“Marcus!” Alex’s voice cut through the quiet, making me jump again. Of course that fucker lived.
My fingers trembled so hard, I lost my balance twice trying to push myself off the floor. I didn’t know fingers could shake that much. I winced as glass pierced my palms, hissing in through clenched teeth at the bright pain. I peered over the bar and took in the horror.
At first I didn’t understand how Alex had survived. True, we had our own men throughout the bar, but the Italians had us outnumbered. They had been in a tight formation, while our people had been scattered throughout the bar. When I looked at the heap of bullet-riddled bodies splayed along the floor, I understood just why our men had been set up that way.
Several members of both the Espositos and the Biancis still stood, their automatic weapons pointing in different directions, some of which had smoke trailing from the muzzles. They had turned on their own. Somehow, Vance or Alex had talked them into switching sides, and at the most crucial moment, they gunned down their brothers.
Surveying the now quiet warzone I kept turning my head, unable to look away. Then I saw something that made my knees buckle.
I stumbled past a dazed Bianci with blood flowing from a crater in his arm, past Alex who was barking orders at Marcus. I lunged across the stage into the soft spotlight. Julie lay on her back, her eyes wide with terror. Her beautiful golden gown was now spotted with large, irregular, crimson blossoms. The hair she’d no doubt spent hours perfecting was twisted and splayed around her head. Her perfect, porcelain doll face was missing its lower jaw.
Maybe she’ll be fine she’ll be fine she’ll be fine. The nonsense words careened through my brain until they smashed into a memory: She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it. The promise I had made to Cassie just this afternoon.
I threw up.
“The fuck is the matter with you?” I hadn’t heard Alex approach, and I whirled around, looking up at him from my knees. I didn’t remember falling to them.
“Julie,” was all I could say.
Alex looked at her body. Little droplets of blood were splattered across the left side of his face and neck, and his glasses were dusted with a fine coating of drywall dust. His expression of cold boredom didn’t change. “The evidence you planted with Grant, at the RPD.” He was still looking at Julie. “That will be enough to bring down the majority of both families. We will leave the Acerbi alone, for now. Let them see we aren’t to be fucked with. Let them realize it’s either obey or die.” Alex’s green gaze finally shifted back to me, and in that moment, I tensed my legs and nearly leapt at his throat. The only thing that stopped me was the enormous rifle he held.
“Report to Grant in the morning. Clean yourself up and get out of here.” Alex turned away, then paused and threw a final command over his shoulder. “Go home.”
I heard what he’d said. My mind, however, was only repeating one word, over and over.
Cassie.
Four
The air outside the club was heavy with threatening rain. It dragged my spirits and my shoulders into a slump. I leaned against the cool brick exterior of Cold Waters in an attempt to quell the tremors that still quaked through my legs and hands.
As my breathing slowed, I realized I could hear muffled voices off to my right. I ignored them. I had too much on my mind. How do I tell Cassie? How CAN I tell Cassie? I promised to protect Julie for her and all I did was save my own ass. I swallowed a sob. Fuck, I’m such a coward.
A few men I recognized as crooked cops that worked for Vance hurried toward me, running from parked squad cars with their red and blue lights spinning. My heart leapt and stuttered. I feared it would seize up completely under the amount of stress I’ve endured in a mere hour. To my relief, the men didn’t even glance at me, and instead ducked inside the club. They were no doubt there to clean up the mess Alex had made minutes before. But how had they gotten wind of it so quickly?
My breathing had finally returned to normal, and I pushed myself away from the wall, straightening my shoulders, smoothing my unkempt hair. I needed to get home. I could figure out what to do once I was in the comfort of my own—
“Of course it was a set up, I get that.” The voice was familiar; I’d just heard it that morning. Grant. His was one of the muted voices I had heard. I looked around to see the entrance to a small alley two yards or so from where I stood.
Officer Halpern continued. “But why in the hell would the boss not keep it clear? You know as well as I he doesn’t put his own at risk like that.”
