I had to know that she trusted me to.
“I got a phone call. It was from them. They have Marla. They said if I didn’t come alone they would kill her.”
I leaned against the corvette. “You know it’s a trap.”
“I know I’m exchanging my life for hers. I’m ok with that.”
“I’m not.”
“That’s not your choice and it’s not fair.”
“But it’s fair for you to sacrifice yourself? Why does anyone have to die? There can be another way.”
“If I don’t go there now they will kill her. And her blood will be on my hands. This is my fault. She never did anything wrong. She is innocent.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s how these people operate. You can’t beat them on their turf, playing their games, and their rules. That’s suicide. What in the hell makes you think they won’t kill Marla if you do go? You trust them to keep their word.”
Libby wiped tears from her eyes. “No, but at least it’s a shot. If I don’t go then she is guaranteed dead.”
I groaned as I said the next words, but it was staring me right in the face. “Marla is probably going to be dead already when you get there.”
“Why?”
“They won’t need her anymore. She’s no doubt seen them and can identify them. They can’t trust that she will just keep her mouth shut. That’s not how they’ve stayed in operation so long. They tie up all loose ends. That’s one of the reasons they want you dead so badly.”
“Fine, then what am I supposed to do? Just let her die? Call it a casualty?”
I pulled out my phone. “No. We have to take the fight to them.”
A moment later I was on the phone with Ranier. I told him the whole story.
“What’s the address?” I asked Libby.
“No… I can’t risk anymore people being hurt.”
“Where is the address? Or do you want Marla to die for sure? There might be a chance.”
Libby told me the address and I relayed it to Ranier.
“We are on it,” he said.
“Great. I’ll meet you there.”
“Really? Getting your hands dirty again?” Ranier asked with a chuckle.
“I would never want to miss such a great party,” I said.
“What are you doing? You can’t go there!” Libby said.
“I have to.”
I started to get in my car. “What? Are you crazy? You can’t get in the middle of this war. What if they recognize you?”
“I’ll disguise myself,” I said. “Besides if anyone shows up there not on my team, they are not going to live long enough to tell anyone anything.”
“No, I have to go, too.”
“The hell you do,” I said. “You are staying here. You have no business—“
“What? Neither do you!” Libby yelled. “You have no business there either. I got you into this, remember? This started because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about what was going on in my life.”
“No,” I said. “It’s more complicated than that. I knew what I was signing up for. I’m going. I need you to stay here with Toby.”
“Toby? What about him? Remember he needs a father.”
“That won’t change. Trust me; I’ll be fine.”
I turned away from her and got in the car. I put it in drive and drove towards Reacher Road. In my rearview I could see Libby exasperated with her hands on the back of her neck. She might have been hyperventilating. She was so upset. It was painful to see her like that, but this was the reality of this monster. There was no way to fight it but to do just that.
And I knew that Libby was capable. She was the strongest woman I’d ever met. I was sure that she could have handled herself, if she believed it as much as I did anyway. But I couldn’t let it happen. I loved her.
As I drove away I wished to hell I’d told her that. It was true that this might have been the last time I got to lay eyes on her. And my son… she was right about that. I might have been leaving my son an orphan with no mother and father. I felt so guilty about it.
But it was the way it had to be. There was no safe choice here, no reasonable decision. That was the case when you were dealing with unreasonable people.
And it was so hard. The choices that we often had to make and the realities we had to live with.
I’m not sure why I wasn’t scared. Maybe I was just that confident in my abilities and in the Zeffari’s abilities. I knew what they were capable of and that deep down the Scarlucci’s feared them. They feared what they’d stirred open, but their stupid pride wouldn’t let them quit. If they admitted to fear all of the other families and gangs would have run over them and pushed them out of town.