A Muffin Top Christmas

by Tabatha Kiss

  My eyes burn with tears. “Who are you?” I ask.

  He takes a calm breath. “There is no greater gift in this world than revenge, Evey Ryan,” he says, “and Vincent Silva will pay for what he took from us. As the people say… Christmas is a time of giving and sacrifice—”

  I take a step back but he juts forward across the bar and snatches my arm with a gloved hand. I open my mouth to speak and he squeezes harder.

  “You have to stop and wonder…” he whispers over me. “In the morning, when the sun comes up… who will be the free man?”

  The three women stand from the table in the corner, cackling together, and Tommy rushes over to grab their empties.

  I stare into the man’s boiling eyes. “You said you came to visit family.”

  “You misunderstood, ma’am,” he says. “I didn’t say I came to visit my family.”

  He raises his other arm and lays his hand on the counter between us, along with the pistol clenched in his fingers.

  I recoil backward.

  “Don’t move,” he says, pulling me closer. “Don’t say a word…”

  “Please,” I beg with trembling hands, “I have a son.”

  “And I had a little brother.” He grits his teeth. “Now, I don’t.”

  “Evey!”

  Tommy stands a few feet away, frozen with fear as he stares at the gun.

  The man flicks his wrist and points the pistol in Tommy’s direction.

  I gasp. “No — Tommy!”

  He pulls the trigger and the women scream.

  Chapter 5

  Vincent

  Anna spins towards the alleyway wall. “Was that a—?”

  “Gunshot,” I say, my guts twisting.

  I lower Zachary into his highchair in the kitchen but he keeps his arms raised and shrieks for me to pick him up again. “I’m right here, buddy…” I say. “I’m still here.”

  He continues to scream. Anna lingers beside him and holds his hand but it does little to stop him from crying.

  More screaming echoes from the street outside. I rush out into the alleyway as three women bolt from the bar entrance.

  Evey.

  “Vin, wait!”

  I ignore my sister’s call and run down the sidewalk, trying to stop the horrific images from flashing in my head.

  I grab the door and pull it open. “Evey!”

  Another shot rings out, firing through the window beside me. I dodge to the outer doorway as three more bullets fly past my head and crash into the empty buildings across the street.

  “Vincent, stay away—”

  Evey’s voice, cut short and muffled. Frightened. Quivering.

  I roll my hands into fists.

  “No, Vincent!” I hear. “Come on in and join the holiday fun!”

  “Is that you, Nolan?” I ask.

  “Good job, bakery man!” he shouts back. “I almost forgot how quickly word travels on the outside…”

  I lean in, trying to get a better look at him, but another bullet cracks the door frame above my head. It came from the right side, so he must be behind the bar in the storeroom.

  “Let Evey go!” I say.

  “No,” he chuckles. “I’m actually starting to understand what Aiden saw in her. She’s got spark!”

  Evey screams and my blood boils.

  “Don’t touch her!”

  “You’re not really in a position to be making demands, Vincent,” he says. “In fact, I’d be more concerned with making the man with a gun to my woman’s head a little bit happier and more comfortable.”

  The bakery door opens and Anna steps out with her phone to her ear, talking into it with authority. I hold up a hand to keep her back as sirens wail in the distance, drawing steadily closer to our street.

  And behind it all, I hear my son crying.

  “What do you want?” I ask Nolan.

  “Step outside and close the door,” he says, calm and smooth. “If anyone tries to walk in here, I’ll kill her… and I’ll put another bullet in her brother, too.”

  “Just take me for her,” I argue. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

  His dark chuckle travels across the room. “No, Vincent… I want my little brother back.”

  I exhale, listening to the sound of Evey whimpering and my heart breaks.

  “Close the door,” Nolan repeats. “It’s cold out there.”

  I lean into the wall as I stand to keep from collapsing. I do as he says, moving slowly and watching for the muzzle of his gun, but he stays out of sight as I pull the doors closed.

