But Tino wasn’t answering his phone. He couldn’t. He was at the house on Hippa Street in the middle of a gun battle with some shadowy gunmen across the street, hiding in the thick woods.
And the battle was joined. Tino had four men when the gun fight first started. But now, there were only two of them left. The other two: dead. Tino and his one remaining man were fighting for their lives.
MG, with Alex and Oz pulling out their weapons, drove up just as the gunfight had gotten nastier. Because, not only was their gunfire from across the street, but there was sudden gunfire from behind Tino and his man. His man was shot and killed instantly, and Tino was shot too.
Alex, Oz, and MG jumped out of the SUV, and as Oz and MG began firing at whomever remained across the street, Alex fired at the person who had shot and killed one man, and who had just shot and downed Tino. Alex knew it was a woman he had shot and killed, but he didn’t realize it was Ninochka herself until he ran over to her, to make sure she was dead, and saw her face.
He couldn’t believe it. She was supposed to be in Europe! But it was Ninochka. To his shock, she was apparently working with Zylena!
But there was still gunfire across the street. Oz was handling it, but it was rapid. Alex ran over to Tino.
“I’ll be okay,” Tino, pressing his chest, said.
“Where’s Karena?” Alex asked anxiously.
“Inside the house,” Tino said. “She’s inside the house.”
Alex knew they couldn’t go in until they took care of the outside. And he knew it had to be drastic and fast because he didn’t know what state Kari was in
He went over to Oz and MG, who were still exchanging gunfire with the gunmen across the street. “Cover me,” Alex said.
Oz hated that it had to come to that, but he understood why his brother would think so. And Oz and MG moved their position to the back of the SUV, so that the gunshots would have to move further down from their current position.
When the gunmen began shooting back at Oz and MG from their new positioning, it was then did Alex, knowing exactly where those shots were coming from, pulled out a second gun, ran from behind the car, and began shooting, with both barrels blazing, as he ran toward the gunmen. He took out one, and then the other one, and then he could hear the third one turning tail and running.
But Alex ran after him, through those thick woods, and tracked him down. He shot him dead, in the back, with one shot.
But he didn’t rest in his victory. Kari might still be in danger. Zylena might be there, and Kari might be with her!
He headed toward the house, with Oz running with him. MG assisted Tino.
And like always, they knew their roles: Oz would take the back of the house, Alex would take the front.
But just as they were running toward the home, they heard a gunshot, and it came from the garage.
Alex and Oz took off around the side of the house, looking for a side garage entrance, and they found a side door. Oz kicked it in and Alex ran in, aimed and ready, and Oz came in behind him.
Their kid sister, Zylena Drakos, was standing in that garage. And she quickly turned the gun away from Kari, and to her own brothers.
“Alex? Odysseus?”
Alex saw that Kari was okay. Faye and Lucinda were okay, too. But Benny, beaten and tied up, was in bad shape.
Lucinda was crying. “She shot at us,” she said. “She nearly killed us!”
“I told you to stay put,” Zylena said. “I told you!”
“Why, sister?” Oz asked her. He was the most baffled of the two brothers. “Why?”
“I was going to marry father’s number two,” Zylena said. “I was going to marry his underboss. It was all arranged. But then you and Alexio had father killed.”
“We did not!”
“You had him killed!” Zylena yelled. “And everything went downhill. With father around, I had status. I was his daughter. I was going to marry his number two. After he died, I was nobody in their eyes. I became the bitch. Everything changed! Mother left. She had connections who got her out of there. But they made me stay. And raped me. And passed me around as if I had no feelings at all. And where were my big, bad brothers? Where were you?” she screamed. “I needed you, and neither one of you were there for me!”
She was in the depths of despair. She was at her lowest moment. But that was why Kari knew she had to act and act at that very moment. She was sorry for Zylena. But Zylena had orchestrated all of the killings. She was nobody’s victim.
