Two men were holding up an unconscious woman, Josie. Pinned between them, feet dangling, head bent to the side, it was clear she’d been beaten to a pulp. Her face and hair were a mess, her lips split and bleeding, one eye was half shut and the other was completely closed and purpling. Hannah didn’t know who was more horrified; herself, or the five grown men who turned to look at her. Her eyes riveted on Johnny despite her shock, or maybe because of it and in a voice sounding far calmer than she felt she said, “Johnny, what’s going on here?”
Johnny exploded. “Fuck, damn, shit, Hannah can’t you ever listen?”
She noticed with a sick thud in her chest that his jacket was off and his sleeves were rolled up.
He sighed, growled. “This is none of your business Han. I want you to turn around, go back to the car and forget everything you saw here tonight. I woulda let it go, but your so-called “friend” was stupid enough to put the screws to me and that I cannot tolerate, capeche?”
Eyes flickering to where Josie’s limp body lay amidst the men and back to Johnny she replied in the coldest voice she could muster, “No, I don’t understand, I won’t understand, this is wrong, Johnny.” Tears stung her eyes. Josie looked like she was dying or dead. She started towards her, but Johnny barred her way, arm out. He ordered the two men holding Josie to take her out of there. “You know what to do, fellas.”
The two men roughly carried Josie’s inert body and put her into the backseat of an idling truck, dumping her as carelessly as a sack of potatoes.
Hannah felt herself growing hysterical as Johnny held her arm even tighter. “Where are they taking her? To a hospital, right? She’s gonna be okay, isn’t she? Johnny!”
He exchanged a glance with his men before he looked back at her. His dark eyes looked hooded and flat. “Enough, Hannah. She was a liar and a loose end I could not leave dangling. She sold you out and woulda done the same to me.”
Hannah was chilled but she knew hysterics only made him angrier so she fought for calm. “Johnny, please make them take her to the hospital.” Is this what had happened to Jimmy?
He shook her, speaking close to her face, each word like a slap. “No one, not even you tells me what to do, how to protect what’s mine.”
Men were opening one of the docking doors. Frantic, Hannah didn’t know what to do, but knew she had to something. She pleaded with Johnny to let Josie go. “If she dies it’s murder—murder! If you don’t want her to go to the hospital, let me take her home. I’ll take care of her myself. Please, don’t do this, Johnny.”
There was no give in Johnny’s eyes and he held onto her with a tight grip until the truck left and the garage door closed. Sobbing, she raised her hand, tried to fight him but he pulled away. Her fingernail accidentally raked his cheek.
Finger pointed, he razed her with furious eyes. “She got what was comin’ to her and I don’t want to hear another word outta you. Nothing. It’s over and done with. You will forget about it.”
“I will not. I cannot, please don’t do this.” Her mind felt as dead as her shattered hopes. She could not accept that the man she loved was capable of such cruelty. Though she’d fretted that Johnny might be capable of murder, she hadn’t really believed it possible until tonight. She felt paralyzed. Her mind kept wanting to say that this was some sort of misunderstanding. That Johnny had just momentarily lost control.
“Get her the hell outta here. Take her home,” cursed Johnny, obviously furious she’d discovered what he was doing and then questioned him in front of his men.
Turk and Charlie moved towards her. She’d never felt so helpless in her life, or so sick at heart. But Johnny walked away, dismissing her as easily as he’d dismissed Josie. Josie. By rote she followed the two men flanking her as they led her out of the warehouse. She wanted to be wrong, hoped she was wrong, that Johnny would relent and Josie would turn up fine but Josie might already be dead.
Walking quietly between the two men, her mind frantically grasping at straws, she tugged hard at the ring on her finger. She wanted it off…away, and pulled so hard it hurt her but finally slipped off her finger. She heard it clank to the ground with a dull thud and didn’t even look back to see where it fell. The ring was as burdensome as the realization that the man she loved, trusted and lived with for over five years was not only ruthless, unethical and a thief, but quite probably a heartless, cold blooded killer.