  Anna lingers in front of Muffin Top, her eyes soft with concern and they get a little darker as I walk closer.

  “Yes, sir. Send anyone you can,” she says into the phone. “This is officially a hostage situation.”

  ***

  The police set up a barricade, surrounding the bar from the street to the alleyway. Red and blue flashing lights cover every corner of the street, illuminating the faces of anyone daring enough to stand out in the cold to find out what’s going on.

  I watch from our apartment above the bakery with my son in my arms. Children know better than anyone when something is wrong and Zachary hasn’t stopped crying since that first gunshot rang out.

  “It’s gonna be okay, Zach,” I tell him. “Mommy’s coming home soon.”

  He cries a little louder. It should come as no surprise that our son is a better bullshit detector than we are.

  I shift him to my other arm and step away from the window.

  Feet tap the stairway, climbing up from the bakery and my sister comes into view with a solemn face.

  “Hey,” Anna says. Her eyes fall to Zachary. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine,” I say. I step lightly towards the crib in the corner. “Just doesn’t care for sirens.”

  “Me neither, to tell the truth…” she says. “And how are you?”

  I don’t answer. What could I possibly say? The love of my life sits downstairs with a gun to her head when she should be here with me. Our son is crying but it’s not his hungry cry or his change me cry… it’s his Mommy cry.

  I set him down in the crib and rub the hair on his head.

  “I’ll bring her back soon, buddy,” I say.

  I move away from him, each step tearing me in two, but Anna blocks the door.

  “Vincent…”

  “Move, Anna.”

  She raises a hand. “You need to stay here.”

  “No, I need to go down there and get my wife back.”

  “The chief wants you to keep your distance. Despite your expertise and reputation—”

  “They want me to sit up here and do nothing?” I spit.

  She takes a breath. “They want to limit possible—”

  “Don’t talk to me like that, Anna,” I say. “I’m not one of those civilians down there on the street.”

  “I know… but we’ve both seen situations like this before,” she says slowly, “and you have to prepare yourself for the possibility that—”

  “Don’t.”

  “Vin—”

  “Anna, no.” I step back. “Not her.” She falls silent but she doesn’t move. “If anyone should be down there right now, it’s me. I’m a soldier.”

  “You were a soldier,” she argues. “Now, you’re a father.”

  My chest tightens.

  She pushes off the door frame. “Forget about them right now, okay? I want you to stay here and take care of your son,” she says, her voice growing stronger. “You have to think about Zach, Vin. If you go in there now and something goes wrong, what happens to him?”

  I turn back to the crib. He’s calmed down, somewhat. That panicked face. Those swollen eyes, searching around him for her face…

  Anger stabs at me. “And what about you?” I ask, gesturing at her. “You shouldn’t be down there, either.”

  “I’ve already been excused because I’m family,” she says. “But they promised to keep us in the loop.”

 
“What are they planning to do?”

  “They have a negotiator in place. They’re making the call any minute now.”

  I look down with a flexed jaw. “That’s it?”

  “That’s protocol.”

  I scoff. This feels wrong. I should be down there, prepping to go in and take Nolan out myself, but instead, I’m standing on the sidelines with everyone else while some jerk with a phone fucks it up.

  But Anna’s right. Zachary shouldn’t have to lose both of his parents on Christmas Eve.

  My Evey… I can’t begin to think about that right now.

  Anna steps closer again. “There are times to be a hero, little brother,” she says, laying her hands on my shoulders. “This isn’t one of them.”

  I step backward and her hands fall to her sides as I turn to look at Zachary. He stares up at me through the bars of his crib, looking just as terrified as I feel.

  I kneel down in front of him and slide one hand between the bars. He instantly grips my finger, his tiny hand just barely wrapping around it but he manages a tight squeeze.

  “Da-da,” he mutters.

