Shamrocks and Secrets

by Cayce Poponea

  Douce began to tremble in earnest and then the sound of water dripping started. At first I thought it was the leftover water from where Christi had lain, but as I looked at Douce, the distinctive darkening of his pants proved otherwise. He actually had pissed himself.

  “Now, I’ll ask you again. Who are you working with?”

  “J..Jeremiah and A…A…Anthony Porchelli. S…Sophia is in on it t…too.”

  “What was the plan?”

  Silence again followed. This time the sound of a gunshot was heard from behind Douce. Tonto stood with his gun pointed at Douce’s ass. “Boss asked you a question.”

  Douce was now crying out in pain. This was nothing close to what he was going to suffer. “All I know is…I was to get her to the storeroom…so that Jeremiah could bring her here.” Douce gasped out between pants of agony.

  “When are Jeremiah and Anthony Porchelli due back here?”

  I watched as he closed his eyes; a small puddle of blood had joined his puddle of piss.

  “Sophia said they’re planning to take Christi back to Italy soon, Anthony Porchelli wants Christi to be his. He gave me instructions to only feed her dirty water and garbage a couple of times a week, and never two days in a row.”

  My hand tightened around the handle of my gun. He had intentionally starved her, breaking her down so that she would do anything he asked by treating her like a sewer rat.

  “Sophia told her that you’re with her now. I don’t think Christi believed her, though.”

  Trying to break her spirit, my Christi was too smart for that.

  “So what was your payoff?”

  Douce looked at the ground and then slumped to the floor. The puddle of blood was larger now and his skin was turning pale.

  When he didn’t answer, I raised my gun and fired two shots into his right knee. His screams did nothing but piss me off. The only thing keeping him alive right now was my need for more answers.

  “Boss asked you a question, Douce,” Tonto prodded.

  “Once Christi was gone and you followed her, I wouldn’t have to make my child support payments anymore. Things would go back to the way they were before Christi,” he gasped out.

  Listening to Douce tell me how he only wanted Christi out of the picture because of a few dollars he had to pay for the care of his children was the straw that broke me. Giggles was my niece, she loved her Aunt Christi and would be devastated if something would have happened to her. Douce didn’t deserve to have the privilege of calling himself that beautiful child’s father.

  My next move shocked even me. I found my foot planted in the center of Douce’s chest, slamming his back flat to the cold stone floor, my gun pointed between his shocked eyes.

  “You don’t deserve that child,” I growled, my foot shoving harder into his chest. “You need to know that after today, you’ll only be a faded memory to the mother of that little girl since you were too much of a selfish son of a bitch to get to know your own daughter. Giggles’ true daddy will be there for her instead.” My foot pressed harder into his chest.

  “Her daddy will take her to the park and buy her ice cream. Her daddy will bandage up her scraped knees and help her with her homework. Her daddy will comfort her when her first crush breaks her heart, while Uncle Patrick crushes his skull. Her daddy will clap for her at graduation and drive her to college. He’ll walk her down the aisle at her wedding and hold her first child with tender care. Her daddy will love her Mother like the most precious thing in the world that she is. But you, you’ll be rotting like the piece of worthless shit you are.”

  Removing my foot, I bent down so that my face was only inches from his. “But first, you’re going to call your buddy, Anthony Porchelli, and tell him to get over here quick. Tell him there’s a big problem with Christi. Don’t worry; you won’t be lying.”

  Douce’s breathing was rapid but this time he didn’t hesitate as he reached into his pocket, retrieved his phone, and dialed. “Dude, you gotta get here quick. I think the bitch is dead,” he said and hung up.

  I steadied my breathing as I let his words settle. Looking him square in his face, I spoke the final words he would ever hear. “No, she’s not, but you are.”

  I could see the flash from the bullets being fired into Douce’s skull. Blood and brains were splattered in all directions. No one said a single word, as the smell of gunpowder lingered in the room, the final shell casing was spinning on the floor. Douce was dead and I could now tell my Christi that he could never hurt her again.

