Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
He doesn’t correct me. He knows as well as I do that things we cannot control—and things I do not understand—are happening.
“Do you want to go out for lunch?” he asks.
I don’t hesitate. I’m dying to get out of this office. Maybe we’ll go somewhere we can speak more freely. I send Cole a text message, saying that I’m out to lunch with Mark. I can’t tell him what it’s about over text, or he’ll leave work early. I ask Bruce to please get two of his guys to watch Cole without him noticing.
Mark and I arrive at a Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, home of the best deep-dish pizza—in my opinion anyway. We sit at a small table in the back of the restaurant and order one large cheese pizza and a pop each.
“So is this the part that you tell me how me and you are connected?” I ask.
Mark laughs. “You never give up, huh?”
“Nah,” I say, smiling sadly and shaking my head.
“Blake, does it matter who I am? You know I’m taking care of you guys.”
“I also know you helped take us,” I retort, raising an eyebrow.
“Touché.”
“Mark, be serious. Why were you involved?” I ask.
He lets out a breath and closes his eyes for a second before he answers.
“I was young—too young. I guess you could say that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was at a point in my life where I was trying to do the right thing, but still wanted to be cool. My brother was always walking on the wrong side of the law, I wasn’t. The guys that took you—were involved in horrible things. Hell, my entire family was. They came to our house that night looking for him. Since he wasn’t there, they took me. At first I thought it was cool because I was going to live my brother’s life for a little while. Then, they held me at gunpoint and asked me where Camden lived. I thought it was a joke. Everyone knew where Camden lived. I took them there, thinking they would let me go. They didn’t. They got Nathan and threw him in the back of the truck with me. The leader of the two drove to your house,” he paused and took a sip of pop, his eyes watering. I wasn’t sure if it was from the sizzling pop or from the memory. “They—” he started in a hoarse voice before he cleared his throat. “Nathan cried the entire ride over. He was screaming for his parents. He kept looking at me like I should help him, but I didn’t know how I could. I didn’t want to get us both killed. When we got to your house, they wouldn’t let me out of the van. They were talking about it in the car. They said they were going to take your dad as ransom. I knew they wouldn’t kill anybody there. I didn’t think they could have possibly been that stupid.
“When I heard the gunshots coming from inside, I got out of the van and ran to the house. The main guy stopped me and told me that if I did anything stupid, he’d put a bullet in...in your head. I told him I wouldn’t, and he gave me two needles with a tranquilizer in them. Nathan had followed me out and was sticking by me when I looked in the kitchen. The other guy, whom I’d never seen before, was carrying your dad on his shoulder. I thought he was dead. When I looked at the floor and saw...I had to step back out. One of the guys grabbed Nathan and took him back to the truck while I went to the side of the house to compose myself. I put on a brave face for you—or I tried to. I had only seen you a couple of times before that. I went in and gave you the tranquilizer, hoping to numb you from your pain and rid you of that awful memory. I’m so sorry, Blake,” he said, tears streaming down his face.
My shoulders are shaking in quiet sobs as I listen to him. We’re getting looks from the people around us, but we don’t care.
“I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t know what they were doing. I did what I could for you and Nathan. The head guy took off in another car with your father and left us behind with the other guy. I tried to pay him off. I promised him things. I knew who he worked for, and I knew that he wasn’t happy about the predicament he was put in. He agreed to leave and never come back. I had you guys to deal with, and they wanted you dead, so I took Nathan to Maggie’s because I’d heard of her from my mother, and I took you to Shelley’s,” he says taking a deep breath and meeting my gaze, “because she was my mother.”