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She smiles widely, removes the towel and uses it to dry her hair, the sunlight from the window hitting her perfect body. “It’s all going to be fine. It’s going to take a lot more than a street gang with mommy issues to take us all down.”
My lip twitches. “I know. If anything goes down, you get the hell out of there, though, all right?”
She doesn’t reply, and we both know she wouldn’t leave anyone behind to save herself. Instead she bends forward to kiss me. “I’m going to be okay. And then we can go back to our normal lives, whatever the hell that may be. I’ll get a job at a school around here, you can go back to work and we can live our lives together. How does that sound?”
“Pretty fucking good,” I admit. She smiles, then continues to get ready.
“You know I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect you, right?” I warn her, trying to keep my tone light.
“I wouldn’t expect any less from you, Decker,” she replies, amusement in her tone.
She isn’t going to be amused when she finds out what I have planned, but I’m going to have to do the whole asking for forgiveness instead of permission thing.
And pray that she can forgive me.
* * *
When I can’t sleep later that evening, I head into work, running into Nadia when I get there.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, glancing at my watch. “It’s late.”
“I could ask the same about you.” She smirks, lifting her eyes from her laptop. “I just wanted to tie up some loose ends and now was the only time I could come in. Why are you here? How is Cara?”
“She’s fine.” I left her in bed, just needing to clear my head a little. And something keeps bothering me about our plan. I don’t like it. I don’t like that I haven’t told Cara about Rhett, and I don’t like that our plan is essentially to go there and somehow survive. I need it to be better. And I need to be honest with Cara no matter how angry she gets at me.
I sit down and open my laptop. “I’m glad you’re here. I need to find out all the dirt I can on this guy. It’s a life-or-death kind of situation.”
Nadia’s eyes light up with excitement. “Give me his name; I’ll help you.”
We sit there for over three hours, searching leads, aliases and family trees, but at the end of it, it was well worth it, because I find exactly what I wanted to find.
Dirt on Marko.
I can use this information against him if things don’t work out the way I want them to. As it turns out, it’s clear the man only cares about himself, not the gang that he has raised to be loyal to him.
My phone rings and Cara’s name pops up. “Hey.”
“Hey. Where are you?” she asks. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m still at the office. I’ll be home soon.”
Home.
It’s nice to be able to say that to her.
“Okay,” she says softly. “See you soon.”
It’s in this moment I know that I need to tell her everything, and I do exactly that as soon as I get back to her. We both sit on my couch, and I open up about it all.
“So you went behind my back to contact Rhett, and told him to come here and face Marko so I won’t have to do it tomorrow,” she summarizes, sounding suspiciously calm.
“Yes.” I nod. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you until now, but I’m not sorry I put that plan into action. I’m not going to let you take the fall for your ex’s bullshit and—”
She covers my lips with her finger, stopping me from speaking. “I knew what was happening. And I was waiting for you to tell me.”
I still. “You knew I spoke to Rhett?”
She arches her brow and leans back on the bed. “You really thought Clo wouldn’t tell me? She’s my best friend. We tell each other everything.”
