Black Snow

by Lena North

  “The man’s dead, Snow. No need for his colleagues to find that shit. He might have family, and they don’t need to find it either. We’ll destroy them.”

  I nodded, tucked them into my back pocket, and closed the drawer silently.

  Nick hadn’t found anything either, which was exactly what we both had expected, but it was still disappointing, and Nick made a small face as our eyes met. I turned toward the door and was about to get out of there when my eyes fell on a familiar package standing under the desk.

  I smiled when I pulled out the code sheets, still tucked neatly next to the vials with water I’d sent from the Islands. Of course, the professor would have kept them with my samples, probably meaning to ask me what in the heck they were. Nick pulled them out of my hand and flicked through them, brows raised in apparent surprise. Then I folded the two papers, put them in my back pocket, and we made our way back to the gathering. Nick appeared to be perfectly calm, and I hoped I did too, but adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my knees shook a little.

  After what I thought was an appropriate time, we said our goodbyes and walked back to Nick’s bike, talking quietly about fake, mundane things, deliberately not discussing what we’d just done in case someone overheard. I couldn’t believe we’d pulled it off, and my hand squeezed Nick’s so hard he finally murmured, “Relax, babe.”

  “Shit,” I breathed.

  “We’ll talk at home.”

  I nodded and started putting my helmet on when his phone rang. It was a short conversation and the one side I heard mostly consisted of Nick saying yeah in various tones, ranging from neutral to surprised. There was a, “No shit,” and a few f-bombs, and then a final, “Yeah.”

  “What was that about?”

  “Joao. Said he knows who put the papers in the package.”

  “Okay,” I said, hoping that it wouldn’t be Jamie after all.

  “My cousin Don is one of Joao’s officers, and he has a lovely, although very high maintenance, fiancée. She works in the post office, and has admitted she wrote the code and put the papers in the package.”

  I remembered the woman. The diamonds in her ears had apparently not been paste after all.

  “Why?”

  “She’s not a genius by any stretch of the imagination. She got paid to tell them about when the police would be where, and when it would be safe to bring in the drugs. Joao said she didn’t know or didn’t tell, who paid her. She saw it as easy cash and didn’t ask.”

  “Stupid,” I muttered.

  “Yup. He said Johns and the others are still watching your professor’s office to catch the one who’ll come pick up the papers.”

  Our eyes met, and we both grinned.

  “I guess the rookie beat them to it,” I snickered.

  “Guess so. Let’s go.” Then he wiggled his brows and added, “Still have a lot of catching up to do, Snow.”

  My giggle was girly and silly, and I cringed a little as I climbed up behind him. Then we roared out of the parking lot.

  My bird warned us when we were half way home.

  “Bad people. Snow! Danger!”

  “Where?” I asked, patted Nick on his shoulder and pointed toward the bird.

  “Behind and in front. Turn right! Turn right!”

  I moved my hand in a wide arch and pointed. Nick got me immediately and turned. There were no signs of anyone chasing us, but we followed her instructions, turning left, going back, and turning again. We were almost home when she shrieked and then told me quietly.

  “Surrounded. Only way out is ahead. Through them.”

  My blood froze, and I shouted to Nick, “All around us. Forward. Through them.”

  He nodded once and pushed the gas.

  They took us down with two shots in Nick's shoulder. I heard him grunt, and then the bike slowed down. Another shot rang, and it hit him in the leg. The bike tilted to the side but he managed to straighten it up again. When he was slowing us down further, I knew we weren’t going to go through whoever was in front of us. Nick was shot, and couldn’t drive us through.

  I cursed myself for not getting my license extended, or even trying to learn at least the basics of driving a bike. I’d try anyway because it was the only thing I could think of.

  The bike stopped, and Nick slid off it to the side, taking it with him to the ground. His leg was stuck under it, and he was breathing heavily.

  “Run,” he said calmly.

  “No.

