Enforce(96)
I kissed her softly, earning a hiss of disapproval from Frank but not caring in the least. He was making me give up everything, and he was right to ask it. I collected my two guns, four knives, and brass knuckles from the waiting security, and pulled Trace in for another hug. “Remember what I said, Trace. Remember.”
When the door slammed behind me, I was in a trance, numb from head to toe. I got into the Range Rover and called Chase.
“What?” He groaned into the phone. A girl’s laughter echoed behind him.
“You busy?”
“I’m in bed… with… er…”
I rolled my eyes. “You forgot her name?”
“Did you need something?” Chase snapped.
“Trace.”
“Is she okay? What happened? Where are you?”
I licked my lips and looked back at the house. The princess was going back to her tower. The dragon, back to his lair. Now it was time for the white knight to ride his horse through the iron gates.
“She’s going to need you.”
“Are you saying—”
“I’m out.” I clenched my brass knuckles in my other hand, needing to ruin something.
“As in… you don’t love her, or as in you can’t?” Chase whispered.
“As in… Frank’s orders go. I’m going to do what he says. I’m going to stay away, which means you have to stay close.”
“You know what you’re asking me to do, Nixon.”
“Yeah. Unfortunately I do.”
I sighed heavily into the phone.
“You make me do this, and all bets are off, Nixon.”
I swore into the phone. “You don’t think I know that? But there’s no other way, Chase! Damn it! Don’t make this harder than it already is!”
“Fine.” He sighed. “For what it’s worth. I respect you. I could never, I mean… I—”
“I gotta go,” I croaked then pressed End on the cell phone. I stared down at it in surprise as something wet dropped onto the screen.
A tear.
I’d spent my life being a hard ass. The last time I’d cried, I was a little kid. The first time I’d shed tears in my adult life.
Tracey.
For her.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Well hello, bad news!
Chase
I THINK THERE COMES a point in every man’s life when he’s given a choice: do the right thing, you know, follow the rainbow, discover the pot of gold and shit it out to the poor.
Or you do bad.
In my case?
Very, very bad.
Nixon ended the phone call. My thoughts swarmed, thoughts of her, thoughts of him, thoughts of them together which really, really made me want to lose my mind and run my fist through the steering wheel or maybe a brick building.
My phone lit up again.
Phoenix, of course.
“You better be dead…” I cursed into the phone as I pulled onto the freeway. “…or at least bleeding from a fatal wound.”
I hadn’t heard from the bastard in days. I knew he was pissed about all the drama that had gone down with Nixon, but I also knew it was only a matter of time before Nixon forgave him, and we welcomed him back in the fold. He was one of us, after all.
“Sorry to shit on your sunshine,” Phoenix hissed. “But we have a problem.”
“We or you?”
“We.” He drew the word out. “Us, the guys, we have a problem.”
“Call Nixon.”
“He’s not answering, the bastard. Not that I blame him, all things considered.”
Right. Which meant that had Phoenix called me… because I was second, second in command, second to find Trace, second to want her. When really, really if you look back, I was first, damn it, first. I clenched my fingers and counted to ten.
“Does this problem involve violence?”
“Lots.”
“Address?”
Phoenix fired off an address a few miles away from where I was located. And hung up immediately.
One of our men had gone AWOL.
It happened.
Not often, but it did happen. They thought they could handle the life and then, after a few kills, they just stopped doing their jobs. They got nervous. I called it shaky-shit syndrome. Unable to keep a grasp on reality, they just bailed. I sighed and took the next exit.
You didn’t bail when it came to the Mafia.
Bailing was code word for Let me run away and hope they don’t catch me.
Word to the wise. We will always, and I do mean always, catch you, and when we find you, we don’t give warnings. We simply shoot.
The guy Phoenix called me about had taken one look at Trace and Frank Alfero and had literally lost his mind, mumbling about Mafia wars and families invading from Sicily. Bullshit. We were fine.
But when people panicked, they did stupid things.