Otherwise Unharmed

Chapter 17—Altered Plans

“We spend too much time on this cargo,” Rurik was saying to Gavino as we all sat around his office and discussed the plans for the next shipment of human cargo. “We should focus on real money—drugs and caviar.”

“We must see this through.” Andrey shook his head. “We were cheated with the last batch Jenna picked up, and we must be sure we are not cheated again.”

“We weren’t cheated,” Jenna muttered. “It’s not like they crossed us on purpose.”

“You don’t know that,” Gavino growled. “That’s why you need a babysitter this time.”

“I am not babysitter!” Rurik shouted.

Andrey responded harshly in Russian, but Rurik was not to be dissuaded.

“You go, then!” Rurik said to the other Russian. “You go be caretaker for babies, and I will take care of caviar. Micah and I have more important businesses.”

Andrey glanced at Gavino, who only shrugged. Micah remained uncharacteristically silent.

“One of you must be there,” he said. “You want to be a bigger part of this organization, then you are going to represent.”

“It is dangerous,” Andrey remarked.

“Evan will be there for our safety.”

Rurik snorted and shook his head. I leaned back in my seat and raised my eyebrows at him as I took out a cigarette, and they all continued to argue over who was going to be where. Ultimately, Rurik talked his way out of the trip, and Andrey was assigned to go in his place.

He seemed very pleased with what was a very minor victory, I thought. Too pleased. If I gave a rat’s ass about Rurik, I might have paid more attention, but I didn’t.

I should have.

The meeting broke up, and I stood to leave. I needed to get all the details to Trent quickly so he would get off my ass about it.

Jenna brushed up beside me as we were leaving.

“It looks like we’ll be working together in a couple weeks,” I said.

I stepped out of Gavino’s office building and into the cool wind as it blew down the street from the lake, signifying the beginning of fall. Jenna had followed me out, which she often did when we had a little group chat with the boss. It usually turned into a heavy make out session, but we hadn’t done anything else.

It still left me feeling uneasy every time it happened, but I kept telling myself it was part of the job.

Jenna leaned against me and wrapped her arms around my body to grip my ass and pull me against her. I’d spent six weeks lying low with Lia—moving her around and making sure no one was following us—and avoiding Jenna. It also meant Lia was right there in my sights the whole time, so I could be sure she was safe. Though I’d kept in contact with Gavino and done a few jobs for him, for the most part, we stayed in hiding.

“Mmm…yes, working together will be nice.” Her mouth found mine, and I did my best to seem receptive.

Even as I made out with her, my thoughts were focused on the plan that lay ahead of me.

Gavino was leaving his office with his goons to get their side of everything organized. The plans had been laid out for picking up a shipment of girls from Haiti, and I was supposed to go along as protection for the group. Gavino was going because he was an idiot.

Well, that wasn’t his reason, but it was still true. No one as high up in an organization like his should be anywhere near those kinds of goods, but he seemed to think it was the only way he could guarantee the cargo was what he wanted. The last shipment came loaded with some contagious disease, and the cargo was practically unsellable.

It was a sick, twisted business to be in at all, and that was from the point of view of a killer.

Jenna seemed perfectly fine with the whole thing, which was also fairly disturbing. Maybe spending time with Lia was making me soft or something, but the more I was around Jenna, the less I liked her.

It’s just part of the job, I reminded myself.

“When are you going to give this to me?” Jenna hummed against my mouth as her hand found its way to my cock….again.

“Maybe it’ll be your reward for a job well done,” I responded. I nipped at her lip before I stepped back a bit and smiled at her. “I gotta get prepared.”

“Prepared?” she asked as she gave me a look of disbelief. “What do you do besides aim and shoot?”

“It helps to have ammo,” I told her. “I need to go shopping.”

Ammo shopping was probably the male equivalent of a chick claiming she needed to wash her hair, but it got me out of the situation for the time being. I had enough for the job as it stood, but I was going to stock up anyway. I had the feeling additional ammunition was going to be necessary at some point, and the last thing I needed was to run out. I also had to meet with Trent and couldn’t have Jenna delaying me too long.

Trent went above and beyond to be a total dickhead.

“Playing hide-and-seek with your bitch?” he said as he sat down across from me and smirked.

I leaned against the plush seat in the 676 Bar and tried to keep my cool. Though it was near the window, I made sure I was carefully blocked from street view.

