by Angie Fox
“You’ve got to talk to me.” Lou stood near the window nearest the bookcase, holding the hand of the woman we’d seen in the apartment above the speakeasy.
“It’s her.” Frankie’s voice went up an octave. His gun never wavered.
The woman let out a small cry, her gaze darting like a trapped mouse. I recognized her smoky eyes, the curl of her dark hair.
“Tell the girl to wait outside,” he ordered. “We have more important things to talk about.”
“Get out of here, Frank,” Lou demanded, tightening his grip on the woman, who was about to faint or run. I doubt even she knew which.
“You know I hate that.” Frankie advanced on them. His brother looked ready to chew nails. “You shot me, and now you don’t even have time to talk about what happened?”
“Stop it,” Lou ordered, putting himself between Frankie and the woman. “You’re scaring her.”
“Who the hell is she to you, anyway?” He pointed the gun at his brother.
Lou didn’t flinch. In fact, he looked ready to strangle Frankie with his bare hands. “She’s my wife.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Frankie nearly dropped his gun. “You’re not married,” he said to his brother.
I couldn’t believe it, either. Yet the pretty brunette behind Lou didn’t look surprised in the least when he said it. Her fingers dug hard against Lou’s suit jacket as she peered at my housemate, her lower lip quivering with fright.
Frankie took aim at the couple. “Who are you really?” he demanded of the woman.
She clutched Lou’s shoulder, her polka-dot day dress swirling at her knees. “Ch-Chastity Winkelmann.”
Frankie gaped at her.
“Sorry.” Lou shrugged.
“What’s he going to do to us?” Chastity asked, starting to panic.
“Nothing,” Lou assured her. “I’m just thinking this is a lousy way to tell my brother we ran off and got married.”
“Congratulations?” I ventured. I mean, this sounded like a happy thing.
Frankie looked as if he’d been slapped. “So not only did you shoot me in the head, but you didn’t invite me to your wedding?”
He would have to look at it that way.
Lou’s jaw tightened. “It was for your own good.”
“He’s going to kill us,” Chastity declared.
“No, he’s not,” Lou assured her.
“I think I am,” Frankie countered.
“Lou’s already dead,” I reminded Frankie. Killing him again wouldn’t solve anything.
“I’m not safe here,” she whispered, her image beginning to fade. “I have to go.”
“Wait.” Lou turned to her, presenting his back to Frankie, which was a terrible move six ways to Sunday. “Don’t go,” he pleaded with his wife. “Not again. Please. Stay with me. Trust me,” he added on a whisper. “It’s going to be okay this time.”
“We won’t hurt you,” I promised.
“Speak for yourself!” Frankie said.
“My brother’s just crazy,” Lou coaxed.
“Only when I get double-crossed,” Frankie muttered.
“Let’s start over,” I said, dredging up a perkiness I didn’t feel. “Chastity, this is your brother-in-law, Frankie. Frankie, this is Chastity, who loves your brother as much as Molly loves you.”
Frankie’s features tightened. “The way Molly used to love me. Now she thinks I obsess about the mob too much.”
I’d forgotten about his issues with Molly. That might not have been the best pep talk, now that I thought about it.
“Lou worries about the mob, too.” Chastity’s soft voice emerged from behind her husband. “He worries about letting people down.”
“Babe,” he grumped as she aired his business.
“It’s all right,” she assured him. I was pleased to see she didn’t run, like some might have when they realized they had a Frankie in the family. Instead, she emerged slowly from behind her husband. “I have a brother-in-law,” she said shyly. Lou slipped his hand into hers as she sized up my housemate. “He appears a trifle unstable.”
“He’s always like that,” Lou said, with grudging affection.
I mean, this was the guy who still held a gun on her groom. “Hey, Frankie,” I said. He seemed frozen in place. “You might want to put that down,” I suggested.
He looked blankly at me. “Too soon to tell.” He kept his eye on Lou. “We’re getting way sidetracked on the revenge thing here.”
“I’d rather know what has her running, and Lou chasing,” I told my housemate. “Wouldn’t you?” I’d bet there was more to the story than Frankie or I realized. Shooting Lou wouldn’t give us answers. Talking to him would.
Lou had begun to stroke his wife on her back, soothing her.
“For the love of Pete.” Frankie wrinkled his nose, clearly not used to seeing his brother like this.
“Oh, come on,” I said. “Give your brother a break. Remember the time you made Molly a crown of dandelions?”
“You’re kind of ruining my image here,” he snapped.
I leaned close. “What about the time I caught you in a smoking jacket with a sketch pad, drawing her Titanic-style?” I muttered in his ear.
