But that cop showed up and shot me and Joe got away with two million out of DiFazio's safe. There's no way they're just gonna let me walk away from that. I can't go back to my life because not only did I wind up in the hospital with the cops all over me taking my fingerprints and snapping a photo for their records, but the guy that came into my room ..."
"That was Vinnie DiFazio?"
"Yeah, the head of the DiFazio family. The head of the entire organized crime syndicate in this state came into my room and saw me. He didn't tell the cops he knew who I was but he knew, alright. And he also knew that I fucking blew the job. And there's no way they're going to risk having me running around now. If they catch up with me I'm as good as dead. And I'm pretty sure they're tracking his daughter's cell phone.
I think they were just waiting for me to get here and it's only a matter of time before they show up. And when they do they're not going to leave anyone alive. I need to get the hell out of here, Jess, and I need to disappear for the rest of my life. But you can't come with me. You don't deserve that kind of life."
"But what if that's what I want, Brody? Don't I get a choice in any of this?"
"Jess, these men are very dangerous. It's not just running from the cops I'm talking about. If that was the case, I wouldn't be worried at all. You could come with me for as long as you wanted and then if you got sick of looking at me you, could drift off to some South American country and be safe down there. But this is way more complicated. If these men knew you were with me, your life would be in constant danger. Everywhere you went for the rest of your life ... and I don't want that for you. You'll be better off just going back to your life and your job at the hospital."
"What life? I don't have a life, Brody. I've been dead for a year now and talking to you has been the only thing that has made me feel anything for a long time. I don't want to go back to living alone in my apartment. I don't want to go back to working a job that I don't even feel connected to anymore. I feel like I've been treading water waiting for something to happen but nothing was happening. Nothing made me feel anything until I met you. I really need you to tell me the truth, Brody. Was everything you told me a lie?"
Brody didn't say anything for a minute and I felt my heart sink into my stomach. In that moment I wished I was anywhere but there and not because I was afraid of dying or worried about what was going to happen to me. I didn't want to be sitting in front of someone who was embarrassed to tell me what a fool I had been.
"No."
"No? What do you mean?" I asked.
"Jess, I can't take you with me. I just can't," he said as he looked into my eyes one final time with a sadness that broke my heart into pieces. He got up off the bed and left the room and I cried into the pillow until the sun started to come up trying to figure out how I could have been so wrong.
18
Brody
I heard one of the doors click open and I knew before I saw him that Joe was slowly crossing the room. It sounded like he wasn't sure if I was awake or not and was trying to plan some sort of move so I figured I'd give him a heads up that that wasn't going to happen.
"What's up, Joe? Hear any news this morning?"
"Nope. No news," he said as he walked to the foot of the couch where I could see his smirking face. I hated that I was still so immobile with this jackass walking around. I knew he had something up his sleeve and that neither Jess nor I were safe while he was still alive. I was feeling a little better than the day before and I figured if the shit really came down I could go to town on him, no problem, but the fact remained that I was still weak. I was still having a hard time getting up and down, although I had finally gotten to the point where I could do it without help.
"I haven't heard much of anything today except some voices in the walls. You didn't hear anything like that, did you? Nah, you've been asleep all night, right? What with your injury and all. How is that gunshot wound today, Brody? Still in a lot of pain?"
Something was definitely different this morning and I wasn't too interested in giving this guy the opportunity to get the upper hand so I sat up on the couch and reached for the bottle of painkillers. I wanted to be ready if he tried anything.
"Yeah, it seems to be doing better. I'm just gonna keep taking the pills and it should get ..."
"If you've got the pills what do you need her for?" he asked, still standing at the foot of the couch. He was starting to make me nervous. I'd seen him in action before and I knew he had no problem whatsoever killing anyone who got in his way.
"She's been changing the bandage and making sure it doesn't get infected. Plus, she been helping me get around. What do you care? I told you I'd take care of her. Where's Sasha?"
"It's funny that you ask. Sasha took off."
"What do you mean took off?" I asked, almost choking on the pills I was swallowing.
"She took off. She's gone. My guess is she went home to her daddy," he said with an ugly smile on his face.
"What? You gotta be kidding me. You told me her face was plastered all over the news! What, is she that stupid?" I asked, looking at him in disbelief. I knew she hadn't left. I knew she was still around here somewhere, but I also knew if I called her name she wouldn't answer me.
"Hey, man, you can't stop a strong willed whore like that. I mean, she was a hot little piece of ass, but she never listened to a goddamned word I said. I told her it would be a bad idea to leave, but she just wouldn't listen," he said with a chuckle but his eyes weren't smiling. They were looking right at me like he was challenging me. Like he knew something, or thought he knew something, that I didn't want him to know.
I had no way of making a fast move so I had to work with what I did have going for me. After I talked to Jess and came back to lay down on the couch I had moved the gun underneath one of the couch cushions to give my back a rest, but now this asshole was staring right at me and I had to figure out how to get it without him seeing.