“Not sure what you mean,” I replied. It was better to sit back and let Trent be an asshole than to let him get to me, though it was difficult a lot of the time. He was a master at pushing my buttons.

“Well, you moved out of that posh place on Kingsbury to a crappy little shack up north,” Trent said with a smile. “Now you’ve ditched that one for an apartment downtown. Much more convenient.”

And the paranoia button was pressed most decisively.

“Keep the fuck away from her,” I growled under my breath. “You keep pushing me like this, Trent, and I don’t give a fuck who you are and who you work for—I will fuck you up.”

He laughed.

“You can’t touch me,” he said, “or all the evidence goes straight to the courts. You know I have that set up.”

I did, too. It didn’t stop me from wanting to put a nice, round hole between his eyes.

“You go too far and I’ll no longer give a shit.”

Trent leaned in close.

“You can’t scare me, Arden,” he said. “I have you by the short and curlies, so cut the shit and give me my information.”

Every muscle in my body tensed, and I wanted to spring at him and rip out his throat, but I forced myself to loosen up enough to give him what he wanted.

“The shipment will be here in five days,” I told him, “October nineteenth, right before midnight. Greco will be there and so will Andrey but not Rurik. I’m going along as protection for the shipment. He’s nervous; there’s no doubt about that. Jenna screwed up the last time, and Greco doesn’t want it happening again. Just remember, if you’re busting people, I’m your fucking informant. I don’t expect to be hauled away in cuffs, got it?”

“That won’t happen,” he said. “You have my word.”

Like I could trust that.

“It better not,” I said. “I have some insurance as well, you know. If I go down with this, you aren’t going to live to regret it, capicse?”

“Since when are you Italian?”

“Do we have a fucking understanding?” I pressed, ignoring his comment.

“I already said it wasn’t going to happen,” he snapped back. “Now who’s being pushy?”

I folded my arms over my chest and stared at him.

“Where’s the drop off?” he asked.

“Just north of Roosevelt by the south branch of the river, the power substation, and the railroad tracks.”

“I know the place,” he said with a nod. “Where will you be?”

“There’s a building right there in the yard,” I said. “I’ll be on top of it.”

“Well, that’s nice and close, isn’t it? I take it you’re sniping again.”

I didn’t see any reason to respond to him, but I did watch him closely. There was something about the way he was sitting and the slight contraction of the muscles around his eyes that told me he was hiding something. Either he was trying to get me to let something slip, or he knew something I didn’t and was thinking about it intently, but I didn’t know which.

There was definitely something wrong. I felt it during our last in-person meeting as well, but I still couldn’t quite figure out what it was—something about the location or about sniping, maybe. I didn’t get the impression he was lying outright, but he was definitely keeping something from me—something vitally important.

“Why don’t you just spit it out?” I asked as I continued to stare at him intently.

His eyes tensed a bit more, and he reached for his drink—a distraction and delay tactic, most certainly. He didn’t respond other than to smile his nasty little smile at me before he got up and left.

I found myself wondering why his eyes looked so familiar, but shook my head to remove the thought. I’d never met him before—I was sure of that.

The day before Jenna’s shipment was to arrive, I moved Lia and Odin to a nice apartment close to the area where the whole thing was going to go down and gave her instructions to keep everything packed up and ready to roll. I had my hopes up that all of this was going to go smoothly, and once Trent had Gavino in custody, I could just grab Lia and get the hell out of town. Once I had her safely away and Trent had turned over the evidence he had on me, I would contact Rinaldo and explain everything.

Telling Lia exactly what was going on didn’t seem like a great idea to me, so I had told her nothing about the shipment of people destined to go into slavery. Though I expected everything to work out, I didn’t want to get her hopes up. Surprising her by packing up and leaving the city behind us seemed like the better plan. I was getting excited about the prospect of leaving with her and Odin, though, and couldn’t completely hide that.

“You’re in a good mood.”

I kissed Lia’s cheek and grabbed her ass just for good measure.

“I like seeing you when I walk in the door,” I told her as I crouched down and rubbed Odin’s head. “You look fucking hot in the kitchen.”

“Is that mostly because you know I’m making you dinner?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged and laughed. I wasn’t about to explain how much being able to use my sniper rifle meant to me or how good it felt to have it close by—I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to understand. Instead of explanations, I played fetch with Odin for a few minutes while Lia loaded up plates with steak, green beans, and baked potatoes.

