by A. J. Downey
Tony caught me watching him, looking back over his shoulder and saying, “Hey,” while out of breath, and I smiled.
“Hey, yourself.”
He stood up and turned around completely, wiping off his chest with a hand towel and I was definitely not bored for the moment. I was, however, thoroughly regretting that it was the march of the red menace, but I could not claim to be bored. He grinned with absolutely no shame at my abjectly checking him out, like I hadn’t caught him doing it to me like a thousand times before.
I smiled to myself and laughed, feeling much better than I had the day before. Especially after those damn emails.
“So I was thinkin’.”
“Uh oh.”
“Funny. Seriously though, you need to get out of this house, and it might not be the most charming date ever, especially for a classy broad like you…” I scoffed and he winked at me, “but I was thinkin’ about catching the fights at the Ten-Thirteen tonight and there ain’t no safer place for you than in the middle of that many cops. What do you say? Watch the fight, play some darts, maybe have a drink or two?”
I twisted my lips, holding out, but it actually sounded amazing. He could tell, though, that he had me on the line. He grinned and said, “I’ll be your designated driver.”
“Sounds lovely.”
“Alright! Now you’re talking.”
I laughed and it just slipped out when I shot back, “You know, I must really love you if I’m willing to do action movies one night and bars and fights the next.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile so big. He pulled me into him and I shrieked, laughing and tried to push away because let’s face it, he was extremely sweaty and it was gross. I ceased all effort when his lips found mine.
He kissed me with such joy, such wild and enthusiastic abandon, I couldn’t deny him and I really didn’t want to.
“Take a shower with me, then I’ll make us breakfast,” he growled against my lips and I nodded.
We took a long, hot, and luxurious shower together. We dressed in jeans and he put on a tee, while I went with one of my nicer sweaters. Next week was going to be the week from hell. We had to move the rest of the crap out of my apartment. I knew there was still things there worth saving, and that a bunch of the guys he worked with would be there, but I still dreaded going back. So for now, I put it from my mind and helped him in the kitchen, slicing strawberries he’d bought to put on the pancakes he made along with some whipped cream.
“I’m gonna make a call,” he said after breakfast and kissed me before going to the sink.
“Okay, would you like me to stay down here, while you take it upstairs?” I asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind. Not trying to hide anything from you, I just don’t want to ruin your good mood. It’s about those threats that your firm’s got. I wanted to fill Jaime in.”
“No, it’s fine! Thank you for telling me because you’re right… I would have wondered.”
“I kind of figured.”
He went up, and I curled up on the couch with my kindle to read the latest Amber Eckart mystery. I was surprised to find it easier than I had expected to become engrossed in it. He came back down and asked, “You got any laundry you want to do? I’m about to do some of my own.”
“Um, yeah.”
We ended up being quite the domestic duo the rest of the day, leading up until it was time to leave that evening. My shoulder and back were beginning to hurt, seeing as I’d pushed them pretty far during clean up, and so I put it back in its sling so I wouldn’t be tempted to use it.
Physical therapy hurt like hell, but I’d been doing well, they said, so I guess there was that. The progress felt agonizingly slow to me, but I figured that slow progress was better than no progress.
I was pleased that it wasn’t as difficult to get into Tony’s truck as it had been before, and I hadn’t even taken a pain pill that day. I was hoping to avoid it so I could actually have a drink and relax a little tonight.
My nerves jangled as we crossed the bridge and I realized we would have to stay on our best behavior again, but still, it would be worth it. The closer to the city we drew, the more my nerves hummed and rattled and I realized belatedly that I was having a mild panic attack. My heart racing, my breath harder to draw. I swallowed hard and Tony took up my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
I got a little angry then, and the anger helped to ground and center me. I refused to be scared. To have whoever it was run me out my city. The place where I was born, the place that I swore to be a part of the system to protect it… I’d gone to law school intent on becoming the best lawyer I could be with no designs on which side I would choose when I graduated. However, I had been involved on a case, Aiding the Innocence Project with research and paralegal work as part of my work study requirement and my eyes had been opened to just how easily the system could be manipulated.
That, combined with the fact that the money in the private sector was better and my student loans were easily enough to drown in, convinced me that it was in my best interest to become a defense attorney. The payout from successfully defending Miranda Maguire had been enough to pay off almost half my student loan debt completely and have a decent savings left over. Living in my modest little apartment and working as hard as I had, well that had taken care of at least a quarter more of it, and I was now in the position of I didn’t know what I was going to do.
I was feeling the dilemma and didn’t want to give up my job at Reardon, Colfax & Price, and I didn’t have to. I mean, I wasn’t fired or anything. I was just on sabbatical until a time I felt fit enough to return to work but… but did I want to? I mean, honestly, all I’d done was defend a legitimately innocent woman and look what I’d gotten for my trouble. There wasn’t any amount of money in the world worth the suffering, the loss…
I was glad that Miranda Maguire was far, far, away from here and safe. I wouldn’t and couldn’t fault her for leaving as soon as it was possible for her. I wanted to say I would too if I were her, but Tony… I couldn’t deny my burgeoning feelings for the man, and I knew that those feelings were enough to make me stay, as crazy as that might sound.
