Page 65 of Angelic Vengeance

She stopped me. “Actually, can we go to your place instead?”

Something felt off. I frowned, trying to read her face. “Sure.”

“Great.” When she smiled, I forgot what I was thinking about. She hurried inside her apartment. “I’ll just grab a few things and we can go!”

CHAPTER 22

Present

THE NEXT TWO WEEKS FLEW by with secretive glances in public and crazy sex in private.

We’d been avoiding everybody else – despite the fact they probably knew what we were up to since the little phone call incident with Natalia. Or the coincidence of both Zach and I simultaneously disappearing off the face of the Earth.

We just wanted to stay in our perfect little bubble for a while longer before having our friends bombard us with questions. And although I’d never admit it, a dark part of me was enjoying having Zach all to myself.

Whenever I had shifts at Renato, he drove me there and made sure to pick me back up in one of his fancy cars. Sometimes he even came in and sat at a booth in the back or at the bar, watching me out of the corner of his eye and making sure I was safe – pretending like he hadn’t just finger fucked me in his blacked-out car until I was begging for him to stop, before letting me go to work.

We spent most of the time at his place. We had dinner from expensive restaurants on the fluffy carpet in his living room, made waffles at three in the morning aftermaking out all night, and shared our favorite movies in his screening room. We looked each other in the eyes and talked for hours.

Although Ruiz remained in the back of my mind, there’d been no progress in the situation. I was still taking care of it on the side, without anyone knowing.

Zach finally got his way about taking me on a proper date. We went out to dinner in Manhattan, an affluent rooftop restaurant with a reservation list longer than the Constitution. People usually booked months in advance. Zach, on the other hand, walked in with me holding onto his arm, shook hands with the owner, and got us the best table – slightly secluded with a view.

The summer wind softly brushed my skin under the night sky, the golden lights of New York City glistening all around us.

Zach told me more about running the Cartel, making me realize it was nothing like the movies; pretty boring and eventless in reality. I was expecting something close to Pablo Escobar or the Cocaine Cowboys. Instead, he moved weight right through the Pharmaceutical business – the legal side of his endeavors which also served as cover for transporting narcotics throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world. Politicians were in on it, as well as feds and other renowned businessmen – they were, after all, some of his biggest clients.

I told him about growing up in foster care and having to fight for everything. His eyes swarmed with violence before asking who he had to pay a visit to. I told him I always got away before anyone could ever hurt me. He brushed the hair out of my face, saying, “My girl’s always been smart.”

I wanted to tell him everything.

I almost did.

But the words about what happened in regards to my abduction, Cuba or Ruiz, couldn’t make their way past my lips.

It all seemed so heavy and depressing. I knew I would have to tell Zach eventually, but tonight just didn’t feel like the time.

Instead, I went around the truth and explained how after winning a really bloody street fight –close enough– I got arrested and an important person offered me accessibility to a program where I’d have the chance to prove my skills. I practically forced the words ‘US Government’ and ‘off-record CIA department’ past my lips.

Zach visibly tensed when I mentioned the feds but tried to play it off as if it didn’t bother him that I was basically a retired government agent. There were many important people on his side, but for each one, there were a thousand more who wanted to take him down.

“I quit years ago,” I clarified.

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by my lack of concern. “They just let agents quit like that?”

“No. I… went rogue and disappeared–”

“How do you know they haven’t been tracking you?” He frowned in concern, but there was something else in his eyes that made me take a deeper inhale.

“They’re not.”They’re all dead. Except Ruiz,which I’m handling.

Zach’s frown deepened, about to add something, when the waiter came over with our next course. By the time we were left alone again, we moved on to making fun of the ant-sized food portions. Hours later, at one in the morning, we were in line at a Mexican food truck in Brooklyn waiting for fresh, authentic New York tacos.

Telling Zach about my past hadn’t been the smoothest conversation we’d ever shared, but we got through it.

Later that night, we were in bed; my face in his chest with his arms around me.

“Maria…”