“She would not have done it,” Hammer said, “because . . .”
“Because why?”
“Because I was in the house. She wouldn’t harm me. That I know.”
Amelia knew it too, and it pricked her. But she nodded. She had to acknowledge the truth.
Hammer saw that look in Amelia’s eyes. “But she’s not my woman, Millie. Nobody’s my woman. But you.” He placed his hand on the side of her face. Tears began to come into Amelia’s eyes. “Only you,” Hammer said.
Amelia wanted him so badly that she could hardly contain herself. But she couldn’t take any more of his shit. “I can’t keep doing this,” she said again.
“Doing what?” Hammer asked her.
“Giving a man, giving you the best years of my life and getting nothing in return. I thought we’d be . . . I thought we’d be further along by now. But we aren’t even on the same page. I’m getting too damn old, Hammer. I’ll be old and alone, and you’ll have you some fresh young thang, if I don’t get off of this rollercoaster ride with you.”
“Marry me then,” Hammer said with a voice so strong, with no wavering whatsoever, that it shook Amelia.
She stared at him. “Marry you?”
Hammer got down on his knees on the side of that bed, and took one of her hands. “Yes,” he said. “Will you marry me, Amelia?”
Amelia could hardly believe it. She searched his gorgeous face. Was he joking? “But . . .”
“But what?” he asked her, searching her face too.
“But why are you ready to marry me now,” she asked him, “when just a few days ago you weren’t? What’s changed? The fact that I almost died?”
“The fact that I almost died,” Hammer said, “when I realized I could have lost you and JoJo. The fact that I know I’ve been an asshole from way back who doesn’t deserve a wonderful, sweet, caring, tough-as-nails, mean-as-rocks, stubborn, impolite lady like you.”
Amelia actually found herself smiling. A smile, Hammer felt, that lit up her beautiful face.
“And despite not deserving you,” he continued, “Despite the fact that you drive me crazy with your career choices.” His look turned serious again. “I love you. I love you more than life itself. That’s why I want to marry you, Amelia. That’s why I want you and me and JoJo to be a family, an intact family together.”
Amelia had tears in her eyes. It was too good to be true. Something this wonderful never happens to her, she thought. She kept searching his face, as if she was going to find that he was playing with her heart again.
“I love you, Millie,” he said again, “and I want you to be my wife. I want you, and not anybody else on the face of this earth, to be Mrs. Hamilton Reese.”
The tears left Amelia’s eyes and began to trail down her face. “When did you decide this?” she asked him. “Just now?”
He was already shaking his head. “No,” he said. “I decided it that day you met me at the airport, and I realized I might have lost you forever. Because I saw that look in your eyes. You were over me. And it scared the shit out of me, I’m not going to pretend it didn’t. It did.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box. Amelia could not believe her eyes. He had a ring?
Then Hammer opened the box and displayed a gorgeous diamond ring. Amelia placed her hands on the sides of her face. She looked at that ring, and then looked at Hammer.
“That same day I gave that ride to Reggie, and you left me, I contacted my jeweler and ordered him to get to his store. I needed a ring for my lady. And despite the fact that I had to be in Wyoming, I came to Baltimore yesterday to work my ass off to win you back, and then to ask you to be my wife. But then I saw you with Lenny the Butcher, and realized why you were with him. And then that ambush on that backroad got in the way. And then tonight happened.”
“Why didn’t tonight get in the way too?” Amelia asked him.
“Because I refuse to let it. If I waited for our lives to be smooth sailing, we’ll never get married,” he said, and they both smiled.
He took the ring out of the box and took her ring finger. “Amelia, will you do me the honor of my life and be my wife?”
Amelia was in full-tears now, and she couldn’t say no. They had their problems, and probably always would, but she loved him. He was the love of her life and she knew it. And she was shaking her head as if she was going to say no. But she didn’t say no. “Yes,” she said. And then she couldn’t help it. “Yes!” she cried out loud. “Yes! Yes!”
