The Distance

by Alexa Land

  “Well shit, if they hold bad language against you, I’m fucked,” Nana said.

  “Kai was so sexy, but he was more than that,” I went on. I had an important point to make, I just had to find it. “He made me feel loved. He was such a great dad, too. Oh God, him and Izzy together, it was just the sweetest thing. And he found my brother and sister and cousin Bet-Bet! Who does that? Who tries so hard to make things good? Mal’kai Kahale, that’s who.”

  “Jessie, baby, you should try to rest.” That voice was Kai’s.

  My eyes flew open and I flailed around as I exclaimed, “No, Kai! You can’t be dead, too! Izzy needs you! Get the fuck away from the light!”

  He chuckled gently and said, “Poor guy. He’s completely wasted.” I felt him rest his hand on my arm, and I closed my eyes because keeping them open was way too much work.

  “Don’t be dead, Kai,” I whispered as I felt myself sinking back under that cloudy water.

  “I’m not, baby. None of us are.”

  “Think they’d let me try some of what he’s on?” Nana asked. “Maybe not quite so much. But, you know, just a little hit?”

  “Heaven’s super fuckin’ weird,” I muttered before the light went away again.

  *****

  The next time I woke up, Nana was sitting at my bedside, trying to knit. Ollie had been teaching her. She wasn’t a sit-still kind of person though, and after a minute she tossed the yarn and needles into a trashcan and told them, “You just stay in there, you uncooperative fuckers. This is why they have stores, so we don’t have to make our own clothes like some damn sheep farming craft bitch.”

  I shifted position a bit and winced, and Nana exclaimed, “You’re awake! How do you feel, Sweet Pea?”

  “I hurt all over.”

  “Let me call the nurse for you. I guess your pain meds have worn off.” She picked up a white cylinder on a cord and pushed the button at the end of it. “Do you remember what happened?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, let me refresh your memory. You saved more than a hundred of our friends and family members. In the process, you broke your ankle, gave yourself a concussion and cut your head, probably when you hit the steering wheel. You were gushing blood from a head wound, it looked like something out of a horror movie! You did some other damage to yourself, too. You sliced up your hands and back real good when you climbed through that transom. Fortunately, your jeans protected your lower half from getting cut up, but you also bruised almost every inch of yourself. Now for the good news: all of that is fixable, and you’re going to be fine. So are all the people you saved. Aside from a few people getting treated for smoke inhalation, everyone’s A-OK, thanks to you. You’re a hero, Jessie.”

  “No I’m not. I was just the only one skinny enough to fit through the transom.”

  “Bullshit. You kept your head and thought of a solution. We all would be dead if you hadn’t used that big, heavy car to knock down a wall,” she said.

  “The fire department arrived, they would have pried the door open.”

  “Eventually. But it was bad inside that building. It had filled with smoke, and people were panicking. I’m surprised no one got trampled. Now just admit you’re a hero and stop arguing with an old lady!”

  I grinned at her and said, “I don’t see any old ladies here.”

  “That’s my boy.” She leaned in and kissed my cheek.

  “Are you okay? I saw you on a stretcher. I was so scared.”

  “I passed out. It was all just too much excitement, especially on the heels of about a gallon of margaritas at the strip club. Everyone freaked out and thought I had another heart attack. I had a minor one a couple years ago, key word minor. Dante made me go to the hospital to get checked out. He’s such a worrier.”

  A nurse stuck her head in the door, and Nana exclaimed, “About damn time! This boy’s in pain, so you need to get him some drugs, stat!”

  The nurse frowned a bit and said, “I’ll get the doctor,” before disappearing again.

  I asked, “Where’s Kai?”

  “He’s right there.” Nana gestured to my left, and with some difficulty I rolled over a bit and saw him curled up on a gurney against the wall, fast asleep. “He maintained a constant bedside vigil from the moment you first arrived at the hospital. It was the sweetest thing. Finally though, after two days I told him he had to get some sleep or he was going to go loopy. They wheeled in that bed for him because he refused to leave your side. That boy’s madly in love with you, Jessie.”

