Falling Under

by Lauren Dane

  Carmella ignored her mother, heading over to Steven. “She’s on medication that shouldn’t be mixed with whatever you gave her. I’m guessing barbiturates. She likes those best. Tell me now,” Carmella ordered.

  “She said it would be fine. She knows her health, Carmella. You can’t be so overprotective.”

  “Did she ingest barbiturates? You tell me right now or I’ll see if someone over at the courthouse can help you be more cooperative.”

  Duke knew Carmella well enough by that point to know she was on the verge of losing her shit. The more precise and controlled she got in her threats, the closer she got to breaking.

  He stood closer to Carmella to enforce the question. Steven nodded and rattled off the street name for whatever shit they’d taken.

  Carmella shook her head. “Usually it takes you a lot longer to get to this part of your spiral back to prison. You have twenty minutes to gather your things and be out of this house. You are to have no further contact with her, do you understand me?”

  Steven paled. “Now wait a minute. I’m your daddy. I don’t have any place to go. I have to have an address. It’s a condition of my release. Have a heart. I’m trying, Carmella. It’s hard for a man on the outside after being in so long. We were stressed because I spend so long on the bus trying to find a job. It’s hard without a car. I tried to protect her. You know how she can be.”

  “She’s high and covered in bruises. You tried to hide her from me. She tells me she wants to sell the house for your future together.”

  “You have no right to keep this house from me.” Virgie stumbled out in little more than a long T-shirt, and when she saw Duke, she halted, patting her hair down. There was a bruise on her calf that looked a hell of a lot like a shoe print. Several other bruises stood out in vivid purple on her legs.

  Around her wrist were fingerprint bruises and not the digging in during sex kind.

  She smiled self-consciously at Duke. Pity filled him. And then rage when he saw the marks around her throat.

  “Company? No one said. I look a fright.” Virgie headed his way. “I’m Virginia Hay but everyone calls me Virgie. I’m Carmella’s mother, though I hear we look like sisters.”

  Her words were slow.

  “Say your good-byes to Steven. He won’t be living here anymore.”

  “Stop being so selfish! For once in your life, do something for someone else, Carmella,” Virgie snapped and then looked back to Duke with a smile. “You didn’t even introduce this gentleman to your mother. Where are your manners?”

  “Ma’am, how about you go to the doctor now? Let us take you so they can make sure you’re all right?” Duke wanted to set this place on fire and drag Carmella away from it forever. But he knew she still felt responsible for this monster and so he’d go along with that direction.

  For the moment.

  Virgie laughed gaily. “Oh, I’m all right. We had some champagne and I fell.”

  “No one believes that. Steven, you’re not packing,” Carmella said.

  “I won’t allow you to kick him out of my house,” Virgie said.

  “You don’t have to. This is my house.”

  Steven moved to intercept Virgie but Carmella blocked him. As hurt as Duke was on her behalf, he had to admit she was pretty freaking stunning right then. She turned on her heel and got in her father’s face.

  “I said get out. You only have ten minutes now. Tick tock.”

  Virgie reached for Carmella and Duke stepped in, picking her up and moving her over to the kitchen.

  “I’ll call the police if you don’t leave,” Virgie screeched.

  Carmella went to hand her mother the phone, but it had been ripped from the wall.

  “I don’t know how that happened.” Virgie’s words had begun to slur again. The only pity he had was for Carmella.

  “Fine. I have a cell. I’ll call the police for you. Or do you want to do it yourself?” She held her phone in her mother’s direction.

  “No. I’ll go,” Steven said. “If her heart is this hard, she’s never going to change, Virgie.”

  “I’ll go with you then,” Virgie proclaimed.

  “And do what?” Carmella asked. “You’re not taking your medication but you’re on something. Did you sell your pills or trade them for something else? What is it?”

