Permanent Lines (16 page)

Seconds later we were running towards the back door, stopping for only a moment to
pick up her mangled phone from the floor. I took one last glance around from the frame
of the door, saying goodbye for now to all that remained. When we got to the bottom
of the back staircase, I stopped us both for a quick second.

“No matter what’s outside this door, just stay calm. Walk like there’s nothing but
purple hearts and unicorns dancing in our heads.”

She chuckled, making me smile. “Purple hearts and unicorns … got it.”

I kissed her forehead before turning the doorknob. At first glance, there was nothing
out of the ordinary. The streets seemed calm in these early hours of the morning,
just the normal hustle and bustle noise of the city streets around us. I kept my eyes
forward and took a calming breath.
So far so good!

The dumpster to the bar was just outside the door, so I took the plastic bag from
her hand and threw it inside, closing the top. First point of business was done—she
was clear of any trackers.

We walked up the sidewalk the few short blocks to where Kayla and Miles lived. With
each step we took, and the closer we got, the relief and victory set in more and more.

The doorman out front greeted us with just a nod, and the man behind the desk announced,
“Mr. Blackwell is expecting you.”

I had to hand it to Miles. I’d only been in the building once to meet up with Kayla
because I made an effort to stay away from buildings like theirs, ones with wealth
and money pouring from every corner. But by the way we were greeted, and the quickness
involved with getting us in the elevator, you’d have thought Amelia and I walked in
here every day, familiar to the staff.

As soon as the gold-mirrored doors shut in front of us, we let out a collective sigh
of relief. I grabbed Amelia’s hand and squeezed it for support. We cleared our second
hurdle and made it from my place to Miles and Kayla’s … alive.

Once the doors opened to the penthouse, I saw Miles and Kayla standing there waiting.
They were both in pajamas. It was the first time I’d ever seen Miles in anything but
a suit- normal. It took all of two seconds for Kayla to lunge towards us, hugging
me so hard that I actually had to loosen her hold on my neck. She obviously knew,
which I didn’t care, since I knew she’d find out eventually anyway. I could tell by
her lack of attention towards Amelia that she wasn’t very enthused about the life
I inherited by being with her. It was definitely something I was going to have to
discuss with her later. The situation Amelia was in wasn’t her choice either. She
had no damn clue that her boyfriend would become a mobster and suck her in with him.

“Oh my God!” Kayla breathed. “Way to make me have heart attack in the middle of the
night.” She let me go and punched me in the arm. “Can you just be normal and do normal
stuff? Geez, Merrick!”

I laughed and gave her a sarcastic grin. “Now, what fun would that be?” I tried to
lighten the mood, even though it was anything but.

Miles, who had been standing by, observing us, was soon to interject. “Kayla, sweetheart,
could you please show Amelia where she and Merrick will be staying?” He placed his
hand on Kayla’s lower back, speaking sweetly in his calm, sly tone.

I knew it was only to get the girls out of the room so he could speak to me openly
and tell me the real shit we were in, and that’s just what he did. As soon as Amelia
and Kayla were out of hearing distance, he laid right in.

“I made a few calls,” he said as he walked over to the mini bar close to the wall
of windows that displayed all of Times Square below. “I know very little about the
mob—just the basics—they’re bad news, but I have a good friend of the family that
does, well, used to, work for the FBI. I just got off the phone with him … Antonio
Antonacci. Is that his name?” he questioned, though by the tone in which he asked
it, he seemed to already be certain it was.

“That’s the guy.”

“I was afraid of that,” he answered, displeased. “The Antonacci family is the largest,
most dangerous mob family on the East Coast; the City is their headquarters.” He passed
me a glass of scotch. “Up until a couple of years ago, they controlled most of the
country.”

“Why not anymore?”

“They all started turning on each other. Money started going missing, fingers began
pointing at each other, dead bodies were showing up on a daily basis … New leaders
were appointed left and right, because people were killing one another so fast … Antonio
is one of those appointees.”

I nodded my head, taking it all in. “Sounds like a clusterfuck of crazy,” I observed.

He nodded. “Agreed. But not any less dangerous. If anything, worse. From what Stewart
tells me, in the last year or so, every member’s eyes have opened even more, ready
to take down anyone that becomes a threat to their part of the organization.”

“Making me even more fucked.”

“Precisely.”

I exhaled, not enthused with the information, running my hands over my face and head,
linking my fingers behind my neck with my elbows out to the sides. “Any idea how we
can make it out of this alive?”

He snickered, resting back into the cushions of the couch and placing his foot on
his opposite knee before taking a sip of his drink. “At the moment,” he looked at
me sympathetically, “I don’t.”

“Awesome.” I sat forward, my elbows on my knees, hands holding up my head.

“I promised Kayla I would do anything I could. She’s worried sick. Stewart said he
would help as much as he could, but he’s not on the force anymore,” he added, not
very enthusiastically, finishing the rest of his drink and standing.

I looked up at him, an appreciative grin on my face. “So …”

“I’ve got a place down in the business district,” Miles said matter-of-factly. “I’ve
arranged for a car to pick you and Amelia up at 8:00 am. You can stay there until
we get this figured out, but you need to be smart. No contacting anyone. Her especially.”
He raised a brow for extra emphasis. “Stay there—you can’t leave. We can’t be sure
how much they do or don’t know. My hope is that they find out very little about you.
They will certainly be searching every inch of this city for her. In the case that
they have discovered any substantial information on you as well, I’ll have a cell
provided for you both to use, eliminating usage of yours. There’s a full-time housekeeper
at the apartment. She will do any shopping that you may need. I’m sorry to do this
to you, but …”

“No,” I cut him off. “I get it.”