  “It’s mutual.” I grinned at his sleeping form and turned back to Nana.

  “Your brother and sister have been here, too. They sat up with you all last night, and just left a couple hours ago to get some sleep at Jed’s apartment. They’ll be back this evening.”

  “Ruthie’s here?”

  She nodded. “Your sister drove up from San Diego as soon as Jed called her. They’re both such sweet kids.”

  I replayed the last few minutes of our conversation. Something Nana had said seemed to raise a red flag, and as my groggy brain tried to work out what it was, I asked, “What day is it?”

  “Monday, and it’s about two p.m.”

  “Why was I asleep so long?”

  “You weren’t sleeping the whole time. They’ve kept you hopped up on pain killers, which did knock you out for a lot of it, but you’d wake up periodically and have a lot to say. You’re incredibly foul-mouthed when you’re on drugs. I’m not complaining! It gave me a good chuckle,” Nana said. “Do you remember any of our conversations?”

  “I think I remember one. Did we talk about fainting goats and instaboners at some point, or did I dream that?”

  “That was the first time you woke up. You were drugged off your gourd and were convinced you, me and your sweetie were all lined up at the pearly gates. But that’s just silly. You ought to know by now I’m way too ornery to die.”

  “Oh man,” I mumbled. “I hate to think about what else I said.”

  “Since then, they’ve been gradually dialing back your pain meds. You seem a lot more with-it this time.”

  “I feel like I’m forgetting something really important, but my head’s in a fog….” All of a sudden, it hit me and I exclaimed, “Monday! Oh no, I slept through your wedding! How was it? Please tell me it was perfect!”

  Nana waved her hand. “You didn’t sleep through anything. Ollie and I are postponing it until you’re better. You really think we’d go out and party while you’re alone in the hospital, battered and bruised from saving us and dozens of our friends and family? Come on. I’d have to be a real tool to do something like that.”

  I grinned a little. “I’ve never heard you use the word tool.”

  “I just learned it from my great-grandson Joshie. It’s a good word. I’ve been trying to work it into more conversations. I think it fit pretty good there.”

  I grew serious and said, “I didn’t want you to miss your wedding, Nana. You had it all planned! You’ll never get the same hotel, it was booked through next year. Plus the food, the flowers, the cake, none of that will be refundable. And you and Ollie had people flying in from all over!”

  “So they’ll fly in again when you’re well enough to be right there beside us. As for all the rest of it, what does that stuff matter, really? I’ll admit, I got a bit caught up in all the hype and this crazy idea of the ‘perfect’ wedding. But a perfect wedding isn’t one with the prettiest dress and the fanciest venue and the most stunning flowers. It’s just me marrying my sweetie with the people we love most in the world around us to share our happiness. That absolutely has to include you, Sweet Pea, and it did even before you turned into Superman and saved us. I’ve been telling you forever that I love you and you’re a part of my family. Maybe now you’ll believe me.”

  “I did actually figure that out, even before you postponed your wedding for me.”

  “About damn time.” I grinned at that, and Nana threw her hands up and exclaimed, “Oh, I
didn’t tell you what happened! My ex-husband showed up yesterday morning. He’d heard about the wedding and probably figured he’d make a scene, because he lives for shit like that. He came to the house, and as soon as my fiancé found out who he was, Ollie punched him in the nose! He doesn’t look it, but my man’s a tiger. Ollie told him that was for leaving his wife for some young hussy. Then Ollie said, ‘Thank you for being a fucking moron. If you’d been smart enough to stay with Stana, I would have missed out on the most spectacular woman in the world.’ Then Ollie slammed the door in his face.” Nana looked delighted.

  I smiled and said, “That’s awesome.”

  She got up and said, “Now you rest for a minute while I go find that doctor and drag him in here by his hairy ball sack!” She pulled down the jacket of her purple velour tracksuit by its hem and bustled from the room while I chuckled to myself.