After dinner, I shoved all the plates aside and pulled Lia to her feet. With one hand, I bent her over the table as I unclasped my belt with the other. Her jeans and panties quickly found their way to the floor right before I entered her.

I loved to fuck her from behind because it gave me the perfect view of her ass. It was the most beautiful ass I’d ever seen, and I still hadn’t fucked it. I slowed down my thrusts a little as I sucked on my little finger for a moment.

“Do you know how much I want your ass?” I asked her.

Lia’s panting breaths were the only answer I received as I started thrusting into her faster.

“Tell me to stop if you want me to,” I said as I slowly spread her cheeks and rubbed around her backdoor with my finger.

“Evan…”

“You want me to stop?” I really, really hoped she didn’t.

“What are you going to do?” She bit down on her lip as she looked back at me, her eyes cautious. I didn’t want to push her.

“Just my finger,” I replied. “That’s all. If you don’t like it, I’ll stop.”

More panting and a quick nod was her reply.

I slowed my penetrations again and gently eased my finger into her hole. I heard her gasp, and I paused for a moment before going farther, knuckle by knuckle until my finger was all the way in. My hips moved slowly back and forth, and I started matching the rhythm with my hand.

“You like it?” I asked. I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it.

“Yes.” Lia’s breath came out in a gasp as I increased the tempo.

“I want my cock in there, you know.”

“I know you do.” She nodded quickly.

“Does that scare you?”

“A little.”

“I’d never hurt you,” I swore to her.

“I know.”

“Next time.” I drilled into her with both my finger and my cock until she was rocking frantically on the table and screaming out my name over and over again. With a grunt, I filled her and collapsed on top of her for a moment to catch my breath.

“That was intense,” Lia said.

“That’s the idea,” I replied. “Think of how much more intense it would be with my cock in your ass.”

“I’m not so sure,” she said, still hesitant.

I helped her off the table and yanked my pants back up. Lia gathered up her own clothes and dressed as Odin watched us intently, hoping for a trip outside.

“I think maybe if I was prepared beforehand, you know?” Lia suggested.

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“Not like that!” She sighed at me and put her hands on her hips. “I mean, give me a little warning so I can mentally prepare.”

I reached out and fingered the quarter around her neck.

“So if I said let’s do anal tomorrow night, would that count as warning?”

“Well…yeah, I guess so.”

I dropped the coin back against her skin.

“Hey, Lia, let’s do anal tomorrow night.”

She laughed and smacked my chest.

“I’m serious,” I said.

She looked up at me for a minute as she gnawed on her lip and contemplated.

“Okay,” she finally said.

I was ecstatic.

I should have known it wouldn’t last.

That night, my dreams took a different tone.

“Evan, what are you doing?”

“I was trying to find something to keep warm,” I say through chattering teeth.

“Why aren’t you using your blanket?”

I look at her, confused, but then realize it might be a test.

“It’s a sin,” I say.

“What is?”

“Covering.”

“Why do you say that?”

I narrow my eyes.

“Father Paul said so,” I tell her. “Thou shalt not cover.”

Sister Margaret laughs softly, reaches out, and hugs me to her.

“Oh, Evan,” she sighs, “it’s covet, not cover. Thou shalt not covet. It means to want something that belongs to someone else.”

I furrow my brow as I consider this new information.

“Like Heather’s Game Boy?”

“Yes,” Sister Margaret says, “just like that.”

“So I already sinned?” I ask. “I do want one.”

“Let’s pray about it, shall we? Then you can get covered up and go to sleep.”

I woke with the memory still in my head. I listened to Lia’s breathing for a few minutes before shoving myself out of bed and heading to the shower. I brought my razor in with me and shaved in front of the little steam-proof mirror on the shower wall.

“Evan, your phone is ringing!”

“Which one?” I asked as I stuck my head out the shower door.

“The iPhone.”

“Can you bring it here?” I turned off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat. Lia came into the room with the phone in her hand, and I quickly glanced at the number.

Rinaldo.

There was no way any good would come out of a conversation with him, but I answered anyway.

“Yes, sir?”

“So you do still know how to use a phone,” he said. He didn’t give me a chance to respond. “Just tell me if it’s true or not, Arden.”

His voice was cold.

“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

“The fuck you don’t!” he yelled loud enough that I had to hold the phone away. I looked up at Lia and motioned her out of the room.

“Take the price off her head,” I said when Rinaldo went quiet. “I don’t have anything to say to you until you get rid of that contract.”