The thought love makes us do crazy things… echoed in the back of my mind, and I don’t think I could blame myself for that, either. Falling in love with him. Being in love with him. I just really hoped that he felt similar and I was honestly too afraid to ask.
The city traffic was typical for a Saturday night, and I stared out the window, watching people and cars go by. I felt a little better about being in Tony’s truck. It sat higher than most of the cars and SUV’s that we passed and gave the illusion that no one was looking at me, and to be honest, I don’t think they were.
Tony pulled down the alley beside The Cormorant and parked his truck in a place that was clearly marked ‘No Parking’ and shut it off. I raised my eyebrows amused and asked, “Perks of the job?”
“A small one, yeah,” he said, opening up his door. “I’m coming around to get you, hang tight for me.”
I smiled to myself and sighed a happy sigh. It was nice having a man who was so gentlemanly. One who genuinely cared; I liked that. I also wanted to figure out how I could repay all of his kindness. I wanted to do for him what he did for me. I didn’t want this to be one-sided, but rather a partnership, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to do that. I would figure it out, though.
He opened up my door, and I handed him his leather vest that went over his coat. He always took it off before he got into a car and I wondered why. I just hadn’t been brave enough to ask. He swung it on and stepped back, shielding me down the alleyway with his body as I hopped down. He stepped back enough so I could close the truck door and he chirped the alarm once it was shut. I followed him around to the door leading inside the bar and was acutely aware of how much I wanted to hold his hand but also, of how much I didn’t dare.
Inside the bar was packed and noisy, but as soon as we walked through the door, someone yelled out, “You
ngblood!”
We looked towards the back to see a bunch of guys waving us towards them and I started threading my way through the tables, self-conscious, but still holding my head high at the startled looks patrons were giving me as I passed by.
If this was what it felt like to be a celebrity, why then no thank you… I thought to myself. Angel hopped down off his stool and gave me a light hug. The guys had taken up two tall six top tables that were side by side with stools for seating. Three dart boards were on the wall, an area kept clear for people to throw in front of them and on the other side of the tables. Beyond the darts were two pool tables topped in a rich burgundy felt as opposed to the classic green. Racks of cues and chalk against the wall, three small tables on the other side of them that seated two each.
Past all of this was a switch backed wheelchair accessible ramp, leading up and back to the private room reserved for large parties. There were TV’s along the ceilings above the dart boards and pool tables, and a big screen taking up the majority of the wall inside the glass fishbowl of a room. All of them turned to the same thing as the three above the bar… the sports channel dedicated to the UFC fights, the octagon mat already smeared here and there with blood, one of the lower end fights in progress leading up to the main event.
One of the guys patted a stool and said, “Hop up here, baby,” and I looked back at Tony for an introduction.
“Blaze, Chrissy. Chrissy, Blaze.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said and shook his hand, relieved that it wasn’t nearly as annoying as it had been, realizing that I was healing, which was good. He grinned, and it made him very handsome, as if his looks weren’t striking enough. He had glossy black hair and fair skin, his eyes a silvery gray color I’d never encountered before.
He shook my hand and winked one of those remarkable eyes at me, asking around the sucker stick in his mouth, “Want some candy, little girl?”
I laughed and was slightly creeped out but didn’t want to be impolite, but it was Golden to the rescue getting on Blaze’s case saying, “Man, that’s some fucked up shit! Why you gonna talk to her like that?”
“Oh shut the fuck up,” he said back to Golden, producing one of the sweets out of his inside jacket pocket and holding it out to me. “I didn’t mean anything by it.” I took the sucker so he wouldn’t be holding it out awkwardly forever and he grinned at me around the white stick hanging out of the side of his mouth and asked, “You know I didn’t mean anything by it, right?”
“Um…” I couldn’t come up with anything to say and Tony started laughing at his friend.
“Man, she just dimed your ass out, hell yeah you came across fuckin’ creepy now sit down and order up some fuckin’ food. Sober up some.” He had come around the table and gripped Blaze by the shoulders, shaking him back and forth a little.
“Why on earth do you even have these?” I asked the drunk man, put at ease that the guys around him were willing to give him a hard time and put him in his place, and also being slightly forgiving about his drunken status. Guys thought they were so smooth when they were drunk but sometimes all they managed was painfully awkward, as was the case right now.
“Tryin’ to quit smoking,” he mumbled and did as Tony suggested, sat down and picked up a menu, hiding behind it and blushing kind of hard. I felt bad that he felt bad, but the best I could do was ignore it, much like I was ignoring the cellphones coming out and pointing in my direction, some subtly, some more blatantly.
God, it was like there was blood in the water and the sharks were circling at a table full of people off to our left. Heads were going together and they were blatantly talking about all of us, but then something unexpected happened.
A waiter appeared and dropped a check at their table. One of the guys perked up and said, “But we aren’t done eating…”
I heard the waiter say to them, “My boss, the owner, says you are making other patrons uncomfortable. Please pay your check and leave.”
“Man, fuck you and your boss!” another man, the one sitting in the middle, said loudly, drawing attention from two other nearby tables.
