I don’t get a chance to check if she’s obeyed me. Dwayne’s going for my eye sockets with his thumbs.
Before he can manage to get close, I start pummeling him with my fists. His head whips from left to right as I land one blow after another. He gets his hand out to the side, trying to reach for the gun. I grab his arm with both hands and snap his wrist, leaving him screaming in agony.
With his other hand, he starts clawing at my face. I keep punching, ignoring the pain of the blood he draws from my cheek. His movements are slow as I keep smacking him left and right. Over and over.
All of a sudden, the hand that’s clawing at me goes limp, falling to the side. I give it a second to be sure before getting to my feet. His chest is rising and falling but the movement is ragged. As I watch, it hitches, a bubble of something red and white comes out of his nose and then he falls still.
There’s no sign of Chloe. With any luck, she ran for the hills before I killed him.
The necklace is missing. Hopefully, she grabbed it when she went. I haven’t got time to look for it now. I need to deal with the body first. I can intimidate the sheriff into leaving me loose but a corpse in the middle of the diner is a different matter.
I grab him by the arms, dragging his body along the floor to the parking lot. There’s no one outside. The diners and staff have all scattered to the four winds.
I pull Dwayne’s body over to my car, dropping him for long enough to open the trunk. Then I hoist him up over the side and dump him in, bending his limbs so nothing’s left sticking out.
As I slam the trunk shut, Chloe appears from the doorway of the diner, the necklace in her hand. “What’s in the trunk?” she asks, looking at the smeared trail of blood by her feet that leads straight toward me.
“Sure you want to know the answer?” I ask, walking over to her. “Do you want to know?”
“What did you do?” she asks, not looking away.
“Kept you safe,” I reply. “Now get in.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
I grab hold of her arm, pulling her over to the car. I can hear sirens approaching in the distance. “This is not a choice,” I tell her, shoving her into the seat. “We’re leaving, now.”
“What are you doing?” she asks as I slam the door shut on her face.
I run around and climb in, hitting the gas and peeling out from the parking lot, heading away from the sirens. “Where are we going?” she asks. “Why did you grab me like that?”
I turn and glance at her. “Listen to me,” I say. “A man came to kill you and me tonight. We can’t stay here any longer. We’ve got to get out of town until I sort all of this out.”
“Came to kill us? But why? What have we done?”
“You haven’t done anything but I fucked up by coming here. Now I’ve got to make it right.”
“I don’t understand, Enzo. Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.”
“I’ll explain it all later. For now, just know that you’re not safe here anymore. We’ve got to leave. Can you trust me?”
“What about Maisie? Or my cat? Are they in danger?”
A bit of heart breaks. I tell her she’ll die if she stays here and her first thoughts are toward her roommate and her cat? “No,” I tell her, getting a sudden urge to kiss her. “The danger’s coming for you, not them.”
She’s looking back at me and she’s not looking scared so much as angry. That, I can understand.
I think as fast as I drive. I can’t go back to Chicago without the necklace and the box or Imelda and Sarah will die. But if I take the necklace and the box, he’ll probably still want to tie up loose ends. Leave no witnesses. I’ll be as dead as Dwayne. Chloe too.
There’s only one solution, I realize as I pass the town limits and head out into the open country. She’s got to stay with me until I sort this out.
Sorting this means I’ve got to do the thing no one’s ever managed before. I’m going to have to find a way to do the impossible. I’ve got to kill the Don.
PART TWO
17
CHLOE