At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  His hand moved to my jaw and his thumb stroked my cheekbone. “Love you, Violet. Even when you’re bustin’ some bitch’s lip open.”

  I smiled, pressed even deeper into him and whispered, “I love you too, Joe.”

  His head dipped, his mouth captured mine and he started to kiss me hard but our lips broke when Keira called, “Yeesh! Get a room!”

  Joe’s arms didn’t move from around me but he looked over my shoulder and I did too to see Keira walk into the kitchen and direct to the fridge.

  “I’m havin’ more pie. You guys want pie?” she asked.

  “No,” I answered.

  “Yeah,” Joe said.

  “Katy!” Keira shouted, “Joe and me are havin’ pie! You want pie?”

  “Yeah!” Kate shouted back.

  Keira got out the pie. Joe’s arms gave me a squeeze. I put my cheek to his chest and squeezed him back. Music hit the house then Kate opened the door to her bedroom and it got louder. Keira got the pie cutter. Kate came in and got plates.

  I held onto Joe, Joe held onto me, the girls dished out pie and I concentrated on really listening to Kate’s music for the first time ever.

  It was great.

  Chapter Nineteen

  At Peace

  Vinnie preceded Cal out to the back deck and as Cal slid the door closed behind him, he looked through the window at Vi, Theresa and Bea in the kitchen vying for maternal supremacy thus control over the pancakes.

  Three months ago, even knowing Vi was a strong woman and a great mother but not knowing Bea at all, Cal would have put money down on Theresa.

  But after yesterday and the shit he heard coming out of Susie’s mouth when he’d walked up to them way too late, and Vi’s reaction, he knew she was no pushover and she was on her home turf.

  And also Bea might be shy but the gentle, loving way she was with all his girls and the soft looks Vi, Kate and Keira aimed at her he figured she had her ways and she wasn’t exactly a dark horse. Not to mention, the woman made one hell of a chocolate cream pie.

  Now he wouldn’t even place a bet, just sit back and wait for the results.

  His eyes moved to Vi’s Dad Pete, who was bustling around the girls, desperate to make up for lost time. Cal found this annoying and he’d have to have a word with the man. Best way to make up for lost time was to let his granddaughters get to know who he was by acting natural around them, not shoving his nose up their asses.

  Finally, his eyes moved to Gary who was sitting at the table comfortably sipping coffee. Gary had sat at that table a lot over the years. He was always welcome there and he knew it. Gary learned yesterday from watching Pete that he could let go the past bad blood. He saw that he’d been reaping the rewards of being a good Dad for seventeen years and Pete had been living the nightmare of being a coward for that same time, if not longer.

  “Cal, son, we gotta talk about Hart,” Vinnie called from behind him and Cal turned from the door feeling his mouth get tight.

  His eyes hit his uncle and he moved away from the door so even if someone looked out they couldn’t see him.

  He rested a hip against the railing and crossed his arms on his chest while he watched his uncle reach a hand out to one of Vi’s pots of flowers that was sitting on the railing. Vinnie dropped his hand before he touched the bright, healthy flowers spilling up, out and down the sides of the pot and his eyes went to Cal.

  “Vi’s good with flowers,” Vinnie remarked as his gaze took in the rest of the deck.

  “Yeah,” Cal replied and watched Vinnie give him a look before Vinnie turned his head to look into the house.

  “Keeps a nice house,” Vinnie went on.

  “Uncle Vinnie –” Cal started to cut him off, knowing where this was going but Vinnie’s eyes came to his.

  “Great girls she’s raised. Sweet kids. Funny. Smart,” Vinnie continued, not to be stopped.

  Cal sighed and said nothing. He knew Vinnie needed to get this out so he let him.

  “Care about you,” Vinnie noted.

  “Yeah,” Cal repeated.

  “The three of ‘em do,” Vinnie said.

  “Yeah,” Cal repeated again.

  “Theresa called Carm the minute we hit the hotel last night. She talked about Vi and those girls for two hours. Thought I’d never get to sleep,” Vinnie told him and this surprised Cal considering he hadn’t had a follow up call from Carm in order for her to bitch him out about never calling; not telling her about Vi and the girls; and to arrange her own trip where she could nose into his life and give Vi her personal seal of approval.

