by Gina Watson
“Both mental and physical abuse.”
Renaud leaned over the desk and scanned the document.
His sneer gave Augie chills.
“You seem quite nonthreatening. What’s your role in all of this?” He stood to his full height and squared his shoulders.
“Obtain and file the documents and ensure the Brown family’s protection. And it’s more a partnership than a role. I’ll protect them until I die.”
Renaud’s brow cocked. “You’re the muscle? Do you really think I’m going to let you calmly remove her from my life?”
“She’s already removed from your life. At this point it’s all formality.” Augie remained calm. When he was calm he was clear. He’d been told before that he appeared nonthreatening, but he’d always accomplished what he intended, so it worked for him. “The men you hired to go after her sister probably don’t see me as a non-threat.”
He smirked. “That was your work? You seem connected. Are you just resourceful or do you have actual power?”
Augie’s eyes narrowed. Something was amiss. “Connected?”
“Connected, you know, as in making records appear or disappear in the legal system.”
“I’m connected.”
“You know I’m not going to fold without a fight.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and sat on the edge of his desk, legs stretched in front of him, tapping nervously.
Had Augie thought he’d give up his search for Eve just like that? He’d hoped, but it didn’t look likely. Still, if Augie was reading the signs right, he seemed willing to bargain.
He had to have some ulterior motive for granting the divorce. And Augie intended to discover what it was.
“I work in law enforcement, and my father is a US senator. What do you want?”
“I want to disappear.”
“I don’t follow.”
“I want out. Can you make me disappear?” Renaud’s face contorted and his lip curled back as he inhaled shallowly. His composure waned and he seemed almost frantic.
Augie scrubbed his face and then crossed his arms over his chest. “The National Crime Syndicate runs deep and far. I could try, but I’ve heard it’s damn near impossible to go undetected.” Augie knew if anyone could make this guy disappear, it’d be his father. “I’ll see what can be done.”
Renaud signed the papers, placed them in the folder, and handed it to Augie. “If you don’t follow through, I’ll find one or both of those women and I will kill them.”
Augie believed him. The man looked frayed. He ran a hand through his hair and his lip twitched. He was obviously more afraid of the syndicate than he was of Augie.
Augie took the folder. “I’ll be in touch.”
He’d taken the same efficient elevator back down and almost exited when something didn’t feel quite right. He stood at the elevator threshold, peering into a dimly lit garage. Gloria and Mia waited across the street with the car, but he felt in his gut that something unwanted also waited for him.
He backed into the elevator and rode up. It stopped on the twelfth floor, but that floor was under construction. He depressed ten buttons rapidly. Keep calm, Roy. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Deep lavender-gray eyes filled his thoughts. Her fresh untouched face and smooth dewy skin calmed his mind. The image of her ripping the guts from a fifteen-pound walleye made a smile break across his face. She’d been there to bring him out of the nightmares before they crescendoed, as they always did, leaving him floundering in fear and a cold sweat.
The elevator door opened and closed at each stop. He pressed the door-close button, but received no reaction from his action. He continually pressed. Come on, dammit.
He’d give his life in exchange for Mia’s. She was fresh, she was pure, she was life. He’d lived his and it wasn’t so pure or good. Mia’s pleas haunted him. She didn’t want him to kill the man even if it made her life better.
Renaud burst onto the elevator, sweaty and disheveled.
“What the fuck!” Augie fell into a defensive position.
“Close the goddamn door!”
They stood, one man on each side of the elevator, frantically tapping buttons.
“Fuck, they’re coming; somehow they got through border patrol and passed through my checkpoints.”
“Who got through your checkpoints?” The door finally closed.
“Lombardi’s foot soldiers are here. All of my security team was on alert and trained to identify these men. Since they’re in I can only assume my team is dead.”
“Lombardi? Antonio Lombardi?” Augie recalled his research on Nicolas. His father was a Lombardi and Antonio was Nicolas’s half brother. Sweat dripped down the sides of Nicolas’s face. “So do you want to explain why your brother sicced his dogs on you?”
