“Once or twice,” Tane said, his attention distracted by an SUV across the street. “We shouldn’t stick around here for too long. There are plenty of places in the city we can rotate between until we come up with a plan. The last thing we need to do is making ourselves a sitting target.”
“Can we have desert though?” Jacob said, making his best puppy dog eyes at Tane.
Tane was about to agree, but then saw his phone flashing up with a new message…
ANTONIO: Come to our safehouse. NOW. I’ve sent you the address. This is not a drill Tane. The Cardini’s are making a move, they’ve been spotted downtown. Get you and the boy’s asses to the location right this second.
Tane knew that he didn’t have a single second to waste. Desert would have to wait. Now it was time to get into his Porsche and get to the Cardini safehouse in triple-quick time.
Everything was up in the air right now.
This might have been his final season in professional hockey, but more important than even that was the fact that Tane didn’t want this to be his and the boy’s last day on earth.
“Jacob, up on your feet,” Tane barked. “We don’t have single second to spare. It’s time I showed you that I’m not just fast on the ice, but I’m pretty fucking speedy on four wheels too…”
Chapter 15
Jacob
Jacob had only just strapped himself into the passenger seat and Tane was already pulling out of the parking spot and revving the engine to the max.
“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” Tane said, a look of total concentration on his face as he shifted gears and pulled out onto the busy road.
“Y-Y-Y-Yeah. Got it,” Jacob said, trying his best not to sound too scared.
As Tane began to weave in and out of the downtown traffic, Jacob realized something. While high speed driving through heavy traffic was obviously not a regular situation to be in, it wasn’t this that was making Jacob feel afraid.
In fact, being in the car with Tane was actually kind of exhilarating.
What was truly bothering Jacob was the situation with the two warring Mafia families. The thought that he was now somehow involved in the drama between the Cardini and Cardini families was actually pretty terrifying.
Jacob had grown up in a small suburb and the nearest he’d ever been to organized crime was watching old gangster films with his Uncle Mitch on weekends.
However, this was very much not a movie.
This was real life.
Jacob knew that while Tane would do everything he could to keep him safe, the reality was that Tane was a hockey player and not a mobster. Jacob could see that Tane was stressed and fearful over what was going on, and Jacob didn’t think any less of him for that.
The very fact that Tane was doing so much to protect Jacob was admirable.
Jacob could see that as far as Tane was concerned, his safety was secondary if it meant protecting him.
I’m a lucky sonofabitch to have a man like Tane.
When this is all over, I’m going to make sure to tell him that too.
I just hope everything works out okay…
As Tane continued to swerve and dodge the traffic, Jacob gripped the sides of his seat and tried his best to remain as calm as he could. Tane was in fact a very skillful driver, and Jacob couldn’t help but wonder if Tane might want to give race car driving a chance after he retired. This was probably not a question to ask in the moment though.
Jacob could see that Tane needed to put his full attention onto driving and the road ahead.
“We shouldn’t have any issues once I get us out of downtown,” Tane said, his eyes fixed ahead of him. “It’s busy here, but there will be a lull in traffic once I get us to Thirty Fifth and Lobos.”
“Uh-huh,” Jacob replied, wanting to keep his reply as brief as possible.
As the traffic began to ease up, Tane was able to put his foot down even harder. As the Porsche’s engine roared and crackled into life, Jacob gasped and found himself almost cheering in delight.
