by Nicole Snow
She couldn't slip away from us, for fuck's sake. Not when we were this close, and it wasn't just Hannah I needed in my arms again to make me whole.
She was about to bring my kid into the world. My son, my daughter, my flesh and blood I hadn't known existed for over eight fuckin' months.
Before, I respected boys like Joker or Firefly when they got crazy about their pregnant wives, or their secret babies. After seeing that pic on my Veep's phone, I respected it a thousand times more, felt the pick digging into my brain every merciless second my wife and kid weren't with me.
I sat on the cracked patio outside my motel room, puffing my pipe like a chimney, trying not to chew clean through the stem. I was gone, too deep in dark thoughts, too distracted watching my old man's ghost laughing at me to notice Firefly 'til he had his hand on my shoulder.
“News from the scouts,” he said. Soon as I saw his serious expression, I hopped up, studying his eyes. “Her car's been spotted at a hospital about thirty miles away. I told the boys to cruise every exit. Don't let her leave for anything.”
“Fuck, what are waiting for?” We both went for our bikes, threw on our helmets, and peeled out of the lot so fast my head whipped backwards.
It was all open roads out here. Normally, a comfort, a zen-like blur I'd lose myself in when times were fucked, letting the growling engine and spotty lines on cracked asphalt bring me into a zone where I didn't have to worry about any bullshit.
Wasn't working today. I sweated in the cool winter air the entire way, wondering what brought her to a goddamned hospital.
Sixty, Skin, Crawl, and Joker waited for us near the main entrance when we rode up and parked at the small medical center. I started heading for the door, but the Veep grabbed me by the shoulders, pushed me back, holding me scary tight.
“Joker? What the fuck?!”
“Hold up, Prez. We've got company.”
It took everything I had to look over his shoulder instead of knocking him flat, and then rushing in to find my girl. Too bad he wasn't bullshitting.
Over on the other side of the parking lot, several squad cars were parked along the curb, quietly blinking their cherry-blue lights. Far more cops than there oughta be at an out of way hospital like this on a normal day.
“What happened here?” I growled, my hands tugging at my Veep's leather.
“Don't know yet,” Skin cut in next to me. “None of us do. We figured we'd let you decide how to approach the questioning. If we all go in there at once, it might draw more attention than we want, depending on what's gone down here...”
“They've got patrols out front,” Crawl said, pushing his shaggy black hair away from his eyes. “Whatever it was, they put the whole hospital on lockdown. Nobody armed is getting in, or out.”
I glared, sighing when I saw Skinny boy's face filled with concern. “You're right. Firefly, you're with me. The rest of you boys, stay put, and watch the bikes. Any of those badges come over asking what we're doing here, you tell 'em we're checking one of our crew in for a nasty stomach bug.”
They nodded. I headed inside with my Enforcer, hoping like hell we'd both be able to keep a lid on our emotions if the answers we got about Hannah came back ugly.
A panicked looking woman sat at the front desk. Had to slam my hand down flat in front of her to finally get her attention.
“Can I help you?” She sat up taller when she saw us, like a woman who'd just spotted a couple wolves roaming close by.
“Sure hope so. We're looking for Hannah Grayson. Should've been a pregnant lady who checked in here sometime in the last couple days.”
The woman's fingers clicked across her keyboard. She chewed her lip, telling me either the system was fucked, or nothing was coming up easy.
“Try Hannah Davis, too,” Firefly said.
I turned my head, staring him down. Hannah wouldn't use her fuckin' maiden name...would she? If she wasn't under mine, I had to believe it was something different, some alias that wouldn't shove my heart into the chipper for another round of pure torture, knowing she'd given up my name, like we never happened.
“No patients named Hannah the last few days,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I'm sorry, gentlemen. We're having a bit of a situation at the moment. If you can't provide more personal details about the woman you're looking for, I'm going to have to ask you to –“
“Mind telling us what happened?” Firefly stepped up with a lot more tact than I would've mustered just then.
