by Shay Stone
“You expect me to believe that?” he scoffs. “You’re such a fucking liar. How stupid do you think I am?”
“About as stupid as your own mother thought you were.”
“Memphis!” Nyla snaps.
“It’s true. Tell her, Mike. Tell her how you could never measure up to me. Tell her how the night Sheila left, I was the one she asked to go with her. Not you. Me.”
Mike’s eye narrow. “Bullshit.”
“She did. She didn’t think you were good enough. And she was right. As long as I’m alive, I’ll always be better than you. The only way you’re ever going to beat me is to kill me. We both know you don’t have the brains to outsmart me.”
“Memphis, shut up!” Nyla blasts, her eyes pleading with me. She holds her hands up in prayer. “Michael please. I’ll get you the money. Just please, let us go. Please!”
“And let him win? No. Not this time. He doesn’t get to win. This time I win. I win!” he shouts, brandishing the gun at me. “What was it you always said, Memphis? Con men don’t get happily-ever-afters?”
“Please don’t shoot him,” Nyla whispers.
Mike smirks. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m not gonna shoot him.” He swings the gun her way and fires off a shot that enters Nyla’s chest, catapulting her from her feet.
“No!” I scream, diving towards her. More gunfire breaks out as Giovanni fires at the lock and kicks through the door. I cover Nyla’s body with mine to shield her from any stray slugs. Mike whirls around, getting off a shot, but it goes high. Giovanni empties his clip into Mike’s chest riddling him with a barrage of bullets.
The force spins his body leaving us face to face. Blood spurts from his wounds, staining the carpet below. Dazed, he touches his chest and collapses to his knees, holding up his crimson hand to show me. He gazes at Nyla’s lifeless body and looks back to me. A victorious smile splits his face. “I win.”
He falls forward onto the carpet, dead.
FIFTY-FIVE
A piercing buzz echoes in my ears. The acrid smell of propellant pervades the air. I shake away my shock and crawl up Nyla’s body, cupping her head in my hands. “No … no … no … come on. Stay with me, angel. You can’t leave me. I’ll never survive. I love you too much. Please! Conner needs you. I need you. Nyla, please!” I beg against her lips, soaking her face with my tears.
I press my hand to her chest to access the wound, and it’s met with a bulky hardness. What the hell? I sit up to inspect it and discover a hole punctured through her jacket with the end of a bullet peeking back at me. I drag down the zipper on her coat revealing a Kevlar vest.
“Ow,” Nyla moans, blinking her eyes open and rubbing the spot where her head connected with the floor.
My heart begins to beat again. “Angel, are you okay?”
“I think so.” She tries to raise onto her elbows but gives up, wincing in pain. Her hand goes to her chest. “Damn, that hurts.”
“Hurts more without the body armor,” Giovanni quips, squatting beside us. “Still think I’m overreacting about the vest?”
She shoots him a sardonic look. “Can you save the lecture ’til after we get the bullet out of my chest?”
“You made her wear a vest?” I ask rhetorically.
“Of course. This one forgets how well I know her,” he replies as we help Nyla into a sitting position and remove the protective piece of equipment. “I figured there was no way she was gonna stay put with you in here. As my dad would say, ‘she’s a stubborn broad.’”
I chuckle. “You brilliant bastard!”
“Not brilliant enough to bring a backup key. This one must’ve been too close to my phone and gotten demagnetized,” he states, flicking the useless card across the room. “Nyla don’t move too much. You might have a few broken ribs. Try to stay still until we can get you checked out. Help should be here any minute. I already called this in.”
She rubs at her chest. “Thanks, Giovanni.”
He winks, rising to his feet to greet the officers flooding the room. The paramedics soon follow. Despite my insistence, Nyla refuses treatment. She is a stubborn broad. My stubborn broad.
Giovanni returns along with another petite female officer holding a recording device. “You guys up for giving a statement?”
