Game

by London Casey

  But why kill me so fast? Why not take me and torture me too? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep me and Shayna alive? Zander could then go after Fiore using me and Shayna.

  Shayna was saved. On purpose.

  Why?

  Simple.

  The baby.

  Fiore thought Shayna was pregnant. So he killed me and took her. He knew I loved her. He was mad at me for his daughter having some kind of crush or something on me. The guy was insane. Completely insane.

  And now he had the woman I loved. The woman who could really be carrying a life inside her.

  I took one step and stopped.

  That’s when I looked back.

  My eyes filled with tears.

  ~

  The contractor tells me I’m crazy. The permits have been wildly expensive. Digging out dirt roads and clearing the trees has been a big pain in the ass. Only a crazy person would spend what I’m spending on a cabin in the middle of the woods. Yeah, there are tons of spots to build cabins. Easier spots.

  But this is the spot.

  This is the spot for me and Carrie to build a cabin and build a life.

  End of discussion.

  Nothing can change it. Nothing can ever take that away.

  I didn’t want to see Cormac - or what was left of him. I didn’t dare get too close to the rubble. The pain, the anger, the guilt, it all rushed freely through my body. Cormac was a straight shooter. A good man. A great brother to me.

  As the anger built and built, creating a tower big enough that I wasn’t sure even I could hold, I realized that this was what Cormac secretly waited for. His own fate. Just like the fate of his sister. Carrie had been killed in a senseless tragedy. A random car accident that maybe could have been prevented. Same right now. Cormac didn’t need to be in the cabin when it exploded. He shouldn’t have been in there.

  When Carrie went, I was told she felt nothing. There was no suffering. Meaning she was here, then gone, instantly.

  Just like Cormac.

  He had been half drunk, hopped up on aspirin, snoring like a wild animal.

  Yeah, maybe it did comfort me a sliver that he didn’t feel any pain when he went, but it didn’t make it right. Yeah, he had given his blessing for me to love Shayna. He understood I was moving forward, even if I didn’t realize it.

  Christ, it was so much to handle.

  I put my back to the truck and started to feel ill. I took breaths but there wasn’t enough air. I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch something, someone. I knew there were pieces - literally - of Cormac just feet away.

  The son of a bitch would never step into a ring again and fight. He would never knock some dude’s jaw backwards. He would never feel that rush of victory. He would never make tons of money and get drunk and laugh, fight, cry, and hug.

  I started to slide down the truck.

  My ass hit the ground and I lost it.

  Cormac and the cabin were the last ties I had to Carrie. I built the damn cabin for her and she never got to see it. And Cormac was her brother by blood and my brother by fight.

  They were gone.

  It was all gone.

  Except Shayna.

  Fiore had her now. I couldn’t go up against a boss. My boss. A guy who had rich Italian blood with connections that were sick. For fuck’s sake, he had somehow managed to rig up my cabin and make it implode!

  But that didn’t mean the game was over. The fight wasn’t over.

  I just needed…

  I picked my head up from between my knees and I saw legs. Beautiful, dark legs. Blood red heels. A black skirt. My eyes kept going and going and going.

  “Finn. I hope you’re not quitting on me now. If you want to see Shayna again alive… and get out of this… stand up and be ready to fight.”

  I blinked a few times to make sense of what I was seeing.

  It was Fiore’s daughter - Mara.

  40.

  (Shayna)

  I sat in a big office chair. It was comfortable leather with a high back to it. My hands held the arms tight. Two men - one on each side of me - stood there with guns on me. Fiore made it clear that if I tried anything, he’d hurt me. I asked about the baby, if he would really kill me, and he smiled. He didn’t respond, which scared me even more.

  We were at the fight, waiting for it to begin.

  Well, not begin, because Fiore assumed Finn to be dead. And a dead man can’t fight, right?