“Oh...Jesus. You haven't heard? Guess it hasn't hit the evening news yet, huh?” She sat back, rocking the little chair on its wheels. We both shook our heads. “A group of really creepy men went after this pregnant lady who checked in last night.”
“Pregnant lady?!” I spat both words, choking on my heart leaping into my throat.
Firefly laid a hand on my shoulder and gave me a look. Just let her talk, Prez. Don't fuck this up.
“Yeah.” She sighed. “Really, really sad. They took her away before she even had her kid. Killed a nurse and roughed up a few doctors. The cops are hunting them down right now, calling for backup across the county. It's a full on manhunt.”
Shit.
“Did you see them? What did they look like?” I asked, leaning over the high top above her, trying to talk like a rational human being.
“No. I was on break at the time when the crazy went down, thank God. It could've been me at the end of their knife.” She paused, looked at me, and wilted a little when she saw the intensity in my eyes. “Um...I think I've already said too much. We're supposed to keep this to ourselves, seeing how it hasn't made it to the news just yet. Who are you looking for again?”
“Shit, look at this, just got a text on my phone.” Firefly stepped in front of me, holding out a message from Cora on his screen, asking if he'd made it to Texas okay.
I cocked my head. What the fuck was he up to?
“This ain't even the right hospital, brother!” he said, grinning like a fool, before he turned to the receptionist. “We're real sorry for the trouble. We got mixed up. My sister's about to have a baby, and we thought it was here. Just heard she's a little ways upstate – siblings and all.” He shook his head convincingly.
Very slowly, I stared at the receptionist and nodded, playing along. Thank fuck somebody was still using their brain. We didn't need more problems right now.
We had to get out of here, had to hit the road, and stay ahead of the swarming law before they caught up to the Sicilians before we did. The law wasn't cut out for a rescue op like this. If they found the bastards first, I might never see my wife and kid again.
“Well, if there's anything else I can do for you boys, just say the word.” She went back to her screen, oblivious while we walked out.
One quick conversation with the brothers outside later, and we were back on our bikes, heading into a wintery rain on the highway. Cold ass sleet swept down my back, rolled down my leather in rivulets, bounced in front of me like God's wrath before it melted on the interstate.
I could've cursed nature, fate, the universe, everything keeping us from tearing down this road to bring my girl home faster. Instead, an eerie calm filtered through my blood, pulling the hot red sheet of rage off my eyes.
If I couldn't control what the fuck happened next, then I'd at least own the present.
Swore we'd see each other again. I'd taste Hannah's lips, push my fingers through her hair, hold her tighter than my own soul, tell her how fuckin' much I loved her.
I'd say it again. I'd say it a thousand times, pour it on again and again and again, 'til she was sick of hearing it.
These obstacles aimed to make it even sweeter when I got her back.
It was so close now. One big, beautiful, happy family. All the things I never knew I wanted before her. Everything I swore I'd have, or else die trying to claim.
We rode on twelve more miles before seeing that shitty hotel with the suspicious vans out front. I smiled like a maniac into the rain and the wind, grinned 'til Early's
ghost staring back at me looked spooked as fuck.
What're you laughing at, boy? I heard him say, a quiver in his throat I'd never heard before. Don't you know it's about to go to shit? Reaper's gonna take her, right under your fuckin' nose.
“Yeah, old man, it's gonna be fuckin' awful for them,” I whispered. “Haven't been so ready for a kill in my life. Hope you've got room on the other side for these motherfuckers.”
Motherfuckers? Is that what you're calling your wife, your kid, the brothers you're about to get blasted in a shoot out over jack shit? You've already lost, Danny. Let them go.
“They ain't going anywhere but home. You know damned well who I'm talking about. Save a seat for Dom next to Satan after I rip his fuckin' throat out.”
I've got one for you, Danny boy.
You're a bad seed. Only ones who deserve to be reunited down here are you and me. Not that poor woman you've kicked halfway to hell, and another bastard kid who's gotta carry our tainted blood.
Rain dripped down my face. I'd lost my mind about an hour ago, but talking to this sick motherfucker gave me something to do, besides riffling through the hundred ways I'd personally murder Dominick Barone.
