Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,70
the right conclusion – that she would make the right decision and trust me.
I wasn’t going to leave it alone until she did, and yeah – I knew what kind of monster that made me. Still, some motherfuckers were going to pay. I just wanted my queen at my side, on my knee, as we watched it go down. I didn’t want to drive her further away, I wanted to bring her closer.
She closed her eyes, and I held my breath. When she opened her mouth it was to say, “My cousin, my uncle’s son, works at an auto mechanic’s shop somewhere on this side of the mountains. I honestly don’t know where my uncle is, but my cousin? He might.”
I felt a nasty little smile curve my lips.
“Happen to know where the shop is?” I asked.
She shook her head but said, “Let me make a call. I could maybe find out.”
I nodded slowly.
“You do that.”
I didn’t like arguing with her. It didn’t feel good, but this? Working with her, having her on board? This felt much better. She and I stared at each other over the expanse of kitchen that separated us and, in some ways, it remained mere feet, in other ways it might as well have been a chasm.
She eventually closed the gap, coming around the island and folding herself into my arms, pressing herself tightly into my front.
“They’re still my family,” she whispered dully, and I knew what it was that tortured her then. I shook my head and kissed the top of hers, clutching her tightly.
“They may be blood, my little zaychik, but they’re not family.” I sighed and closed my eyes. “We’re your family now.”
Chapter Twenty
Marisol…
He dropped it for the time being but not before dropping a thermonuclear bomb in the middle of my heart first.
We’re your family now… echoed over and over inside my head. His voice, those words, so very strong in their effect, grew fainter as the day wore on. Still, they resonated; picking up strength every time I looked at him and he looked at me.
I cleaned, took care of the laundry, and generally moved around the house in a bit of a daze. I kept telling myself that this was nothing, that once again this was all talk and no action and that everything would be fine. I couldn’t convince myself of it, though. I knew, deep down, that the juggernaut was in motion and that fundamentally, things had shifted and changed. It was uncomfortable, but then again, change – true deep-seated change – always was.
It was closer to noon, after I had showered and gotten dressed to complete my chores and to tackle a new project in the house that was getting the spare room sorted, when I realized just how serious he was about everything.
I opened the bathroom door and he was there, dressed and holding the cellphone he’d bought me in one hand. He held it out to me mutely, his indigo eyes weighted with the gravity of the situation, with a devastating seriousness in them that usually chilled me to the bone but this time, somehow, it did the opposite. It warmed me, and an excitement fizzed through me.
Apparently, I was more on board with this idea of revenge than I even realized.
I took the phone and he gave me a single nod, once down, his chin coming back up slowly, his eyes never leaving mine, and he was just as abruptly gone as he’d appeared on the other side of the door.
I swallowed hard and leaned forward, peeking around the door frame at the dirty patches on the back of his vest, at the barbed wire wrapped sacred heart emblem on the back of it and I sighed.
I knew exactly how that felt. My own heart squeezing down painfully as I stared at the shiny black screen of the phone in my hand.
I swallowed hard and pressed the button, jumping when the thing lit up in my hand and closing my eyes for a second while I berated myself for being so dumb.
Except I wasn’t dumb. He’d told me just to point and that he would unleash hell and I believed him. I knew in my heart of hearts that Maverick was far more dangerous than any physical weapon I had ever had the occasion to hold in my hand, because as long as I held it, I had control over it. Over the aim, over how it was used…
If I pulled Maverick’s trigger,