by Evelyn Glass
Cathy, Max’s assistant, answered, “Lou runs the docks. Max owns them and much of the real estate around them. The private areas, at least.”
Rat sounded a long, low, impressed whistle.
Lou was there in twenty minutes, coming in with a driver behind the wheel of a black and chrome Lincoln Continental. As soon as Cole verified that it was Lou in the back seat, he gunned his engine and headed for the street with Brian, Rat, and Jim behind him. Max’s limo and then the Lincoln fell into the fast moving convoy.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Her mind felt like it was full of cotton candy made of lead. She could grasp where she was and what was happening to her. She understood that the drug was doing this to her, but couldn’t fight past the effects.
The door opened and another man entered. She was aware of this part, too. Like her mind, she had little control over her body, as well. The man got in the bed, just like the others. It would be over soon enough. She reached for Cole again and again, trying to find her connection to him.
It didn’t matter what these other men were doing. She just needed Cole to know that she loved him and always would, and that she was sorry. She pushed and stretched, and reached as hard as she could through the leaden cotton candy, searching for him. When she felt him, she felt a jarring, mind-clearing wrath and a rush of night wind that was nearly harsh enough to clear away the fog in her mind.
Her eyes cleared enough to see the man on top of her, “He’s coming now and he’s going to kill you,” she snarled. Her voice was cold, and held all the wrath she was feeling from Cole.
The man jumped back, off her, “Fucking crazy bitch!”
“Run, but it won’t matter,” she said, but after that, the heroin flooded her mind again. Her eyes filled with darkness and Cole was lost to her. Then the tears came.
***
Gabriel sat in his office chair, looking out the open windows at the early night sky, feeling better than he felt in weeks. That stupid bitch Nicole was exactly where she belonged. The Horsemen were put in their place and business was up and running. Well, almost all of his business. There were still a few houses that needed repairs from the raids, but that was minor.
After he was done with Nicole, he would show her off to the other call girls to let them know what happens when you decide to leave. The only thing that bothered him was where the hell did Nicole get the money. Three quarters of a million dollars was a helluva lot of money. How the fuck did she pull that?
At first he assumed she was lying about this and had some stupid little whore idea of trying to shoot him when she got here; that it was just a ruse. But after he put her down, he opened her laptop and there, on the screen, was her account information and the waiting transfer. He tried to finish the transfer, but the time limit had passed and the account was locked, asking for the password again.
“Where the fuck?” Gabriel mused and wondered if the rest of these fucking call girls had that kind of money, as well.
If they did, they certainly had the resources to leave him and though he would like to believe he could find them with a million at hand, they could run far and fast. He needed security against this possibility. He worked too hard getting these girls promoted and their calendars filled. They couldn’t just go whenever they pleased!
The cellphone of the guard at his office door rang and the guard stepped away, down the walk, to answer it. Gabriel really liked these enforcers of Lou’s. They were quiet, well dressed, polite, and very impressive. Most of them were very good looking, as well. He decided he would like at least five of them as a personal guard.
Lou, of course, that fucking wrinkled up spic, was going to attempt a take over as soon as the month was over, but that wasn’t going to happen. He could deal with Lou. Gabriel noticed the guard look over his shoulder at him and then nod his head, agreeing to whoever was on the phone. Then the guard was coming back to the office, still on the phone. Instead of stopping at the door, however, he continued up to Gabriel’s desk and then offered the cellphone to him, “Boss wants to talk with you.”
“Boss? Your boss? That’s me for another month,” Gabriel reminded him, but he took the phone. “Who is this?”
“Hello, Gabriel,” Lou said.
Gabriel watched the guard talk into the ear radio, giving commands. “Lou? What can I do for you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Gabriel; that will all be done for you. You don’t have to worry about a thing. What I’m calling about is my good, very dear to me, friend Nicole who I’ve just learned made a deal with you that you reneged on.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Gabriel squawked.
“Not only did you fail to do your end, but you have her locked up, drugged up, and being raped. I have to tell you, Gabriel, that takes balls. Big fucking balls to do that to one of my friends,” Lou continued.
“You can’t be serious,” Gabriel said, “She’s a fucking whore and she’s my whore. You can’t tell me what to do with my own whores!”
Five of the guards came into the office, walking straight for him. They weren’t stopping. Their purpose was so clear it cut through Gabriel’s confusion and he went for the gun in his desk. The closest guard pulled his weapon with practiced grace and blew a hole into the desktop, making Gabriel jump back. He screamed and threw the phone at the man, bouncing it off his chest and then they were on him, holding him down. He struggled and screamed, and kicked while they handcuffed him and then hauled him to his knees, holding his head up by his hair.
A guard put the phone back to his ear. “Lou! All right! How much? How much?”
“You piece of fucking filth,” Lou’s voice said, “There is no amount. None. You do this to my friend, Nicole, and expect to pay for it? No! You’re fucking dead! Because if that Cole fellow doesn’t kill you on sight, I’m going to spend from now until tomorrow morning killing you with more pain than the gods could stand! Goodbye, you fucking piece of shit!” The connection broke.
