by Essa Alroc
“Careful,” Sal gave Russell’s head another pat. “He gets very territorial. He thinks I’m his girlfriend.” Sal tilted her head. “Or mother. I’m not sure which. If it’s mother, I sincerely hope he doesn’t expect me to breastfeed.” Sal’s eyes got wide. “Did you see the size of those teeth? My nipples would never survive.” Sal waved her hand at them as she saw headlights approaching. “Get down.”
Jesse and Gabby didn’t need to be told twice. They both ducked in the backseat as low as they could. “She’s fucking insane.” Jesse hissed at Gabby. They both held their breath as Sal slammed on the brakes, clearly having been cut off by someone. They heard Sal let out a swear and roll down the window.
“Evening Salvatori.” Gabby stiffened as Grigor’s voice filled the car. “What’s got you out on this side of town so late at night?”
“What’s it to you, Lurch?” Gabby had to hold in a giggle. Grigor did look a little like Lurch.
Grigor’s voice was tight when he spoke again. “Look, I…What the fuck is that?” Grigor had spotted Russell.
“Alpaca.”
Russell let out a weird, keening snort.
“Wouldn’t happen to be the same alpaca that those Columbians have been looking for?” Grigor’s voice was slightly amused. “The purebred one that’s worth over a hundred grand?”
“Nope,” Sal’s voice was nonchalant. “Completely different one. An invisible one, if you get my drift.”
Grigor chuckled. “You know, those same Columbians lost a peacock they were smuggling a few months back.”
“Weird.”
“Yup, really weird.” Grigor leaned in the window. “It would be a shame if they found out who kept stealing the animals they were trying to smuggle.”
Sal sighed and Jesse tensed. Would she turn them over to save her own ass? He tilted his head as Sal began to speak again.
“It would be a shame if a certain Ukrainian got blown to hell when he was trying to set up a meet with a bunch of Columbians. You wanna talk to them about me; be my guest. We both know you’d never leave their place alive. Ukrainians and Columbians are like vinegar and water”
“You mean oil and water?”
“Nope, vinegar and water. Just like douche bags.” Sal tapped her steering wheel impatiently. “Now can you get to your point and move your fucking car? I need to get this thing home before it shits all over my passenger seat.”
Grigor let out a defeated snort. “I need to know why Gabrielle Yakiv was at your bar tonight.”
“How the fuck should I know?” Sal gestured to the alpaca. “I was out stealing this thing.”
“That wouldn’t take all night.”
“Have you ever tried to cram an alpaca into a Chevelle?” Sal let out a laugh. “Listen, my guess would be that Gabby was at the bar to see my brother.”
“Your brother?”
“Yeah, Mooki.” Sal stretched in her seat. “He’s an artist. Gabby asked him to do a picture of her a few weeks back.”
Grigor sounded confused. “A picture.”
“Yup, a portrait. Supposed to be a gift for her husband.”
“So Gabrielle Yakiv was at your bar to check on a painting she was having done?”
“That would be my guess.” Sal started to roll up her window. “Or she was getting her money back for it. I don’t think Mooki had even started it, yet. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
Grigor sighed and stepped back from the car. “Fine, but if you hear anything,” Grigor shoved a slip of paper at Sal, “contact me. There’s a reward out.”
Sal looked at the slip of paper. “A reward, you say? Well, we both know how much I love money.” Then, to Gabby’s surprise, Grigor laughed and walked away from the window. A few seconds later, Sal was driving again. Both Gabby and Jesse waited.
“All clear.”
They both popped up in the backseat, breathing hard.
“I take back what I said,” Jesse informed Sal. “You’re not insane. You’re a genius.”
Gabby was worried. “Won’t they check with Mooki?”
“Nope,” Sal shook her head. “Lurch is just going to assume that you went to Mooki to get your money back so you’d have an escape stash. The Salvatori crew is officially not related to your disappearance and I have dried up their only lead.” Sal smiled proudly. “I’m a world-class liar. So where to? I have to get Russell to a meeting.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want your alpaca to miss his appointment.” Jesse turned to Gabby. “Where are we going?”
