Evan Arden 03 Otherwise Unharmed (16 page)

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.  “I’ve never thought about it, so I’ve never asked.  I know I can’t leave now, though.”

“Why not?”

“I have…I have a job to do.”

“You mean someone to kill?”

“Not exactly.”

“Quit being so damn cryptic!” Lia snapped as she pushed away from me.  “I certainly hope I’ve heard the worst by now, and being evasive isn’t going to make me feel any better!”

I
reached out and pulled her back to me.  She came reluctantly but didn’t actually resist.  I tightened my grip on her, completely afraid to let her go now.  She hadn’t heard the worst, but she’d certainly heard enough.  She knew that whatever she decided to do, I shouldn’t have to lie to her about what I was doing.

It was time to tell her the rest.

“It has to do with why I got released,” I said.  “I made a deal with a couple of federal agents.  One of them was the guy you talked to outside my apartment.  The other was inside talking to me at the same time.”

I kept my grip on her shirt as I looked up
at her, and she scrutinized me cautiously as I spoke.

“Most of the organizations in the city deal with the usual
: politics, corruption of law enforcement, bribery, marketeering, money laundering, prostitution—all that typical stuff.  There’s enough of that to go around, and they tend to work together pretty well for the common interest as far as the local government and police go.  Outside of that, there are some specialized businesses primarily run by separate families.”

Lia continued to watch me intently.

“I work for Rinaldo Moretti,” I told her.  “His family runs the majority of the casinos and has its hands in strip joints, a lot of weapon sales, cocaine, and the caviar trade.”

“Caviar?”
Lia’s brow furrowed.  “That’s not illegal.”

“Well, yeah
, actually,” I corrected, “some of it is.  It depends on where it comes from and how you get it.  It’s a business that is heavily regulated—like the sale of ivory or something like that.  Some of it’s legal, but a lot of it isn’t.  It’s actually a bigger business than a lot of the drug trade.”

“Shit,” Lia said.  “I had no idea.”

“Overfishing caused a shortage,” I replied.  “Shortage means higher demand.  Higher demand means there’s room for organized crime to step in and make sure we’re the ones with the best supply when it comes to the kind of shit stupidly rich people will pay for.  It’s like gorilla-hand ashtrays or certain types of cars.  Yeah, you
can
get them legally, but it’s a pain in the ass.  Sometimes it’s easier to get them illegally.”

“Do they still come with the manufacturer’s warranty?” Lia asked.

I glanced up at her, saw her smirk, and laughed a bit before going on with Mafia 101.

“
Gavino Greco’s organization is Rinaldo’s primary competition.  They focus on stolen goods, heroin, and human trafficking.”

“Human trafficking?”

Fuck.  I probably had said too much, especially considering my thoughts of her in chains.

“I don’t really want to go into that,” I admitted.  “It’s as bad as it sounds.
  If you really want the details, I’ll tell you, but it’s just going to make you sick to your stomach.”

“I guess I’ll stick with the vague, then.”

“Good call.”  I collected my thoughts.  “So I’ve been working for Moretti and his family since I moved here.  The feds want me to help bring him in, but I can’t do that.  He’s been great to me, and I can’t betray him.”

“Great to you?”
Lia said with a snort.  “He made you a killer.”

“No, he didn’t,” I corrected.  I turned my eyes to her in warning.  “I’m
not going to hear any shit-talk about him either.  Think what you want of me—I’m responsible for whatever the fuck I do—but don’t say a fucking word against Rinaldo.  Clear?”

Lia stared at me for a long moment before she nodded once.

I was being shitty and I knew it, but I was in a shitty position and sometimes you just have to drop back to what you are most comfortable and familiar with to keep going.  I also had to remember that she wasn’t used to any of this, and me going all mob-threatening on her probably wasn’t going to keep her close to me.  I had to be careful.

“Sorry,” I muttered.  “He’s just…he’s always taken care of me, dealt with
my messes when I fucked up, and been more of a father to me than anyone else ever has been, okay?”

“I understand,” Lia replied.  Her fingers traced my arm
, causing little goose bumps to form on my skin.  “It’s all right.”

She sat down next to me on the bed
, and I turned to look at her.

“You’re really going to stay?”  I didn’t know why I was opening the door for this conversation.  Maybe I just needed the reassurance.

“I told you before,” she said. “I didn’t spend all this time looking for you to just turn around and go home.  I don’t
like
this at all though, Evan—don’t think for a second that I do.”

“I didn’t think you would.”
  I wanted to grab her and kiss her and fuck her senseless again, but I knew she wasn’t going to put up with any of that until she got the rest of her answers.  I just hoped I’d be able to provide them all to her satisfaction.

Living up to what I said, that would be a whole separate challenge.

“I need to understand what happens
after
,” Lia said.  “What do we do once you’ve…well, once you’ve done whatever it is you need to do?  Explain that first, and then we need to figure out what comes later.”

I rubbed my fingers into my eyes and thought for a minute.

“I half considered just making a run for it,” I told her, “but the more I think about it, the more I know that isn’t going to work.  Ask me how many people tried to run from my boss, and I’ll give you the same number of people I caught on the run.  No one ever got away from me, and I’m the kind of guy they’d send after us.”

“
Jesus,” she muttered, “I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this.”

I cringed a bit, closed my eyes, and tried to focus.  When I opened them again, I reached out and took her hand.