"What the hell is that?" I asked gesturing my chin at the window.
"What?" he said as he looked where I gestured but he looked right back at me so I didn't have time to grab the gun.
"I don't know, I thought I saw something out there? Maybe she came back? Or maybe she hasn't left yet."
"Dude, I told you, she's gone," he said as he finally turned to look out the window. I pulled the gun out and crammed it down the back of my jeans then stood up like I was going to see for myself if she was out there.
"I don't see anything," Joe said as he turned back towards me.
"Really? I could have sworn I saw something. I'm going to go out there and see if I can find her and talk some sense into her," I said as I moved toward the door.
"Hey! I told you she's gone. Just drop it. And I thought you were too wounded to be up and around. Why don't you just sit back down on that couch?"
"What? I'm fine. What's the problem?"
"No, problem here, Brody. But what about you? Do you need that fucking nurse in there or not? I'm having a hard time understanding why she's still alive if you're fine."
"Hey, I don't want any trouble, Joe. I just came here to get away from the cops. I'm not trying to pull anything over on you. And I'm worried that Sasha is going to be spotted driving around in that convertible of her's. If she ... hey, what's her car still doing here if she left?" I asked as I looked out the front window. I took a few steps toward the door then turned the knob and pulled it about halfway open before Joe ran up behind me and kicked it shut.
The loud slam thundered through the house and immediately after that a dull thud came from further down the same wall in the living room. Joe and I both looked over to where the second sound had come from, and there was Sasha's body, covered in soot and curled up in a ball in the fireplace. It looked like Joe had broken her in half to get her body crammed up that chimney.
I pulled my gun from behind me and just then I felt the force of a ton of bricks come crashing down on top of me. A searing pain flared through my gut as Joe had knocked
me to the ground. My gun flew out of my hand and skidded across the floor but luckily he didn't see it. He was too focused on putting all his weight on my throat.
I tried to push him off of me but with every move I made it felt like a handful of knives were being driven further and further inside of me. I just couldn't get any leverage or strength from the position I was in. Suddenly, his massive body collapsed on top of mine, but I still couldn't get him off of me. I tried to roll over but the pain from his weight on my stomach and from trying to use my shredded stomach muscles kept me from being able to move. Finally I felt his body roll off of mine and there was Jess staring down at me.
"What happened?" I asked her, gasping for breath.
"I hit him over the head with that lamp," she said as she pointed to a heavy stone ceramic lamp base that was now laying on the floor next to me. I stared at her for a few seconds then started laughing. I couldn't believe that she had done it again.
"What's so funny?" she asked with a slight frown on her face. God, she even looked beautiful when she was frowning.
"That's the second time you've saved my life," I said as I looked up at her in awe. "You're a really amazing woman, Jess."
Just then Joe started to move and I slid myself across the hardwood floor over to my gun, then just as he started to push himself up I shot him right in the chest. Jess let out a little scream and covered her face but then she ran over to me and knelt down next to me and touched my chest.
"Are you okay? Your stomach... How does it feel?"
"Like I just got shot again. I don't think we have time to worry about it now, though. We've got to get the hell out of here. Every minute that goes by I'm afraid someone's gonna roll up outside and we'll be dead before we even know what happened."
"Just let me take a look at it, Brody. And let me get you some pills. Have you already taken them today?" she said as she jumped up and grabbed the bottles of pills and some water from the fridge.
"Yeah, I took some. I think maybe the pain killers are just starting to kick in."
"Ok, then you'll need to take them all again in a few hours."
"While you're up go grab the bag with your clothes. We need to get everything together and leave as soon as possible."
Jess came back into the room with the duffel bag and stuffed the pills and bottles of water into it and walked over to where I was on the floor.
"Does that mean I'm coming with you?" she asked as she slowly sank to her knees next to me.
"I think after everything you've done for me I'd be crazy to go anywhere without you," I said as I pulled myself up so I was sitting against the wall. "Besides, you were right. A lot of what I said in the hospital was true. I just wasn't ready to admit it, I guess."
Jess's eyes filled with tears and she reached out and touched my face, then leaned in and pressed her soft, full lips into mine. A wave of relief swept over me as I realized that she would be with me, that we were in this together now. I had spent so many years alone, making sure that there was no one around me, no one that could be affected by any of my actions, that I hadn't realized until just now how much I needed this. How much I needed Jess.
It had taken so long to get it through my thick skull that my life would be so much better off with her in it, that now I just wanted to get the hell out of that house and get on with our lives together. I was terrified that she was going to be taken away from me now that I had finally let her in.
"Help me get over to the couch," I said as I felt her soft lips on my forehead. It was so tempting to just stay there and let her lips have their way with me, but the bad feeling in my stomach helped push me up the wall so that I was standing. The painkillers were now doing their job and I was able to move around with significantly more ease. I got over to the couch and sat down and let Jess look at my wound, but I kept looking out the window to see if I could spot any movement.