  “Instead of sellin’ my place, should build a bridge considerin’ the Bianchis are gonna be spendin’ some time down here,” Cal quipped.

  Vinnie’s eyes narrowed. “You think you can walk those girls into my Pizzeria wearin’ the suit you wore to take her to her brother’s funeral and lookin’ at her like she flies out the window on fairy wings and hangs the stars every night and not be right back in the Bianchi fold, you got another think comin’.”

  Jesus. Fairy wings?

  “Uncle Vinnie –” Cal started.

  Vinnie cut him off. “Don’t think I’m stupid, boy. You walked them in for a reason, to give them some family back after they lost theirs.”

  “Vinnie –”

  “Been waitin’ seventeen years for this, Cal.”

  “Uncle –”

  “Longer,” Vinnie bit out. “You know, Theresa lights a candle for you every week. Every fuckin’ week. Been doin’ it for over thirty years. You know how many candles she’s lit for you?” Vinnie asked.

  Cal didn’t respond.

  “Too many,” Vinnie answered his own question.

  “She doesn’t have to light them anymore,” Cal pointed out.

  “You got Hart ridin’ your ass, she finds out, she’ll be at the church every day,” Vinnie returned.

  Finally they were where he wanted their conversation to be.

  “You talk to Sal?” Cal asked.

  “First, I’ll say this once and that’s it. I’m happy for you. I’m happy for her. I’m happy for those girls. Never seen you like this. Not before, not with that other one. Not unless you were with Nicky and even then you weren’t like you were yesterday. You were always watchin’ her, guardin’, bracin’ for what that bitch would do next.”

  Cal’s mouth got tight again as did the rest of his body. “That’s done and we’re done talkin’ about it.”

  “Waited a long time to say this Cal, gonna say it only once and you’re gonna give me that,” Vinnie told him, Cal sighed again, forced his body to relax and leaned deeper into the railing, his eyes on his uncle.

  “She’s smilin’, son,” Vinnie said softly and Cal closed his eyes and turned his head toward Vi’s yard. He opened his eyes when Vinnie continued. “Lookin’ down on you and Vi and those girls and Angie’s finally at peace.”

  Cal clenched his teeth, pulled breath into his nose and looked back at his uncle on the exhale.

  “Now you done?” Cal asked.

  Vinnie stared at him. Then he grinned.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “Good,” Cal replied then repeated, “you talk to Sal?”

  “Yep,” Vinnie leaned against the railing too and said no more.

  “And?” Cal prompted.

  “He’s not big on avenging a cop,” Vinnie replied, Cal pulled in another breath in order to speak but Vinnie continued. “I haven’t told him your involvement, just said I had a friend in Vi and felt the waters ‘cause I been thinkin’ about this and I’m not big on you owin’ Sal a favor.”

  “Not your choice to make,” Cal noted, “thought I made myself clear on that. And it isn’t a favor. It’s callin’ a marker.”

  “Somethin’ this big, it’s a favor, Cal, and favors to men like Sal have a way of lastin’ a long time. Lived that with Vinnie Junior. Now got a lifetime of livin’ the consequences.”

  Cal looked back at the yard and crossed one foot at the ankle in an effort
to call up patience.

  “You got skills, don’t think Sal don’t remember that shit. You tried to leverage it to pull Vinnie Junior out,” Vinnie reminded him and Cal’s eyes cut to his uncle.

  “Took a bullet for Sal, Uncle Vinnie,” Cal had his own memories to share.

  “He hasn’t forgotten,” Vinnie muttered.

  “He owes me, he owes you. You remind him of that?” Cal asked.

  “He don’t need reminding,” Vinnie answered.

  “Then what the fuck?” Cal asked.

  Vinnie took two steps toward Cal, stopped and whispered, “You’re talkin’ a hit, son.”

  “Yeah, I am. I took a hit and Vinnie took the ultimate hit. Your nephew, your son. He owes you, he owes me,” Cal repeated.

  “He’ll want a return,” Vinnie said.

  “He’s already fuckin’ had it,” Cal replied, uncrossing his arms and thumping his fist on his chest under his shoulder where his bullet scar was and then thumping his uncle over the heart.

  “You’re talkin’ a hit,” Vinnie repeated.

  “You already said that,” Cal told him.

  Vinnie’s brows went up. “You can live with that?”

  “Yep,” Cal returned, “absolutely.”

