“Wait!” Evie calls out.
I pivot and look at her. Waiting for her to continue speaking.
“Take me with you,” she says.
“I can’t do that. There’s something I have to do, and I would prefer you didn’t see me do it.”
“You are enough. Take me with you,” she repeats. As much as I want to give in to her, I’m not about to let her see me remove a man’s head from his body.
“Come on, I’ll take you to the Royal.” I grab hold of Evie’s hand. As we make our way over to my car, I message Paz and tell him to have the fucker’s head on a platter for me.
“You don’t trust me to see whatever you’re doing?” Evie asks once we’re locked inside my car.
“I don’t want you to see horrors you will never forget. It has nothing to do with trust,” I explain. I start the engine and drive away from the cemetery. I’m not even sure why I came here. Habit, I guess.
“I don’t care, just so you know. If you want me to help you dig holes all over Nevada, I will.” Evie smiles at me. It’s easy to say but I saw the look in her eyes when I told her that I’d burned her employee alive.
“I will never let you get these hands dirty like that, Evie.” I grab her palm, bring it to my mouth, and kiss her knuckles.
“What if my hands aren’t as clean as you think they are? How do you know I haven’t already killed someone?” she asks.
I laugh. “You haven’t.”
“Well, I could have. You don’t know that,” she huffs.
“I know you. I want to say that I’m sorry about your employee.”
“You want to say sorry or you are sorry?” Evie counters.
“Does it matter?”
“Two very different things. Why do you think she’d burn the store down? I don’t get it.”
“Her boyfriend was making her steal money from the shop. She got worried you’d figure it outand thought a fire would destroy any evidence of her wrongdoing,” I say, and Evie appears taken aback.
“She told you that?”
“I heard them arguing.” I shrug. “You know you can open a store up anywhere. A fire isn’t going to keep you from having your dream, Evie.”
“I don’t think the insurance will pay me anything. Since it’s not an accident.”
“I happen to know you have a fair sum of money in your account. Use it to build a new store.”
“I’m returning your money. I don’t want your money.” Evie glares at me. “As soon as I figure out a way to return it without you doubling it again, I will.”
“Is it a bad thing for a boyfriend to want to make sure his girlfriend never wants for anything?” I ask her.
“Yes. When said boyfriend gives said girlfriend an obscene amount of money.”
The shrill of my ringing phone blasts through the car. If it weren’t Paz, I’d ignore it. “Hola,” I answer.
“Jefe, I’ve got the head. On a silver platter for you. Where do you want it?” he asks in Spanish.
“Meet me at Carlo’s,” I tell him in English before switching to Spanish and adding, “Did you get any intel?”
“Joey Marciano,” Paz says.
“Fucking hell,” I curse under my breath. Carlo’s father-in-law is trying to take him out? I’ve done business with Marciano a few times. Never liked the slimy fuck. Now I have a reason to kill him. Cutting the call, I look over to Evie. “We’re making a pit stop at Carlo’s before the Royal. You mind?”
