Chapter 26

I sat on the grey couch, my hands held in front of me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop shaking. I could hear Rio in the other room, gasping in pain, and it killed me. It wasn't until I actually got him out of the warehouse that I realized the extent of his wounds. Bill Ford had stabbed him, burned him...pretty much every method of torture one could name. Rio was half alive when I held onto his side, his arm over my shoulders. When I finally got him in the car, I called Mick and the guys. 

"Andy? Is he alive?" Mick asked. 

"Barely. Mick, I will text you an address, and I want you to clean it up. No fucking trace, do you understand?" I growled into the phone. 

"Yes, ma'am, I understand." 

"Good. Text me when it is done. I will let you know about Rio when I know. I am headed to Eddie's because it's close. Call the doc and have him meet me there. Tell him we will pay him to double his rate." I demanded. I didn't have time to be nice. 

"Yes, boss," Mick said before I hung up. 

I killed a politician. I killed about three of his goons in the process. This wasn't good. 

When I got Rio to Eddie's apartment (it wasn't the closest), Eddie immediately let us in. Within ten minutes, the doc was at Eddie's, demanding that Rio be put in the bed. I ripped his shirt off at the request of the doc. Rio's eyes fluttered as he tried to look at me. "Hang on, baby. Please hang on." I pleaded. Rio nodded very slightly, and I could tell he was fighting. Despite my objections, Eddie pushed me out. He said I didn't need to see this. While my heart sank as Rio drifted in and out of consciousness, I knew I shouldn't be in there. I would panic and fuck the whole thing up and...Rio could die. So I did as I was told for once. 

I texted Ria and told her that everything was fine, not going into much detail. I didn't know how closely the feds watched us lately, but I knew they were nearby. The only thing I could do was replay the entire night in my head. Bill Ford told me before I killed him that he was hired by someone to kill Rio. He didn't give me any details. He wouldn't say only that his client was a female. What kind of female would want Rio dead? I thought about it being Beth. As much as I liked Beth, she didn't have connections like Bill Ford. Whoever this client was, the deal had to have been made months ago, even before Izzy was born. After I gave birth, the feds told me that they suspected Bill Ford had been messing with Rio for close to a year. 

As I raced through my thoughts, Eddie came out of the bedroom. He was covered in blood, and it made me realize that I was also covered in blood. I looked at him with desperation in my eyes. He sighed as he sat next to me and ran his hands over his face. "Doc told me he needed space," Eddie said, looking over at me. I held back tears at the lack of updates and put my head in my hands. "How you doin'?" Eddie asked. 

"Why is this happening? Who could have possibly hired Bill Ford to take out Rio? He was a damn politician. How fucked is that?" I said rhetorically. Eddie shrugged slightly, clearly just as confused as I was. "I killed him, Eddie. I killed a very important man. This is so fucking bad." I said, looking him in the eyes. Eddie sighed once again. 

"Clean up?" He asked. 

"Mick and the guys are on it. They picked up the cleaners on the way, too, so it should be solid. But still. As if there wasn't enough heat on us. But once he told me he was hired, I knew it had to be..." I stopped. "Wait. Bill Ford said on the phone that he wanted two mills for Rio. Why ask for money? Why even get me there in the first place? If he was really there to kill Rio because of a job, why bring me into it? It just made the whole thing messier than it needed to be." I said, my head pounding. 

"Unless it wasn't just Rio he had a hit on," Eddie said, making my heart jump. This wasn't just about Rio. This wasn't just an attack on him. It was an attack on both of us. 

"Jesus. Someone wanted both of us dead."