The next few hours were the longest of my life.
***
“Are you sure?” Mason asked me when we got back to the cabin. “She said Scarlucci?”
“Yes!” I said. “I did not imagine it. I know it is the mother of all coincidences, but we have to get out of here before they figure it out. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Ok,” Mason said.
We quickly started packing up everything. It only took us about thirty minutes, but somehow it felt like it was taking an eternity. It was unlikely that the Robertsons were going to figure this out tonight, but I wasn’t going to take that chance. We had to get moving. I just knew that I would feel so much better putting as much distance between us and them as I possibly could that night. It was the perfect time to leave, under the cover of night while everyone else was sleeping.
The moment we were in the car and heading down the road I was on my phone trying to do some research. I put Bernie and Sheila’s names into the search engine and checked out a few of the results. Soon enough I came upon their wedding announcement from a newspaper down in San Diego.
“Ah, here we go!” I said.
“What?” Mason asked.
“It says that Sheila Scarlucci—the youngest daughter of Paulie Scarlucci—wedded Bernie Robertson, blah, blah, blah. That’s Paulie Scarlucci. He is the head of the crime family, right?”
“That’s him,” Mason said. “Shit. I can’t believe the odds of that.”
“Well, I just pray they don’t realize who we were sooner. They could have just killed us at any time. Just knowing that we were that close…it makes me feel sick all over.”
“Right,” Mason said. “Well, we will soon be far away from here. What do you think about going farther north? I was thinking like Sacramento or somewhere in that area? I know it’s a long drive, but I think the farther from San Diego, the better off we will be.”
“Agreed,” I said.
And we drove. Off again away from danger. It was never going to end, was it? It was just going to go on forever until we just gave up. We were outnumbered and outmaneuvered every step of the way.
What would it take?
CHAPTER 29
Mason
I pulled the car over. Rubbing my eyes, I stepped out into the bright sunlight of the early morning. I’d been driving all night and figured I’d cleared about four hundred miles in the dark. I was still a long way from Sacramento, though. I’d been to Sacramento several times when I was a kid. It was very nice there, peaceful. It was a great place to settle down and raise a family, but for business San Diego seemed to be a better fit for me. And so far, it had brought me most of what I held so dear in the entire world.
I stretched my legs and ignored the slight crack in my knees. I was just thirty years old, but the past few weeks had aged me quite a bit. I suddenly felt like I’d skipped over my entire thirties all together and gone straight into my forties. Was that still officially considered middle aged? Or was it thirty-five? I made it a point to check that out.
Libby and Toby were both still fast asleep. I hated having to get Toby up and on the road again. I could only guess how hard it was on a kid his age to spend so much time in the car, but he never complained. Instead, he just sat back there and played with his toys or slept. He was such a little trooper.
I went into the convenience store and quickly used the restroom. I’d had to go for a while now, and this was the first place I’d seen to stop anywhere. Afterwards I felt so much better, it was like removing a few of those extra years I felt creeping up on me.
I didn’t want to get too comfortable in the store or the small town we were in at the moment. For all I knew the Scarluccis were right on our tail. I knew there was something about those people. I’ve always had a pretty good insight when it comes to people; it has served me well during my career in sales and in business. There was something not right about them from the start. Now, just because they are part of the family, I did not know if Sheila and Bernie had anything at all to do with the criminal enterprise. Hell, they might have known nothing about it. But that was a risk that we could not afford to take.
Libby was right; we had to keep moving.
I grabbed a few snacks for the road and a couple of sodas. For breakfast I picked up a few hot egg and sausage sandwiches, paid for the items along with a full tank of gas, and left. I paid for everything in cash. I didn’t want to leave any sort of paper trail for anyone to follow.