working the floor and headed to Tony’s office. It was a cube in the middle of the warehouse, the top half of all four walls made of glass, so Alex could see Tony in there, at his desk, dressed casually in a button-down shirt. He was playing a word game on his phone.
So, then, apparently it wasn’t trouble calling Alex in on his day off.
He knocked on the glass door, and Tony waved him in.
“Alex, hey. Sit.”
Alex sat in a chair before Tony’s desk. “What’s up?”
“Got a change of assignment for you. Nick’s bringing Lia home. He’s letting her go back for a couple days to wrap things up, but then she’ll be home. Once she’s home, we’ll pack up her apartment, and we’re closing up the Providence apartment, too, for now.”
“Oh, okay.”
Lia would be heartbroken. She loved college. She loved that little ice-cream-flavored studio apartment. She’d told him as much directly, but he’d seen it for himself, too. She loved her independence, such as it was.
Tony squinted at him. “You got some kind of problem?”
Alex blinked and pushed his worries for Lia away. “No, nope. That’s cool. Whatever. I’m good.”
Tony’s squint narrowed, but only for a second before he got back to business. “You’re on her until she’s back home. Full team coverage, you on point, just like usual. Once she’s home, you clear out of the apartment and come home, too. I’ll get you back on the warehouse schedule for next Monday.”
Though Alex had, for the most part, liked guarding Lia, though he knew she’d be devastated to have to drop out, a huge balloon of relief inflated inside his ribcage. Going back to work at the warehouse meant going back to smaller, ad hoc jobs in the night, too. Sometimes those were violent—he’d hurt people and even killed in that work—but always, somebody else was in charge. He would no longer be the only thing standing between one of Don Pagano’s precious daughters and harm.
“Okay,” he said. “Sounds good. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it. But keep her on task—no parties, no football games, nothing like that. Get her shit tied up in the city and get her home.”
“Will do.”
~oOo~
Sunday evening, Alex went by the don’s house and picked Lia up. Usually, she put herself together nicely when she left the house; even casually, she did her hair and makeup and had a cute outfit on. On this evening, though, she came out of the house wearing yoga pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt under a down vest. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, and she wasn’t wearing makeup. She usually was more put together for a workout than this. This was a life-sucks outfit—the kind only food-delivery guys, and her bodyguards, were allowed to see.
He’d figured being called home from college would break her heart; he was right. She looked miserable.
All she brought out with her was her backpack, so there wasn’t anything for him to carry. But he at least opened the driver’s door of her bright blue Rogue for her. She gave him a smile, but her eyes were so sad he half thought his heart would break.
He followed Lia to Providence. She drove like she usually did—about five over the speed limit when she could, but pretty sedately overall. She wasn’t the kind of driver who had to get around everybody else on the road. For the most part, she picked a lane and stayed there.
It was pretty boring to follow her, actually. Alex liked to get some speed in, so he was the kind of driver who had to get around everybody else on the road. Especially when he was behind the wheel of his sweet baby—the Carousel Red 1969 Pontiac GTO his grandfather had left him. Behind the wheel of this dull black Equinox he used for work, he didn’t feel quite the need for speed. But it was still boring tooling along in the right-hand, slowpoke lane.
On the way in, he texted the street-watch team, and they were in place at the curb before her building as Alex followed Lia into the small lot for residents. They parked and, as usual, he got out first and checked the perimeter. Lia was supposed to stay in her car until he gave her an all-clear, but he heard her door open while he was at the far corner of the building.
She stood with her pack on one shoulder and her arms crossed over her chest, watching him come to her.