Page 103 of Vega

We crossed the lawn, moved past the gate, and reached the walkway leading back to his house. Blood stained the concrete with every limping step. His breathing was controlled, but I could hear the pain in it.

Still, he said nothing. His silence made me more nervous than his anger.

When we got inside, he released my elbow and shut the door behind us. I stood in the living room with my heart beating too fast, waiting for him to yell, to drag me back to my room, for him to chain me back up.

I had run and almost gotten both of us killed. A part of me figured I had earned whatever punishment came next.

Vega disappeared into his room without a word. I stayed where I was, staring at the hallway.

When he limped back, he had my phone, my house keys, and a small stack of cash in his hand.

He limped to the front door, unlocked it, and opened it wide. Heat spilled into the cool house.

Then he held everything out to me. “You can leave.”

I looked at everything in his hand, then at him. My first instinct was to walk out just to prove he no longer controlled me. To prove to him, myself, and every scared part of me that had ever been trapped by somebody bigger, older, stronger, or meaner, that I could still choose my own direction.

But Roman was out there.

His men had found me before I even figured out what suburb I was in.

Vega’s leg bled through the makeshift tourniquet, but he stayed standing, one hand braced against the wall, his face tight with pain and restraint.

“Are you going to stop me?” I asked.

“No.”

It hurt how fast that answer came and how final it sounded.

“Do you want me to stay?”

Something flickered in his eyes. For a moment, I thought he might answer honestly. I thought he might tell me yes. I thought he might use that voice, that attention, that dangerous softness that kept pulling at places in me I didn’t trust.

Instead, he looked away. “What I want doesn’t matter right now.”

“It matters to me.”

“It shouldn’t. Not until you’re free enough to choose without me standing between you and the door.”

I looked at the open door again. Then I stepped forward and took my phone, keys, and the money.

Vega just watched me as I stood in front of the opened door for seconds that ticked by slowly, letting the hot June air touch my face.

Then I turned around and walked back inside.

Freedom was right there, but so was danger, so was the possibility that leaving him would put me directly in Roman’s hands. But these feelings for Vega frightened me more than Roman was at the moment.

19

VEGARRO “VEGA” MORETTI

Iwatched Sonnet close the door. “You’re fucking driving me insane.”

She walked past me and dropped onto the couch. The phone, keys, and the cash I had given her rested in her lap. She looked exhausted, scared, stubborn, and entirely too pretty for a woman who had just stolen my gun and shot two men in the street.

“Sorry not sorry,” she shrugged.

I stared at her. Even after everything, she still had that mouth on her, still refused to shrink. I didn’t know whether I wanted to curse her out, shake her, or kiss her.