Of course it would.He was everything I shouldn’t want.A killer, a criminal, a man who’d never be content to stay here in Chicago, and one who’d eventually bring the wrath of law down on me.
And if, God forbid, we had children in this little fantasy of mine?What then?Would they be stalked and monitored like I was?
I shivered a little.
The soft scuff of Ringo’s shoes on the pavement sounded behind me.I may have leaned a little when I felt his heat near my back.“Are you ready to go home?”
A gloved hand brushed my shoulder.
“I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”
The voice was too high.I turned just as Johnny grabbed my hair and yanked hard.His other hand covered my mouth as he dragged me deeper into the alley.
I kicked, twisted, tried to smack his balls with my fists, but nothing worked.
“Quiet.Just come with me and you won’t get hurt.”
My muffled, “why” was plainly written on my face.
He twisted my head and looked me in the eyes.“You left me at that wedding chapel.”
Technically, Allie had.I tried to tell him that but there was no way with his mitt acting as a muzzle.I kicked his shin instead to get my point across.
“Ow!”
He let go of me to hobble back a couple of paces and rub at his abused bone.
“You son of a bitch.”
“Language, Ellie.”
“Fuck you, Johnny.Fuck you, and your stupid cheating on me— your fucking stupid mobster-wanna-be antics with shooting Adelmo Conti, and fuck your ugly mustache!”
He pulled a gun from his coat.
I may have went a little too far with the mustache comment.I did what anyone normal does.I froze.
“You’re coming with me.I need that money.”
That’s what this was about?“Money?That’s all I am to you?”
“Of course.”
Despite suspecting that admission was coming, hearing it knocked me for a loop.“You lied to me.”My voice was weak.
“Like you don’t lie to everyone you meet?Hell, you lied to your friends, your sister, your parents… You even lied to me.”
“What?How?”I hadn’t caught up yet.I was stuck with the emotional aftermath of being betrayed.I’d had weeks to deal with that, but somehow it had just become real.
“You are anything but pure.”
Gun or not, I was going tomurderhim.“I was going to marry you.”
I’d have said more, but a car came to a screeching halt in the alley, mere feet from where I stood.I jumped back and flattened myself against the brick wall of the bar, stupidly thinking that it wouldn’t hurt as bad if I melted into the brick.My feet slid on the little bank of snow that hadn’t thawed, and I ass-planted into the icy slush.
Johnny took flight.
A car door slammed and Ringo shouted something at me.But my brain was in fuzzed-out mode where hearing and thinking, heck, even digging my soggy keister out of the numbingly cold snow was more than I could handle.
