Water rushed in from the shattered window and rear windshield, the force pushing all three of them back, deeper into the car. Daylight vanished as the car sank, all sound replaced by the echoing churn of a watery grave.
The canal water was dark and briny, mossy and filthy. Kerri’s eyes stung, heart pounding in her chest. But once the pressure leveled off, she could wriggle out from under Elias. She placed her foot at the rear windshield, pulled it back, and kicked hard. The already shattered glass gave a bit, but it took a second and then a third try to dislodge enough glass to give them an exit.
Kerri slipped out first. She managed to slip out of the windshield, the trunk of the car wobbly above and threatening to tilt down on her. Kerri turned to pull the dazed and motionless Elias out, grabbing him by the collar of his robe and disentagling him up out of the opening.
Kerri pulled him through the windshield, the trunk tilting above them. She held on tight to his lifeless body, swimming hard as her air ran out. She finally managed to loosen him free of the trunk and up toward the surface with no time to lose, invisible needles stabbing into her lungs.
Kerri swam Elias up and turned, expecting to see Harden following right behind her.
Instead, the overturned Fiat lay still, nobody else escaping it.
Harden, no!
But Kerri knew she couldn’t leave Elias to drown or none of their lives would be worth anything. Kerri was frozen between the man she loved most and a man she despised, hovering between the living and the dead.
No, Kerri said, I can do this! I can do this!
Kerri swam Elias toward the surface, weighed down by her robe. She peeled her own robe off and let it fall away as she paddled to the surface, dragging his waterlogged weight. She broke the surface and pushed him against the concrete bank, bending him face-forward over the bank, checking to make sure the body was secure.
It wasn’t, but it would have to do.
Kerri took a deep breath and turned, plunging herself back into the canal water. It was dark and cold, but Kerri knew just what she was swimming toward. Her heart was beating strong and steady, blood sure in her veins. Kerri felt in control of her own body, her systems working by her command.
This is truly what Harden was training me for, without even knowing. This is the real test. This is where self-control and discipline will really make the difference between life and death—our lives, our deaths, and not ours alone.
Kerri swam back under the back trunk to the rear-opened rear windshield. The car wobbled again as Kerri swam under and into the car. Harden was motionless in the seat. Kerri grabbed him and pulled and Harden came free.
Not tangled, thank God! Must have hit his head; that’s bad!
Kerri pulled Harden through the crippled windshield, his wider body making it more difficult. His robe caught on the cracked rim of the rear windshield. Kerri pulled harder but the robe was stuck.
And every yank made that car wobble even more, that rear trunk threatening to fall down and crush them like some great metal jaw, unwilling to be denied a final meal.
Kerri’s lungs were bursting, heart aching and nearing the exploding point. No, Kerri told herself, take it easy, don’t panic, keep the heart rate down until we can get out from under this car!
Kerri pulled at Harden’s dead weight, his arms slack at his sides. Kerri kicked and pulled, the trunk of the Fiat finally shifting again with the current, tipping down on Kerri and Harden. But Kerri put up her feet and caught the trunk with the bottoms of her feet. It pinned her back to the slimy bottom of the canal. But it gave her the purchase to push back, the car tipping up and away from them just long enough for Kerri to slide herself and Harden through.
Good, Kerri told herself, almost hearing Harden’s voice in the back of her head. Go, Kerri, go; you can do it!
Kerri paddled toward the surface, Harden’s robed torso heavy and cumbersome. She turned to peel the robe away, her own arms becoming entangled in its folds. Her ears were ringing, lungs stinging, legs losing their strength.
No, Kerri’s voice roared out, I won’t give up! I’m in charge of my body; I’m in control! I won’t die until I say so, and I don’t, not today, not now!
Kerri drew on her last bit of strength to pull Harden up, the robe finally falling away and making him light enough not to pull them both to their deaths. Closer…closer…the shimmering surface taunted Kerri, her muscles straining to pull Harden those last few feet before her strength gave out entirely.
