by Essa Alroc
“Take care of the pool boy.”
Gabby shook her head. She knew enough of the underworld terminology to know that ‘take care of’ did not mean Jesse was getting a bowl of hot soup and a warm blanket. Jesse’s guilt, his crazed belief in karma, would drive him to do anything for her, but she wasn’t going to let that happen. Instead, she was going to make sure he was safe, even if it meant sacrificing herself in the process. Because she loved him. She’d always loved him. It only took one night with him to remember how much.
She picked up the phone. She could endure Nick. She would live with her own night in the attic; accept the pain that he would instill on her. After what she’d seen, it would only take a few hours, probably less. She was decidedly less oblivious to pain than Luka. She could live with a few hours of pain before she died, as long as he promised one thing. That he would leave the pool boy alone. She gave Jesse a gentle glance as she put the phone to her ear. He would love again and he would find someone again. She could do that much for him, after everything he’d tried to do for her. She could do that one thing for him before she stopped breathing altogether. She was scared, but she would be brave. She would be brave for him, and someday, she would meet him in heaven.
Gabby flinched as her husband’s gruff voice answered on the first ring. “Nick, I’m ready to come home…but I have a couple of conditions.”
***
“You have no idea how pissed off Mr. Yakiv is.”
Gabby rolled her eyes as Grigor shoved her into the backseat of a Town Car. She’d accepted her fate, as long as Jesse was safe. True to his word, Nick had left Jesse alone, on the condition that Gabby return home immediately. “I have a general idea.” Gabby answered dryly. “I’m assuming it involves a carving knife.” Gabby wasn’t scared. Nick couldn’t hurt her now. She was in love and she was keeping the man she loved safe. Nothing could hurt her. She was bulletproof.
Grigor looked at her strangely in the rearview. “We’ll see about that.” Marcos was seated next to him and refused to meet her eyes.
She was dead. And she was weirdly ok with that. She let her gaze drift as she was driven through the familiar orange blossom field she’d become accustomed to. The night was light, thanks to the full moon. As they left Miami and headed to the suburbs of the city, the starlight grew. Gabby wondered if she would be able to see it from the attic window. She wasn’t afraid. She was feeling strangely stoic about her impending death. As long as Jesse was all right.
“We’re home.” Grigor announced as he stopped the car. Gabby sighed. Her night of fantasies was over and the pain would begin soon. She didn’t struggle as Grigor dragged her out of the car. She didn’t protest or fight. She wasn’t even afraid as she saw Nick’s silhouette appear in the doorway of the home she’d once loved. She was only apathetic and ready for it all to be over with.
“Gabrielle.” Nick let out a breath and snatched her by the shoulders, studying her closely. “Look at me.”
Gabby glared at Nick, trying to make sure her obvious hatred of him showed through. “What?”
Nick glared at her. “What do you mean what? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”
“Whatever,” Gabby shoved her way past him. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Get what over with?”
Gabby sighed. “The part where you murder me with a carving knife in our attic.” She turned towards the stairs. “Let’s get this party started. I don’t have all night.”
Nick shook his head. “Gabby, I would never do that to you.” He moved to grab his young wife and she flinched away. “You’ve been nothing but loyal to me.” He sighed as he dragged her against his chest. “I know what you saw was scary, but you need to believe me; I wouldn’t do that to you.”
Gabby tried to shove away, but Nick held tight. “Wait, you’re not going to kill me?”
Nick let out a laugh. “Why would I do that?”
“Because of what I saw.”
Nick gave her an indulgent smile. “And did you tell anyone what you saw?”
“Well, no but I thought…”
“That was your problem right there.” Nick gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Thinking.” He gave her a gentle pat on the bottom to shove her up the stairs. “Go to bed. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
Gabby shook her head in confusion, but continued her way up the stairs. So Nick wanted to kill her in the morning. Whatever. She was dead inside, already. Gabby sighed and went to bed like Nick told her to.
