Page 35 of Condemned Soul

“Then why is he putting her right under my fuckin’ nose?”

“Why d’ya think? He just needs a reason, Tawk,” Ruckus reminds me.

“You saw the way she looked at me.”

“Yeah, and we know the game Cliff’s playin’. He knows you’re here to be Prez’s eyes and he knows you’re here for her. He’s makin’ you pay for that. He’d love a reason to make you dead.”

“Then cover me.” I grip the top of his arm and hold it firm. “Please.”

“For fuck sake.” Ruckus gives up trying to make me see sense. “You got ten minutes, after that, I’ll kill you myself.”

I wait for Cliff to be distracted by a second whore before I head out the door, passing the pool where I kicked the kid’s ass and up the stairs to the second floor of the old motel building where Polly said her room was.

I try my best to unscramble all the words that I got going round my head so I can explain myself to her, and when I see the light on in one of the rooms that's the door I decide to try first.

“Go away,” she calls out from inside before she even opens it.

“Willow, I have to talk to you, just open the door.”

“I don’t want to talk to you!” she shouts back, and I manage to stop my hand from slamming against the wall in frustration. This girl’s seen enough violence outta me tonight.

“Willow, what you just saw, it wasn’t me. I?—”

“It looked like you.” She swings the door open, catching me off guard and all I can do is stare at her and appreciate how fuckin’ beautiful she is. It’s been weeks since I actually laid eyes on her, Cliff’s kept her away from the club and made it very clear that she’s off limits. Which makes the fact she now has a permanent room here, all the more confusing.

“Tawk, I remember that boy from high school, he’s only a few years younger than me and you just beat the crap outta him. It wasn’t a fair fight, you're twice his size.”

“I had to.” I take a step closer to her but she moves back and shakes her head like she’s all of a sudden become afraid of me. “My father’s not stupid Tawk, he knows we have something between us, he gave me this room and insisted I not be at home alone anymore because this is exactly what he wants me to see. You should have stayed in Colorado.” She goes to close the door but I grab it.

“Don’t say that, you know why I came here.”

“Yeah, Tawk, and look where it’s got us. Nowhere.”

“It’s better than me not being able to see you at all,” I disagree with her. Yeah, it’s shit, but there was no way I was gonna let her leave without me. I’ve lost too much in the past to just let her go.

“Is it, really? Because I don’t know about you, but I’m finding all this really difficult.” Her eyes fill up with tears.

“Willow, I promised you things would be changing, you just gotta have a little patience.”

“And watch you beat the crap out of innocent people in the meantime.” She shows me a little of the sass I remember her having in Colorado. Since we’ve been here I’ve seen less and less of that.

“Just hold on.” I can’t resist reaching out my hand and touching hers and she proves she still has a little faith in me when she lets me.

“I gotta get back.” I squeeze her fingers tight before I release them and before I can turn my back to leave she asks me something that makes me stop.

“Are they gonna kill him?”

“Willow…” I don’t know how to answer her question. I don’t wanna lie to her, nor do I wanna uncover any of Jimmer’s plans.

“I need to prepare myself.” She puts on a brave face. It never occurred to me that Willow would be sad about the death of her father, she’s shared with me some of the horrific things she knows he’s done and she spent as long as she could in Colorado avoiding him.

“Prepare yourself.” I smile at her sadly before walking away.

“You sure about this, Prez?” Jessie asks me after I’ve delivered the news to the club. I’ve had to tell them a little about Consuela so we can execute my plan. But there’s still far too much I’m keeping to myself. This is the moment the club has been waiting for. We’re gonna take down Cliff Adams and, in the process, keep Burlusconi sweet. Everyone has a role to play and we are gonna have to make a trip to Long Beach to ensure that everything goes to plan.

“You're puttin’ a lot of faith into this agent.” Jessie looks unnerved as he lights up a smoke.

“She works with Burlusconi, and right now keepin’ him on board is our priority. He throws a lot of business our way,” I remind him.

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