24 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Hannah knew she’d worn blinders long enough. Anxious to avoid Johnny’s excuses or his temper she wouldn’t return home at his say so, not now, not yet. The moment Charlie and Turk took her outside, she ran. Despite their best efforts to chase her down, even in high heels, she managed to ditch the two of them.
Her world had spun off its axis tonight. She cried for herself and Josie until she had no more tears. If Josie was dead, she couldn’t help her now and the thought that she was party to murder nearly killed her. She walked until her feet burned, ducking and hiding behind shrubs whenever she heard a vehicle coming. She took shortcuts through alleyways, yards, aware of nothing but the need to be free and the spiral of her churning thoughts. Free—ha!
The fact was, she had nowhere to go. Though she thought about calling the cops, she had no evidence beyond what she’d seen and just couldn’t rat Johnny out. So she drank herself silly at some obscure speak she’d stumbled upon, listened to strangers conversations, fended off unwanted advances and thought hard about the mess she was in. How could she live with Johnny if he’d beat up Josie and left her for dead or had actually killed her? How could she live without him?
She wished she had the kind of courage it took to just keep on going and never look back. She didn’t want to stay and she didn’t want to leave, but what was a girl to do. She had a career and a home, jewels and a million dollar wardrobe. She couldn’t just walk away from all that. Trap and treasure they defined her life. Had made it all worth living. She was a coward and it stung that Johnny probably knew that too.
“So, you’re finally home. Did ya get your childish tantrum out of the way then?” Johnny had been waiting up for her. He looked rumpled, tired and distressed. “Where’s your ring?”
She felt utterly drained and tried to ignore his piercing stare. “I took it off. It isn’t every day I see a woman beaten, maybe murdered, a woman I considered a friend.”
“Don’t get on your high horse, Han. You know what I am and what I do. It ain’t all candy and roses. You should trust me enough to know I don’t go around hurtin’ people for no reason. She tried to blackmail me. I had to take care of it. I take no pleasure in that.”
“But murder.” She sighed, a long deep breath. She didn’t even want to bring up Jimmy, couldn’t. Her voice sounded shaky even to her. She felt as helpless as she did miserable. “How can you live with yourself? How can you act like beating Josie to death was justified? It’s all so wrong—disgusting.”
“Right or wrong, the sin’s on me, okay? She opened her trap where she shouldn’t have. You didn’t have nothin’ to do with it and you couldn’t have done anything to change it. Look, I’m sorry you saw, but no more, I don’t want to hear any more.” He was done and so convinced that he was justified she could almost pretend she’d overreacted—almost.
When he said he was going to go out of town for a couple of weeks, she was relieved. But, to her utter shame when he reached out for her, when he held out his arms she went to him, desperate for comfort and hating herself for the weakness.
Hannah looked around the club. The Domino was only half packed. Joey Romeo winked and she winked back. What the hell, it had become harder to smile, to pretend she wasn’t carrying a ten ton weight on her shoulders, but somehow the flirty cop had managed to become a friend of sorts, appearing out of nowhere to hear her sing or offer a sympathetic ear even though she really couldn’t talk about Johnny, wouldn’t. Despite everything, she felt she owed him that.
“I can use a drink,” said Hannah. She blithely tossed her purse on the wood
bar. She sat down next to him. Her set over, she reached for his glass.
“Besides stealing my heart, now you’re after my booze too.”
“Don’t tease me. You’re married.”
“So what. You’re as good as married too, right?”
She didn’t answer. Her eyes widened in horror as she tasted his drink and realized he’d somehow managed to get the bartender to serve him alcohol. “Uh oh, now we’re all in trouble…how?”
He put his finger to his lips, his eyes teasing and intelligent. “Shh, it’s okay. Smitty and I go way back and no one here knows I’m a cop. I’ve got bigger fish to fry the bustin’ joints for servin’ a little spice. For the record, I’m married but I live alone, separated a year now.”
