30. Jian

30

JIAN

T he silver car drove without the practiced knowledge of how to navigate the narrow winding streets leading to town. For the first few minutes, I was able to follow them pretty closely until they took a veering turn through someone's garden and hopped the middle segment of the road.

With them on the opposite side, driving recklessly the wrong way down the road, I maintained my distance on the right side. Putting myself in harm's way wasn't going to help anyone in this situation, but my suspicion was high.

Who the fuck was parking outside Mae's house? I had a few ideas bouncing around my head, but none of them grew into much until I finally glimpsed the license plate. Storing it in my thoughts, I focused on not losing the vehicle. Whoever was at the wheel drove like a maniac, swerving around honking cars and screaming brakes. They clearly cared more about their escape than anything else.

"Fuck!" Suddenly, they took a sharp turn to the left, vanishing from sight. Much to the alarm of the cars behind me, I slammed on the brakes and wrenched the wheel around to drive over the grassy verge and through oncoming traffic. It was by some stroke of luck that I didn't cause an accident. By the time I raced down the street where I last saw the car, the exit split into three separate directions, and the car was nowhere in sight.

"Fuck." I slammed one hand on the steering wheel and slowed to a stop. Whoever the fuck they were, the next time I saw them, they definitely weren't getting away.

"Any luck?" Rocco hurried down the path to me as I climbed out of the car. His face darkened as I shook my head, but before I could say anything, Mae trailed after Rocco.

"Jian! Are you alright?" She pushed past Rocco and grabbed at my arm, scanning me with her eyes. "What happened?"

A slight nod from Rocco was my permission to tell her the truth.

"I chased them a good few miles, but I lost them at the intersection. Crazy fuckers were driving in the wrong lane and gave me the slip a mile or so from town. I lost them. Sorry, Boss."

Rocco's face darkened further and a vein swelled slightly at his throat. I knew of the anger he was struggling to keep a lock on, and if Mae wasn't here, he probably would have exploded into a furious rant about the audacity of those fuckers.

"I'm glad you're alright," Rocco replied finally, clasping my shoulder.

"I got their license plate and I called Dino on the way back. He's already looking into it. Whoever that was, we'll know by tomorrow for sure."

"Is this a thing?" Mae asked, her voice soft despite the scowl of her brow. "Should I be worried about this? Someone parked outside my house, running away the second they saw you? "

Rocco turned to Mae and cupped her face. "I won't lie to you. It's strange, but I can't answer that. Not until I know more."

"I…" Her eyelashes fluttered, and Mae's shoulders slumped as she glanced back at her mother's house. "This had better not be something, Rocco. You hear me? You have to promise me that this is nothing. Just some weird coincidence or some Uber driver late for pick up."

Rocco's brow twitched. "I can't promise you that, Mae. I'm sorry."

Her face fell, and Rocco pulled her into a swift, tight hug that ended with a chaste kiss. After ensuring Mae would have round-the-clock protection, we said our goodbyes and slipped back into the car.

"The fuck is this?" Rocco muttered the moment we drove away from Mae's place. "Who have I pissed off now?"

"No clue. I didn't get a good look at anyone in the car, but maybe Mae was right. Maybe it really is nothing?"

"Always looking for the positives," Rocco remarked dryly, glancing at me. "No one can outrun you. Not even a scared civilian."

"True. Honestly, given how they used civilian cars to protect themselves and force me to choose between taking a risk or maintaining distance, they're definitely professionals."

"You thinking Russians?" Rocco's attention switched to his phone.

"Unsure." I shrugged, keeping most of my attention on the road. "Maybe peace was an illusion."

Rocco nodded as he placed his phone to his ear. "Hey, Dino. You got anything for me?" He fell silent, nodding faintly while staring out the side window. After a few moments, he grunted. "Alright. Keep her safe, and I'll make sure Vito has an envoy to meet you the second you reach the city. Do you understand?"

Rocco hung up and spun his phone around in his fingers .

"Dino's taking Ma back to the city. Seems she's finally ready to say goodbye to this place."

"That's a good thing, right?" I threw him a glance. "I was beginning to think she was never leaving the study."

"It's good, but Dino tried to persuade her to come back after you called him about the plate. She refused, so he's out there, minimal security, while we've got some anomaly driving around."

"Dino's smart. He'll keep her safe," I assured him.

