Chapter 3
Kade
I take a pull on my beer. “No story, really. Just moved to town and start a new job on Monday, actually. It took me a little while to find one.”
Paulie laughs. “No shit, doing what?”
“Moving rocks, down at the quarry. It took me over a month of nagging the foreman, but he finally got sick of my face coming around and gave me a chance.”
His eyebrows raise. “That’s great work. Pays good. I know a lot of good people down at the quarry. What’s that foreman’s name you keep pestering?” Paulie asks, taking a pull from his beer as he watches me with narrowed silver-grey eyes.
“Nathan. Nathan Bernatelli,” I tell him.
He nods, taking another draw of his beer. “Well thank you, Kade, for bringing my little sister home. She doesn’t usually hang out in joints that like, do you Ava?”
She tips her beer in the air at him and then looks at me.
“No, I most certainly do not. And I already told him thank you myself. The whole thing just caught me off guard at first, and I wasn’t very nice.
To be honest with you, I wouldn’t get in the car with most of your friends, so there’s that.
You’re lucky I even came home with him.”
“Ava!”
Her brother admonishes her while my eyes float to her little waist and the way those skintight jeans hug her curves and the long-sleeved thin Henley she wears tucked in melds to her breasts, creating an outline that makes it exceptionally difficult to keep my eyes averted or attention on anything else.
Ava purses her bright pink lips at her brother.
“What? It’s the truth. I’m not going to lie.
Anyway, I’m going to heat up some dinner for Mom before she gets home.
I’m sure she’ll be tired after today. She left early this morning.
” Ava is definitely nothing like what I’d expect from the sister of one of the most notorious soldiers of Bernatelli’s crew.
Paulie’s phone rings again and he answers it. His eyes go wide. “What the fuck—come again?” He stands up, circling his arms in the air. “Hang on, right now hang the fuck on!” he yells.
Paulie points to me. “You take my sister to your place, right the fuck now. Ava, you go with him right the fuck now. Don’t you so much as text or call me on any fucking phone line until I contact you.”
He looks at me. “You keep my sister safe for a few days at your house and I’ll pay you ten times what Nathan was going to pay you for a month, now fucking go! Now, both of you, get the fuck out of here and do it now!”
“Paulie, what is going on? I am not running away and leaving you and Mom here!”
He glares at me. “Take her now! Get her somewhere safe!” He looks at Ava. “I'll have someone pick Mom up. She’ll be safe, but you have to go now. They’re coming, right the fuck now.”
I grab Ava’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Fucking no! Stay the fuck out of it! What kind of bullshit are you into now, Paulie, huh?” He races down the basement stairs with the phone glued to his ear and Tony right behind him.
Ava’s still standing in the middle of the room. I pick her up, grab her bag and coat while juggling her as she thrashes around, and race through the front door and dump her into the passenger seat of my car as she showers me with a tirade of swear words I seldom hear from grown-ass men.
I shut the passenger door to close off her attack, get into the driver’s seat and put my foot on the gas, making my way through the residential area and a main thoroughfare that will take me to the highway and toward my condo not far away.
Ava hasn’t said a word since I got in the car.
“This is insane. I have to call my mom.” She digs in her purse and pulls out a flashy silver phone with bling hanging from it and with one swoop, I take it from her hands.
“Traceable. No calls.” I swerve to the side of the road, pull to the curb, take the sim card out, and toss it out the window.
I feel the fury of her gaze but ignore it.
She’ll calm down once she hears from her brother but until then she’s not calling anyone, especially on that phone, because if the guys Paulie’s pissed off come looking for him and don’t find him, then they’ll come looking for anyone and everyone that means anything to him, and his sister and mother are sure to be first in line.
We get to my condo, and I pull into the spot closest to my door in case we need to make a fast getaway.
I’ve barely gotten out and come around to get Ava, but she’s already out, slams the door and just glares at me.
“This is safe? This condo?” Her eyes pool with tears.
“Do you not know my brother’s enemies? The bullets from their autos will shred these walls and everyone behind them to lifeless pools of nothing. ”
“Hey, we’re not staying here. I don’t know who’s coming after your brother.” Not a complete lie, although I can probably guess. “I need to get some things to keep us safe. It won’t take more than a few minutes if you cooperate and quit slowing me down, understand? Now let’s go.”
Ava doesn’t argue, and instead keeps pace with me all the way upstairs and follows me into my condo.
“One minute,” I tell her because I know exactly how many steps it takes to make a minute and how long it takes to get from the bottom of those stairs to my go bag in the closet and back out again, having practiced it at least a hundred times.
I toss the long army duffle strap over my shoulder.
“Let’s go, double time it out of here,” I tell her, heading back down the stairs and into the car with Ava impressively right at my hip.
I put the gun I grabbed from the closet between my legs just in case I need it, but we make it out of the parking lot and back onto the highway in good time with no one on our ass.
I drive through a coffee place. “At a time like this, you want coffee?” Ava asks.
I shrug. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long-ass night because getting into the middle of a gang war, especially between two rival families, was never the plan. “Hungry? It might be a while before you eat next. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us.”
She nods. “I’ll take a venti decaf iced americano with two pumps of sugar free hazelnut, two Splenda and cream.”
I grin. “So, a coffee girl it is.” I repeat it word for word into the speaker system. “Sandwich? Last chance.”
That wins me a half smile. “Fine, I’ll take a turkey and swiss, thank you.”
I order for both of us and pull up to the window to pick up our orders.
I pay with cash and pull back onto the main thoroughfare, checking to make sure we’re not being tailed.
“How the hell is my brother supposed to call me when it’s safe to come home?
You destroyed my phone. It doesn’t work,” she says, as though just realizing with no sim card the entire device is useless.
The minute we get past the main intersection the late-night traffic starts to diminish a little.
“I’ll figure that out, but for now, no one can trace that phone to you, and that’s what’s important.
Trust me Ava, I’m going to get you through this,” I tell her, laying my foot on the gas as soon as we hit the highway because we’re going where the mafia used to go, and still goes to hide out today.
Somewhere I can see the enemy coming a mile away.
I feel the intensity of her stare as she watches me, and the miles begin to fly beneath the engine. “You’re not really the boy from next door kinda guy, are you?”