“I thought about it, but by then, her mother wouldn’t have any part of it. When she found out the truth about what I do for a living, she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. She even got a restraining order, which is part of the reason why I had you get involved. I figured if you had Ensley come to me then not only would her mom not be involved, but Winston might not find out about her.”
Just what exactly does Gregor do that would make Ens’s mom get a restraining order? And how did she even get a restraining order when a lot of the police are being paid off by Gregor?
Something wasn’t adding up.
While I knew some stuff about Gregor and his business, I didn’t know everything. When we’d made the deal, I didn’t dare ask him for a lot of details, fearing he might call off the deal if I did. But with everything that was going on… With what he was saying… With Ensley being in trouble… I needed to know more.
“What do you do, exactly?” I asked. “Because with all this shit going on, I’m really starting to wonder.”
“Father, as your advisor, I’d advise you not to answer that question,” Ruby interrupted, glaring at me.
“I appreciate your advice, Ruby,” he said. “But if Carter is going to be working for me, he should know what he’s getting into.”
Ruby crossed her arms, slumped back in the chair, and her eyes shot daggers at me. But she didn’t utter a word, which was probably a first for her.
“As you know, I own a lot of underground clubs,” Gregor said. “But what most people don’t know—at least people out of my clientele—is that inside those clubs, I run a side business that focuses solely on giving people their hearts truest desires.”
Okay, that wasn’t what I was expecting at all. “What does that even mean?”
“It means I make people’s desires come true, and a lot of people will pay top dollar to have that happen. Of course, the people who come to me usually desire illegal stuff. It also gives me a lot of power because I get to keep their secrets. That’s part of the reason Winston has harbored a grudge against me for the last decade—I have more dirt on him and his little worker bees than even his worst enemy. But you’ll learn more about that later, when you start working for me.”
“Am I still going to work for you?” I questioned, unsure if I even wanted to anymore. I mean, part of the reason I was even going to work for him to begin with was to escape Nicholas’s corruption. But Gregor sounded almost as bad, maybe even worse. Plus, my real father was apparently his enemy. But I didn’t want to point that out yet and piss him off. I wanted to help save Ensley, needed to more than my lungs needed oxygen. Not only because I couldn’t stand the idea of losing her, but to make up for all the wrongs I did to her. “I messed up this thing with Ensley pretty badly. And… what about my father? My real father? I mean, he’s going after your daughter.”
“As far as I’m concerned, Winston isn’t your father. And you should look at it that way too.” Silence. “This war going on between Winston and I has been going on since Ensley or you were even born. I can’t hold that against you. Besides, I need you to protect her.”
“But I fucked up. I’m not sure if she even trusts me anymore.” I slumped back into the chair. I fucked up multiple times, by not bringing Ens to him, by fucking up the plan, by lying to her. The last one is what really bothers me, what makes my chest ache.
If I could go back and do everything all over again, I wouldn’t have made the deal with Gregor. I would’ve just told Ens the truth about how I felt about her. And maybe, just maybe, I would’ve stood up to Nicholas and told him I didn’t want to work for him. Then I would’ve left. Left and been with Ensley. God, talk about heart’s desires.
“You did fuck up, but your mistakes can be erased. And from what you’ve told me, my daughter is the kind of person who will forgive you,” Gregor told me. “And if you make this right, you can still come work for me.”
“How do I make this right, though, when the mafia is after her?”
“By following these instructions.” Then he told me a plan that would help me erase the mistakes I made with him. A plan that would, hopefully, protect Ensley.
I just hoped I could trust him. Trust that he was telling the truth. But… I don’t know. Something still felt off. But I was still going to go to Ensley—I needed to be close to her and make sure she was protected. Then I’d try to find out more about Gregor, his business, and this war going on between Winston and him,
“And I’m sending one of my men to help you,” Gregor said after he was finished explaining the plan.
“Who…” Before I could finish, the office door swung open and in walked Holden.
Yeah, to say I was fucking surprised would be an understatement.
Holden didn’t seem the least bit surprised, though, a grin plastering across his face. “Carter, glad to see you finally decided to man up and join the other team.”
“You’re making it sound like I came out of the closet or something,” I grumbled, shaking my head.
“Yeah, maybe that wasn’t the right way to word it.” Holden entered the office and smiled at Ruby. “Ruby, as always, it’s nice to see you again.”
Ruby flipped him the middle finger.
Back in the parking lot on graduation day, Holden had seen me arguing with Ruby, and he acted like he didn’t know her, only of her. Clearly, he’d been lying. What else had he been lying about?
Holden must have sensed where my thoughts were heading because he said, “Sorry, but I had to keep it a secret.”
“Why?” I rose to my feet.
He shrugged, stuffing his hands into his back pockets. “The less people who know about what I do for a living, the better.”
“What do you do exactly” How did I fucking not know about this?
“What do you do exactly?” Holden retorted, making a subtle but valid point.
That we both had secrets.
So instead of having a pity party over the fact that my BFFFB—yeah, thanks for that, El—had been lying to me, I asked, “Does your dad know?”
