by Lane Hart
“Yes,” Ivan admits without the least bit of remorse.
“Why?” I ask him.
“Because he wanted you and your father dead. He would’ve killed you eventually or you would’ve wished you were dead…” he explains nonchalantly with a shoulder shrug, drawing attention again to the blood on his shirt. “He had to die so that you would be safe.”
I glance over to look at his friends, who join us in the bedroom, and judge their reactions to his behavior. Do they condone Ivan just going around murdering people?
Both of their faces are pale, and their eyes are wide as they exchange a look.
“I-I can’t believe you killed him,” I say again, still in shock.
“We need to go,” Knox speaks up and says. “Someone could’ve heard the shots. We did, even with the silencer.”
Going over to the bathroom, Knox pulls out a gun from the back of his pants and then points it at the guards.
“Jesus! Is he gonna kill them too?” I ask Ivan in a panic.
Before he can answer, I hear Knox say, “Cops will be here soon to cut you loose. You don’t remember what any of us look like, do you?” he asks, and several shake their heads. “Good. Keep your mouths shut, tell them it was some rival gang or some shit or you’ll die just like your boss did. Capiche?”
The guards nod again, so Knox pulls the door shut.
“Do you think that’ll work?” he leans in and whispers to Ivan and Cain.
“The Italians don’t rat,” Cain says. “Now let’s go.”
“Ivan, bring your gun. We’ll need to toss it,” Knox instructs him.
“You think we should just leave his body here?” Ivan asks them about Jimmy like he’s a sack of potatoes.
“Yeah, I have a plan,” Knox says. “Got it all figured out. We'll leave Jimmy here and then call the police after we leave.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Cain asks.
“Jimmy’s a notorious mobster who kills innocent women, probably men too,” Knox says. “The police will be glad that the piece of shit is dead. If the guards do as I said, they’ll point them to a real or fictional enemy. I bet he had plenty.”
“Are you sure about this?” Ivan asks his friend.
“Trust me, okay?” Knox says, and Ivan nods in agreement. “Let’s go.”
“We need to find my father,” I speak up and say.
“Come on,” Ivan says, grabbing my hand to pull me into the living room…where the body is.
“Uh…” I start.
“Hold up,” Knox says. Stepping back into the bathroom, he grabs a towel and then brings it over. “Cover your eyes until we get out of here,” he tells me when I take the cloth from him.
“Thanks,” I reply. Holding the towel up to my face with my free hand, I let Ivan guide me from the room.
“Make sure you grab everything of ours from both rooms and then wipe it down,” Ivan instructs Cain and Knox. “We’ll meet you in the parking lot.”
“Look for the black Altima at the back,” Knox calls out before Ivan pulls the door shut.
I remove the towel in the hallway and then watch Ivan as he remains cool and calm, glancing down the hallway that’s all clear.
“Do you think your father is in his room or downstairs in the ballroom?” he asks me.
“Um, I don’t know,” I say honestly. “After Jimmy left, he probably went back up to his room.”
“Okay. Do you remember which room number he’s in?” Ivan asks as we walk toward the elevator with him still holding one hand while I grasp the towel in the other.
“Y-yes,” I say, pushing the button for the eighth floor when the elevator doors open.
It only takes a second to get to his room where I rap my knuckles against the door.
One of his guards answers with my father right behind him. “Daddy!” I say as I lunge for him, throwing my arms around him.
“Are you okay? Is it done?” he asks.
“Yes, sir,” Ivan replies from behind me.
While I knew that Jimmy had to be killed, I never thought it would be Ivan doing the actual deed. I assumed one of my father’s emotionless guards would end him, not the man I was starting to fall for.
“You’re shaking,” my father says when he pulls back to look at my face. “You were there?” he asks. “You let her see that shit?” he yells at Ivan.
“No, she was in another room,” Ivan answers in an exhale. “And we need to go. Knox has a car that we should take so the license plate doesn’t come back to you.”
“Right,” my father agrees. “Andre, take my things and the SUV to the safe house in Cary and don’t say a word to anyone.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard agrees before we ease out the door and start for the elevator.
Taking the back exit of the hotel to avoid everyone who is still waiting in the ballroom for the wedding, we cross the large parking lot, heading for the black car at the back.
Cain and Knox join us within a few minutes, and then the five of us are crammed into the car, with Knox driving, my father in the passenger seat, and me, Ivan and Cain in the back with me sandwiched between the two big men.
A firetruck passes us on the other side of the highway, and then an ambulance, followed by several cop cars.
“That was close,” my father mutters.
“We called the police,” Knox tells him. “All part of the plan.”
“Doesn’t sound very smart,” my father scoffs.
“I’ve got someone on the inside who will cover up any tracks we missed,” Knox informs the whole car.
“Who?” Cain barks from beside me, making me startle.
“Don’t worry about it,” Knox replies.
“You should’ve told us about this plan of yours before now,” Ivan grumbles. “Are you sure you can trust them?”
“Very sure.”
“How do you know?” Cain asks.
“Because she’s my baby’s mama.”
“What the fuck?” Ivan and Cain both exclaim.
