"You could flee town," Silver suggests.
"I can't," I tell him. "He'd kill my parents."
"There has to be something." Alec runs his hand through his hair again.
"How much longer do you have?" Silver asks me.
"A couple of weeks." I'd have to check an actual calendar, but I'm probably close to halfway done with the month I had negotiated.
"And killing him isn't an option?" Alec stands from the seat. "I know that's what you do for a living or whatever." He focuses on Silver for a second before turning to me. "And I know about your boss."
My eyes widen and my heart skips a beat. How could he possibly know what happened?
"I mean," Alec adds. "I don'tknowknow, but I'm not stupid. He's dead, isn't he?"
Silver rises to his feet and positions himself between me and Alec. "Sit down, you're making this worse than it already is."
"Are you serious? You're sitting there doing nothing. Where are your brilliant ideas? What are we going to do?"
"Nothing," I say loud enough to hopefully make an impact. "You promised you wouldn't, remember?"
"Cora." Alec tilts his face and it pains me to see him this desperate. "You can't be serious."
"Please don't make me regret telling you."
"Who knows about this?" Silver asks.
"You two, Ricardo, and probably his daughter, London."
Silver lowers himself onto the couch and reaches toward me. "You haven't told anyone?"
"No." I sigh. "He told me he'd kill everyone I cared about if I did. That's why you can't do anything. You can't tell anyone. This has to be between us. Please."
Silver takes my hands into his. "I'm so sorry you had to deal with this on your own."
"It's fine," I lie but not entirely. I thought I'd feel better having told them what was going on, but I don't. Instead, there's this heavy weight of uncertainty about whether they will keep their word. What was once my life on the line is now theirs, too.
Alec exhales and draws my attention. His face is strained and he does nothing to hide how bothered he is. How can I blame him? I would probably feel the same way, especially knowing the things he does about this criminal world.
"Do you have any Tylenol?" I ask Silver. "Sorry, my head is fucking pounding."
"Yeah, of course." He leaves the couch without hesitation and disappears into his bedroom.
I take the moment of privacy to whisper to Alec, "I'm sorry."
He blinks and meets my gaze. "Cora..." Alec comes over and sits in the middle of the couch, closest to me. "You have nothing to apologize for."
"I was so mean to you last night."
"I understand why though." He places his hand on my knee. "I forgive you."
"You shouldn't," I tell him.
"Did you mean what you said?"
"No," I admit even though I should have lied and said I did. It would have made this easier for him in the long run if I pushed him to the point of no return. I want to confess that I meant the opposite of what I said. That he's a great guy and my feelings for him are only growing by the day, and that I wish we could go back and have all the time we lost by not speaking our truth sooner. But I can't. That would complicate an already fucked up situation and at the end of the day, this all ends the same: me belonging to Ricardo.
Silver returns a moment later and places two pills in the palm of my hand.
