by DD Prince
Flying in to his hideaway in Africa, ensuring he got word that I leveled his house, and then putting all those informants to death flushed him out. It forced him to come here to deal with me. And now that he’s here, it’s almost over. And his last account is now cleaned out.
And he’s only got two men here in the house. I didn’t know if there was anyone else on the property or not when I got here but Rocco’s sign at the gate told me if there was anyone else, Zack and his men had neutralized them.
“Son, we have to talk about the future. Your mama? She’s sick. We need to---”
Two pings sound in the air right on schedule per my engaging the panic button and the two men flanking my father drop face first. They’re dead. No choice. These guys are scum and it’s no great loss. I catch a blur of the sniper, who I know is Tommy Ferrano, outside the window. The guy is a damn good shot and he volunteered to do this.
“Losin’ my skills. Shooting range ain’t nearly as fun,” he snickered at our last meeting in Costa Rica.
My father scrambles, reaching down, trying to grab for one of their guns. I tackle him to the floor and we roll. We’re in a scrimmage. I get a gun from one man, he gets one from the other.
Holly
“Your Mama’s sick, mijo. That’s why I came home. We need to get her the best doctors.”
They’ve got guns pointed at one another.
“Holly! 77803. Now!” Alessandro shouts this at me, not taking his eyes off his father.
I dash out of the room. But I don’t know where the flipping laundry room is!
“You will be sorry for this mijo. Very goddamn sorry!” Mr. Romero shouts, “You pay attention or your mama will die and not because of me! Because of you!”
I hear Alessandro shout at me. “Left!”
I’ve gone right.
“Two doors down on the left, Holly!”
I change direction and rush in and see Alessandro’s mother in a squat. She looks up at me. She’s already got the lock box in her hands.
“Mrs. Romero!”
“This ends,” she whispers at me, so much emotion in her eyes that it hits me hard. I can’t imagine what she’s been through. She dials the buttons to the right location and opens the box. She rifles through the box, the size of a petty cash box, with a bunch of medical supplies in it, pills, syringes. She pulls out two needles and rushes from the room.
I follow her, unsure of what to do.
She runs into the room, surprising both Alessandro and his father, who are still in a stand-off, talking Spanish to one another through clenched teeth. She runs right for her husband with her arms open as if she’s going to embrace him., “Sandro!”
She does embrace him. Alessandro is staring quizzically at the scene. The man puts his arms around Alessandro’s mother and looks down at her with a tender look on his face.
“Please don’t hurt our son!” she says and then I see her jab him in the back with a needle. She pushes the plunger with her thumb.
He blinks, looking kind of startled. Alessandro does a spinning kick and kicks the gun right out of his father’s hand. It clatters to the floor just as Sandro goes down on his knees. I see a syringe sticking out of his back.
My hands fly to my mouth.
He falls on the ground face-forward and blinks a couple times and then he grunts. “Allegra Christina…” He’s blinking, looking pale.
Mrs. Romero reaches into the pocket of her cardigan and takes the other syringe and twists the cap off and drops it and plunges it into her own chest. The cap falls to the floor and I look at it. Horror registers.
Alessandro catches her as she falls forward.
“Oh god!” I cry out. She’s taken the orange one. The deadly one.
Alessandro’s mom touches his face. He’s leaned over her. “I couldn’t kill him. Because I know you have to do what you need to do. He has to live for that.”
Mr. Romero is just lying on the floor, blinking, looking at his wife in confusion.
“Mama why?” Alessandro’s face is pale, his eyes filled with pain.
“No more, Tesoro. I can take no more. I won’t be your burden no more. And I’m sick. I’m dying.”
“No mama. I’m your burden. This was the end. I got this and now, what’ve you done, Mama?”