“I’ll catch you guys up later,” Knox says. “Right now, I need to drive this car because she told me she would kill me if I get a scratch on it. So, where are we going?”
“To the safe house out on some hunting land,” my father tells him. “I’ll give you the turn by turn. We can all lay low there without worry since the house isn’t in my name; it’s in an alias that won’t be tracked to any of us.”
“Once we get there, I need to borrow the car,” Ivan speaks up and says from beside me.
“Why?” Knox asks, glancing at his friend curiously in the rearview mirror.
“Need to run an errand.”
“It can wait,” Cain grumbles.
“No, it can’t. I need to do it now. Today.”
“Fine,” Knox huffs. “But I’m going with you.”
“Me too,” Cain says. “I want to get back to the flower shop and stay with Gabby.”
“That’s not smart,” my father says. “There’s nothing that can’t wait until the dust settles.”
“This can’t,” Ivan replies through clenched teeth that says the topic is not up for discussion.
And I have to say that this new side of Ivan is pretty scary. Before, with me, he was always so sweet and somewhat naïve. I had no idea that he was not only capable of murder but of doing it without even an ounce of remorse.
Did I like Jimmy?
No. He was a horrible human being, and I’m glad that I don’t have to marry him. Despite all that, he didn’t deserve to die in cold blood just to save my father and me from his demands on us.
Chapter Twenty
Ivan
“You’ve been through some major shit today, Ivan, man. Might be good to just chill here for a while…” Knox starts as soon as we get out of the car at the safe house.
“You don’t understand, and I don’t want to talk about it until I know more,” I tell him. “So, please, either drive me or give me the fucking keys!”
“Damn, calm down, dude. Are
you gonna at least say goodbye to Maylin?” Knox asks.
“Why? We’re coming right back in a few hours,” I tell him.
“Oh my God,” he grumbles. “We have so much to teach you, little Padawan.”
“What the hell is he talking about?” I turn to ask Cain.
“Chicks like that shit,” he answers with a shrug. “I know Gabby would be pissed if I left without telling her bye, even if I was just leaving for a few minutes.”
“Fine,” I say, even if I hate a ten-second delay before finding out if that lying sack of shit was really telling the truth. It’s not like my mom’s around to ask, thanks to him. But that does give me another idea…
Jogging back into the house, I find Maylin sitting on one of the plush sofas with her arms wrapped around herself like she’s cold. The urge to hold her and warm her up nags at me, but the look in her eye warns me away. Just like I expected after what went down today, she doesn’t want me to touch her.
“I’m leaving,” I tell her, even though I thought that was obvious. “See you when I get back.”
“Yeah,” she answers with a nod. “And, um, you may want to, ah, change shirts.”
Glancing down, I realize that there’s blood splattered all over this one.
“Good idea,” I say since it would be bad for anyone to see the shirt and get suspicious. “Our bags are in the trunk of the car, so I’ll grab a fresh one and toss this one in a garbage can somewhere.”
“Okay,” Maylin answers with a nod.
“Okay,” I say trying to figure out if I should try to hug her or not. Now doesn’t seem like the ideal time. There may never be another time that she wants me to lay a finger on her, so I just slip my hands into the front of my jean pockets. Hurrying back out to the car, I climb in the passenger seat since Cain took the backseat.
“Where to?” Knox asks as he cranks the engine and backs out of the driveway in the middle of nowhere.
“First, we’ve got to get rid of the gun and my shirt. I think we should toss it over the White Oak Bridge. And then, I need to go to Jimmy’s house,” I tell him.
“You’re joking, right?” Knox glances over quickly and asks before his eyes go back to the narrow, gravel road.
“Nope.”
“Won’t it be swarming with cops right now?” Cain remarks from the back.
“Maybe, but we’ll have to see when we get there.”
“Why the fuck are we going to Jimmy’s house?” Knox asks.
“I’m guessing you guys couldn’t hear the shit he was saying through the door,” I remark.
“Just words here and there, but not enough to make sense of any of it,” Knox replies. “I assumed you were telling him he was a sorry piece of shit for killing your mother.”
“I did say that,” I tell him with a nod. Clearing my throat, I say, “And then he told me that he’s my father.”
“What the hell?” Knox says as he slams on the brakes in the middle of the road, causing the car to fishtail and a cloud of dust to surround us.
“He was obviously lying, right?” Cain asks when he leans up between the front seats.
“He had to be,” I tell them. “But he said that there was a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and photos in his office.”
“Wow,” Knox mutters as he looks straight ahead again and presses his foot on the gas. “He said he was married to your mother?”
“Yep, and that she ratted him out and sent him to prison,” I explain. “That part would somewhat make sense, along with why he killed her, so maybe…maybe the rest is true too.”
“I don’t think so,” Knox says at the same time Cain says, “You do sort of look like him.”
“Don’t say that,” I bark, looking over my shoulder to glare at him. “I am nothing like that son of a bitch!”
“No, of course not,” Cain agrees with his palms up in front of him. “But you both have dark hair and skin. It’s not that far of a stretch is all I’m saying.”
“He’s not my father. He can’t be. I just need to look through his office and see for myself that he was making it all up.”