And Hammer, with his heart overwhelmed, placed that ring on her finger and then Amelia, her heart overwhelmed, too, jumped into Hammer’s arms. They hugged each other by nearly suffocating each other.
But Amelia’s cries didn’t go unnoticed. Charles, Rowena, and Ozzie all ran down the hall to the guest room when they heard those cries.
“What’s going on in here?” Charles said, his eyes wide with concern. Ozzie and Rowena had their guns drawn.
When they all realized that Hammer and Amelia were hugging, and they both had tears in their eyes, they were stunned too.
“What’s happened?” Charles asked.
Amelia showed him her big rock, and started to say, I’s getting married now, in a play on words like that scene from The Color Purple, but it was just too unoriginal. “I’m getting married, Charlie,” she said happily. “We’re getting married. Hammer asked me to be his wife, and I said yes!”
But by the time she finished what she had to say, Ozzie and Rowena were so happy they had tears in their eyes, and Charles had already ran across the room and pulled Amelia, and then Hammer too, into his big, loving arms.
Then he realized something, and pulled them back. “Wait a minute,” he said. “How can you go from I’m not your woman, to I’m getting married this quickly?”
Hammer smiled. “It’s not quick at all, Big Daddy,” he said. “It’s been years in the making. Years,” he added and looked, with regret, at Amelia.
“Okay,” Charles said. “Then I’ve got another question.”
Hammer and Amelia looked at him. “What’s your question?” Hammer asked him.
“If it’s been years in the making,” Charles said, “what took you so long?”
Amelia smiled. And then she laughed. And they all found themselves laughing too.
And then later, Hammer and Amelia went to JoJo’s room, to let him share in the earth-shattering news too.
Because they both were shocked. How could a night that started so wrong and horrific, end up so right and beautiful?
But it had. Because later that night, after security was beefed up, and Charles and Ro and Ozzie were fast asleep in the other guest rooms, JoJo, Amelia, and Hammer fell asleep in the same bed like the family they were so looking forward to be, and all three of them, for the first time in a long time, slept the sleep of the truly happy, despite the trauma of the night.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Breakfast the next morning was surprisingly festive. Rowena did all of the cooking, with Ozzie in the kitchen helping her, while Amelia and Charles and Hammer, with JoJo on his lap, sat at the breakfast table drinking coffee and actually laughing.
“Jenay couldn’t believe it,” Charles said. “She said, ‘but I thought they were having problems.’ I said, ‘when in the history of Hammer and Amelia were they ever not having problems?’” Amelia and Hammer laughed. JoJo laughed, too, although he wasn’t sure what the joke was about.
“That’s my wife, you know,” Charles said, shaking his head. “She tells it like it is.”
“And you wouldn’t trade her for the world,” Amelia said.
Charles hesitated before sipping his coffee. And then he nodded. “You got that right,” he said, and sipped.
“Me neither,” said Hammer, looking at Amelia.
Charles looked at Hammer. “Don’t let it just be talk,” he said, sitting his cup in the saucer. “And that I mean. Don’t you dare go down this road with my baby unless you are ready for that kind of comm
itment.”
Amelia used to hate when Charles referred to her as his baby, like she was one of his kids. But she understood. To Charles, she would always be that little helpless baby he rescued from his abusive father and selfish mother when he was a kid himself. But her main focus was on Hammer. And his response to Charles’s warning.
Hammer was nodding his head. “Don’t worry, Big Daddy,” he said. “I’m ready. Amelia’s the only woman I want.”
“Good,” Charles said. “Because, if I were to be honest, I believe you’re the only man that can handle Amelia. Because she’s a handful, I kid you not.”
Amelia hit Charles. “Charles!” she decried with a smile on her face.
Hammer laughed. “You don’t have to tell me that. I already got my knives sharpened because I know she’s coming at me with hers.”
“Knives?” Amelia said in her best Scarlett O’Hara voice. “Why Mister Reese, what is your problem? I’ve been nothing but an angel to you,” she added, but even she couldn’t keep a straight face. And they all laughed again.
But then Ozzie came in the breakfast nook. “I just got a call,” he said to Hammer.