“Never. Never. Not once did I wish I didn’t have you. Not once have you been a burden. This releases you. Releases me.” Her eyes are closing, “I’m tired. I love you, my boy. This is a good girl. Be good to her. Give your best parts to her. Use your heart and your mind. Okay? I don’t feel good. I haven’t felt good in a long time. I think I’m very very sick inside. Your papa had doctors look at me and he wouldn’t tell me what the tests said. I knew it was bad. It made him more crazy. More crazy. Can you imagine?” She lets out a little laugh, “He came in here in a way that I knew… I knew I just had to get you here. Jimena told me about those needles. She’s a good girl, too.”
Alessandro’s father lets out a whimper at his wife’s words and then his eyes close.
“We could’ve found doctors,” Alessandro says.
“No, no doctors. Too late for that. I just want to rest. So very tired. She’s pretty, Zander. Be good to her. Okay?”
“Okay, mama. I love you. You rest.”
She closes her eyes, a little smile on her face.
He gently lifts her up and puts her on the sofa. He plants his forehead into her chest and his shoulders start shaking. He’s weeping. She’s not moving.
Tears roll down my face.
I put my hands on his back and gently rub his shoulders. “Babe. Call Zack. Before he wakes up.”
He gets up and walks the few feet away to where his father is passed out on the floor and kicks him, hard in the gut.
The now unconscious man flops.
Alessandro kicks him again. Kicking him in the gut, the face, the nuts. And he’s just out. Like a light.
I’m afraid he’s going to kill him.
I grab for him.
“Baby, Zack. Call Zack. Death is too good for him. You want him to go to jail. To trial. So that the victims can get justice. So your mom, she can have justice!”
He throws his phone at me, it lands at my feet, and then he kicks his father one more time and storms out.
I’m standing there between his parents. His father unconscious. His mother, either dead or dying.
I step out into the hallway and shakily scroll through. I can’t find an entry for Zack. I don’t see a ZJ, or any other Z names in the phone directory. I try to call Dare’s number up from my memory but I’m blanking out. I scroll. I do see DF and I know, from our wedding day that this was Dare’s number so I hit the button to call him. So that he can get Zack here to help.
Minutes later, Zack and Wesley are in the room with me.
Just moments after that, Wesley takes me outside and puts me in the back of his SUV.
Alessandro is sitting there already, in the back seat, on the other side, his elbow resting on the door. He has his hand across his forehead, his eyes partly covered by his fingers. They’re closed.
I don’t know if I should touch him or give him his space.
I put my hand on his knee and squeeze.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I say.
He grabs me and roughly pulls me to him and wraps his arms around me. He starts crying into my neck. He’s holding me too tight. I say nothing. I hold on tight right back. He’s shaking and no sound is coming out, but he keeps squeezing me tighter and tighter, like he can’t do anything else.
A couple minutes later, he loosens his hold. I see it’s because Wes and Rocco are carrying out an unconscious and bleeding Sandro.
Zack is walking behind them, talking on his phone. They put Sandro in the back of another SUV that has metal bars behind the driver’s seat. I see them putting cuffs on his wrists and putting shackles on his ankles.
They close the door.
“Stay here,” Alessandro says and lets go of me and gets out to speak to them.
I sit and wait.
I hear a helicopter. And it gets loud as I see everyone outside looking up.
It lands. Dario’s driving it. Tommy’s also in it, dressed in what looks like army fatigues.
Alessandro opens the door. “Go.” He takes my hand and leads me to it. I kiss his jaw. He kisses my lips softly and our eyes meet for a beat. My heart squeezes, seeing the pain on his face, the red in his eyes. He sifts his hand through my hair and swallows, looking like he wants to say something. He changes his mind and jerks his chin at the door. I squeeze his hand quick, let go, climb up and get in.
“Buckle up,” Dare tells me and then as we’re about to go, another SUV pulls in and three men in suits get out. One shakes Zack’s hand and then moves to Alessandro to shake his hand.
We rise up into the sky and leave.
Portland
Holly
Three Days Later
I’m in Dare and Ang’s old condo. I was flown to an airport after everything happened and then me, Dare, and Tommy got on a charter to California and then we took a commercial flight and Dare took me back to their house, where Ang was waiting.
