“It helps to have ammo,” I told her.  “I need to go shopping.”

Ammo shopping was probably the male equivalent of a chick claiming she needed to wash her hair, but it got me out of the situation for the time being.  I had enough for the job as it stood, but I was going to stock up anyway.  I had the feeling additional ammunition was going to be necessary at some point, and the last thing I needed was to run out.  I also had to meet with Trent and couldn’t have Jenna delaying me too long.

Trent went above and beyond to be a total dickhead.

“Playing hide-and-seek with your bitch?” he said as he sat down across from me and smirked.

I leaned against the plush seat in the 676 Bar and tried to keep my cool.  Though it was near the window, I made sure I was carefully blocked from street view.

“Not sure what you mean,” I replied.  It was better to sit back and let Trent be an asshole than to let him get to me, though it was difficult a lot of the time.  He was a master at pushing my buttons.

“Well, you moved out of that posh place on Kingsbury to a crappy little shack up north,” Trent said with a smile.  “Now you’ve ditched that one for an apartment downtown.  Much more convenient.”

And the paranoia button was pressed most decisively.

“Keep the fuck away from her,” I growled under my breath.  “You keep pushing me like this, Trent, and I don’t give a fuck who you are and who you work for—I will fuck you up.”

He laughed.

“You can’t touch me,” he said, “or all the evidence goes straight to the courts.  You know I have that set up.”

I did, too.  It didn’t stop me from wanting to put a nice, round hole between his eyes.

“You go too far and I’ll no longer give a shit.”

Trent leaned in close.

“You can’t scare me, Arden,” he said.  “I have you by the short and curlies, so cut the shit and give me my information.”

Every muscle in my body tensed, and I wanted to spring at him and rip out his throat, but I forced myself to loosen up enough to give him what he wanted.

“The shipment will be here in five days,” I told him, “October nineteenth, right before midnight.  Greco will be there and so will Andrey but not Rurik.  I’m going along as protection for the shipment.  He’s nervous; there’s no doubt about that.  Jenna screwed up the last time, and Greco doesn’t want it happening again.  Just remember, if you’re busting people, I’m your fucking informant.  I don’t expect to be hauled away in cuffs, got it?”

“That won’t happen,” he said.  “You have my word.”

Like I could trust that.

“It better not,” I said.  “I have some insurance as well, you know.  If I go down with this, you aren’t going to live to regret it, capicse?”

“Since when are you Italian?”

“Do we have a fucking understanding?” I pressed, ignoring his comment.

“I already said it wasn’t going to happen,” he snapped back.  “Now who’s being pushy?”

I folded my arms over my chest and stared at him.

“Where’s the drop off?” he asked.

“Just north of Roosevelt by the south branch of the river, the power substation, and the railroad tracks.”

“I know the place,” he said with a nod.  “Where will you be?”

“There’s a building right there in the yard,” I said.  “I’ll be on top of it.”

“Well, that’s nice and close, isn’t it?  I take it you’re sniping again.”

I didn’t see any reason to respond to him, but I did watch him closely.  There was something about the way he was sitting and the slight contraction of the muscles around his eyes that told me he was hiding something.  Either he was trying to get me to let something slip, or he knew something I didn’t and was thinking about it intently, but I didn’t know which.

There was definitely something wrong.  I felt it during our last in-person meeting as well, but I still couldn’t quite figure out what it was—something about the location or about sniping, maybe.  I didn’t get the impression he was lying outright, but he was definitely keeping something from me—something vitally important.

“Why don’t you just spit it out?” I asked as I continued to stare at him intently.

His eyes tensed a bit more, and he reached for his drink—a distraction and delay tactic, most certainly.  He didn’t respond other than to smile his nasty little smile at me before he got up and left.

I found myself wondering why his eyes looked so familiar, but shook my head to remove the thought.  I’d never met him before—I was sure of that.

* * *

The day before Jenna’s shipment was to arrive, I moved Lia and Odin to a nice apartment close to the area where the whole thing was going to go down and gave her instructions to keep everything packed up and ready to roll.  I had my hopes up that all of this was going to go smoothly, and once Trent had Gavino in custody, I could just grab Lia and get the hell out of town.  Once I had her safely away and Trent had turned over the evidence he had on me, I would contact Rinaldo and explain everything.

Telling Lia exactly what was going on didn’t seem like a great idea to me, so I had told her nothing about the shipment of people destined to go into slavery.  Though I expected everything to work out, I didn’t want to get her hopes up.  Surprising her by packing up and leaving the city behind us seemed like the better plan.  I was getting excited about the prospect of leaving with her and Odin, though, and couldn’t completely hide that.

“You’re in a good mood.”

I kissed Lia’s cheek and grabbed her ass just for good measure.

“I like seeing you when I walk in the door,” I told her as I crouched down and rubbed Odin’s head.  “You look fucking hot in the kitchen.”

“Is that mostly because you know I’m making you dinner?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged and laughed.  I wasn’t about to explain how much being able to use my sniper rifle meant to me or how good it felt to have it close by—I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to understand.  Instead of explanations, I played fetch with Odin for a few minutes while Lia loaded up plates with steak, green beans, and baked potatoes.

