by Roxie Rivera
“Yes.”
I swallowed anxiously before asking, “Like Sunrise Sunset Delivery?”
His gaze snapped to mine. “What?”
Playing with the zipper tab on my hoodie, I confessed, “The other night, when you used my office phone, I called the number. It went to a recording so I sort of…well…I went there.”
“When?”
“Earlier tonight.”
“Did you get out of the car?”
“No, I parked across the street. My mom called, and I got spooked and left.”
He sighed. “It’s not my business. A woman I helped a few years ago owns it. She handles deliveries of a sensitive nature.”
“Is she a good friend?” I asked, trying to stop the jealousy sliding into my voice.
“Yes, but not in that way,” he assured me. “I haven’t had a friend like that since a few months after you moved in next door.”
“Are you serious?” I turned in the seat to study him. “You haven’t had any girlfriends in all this time?”
“Not one,” he confirmed.
“Well, now I feel like shit.” I tried not to think about all the dates I had gone on while he had been patiently waiting next door.
“For what? Enjoying your life? Don’t be. I’m glad you were happy.”
“I wasn’t happy,” I countered. “I had some good dates, but they always felt…wrong. There were only a couple I brought home—”
“I know,” he interrupted, his voice darker and rough now.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Exactly how close have you been watching me?”
“I don’t have cameras in your house.”
“But?”
“But I keep track of when you leave and come home,” he admitted.
“Pervert,” I teased, reaching over to pinch his leg.
“I didn’t hear you complaining earlier.” He snatched my hand and dragged me closer, half hauling me out of my seat so he could kiss me. It was a quick, hot touch of our lips together before he pulled away and turned his attention back to the traffic. “I only did it to keep you safe. I worried someone might hurt you to get to me.”
“I know why you did it. If I’d found out a few months ago, I would have flipped out on you, but after tonight, I understand why you do the things you do. Even if they are kind of creepy,” I added.
“I’ll try to be less creepy in the future,” he said with a smile.
I thought about our months and months of missed chances. “You know, Kostya, what we’ve had together the last few nights has been better than anything I’ve ever experienced with any other man.”
“I don’t need my ego stroked,” he said, reaching over to squeeze my thigh, “but it’s nice to hear.”
I rolled my eyes. “What I’m trying to say is that—”
“I know what you’re trying to say,” he said seriously. His hand slid up my thigh to grasp mine. “I feel the same way. It’s different with you.”
Hand in hand, we drove the rest of the way without talking. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say. The closer we got to Texas City, the more I could smell the sulfurous tang of the petrochemicals saturating the air. Eventually, the rows of neatly arranged houses gave way to massive industrial complexes filled with tank batteries, factories and tall smokestacks spewing God only knew what into the night air.
Kostya made a series of turns before sliding up to a locked gate around the ugliest building I had ever seen. It was rotted out in some spots, the rust eating through the metal roof and sides. A faded sign had fallen off the front of the building, and now sported graffiti tags. Three feral cats ran across the cracked pavement, ducking and hiding as the headlights of the car spooked them.
“Is this place safe?” I asked, my hand tightening around his.
“Not really,” he admitted. “Don’t touch anything when we get inside. You’ll need a tetanus booster if you do.”
I couldn’t tell if he was teasing or serious. He leaned across me to open the glovebox and retrieved a pair of black leather gloves. After he tugged them on, he rolled down the window and punched the keypad to unlock the gate. He drove through, waiting for it to close and lock behind us before driving farther onto the property. He chose a spot behind the warehouse, shielded from the street and all the other rundown buildings around us.
“Let’s go.”
I followed him out of the car and into the building, trailing close behind him on the cracked sidewalk and stepping carefully. When we reached the heavy door, he unscrewed the cap on the end of the metal railing running along the sidewalk and withdrew a hidden key. He unlocked the door, pocketed the key and reached back for me, taking my hand in his leather clad one and tugging me into the dark building.
It smelled terrible inside. Dusty, dirty, dank—just awful. Unable to see in the blackness of the space, I clung to his hand and wondered how the hell he could navigate so easily. It seemed as if we had been walking forever when he slowed to a stop and unlocked another door. When we stepped across the threshold, he turned on a flickering fluorescent light. After a few seconds, it hummed to life, blazing brightly and illuminating the dingy old office.
“Sit here.” He pointed to the leather and wood chair behind the desk. “I don’t want you to leave this room.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, apprehensive about being left alone.
“To another area of the factory,” he said, trying to reassure me. He cupped the back of my head, his leather gloved fingers sliding over my hair as he pulled me close. “I need to take care of things.”
“Things?” I grimaced. “The body?”
He nodded. “Your DNA and mine are all over him. I need to make sure he’s clean before…”
“Before you dump him?” I guessed, thinking how close we were to Galveston Bay. “In the water?”
“Yes. The currents are usually favorable for this kind of disposal, but sometimes things don’t work the way they should. If he gets fished out of the water too quickly, I want to make sure there’s no trace of us left on him.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his answer, but I asked anyway. “Is this the best way to handle it? I mean,” I sighed, “I know it’s not like the movies, but what about, you know, a barrel of acid or fire or something like that? Like they do in TV shows and stuff?”
