“Is this the part where I go Rocky Balboa on your ass and knock your lights out? God, I hope so.”
The rumble of Vincent’s chuckle filled the taxi. “You’re welcome to try short stuff, but consider yourself warned… I bite.”
“Ugh,” I scoffed, “Can you just take me to where I’ve been staying for the past few days? I'm tired both physically and mentally and don’t have the energy to put up with you.”
Vincent changed gears and the taxi lurched forward as he made use of every one of the six cylinders of the taxi’s engine. “What’s got you so tired? Was your partner in crime a rough ride?”
It annoyed me to no end how suggestive his every comment seemed to be. He was, without a doubt, the master of vague insinuating comments. There was a time when I would have no qualms about banter, but that was before Alex and I had done anything. Now it was an irritating barb that served as a reminder of what never should have happened. Be that as it may, I couldn’t very well let Vincent know that he was actually getting under my skin. Years of dealing with men had taught me that it gave them the upper hand. It was important to roll with the punches and two could easily play that game. A devious smile played at my lips as I recalled the afternoon’s events. I knew exactly what to say in reply.
“Funny that you should say that, because he was on me all afternoon. I’ve always prided myself on my endurance, you know with all the cardio in my Zumba routines, but Alex has managed to singlehandedly redefine it. We hardly took any breaks and by the time he got me home, I thought I was going to die.” I gave a very feline stretch in the back seat and watched as he met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “I slept like the dead afterward.”
“Sounds like quite the workout.”
I barely resisted the urge to chuckle. He clearly thought my story was a euphemism for earth shattering sex, when I was actually describing the extremely tiring walk from the diner. The memory of how my lungs were screaming for air as I walked the final step over the threshold was enough to keep my face straight when I drily replied, “You have no idea.”
We stopped at a red light and he raised an eyebrow at me. “Looks like I lost twenty bucks.”
I sat up straighter. “You bet on whether or not I would have sex with my best friend?”
He shrugged and tilted his head in acknowledgement. “I was bored.”
“You’re disgusting is what you are..”
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He hit the gas with more force than necessary, which was saying something since I was renowned for having a lead foot. We fell into a stony silence and I concentrated on my reflection in the window. Silence, even considering my present company, had never appealed to me so I asked the question that had been fighting to be free from the moment I realized Vincent was my cabbie.
“So how long have you been a cabbie?”
Vincent was quiet for so long, I almost didn’t think he planned to answer. “Approximately 35 minutes, give or take ten minutes.”
“So they just hired you or what?”
“You’re awfully dense, kid. It’s a miracle you’ve survived this long.”
“So I’ve been told,” I grumbled, recalling Natasha’s exasperated exclamation.
“This is a stolen vehicle.”
“Why would you steal a taxi of all things?”
“Because I like the color.”
“Hardy har har. That was so funny, I almost forgot to laugh. I’m serious and don’t tell me it was just so you could give me a ride.”
“Are you not enjoying our quality time together?” He simpered.
That’s about the time reason hit me over the side of the head like a ton of bricks. “How would you even know that I needed a ride? Up until ‘approximately 35 minutes, give or take ten minutes’ ago, I didn’t even know I would need one!”
“Glory hallelujah! She finally asks the right question!”
I childishly stuck my tongue out at him. Nothing appealed more to me than to knock him upside the head, but I couldn’t for several reasons. The most important of which was the fact that he was driving.
“Well?” I spat out.
The vehicle came to a stop and as I quickly took stock of my surroundings, I realized we were already at Ben’s house. Considering the distance between my old place and Ben’s, Vincent had to have been flying.
“I came to deliver a warning.” He replied in a low rumble.
It didn’t escape me that he was redirecting the conversation, nor did the meaning of the words themselves. A warning was never good.
“Well where is it?” I snapped, hoping that the fear bubbling up in the pit of my stomach stayed out of my voice. “Because so far all you’ve done is make sardonically vague sexual innuendos in regards to my relationship with Alex.”
“I’m so proud of you, not one lie or curse word left those luscious lips of yours even though you were angry.”
“There’s no ‘were’ about it asshole,” I taunted with extra emphasis on my non-endearing term, “I am angry. What is this Jeopardy? Am I supposed to guess? Because if so, I’ll take ‘Stop Dicking Around and Give Me The Frickin Warning’ for 500.”
The headlights of the taxi clicked off and Vincent turned around in his seat. His face was dead serious and the general vibe he was sending did not bode well. The rap sheet that I’d heard about from a few of my more credible sources suddenly came crashing back to the forefront of my mind. Somehow, despite the danger that he emanated, his indulgent and sometimes suggestive comments, made it easy to forget that he was found guilty of murder. He was in a criminal class completely different than the one I was used to dealing with. My circle of friends didn’t kill you when things went wrong; they beat the shit out of you to ensure future cooperation.
