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“No, I’m fine. I’ve got one hell of a headache, but I’m all right. He could have killed me. I don’t know why he didn’t.”
I helped him sit up, my fingers pressing into the hard muscles of his bicep. “You think he’ll go and tell Tony he saw you?”
X nodded, and winced again. “Yeah, I think that’s exactly what he’s going to do. I could be wrong, but I think he might have been watching out for you at the courthouse. Perhaps if he hadn’t run into me, it would have been you lying in this alley.”
“Shit.”
“Yep. Is the car still there?”
I nodded.
“And what happened with the meeting?”
“My father’s going to be released. New evidence has come up that makes me look like an unreliable witness. The prosecution lawyer won’t put me on the stand, and without me, there is no case.”
He stared at me, dismay on my behalf in his eyes. “Ah, hell, Vee. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, me, too. I have to warn Nicole. She’s not going to know he’s out, and he’ll come for her. I’m sure he will.”
He nodded. “Okay, but let’s go prepared. I have a locker at Grand Central Station which contains a locked box with weapons and money inside. Plus another disposable phone so I can get rid of this one. We’re going to need to dump Harvey’s car soon, too.”
It was my turn to stare at him. “You remember?”
His forehead pulled down. “Huh?”
“You remember where you kept something from before we met.”
His expression froze, his gaze drifting away from mine, lines appearing on his forehead and between his eyes. Then he looked back to me, a spark in his eyes. “I remember, Vee. I remember all of it. Who I am. My past. What I do for a living.” His hand lifted up and touched the back of his head. “The bang to my head must have recircuited my brain.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, it is. It feels insane that I was ever not able to remember. It’s all there now. I guess it always was. I’d just blocked it out, somehow.”
“This is good, right?” I asked, wanting to be encouraged. “We’ll be better prepared now.”
He pulled me in and kissed me. “Yeah, this is good. Now I can get back to being the real me.”
I didn’t want to experience the little dip of disappointment in my stomach, but I did. I guessed I’d gotten used to the slightly softer side of X, but he was right. This was the man I needed now. I had half of New York’s mafia after me, and I needed someone tough enough to defend me. I wasn’t someone who would ever readily admit to feeling the need to ask for protection—I preferred to defend myself—but even I knew I was completely and utterly over my head right now. I’d need a miracle to survive this, and I was worried I was going to drag X down with me.
I suddenly thought of something. “This might not be the time or the place, but when I thought you were dead, I realized I’d never gotten to ask your real name. And then you came back, but you’d forgotten who you were, so I still couldn’t ask. You don’t have to tell me if you think it’s something you need to protect, but I want to know your real name.”
A slow smile spread across his lips. “My name is Xavier Creed.”
“Xavier Creed,” I repeated, liking how it sounded on my tongue. “So that’s where X comes from.”
He gave me a wink. “Got it in one.”
I spoke, knowing in my heart what I hoped he would say, but feeling I needed to put it out there. “You can go, if you want. When you got into this with me, neither of us knew how fucked up this would all end up. It’s too much to ask you to stick with me when chances are we’re both going to end up dead. If you need to go, I won’t hold it against you. You have your memory back now. You have no reason to stay.”
He frowned and stepped forward, caught my chin with his fingers, and lifted my face to his. “Hey. Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not going anywhere. I meant what I said back at Harvey’s apartment. I am in love with you. As crazy as it might be, I knew my feelings for you were real within a day of meeting you. If you think I’m just going to abandon you when you need me the most, then you’re mistaken.”
My heart swelled with emotion, but I was still too frightened to give voice to it. I wasn’t someone who admitted her feelings easily. I hadn’t thought X was either, but he proved me wrong on that count.
He released my chin, but caught up my hand. “I’m not going anywhere. Got it? We’re in this together.”
“Okay,” I said, though my voice caught in my throat. I cleared it and repeated, “Okay.”
“Right, now that’s agreed, we need to get out of here. Too many people know where you are, and I think we both know how dangerous that is.”
