"Talk to me," I grumble. After all my careful planning, I still had to reach out. When I return this phone to Travis, I'll have wiped it clean of Jason's info and the call logs, but without word from Jason about how far up the food chain this goes, I can’t risk these men putting their lives on the line for me.
"He's working solo, buddy. I reached out to one of my contacts in the Maddox family, asked around about what they know. It turns out, nobody sanctioned this. Cal's doing this on his own, trying to prove himself worthy of leadership. It's his right of passage—avenge his father, bring in the killer, earn his place."
His point isn't lost on me at all. "So if I take Cal out?"
"It ends there. The Maddox family won't come after you for killing him because they never authorized him to come after you in the first place." Jason sounds satisfied. "He's a lone wolf, Dane. His family doesn't believe you're the one who killed Domingo. Which means you can end him without starting a war."
"That's good news." Better than good. It means Sloane and I might actually have a future after this. "Thanks, buddy, that news changes everything."
"Yeah, don't mention it. Just don't go getting yourself un-alived."
"I'm trying not to."
We hang up and I pocket the phone, processing the new information. So Cal's family doesn't know the Ferraros sent me to kill their leader even this many years later. No one ever took credit for it, but Cal knows it was me. It's a shame that he can't let this go, and while I understand it, it doesn't mean I can excuse his behavior and let him walk right into this town and take his revenge.
A heavy cloud of grief burdens me as I think about how I'm going to have to kill the son of a man I considered my friend, and I take the long way home. I reach Ellie's house and slip in through the back. The lights are off except for a lamp in the living room where Sloane sits reading, wrapped in a blanket. She looks up when I enter and relief crosses her face.
"How'd it go?"
"Good," I say, shedding my coat. "We have a plan." I sit beside her, pulling her close. "Everyone agrees that the most public time for Cal to make his move is the Christmas celebration that starts on the twenty-first."
"Well, we'll be ready then, won't we?" Her head rests on my shoulder, and I notice the book she's been reading—something off Ellie's shelf—Crime and Punishment, a story of redemption and second chances. It makes me wonder if that's what this is for me and Sloane, her acceptance of me while not acknowledging my crime, how she'll follow me anywhere.
And if so, does that mean she's decided to stay?
26
SLOANE
The mug warms my palms as I curl into the corner of Ellie's worn sofa, watching steam rise from the chamomile tea. The clock on the mantel reads half past eleven, and Dane's been gone for three hours. My stomach hasn't unclenched since he walked out the door.
After what happened yesterday when I went to the Christmas market, I feel like nowhere in this town is safe until we root out Cal Maddox and the men with him and send them packing.
Ellie sits across from me in an oversized chair, her legs tucked beneath her, blonde hair loose around her shoulders. At home in her baggy sweats and stained T-shirt, she looks less like a restaurant owner and more like a tired, middle-aged mom who needs a nap, but she's just as sweet at home as she is behind the counter taking orders.
"How do you stand it?" I ask her quietly, just to make conversation. "Living this far from everything?"
She takes a slow sip before answering. "I love it. Though I won't pretend it doesn't get lonely. It's worse in winter when it's toocold to go out and the supper crowd shrinks down to only the people who work around the square."
I nod, understanding that isolation in a way I didn't expect to when I first woke up here, groggy and terrified. Now the thought of leaving makes me feel a little bittersweet. I could go home to my high-rise apartment and my overstimulated best friend and hit up a club or a Ramen bar at all hours of the night. Here, things shut down at nine p.m. and it's thirty minutes to the closest gas station.
"Dating pool's pretty much nonexistent," Ellie continues, a wry smile pulling at her mouth. I know she's thinking of Dane, and I’ve seen the twinge of envy when she watches me interact with him. "Which is a shame because there are worse places to build a life with someone."
"No one's caught your eye?" I ask, though I can guess where this is headed.
She laughs softly. "Oh, there's been one, but you know how that goes…" She meets my gaze directly with no malice in her expression. "If he'd ever looked at me the way he looks at you, I'd have been at his door in a heartbeat."
Heat crawls up my neck. I want to deflect, but she keeps talking.
"He's steady," Ellie says. "And he has that whole broody man thing going for him, but deep down, I think he's a teddy bear." She grins. "Plus, have you seen him chop firewood? Because that's?—"
"I get it," I interrupt, but I'm smiling and I let a chuckle escape. Then the room falls quiet for a moment before she continues.
"I'm just saying, you could do a lot worse." She sets her mug down on the side table. "And I think you already know that."
How Dane and I went from strangers to hating each other to fucking like rabbits and now to the deep love I feel for him—it's a mystery. If I'd have met him in the city, I never would've given him a chance. He's too old for me, the wrong personality type, and his past as a criminal isn't exactly appealing.
But being forced into his home where I had to interact with him on a human level made me grow up and look past the exterior to the real Dane, the one whose heart is just as brittle and breakable as mine.