“They’ve been sent here to kill me.”
The door opened and Renaud took off running while Augie watched his retreating back. Trying to regain his bearings, he shook his head. Using the elevator wouldn’t be smart given the circumstances. Unless Renaud was putting on a performance for his sake. Still, the man seemed genuinely terrified.
Stairs.
Augie ran down the hall, looking for the fire exit. He turned and skidded to a halt. Four men whaled on Nicolas. Augie swiftly made his way toward the mass of men, but stopped when a wicked-looking knife gleamed under the fluorescent lights as it was unsheathed. Nicolas was repeatedly stabbed. Nothing could help him now. Augie backed away slowly, undetected. He gripped the folder tight to his chest. As he backed up, he bumped a decorative console table and his presence went undetected no longer.
The sick sounds of Nicolas’s blood gurgled in his throat before he choked and was silent. Augie looked from man to man. He pivoted, knocked the console table into the space behind him, and took off in a sprint down the hall. Fucking stairs! Where are the fucking stairs? There! He saw the icon and halfway kicked and twisted the knob to open the door to the stairwell. He jogged and slid down fourteen flights of stairs, round and round like a rat in a maze.
Finally he pushed a door open and tumbled out into the grand marble entry, his lungs wheezing, but he didn’t stop. He ran across the lobby and out the front door into the sunlight. He could just make out the white car Gloria drove. His focus was so intent on the car, he didn’t notice the man barreling toward him.
Heavy footsteps thudded around him as more men scrambled, closing in around him. One, two, three … He counted four men as fists pelted his side and face. With no real chance to defend against them, he focused on accepting each blow. Repeated blows to his ribs made it more and more difficult to breathe. He could no longer see out of his left eye and felt as if his face had been lit on fire. He crouched to get his face out of the path of the destruction and spotted the folder. He snatched it up and held on as he curled into a ball and maneuvered out of their immediate circle using a combination roll and jump move he’d learned from some martial art.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and he ran on clumsy legs. A large man lunged toward Augie, arm extended. Fuck. Dizzy and faint, Augie felt the earth spin. Wetness ran down inside his shirt, and a burning seared him. He traced his hand over his stomach and side, stopping when he felt the coolness of steel. Fuck! He’d been stabbed in the gut.
He fell to his knees and then his world went dark.
Chapter 12
“Oh my God! Augie!” Mia pointed across the street to where Augie ran out of the building, and Gloria quickly put the car in motion.
Mia screamed, the sound deafening in the closed body of the car. Men ran up to Augie and beat on him. Her hands cupped her mouth. Horror gripped and held her close.
Gloria rolled over the curb, jostling the car and them. Mia was jolted from her shock when Gloria yelled, “Open that door!” Mia jumped out, opened the back door, and squatted next to Augie.
“Help me get him into the car,” Gloria said. She lifted his shoulders and supported his head while Mia lifted his legs. He didn’t respond.
“Oh m
y God! A knife. Oh my God! Augie!”
“Quiet, Mia. Focus.” They slid him into the back seat. “Drive!” Gloria yelled.
Mia obeyed, speeding off. Tears blurred her vision and she wiped at her eyes. “Is he alive?”
“He’s breathing. Pulse is shallow. I need a drugstore.”
Mia watched in the mirror as Gloria ripped material away from the knife in his stomach. She pulled the car to a stop in a parking lot.
“You stay with him,” Gloria said, already out of the car. “Don’t let him pull that out. I’ll be back soon.”
The door slammed and she was gone, leaving Mia alone with Augie. His face had been badly beaten, but she knew that wasn’t the worst of it. She prayed the knife wound wasn’t fatal.
Her fingers traced his face, but she carefully avoided his wounds. Her lips touched his in a desperate attempt to wake him. She kissed him tenderly and tasted the tang of blood in her mouth.
