by Misty Evans
Olivia’s voice held a fearful warning. “Victor—don’t do this.”
He’d managed to manipulate Barone so that he stood between the man and Olivia, blocking her from the gun if it did go off. Pushing Barone was dangerous, he knew, but he didn’t believe the guy had the balls to blow his brains out in front of Olivia.
And then, he saw the change in Alfie’s expression…the hard eyes going dead, vindictive. Hitman eyes.
Had he made a mistake?
Not waiting to find out, Victor shifted, thrusting a hand out to grab the gun.
Boom!
In that instance, everything went to hell.
18
Olivia screamed and jumped up, the duct tape around her wrists falling away. She’d managed to work at the binding on one of the chair’s rough sides until it broke free while Victor had been antagonizing Alfie.
Damn man. If he’d just played along and let her convince Alfie she believed him…
The first shot had gone right past her into the wall, blowing a hole in it.
Boom! Another rang out, the bullet hitting the plastered ceiling overhead and raining chunks down over the table. She ducked and scrambled around the edge of the big wooden thing. The antique wood smelled like a thrift shop or maybe someone’s attic.
Victor and Alfie had fallen to the floor on the other side and she could hear them tussling, see the shadows of flailing limbs. The sound of fists hitting flesh, grunts, and fervent swearing echoed on the heels of the gunshots.
She ducked under the table, searching the floor at the other end. The two men were locked in a fight over the gun. She started to crawl down the length of the table to get to them, but suddenly, there was a set of familiar legs rushing past and then someone grabbed her ankles, hauling her out.
“Olivia!” her dad said, lifting her off the ground. “We gotta get outta here!”
Oh, for heaven’s sake. How did he keep turning up in the most unlikely places and times? She fought against his grasp. “I can’t leave! I have to help Victor!”
He fought to grab hold of her again. “He’s got it under control. Let’s go!”
Under control, huh? Chairs crashed to the floor, Taz barked somewhere in the background, the box of Victor’s files crashed nearby, sending papers flying everywhere.
Another gunshot exploded, making her flinch and throw her hands over her head even though it was still under the protection of the table. She heard a grunt of pain from one of them. Her dad had a hold of her leg and she kicked at him to make him let go.
“Victor!” she screamed as she flipped over and started crawling. Please don’t let him be hurt.
Her father came after her, grabbing her ankles and jerking her backward. “I have to get you out of here.”
Once more, her foot connected with her father and he let go with a curse. “Goddamnit, Olivia! Why won’t you listen to me?”
Ignoring him, she lunged for the opposite end where Victor and Alfie were fighting. Victor had Alfie on the ground, trying to make him let go of the gun. Alfie bucked his hips up, nearly unseating Victor. The mobster jerked his hand away from Victor’s grasp. As she was about to launch herself at Alfie, he smacked Victor on the side of the head with the butt of the gun.
Victor, still fighting to regain his balance on top of Alfie, fell to the side. Alfie swung the gun around to point it at Victor, and Olivia dove at him.
Thanks to her unfocused vision, she missed the gun, but managed to snag Alfie’s shirtsleeve. He was in the process of rolling to his knees and pulled her with him, her lower back smacking on the edge of the table as Alfie scrambled to his feet.
Victor jumped up, eyes darting from her to Alfie and the gun. “Olivia, stay out of this. Get back!”
She hung on to Alfie for dear life, keeping his gun hand from pointing at Victor. She wrapped her free hand around Alfie’s waist, trying to shove him to the floor, but he was stronger and elbowed her in the collarbone. The blow knocked the wind out of her and sent her back on her ass.
Now it wasn’t just her head pounding and her eyesight blurry, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Alfie moved, and through the fog and dizziness, she saw him raise the gun to aim at Victor. She screamed, and in her peripheral vision, which wasn’t much better, she saw a figure move from under the table to tackle Alfie.
Alfie must have seen her dad coming. He pivoted, and the gun went off.
“No!” Olivia screamed as her father fell to the floor, blood gushing from his chest.
