Rachel Dyken - Elect

At Trace’s sharp intake of breath, I paused. “Shit, I’m sorry, Trace. I was being sarcastic.”

Her hand flew across my face so hard I nearly fell. “Well, stop being sarcastic or I’m going to kill you myself!”

Mo had just returned, holding out my new phone, but she snatched it back from me.

“What the hell, Mo, I need that!”

Mo stuffed it in her purse. “Not until you’re done looking like you want to shoot the first thing that looks at you funny.”

Tex grinned sheepishly and batted his eyes.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking at you funny. Is it working? You wanna shoot me?”

“No.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.

“Cool. Mo, give him the damn phone.”

“Men!” she shouted and handed me the phone, then got into the running car. Mil stood on the stoop and waved good-bye.

I paused. “There aren’t any men here to protect you.”

She lifted her coffee cup in the air with one hand and pulled a pistol from her bathrobe with the other. “Do I look like I need protecting?”

“No,” I chuckled.

“That would be a hell no,” Tex called from the front seat. “Play nice, Mil.”

“Always do!” She walked back inside and shut the door.

“She scares me,” Tex announced once we were on the road.

I laughed. “Yeah, well imagine what she was like before reform school.”

“So?” I took a long swig of coffee and leaned against the tree. “Fifty-fifty it’s going to work?”

“I’d say…” Phoenix shrugged. “Thirty-seventy.”

“Chase will do it because he knows it’s not a normal call to make. We can bank on that.” I replayed the plan in my head over and over again until I wanted to puke. “I told him to go about business as normal. He’ll do it.”

“Good.” Phoenix nodded. “Because if he doesn’t your entire plan goes to hell.”

It would be fine. It had to be. “How was Tony?”

“Oh, you know.” Phoenix shrugged. “Pissed, but when you make an angry man an offer he can’t refuse—”

“He’s evil,” I interrupted. “Pure evil. No doubt about it.”

“As am I,” a voice interrupted us. “The danger does not come in the evil, but in the person. Evil is everywhere, but in the end it is always a choice.”

“And you choose it?” I asked Luca. “You choose to make life hell for everyone?”

“Absolutely not,” he scoffed. “I keep order in a world full of chaos. I am perceived as evil, but true evil? The type that people fear—it masquerades as something far more worse than darkness.”

He sighed and put on dark sunglasses. “It makes you believe it is light itself, and that is where you find your danger. Be ready tonight, gentlemen, or you will both be waving at me from the bottom of Lake Michigan.”

Phoenix swore. “Such a charmer.”

“I never thought—” I laughed. “I never thought that in the end it would be me and you. Old friends, sworn enemies.”

“Yeah, God has a great sense of humor.”

I watched Trace walk into class. She was holding Chase’s hand and they were laughing. The knife went deeper into my chest as I tried to look away but it was like I couldn’t. I was so damn happy she was healthy, alive, safe. Shit. I’d spend my life watching her from afar, as long as I knew she would still be smiling, as long as I knew she would be safe from the evil around her.

Phoenix slapped me on the back. “If it’s any consolation, she clearly loves you.”

“How would you know?” I snapped.

He removed his hand from my back. “The way she looks at you. It’s different than how she looks at Chase.”

“And how does she look at Chase?”

“Like he’s her savior,” Phoenix said softly.

“And me?”

“Like you’re her oxygen.”

I didn’t say anything.

The problem was that I didn’t just see how they reacted to one another. I could tell by her body language that slowly, piece by piece, she was willing to let go of me. I wasn’t sure what hurt worse: how fast she was able to do it, or knowing the person she was actually doing it for.

Last year I’d practically branded her as mine.

And now I wasn’t so sure. No matter what anyone told me, I knew what I saw. She was slipping like sand through my fingertips and I had no one to blame but myself. I wanted to punch Chase until he bled, but he wasn’t the real villain, not in this story. No, I only had to look in the mirror to see that guy.

I was forced to be the bad guy so that she could have a chance.

But damn, how I wanted, just for once in my godforsaken life, to be the hero, the knight in shining armor, the guy she deserved to have. The guy who’d rescue her at all costs, the guy who’d damn his family to hell in order to keep her.

But I couldn’t forget my family.

My blood.

My damn code of honor.

I envisioned myself standing with Trace in the end, but lately, her face had started to disappear, right along with my future.

Phoenix slapped me on the back. “She needs you man; just give it time. And do me a favor: When this is all over and we aren’t waving to Luca from the bottomless pit of Lake Michigan, give her a chance to process through stuff, okay?”

I snorted. “Never took you for one to spout out wisdom.”

“Yeah well, impending death has a way of doing that to a person.”

“You aren’t going to die.” I turned around to face him. “Neither of us will. Now, let’s go wait back at the house. If memory serves, you’re supposed to be helping Tony get the gang together.”

Phoenix laughed. “Mass killings are my specialty.”

“I still can’t believe he’d go along with it.”

“He wants to silence everyone and he’s a bastard. Of course he’d go along with it. He double-crossed the most powerful mafia boss in America, and then spat in the face of one of the Originals in Sicily. If that wasn’t bad enough, he tried to wipe out Trace and set up his own family. I’d say he deserves what’s coming to him.”

“Right.” I had a sinking feeling things weren’t what they seemed but I didn’t voice my opinion aloud. I didn’t want Phoenix to hesitate; hesitation could mean death, and after seeing Trace again I very much wanted to stay alive.

