“Zeke,” Jim said. “Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here. I’m sorry, Jim. I’m sorry for not realizing that you must’ve had a good reason for asking me to apologize even though I had done nothing wrong. I’m glad you sacrificed me. It was the right thing to do, and I hope Susan got the help she needed.”
“She was eventually diagnosed with advanced uterine cancer, but the church helped with the medical expenses and we formed an action team to take care of her around the clock. She passed peacefully in the end, and I’m glad to say that her faith grew stronger and stronger as her body grew weaker.”
“I’m pleased about that. Thank you, Jim. You’re a good man.”
“You are a good man, Zeke. You never once considered exposing her sin of stealing to the other members of the church. You simply left quietly, and I was really sorry to see you go. Would you consider rejoining us?”
Zeke smiled. “I would love to rejoin you. I’ve missed you guys more than you could ever know.”
“That’s great news.”
Then he remembered his predicament. “But I’m not sure I’ll be returning to New York. I met someone special and the situation is complicated.”
“I see. Would you like to tell me about her?”
“She’s someone who only eats vegetables.”
“I assume you’re not talking literally here.”
“I wish I was.” Zeke sighed deeply. “I don’t know what to do, Jim. I usually have such a strong sense of what path to take ahead of me, but this time I’m clueless. I want to be with her, but I don’t know what’s in her best interest. Plus she wants me to apologize for something that isn’t my fault.”
Jim laughed a little. “That seems to be a running theme in your life, huh? Are you going to give her the apology?”
“I didn’t intend to,” he said. “But things seem a lot different now. I think she’s worth the sacrifice.”
“Whatever you decide to do, Zeke, you’ll always be in my prayers.”
“And you in mine, Jim.”
He hung up the phone and sat on his bed to reflect on all that he’d just learned. Hearing Jim’s voice again had been uplifting, reminding him of what was awaiting him in New York. He would be able to rejoin the church he loved, to connect with the members he’d missed for the last three years. His new church was perfectly adequate for his needs, but this was like finding your family in the wilderness after wandering alone.
Yet Goldie needed him too. She was facing certain danger, and her faith was weak to the point of nonexistence. He could be her strength, the person who was prepared to dig in for the long haul and not flee at the first sign of difficulty.
He just needed to figure out if it was the right thing to do.
* * *
Goldie allowed the tears to fall without brushing them away, and they splashed in big, fat drops onto the page of her open Bible. Someone had once told her that God couldn’t truly mold people until they had been broken. Well, Goldie felt herself to be well and truly broken, no longer able to fight or pretend to be tough. Inside, she was tired and weak and scared, facing an uncertain future without Zeke by her side.
Having convinced herself she had gotten over her first and only love, Zeke’s shock reappearance in her life had served as a powerful reminder that he was and would always be her hero. And she wanted him with her. But there was no way he could or should enter the Witness Protection Program. He had a great life in New York, with a loving family and a solid career path. What could she offer him in return for that?
A knock sounded on the door. It was bound to be Zeke. It was only ever him. She placed the Bible on the bed beside her and walked to the door, passing the suitcase she had packed in preparation for her transfer to a new safe house the following morning.
Unlocking the door, she opened up to see Zeke standing there, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans, his white shirt crumpled and untucked. Smiling a little awkwardly and with a hopeful raise of an eyebrow, she couldn’t deny that he was gorgeous.
“There’s a little party going on downstairs,” he said. “To celebrate Mrs. Volto’s successful day on the witness stand. The newspapers are full of praise for the brave mobster’s wife risking her safety for the sake of her unborn baby.”
“That’s great,” she said. “You all deserve some downtime.”
“You wanna join us?”
“No, thanks, I’m a little preoccupied right now.”
“Is everything all right? You’ve been shut away in here all by yourself for hours.”
“I’m fine,” she said, quickly wiping the streaks from her face. “I just needed some quiet time to prepare myself for leaving tomorrow.” She opened the door wide to allow him to enter. “I finally got around to reading that Bible you gave me.”
His eyes strayed to the open pages. “Is it helping?”
“Actually, it is.” She sat on the bed. “God loves a weak spirit, right?”
He sat next to her. “Of course, because when we’re at our weakest, He’s at his strongest.”
“Oh boy. God must have superstrength right now, because my weakness knows no bounds, but I’m learning to have faith.” In the depths of her misery, a tiny seed had been planted, one that she sensed was good and strong. “Giving up control is so hard, Zeke, but I have no choice. The fight has gone out of me.”
He took her hand and held it for a few seconds, gently sweeping his thumb over her knuckles.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for hurting you and for not doing more to try to find you when you vanished from Glenside. I’m sorry for not acknowledging my blame sooner. You deserved an apology and I made you wait. And for that, I’m the sorriest of all.”
She laughed, hiccuping slightly. “You don’t owe me an apology, Zeke. You never did. I was hurt and angry, and I needed to pin the blame on somebody. Neither of us did anything wrong, and what happened was nobody’s fault except my father’s.” She dropped her eyes, shamefaced. “I bullied you into apologizing, and that was wrong of me.”
