At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  “Boathouse!” Cal barked in face.

  “Don’t know. Swear to God… don’t –” he stopped speaking and started full on gagging, Cal released him and stepped back.

  He flipped the phone back open and dialed home. Colt answered on the first ring.

  “Colton.”

  “Colt, ask Kate what her grandfather’s phone number is.” Cal ordered.

  “Sorry?” Colt asked.

  “I don’t have a lotta time. Ask Kate what Vi’s father’s phone number is.”

  “Hang on,” Colt said and then Cal heard him calling Kate and the phone was jostled.

  “Joe?” It was Kate saying his name, his second favorite way of hearing it.

  “Hey Katy,” he said softly.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, baby.”

  “Mom?” she asked, her voice tense.

  “Gettin’ there,” he replied vaguely. “Now listen to me. I need your grandfather’s phone number.”

  “I’ll go get my phone,” she said quickly.

  So Kate. She didn’t ask questions. She wasn’t messing around. She knew he needed something and she was getting down to business.

  “That’s my girl,” he whispered.

  “Everyone here is really freaked out,” she told him and he knew she was walking and talking.

  “Tell them they can relax,” Joe said and he heard her short, surprised giggle.

  “Jeez, Joe, that’s what you always say.”

  God he loved that kid.

  “I know you’re in a hurry but can you hang on? Keira wants to talk to you,” Kate asked.

  He couldn’t but he would.

  “Yeah, tell her it has to be fast.”

  “Right,” she said into his ear and then the phone was away from her mouth when he heard her say, “It has to be fast, Keirry.”

  “I’ll be fast,” he heard Keira promise, then in the phone, “Joe?”

  Tied for second.

  “Hey, honey.”

  “Joe,” her voice broke on his name then the tears were audible.

  “Come here, darlin’,” Cal heard who he guessed was Cheryl whisper and the phone moving.

  “It’s me. I’m back,” Kate said. “I got the number.”

  “Give it to me,” Joe replied and listened to it as she gave it and repeated it. When she was done, he said, “We’ll be home soon, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she whispered.

  “Love you, baby.”

  “Love you too, Joe.”

  He flipped the phone shut and looked at Benny and Ricky who were both staring at him. Benny with a grin on his face. Ricky with his mouth hanging open.

  Cal ignored their reactions and said to Benny, “They’re in a boathouse, north, on the lake. Vi said her Dad had a boat there before we were disconnected. I have his number. We’ll call on the way.”

  Benny was already on the move when he said, “Gotcha.”

  * * * * *

  We stopped in the trees, both of us breathing heavy but we listened for footfalls in the leaves.

  We’d been running willy nilly for what seemed like hours, at first because we were panicked and didn’t know what the fuck we were doing. Then because we were lost and couldn’t get our bearings. Finally, we came to a spot that was familiar to me and I knew we were close to safety.

  Now we just needed to catch our breath.

  “You think we lost them?” Frankie whispered.

  I knew Daniel Hart never gave up. We didn’t lose them.

  I looked at her and shook my head.

  She looked through the trees then at me. “We should separate.”

  I snatched up her hand. “What? No!”

  “They won’t know who they’re followin’.”

  “So? They could catch either one of us but –”

  “You stay here, I’ll go. They’ll hear me, follow me, you know the lay of the land. You wait awhile then go to that shop you were talkin’ about and I’ll lead them away.”

  This was a crazy plan and no way I was doing it.

  “What if they find you?” I asked.

  “I’ll think of something,” she answered.

  “That’s crazy!” I snapped.

  She got close. “Violet, honey, you got no shoes on. You’re in a t-shirt. You can’t be out here, running on this –”

  I cut her off. “I’m fine.”

  She got closer. “Listen to me –”

  I shook her hand at the same time I squeezed it. “We’re not separating.”

  “Vi –”

  I lifted my other hand and wrapped it around the side of her neck. I did this because Joe did it to me more than once and when he did I shut up and listened to him (sometimes).