“It got your attention, didn’t it? At least you answer the fucking phone.”

“I didn’t have my phone until recently,” I replied. “Confiscated along with a lot of shit from my apartment.”

“You never used to be a man of excuses.”

“Things change.”

“Apparently.” There was a long pause. “Tell me why. You knew I was going to get you out of there—so why?”

“Revoke the contract.”

“No.”

“Then I don’t have anything else to say.”

“Is it the money? Jesus, Evan—I paid you more than anyone else in my outfit for a job.”

“I know, sir.”

“So, what is it?” Rinaldo demanded.

I wanted to tell him, but if he suddenly stopped being concerned about me, the information would get back to Gavino. If he suspected me, I’d be screwed.

“Everything happens for a reason,” I said simply. “Sometimes you don’t get to know what the reason is, though.”

There was another long moment of silence from the other end of the phone.

“So that’s it?” he asked.

“For now.”

“I’m disappointed,” Rinaldo said, his voice tight. “The contract stays, and yours is added. I can’t have you working for the competition, Arden. We’re done now.”

He hung up.

“Fuck,” I muttered. I placed the phone down on the bathroom counter and looked up. Lia was peeking in the doorway.

“Who was that?” she asked.

“No one.”

“Evan…”

“It doesn’t matter.” I shook my head and headed back into the shower.

I probably should have just stayed half-shaven. When I got out, Lia was sitting on the bed, waiting for me with my phone in her hands.

“I didn’t mean to look at it,” she said before I could ask her anything. “It wouldn’t stop beeping, and I didn’t want to interrupt again.”

“What is it?” I asked.

She handed the phone to me. There was a text message on it from Jonathan.

$1 mil. Every fucker in the nation will be gunning for you.

“Shit.”

“I’m pretty sure I know what that means,” Lia said. “He’s after you now, too, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Enough to bring every contract killer known to man to Chicago.”

“Jesus, Evan! What are you going to do?”

“Stay out of the crosshairs,” I replied. “We’ll probably have to move again. I’m hoping today will bring me the information I need to get us out of the area altogether, but if the price stays on my head, it’s not going to be enough. I can only hope Rinaldo will listen to me when it’s all over.”

I went over to the dresser and grabbed the SIG handgun. I checked the chamber, made sure it was loaded, and flicked the safety on before walking back to Lia and handing it to her.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“It’s a gun,” I smirked. “If you need it, use it.”

“Evan, I’ve never shot a gun in my life!”

“It’s easy,” I informed her. “Just point it, click the safety off, and pull the trigger.”

Lia furrowed her brow but then nodded and dropped her head down to look at the phone in her other hand.

“Evan?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Who’s the woman on the phone with you?”

I glanced at her and then activated the phone. The picture of me with Bridgett standing in front of The Bean was displayed as the background image. I had completely forgotten it was there.

“No one.” I said as I walked out of the room.

“I’m not trying to pry,” Lia said as she followed me out. “It’s just that you’ve never talked about any old girlfriends or anything.”

“She wasn’t my girlfriend.”

“Well, she obviously meant something to you. You haven’t mentioned a sister, either.”

“I don’t have any family.”

She grabbed my upper arm with her hand, and I stopped and turned around.

“What?” I asked, somewhat tersely.

“Who is she?” Lia asked again. “I don’t like the evasiveness here.”

My hands were shaking just slightly. I could tell by the look in her eye that she wasn’t going to let it go. I was going to have to tell her something, and once I did, she was going to wish she’d never asked.

“She was a hooker,” I said, hoping that would be enough. “Those are the kind of girls I’m used to—hookers.”

Lia narrowed her eyes a bit.

“She doesn’t look like a hooker. She’s all dressed up.”

“Christ, Lia—drop it before I actually tell you!”

“Tell me what?”

I dislodged myself from her grip and went to the closet for my duffel bag of weapons.

“Evan-”

“I have to go to work,” I said. I brushed her aside as I grabbed my Beretta and holstered it under my arm. As I moved toward the door, I made the mistake of looking back at her eyes.

The look on Lia’s face tore at my heart. I didn’t want her to know any of this. I didn’t even want her to know Bridgett ever existed, and now she was pushing me for the real story—a story that was going to scare the shit out of her.

Maybe she should know. Maybe she has a right to know what I did.

“She betrayed me,” I said quietly. “I killed her.”

I turned around and left the apartment.

Nothing I did after that was right.