We stepped outside onto the front porch to say our goodbye.
I didn’t know what to say because nothing had changed. I could tell her last night was a mistake and it shouldn’t happen again, but I didn’t have the audacity to say something so cold. This was hard for both of us. Maybe it was better to say nothing at all. “I’ll come down a few days before the birth.”
Sofia crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ground. Her makeup was a mess because she hadn’t washed her face like she normally did. Her hair looked like she had just stepped out into a storm.
“And I’ll stay for a week or two.”
She gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.
I didn’t see what benefit Andrew would get, having me in his life. I was a dangerous man who did dangerous things for money. My partner was a psychopath who was completely unpredictable. I would only be around once in a while, and when Sofia eventually remarried, her new husband would be more of a father than I ever could. I would have to sit there and watch some new guy replace me in every way imaginable.
Could I do that to myself?
Ash warned me about Antonio, and now that I’d seen the guy in person, I realized how much of a threat he was. He was young, good-looking, and judging by the way he treated Sofia, he thought the world of her. He was clean, simple, and they both had the priority of the hotel in common. It wouldn’t take her long to realize he was the perfect partner.
And all the bad things that had ever happened to her…happened because of me.
“Do you need to leave right now, or can you stay a bit?” She lifted her gaze to meet mine, unease in her expression.
I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t. “No.”
“So, I won’t see you until Andrew is born?” Her voice broke off in pain.
Last night was such a mistake. Shouldn’t have happened. “Yes.”
She tightened her arms over her chest and nodded.
I turned away and left…because I couldn’t do this anymore.
I sat on the balcony late at night and drank my scotch alone. I leaned forward over the table with my temple resting against my hand. There was no amount of booze that could wash away my regret, my overwhelming depression.
What the fuck was I thinking?
I should’ve left.
I closed my eyes and tried to block the memory from my brain. Everything was so good, from the sex to the whispers she would utter in the dark, but it made my life so much worse. That was a tease, torture. It only reminded me of what I didn’t have anymore. Now I had to sleep in a bedroom I used to share with her and pretend her ghost didn’t haunt me every night.
How was this supposed to work? Really?
I was supposed to casually sleep with her every time the loneliness became too much? I would wait around for her even though there was nothing to wait for? And then when she started dating somebody, she would break it off with me? And I would just be fine with that?
I would never be fine watching my soul mate end up with another guy.
And watching my son go with her.
That was an outcome I refused to accept. I was a good man and didn’t deserve that punishment. It didn’t matter how much I loved her, how much I loved Andrew, I couldn’t put myself through that. The years would pass, and I would see Andrew on Christmas with his new family. I would always be a stranger…always be second best.
I couldn’t live like that.
The best thing for me to do was to disappear.
We stepped inside the factory and surveyed the damage we’d done. Some idiot thought he could flood the market with his own product since Maddox’s original power had been disrupted and mine was questionable. Clearly, they didn’t get the memo that we were in a partnership now.
Three men were in the center of the room, their guns on the floor and their hands by their sides. They were outnumbered, and no amount of negotiation would spare their lives. Their product would be dumped, and their unused chemicals would be seized for our own production.
Since this was what Maddox lived for, he took the lead and teased the men. “You want me to let you go?”
The leader did his best to be brave by keeping a blank expression, but the slight tremor in his left hand was his tell. The tattoos on his face made him seem more like a clown than a monster. “I have money.”
“What a coincidence, I have money too.” Maddox crossed his arms over his chest and paced in front of the men. Instead of his body moving with quiet rigidness, his shoulders slightly bumped up and down, like he was about to start skipping across the concrete floor. “So, if I have money, why would I want yours?”
The leader remained silent.
I got tired of watching him play with his food, so I moved to the back of the room to see what we could salvage. There were a lot of barrels of unmarked chemicals, but I was certain it was stuff we could use in the lab. I bent down and examined everything before I continued to move around the space.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like to take shit from people.” Maddox stopped in front of the leader. “I want to feel like I earned it, ya know? If I just take everything from my enemies, that’s too easy. Where’s the accomplishment in that?” He stared at the guy while he rubbed his fingers along his chin.
Maybe I was used to these stunts, but I could tune him out pretty well. I started to organize everything we would have our crew take away. When I was running my own regime, I rarely spoke to my enemies. I just killed them and moved on. But Maddox seemed to thrive on these tense conversations. He seemed to care more about them than all the money he made. I’d been working with Maddox for a while now, and I still didn’t understand him.
Maddox kept talking. “How about we set up a poker table right here, and we play for it?”
The leader glanced at the other two men like he couldn’t believe what was happening. “So, I can gamble my way out of here?”
Maddox laughed. “Not quite. I’ll let one of you go. The other two, I’ll gut your stomachs and your wallets. High stakes, first one out is gone.” He clapped his hands loudly. “That’ll be fun, right?”
I had just turned around to grab a case of their product when I heard the commotion.
The room was suddenly silent, and Maddox’s energy disappeared like air being sucked into a vacuum. I heard the distinct sound of a gun being drawn. Then Maddox spoke in a tone of voice I had never heard him use before. “Hades, duck.”
Instinct kicked in, and I didn’t think twice about it. I fell to the floor.
The sound of the gunshot was amplified in the factory, the boom echoing off the concrete floors and unadorned walls. That sound was quickly followed by a heavy body hitting the ground.
I looked behind me and saw the guy dead on the floor, a knife in his lifeless hand. He must’ve snuck up on me because he was hiding behind the barrels. He probably hoped to take me hostage so he could negotiate his way out of there.
Or he could’ve stabbed me in the back and killed me on the spot.
I rose to my feet and continued to stare at the corpse in front of me. There was adrenaline in my body even though there was no fight. I turned to Maddox, unable to accept the fact that he’d just saved my life.
Maddox looked at the three men in front of him, his nostrils flared in rage. He sheathed his gun and pulled out a knife instead. “Change of plans, boys. You come after my brother, and I come after you.” He slit the throat of the first guy then gutted the next.