Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (12 page)

Joel didn’t look
back as Tommas walked back down the aisle.

It didn’t matter.

His words were
still heard.

Loud and clear.

Tommas barely got
the passenger door to the Jaguar closed without falling over. He bent over at
the knees and pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, willing away the
vomit that had suddenly rose in his throat.

“Boss?” Nate asked
cautiously.

“Drive,” Tommas
croaked.

“What?”

“Drive!”

 The car lurched
forward, and Tommas threw out a hand to catch himself from falling over in the
seat. It had taken all the willpower he had to keep from vomiting inside the
church when his migraine only seemed to get worse. Then, as he was walking out,
the dizziness and nausea had returned with a vengeance.

“Jesus,” Tommas
mumbled, pushing against his temples to take some of the edge off.

“You okay?”

No
.

Tommas tried to
check where their current position was, but the sight of the buildings flying
by them was enough to send bile spilling into his mouth.

“Pull over,”
Tommas said hoarsely.

Nate jerked the
car hard to the right. Tommas pushed the door open just in time to spill the
contents of his stomach, what little there was, on the ground. Shaking and
confused, Tommas breathed deeply in an attempt to clear his head and calm down.

“Yeah, Ghost?
Hey.”

Tommas fell back
into the passenger seat and eyed the enforcer talking on a cell phone.

“What are you
doing?” Tommas asked.

Nate ignored him.
“We’ve got a fucking problem. Tommas is messed up. They shouldn’t have let him
out.”

“Get off the
phone, Nate.”

The enforcer
didn’t even look at him.

Tommas’ agitation
level climbed a notch.

“Yeah, he was
holding onto his head, he’s green as hell, and he just puked on the side of the
road. If he had that bad of a concussion, then he needs to go back—”

“Get off the
phone!”

“Shut up,” Nate
barked.

The sharp, high
level of Nate’s shout made Tommas’ head split with pain again. Wincing, Tommas
clenched his eyes shut and grabbed at his head again.

“Oh, yeah, he’s
going back. Meet me at the hospital?” Nate asked. “Good. Later, Ghost.”

“You’re about to
lose your spot as my enforcer,” Tommas hissed when the car began to move again.
“You don’t get to call my cousin like I’m a child in need of handling, Nate. If
I had thought that I needed to stay in the fucking hospital, then I would have
stayed there. I am fine.”

“You’re not fine.
You’re going to make your concussion worse. Shit, there might be something else
already going on. I’m taking you back.”

“You’re taking me
home!”

“You did what you
wanted to do, boss,” Nate said, sounding entirely unaffected by Tommas’ anger.
“You showed Joel that you were fine, you made your point. What else do you
want, Tommas? There isn’t anything else you can do or need to do right now.”

Yes, there was.

It was incredibly
important.

She
was
important.

“Ella,” Tommas
said quietly.

He still had to
talk to her—see her, maybe. Anything. Tommas couldn’t remember a lot from the
moment the bomb had gone off, but he could vividly bring back the image of
Abriella above him, touching his face and crying.

He’d told her to
go.

She hadn’t wanted
to.

“I need to … go
see her,” Tommas said.

“What? Listen, I’m
sorry for yelling at you and all. Dammit, boss, sit up and look at me!”

Abriella
.

Her name was the
last thing to pass through Tommas’ mind before the world went black.

CHAPTER SIX

C
hecking the
rearview mirror, Abriella hit the gas harder and flew past a half a dozen cars
on the freeway. It was not an easy thing to lose a car trailing behind your
vehicle when you drove something as massive as a Hummer. Abriella had gotten
rather good at it over the years.

It was almost like
a game.

Swerving in
between another set of cars and ignoring the horn that blared behind her, she
watched the black vehicle that belonged to one of her brother’s fools get in
the row, too. They were back a couple of cars, though.

Abriella didn’t
know if they would ever learn.