Gabby frowned and glared at Jesse. “I’m still mad at you. I don’t care where you go. I’m going with Sal.”
“Neato, we can have a sleepover, braid each other’s hair and talk about boys and stuff.” Russell let out a wail. “Fine, you can come, too.”
Russell snorted.
“Gabby…” Jesse tried to reach for her hand and she yanked it away, glaring out of the backseat window and refusing to meet his eye.
“Uh oh.” Sal’s slightly unbalanced gaze focused on the rearview. “We got company.”
Gabby spun around in her seat. “Oh, god. It’s Grigor, isn’t it?” She watched as a yellow Monte Carlo began approaching them at a high rate of speed.
Sal shook her head. “Nope, these fuckers are here for me.” She met Gabby’s questioning look. “The Columbians.” Sal slammed her foot down on the gas and the car shot forward. Russell’s long neck snapped back against the passenger seat and he let out something close to a hiss. “I was kind of in the middle of my own high-speed chase when you called me.”
Gabby screamed as the Monte Carlo caught up to them and rammed into the rear bumper. Sal let out a swear and jerked the wheel hard to the left. She reached out a hand and popped open the glove compartment. “Hey handsome, you’re a wannabe marine, right?”
“Yeah, how’d you…”
She tossed a gun back at him. “We’ll discuss my amazing powers of observation later. For now, shoot them.” Sal jerked the wheel harder and spun a u-turn in the middle of the road. The Monte Carlo slammed on its brakes and began to reverse, clearly not expecting a frontal assault.
Jesse looked at the gun in his hand and then looked to Gabby’s terrified face as she clutched on the rear of the passenger seat to avoid being tossed around like a rag doll. Without another thought, he slammed the butt of the gun into the window, shattering the glass. Then, he pushed his body halfway out and began firing. His first shot took out the windshield and the Monte Carlo’s tires squealed as it continued its backwards race to get away from Sal’s approaching Chevelle.
“Go for the tires,” Sal yelled over Russell’s panicked snorting and spitting.
Jesse listened. He dropped the site on the glock low to the ground, led the car slightly and fired. He watched in satisfaction as the front driver’s side tire exploded and the Monte Carlo began rocking out of control. He fired again and took out a rear tire. The Monte Carlo began to slip. Sparks shot up from the pavement as the rims of the exploded tires scraped the road. The Monte Carlo listed to the right and crashed into a telephone pole, coming to a jarring stop.
Sal let out a whoop of joy from the front seat as she raced past the wreckage. “Nicely done, Jarhead. You do this often?”
Jesse let out a gasp and stared at the gun in his hand. “Nope, I can honestly say that this is my first high-speed chase.”
Sal smiled and took the gun back, reducing her speed to normal now that the threat was passed. “Well, you’ll get used to it. Welcome to Miami.”
“Thanks.” Jesse shook his head. “So how’d you know?”
“The wanna be marine thing? Your haircut is terrible, you’re built like a brick shithouse and you called me ma’am. You wanted to be a military man at some point. You learned all the protocol. The only thing that kept you back was your color blindness.” Sal smirked. “Russell doesn’t spit up ‘brown stuff’. He spits up ‘green stuff’. Stomach acid, to be specific. It’s a very distinctive color…except to someone who is color blind. Some
one who’s color blind wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Jesse sat back, stunned. “You noticed all that?”
Sal winked. “I’m not just crazy; I’m also a genius.” Sal turned her focus to Gabby. “Is she gonna hyperventilate again? I’m out of bags.”
Jesse realized that Gabby hadn’t spoken in awhile and he turned to her. She was watching him with open astonishment. “How’d you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Shoot out their tires like that?”
Jesse gestured to Sal. “Training for the marines, like Sal said. I did weekend classes before enlistment, part of a military prep class. Then I failed the vision test and that was that.”
“How’d you get away from Grigor?”
“I kicked his ass.” Jesse’s brow crumpled in confusion. “How do you think?”
Sal let out a laugh from the front seat. “So you’re the person who crushed Grigor’s nose? Jesse, I got to tell you, I’m really starting to like you. His face looked even worse than yours. Not too many people can say that after a fight with Grigor.”