Before she could reach him, the dining room window shattered and the next thing she knew, Victor dropped to the floor. He’d been shot as well, the bullet going all the way through and splattering the wall behind him with blood.
It was a surreal nightmare. She kept hearing screaming as she crawled to her father, and realized it was her own voice. “You bastard,” she cried at Alfie. “You fucking bastard!”
Her father’s eyes were closed, his breathing ragged. She wanted to help him, get to Victor, and stop Alfie all at the same time. Yet, it seemed like the only thing her body would do was cry as she stripped off her shirt and pressed it against her father’s wound.
Suddenly, Alfie squatted beside her. He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Shh. It’s going to be all right. I’ll call an ambulance.”
Was he completely insane?
Something dangerous took hold of her. Something feral and uncontrolled. Through her tears, she raised her face and looked at him. “How could you do this to me? I didn’t have a chance to make amends with him, and now I’ll never be able to.”
He reached for her and brought her in close to hug her against his chest. “It’s not a fatal wound. I made sure to miss his heart. I promise you, doll, we’re going to be a strong, loyal family. All of us, including your dad.”
As she pretended to hug Alfie back, she saw Victor rise to his knees and relief flooded her. There was so much blood, she didn’t know how he was standing. He motioned for her to move as he started to creep up on Alfie, but as she had told him all along, this was her case, her very life purpose.
In one swift movement, she made a fist and jammed it into Alfie’s balls. At the same time, her other hand ripped the gun from his grip. He yelped and fell sideways, grabbing his nether region.
Blinking through the tears, Olivia pointed the gun, her hand steady even though the rest of her was shaking.
“Liv…” Alfie reached a hand toward her, a grimace on his face. “I love… you…”
Victor staggered toward her “Don’t do it, Olivia. He’s not worth—”
Olivia pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit Barone square in his right kneecap.
The man howled in pain, grabbing his bent knee. Roman rushed in, pushing a handcuffed woman in front of him. “Caught the sniper that shot you,” he said to Victor. “She’s the one you were looking for, once again helping out Barone. You all right?”
Victor nodded, his right hand useless thanks to the bullet that blasted through his shoulder. He hadn’t counted on Marisol Riva joining the party as a lookout.
He dropped to his knees next to Olivia, who still held the gun pointed at Alfie. She turned a tear-streaked face to him. “I can’t do it. I want to…God, how I want to! He deserves it…but...”
“I know.” Gently, Victor eased the gun out of her stiff fingers, the digits so cold, he wondered if she was going into shock. “You did good, Liv.”
He handed the gun to Roman then reached for her. She fell into his good arm, sobbing, and he held her as tight as he could. “It’s over,” he reassured her. “I swear to you, I never had anything to do with DeStefano or the Fifty-seven Gang.”
“I think I may have blown my case against Gino and Frankie.”
Victor chuckled. Sirens blared in the distance. Thomas and Ronni ran in. “You okay, there, boss?” Thomas asked. “You’re looking a little like Papa Smurf, blue around the edges. Or maybe that’s from all those blue paint samples on the wall in the living room.
”
Lightheadedness threatened to topple him over. His blood dripped onto the floor, seeping into his pant leg. “Where’s the girl? Is she okay?”
Ronni bent to check on Felix. Roman shoved Marisol into a chair and put a hand on Victor’s shoulder as if to steady him. “She’s safe with Polly. Ambulance is almost here.”
Olivia looked at her father, back to Victor, seemingly torn between the two of them. Victor nodded for her to go to her dad. She peeled away, and he grabbed hold of the table to keep from falling over. Roman’s hand tightened on his good shoulder, helping to steady him.
Liv dropped next to her father, feeling for a pulse in his neck. “Don’t you die on me, Dad. Swear to god, you deserve some ass-kicking from me, and you better not think for one blessed second dying is going to keep you safe.”
