“Is that how you got into all of this?” I asked him.
He nodded. “You could call it a family business. My dad’s dad and his dad going back at least a few generations were all in the Mob. Though it was pretty different, back in the day.”
“Why? I mean, what you do is . . .” I trailed off, not sure what to say.
“Wrong?” He raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Yeah, wrong. Illegal. And immoral.”
He sipped his drink and took a bite, not answering right away. I let him gather himself, finishing off my plate in the process. Finally, he looked up and shrugged.
“There will always be bad men out there, Ellie. There will always be drugs and drug addicts. At least with us, we’re up front about it, we play by rules. We don’t just hurt people to hurt people. We do the things that would get done anyway, but in a less violent way.” He paused and looked away. “At least, it used to be that way, before the new boss took over. We aren’t good, but we’re necessary. We did the things nobody else wanted to do, nobody else could do. And we take care of our own.”
“The new boss?”
He looked back at me, his striking eyes drilling into mine. “Colm Brennan. The old boss had some problems a while ago, and the Right People have been in chaos ever since. Colm stepped into the power vacuum and took over.”
“But you don’t like him.”
“He thinks the Mob needs to change, needs to evolve. In the old days, we’d never kill someone like you. But that’s the sort of thing Colm thinks we need to become.”
“And what do you think?” I asked softly.
“I think if we go down that path, we’re gone. Whatever was letting us cling to our humanity will be lost.”
I let that sink in as he started to eat again, finishing off his plate and his glass of wine. I swirled my own glass absently, looking at its thick red liquid swirling around the center. It reminded me of my addict days, back in college. My drug back then had been cocaine, and I’d never really had much of an issue with alcohol, but it was still smart to be careful. I glanced up at Liam and took in his gorgeous face, and suddenly I realized that of all the drugs in the city, he was the one I had to be most careful of. I knew it would be too easy for me to lose myself in him, especially since he was my only lifeline to the world outside the safe house.
“So you’re a good bad guy,” I said softly.
“There are some very, very bad people in the Mob. But there are also some people that still believe in honor among thieves.”
I smiled softly and put my glass back down on the table. He looked at me for a second. The quiet settled down on us, deep because the house was so empty, but it didn’t feel awkward. Really, it was full of questions. But more than all that, it was full of exhaustion. I felt like I was ready to fall out of my seat, and it was only seven or eight.
“Long day,” he said.
“Yeah, really long day.”
He looked concerned. “You want to turn in?”
I shrugged. “I guess. I have nothing to sleep in.”
His face lit up and he grinned. “Actually, I took care of that.”
I watched, curious, as he stood up and walked over to a brown paper bag sitting on the floor next to the kitchen counter. I had assumed it was another bunch of groceries. He picked it up and carried it over, holding it out for me to look inside. His grin was boyish and sincere, and it made me almost forget that he was a violent criminal. I looked over the bag’s rim and saw a stack of clothes inside.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Clothes for you, at least for the next day or two. Some comfortable stuff in there, too.”
“Where’d you get it?”
His face dropped. “I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, I was just—”
“It’s fine,” he said, cutting me off. “I bought it while I was out.”
I looked at him curiously, not sure what to make of that. Then I took the bag from him. The smile returned, though not as big. It was endearing, how hard he was trying to make me feel comfortable, and in any other situation I would have been completely won over. As it was, I could barely focus on anything, let alone the feelings bubbling below the surface every time I looked at him for too long. It was pure desire, and I knew it, but I wasn’t ready to let myself really feel it.
He moved back into the kitchen, taking our plates with him.
“I’ll wash up. You can have the bedroom upstairs. I’ll sleep down here.”
I watched silently for a minute as he began to clean off the dishes, and then I stood, grabbing a towel. As he washed, I dried, and we worked together in a comfortable silence. Finally, when we were done, I grabbed the bag full of clothes and walked upstairs while he went out to his car to get some more things.