His expression turned from one of guilt at exposing me to this side of his life to one of shock. “Jesus Christ, Holly, what the fuck are you watching?” A second later, he added, “Yes, there are other ways, but this is the right one for this job. I need it to look like it has nothing to do with you or me. If he’s found, it needs to look like some bikers got him. There are bars and clubhouses up and down the coast. If he washes up, that’s where police will go first with their questions.”
“What if—”
Kostya swooped in and silenced me with a kiss. “No more questions, Holly. Stay here. I’ll come get you.”
He left without another word, shutting me away in the windowless box that had once been an office. With an annoyed huff, I sat down on the squeaky chair. It was surprisingly comfy and well-built. I spun around in a slow circle and observed the shelves packed with yellowed manuals and cracked brown binders. There was an ancient dot matrix printer on the other wall and a fax machine that had to be older than me.
Bored and sure I was going to be stuck here for a while, I reached for one of the manuals. I blew the dust from it and cracked the spine. It was a manual for some sort of chemical process to clean metal. Hands-down, it was the most tedious thing I’d ever read, but I kept reading. I fought the urge to get up and open the door and look for Kostya. He had been very clear, and even though I wanted to know what he was doing, I trusted that he knew what was best for me right now.
Turning the page on the manual, I tried to imagine my mother in a place like this. She must have spent so many hours listening to operators and supervisors mansplain the petrochemical business to her in rooms just like this one. It couldn’t have been
easy climbing as high as she had in a field dominated by men.
If she could see me now, she would have blown a gasket. All the lessons she had taught me about staying away from men like Kostya—and here I was, hiding in an abandoned factory while the man I loved did unspeakable things to keep me safe. The fear of disappointing her made my stomach churn. She’d done everything for me, worked so hard to make sure I had the life she hadn’t, and now I was risking it all for Kostya.
She’ll never know. No one will ever know what happened tonight. It had to be that way. I had to keep this ugly secret forever.
Ninety-four pages into the manual, I heard a noise outside the door. I sat up straighter, closing the manual, and listened. Was it an animal? One of those cats I’d seen earlier? A rat? A racoon?
Footsteps.
It didn’t sound like Kostya. He moved with stealth. These footsteps were loud and clumsy. I stood up carefully, holding my breath and praying the chair wouldn’t squeak. Looking around, I searched frantically for a weapon. My gaze landed on a broom in the corner. I picked it up, gripping it like a bat, and got ready to swing as the door started to open inward.
I didn’t hesitate. I swung as hard as I could, aiming for the dark hooded figure coming into the office. The intruder hissed and ducked, and I slammed the broom into the metal door, shattering the wood and crying out as the impact rattled my wrists.
“Holy shit, lady!” The intruder flung back her hoodie, revealing dark hair and electric blue cat-eye glasses. “I’m not your enemy, Holly!”
Still holding a large piece of the broom, I held it up, ready to swing at her again. “How do you know my name?”
“My company installed the security system at your salon, remember? Hen House Security? That’s me.” She touched her chest. “I’m Fox. Kostya is a friend of mine.”
She was right. I finally recognized her. Realizing I’d almost knocked her head off, I dropped the broom. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!”
“No, it’s okay. I would have taken that swing, too.” She looked me over and asked, “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
“And K? Is he okay?”
“I’m fine, Fox.” He appeared behind her, startling us both. Scowling at Fox, he asked, “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing here?” she retorted sarcastically. “Your perimeter cameras at the house went batshit. I caught someone sneaking into her house. I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer. I managed to find Sunny and sent her to the house. You were gone when she got there, but Holly’s car was still in the garage. She smelled bleach and figured you’d left to take care of a problem.”
“Where’s Sunny now?”
“She found a motorcycle a few blocks away. She ditched hers in Holly’s garage and drove the other one to a chop shop.”
“Devil?”
Fox nodded. “Sunny trusts him, and he hates those fucking bikers. He’ll make that bike disappear by morning.”
“And you came here because…?”
“Because I wasn’t sure if you needed help,” she said. “You weren’t at the house. You weren’t answering your phone. I checked all the security logs on your buildings, and this was the only place you’d visited.”
“I appreciate you checking on us, but we’re good.”
“You’re not,” she argued. “Nate came to see me right before you got attacked at Holly’s place.”
“And?”
“And he was really adamant that you contact Gabe. Like tonight. Like now,” she said, reaching into her hoodie and producing a cheap phone. “Nate gave me a number. It’s fully charged and ready to go.”
He took the phone from Fox and pocketed it. Looking at me, he said, “I need you to go with Fox now.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No way! I don’t want to be separated from you.”
“It’s safer this way.” He stepped toward me, and Fox quietly left the office. “Holly,” he cupped my face, “if Gabe is trying to reach me like this, it’s urgent. It’s the kind of urgent that means terrible things are coming. I need to handle it, and I need to know you’re safe. Fox has places all over the city where you can hide. Stay with her, and you’ll be safe. I’ll come for you as soon as I can.”
“Kostya, please,” I begged, my eyes stinging with tears. “Let me come with you.”
