Page 36 of Untouchable

“I’ll be right back. Stay.”

I hop out of the car and stride across the road, looking left and right before coming up to the driver’s side window of the Tahoe which is still down. The driver looks to be barely conscious as his cheek rests on the expanded airbag.

The man groans softly as his eyelids flutter open.

“Who are you?” I growl.

His eyes open fully but it seems to take a moment for him to realize who I am. I lift my gun up to his temple and press the hot steel against his skin. He grunts under the searing metal but doesn’t speak.

“Who do you work for? What do they want?”

“I’m not scared of you, kid,” the guy rasps.

An amused smirk takes over my face and I can tell by the look on the man’s face that it is bone chilling. Good.

“You should be. One more time. Who do you work for, and why are you following me?”

The guy’s eyes flick from side to side as he tries to sit up, no doubt he is trying to think about his chances of walking away from this alive. I gotta say, they aren’t good.

“You are dead. You and that pretty little thing,” he spits, his eyes continuing to dart around us.

My smirk falls off my face as a red-hot anger begins to rise inside of me. My breathing becomes ragged as I do my best to contain the feral beast begging to be unleashed. He wants far too much blood shed than I have time for. Gritting my jaw tightly I dig the gun into his head deeper as I speak.

“Not as dead as you.”

Before he can say anything, I pull my gun back and put my hands on his neck, ripping sharply. The loud snap confirms that his spinal cord is severed and the glazed look in his eyes tells me that he died instantly.Too bad.He deserved to suffer but there was no point in leaving a messy crime scene when I don’t have the power to call up a cleanup crew right now. So, I settled for something that would look like it was caused in the accident.

Turning on my heel, I quickly make it back to the car and hop in before dropping it into gear and taking off. I don’t know how many others there are out there or if they are on their way, but I am not sticking around to find out. I quickly punch in the address of the lake house into the built-in GPS, selecting the route that keeps us off of the main highways from here on out. I am not taking any more chances.

It takes me a few minutes to realize that I have a heavy set of blue eyes on me. I glance over and see Seraphina looking at me with a surprised expression.

“What?”

She shakes her head before facing forward. “Nothing. I guess I am just still getting use to the fact that my best friend is a ruthless killer. Well, ex-best friend.”

For some reason, her calling me her ex-best friend bothers me more than her calling me a killer. It shouldn’t. I am both. I chose to be both. I don’t have any regrets. I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my life doing exactly what I want to be doing. At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

Chapter Sixteen

Alessandro

After several more hours of driving, we finally pull up to the lake house. As soon as my tires hit the dirt road, I let out a sigh of relief. This place is so hidden that it should be damn near impossible for anyone to find us. We can hide out here safely for a couple of days until my dad and the Boss can make it back into town, we will make a plan from there.

I park in front of the lake house and pause for a few moments to take it all in. It has been a long time since I have been here. Growing up, we came all the time, a lot of my favorite memories growing up happened in these 4 walls. The Mariano’s usually come down with my family. For the last couple of years, I have chosen to work instead of coming down here with everyone for obvious reasons.

It is a large 5-bedroom 6 bath cabin sitting on 5 acres with a huge back deck and a private lake. My dad had it completely remodeled when he bought it when I was just a kid. He kept the original wooden beams and floors, but it is now outfitted with the top-of-the-line security system, appliances and electronics.

Seraphina opens her door and gets out of the car, shaking me out of my stroll down memory lane. I step out quickly, scanning the property just to make sure I don’t see anything out of place. I turn to the front steps and walk up them until I reach the door, making quick work of unlocking the house and disabling the security system.

As soon as I step inside, the familiar scent lingering in the air hits me like a brick to the face. A million memories come to mind all at once. Happy ones, sad ones, everything in between. It all sits heavy on my shoulders making me really think about just how different my life has become. How distant and faded those good times have become.

Seraphina walks past me as she weaves through the house and steps out through the sliding glass door before settling on a seat overlooking the lake on the back deck. Her knees are drawn up to her chest as her wavy hair falls down her back. She looks deep in thought, so I decide to leave her as I begin doing a more thorough perimeter check of the house. There is no doubt in my mind that this place is secure, but it never hurts to check.

Once I know for sure that the place is all clear, I decide that I should probably make dinner. We haven’t really eaten in almost a day apart from the gas station breakfast sandwiches we had this morning, so I start digging through the cabinets and fridge to see what has been left here.

Nothing fantastic is left, unfortunately. It looks like our options are either sardines or boxed macaroni and cheese. Seriously, why do we even have a can of sardines here? Choosing the mac and cheese, I grab a pot and begin boiling the water.

“Need help?” Seraphina asks softly.