“I had to. He thinks he killed me.”
“Damn right. That’s why I don’t get it.” Paul turned to face him. “You’re the luckiest son-of-a-bitch that you got away the first time. I wanna help you, man, I really do. But why do you wanna come back here and face him again?”
Did he really not know the answer to that?
Carlos arrived back at their side, carting Dan over his shoulder. He deposited the giggling fool onto the sand, sitting down next to him as Dan began making sand angels.
“Nothing is the way it should be,” Adam said. “I cannot let him win. I want my fucking life back.”
Adam took a few calming breaths and gazed toward the water. “I want tofeelsomething, goddammit. I miss you guys... and I willneverbe able to really feel alive again without–”
He glossed over the memories, stopping short of pouring his heart out onto the sand. Taking a sip of his bottle, he paused.
“Without?” Dan asked, red eyes crossing as he sat upright.
Adam hesitated. “Just without the life we made before. I want it back. And I want to keep it this time.”
Adam returned his gaze to the ocean. He couldn’t help but notice his friends share a look between them. Everyone knew the truth about what he really needed to feel alive again. And hopefully they were smart enough to recognize he’d deny it vehemently if they ever asked.
5
KILL DORIAN BLAKE
FEBRUARY 1991
“Hey, baby,” Adam smiled, jump landing through the open window into Mercedes’s bedroom.
“What the fuck?!” Mercedes startled, clutching her heart. “What are you doing here? Trying to get yourself killed? I thought you were smarter than this now.” She secured the mahogany double doors with a bolted lock.
Following suit, Adam closed the elegant box window behind him and helped himself onto on her sofa, running his fingers along the suede material. “Settle down, I knew you were alone.”
“How did you even get up here? This is the third floor,” she said, standing between his open legs and crossing her arms.
Adam flashed his teeth but didn’t answer. Blake’s historic mansion was heavily guarded, the only property on the street, and encircled by an abundance of lush gardens and all wrapped up and secured within high stone walls. But there was a low spot along the western edge that could be scaled, landing directly in the middle of the hedge maze. It was a short climb up the pool slide onto the trellis and into Mercedes’s third-floor bedroom.
He pushed past her, pacing the room’s spread of trinkets. “Living very large, I see.” He snatched an elephant sculpture to juggle with.
“What do you want?”
“Straight to the point.” He glanced at her over his shoulder, depositing the sculpture back in its place, though her salty tone secretly broke his heart. He missed the sparkle in her eyes that she had when she thought the world of him.
“The guys are coming by for a little heist planning. Come,” he said. “They said I’d have to come get you.”
“I always hated your heists.”
“Don’t flirt with me so openly,” he begged, hand on his heart, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she sat on the edge of her bed to pull on high-heeled boots. In front of her mirror she brushed her hair into a high ponytail and grabbed her pager from the nightstand. But Adam’s eye had gotten stuck on the heeled boots, which made her long legs even longer, and had him drawing an eye up her entire body.
The years had been kind to her, indeed. He averted from looking at her ass as she bent down to pick up a jacket—for her privacy and for the sake of keeping his lap still. When his thoughts returned, she was staring at him. Sighing, she flicked her hand toward the window.
Right, yes, the window. They had places to be.
Clearing his throat, Adam did as instructed.
They followed his path down the trellis, along the pool slide and into the hedge maze. When they reached the stone wall, he pulled ahead, holding out his hands to boost her over.
“Fuck off, I can get over a wall.” She proceeded to show him how. From a running start, she jumped to grab the wall with her fingertips, using her upper-body strength to hoist herself to the top.
Legs spread over the wall, she glared down at him, giving him a knowing look.She flipped to the other side, and Adam followed in the same, but much less graceful, movement.
