He told me how he got all that shit once when he was too drunk to stand. His mother was a junkie, and one night he flushed her pills down the toilet when he was six years old, thinking she’d be better if she didn’t have any. She’d been coking pasta when she realized the pills were gone, and decided to throw the boiling water in little Linc’s face.
Fucked him up for life.
“I like parks,” I said. “Full of life. And anyway, it’s a nice day.”
“But what the hell are you doing out in this part of the city?”
I laughed and crossed my legs. “I’m trying to see how the other half live.”
“If this is it, I’m not interested.” He made a face at the kids on the playground. “Look at all those devil spawn.”
“You don’t want kids?”
“No way in hell,” he said, shaking his head. “Though I’d have to find someone to put up with my pretty face first.”
“Fortunately, you’ve developed such a fun and sparkling personality to compensate,” I said.
He laughed and cracked his knuckles. “You want an update, or did you call me out here to shoot the shit?”
“Update me,” I said.
“We swept the neighborhood again this morning,” he said. “Still no sign of Ronan. I’ve got the boys out knocking on doors and asking all their sources, but there’s not a single peep. It’s like the fucker disappeared.”
“It took us weeks to set up that last hit,” I said with a sigh. “And he still managed to slip away.”
“Got lucky,” Linc said.
I wasn’t so sure. We got a tip from one of our sources in the Healy family, a very discontent soldier that was willing to sell out his bosses for some petty cash. We greased that soldier fucker with money for days before he finally spilled Ronan’s location. It should’ve been an easy hit, but there was more Healy muscle than we expected, and Ronan himself was able to escape in the fighting.
Coward little bastard. I wished he had the balls to stay. Smarter that he ran, but still.
“Push harder,” I said. “Don Valentino stopped by this morning.”
“What did the friendly Don want?” Linc asked.
“It’s officially our mission to take down Ronan,” I said. “Don wants his head. I think he’s making a move to end the war.”
“About time,” Linc said, frowning. “Business has been down for months.”
“War’s never good for the city,” I said, nodding slightly. “But if we can take out Ronan, things will get easier for him.”
“Hope you’re right.”
I laughed and knocked Linc on the arm. “You excited to stop fighting? That doesn’t sound like you.”
“I’m excited to get back to making money,” he said, grinning.
“Get back on the street and do your job then,” I said.
He stood up slowly and stretched with a yawn. “All right, boss,” he said. “How’s that girl doing, by the way?”
“She’s all right,” I said. “Might need eyes on her though.”
“You just pulled her from certain death,” Linc said, frowning at me. “You think she’s gonna run again?”
“I think she’s gonna run,” I said. “No doubt in my mind. But don’t worry about that yet. Focus on Ronan.”
He gave me a mock salute and walked off. I smiled at his back and sighed, leaning my head back, and looked up at the light through the trees.
This damn neighborhood. I’d never fit in here. Too clean, too nice. People here don’t know struggle. They smile and wave and nod to each other like they’d never met someone they didn’t like—except for guys like me and Linc. Guys like us, they stared and whispered comments like they knew we didn’t belong.
Not that I wanted to, but there were days when I dreamed about having stability. No more violence, no more family. Only me and—
Me and someone. A wife, maybe kids, who knew.
I got up slowly and walked back to my truck then headed out to get Irene something new to wear.
5
Irene
I was bored enough to pace around the apartment by the time Cam came back with a several shopping bags full of stuff. “What’s all that?” I asked, staring with my mouth open.
He dropped the bags in front of me. “Didn’t know what size you were so I got two of everything,” he said. “Go try it on.”
I opened one up. Designer clothes, sports bras, yoga pants, jeans and tops. “What did you do?” I asked, eyes wide. “Did you steal all this?”
He barked a laugh. “Despite what you may think, I am very well paid by the Valentino family. Now I just ran around town getting you some nice things. I expect you to wear it.”
I was tempted to strip down then and there, but I figured that would be a very bad idea. I was used to getting changed in or around other people, had learned to take off my pants while keeping my eyes peeled for some fucker that wanted to try something. Cam wouldn’t do that, but he’d certainly watch, and maybe that was worse.