“Rachel, I can explain.”
“Of course you can,” she said, her tone venomous. “Lies spill easily from your lips, don’t they?”
“You have no idea,” he replied, regretfully.
The sirens grew louder.
“Mario, get her out of here.”
She grabbed his arm, but the move cost her as she wavered and nearly toppled.
“Tell me who you are,” she begged.
In that moment, Roman’s heart cracked. God knew, he wanted to tell her everything, but there was no time. And if he let her in on his secrets, what dangers would she face?
“Rachel, go, now. I’ll find you. I’ll tell you everything.”
“Tell me now.”
All around them, faces peered from the windows and doors nearby. A few people in the park across the street pointed and stared. He had to get Rachel out. He’d already involved her more than he had a right to.
“Rachel, you have to understand-”
She pulled herself up to her full height, this tiny auburn-haired sprite of a woman he’d come to care deeply for. “Never mind. I understand completely,” she said, her voice shaky but curt. Her eyes darkened with his betrayal, and as she looked at him one last time, Roman’s chest felt as if someone had just riveted a steel plate between his ribs.
Mario whisked Rachel away. Roman pressed his lips tightly together, for the first time wanting to shout his secrets to the world. He’d broken nearly every other regulation set down by his superiors. Why get all obedient now?
Because lives were at stake. Millions of lives. Not just his and Rachel’s. Not anymore.
The curious had spilled from nearby buildings. Witnesses. He’d have to call in big favors to keep this drive-by contained. Domino he didn’t worry about. She operated on a security level far above his own. But Mario and Rachel? They’d driven into this mess simply because Roman hadn’t been able to tell Rachel goodbye after his investigation of her had been complete.
He knew everything about her now. Every friend she’d ever had. Every country she’d ever visited. Every political view she’d ever possessed. Every erogenous zone that could cause her to cry out in unabashed pleasure if he applied just the right combination of moisture, pressure and suction. He knew everything the Agency had sent him to find out-and more.
The only thing he didn’t know was how to let her go.
IRIS EMERGED FROM RACHEL’S bedroom and quietly shut the door. She padded over and sat beside Mario on the couch, eyeing his Scotch and water, on the rocks, with trepidation.
“I know it’s early,” Mario said, lifting the drink with shaking hands and taking a welcome sip. “But these are unusual circumstances.”
“I have an ex-husband who thinks every moment he’s awake is an unusual circumstance.”
Mario put the drink down. He’d figured a woman Iris’s age, somewhere in her fifties, had been married before, but he knew little about her personal life except that she’d accepted his date for tonight-an event that might not go off after what happened less than an hour ago.
“I’m not an alcoholic, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I am asking.
Mario grinned. “Yeah, to you, I would.”
She matched his smile with a shy curve of lips. The expression melted away the worry that had creased her brow since he’d skidded to a stop just behind her stand with a shaken Rachel curled into a fetal ball in his backseat. Iris had quickly and unceremoniously shut down her coffee stand and helped him lead Rachel upstairs.
The poor kid had hardly said a word except for mumbled phrases that sounded a lot like “How could I be so stupid?” and “What kind of man is he?”
Mario and Iris had soothed Rachel with a combination of mild recriminations on Roman Brach and a Xanax from the stash Iris kept in her purse for her anxiety disorder-another new thing Mario had learned about the object of his affection. Soon, they’d washed the grit from Rachel’s hands, feet and face and had tucked her into her bed for a well-deserved nap. Maybe sleep would give her more perspective. More calm. She’d gone through a hell of a shock in the past hour-first, witnessing the man who’d sworn up and down that he wasn’t involved with anyone other than her sucking face with an exotic, black-haired beauty, then rushing to confront him in order to regain an ounce of her self-respect only to be shot at in a drive-by and, lastly, watching her lover, a self-proclaimed television consultant, brandish a handgun and return fire with confidence and ease.
“Want to tell me what happened?” Iris asked.
Mario recounted the situation point by point. With each revelation, Iris reacted with increased shock.
“
“I was okay. By the time I realized what was happening, it was over. I got a description of the car. Called it in to my dispatcher. I need to make sure he called the cops.”
Iris tilted her head, her eyes questioning.
“I’m retired NYPD,” he explained. “Thirty-five years.”
Her dark eyes widened. “I didn’t know.”
“You thought I drove a hack all my life?”
She shrugged shyly. “I guess we don’t talk as much as we think we do, in between customers, I mean.”
He nodded. “That’s why I wanted to do the dinner thing tonight. You know, find out about each other.”
Iris glanced regretfully at Rachel’s bedroom door. “I don’t think we should leave, you know?”
Yeah, Mario knew. He didn’t want to leave Rachel, either. Funny how the kid had grown on him. Like Iris, Mario had been married before, but he’d never had kids. His wife, God rest her soul, hadn’t been able to conceive. Yet, he’d always looked at the circumstance as a blessing. He’d walked beats in everywhere from Flatbush to Harlem. By the time he’d made detective, he’d seen more than his fair share of cruelty and crime and death. Bringing kids into the world had seemed a bad decision. After his wife died, he hadn’t been so sure.
But with his job driving cabs, he met lots of young adults who seemed to fill the void. He liked getting to know them, meddling in their lives a bit, using his personal experiences with life and love to push them in the right direction.
With Rachel, however, he’d screwed up, big time. He would have bet his best night’s tips that Roman Brach hadn’t been up to anything sinister, that her fears about his secretive nature had been nothing more than imagination and supposition-and maybe, he was getting a little on the side. Yeah, he’d pegged Brach for the quiet, untrustworthy type, but he’d never, even with all his old cop’s instincts primed, have imagined the guy had been wrapped up in the criminal world.
Despite Brach’s claims, Mario had no idea which side Brach was on, but he was going to stick around Rachel’s place long enough to find out.
“You gonna reopen the stand?”
Iris pressed her lips tightly together. “I didn’t lock up properly in the rush. I should go back downstairs and make sure I haven’t been robbed blind. But I’ll close for the rest of the day and help watch after our
Mario shifted in his seat. “We could take turns running the register, if you want to stay open.” That way, he could watch the street for any sign of Roman Brach, or the car and drivers that had tried to gun him down.
“You’d do that?” she asked.
He knew Iris struggled financially. Most working-class people in New York did. He had a fairly nice nest egg and pension, so he worked more as a way to keep out of trouble, stay active. If he didn’t drive the cab for a few days, no one but his dispatcher would give a damn.
“We’ll do what we have to,” he replied. “Rachel shouldn’t be alone. I have a strong feeling that the scene on the sidewalk won’t be the last between Rachel and Roman, and one of us should be here to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”
RACHEL BACKED AWAY from her bedroom door.