“I’d apologize a million times over if it would make you happy again,” he said. “I wish I’d come right out with it the first time you asked, instead of getting defensive.”
“You’re a sweet and kind and lovely man, Zeke, and you’ll make a very fortunate lady an awesome husband one day.” She stopped for a moment to wait for her heart to settle. “Promise me that when you go back to New York, you’ll enjoy your life and find somebody special to share it with. You deserve that.”
“What I really want to do is come to the next safe house with you, Goldie. Karl said that if I give him my decision by eight o’clock this evening, he could get me onto the list of assigned agents.” He checked his watch. “It’s only five.”
After Zeke had been so selfless, now it was Goldie’s turn to repay the kindness. If Zeke accompanied her after leaving this house, there was a very good chance that he would ultimately sacrifice his life in New York in order to remain with her forever. They both knew the strength of their bond, and it was almost impossible to break. But only almost.
“I don’t want you to come with me, Zeke,” she said. “When you said that it might not be in my best interest, you were right. I have to make a clean break with my past, and that includes you.”
“But what if I want to be part of your future?” he asked. “What if I want to make a clean break too and start over with you?” He smiled. “Think of it as the adventure we missed out on when we were younger. We could make up for those twenty-one years that we spent apart.”
She stood up, needing to put some space between them in case his gentle coaxing persuaded her to change her mind. What Zeke was suggesting was a huge deal, one that he hadn’t truly considered. She couldn’t ask him to leave behind everything he’d ever known.
“You’re not listening to me,” she said
. “I don’t want you to come with me. I want to go into the Witness Protection Program alone. I’m only just starting to deal with the emotional problems in my life and, like you said, there’s a long road ahead. I might not be fully healed for years. I’m a work in progress.”
“I don’t care. I’ll take you as you are, Goldie. I don’t expect or want you to change.”
“What if you leave everything behind to be with me and later regret it? You can’t just go back to your old life and pick up where you left off. You’d be stuck with a new identity, with a new life and with no way out.”
He stood to stand close to her. “What if I leave everything behind and never regret it?” he asked. “Have you considered that possibility too?”
“No, because the odds are stacked against us, Zeke. You know how hard it is for people to adjust to new lives in the Witness Protection Program. Some of them never fully integrate and they end up miserable and lonely and oftentimes try to return to the things they used to know, no matter the risk. I refuse to put you in that position. I won’t let you come with me. I should never have even considered it.”
His brow wrinkled as if slowly breaking. “Won’t you at least let me try? If I stayed with you for a while, you could give it a little more thought. You’re not thinking straight right now.”
Her eyes strayed to the open Bible. “I’m thinking straight for the first time in my life.” She sat down again, weary and drained. “I’ve been really selfish and treated you badly, so it’s time for me to step up and do the right thing. I want you to go home and be with your family and friends and church. In comparison to all of those things, I can’t offer you anything.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked incredulously. “You’re all I ever wanted in my life.”
“No, Zeke, you’re looking through rose-colored glasses. We don’t really know each other anymore. It’s been twenty-one years since we were last together, and five days isn’t enough time for either of us to assess whether we have a future.”
“It’s enough time for me,” he said quietly.
She stood abruptly and walked to the door, feeling the need to bring this conversation to a close.
“I’ve made my decision.” She held the door open. “And I’d like some time to pray about it.”
Zeke stood in the center of the room for a few seconds before heading out into the hallway.
“Sometimes, our first instinct isn’t always the right one,” he said. “I literally just learned that. There’s still time to change your mind.”
Goldie didn’t want to hear it. Her mind was already made up, and she just needed to shore up her defenses for the goodbye she would have to endure in the morning.
“You’ve been really good to me over these last few days, Zeke,” she said, closing the door on everything they’d once had. “But we’re done.”
* * *
Goldie rooted through the cabinet in the bathroom to find the face cream she’d left there five days previously. Five days was all it had taken to irrevocably upend her life, reconnecting her with a boy she’d once loved and lost and forcing her to accept that a price of two million dollars would be forever on her head.
What else could now go wrong before she was due to leave this house in the morning?
Finding the jar of cream, she slid it into her toiletries bag and zipped it up, ready to be easily put into her suitcase when she awoke. She wasn’t sure what time she was due to leave, but Christina said it would be early. That suited her just fine. No long, drawn-out goodbyes with Zeke and no time to consider whether she truly knew what she was doing.
“It’s the right thing to do,” she muttered under her breath. “You have to set him free.”
Checking her reflection, she groaned at the disheveled mess in the mirror, took a deep breath and walked out into the hallway. She heard the sounds of laughter downstairs accompanied by the clink of cutlery on china plates. Since the news stations and papers had begun to focus on a likely guilty verdict for the Volto brothers, Mrs. Volto had been in high spirits, spending a lot of time on the telephone, seemingly making travel arrangements to take a vacation, while Willy grinned like a Cheshire cat. Goldie had remained in her bedroom for the evening, with no appetite or desire to join the party. Zeke had tried to persuade her, but she couldn’t bear to see his face any longer. This was hard enough already.
