by Eden Rose
I shake my head, sucking in as much air as I can. “No, no I’m not lying!” I stammer. He squeezes my neck tighter and I drop the gun without realizing I did it until I hear the crack of the bullet being shot through the barrel of the gun.
The man squeezing my neck, shoves me away from him and I fly back a little. “Fucking bitch!” He shouts, punching me in the face.
I fall to the floor from the extreme force of his punch. My head smashes against the coffee table making everything go black.
My last thought before the darkness took me was of Victor.
How I wish he would just hold me once more.
Victor
S omething inside me shifts as I push through the door to Amanda’s room. The timing of my contract to kill Vincent and then Amanda being found is too coincidental to not have been planned. Someone’s messing with me and I have a feeling this person is setting me up. They are setting me up to see if I get sloppy and they can pick me off.
The perfect way to do that? Hurt Calista or finish off Amanda. Either of the two would be push me off the deep end and make me come swinging.
“Amanda, what’s wrong?” I ask as I stroll through her doorway.
She’s propped up on pillows with a remote in her hand. She doesn’t look upset or worried at all. My body goes on full alert. She sounded scared on the phone but she’s looking fine now… There’s something not fucking right here.
“Why did you call me over here if you are fine?” I demand. I’m pissed as fuck that I left Calista at her house like she’s some type of whore.
Amanda winces. “I’m so sorry! I tried to call you back and tell you I don’t need you anymore and I can’t find my phone.”
I growl. “What made you flip out then?”
“I was having side effects from all the drugs they gave me and it’s making me a little crazy,” she tells me casually.
“What the fuck?”
Suddenly I hear people yelling and a gurney being ran down the sterile hallway. There’s doctors and nurses following behind it trying to keep up. “We need an O.R. immediately!” One of the doctors yelled.
“We have to get her checked out to see if she’s got any internal bleeding from being ruptured… Or something!” A nurse calls out.
“Out of the way!” Someone yells at me and I back up.
I stare at the woman on the gurney and I feel the air being knocked out of my lungs. It is Calista.
“What happened?” I beg while running after them. Amanda has been forgotten and now I’m focused on Calista. Who I should have been focused on all along.
“Calista!” I beg hoping she will look at me and tell me this is all a dream.
Every ounce of air I have had in my body, I feel is clogged in my throat. Even though I feel as if my world has been shifted, I’m running after her in hopes of getting some answers.
“Sir, we need you to step away!” One of the nurses cry out and pushes me out of the way to the door.
Calista’s being wheeled into a bright room with a shit ton of doctors talking in doctor jargon. I have never been as scared as I am right now.
Did Calista know I loved her? Did she know how much I cared about her even though we haven’t known each other that long? I need her like I need oxygen.
I know she’s on the brink of death because for the first time, I’m truly scared of being a victim of The Grim Reaper.
*
I ’ve lived a pretty colorful life. I’ve taken what wasn’t mine and have killed anyone that has been in my way with no emotions.
I remember the first person I killed. The man had taken a bunch of pictures of my underaged girlfriend, Amanda. He stalked her like she belonged to him and he wouldn’t let her forget about him, either. She moved with her family a couple of times in hopes of throwing him off, but nothing worked. It wasn’t until her dad asked me for a favor and I had no problems carrying it out. He asked me to hunt down the stalker and make him pay for harassing Amanda.
I hunted him for a few weeks until he slipped up and I was able to kill him. I killed him by slitting his throat from ear to ear and I recorded it too. I recorded it to show Amanda’s dad, Raul. He wanted to make sure the job was done before he gave me the thumbs up to start hanging around The Carlotta Family. After that, everything was history.
I’ve killed a total of twelve people during the stint of being married to Amanda for various reasons. Some, I only killed because I could and they looked at me wrong. Others, I killed because I had to. Never once did I allow any of that darkness to touch Amanda until she was taken from me. Once she was taken, there was very little I could do.
Even though I have made the promise years ago to be there and protect Amanda, I feel even worse than before by letting Calista down. She’s a pure woman who has no idea the depravity of this world and what it can do to someone. Well, now she does. I’m pretty positive she knows who I am but she doesn’t know who I do it for. She’s about to find out because whoever put her in the hospital did it because of me.
I wait in the lobby for any kind of answers. Anything that will tell me if I need to kill myself right now for not protecting my innocent angel or if I need to burn this whole city down to flush out whoever did this. Fuck that, I know who did it and that is the bastard I killed earlier friend. He thinks he can do something like this to me? Fuck that.
He did this on purpose.
