Grab the Porsche’s keys and run. I have no time for the elevator, so I climb up the stairs and open the roof hatch, climb through it, climb over the roof to the fire ladder, and jump down the stairs until I’m all the way down, hang, and drop the last six feet to the ground.
I feel caged. Tracked. Backed into a corner.
And I am not going to let that happen.
Never again.
I enter the garage from outside, run to the Porsche, and the moment I sit in my lioness, I breathe in properly.
I have my hands on the wheel as the V6 roars through the garage. I already know what I have to do.
I fumble the phone from my pocket.
“Rossi,” I say breathlessly. “It’s the day.”
“You sure?” he asks.
“Yes, Rossi, I am sure. Meet me there in ten. Leave Omar where he is; I don’t wanna see his face.”
“He could help,” Rossi says.
“Rossi, it will take you five seconds.”
“Okay, okay,” he says. “You owe me a wine after that.”
“I owe you a spanking of your face with a pan for your own stupidity,” I say.
“Someone ate lemons this morning,” he says.
“I’ll throw one in your face if you don’t get yourself in clothes and are there the minute I arrive. Ten minutes, starting now,” I say angrily and hang up.
Ten minutes later, I arrive at our planned spot, where either one of us needs a quick getaway at Tudor City Greens Park. Rossiis already there, standing as a police officer next to a driver and giving him a ticket. Not just any driver, but Omar.
Gods, Rossi, I hate you.
He pretends to stop me, and I halt in the last possible moment in front of him, just to scare him. Only he knows I’d never.
“Seriously,” I start angrily as I get out, but I am silenced.
“Everything you need is in the car,” he says. “Omar will take your lioness to Aunt Bertha; you can pick her up when she’s needed.”
“You told him about Bertha?!”
“He saved my ass, love. I love him.”
“You need therapy,” I tell him. “I’m not giving him my girl.”
“Babe, you will, because everything you need is in that stolen car right there, and it will get them off your tail. Now, get going; the forty-five seconds are almost up.”
I curse indistinguishably, walk up to Omar, and stare him straight in the eyes.
“If anything happens to her, I will?—“
“She will be fine,” he says with a laugh. “Just like Rossi. Now, go.”
I go, because he smells like he sucked dick all day, and I just can’t.
When I’m in, I hold out my leg.