Alfie continued to yell and curse at all of them, even as Roman pulled him into a sitting position and handcuffed him. Victor shrugged off Thomas’s help to get into a chair, but nearly keeled over from his stubbornness. The wallop Barone had given him on the head, combined with the loss of blood, was about to take him under. Black spots danced at the edge of his vision.
Flashing lights whipped through the broken dining room window. The previous gunshots had left him half deaf in his right ear, but now the ambulance siren was too loud in his head. As Barone began another tirade against Olivia, Victor found an extra ounce of strength, and, balling his left hand into a fist, reached over and punched the guy in the mouth, knocking the asshole flat. “That’s for lying to Olivia about me.”
Ronni moved out of the way to allow the EMTs access to Felix, coming to stand next to Victor and help him regain his balance. She pointed at the woman Roman had brought in. “This the one who shot Coop?”
She wasn’t wearing standard Suarez Kings clothing or colors, but her dark eyes and general appearance were similar enough to her sister, Victor was sure. “Marisol Riva. Her sister is an ex of Frankie Molina’s, and Marisol is one of the Kings.”
Ronni turned an evil eye on the woman. “Well, aren’t you something special.”
Thomas was also staring the woman down, but he put up a hand to stop any designs Ronni had on taking revenge. “While I love a good vigilante smackdown, we’re going to let Marisol enjoy the long stay in prison awaiting her.”
The EMTs asked Olivia to turn loose of her father’s hand, but she gripped it harder and shot daggers at them. “Work around me. I haven’t seen this man in ten years, and I’m not letting him out of my sight now.”
The female EMT glanced at Victor, her eyes pleading for assistance. Against his better judgment, he pushed out of the chair and made his way to Liv, touching her shoulder with his good hand. “They can’t do their job and save your father if you’re in their way. You can ride in the ambulance with him, and maybe they can check your wounds on the way.”
She resisted, and he saw her bite her bottom lip, conflicted, but then with a heavy sigh, she released her father’s hand. Victor slipped his into hers and guided her back a couple steps, leaning on the wall to help keep him upright.
He mentally poured steel into his legs to lock them in place. Olivia turned and grabbed him around the waist. “You’re the one who needs medical treatment, not me.”
Even with her bruises and the gash on her forehead, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her hair was sticking out all over and there were dark circles under her eyes. The tank top she’d worn under the shirt she’d used on her father was torn and splashed with blood. “You are the most incredible woman…I’ve ever known.” The black dots grew bigger. All he could see was her face as his back began to slide down the wall. “I need to know… that you don’t believe Alfie. I would never…work with the mafia…”
She kept her hands on his waist until he was sitting on the floor, her eyes scanning his face. “Victor, it’s okay. I know Alfie was lying. Forget about him. Stay with me.”
Her face was now only the size of a pinhead. “I…love you…Olivia.”
Her hand patted his cheek. “There’s something I need to tell you, and you’re not going to like it. Stay awake and get pissed at me, you hear? Do not close your eyes!”
He felt someone tugging at his body as though lifting him onto a gurney. The EMTs were shouting things and there was a lot of scuffling, but none of it penetrated the haze of unconsciousness descending on him.
Olivia was holding his good hand like a vise grip. “I am serious, Director, I need to unburden myself before you go falling in love with me.”
He tried to grin, failed. “Too late.”
“I’ve been investigating you.” Her voice floated in and out of his hearing and all he wanted to do was go to sleep. “There’s someone higher up in the Justice Department that suspects you of doing exactly what Alfie accused you of. They sent me to get close to you and see what I could…”
An oxygen mask slipped over his mouth and nose and someone pushed Olivia away. Everything seemed transparent, his body floating into numbness, her words nothing more than an echo in his brain.
19
Two weeks later
Victor’s home
* * *
“I like Solar Flare,” Brenda said.
Victor’s other sisters looked on, staring at the living room wall where he’d painted six different shades of orange.
Nikki shook her head. “Hawaiian Sunset is the one. It has enough orange, but not too much yellow.”
“Are you kidding me?” Danille stomped over and tapped a finger on a different swatch. “Victor needs more earth tones, like this.”