Stunned, Gabriel looked at the men and screamed, “No! Lou! She’s just a fucking whore!”
Dragging him by his cuffed arms, they took him out of his office and then down the elevator to the lobby of the house. He struggled and thrashed wildly, trying to escape and didn’t stop until he was completely exhausted, and put on his knees in the lobby by the front door.
Firefights broke out throughout the house. Gabriel assumed that it was his own men either attempting to help him or attempting to escape, themselves. The volleys were short, though, and the silence after each of them, telling.
He searched frantically for an answer, a means of escape. This was wrong, all wrong. This couldn’t happen to him. Not over a fucking whore.
Then the thunder of Harley engines came down the drive.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Cole and the Horsemen rode through the open gate heedless of the guards around them who made no attempts to get in their way. The four of them came up to the front door, dismounted, and drew their weapons with deftness and purpose. Once through the door, Cole saw three of the suited guards ahead of him with a man kneeling and cuffed between them. “Is that Gabriel?” he asked as he approached the suits.
“Yes,” one of the guards replied.
Cole shot Gabriel in the head, the bullet velocity pulling the corpse from the guard’s hands who simply let Gabriel fall and crumble.
“Where is Nicole?” Cole asked the suit without giving Gabriel another thought.
“Second floor, pink door,” the guard answered calmly, un-phased by Cole’s actions. “I’ll radio ahead so they know you are coming. We’re trying to find her some clothing.”
“Thank you,” Cole nodded and holstered his gun. The other bikers did the same and followed him as he ran up the stairs and down the walk toward the pink door.
Two guards were outside and made no motion to hinder his approach as he went by and into the room. Inside, he found two more attempting to get Nicole into a long t-shirt. Cole moved forward, brushed the
guards aside, fixed the shirt, and swooped her up into his arms, turned with her and headed for the doors. “Can you hear me, Nicole?” he asked. “Stay with me, baby. We’re going for the hospital.”
“Cole? Cole? He hurt me, Cole.”
“I know, baby, but he’ll never do it again. I promise you.”
As he came down the stairs with Nicole in his arms with Jim, Rat, and Brian at his back, he heard a voice with an Italian accent saying, “Just fucking shot him, eh? I like that. No words, nothing. Just bang. Maybe he’s all right for my Nicole, after all. Yeah, just maybe.”
When he came into the lobby, there was Lou whose smile shattered when he saw Nicole. “Ah, Jesus Christ, no,” and the depth of his sadness was moving, even to Cole’s ears. Lou shifted his eyes to Cole and said, “The doctors are waiting for you, Cole. Max’s limo will be the fastest. I can have one of my guys get your bike back to the bar.”
“Fine,” Cole said, “Keys are in the bike. Give them to the bartender.” He brushed passed the mobster and out of the house, his long legs cutting across the walk to the waiting limo.
***
The doctors were waiting, not just nurses or staff, but the actual doctors were waiting by the door when Cole carried her into the hospital. They guided him to lay her on a gurney and then swept her away into the emergency treatment area. One of the nursing staff came to him, asking him to let them do their job.
“What can they do?” Cole asked.
“They’ll most likely begin with giving her naloxone, which is very effective in countering heroin and other opiates, but first, they may take the time to ensure that’s all she has in her system. We were told that this was done to her, not something she accidentally did herself. Do you know if she uses any other drugs? Does she party at all?”
“She drinks and I know of at least once time she did crystal, but very rarely. Drinks beer, mostly. Some shots, but never more than five.”
“How long has she been like this?”
“Ah, a little longer than I day? I would guess? But I don’t know the doses or how many,” Cole admitted.
“That’s fine. Please wait in the visitor room and I’ll be back out to tell you any changes or news. All right? I’ve been dedicated to her treatment, so I’ll be able to pass you news as it happens.”
“Good and thank you,” Cole said.
The nurse then leaned closer and whispered to him, “You might want to put the gun in your car. Cops come in and out of here quite often.”
He gave her a grin, “Thanks. I’ll do that.”
Max was already in the waiting room. Cole gave him the run down about the naloxone treatment and then walked out to the limo to shuck his gun and told his fellow brothers the news, as well. “You guys don’t have to stay. I’ll call you with any news. She could be home tomorrow,” Cole told them.
“Angie is going to want to be assured, again, that this isn’t her fault, so I should head home,” Rat agreed. “But you have to come over soon and back me up on that, because she isn’t believing me much.”
“I’ll hang for a while,” Jim told him, “Then go back to the club and make sure your bike is settled inside for the night. I’ll come by with your keys later on.”
Brian looked at him, “I got nothing better to do, bro, so I’m with you.”
“You licensed to carry inside hospitals?” Cole asked with a grin.
“Yes, but I’ll leave them out here anyway,” Brian replied seriously. “I don’t want to make people nervous who are already in pain.”
Cole nodded and they walked together into the lobby and sat down.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
It was near three in the morning when Nicole opened her eyes and focused on a familiar silhouette in the doorway, watching over her. “Captain?” she asked softly.
“Oh, shit,” Lou whispered quietly, “Sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Did you come for me?”
“Well, your man did, that young fellow, Cole, and he let me tag along,” Lou told her, stepping a little closer with his hat in his hand.