Closer…closer…
Kerri finally broke the surface, gasping for air. She leaned back immediately to raise Harden’s face above the water, struggling just to keep them both from sinking.
“Hey, d’ere d’ey are!”
Kerri looked over to see two guys in tracksuits, damp from having just pulled Elias out of the water. One guy waved Kerri over to them. “We’re wit’ Paulie, Don Paulie’s crew! Swim over he’e!”
Kerri nodded, swimming hard as they reached out. They finally grabbed Kerri’s hand, pulling her to the bank and then pulling Harden up to the bank.
They dragged Harden up, and Kerri crawled up after, falling on Harden with a quick round of CPR, pinching his nose and blowing air into his mouth, then listening for a heart beat.
“He’s alive,” she muttered, “he’s alive!”
“Geez, lady, you’re bare-assed naked!”
The other smacked him on the shoulder. “So give her your jacket, dumbass!”
“Oh, right,” the guy said, peeling off his track jacket and draping it over Kerri’s shoulders. But her attention was fixed on Harden lying face-up as she pinched his nose and went down for another round of life-giving gasps into his mouth.
The one said to Kerri, “You stay where you’s at,” before turning to his jacket-free subservient. “Let’s put this dick in your car; I’ll take these two.” They each grabbed one of Elias’s arms under the pits and dragged him toward one of the cars, sirens getting louder in the distance.
They opened the car and tossed him into it. The subservient one said to the leader, “D’at guy down’ere dies, Don Paulie’s gonna kill us, man!” They locked the door and returned to Kerri and Harden by the bank.
She looked up at them, desperate. “He’s still breathing; there’s still a pulse!”
“Lady, we gotta go, the cops is comin’!”
“No, we’ve got to bring him around!”
The sirens got even louder, before the one in charge pleaded with Kerri. “We’ll do it in my car, lady, on the way to the hospital! Please!”
“Fine, fine,” Kerri said, “hurry, let’s go!” Kerri and her rescuers carried Harden over to one of their two cars and piled him into the backseat, closing the door behind her. Kerry had an ear on Harden’s chest and listened for a heartbeat. She listened a second time, blood draining from her face. “No, oh no…oh no!”
The car pulled into the street. Harden lay there in the backseat, that thin pulse gone, eyes staring up.
“No,” Kerri shouted at Harden, “I didn’t say, I didn’t say! I didn’t say you could, Harden, so you can’t! You hear me? I said you can’t! You caaaaaannnnn’t!”
The mafia hood looked over from the driver’s seat, shaking his head and tracing an imaginary cross over his chest.
Kerri’s blood turned to ice, heart curling up and turning to stone in her chest. She could barely breathe, she could hardly think, all thoughts and none swirling in her panicking brain. But Harden’s lifeless expression looked up at her, past her, onward and upward.
Kerri wanted to cry, to sob, to scream, to rage and holler, her body trembling with nausea and prickling with nerves, brain splitting open, mind about to explode.
No, this can’t be happening; this just can’t be happening!!
Kerri saw the driver, shaking his head. She looked at Harden, limp next to her. But between them she saw something sitting on the driver’s seat, idle.
A stun gun.
Kerri knew these instruments well, thanks to its in
creasing popularity in certain circles and her recent experiences with it. So it was no surprise to see it there, and Kerri knew at once what to do with it.
Kerri reached over with a desperate grunt, grabbing the stun gun and pulling it back. The driver said, “Hey, what’re you doin’, lady? You’re gonna fry ‘im!”
Kerri looked back at Harden, gritted her teeth, and touched the stun gun to his chest, giving the button just a slight push before pulling it back. Harden’s body jutted, spasming and flexing from instinct alone. Kerri looked on, a frustrated grunt pushing out of her throat before she tried again, another little crackle at his chest setting his nearly naked, muscular body twisting and convulsing.
“C’mon, Harden,” Kerri muttered, “c’mon, c’mon…”
Harden bucked, flinched, and finally coughed up a lungful of briny water. He wrenched and wheezed, water running down his chin.
