Page 68 of One Filthy Kiss

I couldn’t forewarn Meggie that I wasn’t going to make the rendezvous point. Her reaction was expected, but this was the only way. When we switched cars at the Red Hook Grain Terminal, Demi and I traded places with two members of my security team. Amber was sound asleep, oblivious to what was going on, and now she is reunited with her sister as planned.

Ric will drive them up to Vermont, and I’m going to catch a fish.

15

MEGAN

“Gio?”I stare at the radio which has become a dead inanimate object in my hand. “Gio!”

My vision is blurry with tears when I face Ric.

“Where is he?” I shove the radio back into his hand with more force than I intended.

He looks at the device, brow furrowed, as if he’s never seen it before. “I don’t know, Meg.”

“Don’t lie to me!” My voice is shrill with anger, fear, panic. “Don’t you dare fucking lie to me, Ric. This wasn’t part of the plan, so where is he?”

The rear passenger door of the car that arrived without Gio, the car that left his apartment building with him in it, is open. Amber is asleep on the back seat with a jacket thrown over her to keep her warm.

Gio’s jacket.

I bet it still smells of him. I can picture him placing it gently over her, tucking it around her shoulders so that his scent would comfort her if she woke up during the journey, and I feel the buildup of heaving dry sobs inside my chest.

“I’m not lying to you.” Ric’s voice follows me to the car. “If this was part of the plan, I wasn’t in on it.”

I fix my stare on the bodyguard who accompanied Amber in the back of the car. Somewhere along the way, they traded places, and Gio and Demi left my sister in this car with a stranger. Anger coils up tightly inside me.

They left her with a stranger, but I can’t be angry with them because they’re doing it to protect us. It doesn’t stop me being afraid for him though. For him and Demi.

Especially when I have no idea what he’s planning to do.

“He’s gone to the airport, hasn’t he?”

The bodyguard has thick dark hair, olive skin, dark eyes that appear almost black now in the gloomy, derelict industrial estate with the sound of a gushing waterfall close by. He’s as tall as Gio, with the same broad shoulders, but he isn’t Gio.

“He didn’t want to tell you. He was worried that you might try to stop him.”

“So, you all kept it a secret.” I peer at each of them in turn.

No one speaks. Not even Ric.

I believe him when he says that he wasn’t kept in the loop. Gio must’ve known that I would want him to turn the car around, and the entire plan would’ve been blown apart if we hadn’t made the rendezvous as planned. But there’s a horrible sickly feeling swirling around inside my gut that has been there since Ric had to divert to Plan B.

After he gave Gio the code “Shark bite” over the radio, I felt the vibrations of the engine through the bottom of the car. He hit the gas. I didn’t need to be looking out of the window to know that we were breaking the speed limit, or that he was navigating the traffic like a professional Formula One racing driver.

It was part of the plan. Gio had accounted for Amber’s father following us, but it didn’t stop the adrenaline from pumping through my veins, because while he was hot on our tail, I knew that he wasn’t chasing Amber and Gio. I could handle him finding me. I could handle anything as long as they were safe. But what was I supposed to do now, knowing that Gio was risking his life for us?

“Take me back to New York.” I address Ric first.

He’s the one I’m closest to. He’s the only one who has gotten to know Amber. He also knows how I feel about Gio.

“I can’t do that, Meg.” He shakes his head.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both. I promised the boss that I would get you to Vermont, and that’s what I’m going to do.” He squares his shoulders and straightens his spine to his full, impressive height. He’s pulling his weight without giving me direct orders.

“Fine.” I turn to the dark-eyed guy who took Gio’s place in the car alongside my sister. “You can take me then.”