Jesse smirked. “Actually, Gabby did this.”
Sal burst out laughing, and weirdly, it sounded like Russell was laughing right along with her. When she finally calmed down, she started speaking again. “Listen, guys, not that you two aren’t truly entertaining, but me and Russell have some planning to do. I know a motel. Safe part of town, you can pay in cash, and it’s meth lab free. You want me to bring you there?”
“You did that for me?” Gabby still looked astonished. “Why?”
Jesse sighed. “Because I like you. And I owe you. You were the only reason I graduated high school and I repaid that by betraying you. As far as I’m concerned, all the crazy shit that’s happened since I met you is karma paying me back for that. So I’m going to help you, even if it means getting my ass kicked, getting spit on by a llama…”
“Alpaca,” Sal corrected.
“Getting spit on by an alpaca and taking on the entire Ukrainian underworld.” Jesse caught Gabby’s hand and gave it a squeeze. She didn’t try to pull away. “I just want to help.”
Gabby blinked then slowly, nodded. “Ok,” she finally decided. “Ok, you can help. Sal? Can you bring us?”
“You got it.” Sal flicked on the directional and made a right turn to bring them to the ‘meth lab free’ motel.
Chapter 6
“What the hell do you mean she got away?”
Grigor sighed and nearly rubbed his eye, before he remembered how swollen it was. “The pool boy has an excellent left hook.” He cleared his throat, nervous with his boss’ silence. “I did track down Sal from the Salvatori crew, though. “Doesn’t look like the wops were too heavily involved. Mrs. Yakiv just went there to get her money back for a painting she was having done for you.”
Nick nearly hissed into the phone. “She returned one of my gifts to get money to run away from me?”
“That’s what it sounds like.”
“Grigor, perhaps you didn’t understand my wishes initially. I want my wife returned and I want the pool boy dead, great left hook or no. If you are unable to handle that, I will find somebody who can.” Nick took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, that means I will have to terminate your employment. You understand what that means in this business, correct?”
Grigor swallowed, remembering a carving knife. “I understand.”
“Good.” Nick clenched the phone. “I’ll expect her back no later then tomorrow evening, then. See that it happens.” He hung up the phone without waiting for an answer.
“Bad news?” Grigor glared at the driver of the Town Car, Marcus. He let out a sigh and placed the icepack back on his forehead.
“Nothing new. My boss is a dick.”
***
Gabby winced at the same time Jesse flinched as she placed and icepack on his nose. “I’m really sorry.”
Jesse held the icepack to his face and let a hand drift to Gabby’s hip. “No worries. I deserved it.”
Gabby shook her head. “No you didn’t. Listen, that stuff I said, before Grigor attacked us…”
“Was completely right.” Jesse pressed the icepack on his face harder, laying back against the pillows. “I was an idiot in high school. Believe it or not, I really liked you.” Jesse peeked out from under the icepack to watch Gabby’s reaction. “I just didn’t know what to do about it. When my friends started making fun of me, I got pissed and I took it out on you. My life was never the same after that day.”
Gabby picked up the icepack to examine his eye. “What do you mean?”
Jesse tried to not stare at her chest as he continued. “Bad luck started following me around.” Jesse thought back. “On prom night, the night that I should have been with you, I took some idiot named Brittany, instead. She was so damn obnoxious; I just started drinking to avoid her talking.”
“I remember Brittany. Cheerleader, right?”
“Yeah,” Jesse nodded. “Anyway, we went to her brother’s place, because he was over twenty-one and could buy beer. I got wasted and decided to be the big man by driving everyone home.” Jesse shook his head bitterly. “I didn’t even make it out of the driveway before I backed into a tree. No major damage, but I tore my ACL in the accident. I lost my football scholarship.”
“Jesse, I’m so sorry.”