I stayed two nights without hearing anything. It was torture. It felt longer than the five weeks in Costa Rica, almost longer than the nine months in Tasmania.
And then Dare told me that Alessandro was on his way to me and that he offered their condo so we’d have our own space. Alessandro accepted.
Dare said they had been using it as a corporate rental since buying the house, but he said it’s ours for as long as we want it.
I’m on pins and needles here in the condo waiting for him to turn up. I want to know he’s okay. Until today, I didn’t even know if he’d be coming back. I’ve been in the pits of despair, feeling like half of me is missing.
Tino and Tino’s brother Nino are here with me until he gets here.
“Am I in danger? Is Alessandro?” I gasp.
“We don’t think so,” Dare tried to settle me down, “But we’re just being careful. Sandro had very few resources at the end, looks like he came back because Lex cleared all his money out of his accounts one by one and he had next to nothing when he got back. But Lex wants you kept safe. It’s just a precaution.”
So, he has given me more than a passing thought, then? I guess you could say I’m feeling a little bit bitter. I haven’t heard from him and it’s been three days since his life was turned upside down. I was beginning to wonder if I was even a factor for him anymore.
Ang and Dare leave me at the condo with Tino and his brother, but before they go, I hug my sister and say, “You look really pregnant today.”
“I feel really pregnant,” she says. “I have my ultrasound this week. I’m so sick and getting big so fast. I think I’ve got more than one baby in here. They said that could happen with the fertility treatments.”
I try to smile. I have no idea whether I pull it off or not. I’m happy for her, I really am, but inside I’m just so destroyed. Three days of being frozen out. Three days of thinking of all he’s been through. I’m just so damn sad.
Dare told me that Alessandro’s father is in custody and that he won’t ever see the light of day. He may even face the death penalty. I’m assuming Alessandro has had to do a bunch of stuff for the authorities. I also imagine he wanted to be alone to mourn his mother. Dare told me an autopsy was being done and it’d take weeks for the full results but preliminary results were looking like she had cancer all through her body.
She knew she was dying. I could see illness on her when I first laid eyes on her. She knew she was dying and she wanted to help put an end to Alessandro’s suffering. I imagine she didn’t want to see him watch her wither. I also saw some strange thing pass between her and her husband and I suspect Mr. Romero knew his wife was dying, too. With her death, he’d lose his leverage with his son. And if his son had drained his accounts and got word to him that he’d been destroying his business? I don’t know what Mr. Romero thought he’d accomplish by coming back. Maybe he had no place else to go.
Ang said that Sarah had stopped by and stocked the condo with groceries for us and Ang told me Luc & her husband Ed’s restaurant was on speed dial for Italian food delivery.
After they go, I immediately get started on making spaghetti and meatballs for him.
***
It’s late, after midnight. Tino and Nino are watching a soccer game on TV and I’ve fed them and basked in their compliments. They’re Italian so I feel like it counts for something that they’ve each eaten two plates.
Still no sign of Alessandro, so I’ve decided that even though I don’t know how long we’re staying, I’ll settle in. Some of mine and Alessandro’s things were delivered from his house in Mexico as well as from the things I’d brought to and gotten while in Costa Rica, so I unpack them.
I’m putting toiletries away in the master ensuite bathroom when I hear talking and the door closing. I wait ten minutes, hoping he’s gonna come to me. He doesn’t.
I step out, to look in case I was wrong and he’s not actually here yet. I see that Tino and Nino are gone and I see the back of Alessandro, he’s outside on the balcony, wearing a suit, smoking a cigarette, a bottle of booze in his hand. He holds it up by the neck and drinks straight from the bottle and then slumps, forearms on the balcony railing.
I make my approach and open the door. He glances over his shoulder. “Go to bed,” he mutters and takes a drag off the cigarette.
And that really fucking hurts.
I stand there a moment, not knowing what to say.
“Please, Holly.” He groans and pinches the bridge of his nose.
My heart sinks even further.