Going back into her room, she clicked the door closed and leaned against it, resting her head on the wood. Was it too early to go to bed? Would she simply lie awake and be tormented by her thoughts?
Pulling back the duvet, she retrieved her pajamas from beneath her pillow, but before she had a chance to get changed, the room was plunged into darkness. The voices from below became loud and animated as Goldie felt around in the dark, heading to what she hoped was the door.
A beeping began to sound from somewhere in the vicinity, a little like a muffled alarm clock, rhythmic, quiet but high-pitched.
“Zeke!” she shouted, stumbling into the wall and feeling her way around. “There’s something in here!”
She found the handle, turned and pulled. It was locked. Or jammed. Yanking with all her strength, she shouted again, as the beeping worked its way up to a crescendo. She was in trouble.
“Zeke!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “I need you!”
NINE
Zeke raced upstairs in the dark, heading toward the sound of Goldie’s panicked voice. She was pounding on the door, shouting, calling his name.
“I’m here,” he yelled, turning the handle. “Unlock the door.”
“I can’t. The key is gone.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can’t get out, Zeke, and I think there’s a bomb in here.”
“Stand back from the door.”
He brought up his foot and kicked the door with a heavy blow. It gave way instantly, and Goldie practically fell into his arms at the same time as a flash lit up the entire room, like lightning across a night sky. The explosion ripped through the air, blowing them off their feet and onto the carpet of the landing, where they lay in a tangle of limbs. Goldie screamed and buried her head in Zeke’s neck, while Garth tried to pull them both from the flames that had taken hold in the bedroom and were licking the frame of the door, just inches away from their feet.
Zeke coughed and spluttered but refused to let go of Goldie in his arms as the smoke alarm began to screech overhead. He somehow managed to stagger to his feet, holding her tight, and move her a few feet away, where her limbs suddenly went slack with her unconsciousness.
Karl rushed past with a fire extinguisher and battled the flames as best he could while shouting for Garth to take everybody downstairs and call the fire department.
“Come on, Zeke,” Garth said, yanking on his shirt. “Let’s get Goldie out of here.”
Lifting her off her feet, Zeke carried her in his arms down the stairs toward a flashlight being held by Mrs. Volto, who was standing next to Willy.
“Lay her on the couch,” Mrs. Volto said, lighting the way into the living room. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Zeke said, laying her down and tapping her hand to rouse her. “Can I borrow your flashlight?”
Mrs. Volto handed it over, and Zeke lifted up one of Goldie’s eyelids to shine the beam beneath.
“Her pupils are dilating as normal,” he said, running his hands gently down her arms and legs, checking for any breaks. “She’s been knocked out by the blast. That’s all.”
“Whatever happened?” Mrs. Volto said, holding tight to Willy’s hand. “What caused that explosion?”
“It was a bomb,” Zeke said, shining the flashlight around them, looking for something, anything that might be a clue. “Somebody got inside and planted a bomb.” The beam picked out the faces of Garth, Mrs. Volto and Willy. “It could even be one of you. We’re totally in the da
rk here in more ways than one.”
“The fire department is on its way,” Garth said. “But you need to go to the back of the house and close the inner doors until the fire is out, to prevent smoke inhalation.” He put a hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “You stay with Goldie while I help Karl. Take her out back and don’t let her out of your sight. You can’t leave her on her own, not even for a second. You understand?”
“I understand,” Zeke replied, lifting her into his arms once again. “She’s not safe with anybody but me.”
* * *
The acrid smell of smoke hung in the air, clinging to every fiber and surface. The firefighters had fully extinguished the flames, and experts were now analyzing the remains of the bomb in Goldie’s bedroom, deciphering how it was made and by whom. But with the power still out, progress was slow and they would likely be there through the night. As the minutes ticked by, the temperature crept up, no longer cooled by the electricity-reliant air-conditioning, and the atmosphere became muggy, like a tropical rain forest.
Zeke sat next to Goldie in the kitchen, his body as close to hers as possible. Having been examined and cleared by a paramedic, she was permitted to take part in this final meeting of the Volto case team before it would be disbanded the following day.
“Listen up,” Christina said, addressing the four other people in the room. “This level of attack is unprecedented so we’re disseminating information on a need-to-know basis. Goldie’s in serious danger, and we need to get her out of here as soon as possible. I’ve ordered a car to come get her immediately. It should be here in about an hour.”
“One hour?” Zeke knew their time was short, but this was something else. “That’s all we have?”
“We have no choice.” Christina’s anxious face was lit by the soft glow of tens of candles around the room. “This situation is getting worse by the second. Just over an hour ago, Marty Foster was found dead in his jail cell.”
Hunted by the Mob Page 14