“You gave us quite the scare,” she continued as tears filled her eyes. I hated it when Lennie cried. It always tore my heart apart.
“Don’t cry, Len, I’m okay,” I tried to soothe, my voice scratchy.
She leaned over to kiss my scarred brow. “I sometimes forget how dangerous your lives are. You guys always shelter me from it, so I often forget that you both risk your lives every day.”
She was right. We did live very dangerous lives. It was par for the course in the Mafia.
“You guys aren’t invincible, you know? You might think you are, but…” She paused as tears started to stream down her cheeks. “You’re my family. I can’t lose you, too.”
I knew what she was referring to. She had lost her father and her twin brother to gang violence when she was fifteen. Her mother had disappeared right around Lennie’s eighteenth birthday.
“I know, Len, I’m sorry.” I rubbed my thumb along her slender hand. She was so small compared to me.
“Promise me you’ll be more careful. I’m not naive, I know you guys won’t stop what you do, but I just need to know you will take more precautions.”
I nodded my head. “Yes, we can do that.”
She squeezed my hand once more before standing back up.
“I need to head back to RSS. Is there anything I can get you before I leave?”
This was why I loved Lennie. Always the first to ask if she could lend a hand. I shook my head.
“I love you, Evan,” she said, holding my gaze.
“I love you too, Len.”
“Always.”
“Always.”
I woke up several hours later to my phone ringing. I groaned, patting the table next to my bed to pick up the call. It was Kade.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“It’s Lennie,” Kade said, his voice panicked, “she’s been taken.”
My blood turned to ice.
“What do you mean she’s been taken?” I boomed into the phone.
“Stefanos has her.” He started before reading me the texts that had been sent to him. Stefanos wanted to get back at us for getting in the way of his shipment of women and children. And now he had Lennie.
I tossed off my blanket and started to limp toward the door, struggling to stay upright.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, as if we were talking about the fucking weather.
“Alive,” I grumbled. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to call Chief to let him know to have a full security detail on Evelyn. I’m also going to send some of our guys to watch from afar.”
“And then what?”
“I’m going to have to let Evelyn go. It’s the only way I can keep her safe,” Kade said pensively.
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I’m sorry, man. You will figure things out with Evelyn. First, we need to figure out how the fuck we are getting Lennie back.”
“Well first, you are staying right where you are,” Kade responded.
