“What happened last night?” he said. His lips hardly moved as he looked down at his phone. From far away, it would look like we weren’t talking at all, but the simple fact that I was on the same bench as him at six thirty in the morning would have been enough for almost anyone to draw the right conclusion.
After the clusterfuck of last night, I’d requested a meet before I took off for Connecticut. Before Malone and the team, who weren’t even supposed to be on Spanish soil, headed back to America as well.
“Nothing we can use. But Ken’Ichi finally agreed to my proposal. Once we get the yacht club committee to approve the race, it’ll be a go.”
“You got it on tape?” he grunted out.
I snorted. Even if we’d been able to keep any of the listening devices live, getting a member of the Kyōdaina to say something directly was like getting the Italian mob to say something more than, “You know, that thing we’ll deliver to that place.”
“We’re so fucking close,” I told him.
“Close to being exposed or close to being in the bag?”
I dragged a hand over my face. The trendy scruff I’d been boasting was verging on unattractive. I needed a shave, some sleep, and maybe a new life. Last night I hadn’t been able to sleep. The glimpse of blood, the way Ken’Ichi had talked to Jada, and the fact that the listening device had disappeared had all haunted me.
“I’ve got management breathing down my neck on a daily basis, Langley,” Malone all but growled. “The expenses are racking up, and we’ve got nothing to show for it.”
My stomach tightened. The last thing I wanted to do was come up empty-handed. Not when he’d taken a fucking risk on me. Four and a half years ago, he’d reached out to me as a potential source, and I’d twisted his arm into making it more. Bringing me in. I didn’t want to let him down, just like I didn’t want to see Jada get hurt or Dax to find out about the deal I’d made that could risk everything we’d built. But these days, the three lives I led were getting closer and closer to merging into one.
Malone left his empty water bottle on the bench, got up, and jogged away.
I sat there for a few minutes after he left, picked up the water bottle, and tossed it in the trash, pocketing the tiny slip of paper stuck to the label.
I meandered through the town and back to the sedan. Only then did I glance down at the paper.
I’ll see you in New London.
And it had an address next to Jada’s place on the cliffs.
Fuck. Moving the operation into New London meant my days were numbered.
I drove to the yacht club, got on the boat Dax and I had won the race back and forth to Morocco in, and put it out to sea. It was an effort to clear my head of a week of partying and tension. It was also an excuse as to where I’d been if anyone asked when I got back to the villa. Jada and I were departing on a private jet to Connecticut in a few hours, and it might have been strange that I’d taken to the sea, but anyone who knew me, knew it was an almost daily occurrence of mine.
I opened the throttle, letting the wind hit me so hard it made my eyes water, wishing I could keep the boat turned out to sea and not return to shore. To just escape the strings binding me.
But it was impossible. I’d tied the strings myself. A fucking noose around my neck.
I was a moron.
No good to the core, my dad’s voice echoed through my head.
When would I learn?
Violet
IT’S TIME TO GO
“Sometimes giving up is the strong thing.
Sometimes to run is the brave thing.”
Performed by Taylor Swift
Written by Swift / Dessner
Excitement bubbled through me as I looked through the microscope one more time. Almost no bacteria growth. As my head filled with the math for the colony-forming units, my body wanted to leap and sing and throw a football down on the ground like I’d just made the game-winning touchdown. A victory dance I used to do with Jersey all the time, but one I’d thought I’d become too grown-up for. Which only made my smile grow wider. I suddenly didn’t care. My feet flew through the steps before