“I know this is really fucked up,” I said.  “I know this isn’t what you bargained for when you came to find me, but I’m glad you are here.  I’m glad you’re staying.  I…I…
fuck
!”

“What is it?”

I let go of her, stood up, and ran my hand over my face and head.  I hadn’t gotten a haircut yet, and the length was starting to annoy me.  Without being neat and orderly, I felt like I was totally off my normally collected game.

“I’m not usually like this!” I bellowed.  “I’m not used to…to…to
needing
someone else.  It’s always been…just
me
.”

Lia pushed away from the bed and stood in front of me while I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried not to look embarrassed over my outburst.  Her hands came up and lay gently on the sides of my face
before they ran down my shoulders to my chest, and I relaxed at her touch.

“It’s okay to need someone,” she told me.  “Everyone needs someone.”

Her lips brushed mine.

“I never have,” I argued.

“You just didn’t know who you needed yet,” she countered.

She kissed me again
but only briefly.  As I collected myself, she put an end to the intimacy and pulled me back to sit on the bed for the rest of the discussion.  I sighed, complied, and started thinking out loud.

“
I’ve got to come up with a way of getting Greco to trust me.  He’s got to let me deep into his organization so I can get enough information on him to turn over to Trent.  The thing is, the last time I saw Greco wasn’t the friendliest of encounters.”

“What happened?”

“I held a gun to his head and threatened take him out.  I doubt he’s forgotten.”

“Are you serious?”

“He started it,” I shrugged.  “If it makes you feel any better, there were three guys with guns pointed at me, and I didn’t end up shooting any of them.”

“It really doesn’t,” she said.

“The point is, getting into his org isn’t going to be easy.  I don’t even know where to begin at this point, and I’m going to have to move fast.  Before any of that, though, I need to make sure you’re safe.”

“Why wouldn’t I be safe?” Lia asked.  “I haven’t done anything.  I don’t even know who these people are!”

I looked at the clock and rubbed my hands against my thighs.

“We need to move,” I said.  “
It’s checkout time, and I only brought us here to get us out of Trent’s line of sight.  We can’t stay another night.”

“Where are we going?”

I reminded myself that she wasn’t asking me to take her to the airport, but I still decided we weren’t going anywhere near O’Hare.  I didn’t want to be too far from the city—I needed to be able to get to public transportation easily and quickly.

“Another motel,” I said. 
“Maybe something up north.  We just need to stay moving for now until I figure out how I’m going to do all this.  We can talk more when we get to another location.”

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation
at all.”  Lia put her head in her hands.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You’ve said that a lot,” she reminded me.

“I know.”

She went silent, and I went tense.  I waited for her to say something—anything—to give me an idea what she was going to do.  I probably should have reminded her that if she wanted me to get her a ticket back to Phoenix, I would, but I wasn’t going to make that offer again.

“Well, Mom was right.”  Lia sat back and looked at me.  “I had no idea who you really were.”

I looked down at my clenched hand and the veins pulsing in my arm.  Everything about her posture told me she had just changed her mind.  She was going to leave, and I was going to have to figure out some way to accept that and move on.

Or do something far worse.

“Do you like it?” she asked.  She placed her hand on my thigh and started moving it up and down, her touch relaxing the muscles there.

“I like that,” I said, indicating her hand on my leg.

“That’s not what I meant.”  Her hand stopped moving, and she started to pull it away, but I grabbed it and held it in place.  My fingers stroked over hers softly.

“
Do I like what, then?”

“Killing people.”

“It’s a job.  I’m good at it.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

I didn’t see any point in lying to her now, so I just spit it out.

“Yeah, sometimes.
  Some people deserve it.”

“But not all of them?”

“Everyone’s done something wrong,” I said with a shrug.

“And they deserve to die for it?”

“I don’t really think about it much, you know?”

“No,” Lia said as she raised her eyebrows and looked at me pointedly, “I do
not
know.”

“
People die,” I stated.  “They might get a disease, or get hit by a fucking bus, or get hit by me, but they all die.  Sometimes no one even gives a shit, and the kind of people I kill mostly fall into that category.  I definitely don’t care if they die, so I don’t think about it much.”

Lia was silent for a long moment.  I struggled with wanting to give her a little time to process all the shit I’d thrown at her
.  I also needed to deal with my own nervousness at being in the same location as long as we had been.

“What are you thinking?” I finally asked.

“I’m trying to figure out how you can be so nonchalant about it,” Lia said.  “I don’t understand how you can reconcile what you’re doing.”

“Like I said, I don’t think about it.  It
’s usually from far away, and I only see my target through the scope.  It’s just like playing a video game.”

“It’s not a game,” she said quietly.

“I know it isn’t.”  I took in a long breath and let it out slowly.  “Really, I swear we can talk more about it later, but we have to move now.”

Lia nodded and silently gathered up her belongings from the bathroom and shoved them all into the overnight bag she’d
brought with her the night before.  I asked the motel guy where I could get a cab, and he directed me to a convenience store a few blocks away.  I bought a pack of cigarettes while Lia gave me a bit of a look.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Don’t give me that shit.”

“In light of everything else, I’ve decided not to complain about your smoking,” Lia informed me.

“I don’t usually do it.”

“You’ve had a cigarette in your hand pretty much the whole time since the last time you made that statement.”

“I’m trying to remember what it’s like.”  I gave her a goofy smile, and she shook her head again.