It was fear. He was expecting to see Micky on the floor, but Micky was smiling at him. And then he opened his mouth to speak.
“We have a word for guys like you where I come from, asshole. It’s called amateur.”
Micky finished his sentence with a punch to Martin’s gut. I had seen Martin wind up on his punch, but I hadn’t seen Micky’s fist pull back at all. But its impact on Martin was immediate and dramatic as he dropped everything he was holding and started to slump to the floor. The only thing keeping him from becoming one with the hardwood was the hands of the guy who had just hit him.
Two hands on either side of Martin’s collar, lifting him back to his feet on wobbly legs. He hauled off and pushed with a velocity that launched Martin off his feet into the wall three feet behind him. There was the bone crunching sound of his back creasing the wall and he started to collapse again, but Micky was on him, two angry hands pinning him to the wall.
“Hand me that divorce settlement, Jackie.”
His voice was calm, a sharp contrast to the look of pained panic in Martin’s eyes. I grabbed the settlement from where it had landed on the floor and handed it to Micky. He took it from my hand while keep one locked around Martin’s throat.
“I wasn’t asking you, fuck face. I was telling you. Sign the fucking document or I’ll beat the ever loving shit out of you.”
I was certain no one had ever talked to Martin that way. He was two hundred and fifty pounds of bluster being held up against the wall in sheer terror. And my only thought while watching it was that Micky probably just fucked up the fresh bandage I had put on his shoulder.
“Pen.”
It came off Martin’s lips like a nervous little chirp. I grabbed a pen from the table and handed it to Micky, who held it out in front of Martin. He relaxed his grip from Martin’s neck and I watched him breathe his first breath in minutes as he took the pen from Micky’s hand and leaned over to sign.
I had never seen Martin do anything as fast as put his signature on the rumpled document in his hand. He signed it and even handed it back to Micky, with a look that almost provoked sympathy. Almost. Micky took the pen from him and Martin stood there dumbly, rubbing his chest, until Micky spoke to him again.
“Get the fuck out of here.”
It wasn’t a command he had to say twice. Martin moved faster out of that house than I had ever seen him move before in his life. Tail between his legs and ego checked at the door, he was in his car and pulling out into the street before the ink was dry on the divorce document. It would have been sad if it wasn’t absolutely exhilarating, and I collapsed into the closest living room armchair.
“Jesus Christ, I’ve never seen anything like that. I was married to that man for over five years—I never once saw anyone put him in his place.”
“Uh huh.”
He was watching Martin leave, peering out the front window blinds in an abundance of caution.
“Is that even legal? Will that signature hold up, Micky?”
“Probably not.”
He was talking to me but still looking through the blinds.
“But it doesn’t matter. I’ve known plenty of guys like that. He isn’t going to contest it in front of anyone and claim he was harassed. He’s going to be back in the bar in a couple of hours with his friends, claiming he changed his mind and he just wants to settle with you. Guys like that will never admit he was bullied back.”
That was a good point, and I felt myself smiling in triumph. I looked up to share it with him but I was still looking at the back of a Hawaiian shirt.
“You still worried about him? He’s left, Micky. You made him piss himself. He’s probably halfway home by now.”
“I’m not looking at him. I’m looking at the two guys coming down the street.”
Triumphant elation crushed by instant anxiety.
Fuck my life…
“Listen to me, Jackie. Do exactly as I tell you. They aren’t coming here to talk to us, I can promise you that.”
Still talking to me with eyes out the window.
“One of them is going around back—he’ll be coming in first. Just stay calm. This is what I need you to do…”
Chapter 10
Jackie
I was at the bottom of the stairs, just out of view of the back door. The only thing separating me from the view of anyone coming up the back steps was three feet of wall at the edge of the stairs. Two steps and a right hand turn, and I would be entering the kitchen, like I had done a million times before.
But never like this. Never with someone who was potentially coming here to kill me.
I had done exactly what Micky said. I waited until I could just hear the creak of shoes on the back porch. It happened a split second before his hand was on the knob, turning silently a handle that had purposely been left unlocked. Whoever was out there would be ready, coming through the door right now, and a sensible person would have turned and fled.
But today I was anything but sensible, and I took two steps forward and I turned.
He was in the doorway, just like Micky told me he would be. One hand on the doorknob and the other holding a handgun. His lips were curled in a snarl, and the gun was level with the floor, its menacing barrel pointed right at me. But his pause was immediate. His posture relaxed slightly and he blinked twice, the barrel of the gun drooping slightly towards the floor.
I stood absolutely still, just like Micky had said. Don’t scream, don’t run, and don’t say a word. Just Jacqueline Wilson, topless, looking at the man who was entering her house. And he paused long enough to survey the goods, just like Micky said he would. And by the time he had collected himself and started to raise the gun, it was already too late.