  “We’re… not… separating.”

  Frankie stared me in the eyes then she nodded.

  There you go. The hand to the neck business worked even if you weren’t a huge badass rugged alpha male.

  I filed that away for future reference and then we both took off running.

  * * * * *

  Cal and Benny stood in the empty boathouse with the broken window. There weren’t many but this was the third one they’d been in. The second one had two dead men in it that Cal recognized because they’d shot at him this morning. The boathouse he and Benny were in was the closest to Hart’s and it was the one where the women had used the phone. Cal knew this because the place was dusty but the dust was disturbed and most of the disturbance was around the phone.

  Cal had Benny’s phone to his ear and Pete was on the line.

  “Where would she head?” Cal clipped into the phone.

  “People. Civilization,” Pete muttered.

  That would be difficult. They weren’t far out of Chicago but there weren’t a lot of either of those where they were which was fifteen minutes out of Chicago but still right in the middle of fucking nowhere.

  Then Pete said on a near shout, “The shop!”

  “What shop?” Cal asked.

  “Main road, half a mile up from the house we used to have. Only thing on that road except the lake houses. We used to drive out of our way to go up there so I could get the kids ice cream. I didn’t want the ice cream to melt –”

  Cal interrupted him, “So it’s half a mile up from your old place, you mean north?”

  “Yes,” Pete answered and Cal looked at Benny and did the mental calculation from what Pete had told him.

  “So maybe five, six miles from here,” he said to Benny.

  “Long way for her to go if she’s barefoot,” Benny replied quietly and Cal was glad Vi’s fucking foot had time to heal so both of them could be torn to shreds running through a goddamned forest because fucking Daniel fucking Hart was right now literally stalking his goddamned woman.

  “Gotta go,” Cal said into the phone as they headed toward the door.

  “You’ll call?” Pete asked.

  “I’ll call,” Cal answered and flipped the phone shut.

  Then he jogged behind Benny but followed him to the driver’s side.

  Benny turned to him. “I’m drivin’.”

  “I’m runnin’,” Cal returned.

  Benny’s brows shot up. “What?”

  “I’m on foot. You drive to the shop. I’m takin’ the woods.”

  Benny moved closer. “Cal, you haven’t had food, you –”

  “Time’s wastin’, Ben.”

  “You been shot twice,” Benny reminded him.

  “Grazed.”

  “Cal, God dammit –”

  “They might catch them before they reach the shop. They could be anywhere in those woods and they’re scared, not covering their tracks and therefore leavin’ footprints,” Cal pointed out and finished. “I’m trackin’ through the woods.”

  “Yeah, you get caught up in somethin’, we only have one phone.”

  “Go to the shop. They’re not there, brief the people who work there, tell them to call the cops, tell the cops to call Pryor and you drive the road. I find them, t
hat’s where I’ll lead them.”

  “Cal, I haven’t been shot today, or shot at. Let me run.”

  “Get in the truck, Benny.”

  “Cal –”

  Benny didn’t finish. Cal turned and ran into the woods.

  * * * * *

  He was gaining. He wasn’t hungover and he had shoes on and he’d had something to eat that day.

  I should have let Frankie separate. I was slowing her down.

  “Go!” I shouted, “go to the shop.”

  “We’re not separating!” she shouted back, her hair flying behind her, running in front of me, she had my hand in hers and she was holding on tight.

  “Frankie!”

  The gunshot rang out, it was so close I could hear the hiss of the bullet through the air and we both reflexively dove for cover.

  By the time we rolled to our backs and looked up, Daniel Hart was standing over us, pointing his gun at Frankie.

  “Liability,” he muttered then fired.

  * * * * *

  Cal heard the shot, it wasn’t close but it wasn’t far away.

  He stopped running and started sprinting.

  Seconds later, he heard the second shot.

  * * * * *

  Benny had the windows open to the SUV, he heard the shot, it wasn’t close but it wasn’t far away.