“I don’t know!” a lighter male voice replied in a strained whisper. Inching forward, not wanting to get caught, I held my breath. “Henry could have been a liability, after the death of Darren. I wouldn’t doubt that Vance might try to get rid of him.”
“And that young girl in there? He wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Vance put her in there knowing the shootout was going to happen.”
“I know, I know.” Grant let out a rough sigh. “I just...I can’t do anything about this.”
“You’re going to be a dad. You said yourself you couldn’t imagine leaving your wife alone with—”
“I don’t need the reminder, kid.”
The voices began to strengthen, get closer.
“Let’s just get back in there and do our fuckin’ jobs.”
I began to step away from the alleyway, fearful of what these men would do should they find me, then paused. Wait…
Without giving myself a moment’s thought, I strode forward and into the alley, nearly colliding with a young man with light brown curls and captivating green eyes. Isaac. One of our top infiltrators, and Grant’s go-to guy for scene clean-ups. Well, I’ll be.
Both men looked startled, and Grant’s right hand dropped to his holster lightning quick.
I held up my hands in front of me. “Whoa. Whoa. Just….whoa.”
“Henry,” Isaac said, a lopsided grin spreading across his boyish face. “Glad to see you survived.”
Grant shot the younger man a glance, then looked me up and down with a wary gaze.
“Yeah,” I said, terrified of what would happen next. “I heard you guys talking. You know, you want to have a conversation like that, you might want to do it somewhere more, I dunno, discreet.”
Silence. Both stared at me, and I stared right back.
“Julie’s dead.” My voice almost cracked, but I forced it to be firm. “She was my friend. She—”
“Yeah.” Isaac looked away, eyes clouded with a mess of emotions.
“This is wrong.” I kept my voice quiet, but locked my gaze with Grant’s. The officer’s expression didn’t change. His dark skin shone in the moonlight, as if he’d been sweating moments ago, and his goatee was an ebony scruff. “We should do something about this.” I felt my fingers start to tremble again, ever so slightly. I had no idea if I had misjudged the situation and stepped into a potential bullet to the face for my disloyalty. But I had to try. I had to risk it. For Darren, and for Julie.
Five
I didn’t get shot in the face. But neither was I allowed in on whatever it had been that I’d heard that night. Instead, I got to go back to my daily drudges. Vance paid for Julie’s funeral in a sizeable anonymous donation to the family, as was his way. I wish I had never touched his disgusting payoff from Darren’s death.
I almost didn’t go to the service. Entering the parlor, my head was heavy and my mouth was dry. I attempted to shuffle around strangers who leaked tears and clung to each other. Fuck, I can’t do this. I turned to leave before anyone saw me.
“Henry.” Cassie’s soft voice washed over me before I could even back away from my guilt and sorrow.
“Cassie—” I froze, unsure of what to say next. “I’m so sorry.”
Her large eyes were rimmed red. “You need to stop apologizing to me,” she said in a soft but unwavering voice.
Before I could respond, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my waist. My throat closed, an
d I rested my cheek on the top of her head, hugging her back with a fierceness I wasn’t expecting.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.” I kept my voice low and quiet.
“It wasn’t your fault, Henry.” Her words were difficult to understand, muffled by the front of my shirt. I let her hold me, and I held her back, both of us gaining strength from the other. Thoughts of Darren, as always, drifted through my mind, but they were now joined with ones of Julie. Not their deaths, not how they looked with their life drained from their bodies, but of them in simple, day to day motions. So many people overlook the small things. The way someone’s laugh makes you smile. The way their eyes can captivate you. How the way they speak can enlighten you, encourage you, inspire you. A touch of their hand to yours. A quick kiss on the cheek. An ‘I love you.’ All of those things are constantly taken for granted, and now, the people closest to Cassie and I, the ones who meant more than life itself, had been torn from us without warning, without mercy.
“I’m going to kill him.”