“I didn’t hear a phone ring,” Hammer said.
“Your ass was too busy laughing,” Ozzie said.
“If it’s Wyoming, I’m not available,” Hammer said.
“It’s your guys on point.”
Amelia wondered what in the world did that mean. But Hammer understood it. “They have him?”
Ozzie nodded. “On Deacon Street,” he said.
Hammer rose to his feet, putting JoJo in the chair he just vacated. Amelia, now understanding what just transpired, stood too. “I’m going with you,” she said.
“No,” Hammer said.
“No,” JoJo said, not understanding but mimicking his father.
“Hell no!” Charles said, understanding fully. “Sit right back down, Millie.”
“I need to know what’s going on, Hammer,” Millie said. “I’ll know what to ask. I know Lenny. We go way back. You just know his name. I’ll know when he’s lying. And I’ll know when he’s telling the truth too.”
Hammer stared at her.
“Don’t do it, Hammer,” Charles said. “Some safe house, or wherever you have that guy, is not the place for your wife-to-be. She’s not your girlfriend anymore. She’s your full responsibility now.”
“Yes, I know,” Hammer said, answering Charles but looking at Amelia. “But if she’s going to be my wife, she’s got to be able to handle herself in tough situations. Because there will be plenty of them. I have to be able to trust that she can take care of herself, and Jo, if I’m not around. I’ve seen her in action, including tonight. She can handle herself, and probably you and me too Big Daddy.”
Then he looked at Big Daddy, man to man. “She’s going with me,” he said bluntly, and left the table. “Ozzie, you stay here with Big Daddy and JoJo. Come suit up, Millie,” he added, as he walked away.
Amelia smiled, and went around and kissed JoJo. Then she looked at Charles. “It’s okay, Charles,” she said. “I’ll be okay. But that’s why I love Hammer. He let’s me be me. And I’ve gotta be me.”
Charles gave a smirk of a smile. “Okay Sammy Davis,” he said. “Take your ass on.”
And Amelia, along with Ozzie, laughed.
“You heard the man,” Charles added. “Go suit up!”
Amelia playfully gave Charles the finger, but she didn’t hesitate. She hurried behind Hammer.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A half-hour later, and Hammer and Amelia were on their way, in Amelia’s Land Rover, to the Deacon Street safe house. Hammer was behind the wheel and kept taking peeps at Millie as he drove along the winding roads. She was dressed for the part, he thought, in her tight black jeans and black leather jacket loaded with zippers, and her go-go boots. At least that was what they reminded Hammer of: those old style, high-stepping, knee-high patent-leather boots . And that girl, Amelia Sinatra, was going to be his wife? He couldn’t stop smiling.
When Amelia finally caught him in one of his peeps at her, he was still smiling. Which made her smile too. Being engaged to Hammer felt far better than she ever dreamed it would, even at a time like this. “Are you going to let me in on what’s so funny?” she asked him.
“You are,” Hammer responded.
“Me? What’s funny about me?”
“In that get-up,” he said, “you look like a stone-cold gangster.”
Amelia laughed. “That’s the look I’m going for,” she said proudly. But then she thought about it, and looked at him. “Not the look the future wife of the former head of the CIA should be going for, though. Right?”
“Wrong,” said Hammer, and reached over and placed her hand in his. “Don’t you dare change a thing,” he added.
Amelia smiled too. She woke up in the middle of the night at one point and looked over at Hammer. Although JoJo was asleep between them, Hammer was laying on his stomach with his arm draped across both her and Jo. He had just that long a reach even in bed. And she wondered if he’d try to control her. She wondered if, by accepting his proposal, she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. But looking at him now, and after the words he had just said to her, she knew it was no mistake at all.
Hammer became circumspect, too, as he turned another corner. Amelia knew that look when she saw it. “What are you thinking?” she asked him.
Hammer wasn’t accustomed to sharing his innermost thoughts with any human being, but he knew, if his marriage was going to work, he had to be communicable. Amelia, he knew, was going to insist upon it. “I was thinking,” he said, “what in God’s good name took me so long to claim you.” He said it and then looked at Amelia.
