Lorenzo #3
"Lorenzo, please." I don't stop, her chair scrapes backwards. "I didn't mean for it to go that far." I keep walking, I’m within touching distance of her now. "I never wanted Quinn to die."
She’s a fucking liar.
"Lorenzo." Her voice breaks. "Please." Her hand moves to her heavily pregnant stomach. “Think about my child. Quinn’s niece, they’re innocent in all of this.”
Her pleas mean fucking nothing to me. I don’t care at fucking all. I stop in front of her and grab her arm, she gasps. "No." The needle slides home and her body jerks. "No, no, no—"
I step back and the drug works quickly. Daire stumbles, her hands hit the table, her eyes are wide and terrified.
"Lorenzo." The fight is already leaving her. "My dad—"
I laugh, a cold, humorless sound. "Your father only cares about himself."
Her face crumples, the last piece of hope she had is gone. Her legs give out, she hits the floor, and the tears keep coming.
I crouch beside her, her eyes struggle to focus on me. "Quinn loved you." The words leave before I can stop them. Daire blinks, pain shining in her eyes. "She spent years wanting you to love her back." A tear slips from the corner of her eye. "She deserved better than you."
Her mouth trembles and I stand. The drug has done its job, within minutes, she's unconscious. I lift her and carry her outside.
Ciro has the trunk of Daire’s car open for me, and Marco has his car running, ready to follow us to where we need to go. I load her into the trunk of her car, and Ciro smirks as he slams the lid of the trunk down.
“Ready?” he asks as he hands me the device he made.
I nod. I’m ready to get this fucking over and done with and get home to my wife.
“We’ll be right behind you,” he assures me.
I climb into Daire’s car and start up the engine, within seconds I’m pulling away from the cabin and driving down the dark road, the trees are close on both sides and there's a curve ahead where the road drops toward a ravine.
I know this road. I made sure I knew it before we came here.
I drive at speed, the headlights cut through the dark and I keep my hands steady on the wheel. I don't think about anything except the steps of what comes next. The curve is coming in about three hundred meters ahead. I've done the calculation.
I pull the car over just before the curve.
The road is empty and dark, nothing but tree line and the drop beyond it.
I get out and go to the trunk. She's still under, the drug did its job thoroughly.
I lift her, and carry her around to the driver's side. Getting her positioned takes longer than the rest of it. I settle her behind the wheel, belt her in, arrange her hands so that when the cops come looking, it’ll seem normal and an accident. Her head lolls against the headrest.
I step back, reach in and engage the device on the accelerator, the engine surges, and I release the handbrake.
The car begins to move and I step clear and watch it roll forward, picking up speed on the slight decline, heading toward the curve exactly as I planned.
It doesn't make the turn. The sound when it goes over is loud but then the sight of her car is swallowed by the tree line and the dark and the distance of the drop.
Then silence. Behind me, Marco's car rounds the curve and stops. Ciro steps out, he looks at the gap in the tree line where the barrier is broken and then turns his gaze back at me.
"You good?” he asks.
I nod as I turn my back on the ravine and walk toward the car. Quinn is waiting for me and that's the only thing that matters now.
Walking through the hospital corridor on my way to Quinn’s room, I can’t help but think about Frederick and Gregory Hightower.
They’ve gone to ground. The money that they have, they’ll be able to hide well, but they’ll make mistakes, they’ll leave traces of where they’re gone and when we find those mistakes we’ll be there to take them out.
This isn't finished, not by a long shot, but we will find them. Just not tonight.
I walk into Quinn’s room and see that she's asleep. Her brothers are sitting in chairs on either side of the bed, silently watching her.
Daithí looks up when I enter and his gaze meets mine. I see the unasked question in his eyes.
I give him a single nod. He understands what I haven’t spoken.
Slowly, some of the tension leaves his shoulders. Caden and Conn notice it, too. None of them says a word before they rise to their feet. "I'll check in tomorrow," Daithí says quietly.
I nod and Quinn’s brothers leave.
I cross to the bed and sit beside Quinn. She's curled slightly onto her side, one hand tucked beneath her cheek, the other resting over her stomach, where our baby lies.
The sight of it settles something inside me. I reach for her hand and bring it to my lips.
She stirs, not enough to wake, just enough to move closer.
My chest tightens. She's alive and our baby is alive.
For now, that's enough. I lean back in the chair and lace my fingers through hers. Tomorrow I can deal with finding the Hightowers.
Tonight belongs to my family.