Chapter Twenty-One
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Max
Waking up in Miko’s arms was like a physical manifestation of that tight, warm sweater sensation I’d been feeling around him more and more.
“What is that?” I grumbled, annoyed at the noises coming from the common area that I had a feeling was going to force us to untangle and climb out of bed.
“That is Chuck,” Miko reminded me as he pressed a kiss to my neck. “Who is hopefully not burning down my apartment,” he added, grumbling as he rolled away from me and got off the other side of the bed.
Alone, I couldn’t bring myself to move yet. I knew that as soon as I did, the real world would come rushing back, and I would lose whatever this feeling was.
The closest thing I could compare it to was the first night that Megs and I could afford a hotel room. With a lock to keep everyone out. With a heater to keep us warm. With running water to wash away the filth.
It was comfort and security.
I never wanted to let it go.
But by the time Miko came out of the shower and got himself into his usual suit, I knew it was time to face reality.
“Stay,” he said, still slipping in a cufflink as he approached the side of the bed, leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll bring you some coffee.”
But as soon as he was gone, I grabbed my last set of fresh clothes out of my duffle bag and made my way into the bathroom.
“Can’t follow a single instruction, can you, sugar?” Miko called a few minutes later, making me jump and turn to find him leaning in the bathroom doorway, a cup of coffee in his hand as his gaze roamed over me.
“We have shit to do today,” I said, shrugging as I leaned back to rinse the conditioner out of my hair before squeezing out the strands, then reaching for a towel.
“Unfortunately,” Miko agreed as I dried off, then wrapped myself in the towel so I could approach him and take my coffee.
“Have you heard from Zeno?” I asked.
“No. But I didn’t expect to. I get the feeling that he’s not the best at getting back to people. I figured that once we ate and made sure Megs and Nicole were on their way, we could pop back over.”
“What about Chuck?”
“Chuck made slightly burnt scrambled eggs and definitely burnt toast for us to choke down. Then he’s going to spend the day here.”
“Is that safe?”
“I’m gonna have Venezio come and babysit.”
“That… probably won’t go well,” I decided. I didn’t know everything about Venezio, of course, but Miko had talked about him a bit on the ride upstate.
From what I could gather, Venezio was a man of few words. Chuck had enough for ten men. Venezio was serious and reserved. Chuck was slightly absurd and extroverted.
“I know,” Miko agreed, reaching out to catch a bead of water that slipped from the edge of my hair and was about to slide down between my breasts. “But Venezio is the only person I can call on to do a job and not have him ask me a single fucking thing about it. And if Chuck does something stupid like spill the beans, he also won’t feel compelled to call Cosimo or Lorenzo either.”
“Because he’s just an associate?” I asked, starting to get a hang of the mafia hierarchy.
“Because he’s used to being on his own. It doesn’t come naturally to him to run to someone else. I imagine that will come eventually as he works for us for longer. But this works for me for right now.”
“If Zeno hasn’t found anything, what is the plan then?” I asked.
To that, he exhaled hard. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe check in with Lil; see if she heard anything.”
“We can do that,” I agreed. “I’m going to need to stop home at some point.”
“Why?”
“I’m out of clothes.”
“Not seeing a problem there,” he said, eyes warm as they moved down my barely covered body.
“So, you want me walking around naked in front of Chuck?”
I swear to God, a sound that was damn near a growl escaped him at that. It was way hotter than it had any right to be.
“Fine. We can grab some more clothes and anything else you might need for the near future,” he agreed. “Meet you out there?” he asked as I set down the mug and reached for my hairbrush.
“Yep. Five minutes,” I told him, then rushed through getting myself dressed before sharing a terrible breakfast with the two of them.
Venezio showed up not long after, giving Chuck a curt “Fuck no,” when offered rubbery eggs and burnt toast.
“We shouldn’t be more than a few hours,” Miko told Venezio as the two of us reached for our jackets.
I didn’t know about Miko, but I was eager to get the errands part of the day over with simply because I wanted to be back in bed with him sooner rather than later.
