12
Nina
I expected Angelica back by now, but so far there’s been nothing. I get to my feet, shaking my self-pity and doubts aside. I will not give you the pleasure of killing me, bitch. I look around the room once again, searching for anything that’ll get me out of here. The nails. After pulling them from their hiding place under the mattress, I stick one in my pocket and approach the door. It’s an old lock, and those are usually the easiest to pick. Why did I waste precious time with the whole pity-party thing when I could be escaping? I’m even more exasperated when I have the damn thing unlocked in all of two minutes. Not my proudest moment. No way am I telling Minka that part. It creaks so loudly when I open it that I expect to see Angelica at any moment. Come to think of it, where are the damn guards? I hesitantly slip my head out into the hallway. It’s dim and musky smelling but deserted. I slide my back against the wall, trying not to think of what I’m brushing past, and go in the direction I hope leads me to an exit. I keep waiting for something, anything to startle me, but I literally walk straight up to and out the back door without a hitch. This is all wrong. Where in the hell is Angelica? Even Marco will be impressed if I make it out of this alive. What if I never see him again? Why do I even care? He’s a liar and God knows what else. Yet… stop it. Shelter first, questions and heartbreak later.
I’m standing at the bottom of the steps choosing my direction when an unmistakable click sounds behind me. “Really, dear, I didn’t think you’d ever take some initiative. A five-year-old could have picked that lock. What took you so long? The cavalry is on the way, so I need to wrap this up.”
My brain is urging me to run, but at this distance, she’ll easily hit me. No, my only option is to catch her off guard and buy a few extra seconds. That’s all I’ll need. So I turn slowly to see Angelica standing near the top step, holding a gun. The sound I heard had been her chambering a round. It seems insane that she would not have already loaded the gun, but who am I to judge? This lady is seriously batshit crazy. I open my mouth to say something that will likely get me killed, but in the end, that isn’t necessary.
The blast knocks me off my feet. I’ve barely processed that when my chest is on fire. I clumsily bring a hand up, trying to push aside whatever’s crushing me. My vision dims, and my reality is distorted. Fragments of sound and motion flit around me, but it’s as if I’m watching from a great distance. It’s a dream, it must be. How else would Minka be standing over me with her gun drawn as she screams my name?
Why is it so cold?
Why is everything… so dark?
Marco
Our radios are going wild as we arrive at the old farmhouse. “Stand down, stand down! Friendly fire. I repeat, stand down. Do not fire. Agent is securing the scene.” Another beep sounds. “Ghost, advise. Has the threat been eliminated?”
We all wait with bated breath. I hope to God Moose is dead, but I’ll be much happier if I put him down myself. Belle, hold on. “Threat eliminated, but get the fucking medevac here now, asshole. Gunshot wound to the motherfucking chest.” The last part comes out as more of a sob than a shout, which is somehow even more terrifying.
“Ghost is a woman?” my father asks absently as we run toward the house. I could give a fuck if she’s a woman or the pope at this point. My Belle.
Malone mutters something I can’t make out. Another agent points us toward the back, and I vaguely hear the medevac landing in a nearby field, but all that is just background noise. But then I see something that brings me out of my haze and crashes me into a reality I could have never imagined. A blonde is huddled over something on the ground, and she’s cursing and saying shit that makes no sense. “You remember when you broke my Wonder Woman snow globe, and I sewed all your shirt sleeves up? Well, I’ll do much worse if you don’t get your shit together. I’ll tell Marco you have Google alerts set up on him. And that you have a picture of him as your iPad background.” Then the ranting stops, and my blood runs cold as a loud keening fills the air. “I swear to God, Nina Gavino, if you leave me, I’ll never forgive you. I can’t live in a world that you’re not a part of. You and me forever, we promised each other. We promised.”