“Oh, thank God,” Kerri said. “Thank God!”
Harden went on coughing, Kerri gently slapping his cheek. “Harden? Harden!”
Harden nodded, still dizzy and still coughing; Kerri buried her face in his chest and sobbed her gratitude as it poured out of her throat and her eyes, growing stronger and louder as Harden’s heartbeat recovered behind his muscular chest.
The driver muttered, “Santa Maria, thank Christ!”
Kerri said to Harden, “You’re all right, Harden, you’re gonna be all right.” Harden nodded, coughing, too weak to say anything and not needing to say anything. They had all the time in the world to say everything they’d need to say or want to say or ever would say. And they’d be saying those things to each other, for the rest of their lives.
Kerri and Harden recuperated on the flight back to New York, bringing Don Paulie’s last two men and Elias, still in their custody, still handcuffed. By the time they met at Don Paulie’s gelato shop, Nanna’s, Harden and Kerri were both feeling fully recovered.
Elias wasn’t looking so well, but they didn’t see much of him, only to be escorted from the trunk of limo to the trunk of a Pontiac. Don Paulie’s guys climbed into the car and it drove off, leaving Harden and Kerri to see Don Paulie himself, coming out of the gelato shop to give Harden a big, friendly hug. Glancing around, Paulie ushered them into the shop, the sign ‘closed for business’ hanging in the door.
A small, dark-skinned man stood in the gelato parlor, his hands folded in front of his neatly tailored suit, a little black mustache clinging to his lip.
He extended his hand to Harden, and Don Paulie said, “Hard…” He cleared his throat to say, “Harden Steele, this is Amit Padran—”
“You may know him as Amit Padran,” Harden said. “I know him as Rudi Sonjaya.”
“That’s right, Mr. Harden,” Padran said with a heavy East Indian accent. “Nice to meet you at long last, sir.” He turned to Kerri with a polite smile and nod. “Missus Steele.”
Kerri couldn’t hide her confusion, but she did nod and say, “Hello,” very demurely, not wanting to be rude.
Don Paulie also seemed a little confused, but Harden explained, “I had a meeting in New York this week with Mr.…Mr. Padran here, allegedly to invest in a holistic supplements business.”
“That is what we alleged, yes.”
Don Paulie’s eyes shifted from Harden to Padran, and Kerri’s did the same. Don Paulie said, “Hard, Mr. Padran here is from White Gold Escrow.”
Kerri repeated, “White Gold Escrow? The—?” But she stopped herself and was glad she did.
Don Paulie said, “Mr. Padran wanted to thank you for your help with this undertaking in Amsterdam.”
Padran nodded. “Indeed, quite well done, sir. And I wanted to assure you that White Gold Escrow considers not only Mr. Santori’s debt to be paid in full, but your own debt as well, sir.”
“My debt?”
“Quite so, yes, sir, yours and your lovely wife’s, of course.”
“Me?”
“Of course, Mrs. Steele. White Gold Escrow took great offense to your film, Mrs. Steele, great offense indeed.”
Kerri turned and glared at Harden with the biggest, meanest I-told-you-so expression. But Padran went on, “And you, Mr. Steele, were responsible for Mrs. Steele’s knowledge of our…business interests, and that made you responsible as well, sir.”
Kerri asked, “So…you had something to do with the arson, with killing that actor—?”
“Oh no, heavens no. But we were observing…from a distance. Had Miss la Blanca succeeded in taking care of the job, that would have been just as well. After she failed, we decided we had to take care of matters ourselves.”
“So you set up this New York hit.”
“Much easier for us to ambush you, sir, yes. He have business with Mr. Santori here as well, as you know. As luck would have it, you’ve managed to solve each other’s problems, sir. Quite a happy ending I’d say, sir, very happy indeed.”
After a cautionary pause, Harden asked him, “So…none of us have anything to fear?”