"What happened to Sasha?"
"I have no idea. I can only imagine that Joe heard us talking last night and killed her while I was in the room with you. He must have shoved her body up the chimney before I came back out here this morning. I'm sure he was hoping her body would stay hidden up there for a long time."
"What were you and Sasha talking about? I thought she was with Joe."
"She was ... at least that's what he thought, anyway. Part of my cover was to make her think that I was gonna take her with me. I met her before I got into contact with Joe. That was part of the plan. I started talking to her at a bar down in Key West. We got really friendly and I brought her home with me and told her that all I needed was a couple hundred thousand dollars to get started, and that I would take her away with me. I told her that I had a yacht we could sail around the world on and she told me she could get us a hell of a lot more than that. She helped me plan the job at the resort with Joe but she only knew a small part of what was going on.
We told him that I had been a security guard at the Shady Palms and I knew my way around the entire resort, plus I knew the schedule of all of the guards on duty. We planned the heist together, but what she didn't know is that I was going to kill Joe in the middle of it, so that it looked obvious that he was going against DiFazio and had been caught red handed."
"But why didn't they just kill him? Why did they have to hire someone else to do it?"
"That's the way they do things now. The DiFazio family isn't heavy into killing anymore. Not the actual killing part, anyway. They're mostly just involved in gambling and prostitution and that sort of thing, so when a job like this comes up, they like to contract it out. Vinnie DiFazio has kept a pretty low profile for quite a while now and having a guy like Joe in the family was bringing attention he just didn't want anymore."
"And Sasha was in on it?"
"No, I just used her to get at Joe. She was just a spoiled brat that wanted the next exciting thing. I wasn't going to kill her, but Joe didn't seem to care about her one way or the other."
"Thank you, Brody."
"For what?" I asked, looking into those deep, dark eyes of hers.
"For telling me the truth ... and for not leaving me behind. I felt like I had lost my mind for believing what you had told me. But I knew there was something there. I could feel it."
"You were right all along, Jess. From the minute I laid eyes on you I was a goner, I just couldn't admit it to myself and I didn't want the responsibility of your life in my hands. But now I know that you probably won't be safer anywhere else in the world than with me."
So, I guess we should probably get out of here then."
"Yeah, like now," I said as I looked out the window and saw something moving in the trees down at the far end of the driveway.
19
Jess
Brody motioned for me to go into the bedroom that Joe and Sasha had been using then walked around the room and looked out of every window to see if there was anyone out there. Following me through the door, he grabbed the bag I had packed and opened the window that led out to the mangrove forest behind the house. He threw the duffel bag out the window then looked under the bed and pulled another bag out. He looked inside then zipped it back up and threw it out the window too.
"Jump out and grab your bag then run straight for that path through those two trees on the right," he said as he pointed to the corner of the property. "Just run. Don't look back and don't slow down. I'll be right behind you."
I stuck one leg through the window and straddled the sill, then pulled my other leg through and jumped down about five feet to the ground. Then I grabbed the duffel bag with my clothes and Brody's meds and ran as fast as I could until I was hidden behind some of the leafy bushes and ferns. I slowed down a little and almost turned around but suddenly I heard footsteps running up behind me and when I felt Brody's hand grab mine I picked up speed again. He was carrying the other duffel bag that he had pulled out from under the bed, and by the way it sounded when it hit the ground after he threw it out the window it wasn't very light.
We ran along a
path that was more like a maze in an obstacle course, and finally after about ten minutes Brody slowed down to a walk.
"What did you see back there?"
"I saw someone in the trees down past Sasha's car. I don't think they saw us though," he said trying to catch his breath, "but we've got to keep moving." I knew he was still way too weak to be running like this and carrying that heavy bag, but I trusted that he knew what he was doing by taking this path.
"What's in the bag," I said in between my own gasps for air.
"The money," he said as he looked down at me. "We're gonna need something to live off of until I get us set up. Two million dollars," he said with a smile.
"How much further do we have to go?" I asked, still worried about his injury and how pale he looked.
"A couple more miles," he said as he slowed down a little. "I've got a boat up ahead."
We were getting deeper into the mangrove forest and the path was becoming a lot less obvious. We climbed over giant roots that jutted out of the ground and waded through patches of murky, sandy soil for what felt like an hour before we came out into an opening in the trees that had hidden a sandy beach and a wooden dock. There was a small wooden boat tied up to the dock and Brody didn't slow down until he got up to the boat and threw his duffel bag in. He jumped into the boat and turned around and helped me down, then untied it and pushed it away from the dock.
I looked around at the water that surrounded the rickety boat and it was so blue and so clear I could see schools of fish swimming around just below us.
Bad Patient: A Bad Boy Romance Page 10