We hadn’t exactly discussed what was clearly going on with us. But it seemed we were both silently just agreeing to… go with the flow. Let it happen. Whatever ‘it’ was.
We grabbed more coffee on the way to Zeno’s, then spent a solid twenty minutes knocking and calling to him before he finally pulled the door open, bleary-eyed and wearing a pair of watermelon-print sleep pants and a massively oversized blue hoodie.
“Good morning,” Miko said, holding out the coffee we’d brought him.
“Woulda been better at eleven. Or noon,” Zeno grumbled, yawning, as he walked over toward his desks.
“Long night?” Miko asked.
“Long frustrating night,” Zeno admitted, waking up all of his screens. “I’ve gone through years of chat records, bills, everything you can think of. I can’t find evidence of Henry ever having roommates. Though, I do have messages out to a few other people in the apartment building, asking about him.”
“Why would anyone answer that?” I asked.
“I may or may not have implied he’s a deadbeat dad with years’ worth of back child support due, and his very ill baby mama can’t find him.”
“Hey, whatever works,” I said, shrugging. “Why are you watching that?” I asked, looking at one of his screens to see the footage of me on the street just before I spotted Miko and set my sights on him.
“Forgot it was playing,” Zeno said with a shrug as he cradled his coffee like a lifeline. “You really are good at that.”
“I really needed to be,” I said, watching myself as I pulled up my hood before making my way toward Miko.
It was interesting, though, to see it from above. The ease of it. Miko’s complete ignorance of what just happened to him.
I was about to look away as I watched myself tuck the wallet away, remembering how satisfied I’d felt.
But it was right then that a face seemed to jump out to me in the crowd. Why, I had no idea. He blended in with everyone else. A sea of people moving down the streets as they did every single day.
Maybe it was the way his gaze was on me.
Intense.
Hard.
Familiar.
Even in a grainy street video, those piercing blue eyes made my stomach tighten.
“Max?” Miko called.
But I was rushing to lean across the desk, slamming down the space bar before he could disappear.
“There,” I said, stabbing a finger toward the screen. “That’s him.”
“Him who?” Zeno asked.
“Are you sure?” Miko asked.
“How the fuck do you zoom in on this? Blow this up,” I demanded of Zeno.
“Okay. Alright. Hold on,” Zeno said, rolling closer, then not only making the image larger, but clearer after a few clicks.
“That’s him,” I said, more sure than ever.
“It’s not very clear,” Miko said.
“Miko, he sat on my thighs and he strangled me. Over and over. I looked up into that face. I know what he looks like.”
Concern and anger crossed Miko’s handsome features in a blink. “Okay,” he said, voice soft. “Alright. Is that clear enough to try to run facial recognition?” Miko asked Zeno as he moved over to me, pressing a hand to my lower back, steering me away from the screens. Like he knew that the longer I stared at it, the more I was sucked back into my bedroom, to that night, to the fear, to the breathlessness, to the feelings of horrifying helplessness.
“Yeah, I think it will work,” Zeno said as Miko wrapped an arm around my hips and curled me into his side.
Normally, I would have thought that it would make me feel weak. But right then, I was happy to feel Miko’s strength, to lean into him, to allow him to comfort me.
“You okay?”
I didn’t give in to the urge to insist I was fine.
“It was like I was back on that bed for a minute,” I admitted, resting my face against Miko’s chest and breathing in his comforting scent.
“He’s gonna pay for it.”
“And the diamonds.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the diamonds,” Miko said, his hand sliding up and down my spine.
“Half a million dollars.”
“You’re more important.”
There was no helping the snort that escaped me at that.
“You don’t believe me?”
“No.”
“Why would I lie?”
“You’ve known me for point-five seconds.”
He opened his mouth, then paused, thinking.
“I’m sorry if I haven’t made it clear that you’re important to me,” he said, this time making me open and close my mouth, not sure how I wanted to respond to that. “I’ll do better moving forward,” he added, his arm giving me a little squeeze. “Do you think this will be as quick as it was for Max?”
“Way to make me sound easy,” I grumbled.