“Not from us, sir.” Glancing around the gelato shop, he smiled and winked. “You may want to watch the junk food though, sir—very high in cholesterol, very high indeed.”
Once Padran stepped out, Don Paulie turned to Harden. “I didn’t know they were chasing you too, Hard; I swear I didn’t.”
“It’s okay, Paulie,” Harden said, giving his old friend a hug.
“And anything I can do…for either of you, you’ll give me a call, right?”
“Sure, Paulie,” Harden said, “you got it.”
Paulie took Kerri’s hand and gave it a little kiss. “Maybe I’ll have to come out, see you in L.A.”
“You’re always welcome,” Kerri said with a smile.
Once in the limo, Kerri and Harden reclined into the black leather seats. But Kerri was glaring at him in a way Harden couldn’t ignore, for reasons he didn’t have to wonder about.
“Kerri, I didn’t know they were watching us like that. And they didn’t actually have anything to do with it—the movie or Switzerland; I was right about that.” Kerri hit him with a nasty little pout, but Harden chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Kerri, you rescued me from a watery grave, and that wasn’t the first time you’ve saved my life. I’m never going to underestimate you again, Ker, I swear it.”
She looked him over, unable to stay mad at him for long. “That’s right, you won’t…because I won’t let you.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The limo rolled on and they nuzzled in that soft, sumptuous leather, leaning back to enjoy the irony as well as the luxury.
Harden finally asked, “So, what now?”
Kerri put her hand on her belly and smiled. “Actually, I think I should go see a doctor.”
Harden looked at Kerri, then down at her flat belly. His own hand rested gently upon hers and they shared a wide, loving smile. They kissed, gentle at first, then long and strong and deep. They kissed like they never had before, and as if they would never kiss again—the first kiss of the rest of their lives.
It was a peaceful three years, without a single car chase, assassination, kidnapping, or any other violence. Kerri had set aside her career ambitions altogether, focusing on her first pregnancy and then, just a year later, her second.
Overlooking their private stretch of beach in Malibu, Kerri lay back on the chaise lounge, her naturally blond hair flowing easily over her naked shoulders. Little Hal and his baby sister, Yvonne, played on a blanket just a few feet away, Harden watching over them with a playful, loving smile. Kerri loved, more than anything, how Harden was with kids: patient, loving, lighthearted. His seriousness and the walls that he once had up weren’t there anymore. They were able to talk about anything. Kerri never felt more secure in her life—a relationship that once began in unusual circumstances, flowered and blossomed into something so much more beautiful than she ever could know. Kerri got to spend every day with her best friend—the man she adored and the world of pleasure that her and Harden discovered togeth
er—one she was once hesitant about entering. Not only did she grow comfortable in her own skin, she was in touch with her true desires and fantasies (no matter how outside the box they were). She saw the beauty in embracing who she really was—a confidence that she would surely instill in her children.
The smartphone rang, as it did often. Harden crossed to the little table and glanced at the screen, then over at Kerri.
“Who is it?”
Harden said, “Don Paulie.” The two shared a skeptical moment, the phone ringing in that lingering silence. The phone kept ringing as Harden returned to play with the kids, Kerri watching them with total and complete satisfaction. She had everything she needed, everyone she needed. So did Harden. Nothing would ever threaten the life and the love she and Harden had worked so hard for, which they’d earned, which they treasured.
The phone finally stopped ringing. The silence which followed was long and ominous, and Kerri knew somehow that, one way or another, it wouldn’t last long. But somehow, she didn’t regret that either. Harden would be called upon to help somebody, and she would be too. They’d never turn their backs on friends or loved ones in need, and that brought Kerri a satisfaction she’d never known as an actress. She was living a life she’d never imagined possible. And she knew that whatever would happen, she and Harden would face it together, and that would be enough.
That would be everything.
* * *
THE END
Bonus Content: Knight Brothers Series
Part I
Copyright
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Billionaire Bash: The Complete Steele Series Page 28