Minka? What? Why is she here? My mind is slow to comprehend what my eyes are telling me. Ghost is a woman? A woman. Minka? My bewilderment is pushed aside as we all stand frozen, transfixed by her all-consuming grief. I’ve never loved like this before—it’s been limited to family—until Nina. But I’ve never witnessed the type of bond that would bring this level of despair. I’m not even sure I’m capable of that depth of feeling—or so I thought. Three things show me that not only can I reach that level, I can surpass it: seeing Minka being physically lifted from her protective crouch over her best friend’s body is bad; Nina lying utterly still and deathly pale with a crimson bloom covering her chest has me shaking in reaction; and finally, hearing my father’s shout of alarm and numbly turning to see him clutching my mother against his chest as he screams her name.
Malone is before me now. His lips are moving, yet I hear nothing but a buzzing in my ear. My earlier thoughts are confirmed in the most horrifying fashion imaginable.
This is a cataclysmic event unfolding. Focus. Do the job. From out of nowhere, one thought rises above the wreckage around me, and my mouth drops open incredulously. “You knew.”
He doesn’t reply, but the look on his face tells me all I need to know. “Focus,” he says softly.
I see Nina being loaded onto a stretcher, and there’s no longer an internal debate. “Vitals are stable for the moment. Let’s get her out of here.” The team working on my mother gives a sign I’ve seen before. Dead at the scene.
My father looks shell-shocked, but he would be the first to tell me to go with the woman I love. And that’s exactly what I do. “Fuck the job,” I toss out as I push past Malone and join Minka and the emergency team. I’ll have my answers later, but right now, there is only the woman on the stretcher fighting for her every breath. The beautiful spitfire who once saved my life. And I will call in every marker owed to me to save hers.
13
Marco
“You’re beginning to stink.” Minka wrinkles her nose from a nearby chair before fanning her face. We’ve both been keeping vigil at Nina’s bedside since she was rushed in two days ago, and it’s been touch and go since then. She was taken straight into surgery where they were able to remove the bullet. However, a lung had been punctured along with a host of other issues that I tried not to even think about. At the last update, her doctor assured us that she was stable and holding her own, but she was nowhere near out of the woods yet. The fact she was covered with tubes, wires, and monitors certainly gave truth to that fact. If I had to pick one that scared me the most, it was the damn tube in her mouth. It makes me feel as if she would die instantly if it were removed. Minka said something similar the first time we saw her.
Unfortunately, our visiting time is limited since she’s in ICU. But we’ve swayed a few sympathetic nurses who allow us a little extra when possible. I rub my eyes, trying to remember when I last slept. Days? “Let’s agree not to comment on each other’s hygiene. Because you’re not faring much better.”
She smiles faintly before getting to her feet and approaching the bed. “I was jealous of you, still am. When you puked your way into her life, she changed.”
Her back is to me, and for a moment, I think she’s talking to Nina. Then she turns, and I realize this is about me. “She’s had a few boyfriends over the years—we both have. But there was never anything serious. We have been each other’s significant others since the day we met.” A half-smile curves her lips before she adds, “And not in a gay way. It’s hard to describe. We’re like the missing piece the other needs to be whole. Before Nina, I never had anyone close to me. My dad worked all the time, and I never even knew my mother. Plus, when you’re in ‘the family,’ being friends with outsiders doesn’t really work. I didn’t click with the few who were my age within our circle, so I spent
most of my time alone. I told myself that’s the way I wanted it. That it was my choice.” She stares off into the distance for so long I think she’s finished, which is strangely disappointing because I’m enjoying hearing the backstory of how these two formed such a bond. “Then one day, she was there. Franklin had a new wife, and everyone was invited over to welcome her. There stood this girl who no one was paying any attention to except me and my dipshit cousin, Frankie. I didn’t approach her right away. But I tailed her for the rest of the evening and caught Frankie harassing her. I drove my knee in his balls, and the rest is history. Some people form friendships over drinks or common interests, but ours was over mutual hate for Frankie.”