  The door opened and Fiore walked in. He held the door and in came a short woman. She was a little round, but in a beautiful, curvy way. Everything she wore was expensive. Her black hair was curled and pieces of it looked fake. Her face was caked with makeup, obviously trying to make herself look ten years younger.

  “Oh, my Marie,” Fiore said, “I have her right here for us.”

  “Fiore…”

  Fiore grabbed the woman, Marie, by the arm and squeezed. Marie winced and was dragged to the desk.

  “Shayna, this is my wife, Marie. Say hello to her right now.”

  “Hello,” I said.

  Marie stared but didn’t say a word.

  “I brought her for us,” Fiore whispered. “She’s almost sure she’s pregnant. By Finn. You remember Finn, right?”

  “Of course,” Marie said.

  “You see now? You see my work? I’m going to fix what was wrong. What was taken. What happened cruelly to our family.”

  “Fiore…”

  “No,” Fiore growled. “Mara has no sense. She thought she loved Finn… but how could my daughter love a dirty Irish fighter?”

  Love? Finn? Mara?

  “What?” I asked.

  “You don’t speak,” Fiore said to me.

  “It was a harmless crush,” Marie said. “It was a long time ago.”

  “I saw the way he looked at her!” Fiore screamed. “I saw the look in his eyes! And her eyes! Your daughter would have become a whore! A fucking whore!”

  The windows in the room rumbled.

  Then there was silence.

  Fiore wiped his forehead and then put his hands out. They were shaking. He pointed at me. “Look what we’re getting, Marie. This is going to help us. So you and Mara won’t be sad anymore. We can move on. Move forward. We’ll have a new baby to take care of. The baby we should have never lost.”

  Marie turned to Fiore and touched his cheek. “Okay, Fiore. Okay. Just stay calm. Why is she here right now? Why are you pointing weapons at her? She should be resting. Eating. Being cared for.”

  “That’s what I’m doing next,” Fiore said. “I had to get rid of Finn, Marie.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I did, my sweet Marie. There was no choice. He fell in love with Shayna. So now she’s ours. I have business to tend to. Where’s Mara? I want her to see my gift.”

  “She’s not here.”

  “Why?” Fiore growled.

  “She’ll be here soon,” Marie said.

  Her voice was soft and soothing. It seemed to calm Fiore down.

  Marie looked at me but didn’t say a word. She then walked with Fiore out of the office. My stomach sank again.

  Just how fucking sick was this family?

  Fiore’s wife just heard what he had done and what he planned on doing and she did nothing. She did absolutely nothing.

  I lowered my head and wanted to cry.

  The door opened again a few seconds later.

  “She’s right here,” Fiore said.

  I lifted my head, feeling desperate.

  Who wanted to see me now?

  The person then appeared in the doorway. He took up the entire doorway. The second he saw me, he chuckled. That chuckle had become something of a nightmare for me.

  My breath was stolen, but I managed to say one word. His name.

  “Zander.”

  ~

  The door was shut. Fiore and Zander stood there, side by side. They were supposed to be hated enemies. Zander was the one who killed Fiore’s grandchild and son-in-law. They sh
ould not have been standing next to each other.

  “There she is,” Zander said. “My little prize. My fiancee.”

  I saw the flicker of light in Fiore’s eyes.

  “Fuck yourself,” I said. “I was never your anything. I was just looking for my sister!”

  Zander laughed. Maybe he knew what that meant, maybe he didn’t.

  “See, this is what family can do,” Fiore said. “We can set aside some pesky annoyances for the better good.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “Our families will forever be at war,” Zander said. “But you, Shayna, you are the prize that we both wish to obtain, for now.”

  Zander rolled his r’s in a way that made me shiver. His eyes narrowed into two tiny slits. There was death in his eyes.

  “I’m replacing what I lost,” Fiore said. “Because it’s the right thing to do. You have Italian heritage, Shayna. I see it in your eyes, your face, small little features. A blood sample can let me hopefully trace you all the way back to the old country. And that life inside you will repair my family.”