Micky had already launched himself from behind the cabinet at the back door. I had told him I didn’t have any weapons in the house, but he had found a rolling pin in the kitchen which seemed to do just fine. The man still had one hand on the doorknob when the rolling pan connected between his eyes and the back flipped out of my house. The sound of wood on skull echoed throughout the kitchen, and I knew that guy was unconscious before he hit my back steps.
Relief came quickly, but it was short lived. Micky closed the back door and grabbed the handgun from the floor. The optimistic part of me thought we were safe, but the pessimist in me heard the front door opening. Micky sounded more like a realist as he reached out and grabbed me.
“Stay down.”
Chapter 11
Micky
Two hits—me hitting Freddy with the rolling pin and his gun hitting the floor. That was the only thing I was focused on because I knew once Freddy hit the turf he wasn’t a threat to anyone for at least another two weeks. But I also knew I had a half-naked nurse in the room with me and probably less than five seconds to move so I grabbed the gun and made the five seconds count.
I jumped up and grabbed Jackie. She was standing there like a deer in the headlights and I knew she was a beautiful target as I heard the front door start to open. One pull of her arm and I felt her body against mine, and I told her two words before pulling her to the floor.
“Get down.”
We hit the deck under the kitchen counter as I hear the first of his boots hit the hardwood. Anthony Gisetti—I never fucking liked the guy, and right now I liked him even less because I knew what his weapon of choice was. He knew he had me trapped and he decided to be cute and call out to me before flipping off the safety.
“That’s a nice shirt you’re wearing, Micky. Where do you get a fucking shirt like that?”
It was a rhetorical question, because the sound that came after it was machine gun fire that raked across the wall of the kitchen three feet above our heads. He made a full pass of the wall, obliterating everything he could see because Anthony was a ‘shock and awe’ kind of guy. The kitchen was instantly filled with splinters of tile and the smell of gunpowder as he finished his first pass and paused a second.
And I knew he’d stepped forward and moved t
o his right. It was the only way to get past the counter. He was going to try to flush me out.
“Come on out, Micky. I’ve got a little message from Sammy for you.”
I hate the fucking guys that talk before killing. I never talk.
He didn’t wait for me to come out to deliver his message. He started raking the wall in the opposite direction, a little lower this time. Any knick knack that wasn’t destroyed on his first pass was raining down on me and my naked friend in clouds of debris, and I knew he was getting closer. But his line of fire was also moving away from me this time, which meant I had a second or two at most.
Some guys are so fucking stupid.
I released Jackie and rolled to my left and raised the gun one foot off the floor. His eyes opened in surprise but nobody could move that fast with a machine gun and I managed to squeeze off three bullets in succession. I was never a great shot but I placed them tight, and his reaction told me all I needed to know about my placement.
“Mother fucker!”
Fucking ankles, Anthony. I always told you guys to watch your ankles for shit coming at you low. I always said one of these days it’s going to catch up with you. Looks like today’s the day…
His machine gun fire turned into a corkscrew pattern that spiraled into the ceiling and I watched him pinwheel off his feet. Somehow he was able to make it to the front door as I tried to squeeze off another two shots and he hobbled out into the yard. I could just see the top of his greasy head stumbling across her lawn and I leaned down quick before chasing him.
“Stay here.”
“Um, not a problem.”
Tires were squealing from the street, telling me I wasn’t catching Anthony before I even got to her front door. He got out into the street and into the passenger side of the car before I could even get to the top step. I saw enough to know that my buddy with the scar was behind the steering wheel but I didn’t see much else except for the rear of the Lincoln as it sped off down the street. And then I started doing the math.
Residential neighborhood + machine gun fire + squealing Lincoln Continental tires = police being called about two minutes ago. One minute if I was lucky. And I ran back into the kitchen.
“Are you OK?”
She was still huddled topless underneath her kitchen counter, which now looked like it had been through a war zone. She, on the other hand, looked spectacular. Certainly good enough to stop a wise guy in his tracks.
“Um, yeah. A little dirty.”
I took my eyes off of her long enough to grab my debris covered briefcase from the corner.
“We’ll get washed up later. We need to get out of here and fast. I think it’s safe to say they officially know who you are now.”
Chapter 12
Micky
“They knew where I was, Jimmy. I almost got clipped.”
“What? Where the fuck are you? Hang on a second.”
I could hear the sound of scrambling on the other side of the phone and I knew wherever he was he was now getting behind a closed door. I was already behind one. I was standing in what was probably the last phone booth in the city.
“What are you fucking talking about? How did you almost get clipped?”
“Sammy. He knew where I was. He came rolling up with Anthony and Freddy and tried to finish it. It didn’t work out too well for either one of those fucks, though.”
“You killed them both?”
“No. But Freddy is probably still unconscious and Anthony’s dancing days are over.”
“Where are you now, Micky?”
I looked around—not because I didn’t know where I was, but because I wanted to make sure I could still see Jackie. And there she was, directly in eye sight, buttering up a roll.