"Yeah." Rocco made another call and straightened up slightly when the person answered. "Vito. You heard? Excellent. Dino's on his way to the city with Ma, but it's too far to turn back. I need you to make sure people meet them. I'm not taking any chances." He paused, and Vito's muffled tones filled the silence between us. "Yeah, I'll handle it. Just keep Ma safe."

Hanging up, Rocco tipped his head back and ran one hand down his face. "I just spent however long trying to persuade Mae that being involved with us won't be as dangerous as she fears." He turned to look at me and grimaced. "Whatever this shit is, it had better not make me a liar."

"Drink?" I offered Rocco a glass of whiskey, and he accepted it with a graceful nod. Rather than returning to the manor, we stopped off at a motel in the middle of the town. Rocco wanted to be as close to Mae as possible—but not too close. He didn't want her to worry until there was a reason to worry.

"Thanks." Rocco drained the glass instantly, leaving two lone ice cubes at the bottom. I took the glass back with an amused snort and moved back to the counter to pour him another .

"You said you were trying to persuade Mae that being with us wouldn't be dangerous," I said, recalling our previous conversation. "Is that what she's worried about?"

"That and a few other things." Rocco leaned back in his chair with a groan and pushed his laptop away slightly. "She kept saying she wanted this. She wanted me, and you and Dino. She wants Zack to have the family he deserves and she wants to be loved. I can see it in her eyes. But… Zack's safety is her priority. She doesn't want to endanger him no matter how strongly she feels."

"Understandable," I replied, moving back with the second drink.

"But I told her… I told her that no matter what happens now, he's always going to be a target. Which will come out eventually. We all know shit doesn't stay secret for very long in our world."

"Ain't that the truth." Amused, I dropped into my own chair. Secrets in the world of the Mafia were like weeds. Something would always pop up no matter how hard you tried to keep it hidden. Unless you were good at killing quickly, a secret like a child would be common knowledge within the year.

"And keeping her outside of The Family? Unheard of. Anyone with eyes will start to look at why we're doing so much work to keep an outsider protected. Don't get me wrong, it's doable, and I will do it in a heartbeat, but…" Rocco grimaced and tipped his glass back and forth, his eyes on the sloshing liquid inside. "I needed her to understand how dangerous it is on the outside, but I don't know if she got it. I feel like… I'm back in college, back at that night when I was woken up by my father and had to leave her behind, y'know? Like this life is going to take away the woman I love all over again."

I paused my drinking. "The woman you love?"

Rocco rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah," I replied, looking him straight in the eye. "I do." A silent understanding passed between us. Maybe it was love, that feeling we shared for Mae. I knew Dino felt the same since he was much more vocal about his infatuation with her. I hadn't put a label on the feeling because in this life, caring deeply about anyone was dangerous.

But it was love. As much love as men like us could muster.

"But," Rocco said finally, "how I feel, how you feel… it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters here is what Mae wants to do. And I will respect her choice. I will honor her wishes. If she decides to return to her normal life and leave us…" His jaw tightened, and he pursed his lips. "I will respect that."

"I hate that idea," I muttered. "I hate being respectful."

"Would you rather I went caveman on her and demanded she stay?"

"I wouldn't be against it." I snorted. "On the flip side, you could hand the reins back to Vito and become a normal, regular guy with a woman and a kid."

Rocco laughed loudly, slapping one hand against his chest. "Fuck, can you imagine? Don't you go giving Mae that kind of idea, now. There's only this life for me."

I laughed along with him, trying to picture the three of us taking honest office jobs to pay for tuition and groceries. It was a chilling thought.

"I don't know," I teased. "You'd look great in a sweater vest."

"Fuck you!"

The next few days were spent making sure Mae was under constant protection. We tried to make it as subtle as possible so as not to alarm her, but she caught me once or twice. With Rocco's mother safely back in the city with his grandfather, the most pressing issue was locating the owner of the silver car. While the plates were stolen, the car itself was tracked to a dealership just off the interstate. Vito took on that responsibility, and a few days later, he delivered chilling news .

"Jian?"

"Vito?" I scanned the crowd for Rocco, assuming Vito was calling me after not being able to reach Rocco. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"No," Vito said sharply. "Everything is not okay. I know who bought that car, and after breaking a few fingers, I learned that they bought more than one car. Five, in fact."

Five cars.

"Fuck." All this time, we were keeping an eye out for that silver car, but with four other cars to change into, they could have been following us and we'd be clueless. "Who?" I demanded, finally locking eyes with Rocco in the crowd.

"The Russians," Vito replied stiffly. "And they're out for blood."