  I smile at him, trapping every bad emotion I have into the back of my mind. I’ve never felt weaker before in my life but he doesn’t need to know that.

  I have to be strong for him. It’s what Evey wants me to do.

  Vincent, stay away.

  I heard you, Evey. You want me to put him first and I will.

  “Come on, buddy,” I say, lifting him out of the crib. “It’s story time.”

  We sit down on the rocking chair and I balance him on my knee. I turn him away from the window, blocking him from the constant flash of red and blue lights so he sees nothing but me and my smile.

  “‘Twas the night before Christmas,

  when all through the house,

  not a creature was stirring…”

  I look at Anna across the room she quickly wipes a tear off her cheek.

  “Not even a mouse.”

  Chapter 6

  Evey

  I pull Tommy’s belt even tighter around his thigh and he screams, biting down into the cloth stuffed between his teeth.

  The bullet hit him just above his right knee. He’s lost plenty of blood by now but not enough to make him pass out, thankfully.

  “You’ll be okay,” I tell him. I reach up and grab the nearest bottle of vodka I can find off the storeroom shelf above our heads.

  Tommy spits the cloth out and inhales massive breaths to calm himself as he pushes back to sit against the wall, his eyes lingering over my head at Nolan as he paces around us.

  Nolan Shank. Just when we think we’re done with that damned family, one of them pops up to make our lives hell. He moves in crooked lines from one end of the storeroom to the other, constantly pausing near the office door in the corner and staring at the phone.

  “Have yourself a Merry little Christmas…” he sings to himself.

  I twist the cap off the vodka and hold it over Tommy’s wound. “You might want to bite down again…”

  He rolls the towel into a ball. “Where did you learn to do this crap?”

  I inhale, watching Nolan as he passes by behind us. “Vincent made me learn a lot of first aid before Zach was born. He was kind of…”

  “Intense about it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That sounds like Vin…”

  I tilt the bottle and wait for Tommy to stuff the cloth back into his mouth before pouring a healthy portion onto his leg.

  He cries out in pain, gritting his teeth and flexing hard.

  Nolan stops and smiles pleasantly at us. “Now, that’s a sound I missed…” he says. “Muffled screams…”

  I ignore him. “Just try not to move it,” I tell Tommy. “I’d make a splint, but…”

  “You can make a splint?” he asks, letting the cloth fall from his mouth again.

  “I think…” I wince. “I kind of… seduced him before that lesson and we never got around to picking it back up again. Oh — but he did teach me how to make candy corn from scratch. I remember that.”

  He blinks at me. “You two have a weird relationship.”

  I shrug. “Well, it works.”

  I balance on my knees, reaching for a stack of clean cloths on the shelf across from us and Nolan twitches at me. He swings the gun in my direction and I freeze in place, pointing my fingers at the cloths and praying he doesn’t get too trigger-happy.

  Finally, he looks away and starts singing again. “From now on… our troubles will be miles aw-aaay.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief before grabbing one and wiping the blood off my hands.

  “She’s never going to like me now.”

  I pause and look at Tommy. “Who?”

  “Who else?” He stares at his leg. “Monica.”

  “Aren’t you two already past the do you like me stage?”

  “We’re just having sex, Evey,” he says, cringing as he shifts to a more comfortable position. “Sweaty, meaningless sex. Anyone can have sweaty, meaningless sex. That isn’t exactly a relationship… nothing like what you have.”

  “That’s not true,” I argue. “I’ve known Monica for a long time. She wouldn’t drag you along like that.”

  “She’s perfect and I’m…” he exhales, “I’m the guy who got beat up by the big, tough, Irish mob dude… again. I’m not good enough for her and after this, she’s going to see it just as clearly as everyone else does.”

  I sit back. “Well, I thought I wasn’t good enough for somebody, too… and we’re getting married next week.”

  He scoffs. “You and Vin were made for each other, always have been.”