  “You’re always accusing me of things. You only like it when you have me all to yourself so you drive them all away. Every man.” Virgie looked to Duke. “I was alone, struggling to raise a kid. Who’d begrudge me some company to get through?” She attempted to point at Carmella but her depth perception was off. “This one here. And when her daddy is home from being away, she doesn’t like that either. You be careful of her. She stole this house.”

  “Don’t engage with her,” Carmella said to Duke.

  “You’ll hear from my attorney!” Virgie shook her fist and then looked at it awhile.

  “Steven, you now have seven minutes. When you run out of time, I will throw everything left in here out the window.” Carmella kept her expression blank as she faced him, hands folded across her chest.

  “Come on, Virgie. You and I will get out of here,” Steven said and Duke knew he’d done it to manipulate Carmella’s concern for her mother. Eventually he’d worm his way into staying.

  Duke wanted to say something but Carmella spoke first.

  “Mom, you can’t go.”

  Duke watched the emotions on Carmella’s face. The exhaustion of dealing with this scene. The years of this behavior and abuse from her parents. Neither of them deserved her.

  Virgie straightened slowly. “I will go to be with him. You can’t stop me.”

  “You can’t, Carm.” Duke pulled her off to the side. “She’s an adult. What are you going to do? Tie her to a bed? Doesn’t she always come back in a day or two when she does this?”

  “She doesn’t do this,” Carmella hissed. “I only bought the house two years ago. I’ve never had the power to kick him out. He doesn’t have any place to stay, but he’s got some family he can go to. Or whatever. I really don’t care. He beat my mother up.”

  Steven Hay was not the problem. Everyone had said that, and Duke could see now that they’d been right. Virgie was the real issue. Carmella had managed this woman pretty much her whole life, but this wasn’t something she could keep up.

  “You can’t make anyone leave a bad relationship. You can’t make her better any more than you already do. You can let him stay here, or you can let them both leave. She’s not going to go for being separated from him. Not in the state she’s in now. He’s made it a choice she has to make.” And her mother was a rotten, selfish person who’d choose a man over her child without a second thought.

  She wrung her hands and he took them in his own. The anguish on her face also sounded in her voice. “I can’t let him stay here! He’s already doing this? What’s he going to be like in two weeks? I’m going to come over here and there’ll be strangers on the couch. Dodgy characters. The neighbors will call the cops. I had to make some serious peace with them when I took over the mortgage.”

  Duke had no idea she’d done all that.

  “Do you see how she is?” Virgie taunted. “She hated fun even as a kid. Why aren’t you keeping her satisfied and happy, Duke? Is it that she’s secretly a lesbian?”

  “That again?” Carmella said.

  Duke had no idea what that was about, but he was entirely finished with these people. “I see a woman who works her butt off so she can pretty much be your personal assistant. She pays your living expenses at huge detriment to herself. She brings you food and your medication. She takes care of you. I see a woman I’d be proud to claim as my daughter were I in your shoes, Ms. Hay.”

  Virgie smiled. “Mrs. We got married again a few days ago.”

  “Jesus on a skateboard,” Carmella muttered. “He beat you up. That’s not normal. That’s not okay.”

  “It’s not your business what happens between us. Do I get in your business
? This is why you can’t keep a man.”

  “I’m calling an end to this,” Duke told Carmella. He would talk with her about the real options once they left. “We’re getting nowhere, they’re being abusive, and it’s only upsetting you more.”

  Carmella sighed. “I want to speak to my mother alone.”

  Rather than ask, Duke nodded, carrying Steven out of the room with him as he did.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Steven said as Carmella went into the bedroom with her mother and closed the door.

  “You must be pretty disgusted with yourself then.”

  “You can’t just stroll into my life and act like you know anything. Carmella has always been difficult. Granted, it was hard for her growing up. But she needs to get over it.”

  Duke scoffed. “Does she? If my father touched my mother the way you just did hers, he’d be in the hospital right now.”

  “Ironic that you taunt me with violence to condemn violence.” Steven avoided responsibility with the ease of a longtime master liar.