“Trust me, sugar, there’s not a damn thing easy about you,” he said, but the teasing smile and light in his eyes soothed over the barbed words.
“Depends on his social media footprint, really. But if he’s dark on there, I might be able to pick him up on more street cameras, see if he’s moving around the city. But if he went back upstate, there’s less I can do. Not as many cameras there,” Zeno explained.
“Shit,” Miko said after reaching for his phone.
“What is it?”
“Text from my boss. I’m gonna have to head out for… half an hour or so.”
“Okay,” I agreed, surprised at the way disappointment flooded my system. In such a short amount of time, he had begun to mean too much. So much, in fact, that I didn’t want him to leave. Not even for half an hour.
What the hell was that about?
“Okay. Well, while you do that, I’m gonna give Lil a call,” I said, moving away from Miko. Mostly because I liked being in his arms just a little too much.
“That’s a good plan. Zeno, you got a gun, right?” Miko asked, making Zeno look over, one brow cocked as if Miko was asking a ridiculous question.
“Alright. Good. I will be as fast as I can.”
“Miko, I’m a grown-ass woman. I’ll be fine.”
But, damn if his protectiveness didn’t give me that warm hug feeling once again.
As soon as he was gone, Zeno went back to work, music thumping, as I moved closer to the door for some quiet to call Lil.
I wasn’t surprised when it rang and rang. Lil could sometimes be a bit like Zeno—getting lost in her work, blasting her music, letting the rest of the world fall away.
But I kept trying, knowing it would annoy her eventually and she would pick up with her usual Hey, Babe. Then maybe ask something wholly inappropriate, like if I’d climbed Miko like a tree yet.
What I didn’t expect was a hushed, desperate, “Max, help .”
My stomach bottomed out as my pulse rushed through my veins. “Lil? Lil, what’s going on? Is someone there?” I asked.
But just then, there was a loud thunk followed by a pained cry from Lil.
I wasn’t even sure I hung up my phone as I rushed toward the door.
“Max?” Zeno called. Then, as I bolted down the hallway, “Max, wait!”
But there was no waiting.
Lil was in trouble.
And I was the only person around to help.
I cursed myself for not grabbing Zeno’s gun he’d mentioned. Or at the very least, a butcher knife from the drawer.
But there was no time to go back as I flew out of the building and ran down the street, thinking of how much damage someone could inflict on Lil in the time it took me to run from Zeno’s place to her little side street.
I paused only for one second to draw in a breath before throwing open the door and rushing inside.
The place was a fucking disaster.
Tables were overturned. Brilliant blue sapphires, deep emeralds, and striking rubies were scattered around the floors, mingling with diamonds and various metals Lil used to make the settings.
There, in the middle of the mess on the floor, was Lil’s gun. The same one she’d held on Miko what suddenly felt like ages ago.
“Lil?” I called, trying to be heard over the music bleeding from the surround sound speakers.
Some instinct had me stepping toward the gun.
But I’d barely gotten a foot inside of the apartment before the door slammed behind me and hands shoved into my shoulders, sending me stumbling forward.
If the desk was where it should have been, I would have landed on it, would have needed to struggle to scramble up.
As it was, I managed to slow my momentum, duck, and swing around.
Then there he was.
Those bright blue eyes immobilized me for a second.
“You’re starting to be a real problem,” he said, panting hard, blood dripping lazily from his nostril. From, I reminded myself, his fight with Lil, who I didn’t see, who I didn’t hear.
“Shoulda killed you when I had the chance,” he added, lunging. “Won’t make that mistake again.”
He was going for my throat, but I was quick enough to duck, to bend, and charge forward, ramming him back into the wall.
If I wasn’t worried about Lil, I could have used his momentary shock to slip out of the door, to get onto the relative safety of the streets.
But I couldn’t leave her. She wouldn’t have left me.
Which meant he had a chance to straighten, to square up, and then land a blow to my jaw that sent me flying.
I crashed to the floor, a thousand little gemstones biting into me at the impact.
But there was no time to focus on that.
I flipped over and scrambled backward, knowing that if I just got far enough, I could get to the gun.