  “He killed your family!” I cried out. “And you’re letting him stand there!”

  Zander made a fist and hit the desk. “I kill no one!”

  “It’s okay,” Fiore said and touched Zander’s shoulder. “Remember - the greater good, my friend.” Fiore looked at me. “We have some business to tend to for now. But it’s going to be amazing what happens from here on out. You’re going to give me a replacement child and then you’re going to give yourself to Zander.”

  “No,” I said. “It won’t work. I’ll scream. Fight. Yell.”

  “You don’t need a tongue to be pregnant,” Zander said. “Or hands. Or arms. Or legs.” His eyes flared with excitement.

  “See, between the two of us,” Fiore said, “we can afford medical care that nobody would ever know about. So if you get out of line, you lose something. But not your life and not the life inside you.”

  I felt sick. My lips started to quiver and I quickly looked left to right, needing somewhere to get sick. I couldn’t make a move or else I’d get hurt. So I chose left, turned my head, and let loose.

  “Oh, this is going to be great,” Fiore said.

  “Yes,” Zander growled. “Yes, it is.”

  He leaned down and looked at me. I felt and looked like death.

  “You do look like her,” Zander whispered. “I should have known better than to trust you. But I thought you would take me to her.”

  “Who?”

  “Sasha,” Zander said through gritted teeth. “She fucked me. You think I didn’t know? I made you mine to get to her. Then you left me for that fighter. Now I see truth. I see lots of truth.”

  “You knew I was Sasha’s sister?” I asked.

  “She fucked me. Then you fucked me. Now I fuck everyone.”

  Zander turned and tore open the door.

  I looked at Fiore. He shook his head. “It was my fault, really. I should have been more careful. I couldn’t call the hit off soon enough, Shayna. It was supposed to be Antonio in the car. Not my grandchild. Not my little Luca. But it was your sister who distracted Antonio. She was the one who did it. Remember that. She killed Antonio and my grandson. Then she ran. Disappeared. No more. No more, Shayna. We will now get what we want.”

  Fiore left the office too.

  And there I was, alone, with two men with two guns pointed at me. The guy on my left was wiggling his foot, shaking my vomit loose.

  I started to piece it together and it made me even sicker.

  I turned my head to the right this time, throwing up again.

  My only hope… my only wish… my only prayer…

  Please make sure Finn runs away from me, and all this mess.

  41.

  (Finn)

  I stood in front of a crackling fire. The story told to me was enough to make me sick. Fiore had set up Antonio to be killed by Zander. After bringing Antonio into the family to marry Mara, Antonio wanted more power. He wanted to fight harder against Zander, which Fiore was against. Why? Because Fiore and Zander had a hidden relationship. They pushed gently when needed to make the feud seem alive and well.

  Baby Luca really was sick and he was not supposed to be in the car that night.

  The plan was supposed to go like this…

  A little after two in the morning, Fiore was going to call Antonio and tell him he’d been shot. Zander was on the loose and Antonio needed to get to Fiore fast. Then he’d lure Antonio to the intersection where he’d meet his fate. A car would stop and a woman, appearing to be drunk, would get out and cause a stir. Antonio would get out of the car and threaten to kill her. There would be about a minute to have someone else come and plant the bomb under the car.

  Fiore fought Antonio on the phone about baby Luca being sick. Antonio - being a good father - insisted on getting the infant to the hospital right away. After all, an extremely high fever was dangerous for a baby.

  Because of the channels of communication created by Fiore to distance himself from the pending assassination of his son-in-law, there wasn’t enough time to call the hit off. Which meant not only did Antonio perish in the attack, but so did baby Luca.

  “My innocent child,” Mara said as she wiped away a tear.

  She was shaking and I put my hand out to touch her arm. She wiggled away from me.

  “No,” she said. “I can take care of myself.”