Brenda rolled her eyes and Nikki laughed. “That’s Dragon Fire, Danille. Who paints their living room Dragon Fire?”
“It’s only a name,” Danille argued.
Victor turned to his youngest sister, Ruth. “What do you think, kid?”
She glanced at him with a sullen teenager expression, even though she’d turn thirty soon. Somehow, she’d never quite outgrown looking and acting much younger. “I vote for plain old sky blue. Keep it simple.”
Out of all of them, she was the artistic one, the one who wrote poetry and grew herbs in her backyard. He’d expected her to come up with something even wilder than Dragon Fire. But that was his sisters for you—he never could outguess them.
Outside in the backyard, their families were talking, laughing, and the kids were playing. Brenda put a palm to her forehead as if searching for patience. “What do you think, Mama?”
Their mother always had the final say. She’d moved out of her wheelchair and into Victor’s new La-Z-Boy that Taz seemed to spend more time in than he did. Her feet were up, and she had a margarita in one hand, smiling at all of her children. “Victor’s girlfriend is right. With the lighting in here, something like Dragon Fire is probably perfect. ‘Fiery,’ isn’t that the term she used, honey?”
Yeah, he told her about Olivia and their conversation concerning the paint colors for his living room.
“There you have it,” he said to his sisters. “Mama knows best.”
Victor bent forward and kissed her forehead, careful to avoid hitting his recovering arm on the chair. He still wore a sling but planned to ditch it soon. He only had to suffer through another week of physical therapy. “Dragon Fire it is,” he said to the room at large, and then under his breath to his mother, “and I no longer have a girlfriend.”
Danille sidled up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You don’t know that. You said things have been hectic for her, dealing with her father’s injuries and working a deal with the DA not to send him back to prison. Give her time, she might surprise you.”
Outside, an SUV pulled in, followed by a sports car. “Looks like our guests are here for the picnic,” Victor said. “I’m really glad everybody could make it today, especially all of you guys.”
His sisters huddled around him and their mother, smiling and laughing, in one of their famous family hugs. Ruth pinched his side. “You just wanted help putting toget
her a party for your friends, and you couldn’t do it with your banged-up arm.”
“That’s what sisters are for,” Brenda said, patting Victor’s shoulder. “We’re glad to help any time. You and your friends have been through a lot in the past couple weeks.”
They broke apart and Nikki lead the entourage to the kitchen. “And it’s about time we got to see the house, but I draw the line at helping you paint the living room Dragon Fire. Every time I walk in there, I’m going to feel like I’m entering a Tolkien fantasy story. At least if you went with Hawaiian Sunset, we could feel like we’re on vacation when we came over.”
Victor laughed, enjoying the constant bickering and arguing as the four women filed out. “Let’s get you back in your wheelchair, Mama, and I’ll take you out to the backyard for the picnic.”
“You go meet your guests. I’ll be fine here for a few minutes. You can send that Thomas fellow in to get me.” She winked at him.
She might be closing in on sixty, but she was as full of spunk and silliness as her daughters. “Yes, ma’am.”
It was great to see Cooper up and about, carrying his daughter through the front door as Celina dropped a kiss on Victor’s cheek when they entered. Thomas and Ronni came in, bearing baskets and platters of food, and Victor directed them to the kitchen and out to the patio,
For the next twenty minutes, he ran back and forth making sure everybody had drinks and had been introduced. Every few minutes, he checked his phone to see if there was a message or call from Olivia. He’d invited her, but she hadn’t responded to any of his texts or voicemails.
Hence, his certainty he didn’t have a girlfriend.
She’d visited him once in the hospital, shortly after some minor surgery on his shoulder. He’d been looped out on medication, and even now couldn’t quite recall the entire conversation, but had sensed she carried a heavy burden of guilt. Something she had said to him in the dining room the night Alfie took her hostage kept chasing around in his brain as he lay in that sterile bed, but he hadn’t quite been able to put his finger on it. He’d thought everything was okay between them, but then she’d disappeared.