“Where the fuck is my daughter?” Vincent yells with Savannah on his heels.
I’ve never met Savannah in person before, but she’s as beautiful as everyone says she is. Her long brown hair is in a braid down her back with mascara running down her cheeks from obviously crying.
Vincent looks over at me and charges at me with vengeance and the need to kill in his eyes. He has his gun pulled in a matter of seconds and I don’t stop him from putting me out of my misery. I’m the reason why his daughter is fighting for her life in the operating room because I failed to protect her.
“You bastard! Because of you my daughter is fighting for her life. I hope it was worth it! You fucked everything up!” He growls at me as he pushes the barrel of his fun into my stomach roughly.
The pain is relative and barely registered in my brain. The only pain I am feeling right now is not knowing what happened to Calista. “I didn’t do anything, Pop!” I growl back fully prepared to the hit.
I know I fucked up and I deserve every hit he’s about to give me.
“Mark! You have to stop!” Savannah shouts and is trailing behind Vincent.
I stand stock still waiting for a blow from the gun or his fist. I deserve either or. “Yeah, Mark,” I taunt. I want him to put me out of my misery of knowing Calista’s in the operating room because of me.
“I could kill you right here and no one would know. Right fucking here. No one would miss you. You know how quick I could whack you?” He threatens.
“If Calista’s seriously hurt, I would allow you to do it.”
“Family for Dr. Inzo?” A nurse calls out.
We all stand up and wait for the verdict on Calista. I meant it when I said it, if she’s seriously hurt, I would allow Vincent to kill me right here. I don’t deserve to live if she’s hurt. Hell, I don’t deserve to live as it is.
“We are her parents,” Savannah says with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please tell me our baby is going to be okay.”
I can feel the pain and desperation Savannah feels over her daughter. I wish there was something I could do to make all of this go away but there’s not. There’s absolutely nothing I can do.
“We should talk in a private room,” the nurse states.
Vincent looks back at me and shakes his head. “This is for family only. Not for some asshole.”
“Mark,” I use his alias to not piss him off any farther. Normally, I wouldn’t give two fucks if he liked me or not but since Calista and I aren’t married, I don’t get a day anything. I can’t be privy to any information the nurses have. I hate being at his mercy, yet I can
tell he loves it. He’s a sick bastard. “With all do respect, Calista’s my woman. I’m going wherever she needs me.”
“Where were you tonight? Where were you when that animal attacked her? You weren’t with her! You were here! If you would have been at her house, none of this would happened. How can you say she’s your woman when you didn’t even take care of her!” He shouts.
My back tightens and I feel my fists form. “I don’t think right here is the time to have this conversation. Either I’m going in there with you or you aren’t going in. I’m going to hear what’s going on with my woman.”
Savannah’s eyes are glossed over with tears threatening to spill. “Let him in, Mark. He obviously cares about our daughter.”
The nurse clears her throat. “Are we ready?”
*
N othing has prepared me to hear what happened to my beautiful girl. My beautiful girl was almost taken from me and I wasn’t there to save her because I was with Amanda.
I’m worse than the shit on the bottom of your shoe. I’m fucking horrible.
I hang my head in between my fists as I listen to the doctor use big words which I don’t understand. I understand about every other word he says. Something about a concussion, loss of blood, possible tearing from the rape. Drugs being pumped into her system. All of these horrible things that happened to Calista… I caused all of it.
In this moment, everything is clear. I need to choose one or the other. Amanda or Calista because going back and forth isn’t helping.
Shit, what have I done? What have I done to deserve two beautiful women and have almost lost both of them. Is God punishing me for everything that I have done? Is that what is going on? I can’t handle being punished anymore and I’m about to crack.
“Do you know who did this to my daughter?” Savannah asks me.
I nod my head.
“Who?”
“The same people who are blackmailing me. I know it is them.”
The nurse and the doctor must have sensed this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation, because they both left the room quickly. Vincent waited until they both left before punching in the jaw. Hard.
The force of his blow caused me to jerk my head back and howl out in pain. I cover up the howl with a mirthless laugh. Both of the women who I have sworn to protect are lying in hospital beds being treated for injuries caused by associates of mine. I’m the reason why Calista’s fighting for her life.
“Do you know who did this?” Vincent growls at me with gritted teeth. I can tell he’s close to losing his calm.
I nod. “The same people who have contracted me to kill you for information about Amanda.”
Savannah looks confused. “What is he talking about?”
Vincent places his hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner. “He knows who we are, vixen.”