“Holly,” he breathed my name and pressed his forehead to mine. “I need to handle some things so I can be with you in the future. I need to make sure all of this shit is done.” He kissed me with so much love that I started to cry. “I want out, Holly. I want a real chance with you. I have to do this.”
Sniffling, I kissed him, clinging to his shoulders as if he might disappear into thin air. “You better come back for me.”
“I will, Holly.” He crushed me in his arms, holding me so tight I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care. I wanted to stay with him, just like this, forever. Letting go, he stepped back. “Stay with Fox. Call in sick to work. I’ll contact you as soon as I can.”
I nodded silently, wiping away the tears on my face. He turned his back on me and strode out of the office, stopping just long enough to give Fox instructions. And then he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
“HOUSE OR APARTMENT?” Fox asked as she barreled down the highway in her black Jeep.
“What?”
“Do you want to lay low in a house or apartment? I have access to both.”
“I’m fine with whatever,” I decided. “It’s my first time doing this safe house thing so I don’t have a preference, I guess.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a mind-fuck the first time,” she said, switching lanes. “Hopefully, you won’t have to do this again.”
“How many times have you had to run like this?”
“Twice.” She sped up to pass a truck and switched lanes again. “You hungry?”
Surprisingly, I was. I had been queasy after being attacked and watching Kostya manhandle a dead body wrapped in a shower curtain. My stomach throbbed with emptiness now. “I wouldn’t say no to breakfast.”
“Tacos okay?”
“Sure.”
“There’s a taco truck that I really like. It rolls around town, usually near construction sites. It has the best breakfast tacos. Barbacoa that melts like butter in your mouth on these super soft corn tortillas…” She smiled excitedly. “It’s a spiritual experience.”
Recognizing the same quirks in her that had endeared me to Savvy, I asked, “You eat a lot of early morning breakfast tacos?”
“I have problems sleeping.” Her playful smile faded, and her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m trying to get a better handle on self-medicating so I drive a lot. I get hungry. I eat. It’s a cycle.”
“Have you thought about therapy? One of my friends had an issue with insomnia. She saw a counselor and sleeps like a baby now.”
Fox snorted. “If I went to a therapist with my story, she’d either have me committed as a nutcase or call the police and have me picked up for murder.”
“Oh,” I said quietly, wondering just how safe I was with her.
“It was self-defense,” she added quickly. “My boyfriend.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “He wasn’t the guy I thought he was. He was a monster, and he did terrible shit. When I figured out what he’d been doing, I tried to leave, but he was bigger and stronger. Before I knew it, we were fighting to the death. Somehow, I won, and suddenly, I had a body at my feet.”
“Kostya?” I asked, thinking how similar her tale was to mine.
She nodded. “He came over and handled it.”
“Is that how you met?”
“No.” Fox shook her head. “When I was in high school, I got into some trouble. Hacking and money laundering and illegal gambling,” she explained with a wave of her hand. “I, uh, got on the wrong side of the Albanians that run most of that action here in the city. Kostya saw something in me, I guess. Something useful. He got me out
of that mess and helped me get right.”
“Are there others like you? Other people he’s helped in his own strange way?”
“Yeah. Me and some other girls you’ll probably meet soon,” she said, turning into a parking lot with a brightly painted taco truck and a busy line of construction workers. She parked and reached over to tug on my hood. “Put this up, and stay here. Keep your head down and don’t look around. There aren’t any traffic or security cams high def enough to get a good shot of you, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
I covered my hair and ducked my face, staring at my lap. She wasn’t gone long, giving me just enough time to start thinking about how I had lost complete control of my life. By the time she got back in the Jeep, handing me a paper bag filled with tacos, I had so many questions and wasn’t sure if she had the answers. “What happens now, Fox?”
“We’re going to a place I have on Capitol Street.” She buckled her seatbelt and backed out of our makeshift parking space. “Once we get there, I’ll set up a burner for you. It will ring out as your regular number so none of your friends or family will think anything of it. You’ll let everyone know you’re not feeling well. You’ll eat breakfast and go to sleep.”
“I don’t know if I can sleep,” I admitted, my head touching the window. “I’m so amped up.”
“It will pass,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’ll drop like a rock. You aren’t used to the adrenaline and cortisol spike. You’ll crash for a few hours.”
“Are you used to the spikes?”
She laughed. “Girl, I smoke so much fucking pot medicating my anxiety that my adrenal gland is saturated. I probably couldn’t even manage a spike if someone held a gun to my head. And anyway,” she continued, “I’m not really a hands-on kind of helper. That’s more Sunny and Lobo. Max and I are the brains behind most of Kostya’s more intricate jobs. I don’t get my hands dirty or get exposed to much of the scary shit anymore.”
“Who are Lobo and Max?”
“Two of the other spiders,” she explained. “That’s what he calls us. We’re his little spiders crawling all over the city for him. I handle most of the tech. Sunny does the skiptracing. Max is our resident scientist, and Lobo is, like, his apprentice.” She glanced at me and added, “That’s about all you’ll get out of me on that topic. Their stories are theirs to tell.”