  Now to wait for Anthony Porchelli. His death wouldn’t be so quick.

  “Angus!” I heard Shamus shout from outside the door.

  “In here, Brother!” Angus shouted back.

  The door slowly opened and in walked a pissed off-looking Shamus, followed closely by a tired-looking Frankie.

  “Angus, I’ve been calling you for hours,” Shamus said as he took a look around the room, his eyes finally landing on a dead Douce. “Is that…?”

  “Yes, it’s Douce, although it’s a good thing he won’t be having a funeral. Even his mother couldn’t identify him.” Angus explained.

  Shamus shrugged as he continued to look at the faceless man that lay on the ground, “Guess he pissed you off once too many, huh, Boss?”

  No one said a word as every eye was now on me. “He assisted in the kidnapping of Christi.”

  Shamus’s eyes were now bulging. “Did he at least tell you where she is?”

  I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, the memory of her lying in Angus’s arms still fresh in my mind. “He had her here on the cold wet floor, she was still in the clothes from the wedding and he’d starved and beat her. My father took her to the hospital.”

  “Is she…?” Frankie’s tiny voice spoke from behind Shamus.

  “She’s alive, just barely,” Matthew spoke from my right.

  “Boss, can I ask why you two are still here? I mean shouldn’t you be at the hospital?”

  I looked at Shamus, but Matthew began to speak before I could. “Patrick and I are waiting for the ones responsible for this. He made a promise that he’d take care of them so she won’t be afraid when she wakes up. I’m waiting to see if one of the men is the man who’s responsible for the death of my oldest daughter. If I’m correct in my suspicions, I want to deal with him myself.”

  I turned to look at Matthew, “You think this Jeremiah and Jimmy are the same? The man that killed your Colleen?”

  “I’m fairly certain of it. Christi said Jimmy is what Colleen always called him.”

  “What are you doing here?” Angus questioned Shamus.

  “I got your message that you were going to check on the caverns. When I didn’t hear from you and you didn’t answer my pages or calls, I got worried. I told Frankie I’d take her to lunch, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.”

  It was only seconds later that we heard the distinct sound of feminine laughter, followed by the clicking of high heels. Shamus moved himself and Frankie away from the door as the laughter got louder.

  The door opened as three figures entered. They were laughing, talking, and joking about the stench permeating the building, as if it were funny. I was going to make certain this was the last time they would ever have anything to laugh about.

  My eyes met Anthony Porchelli’s first. His expression was one of shock at first, but then a huge smile spread along his thin lips. The man that stood beside him tried to turn and run out the door. I recognized him as Jimmy the Mooch, the low-life that had wanted to work for me years ago. Tonto was quick to slam him to the floor and then pointed his gun in his face.

  Anthony Porchelli’s eyes never left mine as I cleared the distance between our bodies. His eyes dropped from mine long enough to take in Douce’s dead corpse.

  “Ah, I should thank you for that. Less cleanup for me, Malloy.”

  Sophia stood like a deer caught in headlights with her purse on her arm and her phone in her hand. I would deal with her l
ater.

  “That’s nothing compared to what’s in store for you, Porchelli.”

  He began to laugh as he moved toward me. “Don’t think for one moment you can touch me. My father would have his men after you in a second,” he hissed, his eyes dilated, spit coming off his teeth as he spoke.

  “Not if he can’t prove anything,” Angus interjected. “No one will ever find your bodies.”

  “My father is an ignorant old man who’s ruled by his foolishness of the past, but he does have his sources. They’ve been handy in getting me my Christi,” he grinned.

  He was either trying to piss me off or he was telling the truth, but either way, Porchelli was a dead man.

  “What’s that on your arm?” Frankie screeched at Sophia.

  Everyone in the room turned to see what Frankie was yelling about. I looked directly at her left arm and there it was; the bracelet I had given Christi, Sophia had clearly stolen it from her.

  “It’s mine!” Sophia shouted as she drew her arm against her chest. “It should’ve been mine from the start, but that stupid, ugly girl got in our way, Patrick!” She whined as she began to walk toward me, like a cat in heat.

