The line clicks, weighed down by distance and anxiety.
There’s silence for a moment. Then a voice is warm, older. It’s the closest thing I’ve had to family in years, whispers, “Calistina? You shouldn’t be calling,cara.”
“He’s dead.” It’s not a question.
“Two days ago.”
I close my eyes. The confirmation doesn’t feel like a punch, it feels like inevitability finally catching up.
“He’s found you,” the voice from my past says. I can hear the fear.
“Someone’s watching me. Someone…professional.”
Pause.
“Remo is consolidating. Your name came up. A few of us tried to redirect him. But…you know how he is.”
“Why now?” I inquire even though I know why. You can’t argue with psychopaths. “I’ve been gone for nine years.”
“You embarrassed him. You refused him. And now, he’s afraid. If you marry, if you have children, they’ll have blood ties. A claim. He can’t have that.”
“So, he’s killing them off before they exist.” Again, it’s not a question.
“You know how power works.”
I grip the phone tighter. “Why didn’t anyone warn me?”
“I am. Right now. I’ve done what I can from here. But you need to disappear. Change names. Cities.”
“I can’t leave the shelter. I can’t just abandon?—”
“You’re not abandoning anyone,cara. You’re surviving. That’s what we taught you.”
We. The loyal inthatworld.
People who watched me mourn my parents. People who protected me when they could. People who helped me when Remo slithered closer.
“I don’t want to run,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
“Then you must be prepared. Get security and?—”
“I can’t afford it.”
“I’ll pay.”
“No.”
“Cara, I made a promise to your father?—”
“No,” I repeat.
Remo Morello doesn’t take no for an answer, but the man on the end of this line would. I didn’t want him to risk his life. Talking to me was already a death sentence. If he helped me, if Remo could track it, he’d not only kill my father’s friend, but he’d decimate his entire family—sons, daughters, grandchildren.
Remo!I mentally growl.
I ran because he’s a monster.
I remember when I caught him slipping something into a girl’s drink at a party. The next day, she killed herself. For years, I blamed myself for what happened to her.