  “Snow, run. Please, baby, just run. If they want me, then I’m already dead. If they want you, then we have a chance. They’ll never catch you, and they’ll leave me here. Get help.”

  I looked at him and hesitated, and that moment cost us dearly.

  “Give the papers to me,” a deep voice said from the shadows.

  I knew what he meant and turned toward him.

  “Will you leave us here if I give them to you?”

  Silence, and then, “Yes.”

  I pulled the papers out of my pocket and threw them toward where I guessed he was hiding. He was just a shape, emerging as a dark flash from the side. Then he was gone again, and so were the papers.

  “I lied,” he said.

  Then another shot rang out, and Nick jerked, crying out hoarsely as a red stain spread on his gray tee. In the middle of his chest, a little to the left. Right, where his heart was.

  “No!” I shouted and threw myself on top of him, shielding him with my body.

  “You’re next,” the voice said. “Need you both gone.”

  I stretched out on top of Nick and turned toward the shadows, waiting for the pain to hit me. He’d killed Nick, and now he would kill me too.

  “You’ll not harm them more,” a loud voice suddenly called out. “We’ll not let you.”

  Then there were sounds of feet all around us, and a grunt came from the man at the same time as a shot rang out. I felt nothing, and looked around, immediately realizing who’d come to my rescue.

  My friends.

  They came over the walls and through windows, jumping the high fence behind us and went where the tall, gangly figure was pointing. He sent them toward the alley where the shooter had stood, and down the street behind us, and through it all, he stood, straight as a lance and totally unafraid in front of us. Having our backs. Protecting us.

  “Snow?” he asked.

  “Get an ambulance, Bones!” I shouted. “Nick’s shot. It’s bad, Bones. Really bad.”

  Bones pointed toward the side, and after a few seconds, I heard Jeems explain to someone what had happened. I was busy tearing off my hoodie, pressing it on Nick’s chest and surveying his injuries. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or alive, and there was blood everywhere. I shouted for more clothes to stem the blood with and had three hoodies next to me immediately. Jeems was working next to me, crying loudly as she was trying to stop the bleeding from Nick’s leg.

  “I love you,” he murmured suddenly.

  His voice was just a thin, hoarse whisper but I heard him. He was alive.

  “Hang in there Nicky,” I begged. “There’s an ambulance coming. Please, baby… Don’t die. Hang in there.”

  “I love you,” he slurred again.

  There was a frightening rattle in his chest, and I screamed right out.

  Then the sound of sirens echoed, and as I kept screaming out my fear and anguish, the ambulance arrived.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hold on.

  I’d asked them to tell Doc Jamieson what had happened, and that Nick was his cousin, hoping that he would set our issues aside and help us. Jamie was waiting at the doors when they rolled Nick into the hospital. He ignored me and started surveying his cousin as he ran next to the stretcher. When his face closed down my belly started hurting so bad I wanted to scream, but all I could do was whimper. As they rushed down a corridor, I heard Jamie order tests, for an operating room to be readied, and other doctors to be summoned. Just before they d
isappeared behind two swinging doors with signs in red on white that said, “No Entrance,” I called out to him.

  He turned, and the focus in his eyes was so complete, I wasn’t sure he even saw me. Nick had said that he didn’t have the sight, but at that moment, I wondered.

  “I’ll do what I can, but it’s bad, Snow,” he said, added tersely, “Call his parents,” and then they were gone.

  A nurse offered me clean clothes and a place to shower, saying that it would be a while before someone had any news for me. I declined, and after surveying my face, she showed me to a waiting room.

  “Is there someone I can call?” she asked softly.

  I shook my head and focused on breathing. My mind was blank except for one single word that echoed, over and over again.

  Nicky.

  Then it sank in. Call his parents, Jamie said. Oh God, I would have to tell Pauline and Nicholas what had happened. A small whimper crept up my throat, and I clamped my jaws together to keep my teeth from rattling. I couldn’t do it. It made me weak and a coward, but I couldn’t do it. Not over the phone.