  “Look, I’ve been around enough losers in my life to know every single way you can take this conversation. Let’s see, we’ve got your: It was a moment of weakness. You were stressed. She pushed you there. She hits you too. She gets off on it. You’ll never do it again. Or maybe you’re one of those who thinks hitting a woman makes him manly. Whatever it is, it won’t be you taking responsibility. You don’t need a punch in the face because I think it’ll disabuse you of the notion that hitting someone you should love and protect is okay, you need a punch in the nose because you’re a woman-hitting piece of shit. I don’t like that Carmella takes all this crap from her mother and I don’t like you even less.”

  Duke wanted to call his parents right then to tell them he loved them. For all their faults, for all the yelling his dad did, there was never physical violence in their home.

  Steven went for contrition now. “I am sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I’d like to be a family. I do love my wife and daughter, you know. I’ll be out and with her mother. If you’re with Carmella, we’ll be family too. I’ll prove you wrong. You’ll see.”

  Duke shrugged. “Your kind of love sucks. I care about Carmella’s well-being. That’s it. That’s why I’m here. If you love people, you don’t beat them up. Not really a complicated rule.”

  Carmella came out a few minutes later, but didn’t look at Steven. “Let’s go,” she told Duke.

  He kept his body between Carmella and Steven on the way out. Once they were in the car, he drove around the corner and parked.

  “What’s up?”

  Duke pulled his phone out. “I’m texting Asa that we’re taking a pass on today.”

  “No! This is something you do with your friends every year.”

  “It’s breakfast, we can do that another day. As for Bumbershoot? There’s another day tomorrow. And more next year. I want to be with you. Away from a crowd and noise. Away from you having to pretend to be okay when you’re not. How about you and me grab my bike and take a ride up to Snoqualmie Pass? We’ll get some lunch and hang out. And you can tell me whatever you want to do. Or ask me advice, or just talk. Or none of those things.”

  He could see indecision on her face.

  “I promise. I’m not disappointed to miss today.”

  She nodded.

  That Carmella didn’t turn to something chemical to deal with the astounding amount of shit she had to shovel sometimes was a marvel to Duke. So that day he’d take her away from the city. On the back of his bike she wouldn’t have to talk. Wouldn’t have to be responsible for his reaction to her expression or feel any pressure to explain until she was ready.

  She needed that and he knew good and well Asa would do it for PJ in his shoes. You did that for people you loved.

  She looked at the phone in her hand the whole way back to his place and then finally texted someone once he got to their street.

  “Craig knows a guy on the Seattle PD. I can’t not say something. I just can’t. She said she’d deny it if the cops came. Told me all the stuff she usually does. She loves him. It’s passionate. If she’s okay with it, why can’t I be? I still want to scream every time I hear it.”

  She sighed and they stayed in his driveway because he didn’t want to interrupt these moments when she finally shared and let him take some of the weight.

  “So, I told her I would not call the cops. But I didn’t say I wouldn’t tell Craig, who’d tell his buddy. They can still prosecute, even if she won’t cooperate, but it’s hard and she’s pretty experienced with the system. I’ve been down this road with her before. I’m backed into a corner and I don’t know what to do. Every one of my options is terrible. He’s hurting her but she won’t leave. She won’t listen to me. If I kick him out, she’ll follow him and they’ll both be homeless. And the thing is, Duke? I know he’s telling her all this. He’s manipulating her and I can’t stop it.”

  “You’re doing the best you can. Which is all you can do. There is a really messed-up dynamic going on there. But you cannot make her change her life. You know that. It hurts to see her that way and you have done all you can given the set of circumstances you’re faced with.”

  “I hate that she thinks she’s not worth more than this.”

  Duke reached across the console to hug her. “I know, baby.”

  CHAPTER

  Twenty-four

  It had been about two months since Duke had checked in with his parents, and after all the crazy shit with Carmella’s, he was reminded to count his blessings.

