Dirty Power

by Ashley Bartlett

  “Don’t be. Just tell me that they got ’em.”

  “I’m not privy to everything that is going on, but yes, arrests have been made. Only time will tell if they stick.”

  “Got it.” I yawned.

  “I’m sorry. Go back to sleep.”

  “Where’s Reese?” I was more curious than anything. She had promised. So I knew she was nearby.

  “Your father dragged her off to get some sleep.”

  “Go Dad.”

  Breno kept talking, but I didn’t follow what he was saying. I just let the smooth lilt of his voice carry me to sleep.

  *

  After a few days, I was transferred to a different room. Some dude, I think he was my doctor, explained some shit about my being shot. I didn’t follow most of it. He said I’d lost a shitload of blood. That was from the one in my stomach. I was growing a whole new collection of scars from that baby.

  The one in my thigh wasn’t bad. It had just thrown my leg into shock. That was why I hadn’t been able to run. The doctor said I’d be walking again soon. That was a plus.

  He hadn’t been able to tell me why the fuck I was still alive. I asked about the bullet wound in my head. That made him question my sanity because there was no bullet in my head. I’d only been shot twice. He didn’t know what had happened to get me there. He only knew that I came in bleeding and they made the bleeding stop.

  I appreciated that.

  On the first day in my new, fancy room, Ogilvy came to visit me. Probably because I was finally able to stay awake for longer than five minutes at a time. Made conversation a bit easier.

  “Cooper. Glad to see you awake.” Her business-like tone couldn’t hide the blend of kindness and fear lurking beneath the surface.

  “Same here. Did you get the fuckers?”

  She laughed. Out loud. Point to me.

  “We got the fuckers.”

  “What about the don?” I asked. It was a long shot, but I figured I’d ask anyway.

  “After your initial exchange we got the warrant signed for his arrest. We have had a team following him for two days waiting for the signal to arrest him. He is currently in custody.”

  “Wait, what? What did you get him on?”

  Ogilvy looked at me like I was stupid. No surprise. “Really?”

  “What did I miss?”

  “No wonder you were so casual.”

  “Huh?”

  “You got him to admit that he was paying you ten thousand for killing Ryan. That was enough for an arrest. A nice solid case, easy conviction. Lawrence DiGiovanni isn’t going anywhere.”

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  Ogilvy laughed again.

  “What about Vito and friends? How the fuck am I alive?”

  “Mr. Serra is still in ICU. He was shot in the chest. He is under arrest, but he may not wake up to face the charges.”

  “Vito got shot?”

  “Yes, we moved in when you started to panic in the garage, but we missed you.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m so sorry.” She grimaced and shook her head. “We thought we had all of the exits covered, but there was an exit we were unaware of. You owe your life to a lovely young couple who were on their first date,” she said.

  “I’m so confused.” Either she was speaking riddles or I was on some awesome drugs. Or both.

  “When you started screaming from the top floor, a couple walking below heard you. I’m told that the young lady insisted that her date call the police. He was on the phone with dispatch when Mr. Serra left the garage. The woman heard screaming from the trunk of a car. They hailed a cab and followed it.”

  “Seriously?” Who was this crazy bitch? I totally owed her a drink. Or some of these painkillers. Or my life.

  “I know.” Ogilvy shook her head. “I’ve spoken to the young lady. She’s…strong willed.” Diplomatic. “The CPD officers who were helping us monitor your wire were contacted by dispatch. We got lucky. Florence picked up the tail based on the directions from the couple who were following you.”

  “So you guys were there the whole time?”

  “At a distance, yes. Florence was waiting for backup when they began shooting at you. He made the decision to move in solo. And he was the one who shot Vito Serra. Two of the men, Robert Harper and George Divine, then opened fire on Agent Florence.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Yes. Thankfully, he only sustained a minor injury. Mr. Divine was killed at the scene. My team arrived in time to arrest the remaining participants. Robert Harper, Timothy Lagorio, Salvatore Mancini, Dominic Cross, and Lorenzo DiGiovanni are all currently in our custody.”