I hated being spoken to like I was by Miles. I knew he was helping me, but I always
felt inferior, like his damn puppy or minion or something, but my choices were limited.
Miles was the only person we had that could help us in the way we needed. He could
keep us hidden until things smoothed over … or were taken care of. I was at Miles
Blackwell’s mercy and had to fucking deal with it. Better yet, I had to kiss his fucking
feet.

Sleep wasn’t something that was in the books once we finally made it to bed. Though
we both acted calm and collected, holding each other in our arms and trying to allow
sleep to overtake us, it didn’t happen. Instead we both kept catching the other staring
in the dark.

It gave me a second to get more answers to the lingering thoughts in my head, at least.

“Can I ask you something?” I whispered, pushing her loose hair back from her face.

She nodded her head, but didn’t answer. I could tell she wasn’t all for explaining,
but she knew that I deserved some answers.

“What was so different?” I asked. “The weekend we were together, I mean. You didn’t
seem afraid at all being with me, out in public …”

She took a deep breath before raising her head and propping it on the hand that was
held up by her elbow. This wasn’t just going to be a short and sweet conversation;
I was happy to see her settling in.

“He was gone, out on the West Coast for work. Those were the only times I had to myself,
to be normal.”

“Weren’t there still people here watching you?”

“Not really. His cousin was here, and was supposed to keep an eye on me, but didn’t
care to watch my every move. He knew the space I needed, and how unhappy I was. He
probably wouldn’t have ever thought I was,” she paused, “you know.” She smiled.

“Racing dirt bikes? Screwing a hot ass bartender?” I joked.

She lightly chuckled. “Yeah, that.” She blushed. “But he knew I raced. I don’t know
if Antonio knew, but Joey did. It was our little secret that I did it on the side.
I didn’t tell him where I was
that
weekend, so he just assumed I was at the tracks.”

“So there’s actually normal people in that family?”

She tilted her head and gave me a “not exactly” look. “Just Joey.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?” I asked next. I hated thinking that
all the while I was falling for her, she was taken. Though I knew where her heart
was, she still wasn’t completely mine.

She sighed, biting down on her lip. “He may call me his girlfriend, but he’s nothing
to me and he hasn’t been for a while. When I called him that earlier, it wasn’t because
that’s who he is to me, it was a just a reference to explain the situation. It was
probably bad wording, sorry.”

Ya think?!

“He was my boyfriend, and yeah, I cared for him, but he changed into someone new …
a monster.” She paused and stared into my eyes. “I haven’t loved him for a long time,
Merrick. Truly. “

I nodded my head, but didn’t say anything. I was having a hard time processing everything.
It wasn’t too much or anything like that. I mean, it was a whole fucking lot, but
it didn’t change my mind about anything. It was just that this whole time away from
Amelia, I felt like I was loving someone that didn’t love me, and at the same time,
so was Antonio. He was with someone, that same person, that didn’t care for him like
he cared for her. Though, if you loved someone, you didn’t do shit like that to them
and keep ‘em practically as your hostage, but …

I exhaled. I wasn’t going to think about it anymore or to try and reason with the
situation. When it came down to it, they didn’t have a relationship. She was being
controlled; she was his possession. He was a fuck that didn’t deserve an ounce of
pity. What Amelia and I had was leaps and bounds different. We were real. They weren’t.

“What happened to your phone? I tried calling it a zillion times … and then it was
disconnected?”

She sighed. “I told Antonio that my phone was acting weird and needed a new one.”
She paused, giving me an apologetic look. “If he ever looked at my phone or was there
when you called, he would have gone ballistic and went looking for you …” She hung
her head. “I couldn’t let that happen.”

I nodded my head before kissing her forehead and pulling her into my chest. I didn’t
need to know anymore. I had all the answers I needed. She felt nothing for him. She
loved me, and even though she had yet to tell me, I knew because she was here with
me … not there with him.

Her arms fit around my chest and back, hugging my side as my hand gently caressed
her arm. We lay like that for hours, until the sun was up and it was time to go to
our new home, our hideout. At least for a little bit.

Just as Miles said, there was a black Town Car with tinted windows waiting at the
curb when we walked outside. Our heads naturally tilted down as we walked out in the
daylight. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of the outside world. Inside,
where no one could see us, seemed much safer and more comforting, at least as much
as one could feel in our position.

As soon as the driver closed our door, I pulled Amelia to the middle of the backseat,
removing the distance between us.

“We’re good,” I whispered before kissing the top of her head. “We’re good, baby.”

She nodded her head, but not confidently. I could tell she was anything but assured.
Her smirk and tight grin gave her away—she was scared. Every movement we made, every
corner we turned, she was in panic mode, not knowing or believing that she wasn’t
being watched, that she was safe. The fucker had messed with her head so much that
it was like she feared life away from him. I didn’t doubt, after hearing her stories,
that he
would
harm her if he found us, but it wasn’t something I could even fathom thinking about.
I needed my mind to stay positive and strong, though every time I saw her frown or
noticed the fear in her eyes, my insides caved and I felt like anything but the tough
guy I was trying to be.