Protected By the Monster

“What the fuck do you want?” he asked. “You can tell I’m ignoring you, right?”

“Something happened with the girl,” I said. “When I call, you need to answer.”

He was quiet for a beat. “What happened?”

“She escaped,” I said.

“She did what now?” He sounded more surprised than pissed off, but the anger was coming.

“She went back to her apartment,” I said. “I don’t know what the hell she was thinking or how she got across town that fast. I think she took a cab.”

“Didn’t you take her phone?”

“Of course,” I said. “But cabs take cash too, or maybe you forgot that.”

“This isn’t a fucking joke,” he said. “You lost the girl on your watch. I didn’t fuck up here.”

“She’s back already,” I said. “But there’s a dead Jalisco soldier in her apartment building. One of her neighbors saw us.”

Another long pause. “This is some serious shit, Luca.”

“I know,” I said. “I understand how bad this is. But tell the Don. I can call Steven and have him go clean up the scene.”

“Too late for that. If a civilian saw, the cops are probably there.”

“All right,” I said. “I got you.”

“I’ll talk to the Don,” he said. “And get back to you. Hang tight.”

He hung up. I tossed my phone down onto the couch just as the shower started upstairs. I assumed it was Clair going to clean off the blood from her face.

I sat down on the couch and kicked my feet out, grinding my teeth, trying to keep myself under control.

I’d been careful for a long time. I killed the Jalisco, and I was good at it too, but I made sure I didn’t do it around civilians. Normally, I never would have killed a man right there in broad daylight in an apartment building like that, but I couldn’t take the risk. I had to finish him off before he did something stupid and hurt Clair some more.

The image of her getting thrown down, of her jaw slamming onto the floor, made my heart jump in my chest.

I was so angry. I was angry with her and angry with that stupid Jalisco moron. I was angry with the whole situation.

And yet angry wasn’t going to solve anything.

I closed my eyes, counted down from ten. I did that a few more times until I had my heart rate under control.

When I opened them again, the phone rang.

It was a number I didn’t recognize.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hello, Luca.” Don Leone’s voice, and he didn’t sound happy. “I hear you had an incident.”

“I did, sir.”

“What happened?”

I gave him the short version, about going out for groceries, coming back and finding her gone, going to her apartment building and hearing her talking upstairs with the Jalisco guy, about ambushing him downstairs.

“Now he’s dead on the floor there, and I think her downstairs neighbor saw us,” I said.

“You think, or he did?”

“He was busy screaming at the dead body, so I think he did.”

“Memory is fickle,” Don Leone said. “That might pay to your advantage here. He might not be able to identify either of you if he had such a strong reaction.”

“I know killing him there was a bad idea, but Clair’s safety was my priority.”

“I appreciate that,” Don Leone said, and then there was a short pause. I stood up, paced around the living room, could barely keep my anxiety in check. “But you know you messed up.”

“I know, sir,” I said. The shower turned off upstairs. An image of Clair, dripping wet and naked, flitted through my head. “I should have kept a closer eye on her. But I thought we had an understanding.”

“What sort of understanding was that?”

“I assumed she realized how much danger she was in,” I said. “But I think I was wrong about that. Between everything that’s happened and losing her phone, I think it was just too much.”

“I see,” Don Leone said. “You believe taking her phone was a bad idea.”

I clenched my jaw. Shit, I shouldn’t have said that.

“Sir, I understand why it was necessary,” I said.

“But you don’t agree with it.” His voice was strained.

“She had nothing here,” I said. “I know that phone is a link to the outside world, but it’s also the only thing that was keeping her grounded. As soon as I took it, I think that pushed her over the edge.”

“I see,” Don Leone said. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that you left her there alone.”

“That was my mistake as well,” I said. “From now on, I’ll order anything I need and have it delivered.”

“Interesting that you think you’re still assigned to this.”

I stopped pacing and stared at the wall. My body froze and a strange feeling washed over me.

I should have been excited that he might be sending me back to Steven. But then again, that meant I had failed, and failure in the mob was a very bad thing. They wouldn’t kill me for making a mistake, but the Don might make my life difficult for a while at the very least.