Page 71 of Stolen Sin

“Did Dad just send a hit squad after me?”

She doesn’t answer right away. It’s the kind of quiet that follows an abrupt question like that. “I don’t think so,” she says, and her voice sounds shaky. “I haven’t heard anything.”

“A bunch of men found me and Emily. We’re fine, we got away, but there are a few bodies back there. We’ll have to do some cleanup.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll talk to Davide. We can handle that.” She starts to find her footing now. “I don’t think it was Dad. He’s pissed at you, but I don’t think he wants to kill you. Emily though?—”

I look at my wife through the windshield. She’s looking back and, fuck, she’s so beautiful. I could climb in there and kiss her, but I’m not sure she wants to kiss me right now, not after what I just did to four human beings right in front of her. Emily’s not a part of our world and that level of violence isn’t something she’s used to, which means she’s still processing. I have to let her brain do its thing for a while.

“They were after me,” I confirm. “I heard two of them talking.”

“Right before you killed them?”

“Yep.”

“How is she? Is she okay?”

“In shock. She saw a little too much tonight.”

Elena lets out a long sigh. “Fuck, Simon. This is such a mess.”

“I know. Santoro’s getting aggressive. He smells the conflict I’m having with Dad. He’s going to do something.”

“You think this isn’t it?”

I shake my head against the night. The darkness feels oppressive and I miss the lights of the oasis so damn badly right about now. It’s amazing how much of myself I’ve given over to the Bianco Famiglia and how much of myself I define by my loyalty to the organization. Without the family, I’m absolutely nothing. Maybe that isn’t fair; Emily could be my ticket to a new life. We could turn around and drive the fuck out of Chicago tonight, keep going until I’m too tired to keep going anymore, maybe we could sleep a while and switch over when she wakes up. We could drive until we hit the Pacific Ocean and disappear in some small coastal Oregon town and start wearing a bunch of knit sweaters and shit like that. I could become a lobsterman.

But it’ll never happen. It’s just a fantasy. There are too many people depending on me and I’d never let them down, not unless I were dead. Davide’s out on a limb already and there are too many Capos ready to step up and do the right thing. Even Elena and my mother are on my side in their own ways.

And frankly, I care too much about this city. I love Chicago, my fucking homeland, the only place I’ve ever really cared about. The damn L runs straight through my blood. I want to be with Emily and I want to see what kind of man I could be with her if we could only ditch the pressures molding us into who we are right now, but it won’t ever happen. I’d never do it, and I’d never ask her to do it, either.

“Elena says that wasn’t my father,” I tell her, climbing back into the driver’s seat. I put the truck in gear and start moving again.

“Where does that leave us?”

“We need a place to crash for the night.” I look over at her. “Unless you want to sleep in the truck?”

She leans across the space and puts her head on my shoulder. “I don’t care. I’m fine if I’m with you.”

I slow at a stop sign and kiss her. “We’ll get you a bed, I promise. But after tonight, I need to take care of some things.”

She looks up at me with these big fucking eyes and they’re filled with love, and that nearly breaks me. After watching me kill four men, she’s still looking at me like that, and I wonder if I deserve it.

“Are you trying to get rid of me, Simon Bianco?”

“No, baby, I’d never dream of it, but I do need to stash you somewhere safe while I go do some things that aren’t safe at all.”

She sighs and closes her eyes. “I thought we were past that.”

“We were and then a bunch of men tried to kill us, so we’re back to it.”

“I don’t want you to ditch me.”

“I’m not and I won’t, but I can’t do what needs to be done if I have to worry about keeping you alive too.”

She’s quiet as she absorbs this. “You don’t want me to see you kill anyone else.”

I laugh because yeah, of course I don’t want her to see me kill anyone else, but that’s not my primary concern at the moment.

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