“Augie, please wake up.” Feathering her hand through his hair, she kissed his cheek. “Please, Augie.” Tears poured from her eyes and landed on his face. Forehead to forehead, she rubbed him. “Please, I need you. And you promised. You promised me. Oh God, no. Please, Augie, I love you.” Her head rested on his shoulder as she cried.
“Let’s go,” Gloria directed as she jumped into the car. “The hotel. Now.”
“Hotel? He needs a hospital.”
“No hospital. No records. Just drive to the hotel.”
*
Mia watched Gloria efficiently tend Augie’s wounds. Mia had gently scrubbed the dried blood away from his face and neck.
When Gloria removed the knife, Mia almost passed out and Gloria yelled at her. Her shrill voice sobered Mia up. He was patched up, but he still hadn’t come around.
“He needs blood,” Gloria said. “He’s A, I’m B. Do you know what you are?
“I’m an O.”
“Perfect. Come sit over here.”
Gloria moved a chair next to Augie’s arm. Mia hated needles, hated giving blood. Just the thought of a needle could incapacitate her. But for Augie, she’d give her life.
She sat in the chair.
Next to her, Gloria set up plastic lines that Mia guessed would carry the blood.
“This isn’t the best setup, but it’s all they had available. He needs blood now and that requires direct blood transfusion, which can be tricky, but I’m trained and have done this dozens of times in the field.”
“I trust you.”
Gloria frowned. “Thing is, it’s uncomfortable; I’ll have to expose an artery.”
Mia looked away, her hand over her mouth. “Don’t tell me any more—just do it.”
She took Mia’s wrist.
“Wait!” Mia said. She switched on the television, some reality shopping show. “Okay.” She focused on the TV. Some girl was preparing for a wedding, but she was alienating her entire bridal party by being a caustic bitch. Shit! Her wrist burned. Don’t turn. Her body wanted to turn, but her mind didn’t want to know what Gloria was doing. She stared with renewed focus at the wedding cake. It was the cake as the bride had ordered it, but she pushed it off the table and onto the floor in a fit of rage. Honestly, who acted—
“Damn! That hurts!” Mia sucked in air.
“I know, I’m sorry, but we’re almost there.”
Gloria left Mia’s arm resting on the bed and started in on Augie.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Pulse is weak; I’ll know more after the transfusion.”
“And then he’ll be fine?”
“Sometimes the blood clots or the body rejects the blood. It’s rare.”
Mia prayed to a deity she’d abandoned long ago.
“Given the flow rate, I’d say about twenty minutes should suffice.”
Mia nodded. The show was ending, but Mia was so tired, her eyelids wouldn’t stay up and she closed them.
A hand squeezed hers hard, sending pain shooting up her arm, and she cried out, jolting awake. Gloria was immediately there.
“He’s contracted—give me a second. May have a cramp.”
Augie’s eyes opened and his dark gaze settled into hers. If his jaw were any tighter, he’d shatter teeth.
“Augie.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Pulse is strong now. Hang on, let me unhook you.”
His brow was covered in sweat, so Mia wiped his face with some gauze. She kissed the now-dry brow. Leaning down next to his ear so that only he could hear, she whispered, “Augie, I love you.” She stroked his face, kissing his temple.
His brow furrowed. “You gotta stop sayin’ that.” His words were slurred.
“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t. And you can’t make me.”
Gloria ran through a list of his injuries. “You were stabbed in the gut, no arteries affected. You lost a significant amount of blood, but Mia gave you a direct transfusion. If you don’t develop an infection from the nasty fucking knife, you’ll be good as new in about a week. Oh, you’ve also got one cracked rib. We wrapped it.”
Mia crawled up in bed with him and placed his head in her lap. His gaze was still focused on her in earnest. “Hey.” She stroked the sides of his face. “That’s a good report, huh?” She kissed the corner of his mouth. “Good as new, we like that. New is always good, unless it’s your first day at a new school. Then nobody wants to be the new girl.”
He smiled.
Gloria was busy cleaning the skin around the wound. She removed the rest of his pants and his boxer briefs without flinching, and Mia knew it was because she’d seen it all before.