As soon as Kari saw that Zylena was more focused on blaming her brothers, Kari grabbed the rifle Zylena held in her hands and took it from her. She immediately, before Zylena could fight her for it, tossed it to Alex. Alex caught it.
“You bitch!” Zylena yelled.
But Alex, pleased that Kari fought back, handed the rifle to Oz.
And Kari ran by his side. He held her with one hand and kept his eyes on his sister. Faye and Lucinda, also relieved, ran to aid Benny.
“Call an ambulance,” Faye, crying, said to Lucinda.
But Zylena was crying too. She was crying for what she had to do, and why she had to do it. “I met a man who rescued me,” she said. “But I could never forgive what you caused my life to become. I wanted to ruin you,” she said to Alex. “I hired smart people who knew how to do things, and I got busy. I wanted to ruin your business with those cyberattacks! I wanted to ruin your life by killing the only woman you ever loved! I wanted to ruin you. Narnia did too. That’s why we joined forces. You took father away from her. You took away the only man she ever loved. And she wanted to destroy you too!”
But then Zylena pulled out a pistol. Faye and Lucinda ran and hid. Alex pushed Kari behind him. “Drop it, Zen,” he said, his own gun trained on her. “Drop it!”
But she didn’t. She lifted it as if she was going to try to outshoot her own brother, which it was an impossibility, but then, instead, she put it to her own head.
“Z, no!” Oz cried. “No!”
But it was no use. She smiled as she pulled the trigger.
When she fell, Alex grabbed Kari and covered her face in his chest. Oz went to Zylena, to make sure she was dead, but only a blind man, or a grieving brother, would have thought she was not.
Alex was devastated, too. That was his sister! But she made her bed. She went into that lake of vengeance and it swept her under. Alex was sorry she suffered after their father died, but she would not have suffered at all had she chosen Oz in that power struggle.
And when Kari left his side and went to a sobbing Oz, and pulled him into her arms, Alex knew what mattered most to him at that moment. He had phoned and checked on Jordan while he was on his way to Hippa Street. Although he was at home and said he was fine, Alex ordered triple security around Jordan. But with Jordan, and Kari and Oz in front of him, he knew, unlike Zylena, what mattered in life. Not status and money. Certainly not revenge. But love. That simple four-letter word.
He checked on Benny. He was beaten, but nothing appeared to be life-threatening. He would be okay. He made sure Faye and Lucinda were okay. They were badly shaken, but they were going to make it too. And he went to Kari and Oz.
“Let’s go home,” he said to them, and they gladly made their way out of that house.
Oz looked back, at his deceased sister. But Alex, holding Kari tightly against him and remembering the terror his sister had undoubtedly put her through, didn’t bother.
EPILOGUE
“You’ve got to put your hip into it, darling,” Alex said.
“Like this?” Kari asked.
“Like this,” Kari said, shaking his hip, and Kari and Jordan laughed.
They were spending the weekend in New York, at Alex’s Hudson Valley estate, a week after what happened on Hippa Street. Tino survived and was back on the job. Benny survived and was back at work too. They found out later that Alisha McKnight had been recruited by Zylena to tell Benny that his wife was cheating on him. Their plan was to lure him to Hippa Street and to mak
e sure the town’s gossip, Ramona, saw it all and reported back to Faye. The fact that Kari was with Faye at the time was no accident. They planned it when they realized Faye and Lucinda and Kari would be together. It was all planned.
But now, they were trying to get back to normal. Alex was on his golf course trying to teach an old dog (if a twenty-nine-year-old woman could be considered old) a new trick.
“I still don’t see why you’re so insistent on teaching me this silly game,” Kari said. All three were comfortably attired in shorts, although there was a nip in the air, but after two hours on the links they were glad they dressed down. “I know you love golf,” she added, “but do I have to love it too?”
“Yes,” said Jordan.
“Yes,” said Alex.
“But why?”