She thought about that, “I think I remember that. I think I remember him carrying me.”
“That’s good; that’s real good. Recall is a good sign,” Lou said, keeping his voice low, stepping a little closer.
“My brain isn’t right, though, Captain. I can feel it isn’t right. Is this how it is going to be now? Like this?” she asked, tears in her eyes.
“No, no, baby, this is only a few hours after treatment. They’re going to get you back to yourself. You’re going to be all right and clear as summer,” Lou assured her.
Nicole nodded her head and tried to believe him.
Lou came farther in and sat on the edge of her bed. “So, so you and Cole. You serious about him? Cause he’s very serious about you. Gabriel — may he rot in hell — could tell you just how serious he is.”
She studied Lou’s eyes and saw that this really was Captain talking to her, then she nodded. “I think I was serious our first date. It was…”
Lou waited for a moment, and then urged her with, “Go on. I would like to hear it.”
“I’m just trying to figure out how to describe it, Captain. We connected in this really strong way. I don’t mean like just having feelings for each other, but… rather… having each other’s feelings. I could feel what he was feeling so strongly they were like my own, but felt more distant than mine. And we knew things about each other that neither of us could possibly know. And we felt, saw, and envisioned what we were going to be to each other in ten years. It was so real, so amazingly real, and wonderful. But it kind of scares me.”
Lou looked down at the hat in his hand and rolled it slowly with the brim, as if deep in thought and then with a nodding of his head he said, “That’s … well that’s how it was with me and Ciri. It’s very strange, after all these years, to hear someone else describe what we went through. All these years, and…huh. Strange.”
“Seriously?” she asked, her eyes wide.
Lou nodded, giving her a glance and then looking at his hat, turning the brim, “It scared us to death; it really did, because you know, we were both raised in old Catholic families and things like this…these connections… they just weren’t natural. Like when we were on our fifth day together, she was very upset with me for lying to her about getting hurt.
“She says, ‘I know you are lying, Louis Donadio, because you are doing that thing with your cheek and you always do that thing with your cheek. For years, I see you do this thing and every time, it is a lie coming out of your lips.’ And I have to tell you — one, she was right. I was doing that thing with my cheek and I was lying. But two, that was only our fifth day together, not years together, and she was talking to me like it was our seventh anniversary or something. Like she knew all kinds of things about me.
“Then, I suddenly knew things about her. I knew how she ate her food and that she didn’t like marinara sauce ‘cause it was too sweet. She liked to sit in the front of the movie house, not the back. I knew she was so afraid of spiders she would rather burn down the house to get rid of one than to come close enough to squash it with a napkin. But what really threw me is I knew how she liked it in bed and, baby, we were still virgins at that time.”
Nicole had risen and sat up as he was talking, “Exactly; that is it exactly.”
“Now,” Lou smiled wanly, “Now you’re going to ask me what it is, or where it comes from. But I have been asking that myself since that fifth day with Ciri and I have never gotten an answer. Not one. I’ve spent a great deal of money looking for that answer, too, but not even a glimmer.”
“Does it still happen?” Nicole asked.
Lou smiled and played with his hat some more, “Yes and no. I’m sure it is the same thing. It has that strong sense of double reality to it, like you are living twice at once. Like there are four people there and not just two.
“But now…it is like strong reminders of who we were back then. I’ll
kiss her and suddenly it is twenty years ago, twenty-five years ago, even thirty years ago, and she’s still so young and firm, and we are just married and no kids, and so passionate about each other that we can hardly stand not to be touching. And I remember things like what chocolates she enjoyed and how she used to make these little napkin things for Easter, and that she really likes purple daisies and all these little things about her that made her happy and gave her joy.
“Some of these things I didn’t notice back then, but when they pop into my memory, I can look back and I see that, yeah, she did do that, or she did like that. So, I’ve been getting her these little things and she’s been doing it, too. And it’s like we are …” he shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have the words. What’s deeper than falling in love again?”
Nicole leaned her head against his shoulder, “I don’t know, but it sounds good.”
“It is good. It really is. And it’s good to share that with someone, especially you, ‘cause you are like the star for new beginnings. You guide ships out of the fog and it has been a serious pleasure to know you.”
“No more model building with us and no more row row, either. Are you sad?”
“Yes, because I’m a naturally selfish man; just ask Ciri; she’ll tell you all about it. But only because of my selfishness am I sad. When I get my head out of my own ass, I’m very, very happy for you. And, when he finally gets around to it, I wouldn’t mind getting an invitation to the wedding,” Lou told her.
“I’ll hand deliver it,” she smiled.
CHAPTER FIFTY
It was late the next afternoon and she finally was able to convince Cole to go home and get some sleep. Alone, Nicole looked up at the ceiling and realized that what Lou told her last night might be coming true. She was beginning to think clearer. Not clear, or sharp, but not the hindered fuzz and slow recall of last night. “At least, at this point, I could live with this. If this is as good as it gets, I can accept this.” A polite knock on the doorframe drew her attention and there was a beautiful redhead woman, who Nicole had never met before. “Yes?”