“Here. Here’s double. For you and Miguel. Take it, please,” Luiz begs. It’s as hot as a sauna in his little beachside cabin, but he’s shaking like he belongs back in my frigid home town.
I do as he says and pocket the money in the string-bag I have slung over my shoulder. “Very good, Luiz. Miguel will be happy.”
“And you?” the sadistic coward pleads.
I consider his question for a moment, before bringing the butt of my gun down across his cheek. He yelps like a child and snivels as blood pours down his face. “If I hear about you roughing up any village girls again, Luiz, you’re going to get more than that, you hear me?”
Luiz doesn’t answer, so I take a step closer to make sure he can hear me. He flinches in my shadow. “Yes, yes. I promise. I’m sorry. It will never happen again.”
“Good.”
I leave the sniveling husk of a man to enjoy the beautiful tropical morning by himself, and I head out for a little beachside drink of my own.
God, I love this place. Even the criminals here are soft and easy. I wade through the sand and take in big whiffs of the salty air.
My head feels so light, but my heart has never felt heavier. I somehow managed to finally escape from the frozen hellscape that came so close to killing me two months ago, yet all I can think about is going back.
The truth is, no matter how much I want to convince myself otherwise, I’m not truly free. My mind has been taken hostage by a beautiful angel and I won’t be able to rest until I see her again.
I have unfinished business in the city, and her name is Nia.
“Boy, am I jealous of you.” Finn’s voice crackles over the airwaves just like old times.
“Come on, now. I’ve made you a wealthy man. What’s stopping you from joining me?” I joke, sipping on an ice-cold beer on the front porch of my beachside villa. I watch as a storm plays out off in the distance, over the calm ocean.
“You know I burn easily,” Finn chuckles.
“You’re telling me,” I laugh. “How are things in the city?”
Finn suddenly takes on a more somber tone. I know what it means before I even hear him say it. Things still haven’t improved enough for me to contact Nia. When I set off that grenade in Gianni’s office, I wasn’t even thinking about the consequences, I just wanted to hurt the two crime families enough to get them off my back, or, rather, to keep them from ever having a chance to get to Nia.
It had worked, in a way—at least, for a little while. From what I’ve heard, Gianni is dead, killed by the blast that I barely escaped myself. Vadim bit the dust too. The old guys just couldn’t handle the heat anymore. Somehow, though, the young guns had survived. Finn’s told me that both Luca and Semyon are still alive, as are one or two other family members from each side of the aisle.
Those big oak doors had closed behind me just enough to keep me alive, and when the shock of the explosion wore off, I was able to overpower one of the guards rushing in to see what had happened. I took his gun and shot my way out of that mess. It was all a chaotic blur, and when I came to, I was in the cargo haul of a charter plane being flown to god knows where.
My only regret is that I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to Nia first, but it was probably for the best. I couldn’t have left any visible ties to the city. I was going to be hunted from the moment whoever survived the hand grenade’s blast got word out about what had happened.
The thing about crime families, though, is that, as cold and calculating as the successful ones have to be, there’s always a simmering current of anger and hate just beneath it all. Instead of pooling all their resources together and coming after me, the two families blamed each other for what had happened, and quickly descended into a bloody war.
That was good news for me. It allowed me to escape.
But now, they’re still going at it, and it means I can’t risk returning for Nia. I have to wait until they wipe each other off the face of the earth before I can risk going back.
“Any idea how much longer they’ll be at it?” I ask Finn.
“Hey man, you’re the expert, what do you think?”
I have no idea. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s totally new ground.
“... Have you been checking up on her?” It’s the question I’ve been too afraid to ask until now. I’m well aware that the westside’s a rough part of town. It must be a bloody hill by now. I can only pray Nia hasn’t been effected too harshly.
“Yeah, she seems to be doing alright,” Finn says, as casually as if I’d asked him about the weather.
A huge weight lifts off my shoulders. Thank god.
“She got a new job, though,” Finn continues. “Don’t worry, it’s in a much safer part of the city than Chinatown. I’ve also pulled some strings to make sure the area you said she lived in has more police protection than some of the other areas of similar, uh, economic status.”
I can’t help but smile with relief. “I knew I made the right choice when I partnered up with you,” I tell the young cop.