Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Elian

I walked Elizabeth into my bathroom to wash the blood off of her hands. Then, when she seemed too disassociated to do it herself, helped her out of her stained clothing and into something clean before I took her into my room, and pulled her into the bed with me.

She was all cried out, but she clung to me, let me run my hands down her back and through her hair.

Until, overwhelmed by the events of the day, she drifted off to sleep.

I held her for another half an hour before I slid out from under her, pulling up the covers, then making my way out to the living room to find that Serano had invited himself into the condo.

“Check this,” he said, turning the volume on the TV, and a newswoman was talking about the assassination attempt on Senator Michael Westmoore. “He remains in critical condition,” she concluded before Serano muted the TV again.

“No one knows she was the real target,” I concluded, making my way to the kitchen to grab a bottle of scotch off the cart. “Want one?” I asked as I reached for a glass.

Serano nodded and I poured him a glass before throwing mine back.

“Has Renzo called yet?” I asked as Serano passed me my phone, having left it in the car in my rush to get Elizabeth upstairs and safe.

“‘Bout eleven times.”

“Did you answer?” I asked, tensing.

“The last one,” he said, nodding.

“And?” I asked, impatient.

“Said to call him.”

I reached out and he slapped my phone into my palm as I poured another drink.

“Renz,” I said when he answered.

“The fuck, El?” he asked, voice rough.

“It’s been crazy. I know I should have called, but Elizabeth was freaked the fuck out.”

“Do the cops know?” he asked.

“That she was the real target? No.”

“Think the shooter will talk?”

“A Bratva enforcer? Unlikely,” I said. “Are things still on for tonight?” I asked, thinking of the plan to have one of ours take out a member of a local, disloyal crew and frame it on another crew that was wrapped up with the Russians.

“Yeah,” Renzo said. “If anything, I think this might make shit easier. They will be too distracted by the arrest to investigate this too much. Any chance there were any Russians around the senator’s building?”

“I doubt it. The press and cops were out in force. They wouldn’t want to accidentally be caught on camera.”

“Were you?” he asked. “Caught on camera,” he clarified.

“I parked far enough down that even if someone did catch me in the background, it would be blurry as fuck.”

“Okay. She alright?”

“Freaked out. But I got her to sleep.”

“This has to stop,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. I’m going to tell her that when she wakes up.”

“Alright. Let me know how it goes.”

“Will do,” I agreed, hanging up.

“Tell her what?” Serano asked, watching me.

“That this has to stop,” I told him.

“Yeah?” he asked, one side of his lips curving up.

“What?” I asked.

“Can’t tell her she’s yours,” he said. “But can tell her what to do?”

“It’s a safety thing,” I insisted.

“Sure,” he agreed, finishing his drink and setting the glass in the sink.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m on guard,” he said, making his way to the door and letting himself out.

Alone, I sucked in a deep breath. I’d been so focused on calming Elizabeth down that I hadn’t gotten a chance to wrap my head around the panic I’d felt at hearing her say someone had shot at her.

As much as what I said to Serano was right—that you couldn’t just claim a woman—I also had to admit that she was starting to feel that way. Mine.

And I had to figure out what I was going to do about that.

“Elian?” Elizabeth’s voice called, making me turn to find her standing in the hallway.

“Hey, sorry, just had to take a phone call,” I said. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Any word on the senator?”

“Last report I saw was that he is alive but in critical condition,” I told her. “Can I get you a drink?” I asked, waving at the bar. “Or coffee?”

“Ugh,” she said, nose wrinkling.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you wrinkle your nose at coffee.”

“It was a long day even before the shooting,” she admitted. “There was a lot of coffee.”

“Food then?” I asked, figuring she wouldn’t have had time to eat if she was that busy.

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Pizza?” I asked.

“You make pizza?” she asked.

“Yes,” I admitted. “But I was going to order in to make life easier.”

“In that case, can we get garlic knots too?” she asked.

“Anything you want,” I said, taking a minute to order the pizza as Elizabeth fed Kevin.

“I got it,” she said when I hung up.

“Got what?” I asked.

To that, she pulled out her phone, clicked around, then set it on the island.

Within a second, her voice came through the phone’s speakers. And then the senator’s voice as well.

Admitting to colluding with the Bratva.

Thanks to her gentle nudging, he did so in explicit detail, making it impossible to misunderstand his meaning.

“Wow,” I said, giving her a smile. “You did it.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, sucking in a deep breath. “But… maybe all for nothing,” she said. “What if he doesn’t make it?” she asked. “It’s all my fault.”

“ Your fault? Baby, he is the whole reason these fuckers have been trying to kill you. That had nothing to do with you.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But that bullet was meant for me,” she said. “What if the shooter says that? Will I be in trouble?”

“In trouble for what? Why would you assume a shooter was aiming at you?” I asked.

“But…”

“He’s not going to talk. Trust me,” I said. “The Bratva takes their code of silence just as seriously as the mafia does. He talks, he’s dead. He keeps quiet, he’ll get a good lawyer who will get him a good deal. He’ll do a few years. Then get out and be rewarded.”

“Have people in your family gone to jail?”

“Of course,” I admitted. “Rico’s cousin is actually getting out soon.”

“Can I ask for what?”

“Manslaughter,” I told her.

Something flashed in her eyes then. Like this was the first time she was really processing what I did for a living, what we were capable of. Which was similar, but not the same, as the shit the Bratva did at times.

“That’s part of the job sometimes,” I told her. “But, unlike the Bratva, women and children are off limits with us. If someone is killed, it’s because they are in the life and they crossed us.” I paused, watching her process that information. “What are you thinking?” I asked, unable to read her thoughts.

“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “I guess I’m just imagining that if you came a couple of minutes earlier when I was being chased, and if you shot him, that I wouldn’t think that was wrong. I think sometimes it can be justified.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. I felt like maybe it wasn’t the best time to say it wasn’t always as reactive as that. Like the hit that was going down later that night. It wasn’t always noble or justified in most people’s eyes what we do, how we run our organization.

That was shit I would have to tell her eventually. If things continued to progress with us. If I wanted to, as Serano put it, claim her.

The pizza arrived then, and Serano joined us to loom silently over the table as we ate with the news playing in the background at Elizabeth’s request, wanting to keep an eye for updates on the senator’s condition. Then he headed out after a few slices.

“You’re quiet,” I said as she cradled her coffee in her hands after dinner, but didn’t so much as sip it as she stared off into the distance.

“Just thinking.”

“About what?” I asked, sitting down beside her.

“What happens now. If he wakes up, do I still go to the police with the recording? If he passes, am I safe again? If not, what do I do after? Where do I go? A lot of things.”

“What do you want?” I asked. “If you got to pick anything, what would you want? To stay? To go?”

“I want to stay,” she said, looking over with so much sadness that I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for her, pulling her legs up over my lap. “I want to stay. And I want to go back to working for myself. And I want,” she said, her voice dipping lower.

“What do you want?” I asked, picking up on the heat in her gaze.

She reached out, settling her coffee cup on the table, then slowly moving to straddle me.

Her hands rose to frame my face as mine slid to her lower back.

“This,” she said before sealing her lips to mine.