I killed a man in front of his daughter.
“M, what’s wrong? You have been down here for, like, twenty minutes,” Lana points out to me. Fuck, I have sat here for longer than I thought I would. I can’t bear to look at her; I might crack and tell her my secret.
“Hey, look at me.” Her gentle voice and gentle lift of my chin to look at her make my chest crack open. I need to be honest with her so that she can draw her own conclusions about me. So, Itell her everything. She doesn’t react for a minute, and when she starts talking, I feel relief.
Lana didn’t judge me.
“Did you know the daughter was there?” she asks me.
“No, I didn’t. I barely uttered my call-off sign.”
“Okay, what happened to the girl?”
“I don’t know, she vanished into thin air. And all of this brings back painful memories of that one faithful night in Sarajevo. Also, I feel like I’m lying to my entire team, and you?”
“Why?” Each question, no matter how heavy, makes me feel lighter. And it’s all because I’m offloading this burden on to someone else. While I might be truthful with Lana now, I’m going to keep one piece of information about the daughter to myself.
It’s too painful to talk about, and I see that young woman in Lana. She looks so much like her. What nobody knows is that I have been sending money to that girl. It’s the least I could do.
“I feel like I’m chasing a ghost, and I have the sickest feeling that your father is already dead.”
“Okay, why do you think that? It’s doubtful.” Her flat tone shows signs of complete denial. Lana is trying to compose herself by lying to herself.
“Your father conducted business with my father, as you know, and his last hit was a complete bust. Leon didn’t complete the hit, and my father offered a price for his head, but nobody ever cashed it in. Your old man made it seem like he died, yet he survived.”
“It’s not your fault you didn’t see this coming, M. It’s not like you were ordered by your father to kill my father.”
“No, of course not.” I’m not sounding that convincing, and I feel like she notices my hesitation. I know that my father wanted to hire Leon. And to this day, I don’t know who he needed to kill for Dario. I only know that the hit went haywire.
“Good, let’s get upstairs and get some sleep. I need you in bed right this second.” I oblige, with a massive grin on my face. We walk upstairs to our en-suite bathroom and get ready for bed. Once we are in bed, Lana is pressed against my front.
“Thank you for doing this, M. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
57
Lana
It’s the next day in the evening, and everyone has arrived at their destinations. M is talking to Adam on his phone, from our bed.
“We’ll talk later.” M hangs up and hugs me. We have been in bed all day, me waiting on him like a dutiful girlfriend. I needed to spoil him after all he has done.
My plan to live life how I want to is finally being set in motion. Especially after he has been honest with me.
“They had some traffic along the way, so they arrived just now.”
“That’s fine. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Little hummingbird, we need to get out of bed at some point.” I kiss him on the lips to shut him up. He returns my kiss, and we are in this little bubble that I don’t want to end. But at some point, I need to face reality.
“Not yet, I’m still super tired. I could, however, use a drink. What do you think?” I ask him as I stand up and go to his liquor table near the window.
“Absolutely. What are you pouring us?” he asks me, and I hear him standing up. I pour two glasses from the bottle of expensive whiskey I bought him three weeks ago. I turn around, and he is looking fucking delicious.
He is standing before me in gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt.
I hand him the glass, and he drinks a couple of sips from it.
