Page 17 of Abduction
Something about the way my father had been talking to Tommy the other night had bugged me. Like he was the only one who was going to step up and take over the business. I knew I had as much of a right to it as he did, and I didn’t feel like accepting that I would be second-in-command or some shit.
In truth, though, when I thought about taking on a mantle as huge as that, I was already exhausted. I wasn’t sure I really wanted it, or if I just wanted to be considered the same way as my brother was. I was as much a part of the family as he was, but the way my father was talking, it was as though he didn’t see it the way I did.
I wanted to be seen in the same light as Tommy, and to do that, I needed to make sure I did everything I could to prove my place in the family. And right now, that meant sitting on a bench and watching for some low-level dealer to make sure he wasn’t making a deal we had never agreed he could make.
Part of my father’s power was managing the inter-dealer battles that often threatened to get the better of Chicago. He would make sure everyone had their place, their people, their cash in hand, and keep it from blowing up into something bigger or more destructive. If someone was pushing those boundaries, it would mean trouble for all of us, and we needed to nip it in the bud before it started.
I hadn’t seen him yet, but we’d heard from another one of the guys we worked with that he was starting to infringe on Hyde Park territory. There was no reason for him to be here unless he was up to something he shouldn’t have been, and I was certain he would have done anything he could to pretend he wasn’t up to anything nefarious. But he would have to convince me, and I usually took a whole lot of it.
The park was busy that day, full of people, families, kids. Most of them would have had no idea what someone like me was doing here. They probably didn’t have a damn clue about the underbelly of this city, how much was going on right under their noses. Hell, if I hadn’t been part of the family I was, I would never have guessed it was all as present as it was. Most of us, the other side of Chicago, the darker one, just walked around like anyone else. These families would have been shocked if they had any idea the kind of people they shared buses and parks and benches with. Better they never found out.
Better they never had to live with the same knowledge I did.
I pulled my jacket a little tighter around my shoulders. It was cold, some of the wind chill filling the city that afternoon, much as it had the day I had spent with Amber.
Amber. I had been thinking about her more than I had wanted to admit, though I hadn’t talked to anyone about her. I knew as soon as I put any of it into words, everyone would tell me I was stupid as hell for flirting with her. She was engaged, and I had no idea what kind of guy she had on the other end of that ring. Could have been trouble, and it wasn’t like I didn’t have enough of that in my life as it was. I needed to get her out of my head, but she was a pleasant distraction from the mess going on in there right now...
My ears pricked as I heard something. Not Saka—no, his deep, cigarette-stained tones weren’t anywhere to be seen, and I was starting to wonder if we’d been sent on a wild goose chase. But it was a voice I knew. Stressed. High-pitched, almost tearful.
I glanced over, and sure enough, there she was—Amber. The same scarf she had been wearing the other day, the same bag bursting with papers slung over one shoulder. Her phone was pinned to her ear, and her face was full of worry.
“I just don’t know, Kimmy,” she told whoever was on the other end of the line. “I—why would he be back so late? He was supposed to be at the office, he...”
She must have sensed me looking at her because she trailed off a moment later and swerved around to face me. Her lips parted in surprise when she saw me sitting there, and she muttered something I couldn’t hear to the person on the phone and then hung up.
I would have thought she’d do her best to avoid me. A little flirtation was one thing, but seeing me again, knowing how much I wanted her, would have been borderline cheating for anyone in a long-term romance like her. But she strolled over as though she had been expecting to run into me and planted herself down on the bench beside me.
“Hey,” she greeted me, and I could hear an edge of exhaustion, resignation to her voice. Trouble in paradise? Maybe her perfect man wasn’t as perfect as all that, after all—not judging by what I had heard on her call, at least.
“Hello,” I replied. I was a little surprised she was acknowledging me, to be honest, but I liked her company too much to complain about it. She sighed heavily, a puff of misty air escaping her lips as she did so.
“Something up?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I think so, but I’m not sure if I’m being paranoid,” she admitted. “Sorry to just drop in on you like this. I just...I needed some time to think, and I can’t do that with my friends telling me I’m acting crazy.”
“They don’t sound like good ones, then,” I remarked, and she shook her head.
“No, no, she is,” she replied. “She’s just...trying not to let me overthink my way out of a good relationship, that’s all.”
She glanced away from me, and I suddenly spotted the dark circles beneath her eyes. Whatever she had been dealing with, whatever had been on her mind, it had been keeping her up at night. She didn’t deserve it.
“You want to talk about it?” I offered. “I’m not great with advice, but I’m good at listening.”
She chewed her lip. “I don’t want to dump that on you,” she replied. “You’re practically a stranger—”
“Even more reason to tell me,” I pointed out. “You know I’m not going to judge you. I’ll be totally neutral. I can give you a better answer than anyone else in your life right now.”
She eyed me for a long moment, clearly considering what I was saying. It must have been serious for her to have thought about taking advice from someone who had made a pass at her the other day. She needed someone on the outside of this, someone who could look in and help her make sense of whatever was going on in her life. It would serve as a good distraction to keep me busy while I waited to see if Saka was going to turn up. Plus, any chance I got to spend a little more time with her was one I would take. Even in her stressed-out state, she was strikingly beautiful, hair falling down around her face to frame it perfectly.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” she agreed. “I—it’s my fiancé. I’m worried he’s...”
It was like she couldn’t say it out loud. I could guess. I had seen plenty of women in her position before—hell, I’d been on the other side of it myself, the one they were hooking up with to try and get back at their errant boyfriends or husbands.
“I’m worried he’s cheating on me,” she confessed.
“He’d be crazy if he was,” I remarked, shaking my head. “What makes you think he is?”
“I mean, I thought I was just being paranoid at first,” she admitted. “He started staying later and later at the office, and he said he was just working overtime so he could pay for the wedding and for our honeymoon. He’s the one who has to pay for everything, so I didn’t want to seem ungrateful or like I didn’t appreciate how much he was doing for me...”