***
Nick watched as Gabby sullenly went up the stairs to their room. She seemed different now that she’d returned – agitated, angry and not more than a little defiant. He shook his head. He would take care of whatever attitude problem Gabby had developed in the morning. For now, he had other things to deal with. He turned and focused his angry eyes on Grigor. “Now get back to the motel and finish the pool boy off.”
“You told Mrs. Yakiv…”
Nick nearly growled in frustration. “What I tell my wife is none of your business.” He took an angry step towards Grigor. “That pool boy took something that belongs to me. I do not take kindly to others touching my property.” He shot a look up the stairs. “He also crushed my mailbox. That’s two items I own that he’s damaged.
***
Jesse’s eyes widened as he walked into the Strangely Sober. When he’d woken in the motel room and found a goodbye note from Gabby, he didn’t waste time going to her house. Instead, he knew that he needed help of another kind. The kind of the criminal variety. He’d gone back to see Sal, hoping she hadn’t left town. yet. She hadn’t, but she’d obviously had a very busy night after she’d dropped them off. The Strangely Sober had been a mess before, but now it was a zoo.
Literally.
There were animals everywhere. Exotic ones. A toucan perched on a barstool, next to a bowl of food. Russell, the alpaca, was chewing a plastic bottle he’d found near the pool table. At least four different breeds of monkey hung from the rafters and a snake was winding its way across the floor. The woman he was looking for sat on the bar, legs crossed Indian style as she studied a laptop screen. There was a large tropical bird perched on her shoulder. She reached in the bowl in front of the toucan and pulled out a piece of food, which it snapped up immediately. Sal then popped one in her own mouth before she finally looked up from the computer. “Hey Jesse.”
Jesse let out a laugh, unsure of where to begin. “I thought you were splitting town to hide from the Columbians.”
Sal spun around and, as she did, the bird flew off her shoulders. “I was going to, but then I decided ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ and went back to steal all their animals, instead.” She gestured towards the bar. “Hence, the current state of my establishment. Can I get you anything? Beer, whisky?” She held up the bowl the toucan was eating from. “Fruit Loop?”
“You’re feeding a toucan fruit loops?”
Sal shrugged. “Everything I know about animals, I learned from cereal commercials and Looney Toons episodes. Take a seat,” she gestured towards the floor, “but mind the tiger.”
Jesse sprung off of the barstool as he saw what was sleeping on the floor less than a few feet away from him. “You stole a fucking tiger?”
“Well yeah,” Sal held up a box. “Who did you think the frosted flakes were for?” She smiled at Jesse’s hesitation. “Relax. All the dangerous ones are drugged out of their minds. Anastasia won’t be waking up any time soon.”
“You named the tiger Anastasia.”
“She’s a lady tiger.” Sal looked towards the door. “Speaking of ladies, where’s Gabby?”
Jesse shook his head as he slumped back down onto the barstool, man-eating lady tiger forgotten. “That’s why I’m here.” Jesse yanked a piece of paper out of his back pocket. “She left this for me this morning.”
Sal spread out the piece of paper on the bar in front of her and read Gabby’s messy, cursive script out loud.
Dear Jes
se,
Last night was wonderful. I really missed you and it was great to see you again. But being with you made me realize how much I love my husband. I know he’s not the best person in the world, but he’s been good to me and I think we can work it out. I’m going home. Please don’t come looking for me.
I’m sorry for everything I got you involved in. It wasn’t right to drag you into my problems. In any case, it might be a good idea if you leave Miami.
Good luck with everything and I hope you have a wonderful life. You’re a very good person, even if you don’t think you are. In case you were wondering, your apology is accepted and I forgive you for everything…including running over my mailbox.
Your Friend,
Gabby
p.s. thanks for the shirt
Sal looked back up at Jesse as she finished. “So in general, you two did the dirty deed, Gabby had some morning-after regrets and went running back to her husband.” She shoved the paper back at Jesse. “I’m sorry, but if you’re looking for relationship advice, I’m the last person in the word that can help. I broke up with my last boyfriend by stabbing him with a fork.”
Jesse shook his head as he took back the ‘Dear John’ letter. “She’s lying.”