“I'll be there, telling you to shut the fuck up for the next trillion years if it gives my wife and kid a chance. Hell, we'll hang out all fuckin' day while the devil spit roasts us, and I'll remind you what a worthless, cheating, boozing piece of shit you were to Ma, and how you ran this club into the ground. We can both look up at everybody still breathin', wearing our patch proud, families growing like grapes on a vine with the richest soil anybody ever seen. You can watch me smiling while I'm tortured, old man, because I know I've done well. And I'm gonna bring her home before I die. Long before I ever listen to another word of your miserable, sadistic, cowardly fuckin' shit.”
I expected more hell shattering my head. Something about Hannah being dead, a ghostly scream so vicious it'd cause me to wreck, or maybe just his evil laugh, drifting through the sleet.
But it was quiet, lonely, magnificently desolate in this freezing rain, going down the final stretch.
For the first time in my life, behind the icy patter and the steady roar of engines, I heard a silence, dense as the thick sheet of grey clouds hanging over us. It was up to me to fill that void, wash it clean with blood, before I took everything I ever wanted, and never let go.
13
Scattered (Hannah)
I woke up in a sweat and smelled...pomegranate.
Jerking up, my stomach heaved. Just when it didn't seem possible, my body learned to hate the scent of that sickening fucking fruit more than ever.
“Hold her the fuck down. She moves too much. Bound to do some real damage if we let her kick and scream.” Dom smiled, sitting in a chair next to me, switchblade in his hand.
I watched him sink it into the open pomegranate, pulling a juicy red seed out on the tip. Several goons put their arms on me, pushing me back onto the bed. Pain ripped through my lower abdomen.
I looked down and saw blood. Emptiness. Something torn from me while I was knocked out.
Oh, God. Where's my baby?
I squirmed frantically. One of the men growled in my ear, pushed me down harder, clapped his dirty hand over my mouth, before I could scream.
“Easy, peach. You're not doing anybody a favor, flapping around like a fish out of water.” Dom's dark eyes focused on me while he leisurely fed more blood red fruit into his mouth. “You're wondering where he is, yeah?”
He? My heart skipped in my chest, confused, unsure if I should be celebrating my son if they'd murdered him.
“Will, go grab the kid, and show her.” The other goon who'd helped force me down walked into the bathroom.
A few seconds later, he strolled out with a baby carrier in his hand, the soft, sleepy little life I'd brought into the world tucked into a blanket. I let my eyes take him in, oblivious to the horror around us for a moment, marveling at the miracle I'd created with the man I missed more than anything.
“Take a good, long look, peach, because it's gonna be one of your last. Soon as you can walk, we're hitting the road. Whole fuckin' highway's crawling with cops. You brought them out of the woodwork, making us get so rough at the hospital.”
I looked at my baby helplessly. Why didn't this seem completely real?
Adrenaline swirled in my system, kicked my nerves every time I moved. But the pain, the happiness at seeing my son, and the hideous gravity of this situation painted everything in a surreal gloss. I lifted a hand, touched my head, and realized I was burning up.
Fever. Weakness. No wonder it didn't take much for the goons to force me down, no matter how much I tried to kick and scream.
“Please. Not Seattle. It's so cold this time of year...”
I stared at my baby, more worried about keeping him safe than catching pneumonia in the cold, gloomy Pacific Northwest. My infant son snuggled into his blanket, trying to burrow into the covers, hiding from the chill in the room. The bastards surrounding us were all wearing thick leather jackets.
It was cool here, but Texas was hardly a death sentence. Further north, that might be a different story, trapped with these reckless animals pretending to look after us.
Dom smiled. So evil, so smug, so vicious I wished I could just reach up, and tear his lips clean off his face.
“What? Why're you looking at me like that? Just fucking tell me,” I sputtered, noticing how weak my voice sounded. He had to lean just to hear me.
“You're getting real flustered over nothing, peach. Lucky you, we're not going to Seattle.” He paused, letting the mystery torture me. “We're heading for Miami.”
“Miami?” I shook my head. “What? There's nothing any of us want there.”