Seeing the exit
sign for next ramp coming up, Abriella swerved out from between the vehicles
and hit the gas again. Her Hummer zoomed past an eighteen-wheeler and a sports
car. The vehicle belonging to the enforcer who always trailed her wasn’t too
far behind. She wanted him going faster—too fast to take a turn at the last
minute when he couldn’t possibly know it was coming.

Pulling in between
another set of vehicles when there was a big enough opening, Abriella caught
sight of the enforcer following her lead. He was right behind her now and going
a good twenty over the speed limit. The black car was so close to her bumper
that she could practically see the scowl the man wore.

Poor guy.

Abriella almost
felt sorry for him.

Except … nope.

He picked the job
of watching her, after all.

When the exit ramp
came, Abriella took the turn with no warning. She didn’t put on her blinker to
signal she was leaving the freeway, or even slow down for the turn. The
enforcer behind her clearly hadn’t been expecting the move because he flew on
past with no available time to turn with her.

Laughing, Abriella
watched the brake lights on the black car light up. She simply hit her gas and
sped down the exit ramp leading back into the city. There was no way the guy
could turn on the freeway without causing some kind of accident. He had another
few miles to go before another exit ramp would come up.

This wasn’t the
first time that Abriella had pulled this kind of stunt. She knew without worry
that the enforcer would probably drive around looking for her, and wouldn’t
call Joel unless it was absolutely necessary. That might cost the guy his life.

Mistakes in their
world were corrected with bullets, not apologies.

Easy
.

Like child’s play.

Once she was off
the exit ramp and a safe place to pull over came up, Abriella took it. Putting
the Hummer in park, she leaned down and pulled the latch for the hood.

If there was one
good thing that came out of the friendship between her brother and Tommas for
all those years, it was the knowledge Tommas had gained and passed onto
Abriella. Like the fact there was a GPS tracker hooked to her Hummer that her
brother had put in after she got the vehicle for her eighteenth birthday. The
enforcer had an app he could log into with his phone to check Abriella’s
whereabouts, but once she disconnected the right wire, her vehicle position
would be lost except for the last known destination.

Climbing up on the
bumper of the Hummer, Abriella balanced on her scuffed chucks and tried to keep
the dirt off her skinny jeans. She stuck her hand down along the side of the
battery, knowing the computer for the Hummer was in the same spot, and was
careful not to touch anything that might be too hot. Once she found the wire, she
pulled it higher to make sure it was the right one, and then yanked it from its
home.

She stuffed the
wire back down into place before jumping off the bumper. Wiping her hand off on
her tweed coat, Abriella grabbed the hood and slammed it shut. That was another
thing off her list for the day.

There was only one
thing left, now.

Tommas.

“Where are you?”
her sister asked.

“Uh, out,”
Abriella said.

“You were supposed
to meet me for dinner.”

“I know. I’m
sorry. Tomorrow?”

“Aren’t you at
school? I thought you weren’t taking March break because you had a bunch of
stuff to catch up on. I could just come over there and we could grab something.” 

Abriella searched
her brain for an excuse as she parked her Hummer. She didn’t think it was fair
to drag her sister into her affairs. Alessa didn’t need to be hiding secrets
for anyone, and certainly not Abriella. The girl had enough to worry about with
her pregnancy and new husband.

“Ella?” Alessa
pressed.

Abriella decided
to tell part of the truth. “I’m not at school.”

“But it’s Monday.”

“Thanks. I’m aware
of what day it is.”

“Hey, don’t be a
bitch. I was just saying.”

“Alessa, I’m not
at school. I can’t meet up with you today. Tomorrow?”

Her sister sighed.
“Did you skip out on your enforcer again?”

“Maybe.”

“Are you in Wicker
Park?”

Abriella smiled.

Wicker Park was
where the apartment that Tommas kept for her was located. It was a smart way of
her sister to ask, but no, she was wrong again.

“I’m not in
Wicker.”

“Oh,” Alessa said
sadly.

“Don’t worry about
me, Lissa. I just need a break. Joel has been crazy these last couple of days.
I want some time away from his stupid ass.”

