“Only her life as she knows it,” I say.
“She’s still a person.”
“You need to stop, Leo. I couldn’t give a fuck if she’s a person. She needs to be out of our lives.”
“What if I say no?” he challenges with a rare fire behind his eyes. I consider him, then answer honestly.
“You won’t,” I say with complete confidence. Leo knows he belongs to me and that this is not a talking point.
“I don’t want to be part of it, or to know any of the details.”
“You won’t be.”
“I don’t want blood,” he says, and I want to groan in annoyance. Luckily Marcus notices my patience is reaching at this point.
“There won’t be any, if she complies quietly,” Marcus says, and it’s as good a response as Leo will get. There are no guarantees in situations like this.
“I hate this,” he says. “I hate that I’m allowing this to happen.”
All I can do is rejoice in my head, because this is themoment he loses the last piece of innocence he was trying so hard to still own.
I look at Marcus and he nods once. The decision and plan is final.
Leo stands and walks out of the office and I don’t stop him. The lock clicks softly and Marcus exhales like he has held in his breath this entire time.
“Well. That went better than expected.”
“He’s adapting, he will get better with time.”
“Will he become like you?”
“No, he will just understand safety has a price.”
Marcus finishes his drink.
“I’ll contact Dima to arrange the meet up and we’ll move her within forty-eight hours. Do you want to be there when we get her?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Psycho,” he laughs as he heads out of my office, and I recline back in my chair, feeling accomplished for the day.
A message pops up on my phone:
Leo: I’m going for a walk.
I smile faintly as he already knows that isn’t how this works. Sarah is a loose thread and loose threads unravel entire lives. I will not allow that. Not when Leo is finally where he belongs.
CHAPTER 31 - LEO
Ineeded to get out of that place. After witnessing Ethan with Marcus, it somehow put things into a harsher perspective. The violence at the bar is one thing, but the planning of getting rid of a person, Sarah, is something totally different. My mind is so confused with it all. It’s not even Sarah that’s the problem, it’s the fact that they spoke about this like they were talking about a trip to the grocery store. That life doesn’t matter. I’m new in this world and I’m still not sure what this world is. I actually don’t know if I even want to know everything, like who Dima and those guys at the bar really are and who Marcus is and what he does. They are so detached. So disconnected from emotions. It’s really hard to adjust.
With no friends and nowhere to escape to in the city, there is only one place I know, and that’s my old apartment. We have to hand the keys over in two days time, but I have nowhere else to retreat to. I’m a little shocked Ethan let me leave the apartment, that he let me leavewithout knowing where I was going. Did I annoy him in that meeting? Did my concern come across as weakness?
After I get inside my old place I just sit at the small kitchen table and look outside the small window. My eyes drift to that crack in the wall that provided me with so much company over the past few months. I swear it’s gotten bigger. But this is what I need, a place to think without Ethan all around me, guiding my thoughts.
Footsteps creak on the floorboards outside the door, and before I have time to react, Ethan storms inside. How the hell did he get inside the building?
“Ethan! What the hell are you doing here? And how did you know where I was?”