The last thing I expected for him to do was sigh. “Look kid, I actually like you. You’re alright. You might have too much of a tongue on you, but I can see how you get under so many people’s skin. Good or bad. But word on the street is that something big is going down… something involving people that you know. From the contacts we have in common and our short acquaintance, I can tell that if something goes down, you’ll be right in the fray. My warning to you is this: the decisions you make and even the ones you help make will determine if people live or die and you can count yourself as one of the people who might not make it.”
My blood ran cold as I listened to the words and the expression on his face as he delivered them, left no doubt in my mind of their legitimacy.
“Why bother with a warning? Why not just let me go on my merry way until the shit hits the fan?”
Silence filled the car once more and I watched as he contemplated whether or not to respond. “Because I’ll be the one that pulls the trigger.”
Suddenly the car seemed too small. I needed out; I needed a breath of fresh air. I was close to panicking when I tried to open the door only to realize that the child safety was on and that I had no way of getting out. Not even the windows responded when I frantically pressed the button with the window icon.
“I need out.” I told him as calmly as I could. A panic attack in front of someone who had just established himself as my potential executioner was not to be borne.
“One more thing and I’ll let you out.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath while I rationalized my panic away. If I were to take his every word as truth, which I was more than willing to do, he had no intention of killing me just yet. Try as I might, rationalizing my fear was doing squat to vanquish my growing anxiety. What would happen to Alaina if I died? What if they killed her too? Those options were unacceptable. She was my responsibility and nothing short of divine intervention would allow them to get past me and to her.
“What?” I replied with renewed resolve.
Vincent didn’t have the chance to reply before my door was wrenched open, revealing a very pissed off Ben. He reached in and quickly pulled me out, placing me behind him as he turned back toward the taxi.
“Ben…”
“Not right now,” he clipped out as the front door of the taxi opened.
Vincent got out and gave Ben a look I couldn’t describe no matter how hard I tried. Part of it was the fact that I didn’t know him well enough to discern his expressions, but the other was the fact that the emotions I could make out, didn’t compute.
“I thought I told you to stay the hell away from her.”
A flashback to his conversation yesterday morning gave me a sinking feeling. It was like I was slowly being enveloped in quicksand with no savior in sight. The world was, for a few seconds, a blur as my mind momentarily checked out for an unscheduled vacation.
A loud ‘thunk’ drew me out and I belatedly realized that it was Ben’s fist connecting with Vincent’s face. His head snapped back, but his body was like an immovable mountain, immune to any force other than nature. He slowly turned back to face Ben, a hand coming up to check his jaw. “I let you have that one, but don’t think that I’ll allow you to hit me again.”
Ben’s fist pulled back to hit Vincent again, but Vincent stopped him with an easy statement. “Hit me again and I won’t take my pound of flesh from you but from your pretty little friend here.”
Ben dropped his fist, but his words were full of anger. “If you even try, I’ll kill you.”
“That would make things a lot easier wouldn’t it?”
Vincent’s words seemed like less of a challenge and more of something else. There was obviously something going on between them that was more than just hate or animosity. If I had to choose a word, ‘familiarity’ would be the closest term I could come up with.
“Get the hell off of my property.”
“Not until after I finish speaking with Adrienne.”
“Over my dead body.”
“Adrienne?” Vincent prompted.
Ben turned around with an expression that clearly told me that he’d momentarily forgotten that I had free will.
“Stay away from him, Adrienne.”
I felt so torn. While I had no desire to speak to Vincent, I had a feeling that I would want to hear what he had to say. Warnings, however ominous, were also an opportunity. In their basest form, they granted you the opportunity to prepare.
My mind was made up and my feet quickly complied.
“Adrienne!” Ben exclaimed when I moved toward Vincent.
I half expected Vincent to have a smug look on his face, because men always did when they got their way. Instead he just looked resigned and maybe even a little sad.
The moment we were far enough away for him to talk to me without an extra pair of ears he said, “I want you to ask Ben about his parents. Don’t let him dodge the question. I know you have no reason to listen, but I’m telling you to do it anyway. The only other thing I wanted to tell you was that she’s safe from me.”
He didn’t even have to tell me that he was talking about Alaina. Somehow I just knew. That said, I still wanted to hear it.
“Who?”
“Well at least that wasn’t a stupid question. I know you know who I’m talking about. Your sister. Alaina.”
That he knew her name made me uncomfortable, but my gut unclenched anyway. I had no reason to believe him and for all I knew he could have been lying. Despite that, I found that I believed him. That wasn’t to say I trusted him, because that would be a cold day in hell, but on that particular subject, I believed him.
He didn’t wait for my response before he started walking away. With a huge case of déjà vu, I stood there stupidly and watched him drive away in a stolen taxi cab.