by Sara V. Zook
“He’s a businessman,” I rambled off to Shayna.
“Very successful one,” she whispered, grinning. “I’m super jealous now.”
I smiled and opened up the car door, blowing my best friend a kiss before getting in and having Nicky greet me with a kiss of his own.
39
CAIN
“Lilah?” I asked, moving away from the loud music at Carmine’s and going outside to try to hear her better. She sounded hysterical. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“No,” she cried.
“What happened? You need to calm down so I can fucking hear you.”
I listened to her take a few deep breaths.
“Tell me what happened,” I commanded, my heart racing at the way she was acting. “Where are you?”
She sniffled a couple times. “At the police station.”
“What?” I huffed into the phone.
“They tracked me down at your house. They brought me in for questioning about Mark.”
Son of a bitch. “Did they question you yet?”
“No…I’m sitting on a chair just waiting. They drove me down in the back of a police car.”
“They didn’t cuff you, did they?”
“No, but I’m scared shitless, Nicky. What do I say?”
This wasn’t good at all. It wasn’t just the fact that they’d taken her in for questioning, it was more that she was acting so guilty and bawling around. They’d catch right on, or she’d say something that could jeopardize me. “Lilah, listen to me very carefully.” I paused to make sure she had stopped sobbing. “This isn’t a big deal. Someone probably filed a missing persons report on him. You need to stay calm.”
“It was probably Rita.”
“Rita?”
“That woman he was with, that he had a baby with.”
She was rambling off shit that I had no clue about. We hadn’t talked about any of her marital problems. I didn’t particularly want to. She was scaring me right now with how terrible she was under pressure.
“I bet she was the one who reported him as missing, and she saw me point a gun at him, Nicky…”
“Holy shit, Lilah, you need to watch what you say! There are ears everywhere down there. If someone reported him as missing, it’s only standard they’d contact his wife for questioning. Make sure you don’t say anything stupid. I’m on my way down there right now.”
“Okay.”
“Stay calm,” I repeated, emphasizing the words.
“Hurry,” she whispered before hanging up.
I grasped the phone firmly in my hand. I wanted to crush it as I headed toward my car. I didn’t think this Mark shit would ever surface after that night. I hadn’t worried about it at all, but now, especially with a hysterical Lilah, I wasn’t so sure. My ass could be in serious trouble right now. I had to get down there as fast as I could.
When I finally arrived at the police station, I couldn’t get past all the cops to get where they were talking to Lilah.
“I already told you, you can’t go back there. She’ll be out soon, and unless they have a reason to hold her, you can take her home then,” the policeman told me, raising his eyebrows.
“This is bullshit,” I told him. “I’m one of Carmine’s guys. I want to see her.”
“I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States, you aren’t going back there until they’re done,” he replied.
I pranced back and forth in front of him as I gritted my teeth together. I wasn’t a patient man. I needed to know what was going on in that room, if Lilah had spit out my name as the one who killed that jerkoff. Surely she wouldn’t do that. Surely I could trust her. Then again, I knew how sneaky these bastards could be. They could trick her into saying something she didn’t intend to say.
“You need to sit down,” the cop said, puffing out his chest a little. “And settle down.” He tugged up on his sagging pants.
I grumbled as I glared at him but took a seat. I put my face in my palms and waited. Jesus, this was taking forever. I looked up as the cop was still standing over me like a fucking babysitter. My temper was flaring by the moment as my impatience grew.
It wasn’t until almost twenty minutes later that I saw Lilah exit a room and come strolling my way. I stood up as she dabbed her nose and eyes with a tissue and thanked the policeman behind her. She glanced at me as I held open my arms to give her a hug, but she rejected the notion and instead patted me on the back.
“Thanks for being such a good friend, Nicky.”
I looked around at all the cops’ eyes on us, a million questions going through my brain and none of them able to be answered right now. “You ready to go?”
She nodded, dabbing her eyes again.
I glared at the cop that had given me such a problem coming in before turning to follow her out. We walked in silence to the car. I couldn’t contain myself as I shut the driver’s side door and turned to her. “Well?”
She pressed her lips together. “Sorry about that,” she told me. “I couldn’t exactly hug you in front of all of them and give them suspicion that I’m having any sort of relationship with you, not after putting on that big show that I was so upset about my husband not coming home. I told them about the affair he was having with Rita, that I had reason to believe he ran off with her, and that that’s why I hadn’t reported him as missing.”
Relief washed over me. “Smart girl. Good thinking,” I praised her. Damn, she was good.
“They never mentioned anything about Rita saying I pointed a gun at him. I’m thinking I scared her too much. I begged them to let me know as soon as they found out where he was and how much I missed him and loved him. I don’t know how I did it, but I did. I was so scared.” She laughed a little. “Glad that’s over with.”
I patted her on the leg, relieved to hear all of this. She would fit right in with everyone after all. “Thanks for not saying my name in there.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I would’ve never done that, Nicky, even if they’d arrested me.”
