"They were here." I climb into the driver's seat and start the engine, pulling away from the curb before she can ask more questions. "Barone sent his enforcers to leave a message. The house is destroyed, and they made it clear that I'm a dead man if they find me."
"Where are we going?" Her tone hints at worry that she tries to hide, but I can hear it beneath the act. She's a horrible liar.
"Somewhere they wouldn't think to look." I turn down a residential street toward a part of the city a little less populous.Sketchy is what normal folks would call it, but I can disappear there without Barone coming looking. "We'll find a room we can get for cash and hunker down."
Sabine must sense my frustration because she says nothing at all the full thirty minutes it takes to find a cheap motel. I'm seething, but there's nothing I can do about it. When Lucas told me what Barone had done, I knew I'd come back to this. It's just a hard reality to face. Now I'm just looking forward to getting this over with. My new reality waits for me on the other side.
"Wait here" I tell her as I park and open the truck door. The motel squats between a bowling alley that's hopping tonight and an abandoned church with boarded-up windows. The glowing light overhead saysVacancy, and that’s all I care about. I slip in through the front door and walk right up to order a room.
The clerk takes my cash without asking for identification and hands me a key attached to a plastic tag with the number seven printed on it. He doesn’t look at my face or ask any questions, and I appreciate his ability to not care about life at all. This is exactly the kind of privacy we need right now, a place where discretion is the primary service being sold.
Room seven is at the far end of the building, and I pull the truck around to park directly in front of it. The room smells like cigarettes, which is normal in older motels, and the furniture has seen better decades, but the locks work and the windows have curtains that block the view from outside. Sabine sets her bag on the bed and wraps her arms around herself as she takes in the sight.
"You need to stay here while I go meet my friend." I pull out half the cash from my jacket and set it on the dresser. "If I don’t come back by morning, take this money and run. Get as far fromChicago as you can and find somewhere safe to hide until you can figure out your next move."
"You're coming back…" It's cute how she thinks she can order me to stay alive, like she orders a coffee at Starbucks. "You're not allowed to get yourself killed after everything we've been through together."
"I'll do my best." The promise feels hollow because I can’t guarantee my survival, but I need her to believe I have a chance. "Lock the door behind me and don’t open it for anyone except me. Understand?"
She nods, and I leave before she can argue or try to convince me to stay. The truck starts reluctantly, and I head deeper into the city toward the warehouse district where Lucas agreed to meet me. The streets are empty this late at night, and I make good time reaching the location Lucas specified.
The old warehouse is falling apart, and I pull around back to the alley where I see Lucas's car parked with the lights off. Exhaust clouds behind it, crystalizing in the cold air, and I shut my lights off and kill the engine so he knows it’s me.
Lucas gets out when he sees me, and we meet in the middle of the alley where shadows provide cover from any surveillance cameras or passing patrol cars. He is shorter than me by several inches and built lean. But his eyes are alert and intelligent, and I trust him more than I trust anyone else in the organization.
"You look terrible, old man… I told you not to come back to Chicago. Barone has people looking everywhere for you."
"I needed to see you in person for this." I pull the thumb drive from my pocket. Every hit I've been ordered to do for the past ten years is on this, bank records and digital fingerprints, alongwith this current hit list that names Jason Bryan as the client and Vittorio Barone as the servicer. "This has all the evidence you need to take Barone down. Contracts, payment records, encrypted communications with brokers and clients. Everything is organized by date and job, and I included the encryption keys so LEOs can decode everything and make sense of it."
Lucas takes the drive and turns it over in his hands, examining it carefully. "You understand that handing this over puts me in an impossible position. If Barone finds out I have this, he'll kill me along with you. My hands are tied here, Jace. I can’t stop the boss from having people hunt you down."
"I know." I already accepted that reality days ago. It doesn't even sting anymore. "But I need to know if you'll be safe. If anyone finds out you're helping me…"
"As long as no one else knows, I'll have your back." Lucas pockets the drive and meets my eyes. "But you need to understand that this protection only extends as far as my ability to keep secrets. If word gets out that I'm involved, I can’t help you anymore. I have a family to think about, and I'm not willing to sacrifice them for your crusade against Barone."
"I'd never ask you to," I tell him. "All I need is for you to hold onto that drive and hand it over to the authorities if anything happens to me. Federal agents, not local police. Barone has connections in the Chicago PD who would bury this evidence before it ever saw a courtroom."
"You want me to go to the Feds if you turn up dead." Lucas says it as a statement rather than a question. "That is a big ask, Jace. Turning over evidence against Barone means becoming a witness in a federal case. It means entering protective custody and probably relocating my family under new identities. My lifeas I know it ends the moment I walk into a federal building with this drive."
"Only if I'm dead." I know what I'm asking him and I know in that worst-case scenario, it would be the only way he'd ever be safe again. "If I survive this and manage to walk away from Barone, you keep that drive as insurance and never use it. But if he kills me, you take it to the authorities and make sure he goes down for everything he's done."
He's quiet for a long moment, staring at the thumb drive in his hand. Finally, he sighs and slips it into his jacket pocket. "Alright. I'll do it. But I'm not positive this'll work, Jace. Barone's survived investigations before. He has lawyers and connections and ways of making evidence disappear or witnesses recant their testimony. Even with everything on that drive, there’s no guarantee he'll face real consequences."
"It's our only shot." I’m exhausted from driving all night and from all this fucking stress. I just want to go to the motel and sleep. "If that drive doesn’t work and Barone walks free, then at least we tried. But I can’t keep living this way, working for a man who orders the deaths of innocent people and threatens everyone who crosses him. I'm done being his weapon."
"What about the woman?" Lucas asks the question carefully, as though afraid of how I might react. "She's really worth throwing away your life and risking what Barone could rain down on you?"
"Yes." I don’t even have to think about it. "She's worth it. And even if she weren't, what Barone asked me to do was wrong. Those people on that list didn’t deserve to die just because some captain wanted to cover up his crimes. I'm tired of being the tool that powerful men use to solve their problems."
Lucas reaches out and grips my shoulder. "Then I hope you survive this. I hope you and your woman find a way to take down both the captain and Barone and walk away with your lives intact. But you know the odds aren't in your favor here. You're up against two dangerous men with resources and connections that most people can’t comprehend. One wrong move and you're both dead."
"I know the odds." I step back and his hand falls away. "But I'm going to try anyway. Thank you for agreeing to hold onto that drive and for keeping my secret. If this goes wrong and I don’t make it, tell my woman I tried to protect her."
"Tell her yourself when you survive." Lucas opens his car door and pauses before getting in. "Be careful, Jace. And if you need help, you know how to reach me. I can’t stop Barone from hunting you, but I can provide information if you need it. That much I can do without putting my family at risk."
He drives away and leaves me standing alone in the alley, and the cold seeps through my jacket until I'm shivering. I return to my truck and start the engine, pointing it back toward the motel where Sabine's waiting. The conversation with Lucas didn’t give me the reassurance I hoped for, but it provided what I needed most—a failsafe that ensures Barone will face consequences if he kills me.
24