Nyla shrugs. “Sure.” Giovanni and I help her onto the edge of the bed where we sit hand in hand. He pulls up two chairs and sits across from us, resting the recorder on a thick clipboard.
“We should separate them,” the female officer suggests.
“I’m not leaving her,” I reply, tightening my grip on Nyla’s hand.
“It’s alright,” Giovanni interjects. “I know them personally. I’ll vouch.”
“Let’s start from the beginning. How did you find out Mike was working for Vito and when did you discover he was leading a double life?”
Time to don my con man hat for the last time.
“To tell you that, I have to tell you about Angie Stapleton. I was working at a bar shortly after I’d donated the kidney. That’s where I met Angie. She came in one night and we hit it off. Eventually, she introduced me to Harlan.”
“And he offered you a job with the church?”
“Yeah. I’d do some odd jobs for him here and there. But you probably won’t find me on the books. He told people I was a volunteer and paid me under the table. I know that’s wrong. But I needed the money.”
“And how does Mike fit into all this?”
“He came to the church one day looking for me. That’s when I introduced him to Angie.”
“And they started sleeping together?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I reply, running a hand over the back of my head. “I broke it off with her because I suspected she was cheating on me with someone. I had no idea it was my own brother.”
“And given Angie’s history, I’m guessing she didn’t take the break-up well?”
I puff my cheeks and blow out a breath. “That’s an understatement. She threatened to cut off my …” I pause, not wanting to say the vulgarity in front of Nyla and the female officer. “No, she wasn’t happy.”
“And you had no clue Mike was the one she was dating or that he was working for the church under an assumed name?”
“No, I thought he’d gone to Manhattan for his new job by then.”
“But you kept working for the church?”
“Yeah, Harlan knew how his daughter broke my heart and he also knew about Mason and my dad. I guess he felt sorry for me.”
“But that came to an end when Harlan got arrested?”
“Yeah. I panicked when that happened. I called Mike freaking out. He told me to come to Manhattan and he’d hook me up with a position at the company where he worked.”
“Moreau Enterprises,” he states, scribbling down his own notes.
“Yes.” I shake my head in disbelief, wringing my hands together for effect. “I honestly thought he was just being a good brother. There was a lot of animosity between us growing up and I thought we were finally moving past it. But I guess he still resented me.”
“For?”
“After my mom died, his mom had an affair with my dad. His dad killed himself when he found out about it. And, if I’m honest, I guess Sheila gave me a little extra attention because of my mom, and Mike was jealous of it. When my brother got sick, Sheila took off. Mike blamed us for that too.”
“Sheila was Mike’s mother?” the female officer asks.
“Correct.”
“Go on,” Giovanni says. “When did you find out about Angie and discover Mike was working for Vito?”
“Shortly after I started working at Moreau.” I chew my lip, pretending to struggle with what I’m about to divulge. “Sheila had ties to Vito. She’d roped Mike and me into working for him when we were kids. As soon as I learned who Vito really was, I found some leverage and used it to get us out. Vito wasn’t happy, but he agreed to leave me and my family alone if we got out of town and never came back. Said if he ever heard my name agai
n, he’d find me and kill me. I thought that was the end of it until I came here and Mike told me the real reason he’d brought me into the company.”
“Which was?”
“Edward was thinking about going public and wanted the business vetted. That’s when Mike admitted he’d kept working for Vito and had been stealing from Moreau to pay Vito back some money he’d siphoned. He’d gotten me assigned to the job hoping I’d cover up anything I found.”
“And what made him think you’d be compliant?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because we were stepbrothers. Maybe because he thought I owed him for what my dad did. When I refused, he told me about Angie and how he’d killed her and framed me for it. Then he showed me the video.”
“What video?”
I tell him about the night Mike called me to pick him up from the bar near Black Rock. “I knew how guilty that would make me look. I didn’t know what to do. One day I came home early, and Mike was outside on the phone. He’d left his laptop out. I took it thinking maybe there was something on it I could use. That’s when I stumbled across Vito’s ledger and found out Mike had been embezzling from the church and leading a double life as James Hamilton.”