“Right,” Knox agrees. “But we need to hurry,” he says as we hit the paved road again and he accelerates. “The cops will be all over that asshole’s place as soon as they identify him.”
The three of us ride in silence the rest of the way back to Raleigh. Once the gun and my shirt are tossed over the White Oak Bridge, the same river where Gabby’s brother Robbie washed up a few months ago, I give Knox directions on the rest of the way to Jimmy’s.
“This is the road,” I say when Knox makes the last turn. “Last house in the cul-de-sac, and it looks clear.”
“I don’t see any pigs,” Cain agrees as he glances around and out the back window.
“Well I’m not gonna park in the fucking driveway,” Knox says. “Let’s just leave it on the curb here and walk the rest of the way.”
“Yeah, that’ll work,” I agree.
“How are we gonna get in?” Cain asks as we undo our seatbelts.
“Break a window?” I suggest.
Outside of the car, I’m sure that there’s nothing unusual about the three of us hooligans marching down the upper-class, suburban street. Sure. Either way, I don’t plan to be here long enough for anyone to call us in.
“Let’s go around back,” I suggest, leading the way through the yard. There are only woods behind the house, which makes the back door the perfect place to break in the window without any witnesses.
“Here, use my shirt to reach the lock,” Knox offers, pulling the tee over his head and off before handing it to me. “We don’t want to leave any fingerprints or DNA.”
“Good idea,” I say, surprised that I didn’t think of that. Covering my fist and slamming it through the door’s glass pane, I realize that dead fucker has my head all scrambled with nonsense, so much so that I’m not being as careful as I should.
Once I’m through the window, I feel around to find the deadbolt lock and turn it, then pull my arm out to open the door from the outside.
“Easy,” Cain says as I shake out the glass and return Knox’s shirt to him.
“Yeah, and there are no cameras, so we should be good,” I say as we tiptoe inside, breaking and entering the house of a man I just murdered in broad daylight.
“His office is here on the lower level,” I tell the guys as we creep down the hallway and into the room. “He said the papers are in a file in one of his desk drawers.” I go around to the front of the desk and start pulling open drawers.
“Do you guys think it’s kind of creepy to be in a dead man’s house?” Knox asks. “And, dude, you’re not wearing gloves!”
“Shit,” I grumble, once again not thinking things through.
“There are some in the car,” Cain offers.
“That’ll take too much time to go and come back,” I say. “Knox, give me your shirt again.”
Since he hasn’t put it back on, he hands it to me, and I use it as a buffer as I thumb through the file names.
And then I see it…
Anthony fucking Russo.
Okay. There’s no reason to panic. That could be Jimmy’s brother’s name or…or his cousin’s. Any other relative.
Using the shirt, I pull out the file with just my finger and thumb to spread it open on the desk. The first document is, in fact, a birth certificate.
Craning his neck to read it upside down, Knox says, “Who is…Anthony Russo? And cool, you two have the same birthday!”
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath as my shoulder’s slump. “That could be just a coincidence, right?” I ask my friends. The mother listed on the birth certificate is Annette Russo and the father is James Anthony Russo. Jimmy. I can’t fucking believe it.
A door creaks down the hallway, making all three of us startle and stare at each other in question before I get to the rest of the papers and photos in the file.
“Think it’s his ghost?” Knox asks just as a woman in a suit ap
pears in the doorway with a gun aimed at us. Not just any woman, but Detective Horton, who investigated Gabby’s brother’s murder and Cain’s arson…and who has a very noticeable pregnant belly.
“Jesus Christ, Jade!” Knox exclaims as he clenches his bare chest. “You scared the shit out of us. We thought you were a ghost!”
Cain and I look at each other in confusion. Having an officer of the law bust us in the house of the man I just murdered is very, very bad. And did he call her Jade?
Wait a second. Detective Horton is his baby’s mama?
Jesus Christ! How long has she been pregnant with his kid? By the looks of it, a long ass time.
Blowing out a breath, the woman thankfully lowers the gun, holding it by her thigh in one hand, she then slams her other palm into Knox’s chest.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” she asks him.
“Good to see you too, babe,” he says with a grin.
“You took my car to the scene of a murder!” the detective exclaims, face going red. Fuck, the fact that she’s already figured it out is not good.
“It was her car you borrowed?” I ask Knox in disbelief.
“Calm down. All this stress can’t be good for our baby, right?” Knox says when he reaches for her belly. And instead of slapping the shit out of him, the stern woman lets him rub his palm intimately over her bump. If anything, her shoulders relax a little more as I watch the strange pair in confusion.
Knox knocked her up? When the fuck did that happen? Cain’s jaw is unhinged showing he’s just as shocked as I am about all of this.
“You need to leave,” Knox’s baby mama tells him. “As soon as a judge signs the warrant, every state and federal agent will be swarming this place.”
“How did you know we were here?” Knox asks her when he removes his hand from her belly.
“I have a tracker on my car in case it gets stolen. Did you really think I would let you borrow it without being able to track it down?”
Okay, so she may be his baby’s mama, but she sure as shit doesn’t trust him.