  “Wait, T is Timothy Lagorio?”

  “Yes. He is your friend Christopher’s brother.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “I believe they are estranged.”

  “No shit.”

  “We have recovered—”

  “Wait. What about Alexis? You didn’t say she was in custody.” That one was important. At least it was to me.

  “Alexis DiGiovanni? We believe that she left after the parking garage. She wasn’t at the scene.”

  “Yes, she fucking was.”

  “Are you certain?” Ogilvy was already reaching for her phone.

  “I elbowed her in the face when I took off. Broke her nose. There’s probably blood.”

  “We haven’t processed the evidence from the scene yet.” Ogilvy shook her head. “I’m sorry, I need to go. Thank you.”

  After that, they had a uniform posted at my door. Why didn’t they have one before?

  Chapter Twenty-one

  My mom stepped into the hallway to answer a call. Probably from my dad.

  “Can she hear us?” I asked.

  “No,” Reese said.

  “Go check.”

  Reese rolled her eyes, then got up to look up and down the hallway. She came back and sat next to my bed again. “She’s all the way at the other end of the hall.”

  “Good.” I didn’t want either of my parents to hear this conversation. It would kill them. And I’d been killing them every day for the last two years. I couldn’t add another blow to that.

  “Why? What’s up?” Reese asked.

  “We can’t stay here.”

  “What do you mean? Is it weird to be with the fam again?”

  “Yes, but no. I mean, it isn’t safe.” Reese got a weirdly contemplative look on her face. “The longer we stick around, the more my parents are at risk. Same with Austin and Carson and Derek. And Ade, if she ever shows up.”

  Ade had conveniently stayed in the hotel the entire time they’d been in Chicago. My parents hadn’t let her go more than a mile from them since her fuck-up in Spain. I was pretty sure they were livid with her. And she had to be terrified of me. Especially since I’d gotten both arrested and shot. Exactly like we said I would.

  But I wasn’t going to rub that in. Really. I figured she had enough going on without me telling her I told you so.

  “We can’t take off again,” Reese said.

  “I don’t want to. I just don’t want to put them in danger.”

  “Alexis isn’t going to get anywhere near them.”

  “You don’t know that,” I said.

  “Actually, I do. Every time I leave this room there are about twenty cops following me. And we are all staying on the same floor of the hotel. I’m pretty sure that every room without one of your family members has an FBI agent in it. Trust me, okay?”

  “I do. It’s just that Alexis is fucking insane and—”

  My mom walked back into the room. “Everyone is on their way up.”

  “Cool,” I said. I was so into pretending that I hadn’t been suggesting that we run away again that I didn’t bother asking why they were all coming up.

  Two minutes later, my dad walked in.

  “Hey, guys.” He gave us a cursory nod. It could have been because he was carrying a massive stack of pizza boxes, but it wasn’t. He hadn’t been able to loo
k me in the eye yet. He’d hugged me and told me he loved me. He’d taken notes on my care when the doctor explained the hell that my body was going through. He’d even made runs to the store for Zebra Cakes and Mountain Dew and Cheetos. But he hadn’t looked me in the eye. How do you face your child when they turn into something monstrous?

  “The boys will be in soon.” He nodded at the door.

  Everyone seemed used to the ID checks at the door to my room. Reese said she’d seen about four different cops so far. All of them were quite vigilant with monitoring my visitors. Ryan had said he was going to get a fake ID made with Derek’s name just to see if they would catch it. But then he got distracted by something shiny so we never really got a verdict on that one.

  “Coop!” Carson.

  “Cooper.” Derek.

  “Dude.” Ryan.

  “Miss Vivian.” Austin.

  “Blow me.”

  Ryan and Carson were each carrying a case of beer. Derek had three bottles of wine. And Austin was somehow balancing four cases of soda. I was pretty sure they had overdone it on the beverages.

  “Are we having a party?” Reese asked.

