easier at night.
That was too good to be true, though. I doubted that everything would be wrapped up as smoothly, especially knowing the bad luck that had haunted me my entire life. Perhaps the best-case scenario was more along the lines of just getting out alive.
That would be enough for me—ending things without the police on my tail and with Christy by my side.
I hadn’t admitted it to her earlier, but her plan wasn’t an altogether bad one. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t expected her to come up with something, but it shocked me that she’d covered all her bases, planning out how to take care of Rossi, Romano, my old crew, and the cops.
Yes, Christy’s plan might just work, but it had so many variables that I was trying my hardest not to get my hopes up.
Christy had joked earlier that she was too stubborn to let the plan fail, and though it was undeniably true, there were just too many things to control in the situation. I supposed we wouldn’t know for sure how it would turn out for another few hours.
“Are you ready?” Christy called out, interrupting my thoughts.
“Yeah, I am.”
The drive to Diamond Castle wasn’t as tense as I thought it would be. Christy found a way to put a lighter spin on everything, even if I wasn’t in the mood for it. I wondered what life would be like after we were free of all our burdens and had the chance to do what we wanted.
Christy would follow her dream and open up her club, but what would I do? If the cops weren’t after me, then at least my options would expand, though not by much. I’d spent half my life partaking in illegal activities; breaking and entering, theft, and fraud, just to name a few. It would be a wonder if I’d even have much of a life after all this was over.
Would Christy and I even be together, without the looming threat of danger hanging over us? Were we even together at the moment? To be completely honest I had no idea what we were doing. It had started out as just fucking whenever we were together, but, despite us still getting in bed often enough, things had definitely changed between us. We were even friends at times. After all, she was putting herself in all sorts of danger for me, and if that didn’t spell friendship, then I didn’t know what would.
So, we were definitely friends. Friends who had sex? Had I unknowingly entered a relationship with her? Did it even matter? It was true that I hadn’t been looking for anything before, and that I wasn’t looking for anything now. But Christy was different. And, more importantly, I was different when I was with her.
It may not have happened in the traditional way, but I didn’t think I cared. Whatever was going on with Christy and I, and wherever it was going to go, I would be on board.
But, of course, that meant we had to get out of this whole thing unscathed first.
We finally pulled into Diamond Castle, the air feeling like a mixture of anxiety and foreboding tension.
“Is it okay to say that I’m scared?” Christy whispered from beside me.
“Yes. But it’s okay. It’s just Rossi.”
“I know, I know. I just want this to be over.”
I patted her reassuringly on the back as we nodded at each other and made the silent decision to move forward.
We were entering through the back door, not only because it was quieter and less suspicious, but also because, if there were any unexpected people inside, we could get out of there without being seen.
I swung the door open easily, relieved that it was unlocked like we’d thought and that Rossi hadn’t become infinitely more paranoid since Christy and I worked there. He was probably too arrogant to expect any more retaliation, and it angered me to think that, if it weren’t for Christy, he would’ve been right to be unworried.
Our footsteps were silent as we sneaked through the back of the club, keeping a careful eye out. We were only a few steps in, and I could already tell that the place was abandoned. The lights were all out, except for the one in Rossi’s office, and it was eerily silent. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
Coming to his door, we waited for only a second before bursting in, taking Rossi completely by surprise.
“King? Christy?” he asked but didn’t have time to say anything else before I landed a punch straight to his jaw. He stumbled and fell back on his seat, wheeling himself backward and sitting there frozen in fear.
Maybe he knew that he would be no match for me when he was all alone or maybe he doubted that we’d do anything too unthinkable for him but he didn’t even attempt to fight back or move.
“Hi Jarren,” Christy said in a syrupy sweet voice that I recognized as one that covered an intense amount of anger and hatred. “How are you tonight?”
> “What are you doing here?” he shouted, eyes darting between the two of us.
“Don’t worry, Jarrenny. We just have a few questions that we want to ask you.”
Christy turned around to lock the door behind her and leaned up against it.