“Because,” said Jordan. “He wants you with him. He spends a lot of time on the golf course. He wants to spend that time with you too.”
Alex felt a little embarrassed, but Jordan had said it right. And Kari gave one of her aahs with a smile, but she knew Alex was not a touchy-feely man. She didn’t rub it in.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s give it a try.” She positioned her club behind the ball.
“There you go,” Alex said as he stood behind her and helped her with her posture. “When you swing, raise your club all the way back, as far as you can, taking your body with it, and then hit that sucker with power!”
“Okay,” Kari said, shaking her hip the way Alex had taught her. “Here goes nothing!”
And she did it. She lifted that club as far back as she could, and she swung at that ball as hard as she could. But she closed her eyes as she swung. For some reason she closed her eyes! When she opened them, she saw her club sail down the fairway, but her ball remained untouched.
Alex and Jordan tried not to laugh. She looked so confused. But they couldn’t hold back for long. They roared with laughter!
Then Oz came running from the house, with a cell phone in his hands.
“What’s up with Oz?” Jordan asked when he saw him first.
That was when Alex and Kari looked too. Although the threesome on the golf course might have been dressed down for the weather, Oz was dressed up: in a designer suit and a matching hat. He removed his cigar from between his pearly whites when he arrived at their side.
“What’s so funny?” he asked. “I heard laughter.”
“Is that why you came running?” Jordan asked. “Because you heard us laughing?”
“Not exactly, no. But what was so funny?”
“Ma just hit a golf club down the field,” Jordan said. “She almost got a hole-in-one.”
Oz smiled. But for Kari’s sake, he held back the laughter.
“What brings you out here?” Kari asked.
“My brother left his cell phone.”
“Yes, I know,” Alex said.
“Oh! You did it on purpose?” Oz asked. “My bad.”
“What is it, Oz? His office? Even that distraction is better than them just standing up here laughing at me.”
“Who hits a golf ball with their eyes closed?” Alex asked, laughing again.
“I didn’t realize I had closed my eyes, Alex!”
“Anyway,” Oz said, “I took the liberty of answering your phone, brother, and I have great news.”
The laughter died out when Oz said that.
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“Shockingly,” Oz said, “the venue was approved.”
Kari was puzzled. “What venue?” she asked.
“For the date I requested?” Alex asked.
Oz was nodding. “For that very date you requested, yes. You have some serious pull, my brother.”
“But what venue, Alex?” Kari asked.
Alex looked at her. And he smiled. “Remember after Hippa Street, and after Ninochka was killed, with no fault ascribed to me?”
“You know I remember! They had a body so there was no doubt about her death. You were instantly declared a widower.”
“Well remember I asked you to name the most far-fetched venue to have our wedding that you could possibly name now that we were free to marry?”
Kari nodded. What was he trying to say? “I remember, yes.”
“Do you remember what you said?”
“I jokingly said the Palace of Versailles, if it still exists. Yes, I remember.”
Alex looked at her, smiling. Jordan’s jaw dropped open.
Kari almost did the same. “Are you saying, are you telling me that we’re going to get married at the Palace of Versailles?”
Alex nodded. “That’s what I’m saying,” he said.
“In that beautiful palace?” Kari asked.
“Yes. In that beautiful palace.”
“But I thought it was like a parliament place in France now,” Jordan said. “I didn’t think they let people have weddings there.”
“They’re letting Alex have his there,” said Oz. “The man has pull I’m telling you!”
Alex laughed, and nodded. “Even so,” he said. “Everybody will be flown to France, and you, Karena, will have your day.”
Tears were in Kari’s eyes. This wasn’t supposed to be her story. Not a girl like her! But it was her story.
“He promised you the wedding of the century,” Oz said. “Looks like he’s going to deliver!”
But Kari went to Alex, and Alex pulled her into his big arms.
“He already has,” she said with grateful tears. “He already has.”
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