Alessa was
terribly lucky that she didn’t have to live at the Trentini mansion anymore.
Joel made even the simplest of tasks like watching television unbearable. He
had men coming and going from the mansion doing his bidding and reporting on
people’s whereabouts and actions. He raged at the dumbest things, and he made
demands constantly. 

Joel was planning
something. Abriella didn’t know what exactly, but it was something.

“He’s been worse
since the Tommas thing?”

“If you want to
call it that,” Abriella replied. “I think he’s pissed because his plan didn’t
work, but that doesn’t matter. I need to skip out on life for a day. If, by
chance, Joel calls because the fool following me calls him—”

“I’ll say you’re
with me.”

Abriella grinned,
loving her sister a little bit more. “Thanks.”

“Be careful.”

“I always am.”

Alessa laughed.
“Right. And say hello to Tommas for me.”

Before Abriella
could even deny that she was going to see Tommas, Alessa hung up the call. She
shouldn’t have been surprised that her sister knew the truth. Abriella had
never hid things from Alessa.

Growing up in the
lifestyle they did, sometimes all the sisters had were one another. They
survived in a world that looked glamourous and mysterious from the outside, but
was smothering and caustic on the inside. For a profession that claimed to tote
honorable men within its rankings and families, what it really held were liars
and cheats.

Tired of her own
thoughts, Abriella tossed her phone on the passenger seat of the Hummer. Grabbing
her bag, Abriella got out of the Hummer and made sure it was locked up tight.
Chances were slim that the enforcer would actually find the vehicle, but if he
happened upon it by a stroke of luck, then it was parked in a paid lot that
could be used by anyone. It was also a few miles away from the small suburb
where Tommas’ home was located.

After calling
Damian Rossi repeatedly, Abriella finally got an answer back from the man. She
had hoped that Tommas would be at the apartment he kept for her, but he was at
home instead.

It was riskier
than normal.

Well,
their
normal.

Nothing about her
and Tommas was safe.

Tommas’ home
wasn’t unknown like their apartment was. Anyone could see her Hummer in the
driveway and recognize it. Tommas regularly had visitors to his house. Men from
his crew, family, or friends.

Abriella didn’t
care. She had to see him. A quick phone call from his cousin to reassure her
that he was out of the hospital and fine was not enough for her.

Tommas should have
known that.

It pissed her off and
worried her at the same time. Abriella never did very well when she was angry
and anxious. It was a terrible combination for a woman who liked to know
everything and be in control.

Stepping onto the
sidewalk, Abriella threw her hand high and whistled as a line of yellow cabs
drove past. The very last one stopped for her and she jumped into the back
seat.

“Where to, Miss?”
the guy asked.

Abriella rattled
off Tommas’ home address. “And take me around the back.”

“Not the front?”

She couldn’t
remember a time when she entered Tommas’ home through the front door. The back
door was safer with the ten foot high privacy fence surrounding the rear of the
property. Abriella had keys to enter the back as well as the house and through
the front.

Sometimes, the reality
of needing to sneak around like they did made her feel like a dirty little
secret.

Or a man’s whore.

She refused to
think on it for long. It only hurt her.

Why?

Because even being
Tommas’ whore was out of reach for Abriella. A man’s mistress could be taken
out, shown off, and cared for. She could still have some semblance of a
relationship with her man. Abriella didn’t even get the pleasure of having
those things.  

Tommas had told
her a long time ago that she could be whatever she wanted with him or for him.
He would never judge her, or for that matter, take their private business out
for everyone else to see and pick apart. He had mostly kept that promise—he
gave her what she asked for, when he could, he let her lose control when
everything in her life had to be kept just so. He let her be his lover in a way
that most men wouldn’t understand. She liked it that way. She loved that Tommas
gave her the kind of freedom to be his private slut, that he never treated her
like she was precious china, or a princess that couldn’t get dirty.

He let her be.

Abriella needed
it.

She just wished
she could also be his equal in public.

“No, take me to
the back of the house,” Abriella said. 

“The back it is,
Miss.”