  “Could have fooled me, Tommy.” I lean in. “Don’t write her off just yet. It takes a lot of time and effort before you get to the candy corn and splints part of the relationship… but it’s worth it.”

  The phone rings in the office.

  Nolan instantly perks up and moves with a light hop in his step. “Don’t get up,” he says, winking at us. “I’ll get it.”

  He enters the office and grabs the phone but presses it against his chest as he looks down at Tommy. “Oh, and if you’re talking about that hot redhead that was in here earlier… you’re right. You ain’t good enough.”

  I glare at Nolan and he smirks before raising the phone to his ear.

  “Hello? … Yes, this is he.”

  Tommy taps my hand and I follow his strategic gaze above our heads to the other bottles lined up on the shelf. He makes a whacking motion with his arm and nudges me to grab one.

  “No!”

  I flinch as Nolan shouts into the phone.

  Again, he presses the receiver into his coat and smiles at me. “They want me to give up a hostage as a show of good faith. Do I look good or faithful to you?”

  “No, I can’t say that you do,” I answer.

  “See?” he says into the phone. “Even Ms. Ryan thinks that’s absurd.”

  Tommy nudges me again, urging me to make a move with a bottle but I stay in place. I don’t want to make the wrong move and risk never hearing my son’s laugh again.

  Or his father’s, for that matter.

  I look at the clock on the wall. It’s one-thirty. I should be at home with Zachary, softly singing Christmas carols to lull him to sleep. I should be slinking away from his crib to silently close our door and settling into bed with Vincent.

  My hero.

  I told him to stay away and I meant it. I hope he heard me; really heard me. I know Vincent better than I know myself. He’s not huddled in a corner in shock right now. He’s angry. I’ve seen him angry before… and I’ve seen what happens to a Shank who dares get between him and me.

  But I don’t want him to come in here. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to him… to both of us.

  I’d do anything to hold my baby again.

  I swallow the tears before they fall. “We should stay calm, Tommy,” I whisper out of earshot from Nolan. “Police a
re everywhere. They’ll figure something about.”

  He leans back. “Also, Vincent…”

  “What about him?”

  “Well, we just have to wait it out, right?” He smirks and points to the street. “He’s out there, right now… I don’t know, making a pipe bomb out of a candy cane. Right?”

  My heart pumps warmth through my fingers and toes. “Maybe.”

  His mouth twists into a frown. “I hope Monica isn’t out there…”

  I slide back to sit beside him and throw my arm over his shoulder, pulling him closer as Nolan raises his voice from the office.

  “My demands are quite simple, Detective McCallister,” he growls. “I’ll happily release Evey and her brother back to you and return to prison tonight…” he pauses and looks at me, “as long as Vincent Silva comes with me.”

  My heart stops.

  “He’s a killer,” Nolan continues, still staring at me. “He murdered my brother… and your police department did nothing. The Shanks demand justice. Arrest him, lock him up with me and my family… and then walk away.”

  I move to stand. “No—”

  Tommy pulls me back and Nolan laughs.

  “There you have it, Detective,” he says, turning away. “If I don’t see Vincent Silva in custody within the hour, I’ll kill them both.”

  Nolan drops the phone onto its cradle and inhales a long, happy breath as tears spill down my cheeks.

  “Have yourself a Merry little Christmas…”

  Chapter 7

  Vincent

  “That is ridiculous.”

  Anna’s gone into full badass detective mode with her hands on her hips and that wide, purposeful stride as she paces around the bakery floor.

  Detective McCallister leans against the table by the window with a fresh mug of coffee in his cold, red hands, watching her with caution. He occasionally glances at me, probably hoping I’ll say something to reel her in but I stay quiet.

  I keep one ear on the baby monitor in my hand. Zachary refuses to fall asleep. I wouldn’t either, I suppose…

  “That’s all he wants?” Anna asks him. “For us to stick Vincent in prison so he can be literally shanked by the Shank family?”