“Correction,” he said, holding up another pomegranate seed on his knife. “There's a big black market for kids.”
I glared through my weakness, rage filling my veins instead of fear. “Fuck you, Dominick. You're not even funny.”
“Peach, peach, we've worked together long enough to know I'm no comedian. You might laugh at the buyer I have in mind. Funny little man with an accent, he talks a lot about this island out in the Caribbean where a bunch of rich freaks pay good money to dance around naked and dress up in Druid robes. Some kind of cult for bored, high class assholes. I think it's just one big frat house for spoiled fucks into voodoo. Anyway, they pay good money for the fleshbags they sacrifice there on the big night, before they get too deep in the drugs and fucking their whores. They'll pay double for kids. Can't say I give a fuck if my man's making it up – and maybe he is – all I know is he's paid me top dollar before when I sold off a few girls. He's an A-plus buyer. We've got ourselves a rare opportunity to collect on your debt in one sweet deal, and we're gonna take it.”
I screamed, my strength returning. It took three of his goons to hold me down while I kicked, banging my head against their shoulders. I bit into one asshole's hand and tasted iron. Snarling, he punched me in the jaw, forcing my teeth off his skin.
They overpowered me eventually, cuffing one hand to the bedpost, high over my head. It wouldn't take long for my arm to go numb, preventing any more accidents.
“Fuck's sake, peach, you're acting like a brat,” Dom said calmly, chewing more blood fruit. “You fucked me over, you understand? Got two of my boys killed. I'm man enough to let you live...in a sense. You'll be sold off for my time and suffering, but that funny little man I mentioned isn't interested. Broads with too much kick aren't really his type. We'll find you a buyer, peach, and you'll get to live out your days sucking, fucking, and maybe using your skin as an ashtray for your new owner. Pretty damned easy, considering a little fuckin' coding was too much goddamned work!”
He roared the last part. When I opened my eyes again, he stood over me, glaring like the maniac he was. He slapped me, and the room spun.
I thought I'd black out. Maybe it would've been sweet mercy.
But my baby's crying kept me awake. “No!”
>
I reached out for the child I hadn't even named, helplessly moving my hands, crying out for Dusty as much as I wanted a miracle.
“Get that goddamned kid out of here. Spike the fuckin' formula, whatever it takes to shut him up.” Growling, Dom hurled his half-eaten pomegranate at the floor. Seeds scattered across cracked wood and hit the walls like tiny shrapnel.
“More trouble than you're worth, bitch,” he said, leering in my face. “Story of this whole fucked up arrangement I was fool enough to trust.”
I stopped moving just long enough to realize he'd put his blade against my neck. Slow breaths. You can't pass out again, or it's all over, I told myself, forcing my eyes to stay open, fixed on the monster leaning over me.
“Don't make me regret keeping your ungrateful ass alive, Hannah. I'm not an evil man. You think I like this? Think I enjoy carving bitches up, or figuring out what pimp to send them to next, while I hand off their kids to get burned like a bag of fuckin' leaves?” He snorted psychotic rage in my face. “You forced me into this. Pushed me too far. Don't keep pushing, peach. You'll find out I'm approaching my limit real fuckin' fast. Keep kicking me in the balls, and I might decide you're not worth the trouble. I'll take the kid, cut my losses, finish what fever's started, and leave you to die on the side of the road.”
His eyes beamed hate, sick and brutally honest. Unmistakable evil.
He'd fed on enough pain for now. When I wouldn't give him anymore, he pulled away, his heavy shoe crunching a few stray seeds on the floor as he dragged his chair across the room.
I would have given anything to see Dusty's beautiful grey eyes one more time. Dom would kill me sooner or later, whatever gross incentives he offered in this game.
Regret ballooned inside me.
I'd made my mistakes, panicking and running when I shouldn't have. Hiding from the only man who ever loved me with his whole heart while our baby grew inside my stressed out body.
My life was about to be a total loss, and it killed me. Especially losing our baby without as much as a name to his little face. Much less a chance to let his father hold him, know him, love him.