I reached over and pressed my lips to hers, my mood changing for the better. “Let’s go back to the house and get a drink.”
“Sounds good to me.”
I was lounging on the couch with Lilah, her legs dangling over mine. It had been a nice evening. I could definitely get used to her being around like this. We had ordered in from a great takeout place and now were just settling down on the over-sized couch to relax and watch TV.
“You don’t mind staying here with me?” I blurted out, suddenly questioning how selfish I was asking her to stay another night.
She grinned, her blue eyes sparkling as she chuckled, as if what I had asked was nonsense. “I love staying here—with you.”
I took her hand in mine. “You might as well move in.” I didn’t know why I’d just said that. It had come out as a joke, but really, I knew I’d pretty much meant it. This house would be lonely without Lilah Cross in it with me.
She just laughed. “I thought I pretty much was moved in. All my stuff’s here.”
I stared at her wondering how much of what she was saying was sarcasm or the truth. I’d let it go for now and not push any further. I’d never gotten so involved with a girl so quickly before. I decided not to overthink it or question it right now. I’d just end up driving myself crazy.
My phone started buzzing in my pocket. I turned on my side to get it. It was Hagan. “Hey, man, what’s up?”
“Nicky, you need to get here. Something’s happened,” Hagan told me, his voice full of a panic that sent my own pulse into a frenzy.
I sat straight up on the couch. Lilah pulled her legs away as she gave me a worried look.
“Where are you? What happened?”
“At Haven Regional.”
“Is that a hospital?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s bad, Nicky, real bad.”
“Hagan, you need to tell me what’s fucking going on,” I yelled into the phone.
There was a mom
ent of silence on the other end. “It’s Carmine.”
At the mention of the boss’s name, my stomach and all the contents I’d just filled it with felt like it had been turned upside down.
“He’s been shot. Get here as soon as you can. All the guys are on their way. Don’t bring Lilah. Come alone.”
I threw the phone back in my pocket and stood up and began searching for my coat.
“Nicky?” Lilah asked in a troubled tone.
I bent over and kissed her on the forehead. “I have to go to the hospital. Carmine’s been shot.”
“Carmine?” she asked.
I hadn’t told her about Carmine. “Yeah. My boss.”
“Want me to come with you?”
I squeezed her hand. “No, just stay here and wait for me. I’ll call you as soon as I know what’s going on.” I kissed her forehead again and darted out of the house.
I was surprised I hadn’t gotten pulled over as I sped through the city. So many thoughts were going through my mind as I wondered how bad Carmine was, but the number one thing I kept returning to was how the hell Carmine could’ve gotten shot to begin with? He seemed so low key and protected. He was like the name that everyone in Haven knew but I somehow doubted that a single one of them could point him out of a crowd. They didn’t know what he looked like, they only knew his reputation of being one of the most important people in Haven.
I parked and jogged into the entrance of the emergency department at Haven Regional. I hurried up to the front desk and pushed past a couple of people standing in line.
“Hey!” an old guy yelled out at me.
I ignored him as I tapped on the window to get the nurse’s attention who had her back turned to me. She took her good, sweet time in coming over to acknowledge me. “Has a man been brought in here that’s been shot?”
“Sir, you need to…” the nurse began.
“Nicky!”
I turned around. It was one of the Triplets. He gestured for me to come over. The old guy who had yelled at me gave me a nasty look as I brushed past him again. Don’t tempt me, old man, I’ll knock your teeth out.
“Where he’s at?” I asked him.
“Come on, I’ll take you.”
We rode the elevator up a couple of floors and walked down a hallway where I saw the guys standing outside of a room. They all looked up as I hurried toward them. I somehow doubted anyone was allowed up here walking around like this, but I figured Carmine probably owned most of this hospital or something, and that gave us a free pass to do what we wanted.
“Hey, Cain, glad you could make it,” Seton said quietly.
“Everyone here?” Hagan asked, looking around and doing a quick head count. “Let’s go in then.”
The Triplets opened the door to the hospital room, and we all filed in. A nurse turned around and gave us a surprised look as Carmine lay in the bed behind her, all kinds of tubes and wires hooked up to him. His eyes were closed, and his shirt was off, and bandages covered up most of his chest and stomach.
“What the hell happened?” I asked as I listened to the monitor beep along with his heart rate.
“Remmy found him in his bedroom shot twice, once in the chest, once in the stomach,” Augie replied.
“What? In Carmine’s house?” I questioned him, my eyes still on all the machines that were attached to this powerful man, someone I respected and feared, someone who looked completely out of place in a hospital, who I thought was invincible in a way.
Augie nodded.
That just didn’t make sense. How could someone have access to Carmine like that in his fucking house? The knot in my stomach twisted even tighter.
“I didn’t get there in time,” Remmy rambled, tears coming to his eyes. “I should’ve gotten there faster. He’s lost too much blood.”
Seton put a comforting hand on the back of Remmy’s shoulder, but he didn’t say anything to him.
“The bullet in his chest is near his heart,” Hagan whispered to me. “The doctor’s surprised he’s still alive.”