“We’re at some greasy spoon on the edge of nowhere.”
“Whose ‘we,’ Micky?”
“I’m with a nurse from County General. She helped me get away from Sammy the first time he tried to pinch me.”
“Jesus Christ…”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds, Jimmy.”
“No, it’s worse if you’re out there running around with some skirt. Are you out of your fucking mind, Micky?”
“She saved my ass three times now Jimmy. And I know Sammy has a bullet with her name on it. She hit him with a bedpan at the hospital.”
“Hang on a second, back that up. What happened at the hospital?”
“Never mind that, I’ll explain it to you later. All I need from you now is for you to tell me that you’ve talked to the old man. I need to make things right with him or this shit is never going away.”
“You still got the money, Micky?”
It was a dumb question, but I looked down at the case by my feet. Three days ago, it had been brand spanking new—one hundred bucks at the local superstore for leather trim and spindle locks. It already looked like it had been through a war.
“Yeah, I have the money. Have you talked to him?”
“I talked to him enough to know that he isn’t going to be back in the city until tomorrow now, Micky. There’s nothing you can do until tomorrow. You need to go find a place to shack up for at least another night. Are you taking this broad with you?”
From the phone booth on the corner I could see ‘this broad’ eating her buttered roll and taking a sip of her coffee. Even from where I was I could see her little pinky raised off the porcelain cup. She was a lady. Ruby would have killed the coffee from a dirty mug and then belched.
“I have to at least watch her until I talk to your old man. The second I leave her alone, Sammy is going to clip her.”
“Unless you clip him first.”
That was the obvious outcome, and it was the one we both knew that I preferred. Whether or not I ended up talking to Big Poppa, I wanted this thing to end with my hands on Sammy’s throat.
“You need to be careful, Micky.”
“I’m always careful. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Sammy has tried to kill you three times in the last two days. What the fuck do you think that means?”
“It means that we aren’t exactly going to prom together.”
“I think it means more than that, Micky. I know you two always hated each other, but this feels like more than just a grudge to me.”
“He’s probably just after the money too, Jimmy. Killing me is just an added bonus.”
“Maybe. But he’s going through an awful lot of trouble.”
Jackie took another sip of her coffee and looked out the window towards me. Our eyes met and she smiled.
“Tell you what, Micky—do you know where the Bass River Motel is?”
“Yeah, I know it. The little place over on Harrington.”
“That’s it. Why don’t you and your girl go hole up there. I know the owner, I’ll give him a call and let him know you’re coming.”
Jackie had turned away and was talking to a waitress.
“Thanks brother, I owe you one.”
“No problem, Micky. Just watch yourself. I have a feeling Sammy is working for someone else.”
Chapter 13
Micky
I slid into the seat across from her in the booth. She was smiling at me and looked remarkably chipper for a civilian who had just had an attempt on her life. But she was also on her second cup of diner coffee so I supposed that had something to do with it.
“So you made your phone call?”
“Yes. The guy I need to speak to isn’t back until tomorrow.”
She was looking at me with those puppy dog eyes while chewing on the rest of her roll.
“So what does that mean, Micky?”
“It means I got us a place to stay where we’ll be safe until I can talk to him tomorrow.”
I watched her as she sighed and it tugged at my heart in a place I thought had died a long time ago.
“Jackie, you can ditch me now if you want. I’m not telling you I’m going to stick around until the police get here, but you can drop me off a
nd go directly to the police station yourself. The problem is Sammy the Scar is still out there and I don’t think the police are going to do a bang up job of protecting you. If anything, he might get to you faster once the police have you.”
I wasn’t finished talking, but the waitress with the big hair was back at our table putting down dishes of food in front of us.
“Can I get you two anything else?” Big Hair asked.
“No thanks,” I told her.
I watched the hair as she walked away.
“You were still on the phone and I wanted to order, so I got you eggs and pancakes.”
“I’m a vegan.”
She looked at me and laughed which was exactly the reaction I had been expecting.
“A vegan hitman? Seriously?”
She was whispering when she said it and it made me wonder what her bedroom voice was like.
“There are a lot of things about me that would surprise you. The fact that I’m vegan should probably be the last thing on that list.”
She was already helping herself to the eggs from my plate as she tossed me a consolation pancake.
“I mean, it’s just funny, that’s all. Considering the kind of work you do. Vegan?”
“OK, let’s put that behind us for now. Today’s a big day for you, Jackie. We should be celebrating.”
“What, me not getting killed in my own house?”
“Well, there’s that too. But I was thinking about this husband of yours. I think as of today, you are officially divorced.”
The look on her face told me she had completely forgotten about that, which was understandable. But the smile that spread across her face told me she was glad I reminded her. I raised a water glass and clinked it off her half empty coffee cup.
Dirty Hitman Page 5
