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Movement ahead snapped me out of my thoughts before I refocused on the jeep. My eyes narrowed. No fucking way! What the hell was William doing peering into the jeep’s window? I gaped. And what the hell was he doing using some kind of wedge in its door before he stuck in a metal probe to unlock it?
I was pushing open the hire car’s door, then walking swiftly toward him before I’d even thought twice about my decision. “William!” I called out. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The jeep’s door lock clunked, the door popping open simultaneously to him looking my way with wide eyes. “What am I doing here?” he grunted. “More likely, what are you doing here?”
“Valentino let me borrow the jeep. I drove it here,” I hissed, walking up to him before placing my hands on my hips and glaring. “So why are you stealing it? Have you gone completely crazy?”
He winced, his mouth firming. “After you escaped with Valentino, I’ve had to prove myself in multiple other ways. This jeep was spotted a few days ago and I was asked to bring it in.”
I blinked at him, a part of me questioning what I’d ever seen in him. He might be wearing a quality suit now, as all good mafia soldiers did, but he was still worthless. “Why would they want his jeep?”
He shrugged. “How should I know? And I don’t particularly care. To become a made man I do whatever I’m asked without question.”
Like trying to fuck me before taking me back to Sean where I would have been tortured and killed? I swallowed hard. How had I ever trusted this man?
It didn’t mean I couldn’t warn him about the path he was heading down. It might appear smooth and bountiful, but his soul would be jarred so badly he’d end up losing whatever conscience he had left. “Can I give you one piece of advice?”
He all but rolled his eyes. “Go ahead.”
I frowned at his reaction. He had no idea what I’d been through. His life had probably been a picnic in comparison. I bit back a sarcastic retort and instead said, “Leave while you still can. Once you’re a soldier you’ll never have your own life again. You’ll live and die by the mafia’s sick and twisted rules.”
He snorted. “It’s too late to go anywhere, Suze.”
I gaped. He had yet to learn my real name. It made he realize how naïve he really was. I doubted he’d last another month. They’d use him for a few petty little jobs, take stock of his limited worth, then get rid of him.
“I was an associate when I first met you but I wanted more,” he admitted. “I wanted women like you in my bed, I wanted all the sex and drugs, the extravagant lifestyle and the ability to literally get away with murder.”
I shook my head. “Be careful what you wish for.”
He nodded. “Yes, I’m beginning to see that now.”
Too little, too late!
I cleared my throat. “So all that time at the bar you were stalking me?”
He nodded. “Yes, I had to make certain you were the woman Sean wanted, then I had to bring you back to him.” He shrugged. “I knew for at least a week you were the woman who’d ran from him, but something held me back from taking you to him—until he threatened me.”
“Let me guess, he told you he’d roast your dick and balls while you watched on?”
He frowned, his face paling just a little. “How did you know?”
“It was his favorite threat.” Except a few times it hadn’t just been a threat, he’d gone ahead and done it to more than a few men. “And a man’s worst nightmare,” I added softly.
He shuddered. “You don’t say.” He climbed into the front seat of the jeep, then bent low and fiddled with the wiring beneath the dashboard. “We can only be glad the bastard’s dead. I just hope the new don will focus more on the business and less on revenge.”
“That would be nice,” I conceded. I didn’t ask who the new don was, I really didn’t want to know. I was leaving behind that life for good reason. I watched him try to hot-wire the engine for a little longer before I said, “You know, you could have just asked me for the key.”
He paused, then looked back at me. “You’d give it to me?”
“No,” I conceded. “There would be too many questions asked about how you got it.”
He nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
I stepped back. “I guess this is it, then.” I looked around, honing in on my surroundings. That I’d imagined I’d be reunited with Valentino had been nothing more than wishful thinking. I pushed my hand over my face, sighing dejectedly. “Goodbye, William. I’d say it was nice seeing you again, but it’d be a lie.”
He chuckled. “I only wish I could have finished what we started.”
I couldn’t say the same. Any sexual interest I’d had for him had died out long ago, superseded by Valentino’s remarkable skill. I managed a smile. “On that note, I think I’m overdue to disappear—for good this time.”
