Page 32 of Beautiful Dangerous

I smile again and reach for my coffee. “It isn’t going to happen again. Do you understand?”

He shrugs and leans back against the center island. “Yeah. I understand.”

“It was something I needed to do, that’s all. Something you don’t talk about, do you hear me? To anyone. No bragging to your brothers, no mentioning it, at all. Not even to Eddie. What happened last night, it stays here. Within these walls.”

“I get it.”

“Good. You’d better get back to the compound. I don’t want Eddie thinking I’m taking advantage.”

He leaves without another word and I sit back and close my eyes. That overwhelming sadness I felt a moment ago is still there, somewhere, and I allow myself a moment to miss a man who changed my life; the man who brought me into this god forsaken world that I’m not sure I can ever escape from now. But I know, with absolute certainty, that it’s a world I don’t want to be alone in anymore…

Lucca

I didn’t want to leave her, not today, I should be with her. But I had to get away, just for an hour or so. I needed to think. To get my head straight, because I’m not sure it’s been that way for days now. Months, even… No. Years. It’s been years. And Olivia, she’ll be fine, as long as she stays put at home.

Just as I’m pulling the car up outside the casino, my phone rings, and I glance at the screen as it flashes the caller’s name. I need to take this. It’s important.

“What you’re planning to do, Lucca – taking out the Pino brothers, I mean, Jesus! I don’t know if I can let that slide, it’s too much. It’s too fucking dangerous.”

“Jesus, Jimmy, seriously?”

“I’ve got Hawkins up my ass as far as the cartel and the fucking bikers are concerned, I can’t take a piss without him keeping eyes on me. You think he doesn’t have people at the port? He has people.”

I lean forward, resting my arms on the steering wheel. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. Believe me, I haven’t dropped the ball here, Hawkins is just being a real prick right now. And what you’re planning, it’s fucking big. Taking out a rival cartel? In the middle of the fucking day?”

“They killed Javier.”

“And I get that you need some kind of retribution, but… Christ! Why the fuck did I get mixed up in this shit?”

“Because you got a gambling problem that earned you a possible foreclosure on your house, something your wife still knows nothing about. We’re helping you out of a hole here, Jimmy, remember? But, you know, if you prefer I can toss that spade right back at you and let you dig your own way out.”

“I can’t do that, can I?”

“I don’t know,canyou? I mean, would Bea really bethatupset to hear that you almost lost everything on the spin of a roulette wheel? That you still have a shit load of debts that a Mexican drug cartel are helping you pay off while you feed them information on their enemies? You think she’d be happy to hear that? You think Hawkins would be happy to hear that?”

“You fucking bastard.”

“Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them. And whether you like it or not, Jimmy, you’re on the payroll now. So, you help us do what we need to do – what we’regoingto do – or your life could get way more complicated than it already is. You think Hawkins is being a pain in your ass now? You’ve got no idea how much shit we could throw your way.”

“This is a fucking mess.”

“You made it, Jimmy. Not us. All we did was give you a way out. So, you clear on what we need from you? Hmm? Can I assume this call was just you making sure everything was okay?”

There’s a pause down the line, but he has no choice here. Once you’re on that payroll, there’s only one way out of it, and I doubt he wants to take that route.

“Yes.”

“Good. Then this conversation’s over. Call me if you hear anything you think we need to know. I’ll check in with you soon.”

“Lucca? Today… I know what day it is.”

“And?”

“You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”

“Like what?”

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