“I love you. I’m here for you. Okay?” I say, a frog in my throat. I clear it.
His answer is putting the bottle to his lips again. I get nothing else.
I step back and close the door and do as I’m told. My heart hurts. He didn’t come to me and he doesn’t want me in his orbit right now.
I go to bed but I go to bed naked. Hoping.
I lie there for hours until I finally pass out, I guess, because I wake up in the morning and I’m still alone. It’s early but the sun is up.
I get dressed in a tracksuit and put my hair up. I wash my face and brush my teeth.
I go out and expect to see some bodyguard there and him gone, but instead I see him asleep on the couch, still in his clothes, his shoes even. A three quarters empty bottle of booze on the coffee table. My lip quivers. I just wanna curl up with him, feel his warmth, give him comfort.
I see a fluffy throw over the side of the opposite couch, so I shake it out and gently lay it over him. His eyes open and he sits up, startled, looking ready to murder someone.
He looks rough. The whites of his eyes are webbed with little red veins.
“Sorry, to startle you.” I say.
He swallows and puts his palms over his eyes, his fingers threaded into the hair on top. He rubs and then stretches.
“Can I get you anything?” I ask.
He shakes his head and gets up and goes to the bedroom. I follow close behind but he shuts the door in my face. It startles me.
I stand there staring at the closed door, a lump in my throat. I don’t even know how long I stand there. It feels like an eternity. I back away and go out to the balcony and lean against the railing, looking out at the waking city. Birds are chirping. People ten storeys below are walking to work, walking their dog, rushing off to wherever. Life is going on around us, but his whole world looks different today. What will mine look like?
I go back inside and make coffee and then sit out there and drink it, staring out at the city.
Alessandro
I jolt awake after another dream. Mama hung in his office, dangling lifelessly. Swinging back and forth. Just like Kat.
Holly hanging lifeless and bald from the canopy above my bed. My father, laughing. Laughing that won’t stop. And he has handfuls of her hair in his hands.
/> My head is throbbing. Too much fuckin’ bourbon. Or not enough.
The sheets smell like her and suddenly, I need her in my arms. I’m such an asshole. Ignoring her last night. After her being here for me any time I allowed it. I glance at the clock on the table beside the bed and it’s 5:45 pm. I get up and take a shower.
I see Holly’s peach body lotion on the countertop and it feels like something stabs me in my dead black heart. I spy my unpacked clothes and my shaving gear. I get into track pants and a t-shirt and I shave.
I lift my phone from my suit pants pocket and listen to the voicemail Zack left me last night.
“All’s well, Lex. It’s time to move on, man. Enjoy life on your terms. Your terms. You’ve got the girl, you’ve got your health. It wasn’t easy. There were far too many casualties, man, but you’re free. And you earned it. Call me. Let’s go for a beer soon. Ciao.”
Free? Am I?
Earned it? Have I?
I’ve got a text from Tommy telling me to call if I need his help with anything.
I spent hours and hours in interviews going over all that I’d done to close shit down and bring my father to me. They were fine to let me walk, per our agreement, but they wanted to be sure I wasn’t gonna keep my father’s business going. Or take a pay-off by handing it over to someone else.
I showed them everything, all the steps I’d taken to end things. Yeah, there are people pissed at me, likely wanting my head on a platter, but they might also let it all go if they see that the business is gone and find out he’s about to get dead. He had a lot of enemies. Maybe they’ll leave me be. Maybe not. We’ll see. I have resources to help me disappear if that’s what it comes down to.
Rocco is gone, a big fat check in his hand. He’s moving to Argentina, he says. He’ll keep in touch, he says. He’s a good man. I owe him a lot. I probably won’t keep in touch. He deserves to be able to move on.
I have to let Dresden’s assistant know my whereabouts and keep the guy updated. I don’t fucking like it, but Zack tells me it’s just standard, not to worry. Dresden will retire in a year or two. Maybe sooner, since this is gonna hit the news and get him all sorts of accolades. And then I won’t have to update anyone.
