Page 77 of Taking Care of the Target

“Sometimes it’s more complicated than that.”

“Harold and I have been married for forty-three years. There’s been plenty ups and downs, but when you find the one you love, you do whatever it takes. You’ll find your way back to each other.”

“Maude,” Harold said in the loudest whisper Cassie had ever heard. His wife pretended not to hear him.

“So…?” Maude raised her eyebrows, and Cassie realized she was waiting for her name.

“Ca—Katie.” Her license said Kate, but since Katie was closer to her name, she figured it’d be easier to answer to.

“What’s keeping you and your man apart, Katie? A military deployment? Long distance relationship?” she asked, her eyebrows twitching up more with each question. “Just tell me if I’m getting too personal, and I’ll go over to Harold before he has a stroke.”

Cassie hid a smile behind her fist, surprised to find she even had the ability to form one after this hellacious day. “Thank you so much for checking on me, but I’m really not ready to talk about it yet.”

“Sure, sure.” Maude patted her arm. “If you change your mind, let me know. I don’t want you to feel like you’re all alone.”

Alone. Her heart knotted. That was exactly what she felt like.

Maude headed back to her husband, and the waitress placed Cassie’s food in front of her. Suddenly eating no longer appealed to her, but she forced herself to take bites.

For a long time she’d isolated herself, but between the woman in the store yesterday and Maude’s going out of her way to check on her, Cassie realized there were a lot of kind people out there. After everything that’d happened, and with her memory of the murder in the alley back, it’d be tempting to give up on people and hide from the world again.

Then she would truly be alone forever. She knew she needed to be careful, but she promised herself she’d get out there again. To try, even though the thought of starting over made her want to curl up in a ball and never move again.

She glanced at Maude and Harold, who were seated on the same side of the booth, cozy and smiling at each other. It made her think about her theory on the kind of love that lasted for decades. Obviously they didn’t agree on everything, but the feistiness and love was still there. She might have to re-think her stance on the two types of love. Maybe it didn’t have to be one or the other.

A pang went through her as she realized with her and Vince, it’d been the crazy-strong type, and they’d already had to let it go—another point for her original theory. She pressed a hand over her aching heart, hoping it’d eventually heal to a bearable level, even though she knew it’d never be completely whole again.

If he can’t be with me, I’ll settle for him being safe.

Just please, please, don’t let his plan end up getting him killed.

***

With the feds watching, Carlo would be hard at work looking like a legitimate restaurant owner, so Vince headed to Rossi’s.

Home shitty home,he thought as he parked the Jeep at the curb. New Jersey was so far from where he wanted to be it might as well be another planet. Time to shove those feelings aside and put on his game face. On the drive from Maryland, he’d gone over the story in his head until he knew it backward and forward.

Now he just needed Carlo to buy it.

Then he needed to go home and numb himself with as much alcohol as he could get his hands on, because every inch of him ached like he’d never ached before, and it had nothing to do with the stab wound in his side.

For Cassie, for Bobby. For Cassie…

He closed his eyes against the squeeze in his chest, but that only made him see her beautiful crying face as he’d left her in that bus station. He’d camped out where he could see the buses to make sure she got on one, and it’d nearly killed him to not go after her. If it weren’t the only way to keep his promise to keep her safe, he would’ve.

“Here goes nothing,” he muttered to himself and got out of the Jeep. Snow flurries fell from the sky, giving the night a peaceful snow globe effect it didn’t deserve. The tiny specks of white melted as soon as they hit his bare arms. Cold was good. Maybe it’d freeze the tangle of thoughts and emotions raging inside of him.

Lifting his chin, he strode into Rossi’s like he owned the place. Mia stood behind the hostess stand, her usual greeting halfway out before her eyes widened. “Vince. Hey.”

She must’ve been warned to watch for me.“Is Carlo here?”

“Yeah, he’s in his office. You want me to tell him you’re here?”

Vince ignored the question and made a beeline toward the back. He suddenly hated every table, every chair, every connected man that frequented the place, and the whole building in general.

He stormed into Carlo’s office, and when his uncle looked up, his expression was almost identical to Mia’s. Under other circumstances, it might be satisfying to see him so shocked.

Carlo’s hand moved under his desk; he’d recovered and gotten his hand around a gun, no doubt. “Vince? What happened? I’ve been trying to call you.”

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