I was so confused. What did this mean for the rest of us? “Who could’ve done a thing like this?” I asked no one in particular. There was no answer. They were as clueless as me in the midst of this chaos.
“Come on, boss,” one of the Triplets said, patting Carmine’s hand. “Pull through this. You gotta pull through this.”
It was so fucking sad that a man like Carmine could be targeted like this. All of us seemed secure and safe. There was no explanation for why I felt that way, I just—did. Then again, that was just me being naive. That was me not knowing what the fuck I was doing with this group of guys. It was foolish to think we were indestructible. We were humans, after all, and a lot of the shit we did probably pissed off a lot of other people. Someone could’ve been jealous of Carmine. I for one knew how jealousy could rip you apart. I had been jealous of other people most of my life, and finally, something good had come up and happened to me. I was getting pissed off the more I stood there. If something happened to Carmine, what did that mean to me and everything I had acquired over the past few weeks? It wasn’t fair. I clenched my fists at my side.
One of the machines starting making a horrible beeping noise, almost like an alarm. The door flew open and in poured some nurses along with doctors.
“Get back!” one of the nurses yelled at all of us. “You have to get back! Give us some room!”
“Shit,” Hagan hissed.
“He’s going into heart failure!” another one of the medical guys belted out.
“Out of the room, gentleman,” a nurse told us, ushering us toward the door. “Come on, go, go.”
We walked out into the hallway and could still see in from the open curtains and a window on the door. They had a whole medical crew in there working on Carmine. They were trying to revive him. I felt my heart sink as I knew he was probably gone. This couldn’t be happening. I wanted to punch the wall and release this feeling of hopelessness that now overwhelmed me.
What seemed like hours went by, even though it had been only minutes. The doctors and nurses began to turn off the machines one by one. They stopped working on Carmine. One of the nurses wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm.
“He’s gone,” Remmy said. “He’s fucking gone.”
One of the doctors came out. “I’m sorry, guys. There’s nothing we could do for him. The bullet was just too close to his heart.” He pressed his lips together and sighed.
I looked around at the men standing around me. All of them had been around longer than me. They knew Carmine longer. I didn’t know if any of them considered him a friend. It didn’t seem to me like any of them had a real relationship with the man, but what did I know? I was the newbie. I knew that I was feeling despair, a different kind of despair than I had felt for my mother’s death. With her, I felt an emptiness inside, a void that could never been filled again. With Carmine, I felt physically sick because the one question kept floating around in my mind, driving me nuts—what were any of us going to do now without him leading the way?
40
CROSS
It was late, almost three in the morning. Nicky had just come back to the house. He had called to tell me that Carmine, his boss, hadn’t made it, and that he and the other guys were going back to Carmine’s place to figure some stuff out. He was resting his head on my stomach as we both laid in the enormous bed. He was piss drunk. Somehow I doubted they figured anything out. They had drank themselves into a stupor. I thought about that girl the other night who had approached Nicky at Carmine’s, who was dressed like a prostitute. I didn’t like the way she was looking at him. I didn’t like any of those girls hovering around, but I didn’t want to act jealous even though it was hard not to. I was the one in Nicky Cain’s bed. I needed to remember that.
I repeatedly ran my fingers through his hair. He reeked of cigarettes and beer. He was sad again. We had just gotten back from Lazerne and now another tragedy, only this one involved a murder. I w
ondered if this was what Nicky Cain’s life held for him by being here, full of heartbreak and emotional roller coasters. I would be his steady in a time of chaos. I wanted to be his rock that he knew he could always depend on.
“Wanna talk about it?” I whispered into the dark.
Nicky didn’t move for a few minutes. “I just don’t know what’ll happen, Lilah. I don’t know what all this means.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You don’t understand who Carmine was.”
“I do,” I told him. “Your boss.”
“Carmine dying…everything could change for me, for the rest of the guys, for us all. I have to face the possibility that I could lose this.”
“Lose what?” I asked softly as I felt him shift positions moving his head from one spot on my stomach to higher up on my chest.
He searched for my hand in the darkness. Finding it, he clung to me. “This, all of this, my house, my car, everything.”
None of what he was saying made any sense to me, but again, I didn’t know the details of what Nicky did during his day. I didn’t know the significance of what Carmine’s death meant. He didn’t offer a formal explanation, so I didn’t pursue it. Some of his words were even slurring together.
“Listen to me,” I whispered. “I’m here right now and I’ll be there for you if—if anything happens. I want to be with you, Nicky. No matter what happens, I just want to be with you. We’ll figure it out together. You’re not alone. I want you to know that. Do you hear me?”
Nicky reached up, his fingers brushing past my lips, the smell of cigarettes strong on them. He leaned up and pressed his lips against mine. He was listening to me. My words had gotten through to him somehow.
“I don’t know how I lived without you all this time,” he murmured. “Why couldn’t I have known you earlier?”
A sensation of gratefulness surged through me. “What matters is that I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, Nicky Cain.”