  “We were going to, back in EDH, but since Coop got all bleedy again, we decided to party here,” Derek said.

  It wasn’t my fault with the bleeding. Okay, I might have been making out with Reese and then we realized I was bleeding.

  “Yeah, man. Two more days in the hospital. Was it worth it?” Carson asked.

  “Uhh, have you seen my fiancé?” I asked the room in general.

  “Hello, father present in the room.” My dad waved.

  “Mother too.”

  “Yeah, brother too.” Ryan mimicked Dad’s wave.

  “Anyway, we decided to bring the party to you,” Austin said.

  “As opposed to all the other days where you guys wouldn’t leave my room.”

  They’d stuck with me constantly since they’d gotten to Chicago. Which was nice in a suffocating sort of way. I think they wanted to protect me, but they didn’t really know what to protect me from. I hoped they never knew what I needed protection from.

  “But those other days didn’t have pizza,” Dad said.

  “Hey, kids.” Christopher walked into the room.

  “Hello, everyone.” Breno too.

  “Well, now it’s a party,” I said.

  The guys laughed. My parents awkwardly studied their shoes. I was pretty sure they wanted to get a restraining order or something against Christopher and Breno. But my mom had figured out that they made me feel safe. So she let them stay out of a sense of duty. But my dad pretty much looked like he constantly wanted to throw down. And Breno looked like a puppy who wasn’t quite housetrained yet. Christopher just stared at the walls a lot.

  Carson and Derek realized that there weren’t enough chairs for everyone so they went in search of more. Ryan distributed paper plates. Austin started handing out drinks. Nothing says classy like wine from a plastic cup. I wanted a beer, but my dad was taking the whole don’t mix pain meds and booze thing way too seriously. So I got Mountain Dew.

  I was pretty sure someone was going to come in and break up our party. Weren’t there rules about visitors in hospital rooms? No one did though. Maybe it had something to do with the police presence. About five minutes into the most awkward so-called party of my life, I started praying that someone would come kick them all out. But it so wasn’t happening.

  Everyone sat around my bed, which was annoying. I didn’t want to be the centerpiece of the table. I wasn’t wearing pants. You can’t be the center of attention when you don’t have pants.

  Austin made a valiant effort at conversation. He would start to tell some story, then realize that it was inappropriate in some way and halt. It was excruciating. But Ryan had never been polite, and thankfully, he decided to stay that way.

  “Hey, remember that time that guy shot me?”

  Everyone turned to stare at Ryan. Like a bad sitcom. Every head just turned toward him. I started laughing.

  “Hey, remember that time I put superglue in your bullet wound instead of stitches?” I said.

  “Hey, remember that time Vito decided to kill me so he could kidnap Reese?”

  “Which time?” I asked.

  “Hey, remember that time you got arrested in Mexico?” Reese asked Ryan.

  Carson laughed.

  “Hey, remember that time Vito kicked the shit out Coop and that drag queen had to save her?” Ryan giggled.

  Austin arched his brow at me.

  “Hey, remember that time you guys dressed in drag to hide?” Reese said.

  “Which time?” Ryan asked.

  Derek, Carson, and Austin laughed.

  “Hey, remember that time I killed a guy?” I asked. The room went still. Utterly fucking still. “What? He was evil incarnate and I don’t feel bad about it. I do feel bad about not feeling bad about it, though. But Reese made me go to therapy for half a year, and now I can sleep through the night without creepy dreams.”

  “Vivian,” my mom whispered.

  “No. It’s true. I killed a guy. He was really fucking bad.”

  Reese was awesome. She could have let me hang myself, but she didn’t. “He really was bad. He was going to rape me with a knife. So Coop killed him.” Everyone stared at Reese. “Don’t worry. I went to therapy too.” That didn’t seem to make them feel any better.

  “What? We’ve always been able to talk. So let’s talk. I killed a guy. It’s okay. I have immunity. Anyone have questions?” I asked.

