She moved around the trunk, stuffing a suitcase into the side, wiggling her round ass into the air as she cursed in Spanish, a few words I recognized and should have made me laughed, but the fear was back. It was doubled.
“Fuck that,” I said to the open air, worry and dread clawing inside my chest like an animal, getting hotter, deeper the closer I came to the car watching Maggie pack away her life, readying herself to leave this town and me in her rearview.
No damn way was I going to let that shit happen.
13
Maggie
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Those three lines repeated over and over, like a throbbing pulse; a heartbeat rising, telling me I was in danger.
I’m coming for you. I’m coming for my boy. I won’t be long.
He could be here now.
He’d take away everything I’d built.
Just because he could.
But how? How the hell had he known?
No. I wouldn’t start that again.
Vi was waiting with Mateo inside. She was trying to get him asleep. She was more nervous than me, though she tried to pretend she wasn’t.
“He’s not the first man I’ve heard make threats, honey.” She’d waved off my worry, shrugging like I couldn’t see how her foot bounced, how she kept chewing on her bottom lip. “I’ve seen worse than the likes of him.”
But I wouldn’t waste time. Not when I knew he was coming. Not when Mateo and Vi’s lives could be in danger.
The last bag was full of Mateo’s clothes; outfits that probably wouldn’t fit him in a month, but maybe I could sell them.
I’d need the money. And if Smoke knew…God, what would he do? Kill Alejandro? Start some kind of battle that got a bunch of people dead? Have Smoke spend the rest of his life in jail because of my worthless ex? I couldn’t let that happen.
No. It was better this way.
But I had to be smart. We couldn’t go to my aunt’s in the city. Alejandro would look for us there.
He knew everything about me.
He knew where I’d think to hide.
“Jesus, help me,” I said sniffling back the weak prayer when my eyes burned, and the worry felt too thick in my throat. Then, the shuffle of feet behind me had that worry doubling, morphing into fear. I turned, thinking he’d caught me, instantly relaxing when Smoke stopped next to me, his hand resting on the trunk.
He kept quiet, moving his gaze from my face, already wet, likely blotchy and full of emotion. I tried to tamp down the bubble of worry running through me, then stood in front of the trunk brimming with boxes and bags of everything we owned. The duffle in my hand was half out, half stuffed in what space remained in the trunk.
Smoke leaned in, taking it to readjust how I’d placed it. Then, he laid it flat, tucking it under a blanket at the back. He still didn’t speak, keeping whatever he thought to himself, and I wondered if he was worried, or maybe so pissed off that he was trying to get himself calm.
I was leaving. From how all this had to look to him, I had no intention of telling him goodbye. Even though I’d promised to tell him when the threat was coming, I didn’t. Instead, I was running. Fleeing. Escaping.
He gripped the top of the trunk, looking down at me, his mouth pulled into a frown. He motioned me back with a nod, closing the trunk after I stepped out of the way. It was several long seconds with him looking at the full back seat of my car before he said a word. In that time, I thought my pulse had gotten louder and louder with each beat of my heart.
“You were just going to leave? No goodbye? No thanks? No fuck you, Carelli, see you later?” He didn’t look at me. Instead he moved his attention to my building, straight to the fourth floor, our floor like he hoped somehow, he could spot Mateo through all that stone and mortar.
“It’s… a little more complicated than…” I exhaled, not sure what I should tell him. If I knew anything about this man, it was that he took on everyone’s problems. He was a rescuer even when no one wanted him to be.
Smoke Carelli might be a gangster, but he also was a Lancelot, always showing up to save you even when you swore you didn’t need anyone slaying your dragons.
And this was the biggest damn dragon I’ve ever faced.
“Maggie?” he said, finally looking at me. He narrowed his eyes, tilting his head toward me until I let him catch my gaze. “What’s going on?”
He was going to be pissed.
He was going to rage and curse at me for trying to handle this all on my own.
“If this is about Rick and the blood…”
When I didn’t say anything, looking away, down the street, reminding myself the damage he’d do if he knew the truth, Smoke lifted my chin, his expression tight, but his eyes soft. “You promised me.”
“I…” Damn it. I had. I’d given him my word.
“Just tell me. We can fix this.”
“I…don’t want anyone dying because of me.”
Smoke lifted his eyebrows then, and he grabbed my elbow, like he wanted to keep me from taking off. “Who needs to die, bella?”
“I don’t want you killing anyone because of me.”
There was a lot I saw moving in his eyes then. There was a lot I guessed he wanted to say, but Smoke was a man with secrets and even if he loved me, there was some secrets he’d keep buried. Even from me. Likely to protect me. It was his way.
“You tell me, and I’ll protect you the way I need to.”
I shut my eyes, knowing what I said would likely be signing someone’s death certificate. Mateo was my child. He was my life. If I had to choose between him and anyone else in the world, it would always be him.
Looking up at Smoke, I exhaled, knowing the second I spoke, he’d take care of us. Knowing we would be safe. That terrified me. But it made me feel relieved at the same time.
“It’s Alejandro.” Those two words totally transformed Smoke.
The tone of his voice hardened and the relaxed press of his fingers on my elbow tensed, dropping into a ball at his side when he stood straight, moving in front of me. “What about him?”
I nodded, not sure what to think of how deep his voice got.
“He sent me the flowers. There was another bouquet today.”
Smoke grunted, his nostrils flaring just as he curled his top lip a fraction.
I waved my hand, trying to calm him, even grabbed his arm to keep him from imagining the wrong thing. “This time, there was a note. He promised he was coming for us. When I read it, I immediately started packing everything. We…have to get out of here before he shows up.”
Overhead the wind picked up, brushing my hair into my eyes. I reached for my face, but stopped, dropping my arm when Smoke took the long strands and swept them off my forehead. He’d never looked at me the way he was now, all angry and worried, a little lost, a lot enraged, but too caught up in his own thoughts to do more than just look at me.
When he held my face between his large hands, I closed my eyes, taking one last moment to enjoy the way only Smoke touched me.
“You’re a hardheaded woman…” His voice was dark, deep, and something in his tone twisted my insides, like warm, smooth tequila you felt all the way down.
“I have to leave.” I inhaled, letting his earthy, masculine scent intoxicate me one last time. “For my son, Smoke, I have to go.”