  “My phone isn’t working,” I said hoarsely to the kind nurse. “Can I borrow one from you?”

  Without a word, she handed me a portable phone, and after a long look, she left me alone.

  I took a deep breath and made the call.

  “Croxier PD,” a calm efficient voice said.

  “Joao Torres, please.”

  “He is not available at the moment. If you let me know your name, I will ask him to call back.”

  “My name is Snow, and I need to talk to him now. Tell him there has been an –” My voice broke, but I pressed on. “Tell him it’s about Nicky.”

  It took ten seconds to get Joao on the phone, and I counted every one of them. I told him what had happened, he asked a few questions, most of which I couldn’t answer, and then I asked if he could tell Nick’s parents in person.

  “I can’t call them with something like this, Joao… I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Of course,” he murmured. “It’s better like this. Benito is on the mainland, so it’ll take us a few hours to get to the hospital. Call dispatch if –” He was silent for a while and then he said. “Take care, Snow. We’ll be there in a few hours.”

  “Okay,” I said and closed the call without saying goodbye, or thanking him.

  I put the phone on a low table by the door and continued into the waiting room. It was big and empty, and my footsteps bounced between the walls. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and I kept walking to the far end where there was a little alcove. Pressing my back against the wall, I sank down in a corner, pulling my legs up and making myself as small as possible. I wanted to disappear. I wanted everything that had happened in the past hour to disappear.

  I tried to shut down as much of my mind as I could and sat there, clutching a blood-stained hoodie to my chest, rocking back and forth. Breathing, but not seeing anything in front of me but darkness.

  After a while, there were footsteps in the room, and I heard the nurse say, “She was here before… Ah, there’s my phone. She must have gone to shower off the blood.”

  “How is he?” a voice murmured and I recognized Bones.

  “They’re working on him,” the nurse said. “It’ll be hours. Go home and clean up.”

  I tried to move, but it felt like I was buried in a thick fog and I couldn’t make any sounds. All I could do was breathe, and I focused on that.

  Inhale.

  Exhale.

  Nicky.

  It could have been minutes or hours, and then there was suddenly a commotion outside.

  “I love you, baby,” someone called out hoarsely, and then there were running feet disappearing down the corridor.

  Miller?

  “I want Jamieson in there,” a harsh voice barked. Then, “What do you mean busy? He will prioritize this. Get him in there.”

  Hawker Johns.

  I raised my head as Miller walked through the room until he was right in my line of sight. The look on his face was one of complete despair, and as I watched, Hawker came through the room, stopping in front of him.

  “I can’t make it without her,” Miller whispered hoarsely. “I waited so long for her, Hawk. What if –”

  Hawker made a shushing sound and pulled his friend into his arms. Miller held on to him and bent his head into his shoulder. I knew they were close, but until then, I hadn’t realized how much they depended on each other. This wasn’t just two friends, working together. They were brothers, holding on to each other.

  Then more footsteps echoed. Someone ran straight into the room, and I recognized Miller’s brother Carson.

  “Mill,” he said. His voice was thick, as if he was close to tears, and he put his arms around them. “Bo is catching a plane, he’ll be here in an hour.”

  “God, Carson. There was so much blood. I –”

  Miller stopped speaking and what was happening finally sank in. Something was wrong with his wife. Something was wrong with Mary. She was pregnant with twins, and they weren’t due until almost a month, but something must have happened.

  “I can’t make it without her,” he said again, turned toward me but still focusing on Carson.

  His face was ashen, and his eyes were so filled with agony that just looking at them made my own pain shoot through me like a knife.

  “We’ll hold you up,” Hawker murmured. “Just breathe, Mill. That’s all you have to do. We’ll do everything else if you just breathe for us.”

  Tears started running down my cheeks, for Nick, and for Mary and Miller, but mostly for me. I couldn’t make it alone either, and I had no one to hold me up. I’d pushed them away, or let them push me away, and there wasn’t anyone who would hold me when I needed it.