  *****

  That evening when Dante came to visit, he found Kai curled up in my hospital bed with me. My boyfriend was holding me gently and my head was on his chest. “Hey,” I said as Dante sat beside us. “You just missed Nana, she left about ten minutes ago. Ollie insisted on taking her home for some dinner and a good night’s sleep.”

  “I spoke to them in the parking lot. Sorry to immediately intrude on the first moment you two have probably had to yourselves.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Dante grinned and said, “You know, I was in this same private hospital a couple years ago, and Charlie climbed into bed with me just like that. The nurses tried to pitch a fit. I think Nana finally threatened to buy the hospital and fire them all.”

  “She threatened them again today, so they’re being nice to us,” Kai said.

  “Nana told me no one got hurt Friday night. She wasn’t just saying that because she doesn’t want to upset me, right?” I asked.

  Dante said, “A couple dozen people got treated for smoke inhalation, and I’m sure a few people are going to have nightmares for a good, long time, but nobody got hurt, thanks to you.”

  I lowered my voice and said, “Someone broke off a key or something in the lock, Dante, and they must have disabled the sprinklers and alarms. Did you see the way that fire spread? None of it was an accident.”

  “I know. I’ve been talking to the SFPD, and it was definitely arson. The whole place was rigged to go up. There were two ignition points, one in the kitchen, one behind the DJ booth, and the walls and ceiling had been sprayed with a chemical accelerant. The electric starter in the kitchen misfired, which is a break for the arson investigator. He’s a good guy, by the way, his name’s Cameron Doyle. He sent the device to the lab, they should be able to gather forensic evidence from it. And then, when the SFPD finds the arsonist, he’s going to tell me who hired him to try to take out my family.” His voice was quiet, but something dark and dangerous flashed in his eyes. Whoever had crossed Dante Dombruso was going to pay, I knew that with absolute certainty.

  “You already have some theories about who’s behind it, don’t you?” I asked.

  “I assume it was the Messinas. If Jerry gave them information on our organization and they decided we were ripe for a hostile take-over, what a perfect opportunity to strike us down. Every adult male in my family was at the club that night. Nana and my female relatives weren’t supposed to be there. My cousins Carla and Rachel hold key spots within the family structure, but an old-school Sicilian like Mick Messina would only think to target the men. It has classic mob hit written all over it.”

  “Jesus,” Kai murmured.

  Dante said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going after them without solid evidence. Right now, we’re trying to find the club owner and the bartender, because we think someone may have paid them off. And hopefully the arsonist can be identified. Any of those three will lead us to whoever was behind that fire.”

  “This conversation’s kind of surreal,” Kai said.

  “I know how this must sound to someone on the outside,” Dante said, “but my family’s ties to organized crime go back centuries. From the time I was seven and my parents and sister were murdered, this has been my life. You saw first-hand Friday night why I need to protect my family.”

  Kai said quietly, “If anyone tried to hurt my family the way someone tried to hurt yours…let’s just say I get it.”

  A look of understanding passed between the two men. Dante turned to me and said, “Besides wanting to check on you and make sure you’re okay, I also wanted to give you a heads up that Doyle, the arson investigator, is planning to speak to you sometime this week, Jessie. I hadn’t planned on telling him about our feud with the Messinas, because right now we don’t know they had anything to do with this. But Doyle’s family goes way back in organized crime in Dublin, so he immediately recognized the signs of a mob hit. He was also a detective before switching over to arson, so he knows the Dombruso name, not that we’ve ever been convicted of anything. Anyway, don’t worry about letting anything slip when you speak to him, because he’s already put most of the pieces together.”

  “Did you tell him about Jerry?”

  “There’s nothing to tell, I have no idea if he was involved. My cousin made some terrible mistakes in the past, but I want to believe he isn’t capable of trying to annihilate his entire family and that the Messinas, or whoever, acted on their own. Without solid, undeniable evidence, I’m not going to assume the worst about Jerry.” Dante’s voice dropped as he said, “But if I find evidence he was involved, God help him.”