After dinner, I shoved all the plates aside and pulled Lia to her feet.  With one hand, I bent her over the table as I unclasped my belt with the other.  Her jeans and panties quickly found their way to the floor right before I entered her.

I loved to fuck her from behind because it gave me the perfect view of her ass.  It was the most beautiful ass I’d ever seen, and I still hadn’t fucked it.  I slowed down my thrusts a little as I sucked on my little finger for a moment.

“Do you know how much I want your ass?” I asked her.

Lia’s panting breaths were the only answer I received as I started thrusting into her faster.

“Tell me to stop if you want me to,” I said as I slowly spread her cheeks and rubbed around her backdoor with my finger.

“Evan…”

“You want me to stop?” I really, really hoped she didn’t.

“What are you going to do?”  She bit down on her lip as she looked back at me, her eyes cautious.  I didn’t want to push her.

“Just my finger,” I replied.  “That’s all.  If you don’t like it, I’ll stop.”

More panting and a quick nod was her reply.

I slowed my penetrations again and gently eased my finger into her hole.  I heard her gasp, and I paused for a moment before going farther, knuckle by knuckle until my finger was all the way in.  My hips moved slowly back and forth, and I started matching the rhythm with my hand.

“You like it?” I asked.  I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it.

“Yes.”  Lia’s breath came out in a gasp as I increased the tempo.

“I want my cock in there, you know.”

“I know you do.”  She nodded quickly.

“Does that scare you?”

“A little.”

“I’d never hurt you,” I swore to her.

“I know.”

“Next time.”  I drilled into her with both my finger and my cock until she was rocking frantically on the table and screaming out my name over and over again.  With a grunt, I filled her and collapsed on top of her for a moment to catch my breath.

“That was intense,” Lia said.

“That’s the idea,” I replied.  “Think of how much more intense it would be with my cock in your ass.”

“I’m not so sure,” she said, still hesitant.

I helped her off the table and yanked my pants back up.  Lia gathered up her own clothes and dressed as Odin watched us intently, hoping for a trip outside.

“I think maybe if I was prepared beforehand, you know?” Lia suggested.

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“Not like that!”  She sighed at me and put her hands on her hips.  “I mean, give me a little warning so I can mentally prepare.”

I reached out and fingered the quarter around her neck.

“So if I said let’s do anal tomorrow night, would that count as warning?”

“Well…yeah, I guess so.”

I dropped the coin back against her skin.

“Hey, Lia, let’s do anal tomorrow night.”

She laughed and smacked my chest.

“I’m serious,” I said.

She looked up at me for a minute as she gnawed on her lip and contemplated.

“Okay,” she finally said.

I was ecstatic.

I should have known it wouldn’t last.

* * *

That night, my dreams took a different tone.

“Evan, what are you doing?”

“I was trying to find something to keep warm,” I say through chattering teeth.

“Why aren’t you using your blanket?”

I look at her, confused, but then realize it might be a test.

“It’s a sin,” I say.

“What is?”

“Covering.”

“Why do you say that?”

I narrow my eyes.

“Father Paul said so,” I tell her.  “Thou shalt not cover.”

Sister Margaret laughs softly, reaches out, and hugs me to her.

“Oh, Evan,” she sighs, “it’s covet, not cover.  Thou shalt not covet.  It means to want something that belongs to someone else.”

I furrow my brow as I consider this new information.

“Like Heather’s Game Boy?”

“Yes,” Sister Margaret says, “just like that.”

“So I already sinned?” I ask.  “I do want one.”

“Let’s pray about it, shall we?  Then you can get covered up and go to sleep.”

I woke with the memory still in my head.  I listened to Lia’s breathing for a few minutes before shoving myself out of bed and heading to the shower.  I brought my razor in with me and shaved in front of the little steam-proof mirror on the shower wall.

“Evan, your phone is ringing!”

“Which one?” I asked as I stuck my head out the shower door.

“The iPhone.”

“Can you bring it here?”  I turned off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat.  Lia came into the room with the phone in her hand, and I quickly glanced at the number.

Rinaldo.

There was no way any good would come out of a conversation with him, but I answered anyway.

“Yes, sir?”

“So you do still know how to use a phone,” he said.  He didn’t give me a chance to respond.  “Just tell me if it’s true or not, Arden.”

His voice was cold.

“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

“The fuck you don’t!” he yelled loud enough that I had to hold the phone away.  I looked up at Lia and motioned her out of the room.

“Take the price off her head,” I said when Rinaldo went quiet.  “I don’t have anything to say to you until you get rid of that contract.”

“It got your attention, didn’t it?  At least you answer the fucking phone.”

“I didn’t have my phone until recently,” I replied.  “Confiscated along with a lot of shit from my apartment.”

“You never used to be a man of excuses.”

“Things change.”

“Apparently.”  There was a long pause.  “Tell me why.  You knew I was going to get you out of there—so why?”

“Revoke the contract.”

“No.”

“Then I don’t have anything else to say.”

“Is it the money?  Jesus, Evan—I paid you more than anyone else in my outfit for a job.”

“I know, sir.”

“So, what is it?” Rinaldo demanded.

I wanted to tell him, but if he suddenly stopped being concerned about me, the information would get back to Gavino.  If he suspected me, I’d be screwed.

“Everything happens for a reason,” I said simply.  “Sometimes you don’t get to know what the reason is, though.”