  My mother had done the same thing when Da died. There had been people willing to hold her up, but she had sunk into her grief and pushed them away until she was too far gone to find her way back.

  I must have made a sound because Hawker swung his head around suddenly and our eyes met.

  “Snow?”

  “He’s working on Nicky,” I whispered. “Jamie is busy because he’s working on Nicky.”

  “Jesus.” He took a step toward me, but I pressed further into the corner, so he stopped.

  “He was shot. Two bullets in his shoulder, one in his leg and –” my voice hitched, and then I made myself say it. “One in his heart.”

  “Jesus,” Hawker repeated and crouched down in front of me. “How long have you been here?”

  “Miller,” I said, not addressing him but rather urging Hawker to take care of his friend.

  “I’m good, Snow,” Mill said but when I looked at him it was clear that he wasn’t.

  “Have you called Dante?” Hawker murmured. “Let go of that now,” he added and tried to pull the hoodie out of my hands.

  I held on and shook my head.

  “Excuse me,” a calm voice said from the door. “Relatives of Mary Keeghan?”

  Miller walked over to the doctor immediately, and I held my breath.

  “Your wife is stable at the moment. They are preparing for an emergency C-section right now. We will need to go through some papers.”

  “Right,” Miller said, and they started moving.

  “Go with him,” I said. “He’s doing his part, Hawk. He’s breathing. You promised you’d do all the rest.”

  “Carson will be with him,” he murmured. “I’ll stay with you.”

  “No,” I protested. “He needs you to hold him up. You said you would Hawker.”

  “Don’t need to be with him to do that, sweetie. He knows I’m here.”

  I turned my eyes away from his worried face and started rocking again.

  “Snow?”

  “I don’t know, Bird,” I answered the unasked question. “It’s bad.”

  “Oh,” she said and then she was quiet.

  After a whi
le, I heard more footsteps echo around me and Wilder’s agitated voice.

  “Calm down, Snow,” Mac suddenly murmured as he sat down next to me.

  I exhaled and felt how the muscles in my belly slowly loosened. Falk Mackenzie, Wilder’s boyfriend. The beautiful man with a voice that could turn into soft honey, easily sliding through your soul, making you do whatever he wanted. He repeated his command for me to calm down and I knew well what he was doing but wanted nothing more than obeying him.

  “There you go,” he said gently. “Now let go of that, honey,” he added and pulled my hands loose from the bloody bundle.

  “He’s dying,” I said quietly to Wilder, who had crouched down in front of me.

  “What happened?”

  In slow, measured words I told her everything. While I talked, others came. Kit was suddenly there, and Olly. Wilder’s friend Mickey and his parents came running, and then Jiminella walked in. She stared at me, and I must have looked awful, with dried blood all over my clothes and an equally bloody bundle in my lap.

  “Were you there when Mary…” She trailed off, and it took her two seconds to realize that I liked Mary a lot, but wouldn’t be so devastated by what happened to her. Then she turned toward the corridor outside the room and shouted, “Dante!”

  I closed my eyes. I should have known they’d come, I thought. Then I bent my head and started rocking again. Mac said something, but I closed my mind and refused to listen. He swore and then I felt my cousin’s hand on my cheek, his mind pushing into mine.

  “Hey…” Dante murmured.

  “No,” I whispered into my knees.

  “Snow –”

  I raised my head and looked straight into his eyes.

  “I have his blood all over me. He was bleeding out on that street, and if he dies, his last words to me were that he loves me. You held me up when I was a child, Dante, and I love you so, so much. But I love him more.”

  His hand on my cheek twitched a little, and I tilted my head away from it.

  “You have to leave because I love him more and he’s dying. I might just have a few more moments when he’s breathing with me in this world, and you can’t take that away from me. Please, Dante? I have so little time. Please give me those moments…”