Jesse shook his head empathically. “Nope, I deserved it. I didn’t deserve a football scholarship after what I did to you.” He sat up straight in the bed and the icepack dropped off his face. “Instead, I tried to join the marines. Like Sal said, even they didn’t want me. I’m color blind. Then, I traveled around for a bit. I tried to go back to college, but I couldn’t afford it and I couldn’t get financial aid. I tried boxing, but after six months, even the worst doctor wouldn’t let me in the ring. Every time things started to go right, something would happen to make them all go bad again. After awhile, I thought maybe it was the universe’s way of getting back at me. Every time I thought something was going good, I’d just flash back to your sad, grey eyes and everything would turn to shit again. So, when I was driving by Miami, I decided to drop in and see you, just to tell you I was sorry.” Jesse gave a rueful smile as a sudden thought occurred to him. “Are your eyes really grey, or am I wrong about that, too?”
Gabby smiled gently. “No, they’re really grey.”
Jesse leaned closer and started to stroke her cheek. “I knew it. I knew I couldn’t be wrong about that.” He let out a nostalgic smile. “You always had the most beautiful eyes, even when the rest of you wasn’t beautiful.”
“That’s kind of a dick thing to say.”
Jesse shook his head, realizing he’d gone the wrong way. “Not like that. I mean, even though you weren’t the prettiest girl in school, I liked you anyway. I liked you more than those other girls and I felt weird about liking you that way. So I got mad. Then I did that thing to you, and it destroyed me, in more ways than one. My life will never be right until I make up for that day.”
Gabby pulled back in surprise. “Have you always felt this guilty?”
Jesse nodded.
“Listen, Jesse,” Gabby sighed. “My entire life wasn’t defined by that moment. I had good times and I had bad times. After a while, I forgot about you entirely and went on with my life. I made my own decisions.” Gabby shook her head. “I’m sorry you feel bad for the way my life is now, but it’s not your fault. Even if it was, I wouldn’t trade it.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“No.” Gabby laughed as she remembered her first few years in Miami. “I had fun. I made a lot of great friends. I learned you can make mistakes and reinvent yourself. I learned that destiny isn’t pre-determined. You create it yourself. I would have never had the bravery I needed to walk away from the town we grew up in if I’d thought there was anything left for me there. Instead, I did and I got to lead a pretty interesting life.” She caught Jesse’s hand. “High school is only four years of your life, Jesse. It doesn’t d
ecide who you are. You do.”
Jesse was looking at her oddly. His eyes dropped to her mouth and her forehead crinkled in confusion. Suddenly, he lurched out and latched onto her, his lips meeting hers. She let out a little squeak at the start of the kiss, but as the warmth enveloped her, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed her mouth to his, harder, and parted her lips, encouraging him in.
Suddenly, Jesse pulled back. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Jesse pushed away. “I know you’re married. I just keep thinking you shouldn’t be.”
Gabby let out a gasp, still breathing heavy over their very brief kiss. “What do you mean?”
Jesse sat next to her on the bed, still watching her lips. He was hesitant for a minute, but finally spoke. “You should have been mine.”
“What?”
Jesse shook his head. “It’s so damn clear now. Your asshole husband should have never got his hands on you in the first place.” Jesse leaned in close to her ear. “You were supposed to be with me. It wasn’t karma telling me to find you. It was fate.”
“Jesse, I…” Gabby let out as gasp as Jesse tackled her, his mouth pushing down on hers insistently. For a second, she was frightened, but after a moment, she gave in. He was what she’d wanted all along, after all. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She started pulling at his shirt. “You promised me a shirt.”
Jesse raised his mouth from hers for a second. “Did I?”
“I want this one.”
Jesse chuckled as she ripped the shirt from his body. “Ok.” He sucked in a breath as her fingernails grazed his chest. “You want the pants, too?”
Gabby nodded and he moved his hands to oblige her.
***
Gabby awoke in a sweaty tangle of limbs. Jesse’s body was draped over hers, his arm wrapped around her waist in the same possessive way Nick always held her.
Gabby knew the difference. Jesse wanted to be with her. Nick thought of her as property.
She studied his sleeping, handsome face in the darkness. His arm reached out for her, even though she wasn‘t there. He snatched the pillow she’d been sleeping on and cuddled it close.
She blinked over the tears that were starting and walked across the room to the phone on the table. She had no choice. She hadn’t missed the words that Grigor had spoken.