  After the weekend, the work week had gotten back to full swing as the new showroom space was nearing completion.

  Carmella had gone out for a walk around the lake with PJ, leaving him alone in his office, so he put his feet up and dialed his parents’ house.

  His mother answered.

  “Hey, Mom. I just wanted to call. It’s been a while. How are you guys?”

  “Hello, sweetie. Things are going well. You just missed your father. He went up to Ventura to see your brother.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “Well, you know how your brother is.”

  “Smart? Educated? Destined for a stroke by thirty-five because he eats stress for dinner?”

  His mother’s laugh was strained.

  “What’s going on, really?” Duke pushed. He didn’t like the way his mother hedged around the topic.

  “He and his fiancée broke up recently. He’s taking it hard. Your father is just going to see if some company won’t cheer him up.”

  Duke tried not to think about how his dad had never picked up to come see him during any of Duke’s most trying times. It wasn’t important by that point.

  “I didn’t know he and Shelly had split. I’m sorry to hear it. I’ll call him later today. Do you need me to come down?”

  She laughed again. “It’s fine, I’m sure. But you should call Danny. He’d love to hear from you. He looks up to you.”

  Duke snorted. “Sure he does. You’re still coming up at the end of the month for the grand opening, right?”

  “We wouldn’t miss it. Thank you for handling our hotel reservations.”

  “Carmella did that. She’s … well, she’s my girlfriend. The real deal. You can meet her when you come up.”

  “Really? That’s wonderful. Tell me all about her.”

  The last time he’d talked to his mother about a woman was when he was in high school. But it was okay because as he started to describe Carmella to her, he realized none of the women in between then and now were noteworthy the way Carmella was.

  “So she’s your employee? You know you’re leaving yourself open to all sorts of trouble if this goes badly.”

  He’d hoped she’d have said something positive first. But he supposed it was a mom thing to say, to guard his business.

  “You’ll meet her in a few weeks so you can judge for yourself. She’s not like that. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever known before.”

  �
��I’m just so thrilled to hear you’ve finally met someone. I was beginning to wonder about you and Asa.”

  He nearly choked on the soda he’d been drinking. “Asa’s in love with the woman he lives with. They’ll be married in a year or two.”

  “Good. He needs to get started on a family. So do you. Your sister already has two. Where are my grandchildren from my oldest?”

  He dangled some shiny stuff her way, promising to take them on a tour of the area when they visited, and hung up.

  He was glad they’d caught up, but the discussion they’d had about his brother still nagged at him. Duke couldn’t just get in the car and go check on Danny, though he was glad their father was.

  Breakups were hard. Danny’s fiancée had seemed very nice the time he’d met her when he was down visiting for his nephew’s baptism. She was like Danny. Career minded. Intelligent. Ambitious. Duke figured they’d stick it out and he hoped the breakup wasn’t an ugly one on either side.

  Duke called and left a voicemail for his brother asking how things were and inviting him up for the grand opening once more. He’d invited his siblings already, but maybe if he underlined how much it would be nice to see Danny, his brother would come.

  Seeing Carmella’s difficulties made him realize his family issues weren’t nearly as bad as he’d once thought. A dad with little patience and a loud voice wasn’t the same as the guy who beat your mother up. Even if he felt like he didn’t fit the same way everyone else did, he loved them.

  “I think that’s a monumentally bad idea,” Carmella said to the foreman the next day. “If you go that way, you have to tell Asa to his face. There’s no way I’m delivering that news to him.”

  They were running late on getting some electrical stuff dealt with. City and county people had come out, everything was signed off on their end, but the foreman had just told her they needed to send some of their crew to another site, which would set them back another four days.

  “Aw, come on. It’s still within the deadline.”

  Carmella shook her head. “Whatever. I’m not delivering this information to him. Which means he’ll come looking for you, or send Duke or Mick.”