“Do you still have the laptop?”
“No. I left it when I took off. But I’d made a copy of what I’d found and kept it on me. Anyway, I confronted Mike and threatened to send it to the police if he didn’t put back all the money he stole from Moreau. I told him I didn’t care if he turned in the footage of me. That’s when he skipped town.”
“But he came back?”
“He did. The night before the wedding, begging me for help. He said Vito had finally tracked him down. But I sent him away. I thought he was lying to get money. Then he showed up at the church beat to hell, claiming Vito’s men had tortured him until he told them where the laptop was. I knew even if I gave it back, there was no way a guy like Vito Moretti was gonna let it slide. I couldn’t put Nyla at risk. That’s why I left. To buy time to figure out what to do.”
“And that’s when you sent me the USB?”
“I was hoping you could use it to take down the organization and I could come home.” Look at that. I just said something true.
“But James … I mean Mike came back again. Wasn’t he worried about Vito?”
“No, because the whole thing was a lie. Vito never found out where Mike was or about the laptop. Mike wasn’t just embezzling. He had targeted Nyla hoping to get her to marry him. Then I came along and ruined it. He couldn’t stand the thought of us being together. In his mind, I’d stolen her away, just like I’d stolen his mother. And he hated both of us for it.”
“So, he came back for revenge?”
“Revenge and money. He weaseled his way in, spinning some story to Nyla claiming I was the con man. Me!” I point to myself as though I’m shocked and appalled at the very idea.
“I still can’t believe I fell for that. For all his lies. I should’ve known better. I should’ve known you better,” Nyla adds.
I interlock our hands and kiss the back of hers. “It’s not your fault, angel. I hurt you. He’s a pro. He knew how to exploit it and use it to his advantage.”
“He’s right. You needed a reason why Memphis left you and Mike provided you with one,” Giovanni agrees. “So, you think he married her to draw you out?”
“Definitely. Once he got Nyla to marry him, he created a Facebook account and tagged the photo, knowing I’d see it at some point and come running. It was the only way to protect her. That’s when I found out about Conner.”
“And Mike used Nyla and your son to get you to cooperate.”
“Yeah. He threatened to hurt them and tell Vito about the USB if I didn’t help him run something called a sweetheart con.” I tell him about the prenup and the infidelity clause.
Giovanni rubs his hand over his chin. “Why not just tell Nyla and give him the money?”
Nyla links her hand in mine. “He tried. I wouldn’t listen. He even went to Max, Colin, my dad. No one believed him. Mike had us all convinced Memphis was the con artist.”
“And they’ll corroborate that story?”
“Absolutely.”
He walks to the window and gazes out for a minute, contemplating his next question. “You accused Mike of trying to have you killed. Why would he do that if he needed you?”
“It was taking too long to get the money and he started to get paranoid. Mike realized if he tipped Vito off that I stole his laptop and sent the USB to the police, he’d would take me out and get me out of the way. Nyla would be so upset she wouldn’t contest the divorce.”
“And after the attempt on your life, you decided to turn yourself in?”
“Yes. I knew I’d be signing my own death warrant, but it was the only way I could remove the threat. Vito wouldn’t have any reason to go after Conner and Nyla if he could take me out on his own. Mike would most likely take off or get arrested eventually. And I’d already gone to Max and asked him to protect Nyla and Conner until that happened. The only reason I hadn’t done any of that sooner was because of my dad. Once he died, I knew what I had to do.”
“But then Vito’s crew was taken out and Mike lost all of his leverage.”
“Except for the video of me at the bar, but by then I had some evidence of my own.”
“I just have one more question. Who’s Sally Reed and where does she fit into all of this?”
“She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Remember when I ran into you at the hospital when Mason was sick?”
“Yeah, I was following up a lead on James Hamilton.”