“How do you know?”
Jesse folded the paper as he shoved it in his back pocket. “In high school, I showed Gabby a note I forged from my parents for senior skip day. Gabby laughed and threw it out, and then she rewrote it for me. She told me my handwriting was ‘too perfect’ and that if you were going to tell a lie, it was best to write messy. That way, it looks like you didn’t think about it too much.” Jesse shook his head. “Gabby’s handwriting is usually perfect. I’ve seen it. It’s like damn calligraphy.”
“Yeah, she’s got a bit of OCD.”
“She thought I wouldn’t remember her trick. She wanted to make the note look genuine, like she was just some spoiled rich wife going back to her husband after a weekend adventure.” Jesse’s eyes darkened. “I know better. She was terrified of him.”
Sal let out a humorous laugh. “Of course she was terrified. He’s a Ukrainian mobster, for gods sake.”
“Gabby didn’t know that.”
Sal’s eyes got wide. “She didn’t?” Sal shoved her way around the bar. “Of fucking course she didn’t. I wasn’t here to tell her that when they got married.” Sal smacked herself in the forehead. “I barely even knew they were dating. When I got back from hiding out after the whole peacock thing, they were already married.”
“Peacock thing?”
Sal gestured to the animals in the bar again. “This is an ongoing thing. I was distracted.”
“With animal smuggling?”
Sal snorted. “Please. There’s no money in animal smuggling. This is about diamond smuggling.” Her eyes widened excitedly as she said the word ‘diamond.’
“Diamond smuggling?” Jesse spun around on his barstool as Sal walked across the bar. She reached for Russell and gave him an affectionate scratch on the neck.
Sal nodded. “I discovered it purely by accident. I was at the docks, doing a little business of my own, when my ‘business’ got snatched out of my hand and eaten by a peacock in a shipping crate. So I did the only reasonable thing anyone would do and stole the peacock. Decided to disappear for awhile afterwards because I wasn’t sure if anyone saw me. So me and the peacock are living it up in a beach shack in Southern California and I’m waiting for the peacock to do his business, so I can get ‘my business’ back, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure that I do.”
Sal rolled her eyes. “I was waiting for the peacock to take a dump.” Sal raised a hand. “Only, when the peacock finally did, it wasn’t just my two diamonds that came out. Four more did. I realized then that either I had a bird that shits diamonds, or I had a smuggling operation on my hands.” Sal started to pace. “So I looked into it a bit more and I found out some interesting stuff. For example, this bird, among many others, was being shipped from a zoo in Africa to a zoo here called the Sanctity Zoo.
“So?” Jesse was confused.
“So,” Sal emphasized, “The Sanctity Zoo doesn’t exist! It’s just a really clever way to smuggle conflict diamonds from Africa to America without anyone being the wiser.” Sal laughed out loud. “Exotic Animals don’t have to go through the same security exams when they’re being shipped from zoo to zoo. They’re fragile, and tend to die when subjected to things like exams and x-rays. So some clever fuckers started training the damn things to eat diamonds. That way, it just looks like a zoo animal being shipped to a zoo, the smugglers collect their diamonds and no one is the wiser. Unfortunately, I was in the docks the same night a rare peacock was being shipped in. I was there with two diamonds, waiting to pay off some guys I know for a shipment of plastic explosives. The fucking thing ate my payment out of my hand while I was waiting. It saw the diamonds in my hands and snatched them up like they were a damn treat, because that’s what it had been trained to do.” She gestured around the bar. “Every animal in here has been fed conflict diamonds. Usually, when they get here, the assholes will just kill them or send them off to some third-rate zoo. I’m rehabilitating them and collecting the diamonds for my effort. I find zoos in the area that actually take care of their animals and I turn them over free of charge.” Sal smiled as she petted Russell again. “Everybody wins.”
“What does this have to do with Gabby?”
“Absolutely nothing.” She smiled at Jesse. “Sorry, I have a tendency to get distracted.” She looked around at her bar/zoo. “But we might be able to use this to our advantage.”