She waved to a fella standing at the end of the bar and smiled at some of the regulars.
“Who’s that?”
“That’s Pappy. He works here, security, lights, you name it.” She nodded when Smitty brought her usual, thanking him.
“So, how’re things with your mobster?”
So he knew Johnny was out of town. “That isn’t very subtle of you, detective.”
“I happen to be off duty, Hannah. Calling me detective…is that your way of keeping me at arm’s length?”
“I have to admit, you are one tough fella to keep at arm’s length.”
He laughed.
Handsome, smart and snappy. She enjoyed feeling the snap, but knew the last thing she needed right now was another fella complicating her life. She shrugged, played with her swizzle stick. “I thought coppers were never off-duty.”
“You thought wrong. Say, whatever happened to that maid who worked for you? Josie?”
Hannah froze. She picked up her glass and belted her drink down in one big gulp. She hoped she sounded casual. “Left to nurse a sick family member.” Had Johnny silenced Josie because she knew something that would have implicated him in Jimmy’s death? The questions hadn’t stopped nagging at her.
“Funny, we got a call from someone, a woman. She implied that we should check into it. That something bad may have happened to the woman. Know anything about that?”
His shirt was blue, his pants black, his eyes were intense and she was dying inside.
He grinned, one eyebrow raised. “You tryin’ to remember something or trying to forget?”
She got it together, smiled and pushed her glass towards the edge of the bar. “Gnat’s spats, all I know is what I told you.” She’d helped the only way she could think of.
“You looked distracted.”
“I was just thinkin’.”
“About what?”
Her pause must have seemed calculated. “The end of a good show…better things to come…the future…better choices…anything. I’d settle for peace and happiness. Are you going to check into finding Josie at all?”
“Officially she isn’t lost, at least no one has reported her missing and there is no body so maybe she did just leave town,” he said not committing either way. Smitty brought drinks. He picked up his and waited for her to do the same. When she did, he tapped glasses. “As for the rest, let’s drink to that, babe. There ain’t enough happy things in this world to think about.”
They belted their drinks in unison, eyes glued to one another.
Hannah broke contact, waved Smitty away from refilling another. “No fellas, that’s enough for me.” Another acid burden to eat away at her soul.
Romeo smiled. “So you’re a lightweight, quittin’ already. I thought we were just starting, drinking to happy things.”
“We were, but I don’t want to get too happy.”
His Ray eyes drilled right into hers. “You’re being abstract. I always did like puzzles. Question?”
“Have at it, detective.”
“Do you think it’s more exciting to think about the things you’ve already had, or to anticipate what you might have next?”
She feigned ignorance, deciding to ignore the double entendre. “That’s the cop in you, liking puzzles, asking strange questions.” She leaned back into her stool and straightened. In spite of her surprise at his aggressive flirtation, she was amused.
He laughed a warm appreciative, male sound. “I’m not askin’ as a cop.”
“Oh.” The leather of her chair felt cool. She didn’t know what to say so she browsed through her purse, pulled out a cigarette. Anything to change the subject. “I didn’t know Italians had green eyes.”
Sulphur flared and she drew the warm smoke in from the match he rushed to hold for her. Few things quite warmed the blood and distracted like an innocent game of chase and retreat.
He shifted in his seat, into the game. “Yeah. My Mama’s people are from Southern Italy and believe it or not, we Italians come in all sizes, shapes and colors.” He bent toward her, moved closer, voice low. “Plus, imagine this. We ain’t all gangsters and bad guys either.”
She tried to appear unaffected as she exhaled. She blinked and changed the subject. “Imagine that. So your Mama has green eyes too?”
He was the one amused now. “No, she has blue eyes like you. Light haired, not as light as you, but blonde.”
“Interesting.” She took one more long drag and put out her cigarette.
“So where is he – your gangster?”
She crossed her ankles, tried to look unruffled. “Florida on business.”
“Seems he does a lot of traveling. Any chance he’s goin’ to Atlantic City?”
“Maybe, why?”
