10. Maximo
CHAPTER 10
Maximo
LAST NIGHT
My heart was hammering in my chest by the time I got back to the abandoned warehouse, with the scent of Julia all over me. I’m in so much fucking trouble it’s disturbing. But I can’t seem to stay away from her. This isn’t me. I don’t date, and I especially don’t drag men over counters and spend fifty bucks on pizza for a woman I barely know.
But fuck it, right?
Rocco sniffs me. “Well, you don’t smell like pussy. She turn you down for a game of ‘ just the tip?’ or…”
Turn me down? Never. I felt the way she reacted to my touch, how her skin ignited with goosebumps, and the action of her body shivering against me the moment I pushed her against the wall of her apartment. Those fucking lips of hers. The whole drive back, all I could think about was the way they would look wrapped around my cock. Her big, rounded eyes, drool seeping at the corners of her mouth.
Julia is innocent, no doubt about that, but her mouth…is all kinds of sin. Dio mio , now I’m thinking about her naked on the bed, begging for me to?—
Fingers click in front of my face. “You’ve got it bad. I’ve never seen you like this over a woman.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His thick eyebrow raises in my direction, calling bullshit on the entire thing. “Sure, Jan.” And that Brady Bunch quote is exactly what I mean. “How’d you meet her?”
I briefly close my eyes, knowing the moment I answer, he’s going to be asking questions left and right. Clearing my throat, I give him one short answer. “Coffee shop. So now you have your answer. Let’s finish this and get it over with.”
Unzipping the black duffel bag, I lift the Glock from inside and attach the silencer to the end. As I continue to twist it, my cousin persists.
“She hot?”
Silence.
“You kissed her yet?”
More silence from me. I’m not entertaining this.
“Fucked her? With a name like Julia, I bet she sucks a mean?—”
“Finish that sentence, cugino , and I’ll shoot you instead of him. My words come out tense, frustrated, and it’s another thing I have to be irritated about because all I seem to want to do is keep her safe from all this shit. Except the only problem is even being near her is putting her in danger. But I’m far too selfish to give her up. She’ll hate me in the end when she finds out. She’ll scream, cry, call the police, and then her name will be all over the news.
Lifting the camera from the bag, I shove it into Rocco’s chest, “Just record the fucking thing, alright.”
“Touchy, touchy.” He smirks deviously.
I roll my eyes and make my way over to John, who has now been missing for nearly a week. “Did you miss me, sweetheart?” I ask, raising the gun in my hand, pointing it directly at his head.
“Wait, wait, wait…whatever you want…you can have it. Money, my home…fuck anything!” He flinches, tightly squeezing his eyes shut.
I snicker in response, “Yeah, I’m well aware of that.” I gaze at Rocco, who gives me a thumbs up. The reason we are recording this is so when it’s played, everyone will see and know what a fucking scumbag he is. “Now, my cousin here is recording everything that happens from here on out. We’re not going to give you a note or a list of things for you to say. But what you are going to do is tell the people what a fucking disgusting human being you are. Starting now.”
“Please just…I just want to go home.” He blubbers.
“John, I will shoot you in the fucking leg if you don’t open your fucking mouth and START TALKING!” I take a deep breath, calming myself. “Say it, and I’ll let you go.” I lie. “Tell them, and you can go back home to your cheating wife and your unhappy marriage.”
“Alright…I…fuck,” he hisses. “My name is John Richardson, and I have something to confess. I’m not a good person. I’m the worst there is. I created a program that would filter the most heinous medical diseases through the insurance systems of Copperfield Vitality, denying them help. Then…then I had the system decipher those who were?—”
“Come on! Keep going. Tell the world what you did, John.”
“Those who were…not…worth saving. The patients who were on death’s door. It saved the company millions, bringing in more revenue than we ever expected.”
This prick almost sounds proud of what he did.
“It would also hand select specific medications on a weekly basis and remove them from being included in the health insurance, turning them into a payable medication that many couldn’t afford.”
The tears streaming down his face won’t save him now. He’s petrified, and so he fucking should be. The world will be a better place without someone like him, someone who steals and rids families of loved ones. Nothing, not even money, is worth all the suffering and loss he’s caused. I imagine all the people who have suffered, watching someone they love weaken, to have to sit there and worry about how they’re going to afford it, working multiple jobs just so they have even a few moments longer.
I think about how my own mother lost herself for months after my father left this world.
“I didn’t care.” He continues. “All I wanted was money, to have all the things I wanted, and nothing else mattered. I was power-hungry, and I stopped caring about the lives of others. There!” He cries out. “Now let me fuck?—”
The bullet from my gun flies from the chamber, piercing through the air in slow motion. I’m only aware that it hit the intended target by the warmth of the blood as it splatters my face in tiny droplets. Brain matter and cracked skull now litter the ground behind him as it traveled through and through.
John’s head drops backward, eyes wide and staring at the ceiling. My hand gripping so tightly around the gun that my knuckles are a stark shade of white. And the shiver that runs through me shoots from the base of my spine to the top of my head, causing the follicles of my curly black hair to stand on end.
“That was for everyone you hurt.”
Lowering the gun, Rocco takes a step toward me and places a hand on my shoulder. “Get out of here. I’ll make a call to my friend, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
I turn to face him, the burning sting behind the back of my eye sockets threatening its way through as I think of my father and his final moments of suffering, what it put him and my family through, and all the regret of killing a man in cold blood leaves my body in a flash.
Rocco cups the back of my head, bringing his forehead to meet mine. “For Gio, for the people.”
“For the people…and my father.”
CURRENT MOMENT
Fuck, she looks even more beautiful than she has the last few times I’ve seen her. Last night was the first time I’d slept well in a while, but today, I woke up with more excitement than expected after everything that happened.
“Where’s your bag?” I question.
“My bag?” Julia frowns in confusion.
“My special place isn’t anywhere near here. It’s a four-hour drive, and honestly, you won’t want to leave once you see it. So, I’ll wait. Go pack enough for a few days.”
“Oh, I thought this was just a day date?” Her eyes widen slightly at the unbridled thought seeping from her lips. “Well…I mean not a date exactly, I just…”
She’s babbling again. And fuck me, it’s cute.
“I didn’t mean to assume it was a date if that’s what you’re thinking, I just kind of?—”
Cupping her rose-colored cheeks with both my hands, I step closer to her, pressing a gentle kiss to the tip of her nose. She really needs to calm down. This girl doesn’t have a clue how to ask for what she wants, embarrassed by her own honesty, but I’ll change that within the next few days.
“ Bella ,” I croon almost in a whisper. “It’s a date, trust me.” She seems to relax into me more with that confirmation. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” She answers so quickly that it shows me she didn’t even need to think about it.
“Then go pack a bag for a few days. I promise you’re safe with me.”
“O-okay.” She smiles brightly.
Letting her go, I watch her walk into her bedroom with an extra skip in her step, and I can’t help but smile. I only have a few days left in America—I know that much. And there isn’t a single part of me that plans to waste them without her by my side. I’ll make sure that when I leave, nothing can be traced back to her.