I was so used to it that I could spot them from a mile away. Sometimes I allowed them to follow me just so that they’d be occupied, but days like today when I was driving Aida to college, I needed to lose them—when the time was right.
Each day we took a different route to Aida’s college, knowing that predictability wasn’t something we wanted. I was always finding alternative routes to the places we had to go to on a regular basis, and once I had at least ten options, I would switch them out, not leaving a single pattern behind. Confusion was the key.
Some people may have only seen me as the person who drove Lorenzo and Aida anywhere they needed to go, but I knew I was more than that. I was a personal bodyguard and now the head of security. I was one of Lorenzo’s most trusted allies; I had to be with how close contact we all were. I saw and heard things no one else did. I knew what the punishments were. I knew what the rewards were. I knew how to deal with everything.
Normally, Aida wouldn’t have stopped talking on the way to college, but since this was her first day back since—I gritted my teeth and gripped the steering wheel harder. I didn’t want to think about that day. I didn’t want to look at Aida and only see the scars she was left with thanks to Paolo. But it was hard. I blamed myself even if they didn’t. I was meant to protect her, just like I was meant to protect my siblings. But I felt like I was failing. We were still stuck in that shitty apartment, and even though they both went to school during the day, they still had to be around her when they got home.
My breaths came faster the closer to college we got, and I tried to slow them. I didn’t want Aida asking anything that I didn’t want to answer. She had enough to deal with. She didn’t need my shit added on to that. Not that I would have told her anyway. I kept things close to my chest, not letting anyone in. I’d learned a long time ago that you couldn’t truly trust anyone but yourself.
I closed my eyes as I pulled up to a red light, trying to gain my control back. It wasn’t often that I let it slip, but it was becoming more and more lately. Maybe my brain was trying to tell me something? If it was, then I refused to listen. All I needed to do was make it through each day and it would all be fine.
The light turned green and I hooked a left, pulling up to the edge of campus. I left the engine running as Lorenzo and Aida said their goodbyes. Lorenzo didn’t get out of the back of the SUV. He never did. I wasn’t sure whether it was because he didn’t want to draw any extra attention to them, or if it was because it was a safety risk. Maybe it was a combination of both.
“See you later, Mateo,” Aida said softly. I met her gaze in the rearview mirror, clearly able to see her apprehension. I’d overheard her and Lorenzo arguing about her going back to college. She’d told him in no uncertain terms that she was going to get her degree whether he liked it or not.
“Later,” I murmured, smiling as she closed the door. I didn’t move from the spot I was in until she’d entered the building. The air suspended until she was out of sight.
“Let’s go,” Lorenzo barked, pulling out both his usual cell and the satellite phone Mr. Blue had gotten him. The apprehension rolled off of him in crashing waves. I wasn’t sure whether it was because this was the first time Aida had been out of the house on her own, or because we were heading to a meeting with The Enterprise.
It was only the second meeting since Lorenzo had escaped Paolo’s clutches, and I knew it would be full of tension. The Enterprise consisted of five heads of the families with Lorenzo at the top of them. And now the leader of The Enterprise had been targeted, which meant the lanes were open for anyone else to do the same. We may have upped our security, but that didn’t mean we weren’t vulnerable in other areas.