“Some, yeah. I didn’t have much of a choice when she’d nearly been killed several times.”
“It is what it is,” he said, shrugging. “Who the fuck is trying to kill her?”
“Well, he was trying to kill me. She was just with me. Remember that shit with the truck getting jacked?”
“By ‘that shit’ you mean killing that guy,” Brio corrected, “then yeah.”
Leave it to Brio to be the blunt one.
“Yeah, well, his friend or brother or… whatever came for revenge. He followed us to a charity event we were at last night. When we were busy, he slipped a tracker into Steph’s bag. Then, well, then he was chasing us through the city.”
“Christ,” Lorenzo said.
“Yeah. And it gets… complicated.”
“Let me guess,” Cosimo said. “You fucked her. So then when she found out you were doing shit behind her back, she decided to say fuck you and took off.”
“Uh, yeah, exactly that.”
“Then the fuck went afterherbecause she was an easier target,” Cosimo went on.
“Yep. She got away and went into Central Park. Nearly fucking died of hypothermia. I got her in a cab. We went to the safe house in Brooklyn.”
“Told you we should check the safe houses when we couldn’t get in touch with him,” Emilio said to the boss.
“Why couldn’t we get in touch with you?”
“My fucking phone died. And Steph lost hers in the park somewhere. I should have gone to get a cord sooner, but I was trying to get and keep Steph warm. She was like a corpse.”
“Then you fell asleep… and other shit,” Cosimo, never one to beat around the bush, said.
“Yeah.”
“How’d he find you in Brooklyn?”
“That I don’t know. We got rid of the tracker when we were on top of Ant’s building. I guess it’s possible he saw us get into a cab, maybe caught the medallion number and tracked the driver down, offered some money. That’s my best guess.”
“Plausible if he was desperate enough,” Lorenzo agreed. “Can someone get in touch with Zeno? Get him on this. Figure out who this fuck is, who the guy that got offed is. And if they’re linked up with a bigger crew or not.”
“On it,” Miko said, already walking away.
“Sorry to pull you guys away from family shit this time of year,” I said.
“This is family stuff too,” Lorenzo said, shrugging.
“I meant family-family.”
“Yeah, man. You’re family-family too,” Cosimo said. “Think you’re the only one who hasn’t realized that yet.”
“So, he came to the safe house.”
“I don’t got the details there. I was in the bodega getting the damn charging cord. Steph was alone. I’m guessing she snuck out the window and down the fire escape. Then we were running. Didn’t get a chance to do much talking.”
“He’s alive?” Brio asked.
“Unfortunately.”
“Didn’t wanna kill him in front of her?” he asked.
