“It still stands. If needed, we will help capture your cornered animal. Hold in a cage, if necessary. Terminate, if required.”
“The gesture will be remembered.”
“I know it will.”
Both men hung up the phone without saying goodbye. It wasn’t necessary. Their business was concluded, and their continued agreement in place. No family business happened in either person’s backyard without informing the other. So far, it was working out.
If Marco decided to run to Boston, he wouldn’t last long without Conall O’Shea and his brothers stepping in. No. Marco wouldn’t get very far at all.
Pulling out the SIM card from the phone, he bent the small piece of metal until it broke apart. Rolling down his window, he chucked the smaller pieces out the window.
Now for the conversation he didn’t want to have at all. Pulling up to the metal gate guarding the large home, he thought about what he’d say to Camille’s father.
Her involvement with him is what got her in this situation. Not only was her life in danger, but her family’s lives as well. It hadn’t been planned this way, but sometimes, life had a way of creating obstacles and hazards that had to be navigated. A voice came over the intercom.
“Yes?”
“Tristan Lucarelli is here to speak with Mr. Raymond Sperry.”
The voice on the other side went silent for a few moments, as if questioning whether to open the gate. As the gate slid open, Tristan found himself releasing a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
Feeling his regular, non-business phone buzz as a text came through, he looked down at the screen. His lips curled in a smile as he read the words.
Camille: Hi baby
Tristan: Hey, beautiful. What’s up?
Camille: I’m gonna head to my place tonight
Tristan: Why?
Something about her going back to her own place didn’t sit right with him. He knew it was too soon for her to move in with him. The thought shouldn’t even be in his head right now, but it was. Just the thought of sleeping without her next to him made his gut clench. She needed to be with him so he could protect her. Hold her close to him.
Camille: Thinking maybe you need some space.
Tristan: No.
Camille: Don’t you need a night without me?
Tristan: Never. You belong with me. It feels right.
Camille: You belong to me also.
Tristan: Come home to me after work. If you don’t, I’ll come find you and drag you back to my house.
Camille: Fine. You know you’re a bully, right? Be there around 6
Tristan: That’s my girl. Talk later.
That she actually thought she’d stay away from him a full night was laughable. When she was with him, he slept like the innocent he’d never been. Not even as a child. Camille made him smile again. She made him dream of things he’d never thought could be his.
A picture of her big and round, his child growing in her stomach, brought a smile to his face. Yeah, that’s what he wanted. Camille with his last night, his baby growing inside her body, and the two of them together living their best life.
He could have that. Would have that. All he needed to do was get through this meeting with her father and kill his cousin Marco before he tried to harm anyone Tristan cared about.
Easy.
Once they pulled up to the front door, Tristan gathered his thoughts and stepped out of the car. The front door opened. He was expecting to see Raymond Sperry welcoming him into his home. Instead, Camille’s mother stood there with a stern look on her face.