“Sally was there visiting someone. She saw Mike and called out to Jimmy Hamilton. He couldn’t risk being discovered.”
“He knew she could expose him, so he killed her.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t know Sally left us a little something.” I pull out my phone and show him the Facebook photo of Angie and Mike on Sally’s page. “I found it and that was the final link I needed to come forward.”
Nyla turns and clutches her chest wincing in pain. I hook my arm around her making sure she’s alright. “Are we about done? I’d really like to take her to the hospital to get checked out.”
“Yeah. I’ll call you if I need anything else,” he says, rising from his chair and walking us toward the door. He pauses, stopping the coroner as he’s about to pull the zipper on the bag containing Mike’s body. He crouches down to examine something. “Hmmm.”
Nyla and I share a weary glance. “What is it?” I ask.
“Hmmm? Oh, nothing. Take her to the hospital. I’ll stop by the house later to check on her.”
We head out the door and climb onto the elevator. As soon as the doors close, I blow out a breath. “You think he bought it?”
“I do. You’re so good, it’s scary. You had me convinced you had nothing to do with it, and I know the real story!” She taps her bottom lip with her finger. “What do you think he was looking at when we were leaving?”
“I’m not sure.”
FIFTY-SIX
What a high. That’s all I can think while standing here, staring at my family gathered together in the living room. Why was I ever worried this wouldn’t be enough?
“Pizza’s ordered. Memphis, you coming?” Mason calls out from what has become his favorite recliner.
“Yeah.” I add the milk and honey to Nyla’s tea and place the steeping cup of Earl Grey on the coffee table in front of her. “Are you okay, angel? Do you need anything else?”
She rolls her eyes and flashes me a smile. “Memphis, for the hundredth time, I’m fine. The doctor said it’s only a hairline fracture. Stop fussing over me. You’ve got more healing to do than me.”
“Yeah, sit down so we can restart the movie before Conner bursts. He made us pause it until you came back,” Mason says, cozying up under a blanket.
Conner’s eyes remain glued to the blue genie frozen on the screen, his little feet wiggling in anticipation. Of all the movies we’
ve bought him, this one is still his favorite. I hand him his sippy cup of milk. “Here you go, monster.”
“Thanks, Memf … Daddy,” he corrects himself, still getting used to the idea. I tousle his hair, unable to help the huge grin that spreads across my face. He pats the cushion next to him. “You sit.”
“Yes, sir.” I hurry and plop down next to him. As soon as my butt hits the couch, he climbs into my lap handing me the remote. I press play and wrap an arm around Nyla, resisting the urge to pull her closer. “He called me ‘Daddy,’” I whisper to her like an excited schoolgirl, the novelty not having worn off yet.
“I know. I heard.” She winks and I know it means almost as much to her as it does to me.
Neither of us thought this day would happen. The day we’d finally be free of all the bullshit and able to move forward as a family. It’s surreal. And more than I deserve. Part of me expects to wake up only to discover it’s all been a dream. But it’s not, and I’m finally starting to allow myself to believe it.
Nyla smiles up at me, reading my thoughts. She trails a finger up my arm, seductively biting her bottom lip. “Whataya say later on I rub your magic lamp and we let your genie out to play.”
“I heard that,” Mason mutters, and Nyla blushes three shades of red.
I fold our hands together and nibble at her ear. “Count me in. We’ve got to start working on that baseball team.”
“Get a room!” Mason yells and is immediately shushed by Conner. The comment takes me back to the night Nyla and I met. As the cartoon plays in front of me, I reflect on every moment of the last four years wishing my dad was here to see us.
We’re halfway through the movie, laughing as Conner dances in time with the menagerie of animals making their way down the streets of Agrabah when the doorbell chimes. Nyla scoots off the couch. “That’s probably the pizza. I’ll get the plates if you get the door.”
I steal a kiss and grab my wallet, pulling out some money as I answer the door. Giovanni glances down at the cash and smirks. “Don’t you know it’s illegal to bribe a cop?”