“I bought you a pair of sweatpants, but I want the wound to get oxygen, so you get this clean sheet for now.” She shook out one of the motel sheets and covered his nakedness. “You need sleep. I thought we’d take another room.”
Mia squeezed his head to her breast. “I’m not leaving him.”
Gloria gathered up the gauze soaked with his blood. “He needs rest.”
“Then we’ll sleep.” She slid down next to him on his undamaged side and slung her leg around his thigh.
Gloria sighed. “Whatever.” She walked to the phone on the bedside table. “What rooms do you have available closest to thirty-six?” She stared at Mia with tolerance. “I’ll take it. I have cash, and I’m walking your way.” She placed the receiver back in the cradle.
A knock at the door had all of their heads turning.
“That’d be dinner,” Gloria said. She grabbed a takeout sack through the door and handed it to Mia. Then they both stared down at Augie in the bed.
“What happened?” Gloria said.
Augie swallowed thickly, “Mafia ring was hunting him. There was a hit on his head.”
Gloria’s worried face turned toward Mia. “No one can ever know we were here. Every move from here on out must be thought out. Whatever you do,” she turned to face Augie, “use cash and don’t use the telephone or computer.” He nodded.
She checked Augie again, grabbed a syringe, and then pumped the contents into Augie’s gut. “Penicillin. Call room-to-room if you need me. I’m in thirty-eight.”
Mia sat Augie up as high as possible without hurting him and plumped the pillows behind his back. She opened Styrofoam containers of soup, salad, and sandwiches. She dressed the salad and cut it into bite-sized pieces easy for him to eat.
“I hope that salad is for you.”
“It’s for you.” She placed the container in his lap and he just as quickly moved it to the empty side of the bed.
Hands on her hips, she glowered at him.
“I don’t eat salad.”
She leaned across his body and retrieved the container. “You’ll eat it today.”
“You have plans to make me?”
“Oh yes. You need to get your hemoglobin going. Leafy greens seem like a good way to do that.”
She forked a bite and lifted it to his mouth. “Please eat it.” He rolled his eyes, but took the fork in his hand and started on the salad.
About to cut his sandwich in half, she stopped when he said, “I’m not an invalid. I don’t need you cutting up my sandwich like I’m a fucking child.”
She set the plasticware down and placed the sandwich tray in his lap.
“And you can go stay with Gloria. I don’t need you here.”
Her eyes narrowed. She left him to it and went to sit at the table to eat the meal Gloria had included for her. Frosty orange juice came with her meal. She’d put his just out of his reach on the nightstand. Ignorant man was too macho to accept help, so she’d teach him a lesson.
She arranged her three-course meal in an inviting fashion on the table. She turned on the radio and started on her food. “Mmm, chicken noodle, my favorite.”
Leaning back in the chair, she watched Augie struggle with his meal. When he lifted the sandwich to his mouth, a big fat blob of mayonnaise-covered tomato plopped onto his chest.
“Goddammit.” He held his arms out, looking down at the tomato as if he expected it to jump up and waltz off.
Sighing, Mia set her soup down and walked back to him. She moved the containers from his lap along with the tomato. She wiped his chest with a wet rag, and then she cut his sandwich in two.
She held the sandwich out to him. “Will you take the lettuce off?”
She shook her head. “You need the vegetables.”
He reluctantly took the sandwich.
“Would you like some juice?”
He grunted. She took that as a yes and poured some into a plastic cup.
“Here.”
His eyes narrowed at her as he took the cup.
“Accepting help doesn’t make you weak. Not accepting it, however, makes you foolish.”
He grunted and growled some more, and Mia bit her lip to hide a smile.
“This is all I have to give you in exchange for what you’ve done for me and my sister. If you take this away from me I have nothing, so please accept my help without being an asshole.”
She moved her food over to the bed, and they ate together in silence.
When they were done, she cleared the trash and adjusted his position for the night. She slid her jeans off and eased into the bed. He cleared his throat and she snuggled up next to him.