“ “Nope. Yours?”
Which one? “Hopefully not.”
He didn’t ask questions, which made me wonder how much he knew about me. “We should get going.”
I said goodbye to Gregor and then we left the office. Before we hopped into my car, he went to his truck and grabbed a large duffel back from the backseat. When I asked what was in the bag, he told me protection, which meant weapons. I’d spent enough time around Nicholas and men like Winston to know what a large duffel bag usually carried.
After we’d peeled out onto the road, El had finally called me back. I’d never been so relieved in my life to hear from her. No, I take that back. I’d never been more relieved in my life than when Ens had got on the phone with me.
I just hope everything goes according to plan. That Ensley will be safe from Winston. That I can protect her. That she’ll give me the chance to protect her. Because, with everything that’s about to happen, she’s going to have to trust me more than she’s trusted anyone. And considering our history…
I have my work cut out for me.
Five
Ensley
The safe place turns out to be located out in the middle of freakin’ nowhere. And I mean nowhere. The place is a dump. Plus, to even find the town, we had to weave through a thick forest for what felt like an eternity.
At first I thought maybe El had taken a wrong turn or hadn’t followed Carter’s directions properly—El’s never been the best at following directions. But eventually the dirt, mud, swamps, and trees opened up into a small, flat space of land that supported the most ancient—albeit, awesome looking—town I’ve ever seen.
“Do they have alligators here?” Gaige asks, eyeballing the pools of murky water practically drowning the land surrounding the rundown houses, stores, and buildings.
Elodie shrugs. “What do I look like, an alligator wizard or something?”
“You could, if you wo
re the right hat,” Gaige teases through a yawn.
Who can blame his exhaustion. We’ve been on the road for hours, worrying about every single vehicle that drives too close to us. And when we made a stop, our nervousness doubled. El even ran out of the bathroom once with her pants halfway down because someone banged on her stall. If she’d looked at the person first before panicking, she would’ve realized that the mafia wasn’t going to send an eighty-year-old woman with a cane to capture me. But the damage was already done. And by damage, I mean that everyone in the restroom had already seen her ass. Good thing El doesn’t embarrass easily. Me, I blushed a bright shade of red. And it wasn’t even my ass everyone saw.
“So this is where Carter told you to go?” I ask, assessing the single-story motel that looks straight out of the movie Psycho.
She nods, reaching for the door handle. “Well, actually your dad told Carter to tell us to go here.” She frowns. “Is it okay to talk about him?”
“Who? My dad or Carter?” I ask, then sigh, realizing I sound bitchy. “Sorry.”
El wags a finger at me. “Don’t you dare apologize for any of this. None of this is your fault.”
I scoot across the seat toward the door. “Actually, it kind of is, since Winston is only coming after us to get to me so he can use me to get back at my father.”
Her lips parted. “How do you know that?”
“Because Carter told me.” I brush strands of my long, brown hair out of my eyes. “Apparently there’s some sort of war going on between the two of them and I’ve officially become a tool Winston can use to overpower Gregor.”
“Is that maybe why your dad stayed away from you?” she asks. “Because he didn’t want to put you in danger?”
Holy crap. Is that the reason?
“I don’t know… Carter never said anything about that.”
El picks up the burner phone that we bought from some guy Gaige knew who lived in a town we were passing through, because apparently, on top of his father being in the mafia, Gaige has connections with sketchy looking guys who sell burner phones and, as he put it, “other illegal shit.” I didn’t ask what the other illegal shit was. Figured some things were better left in the dark.
“I hate that no one can get ahold of us,” I admit as I open the door to get out. “I know I sent my mom a text and everything, but if she finds out even a little bit about what’s going on, she’s going to freak out. And she can’t text me—no one can.”
“I know it sucks. But you can occasionally text her with this.” She holds up the burner phone.
“Yeah, but no one can text us back.” I huff out a stressed breath. “If she does find out, I won’t even know.”
El frowns. “I’m sorry this is happening, Ens.”
“Yeah, me too,” I say. “And I’m sorry you two were dragged into this mess.”
Her lips part in a protest, but I bail out of the car, not wanting to hear her try to convince me again that this isn’t my fault. Because it is. Well, it’s more my father’s fault than anyone else’s, which hurts like a bitch, let me tell you.
All those years he was absent, I conjured up all sorts of ideas about what sort of person he could be, but never did I imagine he’d be a guy at war with a mafia leader. What sort of person even gets into a war with a mafia leader? What does my father do? Who is he?
I frown, wondering if I’ll ever find out or if I’ll ever meet him. Carter never mentioned if my dad was coming here.
So many unanswered questions.
Sighing, I lower my feet to the ground and get out. Almost instantly, the muddy air absorbs into my pores and beads of sweat dew my skin. On top of the humidity, the air reeks of old fish and dirty sink water.
“This place smells awful.” El fans her hand in front of her face as she climbs out of the car.