“Yet you never told her you were in the ATF.” Naturally, I, better than anyone, understood that she wasn’t at liberty to. But still, these two didn’t appear to keep secrets from each other—much less something of that magnitude. “How’d that come to pass, anyway?” Neither of us has mentioned the surprise revelation until now because our sole focus has been Nina. Other than medical personnel, I haven’t seen anyone but Minka since we’ve been here. My father hasn’t reached out to me, nor I to him. Minka has given me a brief version of what transpired as she knows it, but I’ve cut her off halfway through. I can’t—not now. My mind is not ready to deal with, nor accept, the reality she has begun to describe. And my father is much like me in the respect that he will want to be alone for now. All else can wait.
It’s too fucked up.
My mother committed the worst type of crime—betrayal.
“In much the same manner that it did for you probably. I was recruited by the ATF. Approached on a weekend trip to New York. I was in a bad place then. Angry with the world and feeling so damn helpless because I couldn’t do anything about it. Nina and I had planned a girls’ weekend away. My father had agreed to a big shopping spree in New York, and I was beyond excited. Then Nina ended up with bronchitis a few days before we were supposed to leave. I told her we’d wait and go in a few weeks, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She knew I needed the time away, and I’ve never been able to tell her no. Of course, I had a low-level flunky clone as a guard, but he was lazy and easy to ditch when I wanted to. I suspect he was enjoying the area whores, so he certainly wasn’t complaining, nor telling my daddy when I gave him the slip. So it was easy for someone to approach me in a coffee shop there. I told the guy to fuck off, but something made me keep his card.” She reaches down and gently brushes a hair from Nina’s forehead as she begins speaking again. “Months passed, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I finally called the number and arranged another meeting, closer to home. What finally made me agree was the promise of immunity for my father and if needed, Nina. As well as protection for them in an emergency.”
“How were you trained?” I ask, intrigued despite myself. Other than my father, I have never been able to talk about my other life with anyone, and it feels surprisingly good.
“The old college excuse.” She laughs. “Same for you?”
“Yeah.” I smile. “But I went away for college, technically. How did you pull it off?”
“Stayed in North Carolina, but it was all a front anyway. Of course, on paper, I was there every day. It would have passed scrutiny by most anyone. But my actual education was held in an older building on campus that was no longer used. After I graduated, I went to work. Only, like you, my job was going home and appearing normal. Which, in my case, was being the hellion daughter of Ray Gavino. Bad attitude and an even worse temper. Since the Gavinos dealt in arms more than the Morettis, that was my focus. I supplied the ATF with as much information as I could. And when we pushed the competition out, the ATF picked them up after a reasonable amount of time passed.”
“Sounds like our operations were very similar,” I marvel, knowing that Malone must be behind this. Truthfully, I don’t really know how I feel about it.
The door opens, and we both go on instant alert. Luckily, most would put it down to life within the mafia and not federal agents. Ida, the night nurse, walks in, giving us both a bright smile. “Hey, you two. I heard our girl’s doing much better.” Minka steps back while the nurse checks the monitors. “You’re way past visiting hours, and my supervisor is here tonight, so be good and leave peacefully so I won’t get in trouble.” She winks as she adds the last part, and we have no choice but to reluctantly agree.
Minka kisses Nina on the cheek and murmurs something in her ear that I can’t hear. Then I lean over to do the same. “I’ll eat all the lasagna you want. Just come back to me, Nina.” I pause for a moment, then unable to hold the words in any longer, I add, “I love you.” You should be awake to hear me say that, Belle. If not for my mother—
Don’t. Can’t go there.
I press one last kiss on her temple and follow Minka out. I come to an abrupt stop when I see Malone coming down the hallway toward us.
He exchanges a few words with Minka before turning to eye me warily. “Marco, can we talk? I can wait if you need to get back to Nina.”
