I can’t afford to get mugged. Can’t afford a single bill to slip out. Everything I own is now in this pocket—this is my whole stash to start over.
I can do this. I can.
It’s hot today. Muggy. The midday sun beams down, frying the stale air and making everything smell of baking garbage.
And as I power-walk through cobbled alleyways, sagging black cables criss-crossing between buildings overhead, I can’t keep my thoughts from drifting to Leo Palladino. To the man I met on the boardwalk; the man with those dimples and those deep brown eyes. My fiance.
Ex-fiance.
Whatever. I’m not sorry I ran, but I don’t like that I did that to him so publicly. If I’d had another choice, I would have taken it. With that citrus cologne, he sure smells better than my escape route. Ever since meeting him six weeks ago, it’s like I haven’t got his scent out of my nose. He laces my every breath.
A pigeon explodes into flight above me and I flinch, hurrying faster now, gray tufts of feathers raining down as my heart rattles against my ribs. But you know what? No. Idon’tcare. I wouldn’t have embarrassed Leo like that at all if he didn’t try to force me down the aisle.
Same goes for my family and the rest of those Palladino creeps. They wereallin on this shit show.
Ahead of me, the alley yawns open onto a courtyard. There’s a scraggly flowerbed in the center, more pigeons pecking at the paving stones, and a line of cabs idling against the sidewalk. Their drivers lean against the cars, smoking cigarettes or napping upright with arms folded and chins tucked in.
Busy day, I guess.
I pause at the alley’s end, peering around. There are clusters of tourists, taking photos of each other and then nodding over their phones. A vendor with a tray selling honey-roasted nuts.
No mafiosos. No Palladino or Serpico foot soldiers.
This is it. The best chance I’m gonna get.
My sneakers chafe my raw heels as I stride across the courtyard, heart pounding. Trying to look normal, a few bills clutched ready in my damp palm.
The first cab driver in the line is napping. He jerks awake with a snort when I poke his shoulder, his lined face drooping with exhaustion. He’s got gray skin, gray hair, gray teeth. Gray everything.
So different from the convoy I walked out to this morning. The slick suits and combed-back hair.
“Yeah?” He frowns at me like it’s a mystery why I’d wake him. Like I’m doing it for fun.
“I need a ride.” I hold up my crumpled bills. “Are you working or not?”
The driver huffs. “Get in.”
Sure. That’s about how my day’s going anyway, and besides—I don’t need this man’s respect. I need a ride to the train station, and I need it right now.
I slide into the backseat, wrinkling my nose at the scent of week-old fries and cigarette ash, and clip my seat belt over my sweaty outfit.
The cracked leather is scratchy, poking through my leggings, but it’s nearly over. I’m nearly gone for good.
Leo
Mia is leaving a breadcrumb trail. Is that deliberate? Probably not, but as I stroll down the sidewalk with her white satin heels dangling from one hand, I prefer to think so. I prefer to think that part of her—maybe subconscious, okay, maybe deep down—wantsme to follow.
I found her dress easily enough, stuffed in a trash can outside a clothing store, the lid propped jauntily on top of an explosion of white gauzy skirts. Inside the shop, the pink-haired kid in a sequined blazer was more than happy to tell me what he knew. To describe her outfit and point me the right way.
She has a credit card, he said.
She’ll have ditched that by now. Mia’s a smart girl, and she knows we’ll track that card. She’ll have withdrawn the maximum chunk of cash and tossed it right away.Sayonara, suckers, she’ll have thought.
So where next? Where will my Serpico princess run?
I squeeze the scrap of ruined lace I plucked from the window frame, rubbing my thumb back and forth along the fabric in my pocket. I don’t like being separated from Mia like this. We were supposed to be together forever by now. This is all wrong.
I didn’t scheme and plot and drench my hands in blood to be with her, all for her to up andleave.Fucking hell.