  We visited for another half-hour or so before Dante pushed himself to his feet. “I have to go, Charlie’s expecting me.” He surprised me by leaning down and kissing my bandaged forehead. He then straightened up and said, “I’m indebted to you forever, Jessie. My husband, my grandmother, my brothers, so many people I love could have died Friday night. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am for what you did.”

  I said embarrassedly, “It was just the one time it paid to be the scrawniest guy in the room. If you could have fit through that transom, you’d have been the one to save your family.”

  Dante grinned at me. “Nana said you’re modest about it, but damn. Jessie, you’re a hero, plain and simple. I love you, my brother, and I’ll always have your back, just like you have mine. Now try to get some rest, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  After Dante left, Kai said, “My boyfriend is under the protection of the mafia. That’s the basic message I took away from that. It’s kind of like finding yourself in the middle of The Godfather.”

  “I’ve always known the mafia thing is a part of who the Dombrusos are, but Friday was the first time the full reality of what that means really hit home. The thing is, now that I know, it doesn’t make me want to run from them. Just the opposite. It makes me want to pick up a shield and stand beside Dante to try to protect them, because they’re my family, and that’s what families do, the good ones, anyway. They stick up for each other.”

  I looked up at Kai as I added, “This is probably freaking you out, isn’t it? If it helps, the Dombrusos aren’t criminals. At least, not anymore. They’ve gone legit and they’re such good people, but old feuds surface sometimes. I hope you don’t judge them by their enemies, and I hope you aren’t having second thoughts about me, now that you know who I’m involved with.”

  “You don’t seriously think I could have second thoughts, do you? In case you haven’t figured this out yet, I adore you, and I’m not going anywhere. If you vouch for the Dombrusos, that’s good enough for me. And if you decide to pick up a shield and stand beside Dante to defend your adopted family, guess what? I’m going to pick up a shield too, and I’m going to stand with you. Because that’s what you do for the people you love, Jessie, you protect them, no matter how terrifying the dragon is that they’re going up against.”

  I stretched up to kiss him and winced a little when I settled back in his arms. Kai asked, “Do you want me to call the nurse for some more pain meds?”

  “No thanks. I’d rather ache a little and
remain lucid than float back over to Cloud Cuckoo Land.”

  Kai grinned at me. “Did you just reference the Lego Movie?”

  “Maybe. Don’t judge me.” I grinned and nuzzled his neck.

  We were quiet for a while, and Kai gingerly traced the outline of a huge bruise on my left arm. Then he whispered, “I wish I could bear all this hurt for you. It just kills me that you’re in pain, and I can’t do anything to make it better.”

  “I’ll heal. It’s not a big deal.”

  “I know it embarrasses you to talk about it, so I’m just going to say this once and then I’ll shut up about it. I already knew you were an amazing human being. You have a huge heart, and you love unconditionally. You put your family and friends’ well-being ahead of your own. I’ve never met anyone so selfless, so genuinely kind, so loving, and I’m absolutely in awe of you. I see you blushing right now, and I know how hard it is for you to take a compliment, but I need you to hear this, just once. I consider myself the luckiest man on this whole damn planet, Jessie, because I get to love you and be loved by you, and my daughter and I get to share our lives with you. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such an extraordinary gift, but I’m going to spend every day of my life trying to be worthy of it.”

  “I—”

  He gently touched my lips. “I know that was a lot. It was long, and flowery, and all about you, and you never want to be in the spotlight. That’s why you try to brush it off when people call you a hero. I won’t keep talking about this and embarrassing you. I just want you to know I see you, deep down. I see the huge, pure heart behind the pretty face, and my God Jessie, you’re glorious.”

  I fought back tears, and for once I simply said, “Thank you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was the last Sunday in June, which meant it was Pride weekend in San Francisco. A huge crowd had gathered that early morning on a side street in the Castro, which was blocked off by police cars at both intersections. I glanced at the officer leaning against the car to my left, who happened to be Finn Nolan, and he smiled and gave me a little salute.