I almost didn’t hear her words. Pulling away, I held her at arm’s length, brow furrowed. “Cassie.” I stared into her eyes, now large and defiant, and said, “Not here. Come with me.”
We exited the building and walked toward a small pond to the left, grass swishing and playing a constant monotonous song beneath our feet. A warm breeze, so different from the one that buffeted me the night of Julie’s death, wandered around us as we stepped up to the edge of the water. I stared down at my black dress shoes, shined and free of scuffs.
“Henry. I’m going to.”
“Good.” My answer surprised myself just as much as it did her. Glancing around to ensure no one had followed, I said it again. “Good. Someone needs to.”
“You’re...okay with it? I’m not joking, Henry. I know I seem weak and harmless, but there’s no way Vance is going to get away with this. When you told me how quickly the cops showed up to the scene...it was obviously a set up. You even agreed. You can’t just—”
“Cassie, I want to help you.”
She stared at me, as if assessing me from birth to death, and her hard gaze made me uncomfortable.
“I’m serious. After what happened with Darren, I...I’ve been thinking about leaving. But of course, the more I want to, the more shit goes down that shows me I can’t. Sometimes I feel as if it’s happening on purpose, as if it’s a warning to me, as if the universe knows what will happen if I try, and it’s preventing me from doing so.”
I hadn’t told her about the conversation I’d heard between Isaac and Grant. She had no idea who they were. She was barely a pawn in Vance’s employ, with no rights to any information or any access above what she needed to keep him fed and free of poison at his occasional soiree. The only people she knew that for sure worked for the Russian were me and Julie. And I had no right to get her in deeper with these people.
“Leave, Cassie. Run away, start over somewhere else.”
“What about my parents?” She looked horrified at the thought.
“Take them with you.” I turned, fully facing her, ignoring the small lapping sounds of the pond nearby. I wanted to get on my knees and beg her.
“No.” Her answer cut me, but I had expected it. Cassie wasn’t one to turn tail and run. She’s a fighter. “Listen.” She inched closer. “I think I have a way of taking him out. I...know someone. Someone unbelievably strong, someone willing to kill in the name of revenge. He’d help us.”
“Who?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is I’ve discussed this with him already. Even now, he’s in the process of putting things in order, things that will help us.”
“Things like what?”
“Things that will bring Vance and Alex and everyone else associated with them to their knees.”
The violence in her voice, which should have startled me, brought forth a bright fire in my chest. I thought of the list I’d started, tucked away on my bookshelf, and started to nod. “I can help.”
We should have run. Even though Vance no doubt would have tracked me down, would have known where I went as if he had eyes all over the world, at least Cassie might have gotten away. But vengeance clouded our minds, and the thirst for revenge for our lost loved ones was unquenchable.
“Cassie!” I turned to see a young man with carefully combed dark hair at the entrance of the funeral home, next to a taller man with brown shaggy hair and dark sunglasses covering his eyes. The latter gripped a white walking stick, and both looked morose as my friend turned and waved.
“I have to go, Henry.” Cassie lifted up onto her toes and planted a quick kiss next to my left ear. “We’ll bring him down.” She smiled then, and it lit up her tired face. “You’ll see. He’ll pay.”
Then she turned and hurried toward her other friends, throwing her arms around the neck of the dark-haired man. I knew from Vance’s files he had been Julie’s fiancee. I wondered if the Russian had sent him some kind of “anonymous donation” as well, or if that was just reserved for immediate family and spouses.
The young man sagged against Cassie, and the taller, blind one wrapped his arms around their huddled form. I couldn’t hear their sobs from where I stood. A fresh pang of guilt and loss stabbed me in the stomach. I turned away, busying myself instead with our first move against Vance and Alex, the ripples of the pond providing a gentle soundtrack to my thoughts.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover art copyright © 2016 by Jennifer Reinfried, art by Stephen S. Gibson
Cover design by Meagan Weber
Edited by D.W. Vogel
Grim Inception Page 2
