Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,62

as he stared out of the window, the orange glow of morning already brightening the horizon. “Everything alright with the car, Anton?”

“Looks like a bit of body damage but I don’t see anything that will cause a problem. It’s mainly in the back end on the hatch.” Anton, who’d been dressed all night and hadn’t needed to change shut his door and settled into his seat. “I think the car will be fine. We should make it to Canada, no problem.”

Marie was nervous; too nervous to sleep, too nervous to stay awake. Matteo saw her struggling and pulled off at an all-night gas station. He filled up the SUV, while she and Anton got them all coffee and some snacks, then they were back on the road.

Anton’s phone rang a half-hour later and he answered. They could hear him talking but not what the caller said.

“That was the police. They wanted to know why we left. I told them someone had set the house on fire and when we went outside, shots were fired at us. They still want to talk to us.” He knew they’d heard his side but repeated it all so it made sense this time.

“Fuck that, we’re going to Canada. Pay the owner whatever he wants and send him my apologies. I didn’t mean to get their cabin burned down.” Marie could hear the guilt in Matteo’s voice, but it wasn’t his fault either. She put her hand on his thigh and squeezed to let him know he wasn’t alone.

“Will do, boss.”

“Thanks. Then, find out how the fuck they found us.”

“I’m guessing they looked for me. Someone must have noticed I was gone and figured I’d left with you. I wasn’t trying to hide where I was by not using my debit or credit cards, which was stupid of me. I take full responsibility.”

“No, don’t blame yourself, Anton,” Marie started, and Matteo instantly agreed.

“We weren’t sure about that, we talked about it, remember? We thought they’d take a lot longer to notice you were gone too. Damn, they’re sneaky bastards.” Matteo gripped the steering wheel harder, then took a sip of his coffee. “Marie, I suggest you put your headphones on, find something to listen to, and get some sleep. This will take a few hours.”

“Around three, boss,” Anton said from the back seat. “There’s a place called Creston, in British Columbia, just across the border. Looking for hotels now.”

“Great. We’ll stop as soon as we get over the border then. When we get there, Marie, just answer their questions politely and smile at them. We’re traveling around and wanted to head over to Vancouver for a visit. Just a trip for pleasure for a week, then we’re headed back home. Anton, make reservations on my phone for somewhere in Vancouver, two rooms, use that credit card that we have in my dead uncle’s name.”

Marie wasn’t really paying attention, but she saw him wince when he said that part about the credit card. It didn’t bother her, she never knew her father - his uncle by marriage. It was a good idea, to keep a credit card in someone’s name that wasn’t theirs, she thought. She tried to get some sleep, but her head kept banging against the window, or her feet would get cold, even with the heat on. So she spent most of the drive staring out of the window as an audiobook played in her ears.

At one point, she heard the back window open and then close not long after. “Burner phone’s gone, boss.”

“Good idea. We’ll figure out how to talk to them later if we have to. For now, I’d rather keep us out of it.”

When they reached the border, the Canadian border patrol guy was friendly. He chatted with them, checked their passports, then let them through without a lot of questions. Anton had mentioned the bullet holes in the back might draw some attention, but Marie suspected the guy just wanted to get back into the building where it was warm so ignored those.

They arrived in a place called Creston just as the sun came up. It was a small town, neat and tidy, with a huge mountain in the background. Marie watched as the fog began rolling down the massive thing in the distance. It was amazing and she liked the look of the town. It wasn’t a massive city like Vancouver, but more like her kind of place. Quiet, with enough shops that you could find whatever you