I check my watch and curse. I’ve been away from my casino for a few hours. I actually need to get to work. “Can’t. I have that meeting with HR about them not doing thorough background checks. I have to do some firing. Rain check, yeah?”
“Of course, little brother. See you soon.”
I give him a hug, feeling him stiffen before he pats me on the back. “See you soon, Car.”
I want to go back into the building to see Nico, to give him a kiss and breathe in his spicy scent, but if I’m keeping shit a secret, I can’t. I settle for texting him when I get back in my car, asking him to come over tonight.
CHAPTER 20
DECLAN
Today is the day.
Or it would have been the day if my blackmailer was still alive.
According to the letters left on my car, it’s day thirty, the last day I have to pay five million dollars for my life.
“I think I’m worth more than that, don’t you?” I ask Hendrix. I stand in front of his grave, my hands stuffed in the pockets of my jeans. I took the day off work so I could really sit and think about how close I came to death.
I’m not easily spooked or rattled. I’ve been shot at, actually shot, stabbed and all manner of bodily injury, but this was the first time someone gave me a countdown to the end of my existence.
Maybe that’s why I still feel so on edge.
I look at my friend’s grave, seeking answers to all my questions. “What if it’s not the end? My instincts aren’t the best, but something is telling me that there’s another shoe waiting to drop. How do I get in front of it if I don’t know what it is?”
As usual, I’m greeted with silence. But it’s not as bad as itusually is. I have someone I can ask those questions and actually get answers. A warm, snarky man that gets under my fucking skin but has somehow worked his way into my heart.
There was a reason I came to see Hendrix, though. One that has nothing to do with me wanting to get advice and everything to do with trying to move forward with my life.
“I think…” I pause and push my fingers through my hair. “I think I’m ready to pack your room up. I miss you and I know I’ll always need our friendship, but I think it’s time. I can always keep some stuff, you know? But I don’t want to keep a shrine. You were here and I know you were. Now, I can let go.”
“Need some help?”
“Jesus!” I whirl around, my hand on my heart as it thumps erratically. Actually hearing someone speak in the cemetery is creepy as fuck.
Nico holds up one hand up in apology. “Sorry. I thought you heard me coming.”
“No. I was…” I scrub a hand down my face. “No. What are you doing here?”
“I came here for him.” He points to Hendrix’s grave with a bouquet of flowers. A familiar-looking bouquet of flowers.
My throat burns as I stare at his hand. Nico has been bringing Hendrix flowers? Why? I’ve found those arrangements of flowers like that well before Nico and I fucked. Was that his way of trying to weasel his way into my life?
No, that can’t be it. There was never a note left behind of who was doing it, so if he didn’t show up while I was here, I never would have known it was him that left them.
“It was you that’s been leaving all the flowers?” I ask, voice tight.
Nico shrugs. “Someone has to.”
“I do.”
“Yeah, but someone else. Someone that understands the life Hendrix led. Despite how I felt about you, Hendrix was alright. We spoke when we could.”
That stupid lump lodges in my throat as I turn back to Hendrix’s grave. I don’t want to cry here, not in the open, not in front of Nico.
“How did you know where he was buried?” I ask over my shoulder. “The only people at the funeral were me, Carter, and Dad.”
“I asked your brother.” Nico moves around me to lay the bouquet on Hendrix’s headstone. “I told him I wanted to pay my respects, from one mafia bodyguard to another.”