I push my hands into my pockets, feeling strangely like a kid. I’m afraid to hear the truths I’m not ready to acknowledge. When Minka was telling me her version, I’d been able to push it aside and pretend she didn’t know what she was talking about because she’s confused by her grief. But Malone deals in facts. And there’s no escape from those. I feel a hand on my back and glance over at Minka in surprise. She leans in closer, murmuring, “You can’t get past it until you face it. Do it for Nina.” Fuck. I can’t argue with that. “I’m going to visit my father. He’s almost recovered now, but he’ll be on crutches for another few weeks. I swear I’ve never heard a grown man act like such a baby.” I was glad to hear that Ray was going to be okay after the attack on him that left his guard dead. Regardless of their relationship, I don’t think Minka could have handled losing him or Nina.
Without another word, I follow Malone wordlessly to the parking lot and climb into the passenger seat of a nondescript sedan. Instead of starting the engine, we simply sit there in silence. Finally, he says, “Do you want the details? I know you’ve pieced most of it together by now, but I’ll fill in the blanks if you’re ready for it. Up to you, son.”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Do it.”
“Moose was still alive when we searched the house. He had a gunshot wound to the abdomen and one to the right shoulder. When he saw your father, he knew it was over. He told him that Angelica had approached him with the story that Rutger was physically abusive. How she feared for not only her life but yours as well. She also lured him in with a bit of a… romantic element, and he thought he was essentially saving his soul mate from peril. She came up with the scheme of pitting the Gavinos against the Morettis after the hit on Franklin and his son. She figured it would all tie in nicely. Eventually, she planned to kill Rutger and figured it could be easily blamed on the Gavinos as retaliation for Franklin.”
I put a hand to my temple, massaging the pressure point as I attempt to sift through what he’s telling me and make sense of it all. “But what about the car bomb? Did she intend to kill me as well, her own fucking son?” Had I ever known the woman who raised me? Who claimed to love my father and me more than anyone? Or pretended to. Was any of it real, or had our entire life as a family been a lie? I only thought I understood how Tony must have felt at his uncle’s betrayal. Now I know that wasn’t the case. The utter pain, disbelief, and anguish. The rage. I had no fucking clue—until now.
Malone shakes his head, before saying, “According to Moose, the bomb was a massive fuckup. It was on a timer to explode inside your garage with you nowhere around. You activated it when you fired the ignition. Otherwise, it would have gone off itself on the backup timer. Since you rarely drove yourself, they had no clue you’d suddenly decide to drive that night you went to Nina. It was planted to keep attention focused to the Gavinos.”
Then I remember something else that never made sense to me. “What about the Fosters? What possible reason could th
ere have been to take them out?”
“Wrong place, wrong time. Apparently, your mother dropped by to visit you at some point while Langdon was hiding at your place. Moose was her guard that day, and they took advantage of your absence to discuss their operation. When she got word that you’d had a stowaway, she panicked, thinking they might have been overheard. She couldn’t get to Langdon since he was always with Jake, but she eliminated his family on the outside chance he’d talked to them about it. She intended to get to the boy, but when nothing was ever mentioned, she let it slide.” Who is this woman? I have no fucking clue how I missed any of these signs.
I sag back against the seat and ask the one question that puzzles me the most. “Why? What could possibly have made her do this? She loved my father; I know that wasn’t all an act.” Fuck, please don’t let everything have been a lie. I need something to hold on to. One thing that was real.
“I believe that to be true,” he says. “But she loved being mafia more. A lot of the rest is just speculation without her to verify it. Naturally, Moose’s version is distorted by feelings and what she wanted him to believe. I gather the goal was to get rid of your father and put you in power. She figured you’d be disillusioned with the FBI and ready to take your place as the rightful head of the family. And that’s what she always wanted. To be an ultimate power.”
“And Nina wasn’t part of that picture, was she?”
“No, she wasn’t. She belongs to neither side, and that’s not what Angelica wanted for her only son. She probably figured that should Nina remain, she would weaken her hold on you.” Her hold on me? Had I ever felt that she had a hold on me? No. Never. Have I missed signs all along that my mother thought I was easily converted to her way of thinking? And had Malone seen that?
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