“He should know who we are if he’s dating our daughter,” she mutters incredulously.
“You are Savannah Moretti and you’re from Manhattan. You used to be a real estate agent before you blew up your house. That was pretty gangster, by the way.”
Her mouth drops. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Fifteen years ago, you stopped being Savannah Moretti and started being Cassidy Inzo.”
“How did you know? How did he find out? Vincent! What happens if they find us down here?” She’s crying harder than she was crying when we heard about Calista’s condition. “They are going to expediate us back to New York. We’re going to have to leave Calista behind. There’s no way we can-“
“Stop, baby. Stop that. We will figure it out. First, I want to know who hurt our daughter and kill them slowly.”
“I’m going to call my boss and have him meet us. There has to be something he picked up on with the live feed outside of her apartment,” I state trying to be helpful.
My girlfriend’s parents look at me as if I’m crazy.
I am a dangerous man and I have to make sure my woman is taken care of.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I reach in to grab it.
SAL: you aren't going to like this
ME: what? Did they leave something behind
SAL: yeah. A bomb and the whole apartment has been destroyed
ME: when did the bomb go off
SAL: two minutes after Calista was picked up. We have ourselves a mob hit
ME: are you still coming
SAL: in a little while. I'm going to get in contact with my cop informant.
ME: fuck!
SAL: this doesn't look good
“Fuck!” I yell.
“What happened?” Savannah asks.
“Calista has been a victim of a botched mob hit.”
Vincent growls. “We've been found. She got attacked because of us.”
Savannah starts to cry again. “I can't do this again!”
“We aren't doing shit again, vixen. I promise you.”
I rub my forehead and try to think of anything that will calm my nerves. All I want to do is tear apart this city until I find the bastards who raped and tried to kill my woman.
Calista
I ’ve asked patients who were about to die what they see and how they feel. What I see and how I feel is something completely different than what they see. They tell me they see their unfinished business or something they regret.
I see peace.
Every time I try to see something beyond that peace, all I see is more peace. I like the peace.
In the peace, I feel at ease. Not in pain like I was before I blessedly passed out.
In the background, I hear a loud buzzing noise which beeps a blip every couple of seconds. And then it’s a long beeping noise followed by a deafening scream.
Victor
I dial the phone immediately to get Sal on the phone. The quicker he comes, the quicker I can take care of Calista. My body aches to be with her but I have to take care of the bastards who hurt my woman before they come and try to finish it.
Those fucking assholes have probably already found out that she wasn’t dead and they are going to come and finish her off. When they do, we will be ready.
“I didn’t think you would call me,” he answers the phone.
“We need you to come to the hospital,” I speak quickly.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Sal, I need you at the hospital,” I reinforce.
“All right. I will be there,” he replies.
Vincent looks over at Savannah who is still crying. “Vixen, everything is going to be all right. Calista’s going to pull through and then we can figure out our next steps.”
My head jerks back. “Next steps? You think you’re going to leave?” I bark. Part of me wants to trust him and the other part of me still wants to kill him to find out the information regarding Amanda. I can’t kill my girlfriend’s father, though. That’s a sure fire way to get dumped.
“Regardless of the situation, I don’t give a fuck who you are. Because of you my daughter is lying in the operating room with her life hanging on by a thread! You think I would trust you with my daughter?”
I don’t think before I reach behind me to grab my gun out of the holster. I have it aimed at his head ready to go when the door flies open.
Someone nervously laughs. “I knew you were different,” a woman awkwardly announces from the door.
I don’t move my gun as I look over at Calista’s friend. Only when I see the worry on her face do I move my gun. “How is she?” I beg.
My girlfriend’s friend rounds the table and sits next to Vincent. “Hey, Captain Hot Stuff,” she draws over to him.
Vincent’s face turns red and he growls at her. “This is not the time for you to play those games with me.”
Savannah giggles. A giggle that sounds so melodically and beautiful that I forget why we are here. In that moment, I’m not here discussing with my girlfriend’s father how I’m going to kill him to get the information I need. Nor am I going to tell him that
he’s not taking Calista anywhere without me.
“Don’t encourage her!” Vincent hisses at his wife.
“This is great. Sheila, how are you?”
She rests her cheek on her fisted hand in front of her body with her eyes dreamingly looking at Vincent. “Mr. Inzo, when are you going to run away with me?”
“Oh, my god,” I mumble. This is too much.
“Never going to happen,” Vincent replies, moving away from her.
Sheila moves closer. “I’m younger and double jointed. We can do it in the nurses’ station! It will be so much fun!”