“Word is there is gonna be a big mobster shindig, a conference.”
“Oh.” She said it with open contempt. “You going?”
“Not my turf and unless someone gets killed here or files a missing persons report, not my problem either. So, which bothers you more, the nature of the man’s business, the man or his comings and going’s?”
She tried to look cool, lit another cigarette. “Who says I’m bothered?”
He gave her a look, shook his head. “I can tell something’s off with you.”
“Everyone has problems. I’m just tired, my life feels too complicated lately.”
“You’re too young to be tired like that. Nothing is that hopeless.”
“You’re wrong.” He had no idea how depressing it was to live with the burdens she now carried.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No, do you, really?”
“What I’d really like to talk about is you and me and how I’d like nothing more than to make love to you, but of course, if all you want to do is talk about Johnny, I’m a real good listener. If you ever need me I could be there for you, Hannah, whatever way you want, as a cop, a friend, a man, your choice.”
She laughed, unable to help herself. “Choice, ha, I don’t believe in that anymore, but I’ll be sure to remember the offer.”
Grinning, he chucked her affectionately on the tip of her nose. “You do that, babe. You do that.”
It was dark by the time she got back to the brownstone, grocery bags in hand. Opening the door, humming to herself, she turned on a light. She put the bags on the counter and immediately jumped, noticing someone in the room. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s the greeting I get after all this time? Jesus, Hannah, where’ve you been?”
The peacefulness she’d felt the last few weeks vanished. He looked disheveled and irritable. He must have been waiting hours, dozing in the chair. Johnny didn’t like being kept waiting. “Well, you scared me, Johnny. I was out rehearsing and I shopped. I didn’t expect you back until Thursday.” She’d met Joey Romeo for a drink. It’d become a routine of sorts the last few days.
“I do live here, pay the bills, own the place…” You. The last was implied. “You know I went to Atlantic City for the conference. Man, did that start out on the wrong foot.”
She thought she’d prepared herself for seeing him, for his inevitable return but she was trembling. Her skin prickled with apprehension. Lord knew he looked good, his already tawny olive
skin tanned dark, framing his handsome face, but her heart beat like an insect fluttering against a window pane. Just seeing him affected her senses, her body, her reason, but not usually like this. She was scared and didn’t want to lose control, to forget. She had to talk to him, tell him what she’d decided. She took off her hat, her coat. “What do you mean?”
“Well, everyone from New York was there even Papa Johnny.”
“Sounds like a good time.” Nervous she encouraged him to talk, started unpacking the groceries. She hoped her voice didn’t sound shaky.
He studied her, grumbled. “All the big mahofs were there; Joe Adonis, Luciano, Longy Zwillman, Waxey Gordon from Long Island, Nig Rosen from Philly and Nucky Johnson. He’s New Jersey’s capo.” He told her Johnson made reservations for the Chicago contingency at some fancy hotel on the boardwalk under some made-up name. “When the manager at The Breakers Hotel saw it was for Al and his men, he refused them admission. Al pitched a fit and threatened to kill the manager until they managed to pull some strings and get him booked at The Ritz, an even nicer hotel. Even so, Al was so pissed he tore everything off the walls of the lobby until Lucky and Papa Johnny got him calmed down.”
“Sounds like he’s out of control. The paper said he’s got syphilis from all the whores he sleeps with. Poor Mae. Is that true?” She wrinkled her nose, picked up a bag she saw on the table. “What’s this?
“A souvenir, salt water taffy’s.” He grimaced, stretched, shrugged. “Even though Al’s a cretin, he’s still family. Forgive me yet?”
“No, but these look good,” she peered inside the bag, picked out a strawberry candy wrapped in wax paper. Her gaze shifted back to him. “I can’t do it, Johnny. I can’t forget.”
“You have to. I never lied about who I am, where I come from. What I do is what I do. Where’s your ring?”
She cringed, afraid to say she threw it away and lied. “In its box. Do you want it back?”
The Songbird with Sapphire Eyes Page 30
