Page 41 of Run

I stayed silent during the brief but thorough pat down, and once it was done, I looked toward Vincent, but didn’t look at him.

I couldn’t. The pain, the embarrassment, was too much. All those hours together when I’d allowed myself to fantasize about a life with him, hope for one…all that time and he’d simply been doing his job.

For a moment, I let my eyes meet his but then looked away as quickly as I could. What had I expected? Vincent had always loved his work. That wouldn’t change.

He wouldn’t change. As much as I loved him, craved him, I wouldn’t change either. Would I?

I tried to move past the moment of doubt, but doing so wasn’t easy. Of its own volition, my mind went back to the bar, back to the way Vincent had so efficiently dispatched Gage and his men. How dispassionately he’d done so. When he’d emerged from the bar, I’d seen no joy in him, none of the mindless bloodthirstiness that I’d expected. That I’d feared.

And I couldn’t forget what had happened with Tony. What hadn’t happened.

The conclusion was almost inescapable. Vincent wouldn’t change, wouldn’t leave his life behind, but he wasn’t the man I’d so deeply feared he would become. And I didn’t know where that left me.

My heart was racing, and tears started to well behind my eyelids. I pushed them back, though, looked at Vincent squarely. I couldn’t deal with us right now, so I turned to the other business at hand.

“Take me to my sister.”

Vincent

I watchedher walk away and it took everything inside of me not to follow her.

But I stayed put.

I’d gotten Giovanna’s message loud and clear.

Those few days were all I would have with her, and I needed to accept it.

I didn’t want to; accepting things wasn’t in my nature. It was my nature to fight, and I felt that if we had a single moment without the bullshit between us I could make her understand, maybe convince her to give us a chance.

But the way she’d looked at me as Marcos had searched her had killed that hope.

Whatever I felt for Giovanna, whatever she might have felt for me at one time, there was no way to bridge the gap between us.

I needed to accept that and move on with my life—let her move on with hers.

I stayed outside the house, not wanting to see her, and knowing that her time with Daniela was something she needed and deserved.

“Trouble on your trip?”

I looked over at Sergei as he approached.

“Some,” I said.

He flashed a quick smile. “Vincent, I never took you as a man of understatement.”

I shrugged. “Not understatement. Giovanna has a bad habit of finding unsavory people.”

“So what happened?” Sergei asked.

“The number two used me as an excuse to make his move,” I said.

“Go on,” he replied.

“I found the shitty bar she was working in,” I said, frowning when I thought about the place. “The number two saw me talking to her and planted the idea that I was trying to use her to move in on the business. The owner didn’t take kindly to that, but I handled it.”

“And she saw all of this?” he asked.

Even if I hadn’t known Sergei, I would know the answer to that question was an important one. I also knew I had no choice but to tell the truth.