“How so?”
“You probably don’t want to know.” She reached in her back pocket for her keys. “Now help me get the tiger into the trunk of my car.”
Jesse sighed as he stood from his barstool. Sure, she was insane, but she was his only hope.
Chapter 7
Gabby glared across the breakfast table at her husband. Nick had yet to say anything to her about what she’d seen and what she knew. “Are we even going to talk about it?”
Nick gave her an indulgent look and returned to his sports page. “There is nothing to discuss Gabrielle. You’re home now. That’s all that matters.”
Gabby glared at him in confusion. “How can you say that? What I saw…”
“Was nothing more than a business matter and you don’t need to worry your beautiful head about that.”
Gabby glared again. “My beautiful idiot head, you mean.”
Nick sighed and folded his paper, finally giving Gabby his full attention. “I am sorry you took offense at that. I will admit, it was an ill-formed opinion. I was just trying to say that it is not your job in this household to think. It is your job to be beautiful and give me children. Stick to your strengths.”
Gabby felt a wave of fury that she’d never felt before. “My strengths? Well, you’re right about one thing. I’m great at baby making.” Her eyes met his in a dead-on challenge. “Not that you’ll ever find out again. But if you’re ever curious about how good I am in bed, just ask Jesse. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to tell you.”
Nick froze. She had his full attention now. “What do you mean?”
Gabby smirked. “Well, I have to tell you, you might be great at finding someone’s weakness, but Jesse kicks ass at finding someone’s g-spot. You know what a g-spot is right, Nick?” Gabby waved a hand. “What am I saying; of course you don’t. We’ve been married six months and you haven’t found it, yet!”
Nick stood and slammed his hands down on the table, but Gabby barely moved. She was used to his mood swings. “He touched you?”
Gabby wasn’t afraid. She’d been waiting to die all morning and Nick’s hesitance to kill her was starting to drag on her nerves. “More than once. Judging by my orgasms, he touched me multiple times.”
Nick clenched his fists and gave a humorless smile. “Well then I’m glad I had him killed.”
Gabby froze. �
��What do you mean?”
“Dead,” Nick’s eyes were ice as he marched around the table. “Your little boyfriend is dead. I gave Grigor the order this morning.”
Gabby felt her heart stop. She’d thought she was dead inside before, but that was only an illusion compared to the pain she felt when Nick told her Jesse was dead. “You promised…”
“And you promised to love, honor and obey me.” Nick spat out. “Just what part of that loving and honoring involved fucking our pool boy?”
Gabby couldn’t answer him because she couldn’t find words. The boy she’d loved forever was dead and her monster of a husband was the man who’d killed him. If Jesse hadn’t felt the need to apologize, if he’d never known her, he would still be alive. It was all her fault. She wanted to die. Dead eyes met her husband's as he came to stand in front of her. “Are you going to kill me yet? Because I have to tell you, every second I’m forced to spend with you is torture.”
Nick leaned down over her chair and stared her dead in the eye. “Why would I kill you. Gabby?” Nick leaned in close to her face, twisting her hair around his hand and yanking her head back. “Like you said, if you’re so damn good at baby making, let’s go try for one now.”
Gabby screamed as Nick ripped her out of the chair by her hair, yanking her towards the stairs to their bedroom.
***
“What are you going to do?” Jesse looked around the car nervously. Aside from the tiger in the trunk, their car was filled with exotic African animals. Russell sat between them, as the crazed criminal mastermind seemed to have a weird attachment to her pet alpaca. There were four monkeys in the back seat and a mid-sized boa constrictor winding its lazy way around the passenger seat. The toucan sat in the back window, happily immersed in a bowl of Fruit Loops, and tropical birds perched on both his and Sal’s shoulders.
“You probably don’t want to know.”
“Who’s following us?”
Sal peered into the rearview. “I’d know that large sloping forehead anywhere.” She smirked at Jesse. “That tail ain’t for me. It’s for you. It’s Grigor and some of Yakiv’s thugs. My guess would be that they came to finish you off for what you did to their mailbox.”