  He pulled the Explorer to the side of the road, shut off the ignition, tagged his gun and threw open the door.

  His boots hit the ground and he heard the second shot.

  He sprinted into the woods.

  * * * * *

  “Shoot me!” I shrieked.

  He was pointing the gun at me but I was staring into his eyes.

  “You took everything from me,” he stated calmly.

  “I took everything from you? You took everything from me!” I screeched.

  “I handed you the world gift by gift. You didn’t even bother to open the boxes.”

  “You’re a lunatic. You think the world fits in a box?” I snapped.

  He leaned forward and his face twisted in a way that I did not like.

  “You would know if you bothered to open the fucking boxes!”

  I leaned forward too, keeping his focus as I heard Frankie dragging herself away.

  “I do know what it feels like to be handed the world, you asshole!” I shouted, “Tim did it when he got me pregnant at seventeen and then gave me a beautiful life until you took his. Then Joe gave it to me again and he did it just by giving a shit that I’d walked across a goddamned yard in bare feet! And here I stand in front of you, and you think you gave me the world when you don’t even care that I’m running through a forest in bare feet!”

  * * * * *

  Cal stood ten feet to the side of Hart, raised his gun and took aim

  He did this listening to Vi and smiling.

  * * * * *

  Frankie’s head came up, her eyes hit Benny and she quit dragging herself through the leaves.

  Benny squatted low and put his finger to his lips.

  Frankie squished her lips into her nose and mouthed, “Bare feet?”

  Benny hoped to all hell that this meant the blood coming from her middle wasn’t oozing the life out of her.

  Benny grinned at Frankie, shook his head, straightened, raised his gun and took aim.

  * * * * *

  Hart wasn’t listening to me firstly because he was focused on his own shit and secondly because he was a maniac.

  “I built an empire and I put it at risk for you.”

  “I didn’t ask for that, didn’t want it, still don’t want it,” I snapped back.

  “And now it’s gone,” he whispered, “because of you.”

  “Let me enlighten you, Mr. Hart. After they put you away for a thousand years, by some miracle you get out and you find a woman who catches your fancy, she doesn’t want an empire. She wants you to give a shit. That’s it. She just wants you to give a shit.”

  He still wasn’t listening.

  “I gave it all for you,” he whispered, his voice quiet in a scary way.

  “You didn’t give anything.” My voice was quiet too. “You just took.” My eyes moved to his gun and I made an invitation that I hoped he didn’t accept but instead would finally fucking listen to me. “So take now. Take my daughters’ mother away. Take again from Joe, someone who life hasn’t allowed to keep hold of many good things. Take me.”

  He raised his gun to point at my head.

  I kept staring at the gun and I wondered if Tim and Sam felt like this in their last moments. If they felt their heart racing. If their throat had closed. If they felt every inch of their skin tingling. If their mind moved to me, the girls, Mel. If they sent out a prayer that someone would make us all right when they were gone. If they hoped to all that was holy that we’d never forget that they loved us.

  I raised my eyes to his.

  “I hate you,” I whispered.

  He smiled.

  Then I heard the gunshots.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Heartbeat

  Frankie opened her eyes. She felt supremely weird, confused and definitely not at her best. She looked around, saw she was in a hospital bed and she remembered.

  She was about to mutter something unladylike when she saw Benny standing at the window looking out. His dark hair was wet and had been slicked back but because it was drying part of the front had fallen onto his forehead and the back had begun to curl around in that sexy way it did. He had on a white t-shirt and jeans, boots, the usual, mostly. He could dress up and look good. It wasn’t better when he dressed up. It was just his usual too… fucking… good.

  She knew she was going to hell. She’d been shot and she still was perving on her dead boyfriend’s brother. Granted, he was hot, there was a lot to perv on. Still, she was going to hell.

  He turned, looked at her and she saw the worry in his face. When his warm brown eyes caught hers and he saw she was awake, he hid the worry and his face went soft.

  Her mouth watered.

  Yeah, definitely perv-worthy.