  “I don’t get this,” I said. “Why wait until now…”

  “The family,” Mara said. She sniffled. “The goddamn family has been deciding on the fate of my father. It’s not like the movies, Finn. It’s not a quick thing. There’s so much that happens and it goes so far, you wouldn’t believe it. I had to grieve my loss and hold it together. I refused to speak to him for years because of it. That’s what kept him on edge. Then he decided to get you involved. Thinking you could make it right by giving a baby to him. To me. He’s insane, Finn.”

  “I see that,” I said. “He killed my best friend.”

  “He killed my only child.”

  You win.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. I put my hand to her arm and she didn’t shake me away. “I can’t believe it.”

  “I did like you,” Mara said. “I used to think about you a lot. You were the ultimate fantasy for me, Finn. You were bad. You were a fighter. You were tough. You weren’t Italian. You were so bad…” Mara smiled.

  I hurried to let her go.

  “It would never happen,” I said. “I would never do that to Fiore. Or your family. You deserved better. You still deserve better.”

  Mara turned to face me. She touched my face and her bottom lip quivered. “You’re going to help me.”

  “Why? Fiore thinks I’m dead. I’m free now.”

  “What about Shayna? Don’t you love her?”

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “Then you need to save her. Get her out of the life.”

  “How?”

  “Me,” Mara said. “I’m going to make it happen. And you’re going to do me a favor in return.”

  “Name it. Anything.”

  “I know who helped to kill Antonio and Luca. The woman. I know who she is. I don’t know where she is. But when I find out, you have to kill her. It can’t be family.”

  “Mara… I’m a fighter, not a murderer.”

  “If you want to save Shayna and have a chance at living a life…”

  “Fine,” I said. “Just tell me what we need to do. Fiore has a fight for me, but he thinks I’m dead.”

  Mara put her other hand to my face. She moved to her toes and our eyes met. “That’s why you’re going to show up and fight. You’re going to win. You’re going to make me a lot of money because I bet on you.” Mara inched closer. Her lips brushed mine for a second. “Then it’s all going to come crashing down, Finn. You’ll get her, I promise. Just tell me you’ll end my suffering.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Okay, Mara. I’ll do whatever you need.�
��

  “All I have right now is a name. But I’ll find her. And you’ll kill her.”

  Then Mara gave me the name.

  Sasha.

  That was Shayna’s sister.

  Was I going to have to kill Shayna’s sister?

  ~

  Things with Mara stayed cool. Which was good. She was a beautiful woman with a broken heart. I did not intend on messing with her or her heart. My love was contained for only Shayna. And I had to get her back. Make sure she was alive. Safe. With me.

  Mara kept in contact with her mother.

  The entire family was preparing for tonight.

  I climbed into the back of the SUV and sat there.

  Mara got in the other side.

  There was a driver and he put up a black window that separated the front from the back.

  That’s when Mara turned to me. “Just once.”

  “What?”

  “You and me, Finn. You’re…”

  I turned to her and touched her face. “Mara, listen to me. When this smoke clears you’re going to be okay. I had no idea you were living this life and this lie. You cannot get involved with a guy like me. Ever. And I’m in love with Shayna. It’s not a joke. It’s as real as anything I’d ever felt.”

  Mara reached for my hand and took it. She pulled it toward her chest.

  I remembered watching Mara grow up. From a pretty young woman into a sultry adult. She had some obvious work done to her body, mainly where she had my hand going.

  I twisted my wrist away from her. “No, Mara. You’re not in the right state of mind. You’ll regret it forever. I won’t do it. I’m committed to Shayna.”

  I’m committed? When the fuck have I ever been committed? Besides Carrie…

  “You’re a good man,” Mara said. “I’m sorry that because you’re Irish you get treated like scum. You’re not scum, Finn.”

  “And you’re not some family princess,” I said. “You’re a strong woman. Never forget that.”

  “Will you at least hold my hand for a little while?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said.

  I didn’t interlock my fingers with hers, but I held her hand.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes.

  “Finn?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “This entire thing… it’s on your shoulders.”