  I looked around the room. Ryan was smiling at his half-eaten pizza. Austin’s mouth was hanging open. Carson had found something really interesting on my dad’s face. My dad had found something really interesting on the wall. Derek had gone deaf. He was eating like nothing was happening. Breno and Christopher seemed to think that was a brilliant move, so they dug into the pizza they hadn’t yet touched. My mom was staring at me. Through me. I wasn’t sure.

  “Hey, remember that time—” I started, but my mom cut me off.

  “Be quiet. All of you. Just stop it.” She set down her plate. “This isn’t a joke. I can’t listen to you pretend that it is. I can’t.”

  “Hey, remember that time—” I tried again.

  “Vivian, stop.”

  I stared at my mother, praying for something, anything that would take the cold fury out of her eyes. But there was nothing I could say that would take the last two years away. The pain was there. It always would be.

  A voice from the doorway cut through the silence.

  “Hey, remember that time you told me I was a naïve eighteen-year-old and I was going to get V killed?” Ade said.

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  “Yes,” Reese said.

  Ryan started laughing. “That’s funny,” he said when we all stared at him. “You know, ’cause that’s pretty much what happened.”

  “Fuck you,” Ade said.

  Ryan kept laughing. “No, it’s good. If you hadn’t been all idealistic, then we would still be in Spain and you guys would still be here. I don’t know about the rest of you, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

  And my dad started laughing. Just like that.

  “Yes, Ryan. This is the most pleasant dinner I’ve attended in quite some time,” Dad said.

  Which made Austin and Derek laugh.

  “It isn’t at all awkward,” I said.

  Carson and Breno joined in. My mom even smiled a little. Which made Christopher smile.

  “Come on, Ade, we’re having a great time.” Ryan stood and motioned for Breno and Derek to scoot. He pulled over an extra chair. “Sit. I’ll get you a plate.”

  Ade sat. She looked like she was in shock, but at least she was here. Ryan tossed a couple pieces of pizza onto a plate and gave it to Ade.

  “Thanks,” Ade said.

  “I know she’s baby-sized, but I think this kid needs some wine.” Ryan didn’t wait for a response. He just grabbed one of the bott
les and poured her a very small glass of wine.

  “Ade, I don’t think you’ve been introduced to our father,” Reese said. “Breno, this is Adriana, Coop’s little sister. She got Cooper shot, but we’ve decided to forgive her because my asshole grandpa is behind bars and so is the rest of our fucked up family.”

  “Language,” my mom said.

  “It is lovely to meet you, Adriana,” Breno said.

  “You’re Reese and Ryan’s dad?” Ade asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Where the fuck have you been? You know Christopher was a total dick, right?” Ade asked.

  That launched the retelling of a very long story.

  *

  That evening after nearly everyone had gone back to the hotel, Reese climbed onto my bed. It was too narrow, but we made it work.

  “Careful, don’t want to tear another stitch,” I said.

  “I am not sure that I believe that I was responsible for your last torn stitch.” She’d had a lot of wine so her speech was extra perfect. And it made no sense whatsoever. Which I found sexy for some reason. Also annoying.

  “You’re awesome,” I said.

  “I know.”

  “I’m sleepy,” I said.

  “Me too,” Reese said.

  “Me too,” Ryan said.

  Ryan?

  “I thought you went back to the hotel. What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Snuggling. I can’t sleep alone.” He crawled onto the other side of the bed and stole half my pillow. As if the bed wasn’t small enough already.

  “Be careful of her side,” Reese said.

  “You know this is why people say we are weird and codependent, right?” I said.

  “Shh, sleepy time.” Ryan closed his eyes.

  I was going to kick him out. But I kind of liked him being there. So I fell asleep instead.

  *

  “Kids, wake up.” It was my mom’s voice. I didn’t need to open my eyes to know that.

  “Uhh-uh,” I muttered.

  “Come on, guys. You can’t all sleep in here.”

  I opened my eyes. That was all I could move because I was sandwiched between the twins on a narrow hospital bed.