“Good thing I’m neither. But I can do both. Now, do you want to leave or would you rather stay here with the good doctor?” I didn’t give her time to think before pushing her to Antonio.
“You can’t just take her!” The doctor yelled as we walked out.
“Who’s going to stop me?” I called out as I walked away. “Watch out, doctor. I like destroying things way more than I do saving them.”
The moment we stepped out, Neal and Monte pulled up in the car behind Fedel. Walking up to her, Monte pressed the needle into her arm.
“What are you doing? Stop, please stop,” Natasha cried, forcing me to take a deep breath.
“We’re clearing your system of any drugs you may have been given. So stop struggling,” I replied, waiting for Monte to finish as Fedel held open the door for us.
Neal handed me the burger and milkshake before helping Natasha into the car. It was only when she was seated that I stepped inside and handed her the food. She eyed it before glaring up at me.
“I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble just to poison you.” I leaned against the seat, texting Liam to let him know we were on our way back. With Antonio driving, we would be there in two hours.
She didn’t speak. Instead, she stuffed her face as quickly and savagely as possible. Licking her hands and lips, Fedel turned to her, which caused her to slow down and freeze.
“Do you need something, Fedel?” I glared at him, forcing him to meet my gaze.
“No, ma’am,” he said, turning around once more.
I handed her a tissue and she slowed down, but she still continued eating at a steady pace, all while watching me carefully.
“If you don’t want to kill me, what do you want?” she asked. She sounded so tired, as though she hadn’t slept in years.
At least she hasn’t lost her mind yet.
“Just eat and rest. We can talk about that later. I promise I won’t hurt you.” She was the only piece of the puzzle we had.
She glared and it almost made her look like the old Natasha…almost.
“I’ve already hurt myself. So whatever it is—”
“Natasha,” I cut her off. “I don’t care about your pain. I don’t care about your suffering. I warned you and you didn’t make the right choice. You chose your fate and lost. But now you’ve become useful again, and you have a second chance. Don’t fuck it up, Natasha. Be smart.”
She stared at me again, making her look like a deer caught in headlights, before she dropped her head and finished her meal.
Placing my sunglasses back on, I tried to calm the raging headache that had been on and off for the last week. My head felt as though it was going to explode. No matter how much either Liam or I tried to piece together the mystery of our lives, we both came up empty handed. All of Shamus’ records had been whipped clean. There were no traces that he even had records to begin with. Every last cent of his wealth was gone as well. There was no way that that much money could be just wiped from the system without any trace. Even if it were in a private offshore account, there would still be a trace.
Someone had all but erased Shamus from history. Most things that included his name were either gone or unimportant. I didn’t like this. I felt like we were in the middle of some sort of spy novel. This was the mafia. I didn’t have time to be chasing down secrets or trying to find the key to the past. We had a drug shipment coming in this morning and instead of checking it out with Liam, I was here, in a car with Natasha.
“Ma’am, your phone,” Fedel called, pulling me away from my train of thought.
My phone was ringing.
“Well?” I asked into the receiver.
“Hello, love. How are you today? Did you miss me? Those are the questions I would like hear when you answer the phone.” Liam said.
“Liam, I don’t…” I stopped, not because I wanted to, but because the phone was no longer in my hand, and I was no longer in my seat…and the car was no longer on the road… In that moment, everything was in the air.
The glass shattered. Metal sheared against metal, ripping part of the car off as we rolled. Natasha screamed, or it looked like she was screaming, but I was deaf to it all. It felt like hours—years, maybe—when the car finally stopped. I was too dazed to move for a moment. I just sat there, hanging upside down, staring at the blood that dripped down Fedel’s arm.
Was he dead?
“What happened?” Antonio yelled, trying to pull on his seat belt. “What the…what just happened?”
It was then that I noticed the large piece of glass in his arm. He was losing blood—a lot of blood—and he was panicking.