Golden and another member of Tony’s club, Poe, by the name sewn onto his vest, exchanged a look and started over, digging their wallets out of their pockets as they went to the table.
“Problem over here?” Poe asked quietly, and the guy started getting mouthy. Both Poe and Golden exchanged a look and flipped open their wallets, likely showing the man their badges. Golden leaned on the table and exchanged a few words with the man who produced a credit card and wordlessly handed it over to the waiter.
“You want a box?” Poe asked and more words, too low to hear over the general chatter and televisions were exchanged.
Golden went to the bar and came back with a few of the Styrofoam clamshells and the girls at the table boxed up everyone’s meals. The waiter returned and the man angrily signed off on the slip and didn’t leave a tip, for which I felt bad for the waiter, I mean, it wasn’t his fault.
We all sat and stood around our table waiting quietly for the five of them, two girls and three guys, to get up and put on their coats. A hush had sort of fallen over the rest of the bar as they went to file out and the guy raised his phone blatantly in my direction. I turned my face hiding behind my hair as the flash went off and I heard Golden grate out, “Come on; let’s go, asswipe.”
The five of them were escorted out of the restaurant, and it was as if the volume went back up, the atmosphere lightening some with their departure. After that there weren’t any more blatant photos but there wasn’t anything that could be done about the staring.
The bar was just starting to completely settle down when the red and blue lights pulled up to the curb out front. The conversation lulled again and people turned, but with the tables between us and the Cormorant’s front windows, we couldn’t really see what was going on.
“Golden says the guy just kept arguing and being a dick, so he and Poe called in the cavalry,” Angel said, looking at his phone.
“Well, looks like someone’s taking a ride and going up on ‘disturbing the peace,’” Backdraft said, bringing a bottle of Killian’s to his lips.
I opened my mouth to say something but the world erupted in chaos. Pops went off and the front window of the Cormorant shattered. I was knocked off my stool in a whirlwind of activity and shouting. People were screaming, all I could see was a kaleidoscope of colors as the ground rushed up to meet me, someone on top of me shoving me to the floor.
I screamed but not in fear, in pain, as whoever had swept me off my stool landed on me with their full weight. My shoulder was on fire, like a red hot poker had been jammed through my back and was lancing all the way through me and out of my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to push up but a voice in my ear cried “No, down! Stay down!”
I lifted my head and saw boots, running away, the front door of the bar crashed open, shouting, yelling, sirens kicking up in the near distance, no more than a block or two away. I shuddered under whoever held me down and cried, half in pain and half because this was all my fault.
“Easy, okay, I’m gonna let you up. Move slow, I need to check you out.”
The weight lifted off of me and I pushed myself up, I wasn’t thinking. Shaking and shocked, I tried to push myself up with both arms and my back, my left shoulder blade, screamed. I cried out and an arm crossed under me, pressing against my chest and eased me into a sitting position. Stools were yanked aside and my back was pressed against one of the solid steel supports of the table we’d been at.
Angel’s face materialized out of the haze of pain and he started checking me over with expert hands, asking questions in rapid fire succession that my terrified and confused mind couldn’t comprehend readily.
“Tony, where’s Tony?” I demanded and Angel grabbed my face between his hands and made me look at him.
“He’s okay, Chrissy. Sounds like everyone is okay. He went out front, took off after the shooter. It’s what they do. It’s what just a
bout all of them are trained to do.”
“Right, except us,” Blaze said but he was on one knee a ways away, talking over his shoulder, his back to us. I startled and realized that another man Tony had told me about before, Backdraft, was in the same position on the other side and Parnell, I mean Yale, was right in front of us. All of them had themselves held at the ready, but for what, I didn’t know.
I tried to get up. I didn’t want anyone else hurt on my account, but Angel pressed on my shoulders insistently and my left one ground out in aching agony. I dropped back down onto my butt in the midst of spilled beer and Angel admonished, “Stay down!”
I stared helplessly at the alternating red and blue lights flashing against the ceiling and felt tears leak hot down my face and sent up a silent plea, Please don’t let anyone else get hurt…
Chapter 21
Tony
“How is she?” I demanded harshly and then bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t need to be a fucking ass to Angel, of all people.
“I think she’s okay, a little shocky, definitely triggered, but okay. I’m worried about that shoulder, though. It’d be nice to get an x-ray just to be on the safe side, but I think I may have hurt it sweeping her down to the ground like that. I didn’t mean to land on her so hard but…”
“It’s cool, you protected her, that’s all I can ask.”
I looked up the alley beside the Ten-Thirteen at the back of the ambulance. Chrissy was sitting on the back deck wrapped in one of those rough blankets, her arm in a blood pressure cuff as the medic on scene took her pressure for like the millionth time.
Her wide, dark eyes were fixed on me and I ached to go to her and comfort her, but I wasn’t finished giving my statement.
We had nothing solid, but the drive by had come just minutes after the douchebag had posted Chrissy’s picture to social media. Like everything else that’d happened to her, we couldn’t be sure if this was connected or not to the regular threats, but I had a gut feeling it was.