  “Stop right there!” Frankie warned jumping in front of her. “You stole that from my friend and where I come from, there’s a punishment for stealing.”

  “Get out of my way, you washed up whore. Don’t you know Patrick only used you to get what he wanted? He never loved you, he was supposed to be mine, but that tramp got in the way!”

  I took a quick step back as Sophia attempted to take yet another step around Frankie, lunging toward me. Frankie was quicker and using her left hand she took the gun that rested in the waistband at Shamus’s back, and fired two shots. Sophia stumbled back hitting the wall behind her, sliding down, and then coming to rest on the dirty floor in a sitting position.

  Frankie walked over to where Sophia sat dying, staring up shocked at Frankie’s angry face. “You don’t fuck with my family!” Frankie reached down and jerked Sophia’s wrist up, removing my bracelet from her arm before she spit in her face.

  Sophia looked up at me as she took her last breath and then slumped onto the floor.

  “I never cared for my sister, you know. She was such a spoiled brat, and quite daft, too,” Porchelli said with a shrug.

  My attention now focused on Porchelli. He was looking at his dead sister with no emotion. Had that been Paige, I would have torn every man in this room apart for hurting her. Porchelli only looked at her as if she was a dirty piece of gum on his shoe.

  “How can you say such a thing? She was your sister!” Matthew questioned.

  “She was weak and worthless.”

  “She was still your sister.”

  “Perhaps…”

  I was sick of this. I needed to get to the hospital, back to Christi. I had to be there when she awoke so that I could assure her that she was truly safe.

  I raised my gun and steadied my grip. “I promised my Christi the responsible ones would pay. I always keep my promises to her.”

  My finger was steady on the trigger as I watched Porchelli’s eyes grow bigger. By the look on his face, he knew I was deadly serious.

  “If you kill me, Malloy, you’ll never know…”

  I cut him off. I was sick of his games, sick of him taking up air that good people like my Christi needed to breathe. “I already know all I need to know; I know that you won’t be able to hurt her anymore.”

  I didn’t give him a chance to respond as I unloaded my magazine into his chest, my last bullet hitting him squarely between the eyes. I watched as his hand came up to his heart as he gasped for his last breath, the force of the bullets propelling him into the wall. With a hard thud, he lay dead in a pool of quickly flowing blood. His eyes still open, a trail of dark blood descending down his face.

  I couldn’t remove my eyes from his body. I had killed my fair share of men in my days, but this one was personal. He had dared to touch the one thing that was forbidden, breaking the unwritten rule that wives were off limits. Velenci would be powerless to enforce anything and as far as Sophia was concerned, she would just be a causality of the drug war.

  “You killed my daughter,” Matthew’s voice invaded the quiet that was present after the gunshots stopped.

  I looked to see Jimmy, who could only smile as I began to reload my gun. “Here, Matthew, use mine,” I told him as I tried to hand him my gun. Matthew looked at me, and then at the gun that was offered. “It’s a clean gun and we’ll dispose of it when we’re finished here.”

  He looked from my gun to my face, and then turned back to Jimmy. “A bullet is too quick for this son of a bitch. He needs to suffer.” The smug smile on Jimmy’s face disappeared, replaced with pure terror as he looked into Matthew O'Rourke’s eyes boring into him with the anguish and rage of a grieving father. “You took my daughter from me. You left her to die, naked and alone in a seedy motel room.”

  Matthew began to walk closer to Jimmy, never taking his eyes off him. “She wanted to be a teacher, did you know that?” It wasn’t really a question, more of a thought he had that passed his lips. “She wanted to teach kindergarten, she had her whole life ahead of her. But you changed all that. You stole her bright future, traded it for drugs, and death.”

  Matthew was getting closure. He needed to share his memories with the man who had taken away his daughter.

  “You took my beautiful daughter and made her into a broken, hateful person who would stay gone for weeks. She no longer cared about her sisters or her father. She only wanted her next fix.”