  “The cops are closin’ in,” Vinnie explained.

  “They been closin’ in on Hart for the last decade,” Cal clipped.

  “You’ll carry that mark on your soul –” Vinnie started but stopped when Cal leaned forward and threw an arm out toward the house.

  “He put a bullet it Katy and Keirry’s father’s brain,” Cal ground out, “blew his fuckin’ head off. I was here when Vi found out he did the same to her brother and she fuckin’ unraveled. I watched it, Vinnie. I held her in my arms and fucking watched it. That’s all I could do. No control. No power. He took that from her and he fuckin’ took it from me. I stood next to her when she told her girls their uncle was gone and Keira couldn’t even keep her fuckin’ feet, man. It took about thirty seconds longer before Kate collapsed and she did it in my arms too. I was fuckin’ there, Vinnie. Hart wants her enough to take them both out. You think that asshole isn’t gonna be aimin’ at me?”

  “You can take care of yourself. I been askin’ around. The brother didn’t know what the fuck he was doin’,” Vinnie pointed out. “He should never –”

  Cal cut him off. “Tim was a cop, Colt says a good one. You gonna tell me he didn’t know what he was doin’?”

  “I –”

  “You don’t talk to Sal, I will,” Cal interrupted his uncle.

  “Cal, you don’t want to owe that man,” Vinnie warned.

  “He owes me. He got my blood and he got my cousin. He knows that,” Cal shot back.

  “Cal –”

  Cal leaned back an inch. “What the fuck is this? Why are you –?”

  Vinnie’s torso moved forward two inches. “I lost one boy to him. You think I’m fired up to lose two?”

  Cal shook his head angrily. “Jesus, Uncle Vinnie. I’m not gonna fuckin’ work for him.”

  “He’s persuasive,” Vinnie returned.

  Cal pointed to the house again. “Nothin’ would persuade me to jeopardize that.”

  “Yeah, and Vinnie Junior had Francesca and he looked at her like she hung the stars and he wanted to give her everything. So he went out to find a way to do that. Easy way is Sal.”

  “He was twenty-five,” Cal reminded him.

  “He was in love,” Vinnie retorted, jerking his head to the house to make his point.

  “Don’t pin that shit on Frankie,” Cal clipped. “You been singin’ that song way too long and you know that shit’s not right,” Vinnie pressed his lips together and looked away but looked back when Cal kept talking. “I got a business, I got money, I don’t need that shit.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Cal, you nearly took her Dad down for buyin’ Keirry a CD!” Vinnie’s voice was rising. “Vi hangs the stars for you and I know you. You’re a Callahan. You’re a Bianchi. You’ll wanna hand her the moon.”

  “I’ve already handed her the moon, Vinnie,” Cal told him and Vinnie jerked back.

  “What?”

  Cal didn’t repeat himself and he wasn’t about to explain. “And I was pissed at Pete because he’s up in the girls’ faces and he bought Keira a fuckin’ boy band CD and I live in this house. I gotta listen to that shit.”

  Vinnie stared at him a second before he burst out laughing.

  Cal didn’t laugh.

  “I’m not twenty-five anymore, Uncle Vinnie and I’m not Vinnie Junior,” Cal stated.

  Vinnie stopped laughing because he knew what Cal was saying. Vinnie Junior and Cal had a lot in common with everything. They both thought they found what they wanted at a young age and they both gave up everything for it. Cal wanted Bonnie and he wanted a family and he did everything to make that real. Vinnie wanted it all but most of all he wanted Frankie and he wanted to prove to her that he was worth her love.

  But that was then. This was now.

  Cal had learned the hard way that if you found something good, you didn’t have to give up anything. If it was good, you got everything you needed without giving up shit. Vinnie Junior hadn’t lived to learn that lesson because that lesson killed him. He hadn’t lived long enough to learn that Frankie loved him if he could hand her the moon or if he was making pizzas.

  Vinnie Junior never got that and Vinnie Senior never admitted out loud that his son made mistakes with the choices he made in his life and the way he’d fucked up everything for himself and for Frankie.

  “You unleash Sal or I do it. One of us calls the marker,” Cal ordered. “And we do it for Vi and, I’m tellin’ you in case you haven’t figured it out yet bein’ around her and those girls, there’s no better fuckin’ reason to do it. Daniel Hart took away her man, her kids’ father and her brother. They were tight. All of them. He could have destroyed her. He could have brought her low. He could have changed those girls. He could have made her Bonnie. He keeps goin’ –”

  Vinnie cut him off. “I’ll call the marker.”

