“I really don’t think so,” I tell them honestly.
“You don’tthinkso?” Ronnie screeches.
Wyatt takes a few steps, head thrown back to the sky, hands laced behind his neck.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he mutters.
“They want to talk to me,” I tell them. “It’s probably nothing.”
All right, that might not be entirely true.
If it were definitely nothing, they wouldn’t have left me the first note.
Not a chance they would’ve kept tracking me all the way out here.
But it’s likely nothing that would risk anyone out here.
Unless they suspect I squealed to any of these guys.
“If it’s nothing, why are you acting tweaked out?” Weston presses.
“If we’re in danger, you owe us a warning,” Wyatt says, Ronnie nodding emphatically behind him.
“No! I’d never do that,” I swear, shaking my head.
Wyatt glowers, eyes darkening with a kind of menace I haven’t seen from him before. “So what are you doing then? Just luring mobsters to our town? Is my sister-in-law at risk? If they’re watching you, surely they know about Lexi?”
My stomach bottoms out, a sensation that’s newer for me. Normally when risk is involved, it spikes my heart rate, unleashes something primal in me that enjoys the hunt, thrives off of the fight.
Fear like this? I’ve only ever felt it for myself, when the prospect of losing my freedom was on the table.
Never for someone else.
Because of me.
“Fuck!” I shout, falling to the concrete sidewalk, back to the wooden wall of the bar.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Weston cries, tossing his arms in the air. “This can’t be real life.”
My eyes close, images of my life in the Heights passing before them.
The café, bustling, full of happy guests.
Lexi’s face, the first time she tried my food.
Her face the first time I got to taste her.
The pictures morph, swarming together, until they merge with ones I haven’t seen since my teen years.
Lexi, being held against her will.
Threatened, a weapon shoved into her side. A jagged pipe, a two by four, doesn’t matter what it is. The kind of guys I grew up under can do serious damage with anything they get their hands on.
Irreparable damage.
No.
I won’t let it happen.