Gaige crinkles his nose and eyes the sketchy gas station across the street. “It’s definitely not a pleasant smell.” He tenses as something splashes in the swamp beside the gas station. “Shit. We should go inside before we get eaten.”
“Way to be tough, mafia baby offspring.” El jumps at the sound of rustling bushes. “Yeah, let’s get our asses inside.”
Giving her a salute, I round to the back of the car with Gaige. We start to collect our bags while El heads inside to check us in.
“Wait. How are you even going to get a room?” I call out to El. “Won’t they be able to track your credit card?”
“I was told you father owns the place.” She walks backwards toward the office. “I’m basically just going to get a key.”
My lips form an O as I take in the shitty hotel that looks one step away from crumbling. “My father owns this place?”
“Your father owns a lot of places,” Gaige says, handing me a bag he collects from the trunk. “He’s actually a pretty wealthy man.”
I eyeball the motel. “Really?”
He nods, grabbing another bag from the trunk. “He owns a bunch of clubs too. Clubs way nicer than this.” He slings the bag over his shoulder and shuts the trunk. “More than likely, he owns this place for situations just like this.”
I frown. “So his daughter that he’s never met can have a place to hide out from the mafia?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” he says. When my frown deepens, he adds, “Men like Gregor always plan for situations like this. My father’s the same way.” Anger briefly flames in his eyes. “It’s the only way they can survive and keep the people close to them safe.”
I nod like I understand, but I don’t. Up until ten hours ago, my biggest worry was why Carter had betrayed me. Now my biggest concern is if I’m going to get whacked by the mafia.
“Did Carter say when he’d get here?” Gaige asks.
I draw my sunglasses off as the sunlight slips behind the trees enclosing the town. “Nope.”
He stuffs his free hand into the back pocket of his jeans. “How are you feeling about that? About seeing Carter after… everything?”
“I don’t know.” It’s the truth too. When Gaige shoots me a doubtful look, I sigh. “I swear I’m not lying. I just have mixed feelings. Part of me is furious with him for what he did. But the other part thinks maybe I deserved it for playing him too. And I haven’t even told him what I did. For all I know, when I do, he’ll bail out of all of this.”
“I really doubt he’s going to bail out, if he made a deal with your dad,” Gaige says, setting the bag down on the ground.
“But why exactly?” I wonder. “What exactly does my dad do that makes him seem so… powerful?”
“A little bit of everything.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means I don’t even know everything that your dad does.” He drags his hand across his face. “You could always find out… He has this website that only certain people can access, but I can hack into it—I’ve done it before. But you might not want to find out all the details. Trust me, there are many times when I wished I didn’t know all the things my dad has done.”
His words send a cold chill up my spine, but I find myself wanting to know. Wanting to know what sort of terrible person my father is.
Can I do it? Am I brave enough to look?
I wrap my arms around myself as another shiver crawls up my spine. The fear only doubles as a truck rolls by, moving at the pace of a snail.
“Relax, Ens.” Gaige drapes an arm around my shoulders, “Everything’s going to be okay.”
I want to believe him. I really do. But considering the three of us are on the run from the mafia, I don’t think I can.
I quickly pull back, frowning. “What is that?” I pat his back where his shirt meets the waistband of his jeans. “Shit, is that a—”
“Shh…” Gaige puts a finger to my lips as El strolls out of the motel’s front office.
“Well, kiddos, I got us upgraded to a suite.” She spins the keychain around her finger. “But considering what a shithole this place is...” She pulls a face at the numbered doors on the building.
“I have a feeling suite or not, we’re going to want to put plastic on the sheets.”
I force out a laugh, utterly confused. Because I’m pretty sure Gaige has a gun tucked into the back of his jeans.
Six
Gaige
I’m in deep shit. I realized this the moment I went to get rid of the tracking device from El’s car and noticed I’d received a message from good old daddy dearest.
Dad: Where the fuck are you?
The only time he messaged me was when he wanted something. I should’ve ignored him, but I always carry the fear that he’ll know when I was disobeying him. It’s a fear that I’ve harbored since I was six years old and he decided to teach me my first lesson on what happens when I disobey. And not just disobey him, but his family as well. And when I say family, I don’t mean my mom, my brother, and I. I mean his business family, which is way more important to him than his blood family, something I learned during my first lesson.
He had taken me out in a boat to the middle of a small pond. Once he had anchored, he’d handed me a handful of rocks.
“Put these in your pockets,” he instructed, dropping the rocks into the palms of my hands.
I did what he said and filled up my jacket pockets with the rocks, but still had some rocks leftover. I went to throw them into the water, but he snatched ahold of my wrist.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growled, his fingernails digging into my flesh.
Tears prickled at my eyes, but I sucked them back, knowing more than likely he’d hit me for crying.
“There’s too many,” I managed to get out in a somewhat even voice.
“There’s just enough.” He dug his fingernails deeper into my flesh. “Put what’s left in the pocket of your jeans.”
He continued to grip my wrist hard until I had put the rest of the rocks into my pockets. Then he let go of me and scooted back toward the motor.
“Now, get in the water,” he commanded as he started up the engine.