  Cal crossed his arms back on his chest, demanding, “Do it now.”

  “Now?” Vinnie asked.

  “Right now,” Cal said.

  “But…” Vinnie looked toward the house then back at Cal, “pancakes.”

  “Now,” Cal repeated.

  Vinnie stared at him and Cal held his stare.

  Then Vinnie pulled his phone out of his shirt pocket.

  “Christ, son,” he muttered on a sigh.

  “He needs to have a word with me, I’m standin’ right here,” Cal offered.

  Vinnie looked to the heavens. Then he flipped open his phone. Then he called Sal.

  The door slid open and both men’s heads jerked that way to see Kate walking out, Cal’s phone in her hand.

  “Hey, Joe,” she said as Vinnie smiled at her and then wandered down the deck steps and out into the wet grass. “Colt’s on your phone.”

  Cal took his phone from her when she got close. Then he lifted his other hand and tugged gently at her hair.

  “Thanks, girl,” he muttered.

  “Yeah,” she grinned, glanced at Vinnie who was now several feet into the yard, his back to the deck, his head bent, his hand to his hip and his other hand to his ear. Kate turned and skipped back to the door, went inside and closed it behind her.

  Cal put the phone to his ear.

  “Yo.”

  “Need you at the Station, man,” Colt said without greeting and Cal’s back went straight as a bad feeling hit his gut.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “How soon can you get here?” Colt asked.

  “Why?” Cal repeated, losing patience.

  “You need a brief,” Colt explained.

  “About?” Cal prompted.

  “Some things you need to know. Some new things have happened,” Colt told him.

  “Hart?” Cal asked.

  “Yep,” Colt answered.

  “Fuck,�
�� Cal bit off.

  “You had a bunch of cars in your drive yesterday. You guys still have company or do I have to send out a squad?” Colt asked casually but this question wasn’t casual. This question set that bad feeling in his gut to toxic.

  “We got company,” Cal said and looked at Vinnie, “but send a squad.”

  “Right,” Colt muttered. “He’ll be unobtrusive,” Colt assured him.

  “Don’t care if he sits in the fuckin’ driveway,” Cal replied as he walked to the sliding glass doors, “just want him here before I go.”

  “Copy that,” Colt said and Cal flipped his phone closed.

  He whistled and Vinnie jerked around to look at him. Cal lifted his hand and flicked his finger in the air. Vinnie nodded. Cal turned, slid open the door and walked through, wracking his brain as to what he’d say to Vi to explain his needing to go to the Station.

  Then he slid the door closed behind him.

  * * * * *

  Dad, Gary and Uncle Vinnie were outside in the front yard inspecting the sod Joe and Keira had laid. I was sitting in the living room with Bea and Aunt Theresa. We were sipping coffee with the girls on the floor playing with Mooch. I was thinking about Joe’s hasty exit which he vaguely explained and also thinking about the squad car that was parked across the street, the fact that it slid up and stopped before Joe kissed me and walked out the door and the fact that it didn’t move an inch in the ten minutes Joe had been gone.

  These thoughts exited my head when Aunt Theresa picked up her big, mailbag sized purse and plopped it on her lap.

  “Who knows how long Cal’ll be gone, gotta get this done,” Aunt Theresa muttered, sounding distracted but in a businesslike way and I looked at her then at Bea then at the girls.

  “What done?” Keira asked but Aunt Theresa didn’t look up from rummaging around in her small-piece-of-luggage-sized purse.

  “You find the time but you find it to give him this,” she ordered oddly. “It’s time Cal had Nicky back.”

  I sucked in breath at her words and my eyes flew to Kate but Kate and Keira were both staring at Aunt Theresa’s bag.

  “Who’s Nicky?” Bea whispered.

  “Cal’s son,” Aunt Theresa answered without even a little ado then went on still without any, “died when he was a baby. Stupid skank of a wife left him in the bath. Drowned…” Bea gasped and her eyes came to me but Aunt Theresa pulled out a big square thing wrapped in a black scarf and turned to me. Whipping off the scarf, she announced, “Nicky.”