Page 6 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

“She must be special if you’re here. I hope next time I see you, I can meet her.”

I shake my head, giving her one last hug before I climb back in the car and drive off.

Rico

Asa and Ingrid are gracious enough to lend us their jet. Haze is dropped off in Kenton first. Turk is on the tarmac waiting for her. I don’t get out.

I tell myself it’s because I don’t wanna answer any questions, that I don’t want any reminders that I’m doing the right thing, that I should do whatever Haze asks of me, even if it’s to my detriment.

So instead, I text him, telling him to take care of her, before I turn off the phone I use in the States.

He knows I’m in a mood, so he stays on the tarmac when Haze brings up my duffel that he packed for me with all my essentials. I check it while she goes into the bedroom to check on Snow.

My satellite phone. Another cell. Two macbooks and a PC laptop. Passport, cash, and… a Scrappy Doo stuffed animal.

My lips twitch before I stuff everything back inside.

“Okay,” Haze sighs. I stand and pull her into a hug. She chokes down a sob before squeezing me tighter.

“Thank you,” she breathes.

“I’ll hit you when we settled in.”

She nods, and then she’s gone.

We’re cleared for takeoff before they’re out of the private airstrip.

When Snow first broke up with me, I chucked it up to her being upset. She’d come back.

But then, she didn’t. And a line was drawn, when Turk, Fredo and I couldn’t find her, and Haze’s worry turned into hate.

My Hazey isn’t built for hate. It was killing her, wishing death on her sister. So I held it for her. It was easy enough; the bitch left me high and dry, anyway, and I finally had an excuse to be outwardly hostile to her.

But, even that got old. Especially when it wasn’t reciprocated. I annoyed Snow. Maybe even grated her nerves. But it was obvious that even though she dumped me, she didn’t hate me.

Or so I thought.

Until she fucked Set.

And then my hostility and hate for the junkie in the back of the plane became a part of me. Permanently inside the blood that pumps in my veins.

And now she’s all mine for the foreseeable future.

I could kill her. I could skin her alive, while she begs for forgiveness. I could even keep her high off heroin, just to see how she nods off when she’s all alone.

I bet even her precious Shaddy doesn’t know she dabbles in that.

Killing herself. Not even slowly.

She doesn't know that only I have the authority to take her life.

She’ll find out soon.

I’m so giddy I can’t even sleep on the plane. Telling Nan about our guest will invite more questions than answers, so I send her an email to ready my special guest wing at our villa.

She’ll do as I ask, and I’d rather her interrogate me in person than in the air.

You can’t kill her, Rick.