  Matthew stayed quiet for several minutes and surprisingly, so did Jimmy. Finally, Matthew raised his head and turned to Jimmy once again. “Did you know that in the time of King Henry, VIII, when someone offended the crown, they were given the most severe punishment?”

  Again, this wasn’t a question.

  “When my girls were little, they loved to play princess, especially Colleen. She looked just like a little fairytale princess with those red flowing curls and her porcelain skin. They would dress up so cute and want me to play the role of the King.” His eyes showed me he was seeing his little girls dancing around him, free and innocent.

  The warmth from his memories faded from his eyes as he looked back at James. “You took away my princess.” The look that followed that statement was one I hoped never to receive from Matthew O'Rourke. He was no longer in control of his actions and Jimmy would be paying the price.

  “Patrick, can you instruct your men to assist me, please?”

  I didn’t have to say a word, Shamus and Angus stepped forward to flank Matthew.

  “Gentlemen, strip him of his clothes and hold him to the wall.” Jimmy was clearly too terrified to say a word. My men wasted little time as the sounds of clothes ripping filled the room, the strips landing in a pile at my feet. On a chain hanging around Jimmy’s neck was the engagement ring I had given my Christi. Matthew was looking at it as well, but would leave it there for now as a reminder of what he had done to his other daughter as well. This wasn’t just for Colleen anymore.

  “In that time, the King would order the offending person to be drawn and quartered. Since we have to adjust due to the circumstances, we’ll just be drawing.”

  Jimmy didn’t know what had hit him as Matthew pulled a razor-sharp switchblade seemingly from nowhere and made a large deep slash across Jimmy’s lower body. He screamed out in pain as blood began to pour from the wound. However, Matthew wasn’t finished as he drew the blade through the cut again, and this time the gash opened and what looked like James’s intestines fell out, splattering onto the floor as he watched.

  “See, in the days of the King, your intestines would been pulled out and burned at this point, but I don’t want to end your suffering quite that quickly.”

  This time the blade coming down sliced off Jimmy's manhood and I would admit that even I cringed.

  The pool of blood at Jimmy’s feet was growing at an alarming rate, enou
gh that I had to take a step back to avoid getting it on my shoes.

  Matthew crossed the room and took a seat on the floor as he continued to watch Jimmy die a slow and excruciating death.

  I watched as Shamus and Angus held tightly to Jimmy’s naked body, pinning it to the cold stone wall. Moments later, a bubbling sound was heard from Jimmy's and then the contents of his bladder and bowels, fell to the floor, followed by Jimmy’s head dropping forward, a sure sign of his death.

  Matthew stood and walked over, unclasping the gold chain from around Jimmy’s neck holding my Christi’s ring. “Let him fall, Gentlemen,” Matthew’s voice said softly as he sighed deeply and backed away. “Rest in peace now, princess,” he sobbed, his voice full of emotion and it was all I could do to not join him.

  Matthew inhaled deeply and then turned to me, taking my hand and placing the ring in my palm, “It’s over, Son. Let’s go tell our Christi the good news.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The waiting room at the hospital was full of family when I arrived. My ma rushed over and threw her arms around me. “Dr. Bradshaw is in there now, please tell me you…”

  I leaned in close so that no one else could hear. “Yes, she has nothing to fear.”

  “Patrick.” I looked up to see Amex making a quick b-line for me. She and Caleb had returned from their honeymoon two weeks ago. “They won’t let us back there,” she whimpered, her arms going tightly around my neck. Amex released me and immediately pushed me away, “Oh, crap, Patrick what is that horrible odor?” she groaned as I noticed my father entering the room with a man in a white lab coat following close behind.

  “Christi’s prison,” I told her as I removed her arms from around my neck and made my way over to my father. The man in the white coast’s pocket read Dr. Kenneth Bradshaw, MD, Emergency Medicine.

  “Da?” I called out.

  Thomas’s head snapped in my direction, “Patrick, you’re here.” I continued to make my way closer, as the room grew very quiet. “Son, this is my good friend, Dr. Bradshaw. He’s been attending to our Christi.”