  He walked to her bed, yanking a chair with him so it was close and he sat in it and leaned even closer.

  “Hey Frankie,” he whispered.

  “Hey,” she rasped.

  “How you doin’?” he asked.

  “How you think I’m doin’?” she asked back and he grinned when she hit him with her attitude.

  “Never been shot, babe, but I ‘spect you ain’t doin’ great,” he remarked.

  “You’d be right,” she returned.

  Benny looked to her belly then back to her eyes. “Bullet didn’t hit anything major,” he informed her.

  “Finally, good news.”

  He grinned again. “You lost a lot of blood,” he went on but she already knew that. She’d felt it. She didn’t know if it was the right thing for Benny to do when he picked her up and ran through the forest with her in his arms, straight to his SUV but she guessed it wasn’t. Still, there was no stopping him, even when she laid the attitude on him telling him to put her the fuck down and call an ambulance. He didn’t listen. He was on a mission. “They want you in here awhile,” he finished.

  “Call the Pope, tell him I’m gonna miss our meeting,” Frankie muttered and she heard his soft chuckle.

  Damn, but she liked to make him laugh. She’d sell her soul to make him laugh. Even before, when she was with Vinnie, she liked to make Benny laugh. He had a great laugh, a great smile, a great face. Expressive. But he’d been like a brother then, a good one, a sweet one and she’d loved him. She’d loved Vinnie’s whole family. Hers wasn’t great and she knew great when she felt it. That had been the best gift Vinnie gave her. She sometimes wondered if she loved Vinnie’s family more than Vinnie. Then Vinnie would be Vinnie and she’d quit wondering.

  How Benny went from sweet, funny brother to perv-worthy, Frankie didn’t know. She spent seven years trying to figure it out. She’d never thought of him that way instead of in a detached way
when she’d hear other girls talking about him. Any woman could see it; Frankie just had Vinnie so she didn’t much think about it. Then she didn’t have Vinnie and she found herself thinking about it.

  Definitely going to hell.

  “Cops wanna ask you questions,” Benny broke into her thoughts and she focused on him.

  “Okay,” she replied and he shifted closer.

  “Ma and Pop are here,” he hesitated, “they wanna see you.”

  Frankie stared into his eyes for half a second then looked away. “No.”

  “Frankie, babe…” Benny whispered.

  She got it. She knew Theresa, Vinnie Senior, Manny and even Benny had to blame someone. They loved Vinnie. He was a great guy, a great son, a great brother. They needed to shift the blame for all of Vinnie’s fuck ups to someone. And she loved Vinnie enough to accept it.

  But she’d paid enough of Vinnie’s penance. She loved him and you do that kind of thing for someone you love but enough was enough.

  She looked back at Benny and whispered, “No.”

  He reached out and took her hand in both of his. His were big and warm. Strong. He leaned in even deeper and lifted her hand so he could rest his chin against her fingers and his elbows in the bed.

  “Francesca,” he said quietly, “what you did today was crazy stupid.”

  “Thanks,” she was quiet too but it was quiet sarcasm not quiet gentleness.

  “Babe, listen to me,” Benny ordered, “it was also crazy brave.”

  She didn’t reply. She just stared into his dark brown eyes.

  “What you did, for family, they’re gonna wanna heal the breach.”

  “Too late,” Frankie whispered and Benny’s hands tightened on hers.

  “Honey –”

  “I got a job in Indianapolis,” she announced.

  “What?” he whispered, sounding surprised and maybe a little pissed like he knew everything about her and wasn’t expecting a surprise.

  “Finally leavin’ this shit behind.”

  “Frankie –”

  “Not sayin’ I’m not glad maybe they don’t hate me anymore, you’re here, bein’ nice, maybe you don’t, that’s all good but I’m gone.”

  “You’re not movin’ to Indy,” he declared.

  “Waited too long. It’s time to start over. Clean slate,” Frankie said.

  “Babe –” he started but Frankie looked away and closed her eyes.