My attacker reached down, though, grabbing my ankle, and dragging me back across the floor. There was nothing I could do to stop him. He was bigger. Stronger. And there was nothing to grab to keep myself in place.
My hands flew out, grabbing for anything around me.
There was nothing as convenient as a knife. But my hand closed around a pair of the pliers Lil used for work. It wasn’t the needle-nosed ones that I could have used to ram through this bastard’s eye. It was one of the blunted ones, meant for trimming metal.
But it was all I had.
So as soon as he had me in the middle of the room, likely trying to keep me from the gun, he lowered down again, hand going toward my throat.
Mustering every bit of strength I had, I plunged the pliers out toward his face.
Seeing it, though, he shifted just enough for the blow to land on his nose instead of his soft eye.
Still, he’d already been hit, and the impact had his eyes flooding with tears as he reared back, cursing.
It wasn’t much of an opening but I scrambled away, heading toward the kitchen, to the knives, pans, or, hell, even a meat tenderizer I might find there.
It was then, though, that I saw something.
Someone.
Lil was crawling across the ground, her face so bloodied and swollen that I barely recognized her.
But in my distraction, our attacker caught up, slamming his hands into my back, sending me flying into the refrigerator so quickly that I couldn’t even throw out my hands to brace the impact.
My wind knocked out, leaving me gasping, panic starting to swirl through my head when I couldn’t draw in a proper breath.
He was right on me then, his forearm pressed against the back of my neck, his ragged breath in my ear.
“Max,” Lil called, her voice small. But it was enough to shock me out of my inaction.
Then I was fighting for my life. And Lil’s. Since I knew that if he finished me, he would go back for her. Clean house.
And I already knew he was cold and capable of murder.
So I flailed, scratched, bit.
When I got enough room to turn, I did. Then I could hit, slap, claw, knee, kick.
He stumbled back a foot when my knee came up to his crotch with as much force as I could muster.
“Max!” Lil called, making me look just in time to see her get to the gun, then whip it across the hardwood floor toward me.
I rushed forward, scrambling for it.
There was no hesitation once I had it in my hands.
I turned, slid my finger to the trigger.
And fired.
Once. Twice.
The third one hit.
Sure, it was only his thigh, but I’d never shot a gun before. I was proud to hit him at all. Especially because Lil’s damn gun kicked like a mule.
Our attacker looked stunned for a moment. But as the blood bloomed down his thigh, he seemed to weigh his options.
Then turned and ran.
I didn’t lower my arms, though.
I stood there, my hands trembling a bit with the surging adrenaline as Lil pulled herself over to my side, panting hard.
“Are you okay?” I asked, breathing heavily.
“Been better,” she said, her voice smaller than I’d ever heard it. “Lock the door,” she demanded.
That snapped me out of it, making me run across the room to slide her many locks into place before leaning back against it, panting for breath.
My gaze finally landed on Lil again as she tried to stand.
“Here. Wait,” I said, rushing toward her.
I tucked the gun into my waistband before reaching for her, letting her slowly pull herself upward, hissing and cursing. When she finally got to her feet, she was sweating and pale, making the bruises and blood contrast like a fucking horror movie.
“Oh, fuck.”
“That good, huh?” she asked, sucking in quick, shallow breaths.
“Hold on. Let me get your chair,” I said, rushing to find it and wheel it over to her.
“Music, off,” Lil called, making the room immediately go silent, save for our labored breathing and Lil’s little whimpers of pain as she tried to move.
Blood stained her tee and was sticky in her dark hair.
“What hurts the worst?” I asked, wondering if I needed to call an ambulance or not.
“Face. Ribs. Head. That order. But I think I fucked up my knee when I fell.”
Her hands, bloody knuckles from fighting back and all, went to said knee, cupping the sides of it. I could already see swelling through her tight pants. Something was fucked up there, that was for sure.
“Okay. I think you need to go to the emergency—“
The pounding on the door made us both jump and gasp.
My hand went automatically for the gun.
But then I heard it.
Him.
Calling through the door.
“Max!”
Miko was there.