Chapter Twenty-Three — Vinny
The burner phone buzzed against the kitchen table like a live wire.
I stared at it, my gut tightening before I even flipped it open.
I had only given Bael the number, and I had a feeling whatever he was calling me for was not going to be something I wanted to hear.
It had only been a few hours since we'd awoken, and we hadn't even talked about plans to get us out of the clusterfuck we were in.
I hit the button and held it to my ear. "Yeah?"
"Vinny." Bael's voice crackled through the phone. "Got good news and bad news."
I exhaled through my nose. "Start with the bad."
"Everybody still thinks you're dead—so that's the good news.
" A pause. "Virginia's been circulating stills from the warehouse cameras.
She knows who the girl is now." Bael kept talking, each word a hammer blow.
"Her brother Draeon just landed in Florida.
Tore your place apart—and fuck, Vinny, I didn't even know where you lived after all these years, but he found out in a matter of hours. "
My knuckles went white around the phone. Draeon Lucas wasn't just dangerous—he was vengeance in human form from what I had seen when I did some research on her family.
"Oh, and that five-million bounty on her head?
" Bael's laugh was razor-edged. "It just doubled.
And word is, some Colombian motherfuckers are already on a flight to collect you to marry their boss.
I'm trying to work something out on my end, but that's three different organizations at her neck, so who's to say… "
Bael's voice dropped. "Hope you got a plan, brother."
I shook my head like he could see me. "I don't."
"Well, you better figure one out. War's coming, and I can only do so much since I gave up so much power," he said. That was the irony. If I hadn't brought Virginia to Florida, Bael would have never given his father's organization to her to run, but then he might not even be alive.
Silence. Thick and suffocating, followed.
I turned toward the bedroom, my feet already moving before my brain processed it. Jamie was sitting on the side of the bed. My shirt hung loose on her frame.
She turned to look at me when I entered. She frowned. "What is wrong?" she asked.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my body a live wire. "We got a problem."
Her expression tightened. "More than the problems we already have?"
I nodded. "Bael said Virginia's sending out footage from the warehouse cameras. She knows who you are now."
Jamie didn't move. Her eyes locked on mine.
"Your brother's in Florida," I added. "He tore apart my place. And that bounty on your head? It's ten million now. And Colombians are flying in."
She shot up from the bed. "Fuck," she breathed. "Fuck."
I didn't move. Her hands trembled as she paced. She looked like she wanted to peel out of her own skin. "This is my fault," she muttered.
"It's not."
"I should've never saved you." Her voice cracked.
Damn. My heart dropped. Her words hit harder than the bullet that tore through my side.
I blinked.
Her mouth opened. She took a step forward. "Vinny, I didn't mean—"
"Yeah," I said quietly. "You did."
"No, I—fuck—I didn't mean it like that. I just…
" She stopped in front of me, her hands trembling now.
"I'm scared right now. Not of dying. Of being dragged back alive.
I don't regret saving you. I'm just looking for someone to blame when none of this shit is really your fault.
It all stems from my own fucking blood not seeing value in me. "
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. I had a family who wanted me.
She sat next to me, barely breathing. "I painted another target on your back.
I gotta get us out of this." She swallowed hard, her throat working.
"But I don't know how. We're really fucked if I'm being honest. The Colombians won't be easy, but Draeon doesn't negotiate.
Doesn't take prisoners." Her fingers dug into her arms. "He will find me now that he knows where I'm at. "
"He won't touch you. I won't let him."
She stared up at me, her breath hot against my chin. "You don't know him."
"I don't need to." I reached up and ran my thumb across the pulse of her neck. She didn't flinch away but closed her eyes and exhaled. "I know me."
She reached out and her hands fisted in my shirt. She didn't say anything.
Outside, the wind howled through the trees like a warning.
The monsters were coming.
And if I wanted to keep her alive—
I'd have to become one again.