She deserves that freedom.
She deserves a normal life. A safe life. A life without men like me in it.
I should go to her.
But I can't.
If I go to her now, I'll do something stupid.
I'll touch her.
And I can't afford stupid right now.
Not with the cartel hunting me. Not with Lorenzo scrambling to find a way out of this mess. Not with Marina's life hanging in the balance because I was selfish enough to choose her door over a hospital.
I pick up my phone again.
My fingers move across the screen.
How are things?
I send the text to Lorenzo and wait.
The response comes thirty seconds later.
Complicated. Nico's working on the cartel angle. We might have a way out but it's not clean.
I type back:Define not clean.
The kind of not clean that involves bodies.
I almost smile. That's Lorenzo. Always finding the diplomatic way to say we're going to kill people.
How many?
Enough to send a message.
I set the phone down.
Bodies. Messages. The language of our world. The only language I've ever really understood.
Marina's voice echoes in my head.
You're a killer.
Yes.
I am.
And I'm about to become one again.
Marina
I should text him.
That's the logical thing to do. The safe thing.
But my legs are already moving.