“And there he is,” I said under my breath as Luca waltzed into the classroom, clipboard in hand.

“Good morning, class.” He smiled in every direction but ours. “Today I’ll be handing out a study sheet for next week’s test. I trust all of you have been diligently studying. The test will be in lab format. You’ll need to go through a series of three labs for a chance to gain 150 points toward your midterm. Any questions, please do not hesitate to raise your hand.”

I itched to raise my hand and say something along the lines of, “Why the hell would you pretend to kill my best friend? What game are you playing?” Instead, I bit down hard on my lip and turned in toward the desk. Papers were passed back until they reached us. They were one short. Great. Now I really did have to raise my hand.

I raised my hand but Luca was looking down.

I waited, and then finally with a huff I pushed back my chair and approached his desk. “I need a paper.”

Luca looked up briefly from his desk and smiled. “It seems you do, Mr. Winter.” He slid a note over the paper and winked. “Memorization is the key, Mr. Winter. Wouldn’t you agree? After all, it is easier to know what to look for once you have obtained the answers up here.” He pointed to his head and then looked back down at his desk.

I followed his eyes to see something written on a paper.

Do not fail.

The message could have so many different meanings, but in that moment, I knew it was pertaining to me. I couldn’t fail.

I stuffed the note into my pocket and took the sheet of paper. “Thanks, Mr. Nicolosi, great talk.”

“Agreed,” he murmured without looking up.

I walked back to the desk and noticed Trace was already working hard on her sheet. I pulled out the note that Luca had placed on top of my worksheet and read it.

There will be five men there to shoot you. Go alone. A ghost will be there to watch your back, as ghosts tend to do. It will be next to impossible to get that much cash at once. Obtain the account number and bring the piece of paper with you with an empty briefcase. You will need to bring it to Nixon’s house. He will be waiting—casualties are expected. Whatever you do, do not trust anyone. No one but the ghost.

Quickly, I switched on the Bunsen burner and held the note over the flame. It erupted quickly. I pretended not to notice. Trace lifted her head. “Holy crap! You’re on fire!”

I shrugged and pulled the paper away then stamped it out with my hand and threw it into the trash can next to our work table. “Whoops.”

Her eyes narrowed.

I shrugged. “So, what problem are you on?”

“What was that?”

“A love note.”

“Liar. I don’t write love notes.”

I smirked. “Who says you’re the only one interested?”

“You’re being an ass.”

I cleared my throat and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I thought you were used to that by now.”

“One doesn’t get used to assiness, one just learns to cope with its many faces.”

“Are you calling my face an ass?” I tilted my head and leaned forward. “Because I kind of dig it.”

“What’s up with you?” Trace laughed. “We’re supposed to be working.”

“Screw work.” I pushed her paper onto the floor, earning a glare from the students at the table next to us. “Let’s leave early. The way I see it, Luca has to let us go. Plus, I need to make that really fun errand after school and we both know how fun that’s going to be.”

She seemed to think about it.

I grabbed her hand. “Just follow me, it’ll be fine.”

We grabbed our stuff and approached the desk hand in hand.

“Mr. Winter, Miss Rooks, what can I do for you?”

It hadn’t occurred to me until now that both Trace and I were hiding our identity, our bloodlines with our last names.

With a heavy sigh I answered. “It’s kind of loud in here. May we study in the library?”

Luca’s eyebrows knit together. I gave him a firm nod. I was hoping my mafia mojo was going to work. Hoping he’d see the underlying issue, not the work or the noise excuse. Shit, it was dead silent in there. But I needed to get away. I slowly tilted my head toward Trace and then mouthed please to Luca.

Wow, I must have been desperate. I never said please.

“Brilliant idea, Mr. Winter.” Luca waved us off. “Remember not to be tardy.”

“I’m always on time,” I responded, gripping Trace’s hand with mine as we exited the classroom and walked hand in hand all the way down the hall.

The day had officially caught up with me—the seriousness of the situation, the realization that what Trace and I had would never be permanent. Ridiculous that with all the chaos going on around me, the planned death of my best friend, all I could think about was making her mine. My emotions were in hyperdrive. Part of me wanted to put Trace into hiding just to keep her safe—but the selfish half of me craved having her near. Just one more kiss, just one more touch and I’d gladly walk off to the executioner.

When we reached outside I couldn’t take it anymore, I jerked her behind one of the buildings, dropped my bag, threw hers on the ground, and pushed her against the wall. I don’t know what touched her first—my body, my lips, my hands. I was all over the place, needing to taste her.

Because in the pit of my stomach I knew—it would probably be for the last time. I was desperate for her to see me, not him. I needed her to feel my lips, not his. I know she’d made a choice; she’d said as much last night, but my heart was aching with the possibility that we only had today—we had now, and that was it.

“Chase.” With a push, Trace put some distance between us. We were both breathing heavy. Her lips were swollen from my assault. “What’s going on?”

“We’re skipping class.”

“Why?”

“So I can kiss you.” I grazed her lower lip with my tongue and gave her a slow agonizing kiss, then pulled back. “Is that a problem?”

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “No, except it seems like you’re upset or something.”

“Not upset.” My hands shook as I placed them on her shoulders and exhaled. “Just a little… sentimental.”