Amelia smiled. “Stupidity maybe,” she said. “Being a dumbass. Being so full of yourself--”
“Alright, alright, I get it,” Hammer said with a smile, and Amelia laughed. He squeezed her hand, and then leaned over and kissed it, and then they continued the drive in a comfortable silence.
And then, less than a half-hour later, they were walking into the safe house.
Lenny the Butcher was sitting at a table inside the small house, and Mick was standing against the wall with his big arms folded, like a prison guard. He was suited up, too, in his trademark long, white coat, black trousers and black turtleneck, and was staring at the power couple that had just walked through that door. Amelia, looking gorgeous in black, he thought, and Hammer Reese’s ass, in a fucking ten-thousand dollar suit. But that was those g-men, as far as Mick was concerned. They overdid everything!
And he kept his eyes on that legendary lawman Hammer Reese. It was as if he captured the big fish, now he wanted to see what the lawman was going to do with it.
When Amelia saw that Mick was already there, she realized who had phoned Ozzie. And was glad it had been him and not some fed boys. Like Mick, and although she had consented to marry one, she wasn’t comfortable around cops either.
“Hey, Mick,” she said as she and Hammer headed toward the table. Mick nodded, which made her pleased to know that he wasn’t the least bit surprised that Hammer allowed her to come with him. But Mick knew her skills. He’d seen her in action too many times.
Amelia stood at the head of the table, and Hammer stood across from Lenny. And Lenny was already begging. “Tell this fool, Millie, that I did not try to kill you or your child. Will you please tell this fool?” Nobody knew if he meant Mick, or Hammer. And it didn’t matter.
“Answer our questions,” Amelia said to him, “and I won’t have to tell them anything. Lie to us, and I won’t have to tell them anything. Their fists will do the talking. Or their guns.”
“How are you, Leonard?” Hammer asked him.
“Fuck you, Hammer,” Lenny said with a frown. “I been being clean for years now. You ain’t got shit on me. That money Millie owed me was an old-ass debt. Tell him, Millie. Tell him he had no call dragging me up in here.”
“Stop lying to him then,” Am
elia said. “Nobody’s here to arrest you. We need information.”
“What kind of information? I ain’t got no information!”
“Who tried to take me out?” Amelia asked him.
“How should I know? I heard it was Mike Ostertag. You know him.”
“Who does he work for?” Amelia asked.
“He used to work for you.”
Amelia glanced at Mick. Any reminder of her past life never set well with Mick.
“Just answer her question,” Hammer said. “Who did Ostertag work for before he died?”
Lenny smiled. “What’s the deal, Hammer? Got Mick the Tick bringing me in for your pleasure? Mick the Tick one of your boys now?”
Mick’s jaw tightened. Amelia, realizing if she didn’t do something Mick was going to probably kill the man for offending his honor, and he’d do it before they got any intel from him. So she lifted her leg and kicked Lenny violently in the face with the heel of her boot, knocking him over his chair.
“Gotdamn!” Lenny yelled, getting on his knees, touching his face and feeling the blood now covering it. Mick smiled. That’s how you do it, he thought. Hammer inwardly smiled too.
But Lenny wasn’t smiling. He looked at Amelia with shock in his eyes. “What are you trying to do to me?” he pleaded with her. “Those fucking boots hurt!”
“Then stop getting smart and answer the question,” Amelia said. “Who was Michael working for before he died?”
“I don’t know, alright?” Lenny was still patting his face and looking at the blood on his hand.
But Amelia knew he was lying. She lifted her boot again. Lenny, horrified of another kick, fell back on his butt. “Just stop it, Millie! This shit ain’t funny!”
“Then tell us the truth! Who did he work for?”
“He worked for me!” Lenny said. Then he exhaled. “He did jobs for me.”
“Assassinations?” Hammer asked.
“You’re a fucking Fed. You can’t expect me to answer that question!”
“Which answers it,” Hammer said.
Amelia Sinatra: What Hammer Wants Page 10