Page 134 of Working for the Mob

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The car ride to the hospital was dark, bumpy, and mostly silent. I drove as fast as I could, with both hands on the wheel, but the roads in West Lannington were neither lit nor even. I cursed at every divot in the road and hoped they wouldn’t jostle Lance’s internal organs too much.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that Lance would jump on Lawrence Valuncia’s back just to let me rescue Genevieve.

But Lance had been full of surprises since he saw Jamie in the hospital. He apologized for escalating the war. Lance had never apologized for anything in his life. He gave me a heads up about the drifter, which turned out to be spot on. He stayed in my cabin all night to warn me that the Valuncias were out for blood. And then he helped me rescue Genevieve, no questions asked.

Lance had been acting like how a brother is supposed to act. For the first time ever.

And now I was rushing him to the hospital because he bought me some time to save Genevieve.

Genevieve sat in the middle seat in the front. Even with the possibility of Lance bleeding out in my backseat, I felt complete. Like she filled a piece of me that was missing just by sitting by me.

“I didn’t think you’d come for me tonight,” Genevieve said, halfway to the hospital.

I took a second to choose my words. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Not now that everything seemed to be falling into place.

“Of course, I came. I love you, Genevieve,” I said.

“Then …” she paused, but I let her take her time. This conversation had to happen. “Why’d you do it, Art? Why’d you break up with me? Why’d you tell me that I was just a fling?”

My own words stabbed like knives through my gut. To have my worst moment replayed to me was almost more than I could bear.

“I had to do it.” The silence in the car pounded against my eardrums. She waited for me to go on. She needed to understand. “I said I wanted to marry you, and I wasn’t lying. But, after they attacked us in the city, I thought you’d be safer away from me.

“I was hoping to avoid what happened to us tonight. You don’t know what it was like to have someone you love taken like that. I was ready to shoot up all of West Lannington.”

“The dolt was trying to protect you,” Lance said, from the backseat, and Genevieve turned her head to see him.

“Lance, you okay?” I asked, quickly.

He coughed, far wetter than I liked, and ignored my question. “He was prepared to turn himself over to the Valuncias tonight. He loves you, Genevieve. Which I don’t get. Whenever I look at you, I just see a great set of––”

Lance cut off mid-sentence. I peeled my eyes off the road to check on Lance, but by the time I did his eyes were closed again.

“Hang in there, Lance. We’ll be at the hospital soon.”

Genevieve settled back into my arms, worry lines etched across her forehead.

Chapter 42 – Genevieve

“Why is there a coffee table in my living room?” Art growled, his lips pressed against my neck.

He held my wrists while I struggled to put on earrings in front of the one mirror in his house. We were supposed to be getting dressed for a Welcome Home party happening at the café, but so far we were unsuccessful.

I had already put on makeup and done my hair. I only needed to throw on my dress, but Art remained in his underclothes.

Art shut down the whole town when he found out. We closed the café early and were expecting to pack everyone into the café later that evening.

Cissy took some convincing. She didn't know whether Jamie would be able to handle the moving and excitement. But Art showed up to her house with a twelve-part plan that I wrote out, and guaranteed that Lucy would provide all the baked goods.

“You’re going to give me a hickey if you keep that up,” I said. I struggled to remain upright while his mouth stayed busy.

“I want people to know you’re taken,” he said. “And you didn’t answer the question.”

“Your room is bare. There are no pictures. No flowers. No furniture. And nowhere to put my drink.”

“I like it that way,” he said.

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