Chapter 15 #2
Asher casually passed them and got to the car. He made a show of kicking his snowy boots against the tires, briefly then crouching down to check the car for tracking devices. Angelo’s face held only a hint of tightness as he saw Asher doing this.
The ride home was quiet, but not uncomfortable.
Angelo put an arm around her shoulders, and he and Asher spoke occasionally, mainly about some minor league hockey team that had recently drafted a woman and the drama around that.
Kara tried to listen, but her brain held a bee-like buzz as she tried to forget what she’d felt at the rink.
When they got home, Asher disappeared into the garage where he’d set up a workstation at an old wood working table.
“I have a surprise for you.” Angelo led Kara to his bedroom. He blocked her view by using his large body to hide something on the far side of the room.
Her heart was beating fast. What kind of surprise did he have planned? Completely unprepared for surprises, she did the only thing she could think of and tried flirting with him.
“Does it involve getting you naked? Because I’m all for that.”
He laughed. “Just close your eyes.” He grasp her hands in his. She narrowed her eyes at him instead.
“I really don’t like surprises,” she said, this time going with honesty.
“Please?” he asked and damn she couldn’t say no to that.
“Okay.” She said the word in a long drawn out sigh before she shut her eyes.
Angelo used her hands to guide her toward the direction he wanted her to go.
Kara finally stopped walking when Angelo released her hands and moved to stand behind side her.
“Can I open my eyes now?” she asked.
“Yes.” He laughed.
She opened her eyes and blinked. And blinked again.
A four-piece, cream and tan luggage set sat on the floor. Next to it was a matching forest green four piece luggage set. The cream and tan set had big red bows on all the pieces in the set.
“What—” she lifted her head to stare up at Angelo. “What are—” she couldn’t find the right words.
“The cream and tan ones are yours. The green ones are mine.” He explained as if that would clear everything up.
“You bought me luggage?” She drawled out the words uncertainly.
“They are super durable, lightweight, excellent handles and have spinner wheels.” He added.
She was still stuck on the fact that he’d bought her very expensive looking luggage.
She finally got out the word that mattered most. “Why?”
Angelo caught her chin and lifted her face up, their eyes met and held.
“Because I understand you may have to run. If you have to go… I’m going with you.”
I’m going with you. Those words… no one ever been close enough to her to say them. Because she’d never had let anyone get that close.
“Angelo, you can’t leave your life, your family.”
His brown eyes were so warm and tender, and his large, strong hands that cupped her face were so incredibly gentle.
“I can… for you,” he said with a quiet confidence but she knew he didn’t understand what he was saying.
It would be forever. There’d be no going back to see his family.
She knew he truly hadn’t grasped what that would mean, but she didn’t have the strength to fight with him right now.
Not when he was standing there, choosing her over the rest of his life.
“You run, I run. We go together.” Angelo brushed his thumbs over her cheeks and wiped away fat tears that rolled down her face. She moved into his arms, burying her face against his chest.
Not another word was spoken as she let Angelo hold her. She tried to imagine a future with him. Could he really leave it all behind for her?
Asher Fleming watched the feed from the security camera in Angelo’s bedroom, smiling a little as he saw Angelo give Kara the new luggage set. Angelo and Asher had worked carefully to arrange it so that she wouldn’t know about it until Angelo was ready to give it to her.
After assuring himself everything was okay, he opened up a new tab on his laptop to review the footage Angelo’s uncle had sent him of the restaurant’s dining room. He was certain he missed something in his first review.
Asher stopped looking at the men’s faces this time.
That was when he noticed a woman sitting with her family glance toward Kara once, then twice…
then a third time. As Kara and Angelo passed by her table the woman half turned, then jerked back slightly as if to catch herself from fully looking over her shoulder. It was so subtle he’d almost missed it.
“Shit,” he muttered. He dug out a cell phone and dialed up Colton.
“Yeah?” Colton answered casually.
“You still have that friend in Chicago PD?”
“Yeah,” Colton said again. He was manning his post inside his car on the street outside of Angelo’s house and per protocol, he kept his conversation responses short and vague in case anyone was reading his lips.
Neither Asher nor Colton expected anyone from the Irish mob to be a lip-reader, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“You trust him?”
“Yep,” Colton answered without hesitation.
“Then I need street camera views outside of Vertucci’s restaurant. I’ll send you the date and time frame.”
“Sounds good,” Colton replied.
Asher hung up and continue to watch the camera footage inside the restaurant.
The woman waited fifteen minutes exactly before she got up from her table and left the restaurant.
Asher rolled back the tape to the moment before she got up and wrote down the hour, minutes and seconds.
He texted Colton the restaurant cross streets and the half hour timeframe following the moment the woman stood up.
If she met anyone outside the restaurant he might be able to see it.
While Angelo and Kara were busy, Asher opened up a dozen tiny tracing devices called Black Widow trackers created by Lockwood Industries.
They were tiny as hell, basically the size of a black widow spider, almost invisible in most places where they could be attached.
He placed the trackers inside of Kara shoes, bags that she’d left out in the living room.
Later he’d tag her new suitcases. If Kara ran or if she was taken, Asher and his team would be able to track her.
It was only a matter of time before one of those two things would happen.
He’d been doing this for a long time, and it always came down to what he called a crisis moment.
There was always a crisis moment and as his gut tightened, he knew that Kara’s moment was coming.
Trying to distract himself from the nervous feeling in his gut, Asher checked in with his New York team. Callahan and O’Leary were still in Manhattan but that could change in a heartbeat. He had to be ready to act on whatever happened. He wasn’t going to let anyone get hurt on his watch.
Not ever again.