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” he growled.
And I’d wanted to bleach my eyeballs. “You need to remember that a good woman can do a lot for a man.” And I had a feeling Chastity was central to the story Frankie was trying to uncover. “You need to offer your sister-in-law a little reassurance,” I said. “Show her we’re on her side.”
Frankie looked at me like I’d sprouted horns. “I’m on my side.”
Maybe that was his problem.
“How’s that working out for you?” I asked. Lately, it seemed his power drain had everything to do with him pulling away from Molly and obsessing about his brother.
He had a chance to confront at least one of those issues right now.
Elbow bent, he pointed his gun up toward the ceiling. “Can I just shoot Lou in the knee or something? I could stand to blow off some steam.”
Steps echoed on the stairs up to the second floor.
“Do you hear that?” I asked. “Footsteps.”
Lou drew his gun.
Chastity’s eyes went wide. “It could be them. Did anyone follow you?”
“I wasn’t watching,” I admitted. We’d been too busy tracking Lou.
“I’ll check,” Frankie promised, gun at the ready as he slipped through the wall toward the stairs.
Lou followed.
“Frankie’s keyed up,” I said to Chastity, who clutched the skirt of her dress. “Lou hurt him, but deep down, he loves his brother. We’ll help keep you safe.”
They were family.
She wrung her hands. “I’m not the best at knowing who to trust.”
I glanced to the wall separating us from the intruder on the stairs. “We tracked down Lou because Frankie needs answers about the night he died,” I explained. “The guys have some things they need to work out.” Some serious issues, actually. But Lou had raised Frankie, sacrificed for him. That had to count for something.
Frankie’s focus on revenge was only hurting him.
Chastity’s eyes glazed with fresh tears. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping them away. “I’m just scared.”
“I’ve been there,” I assured her.
She touched a hand to her chest. “I don’t have much experience with the living. Not since I was one of them.”
“It’s just a dame with a slice of cake and a lemonade,” Frankie said, coming back through the wall. “She’s looking for you.”
Maya. I sure hoped she didn’t find me in her storage room.
“You stayed,” Lou said, rushing to Chastity. He embraced her. “You need to stop running.”
She buried herself in his arms. “I’m trying.”
Lou rested his chin on the top of her head. “Since we’ve been dead, I’ve been chasing my wife from safe hou
se to safe house.” He held on tight. “This is the first time I’ve caught up to her.”
She drew away from him, wiping her tears. “I need to find a safe place for our baby.”
Lou’s jaw clenched.
This time, Frankie did drop his gun. “Baby?”
Chastity nodded, eyes glistening. “They have our baby.”
“I’m an uncle?” Frankie said, one step behind.
No wonder she was frightened. Someone had taken their child. “Who has your baby?” I pressed.
Chastity swallowed hard. “My father took her. I’m afraid he might hurt her.” She clutched Lou’s hands. “I’m going to get her back. Once I have a safe place.”
“How awful,” I said. Ghosts had a tendency to get stuck in the last strong emotion that they felt before they died. Poor Chastity must have been both terrified and desperate in her last moments.
“You need to let me help,” Lou urged. “We can stop running. I’m not with the gang anymore.”
“Yes, he i—” Frankie began and I poked him. “Ow!” He doubled over and so did I, the touch shocking me to the core.
“What’d you do that for?” Frankie demanded.
Because he had no tact.
Lou kissed Chastity on the forehead. “He’s not going to hurt our child. I paid his price to keep our baby safe. I’ve been trying to find you to tell you.”
She ran her hands over his suit coat nervously. “What price? What did he make you do?”
Lou didn’t respond. In fact, he appeared physically sick as he stilled her hands in his.
“You can’t clam up on us now,” Frankie prodded. “What’s the going rate for babies these days?”
Chastity gasped. Lou clutched his wife tighter as he looked at his tactless brother.
Meanwhile, my stomach dropped as I put the pieces together. Chastity was on the run from someone who wanted to kill her. She was desperate to save her baby. Whoever got to Chastity must have offered Lou a chance to save his child for a price—a blood price…
And I was pretty sure the deal had gotten my housemate killed.
Frankie’s eyes went cold as he made the same connection. “I think you’d better start talking, Lou.”
“Lou?” Charity furrowed her brow and looked to him.
Frankie’s brother hesitated, then swallowed hard. He held onto his wife like a drowning man with a life preserver. “I knew from the first day on the job that getting involved in the mob would cost me my life. I accepted that. I was okay with that.”
“I don’t buy it,” Frankie said. “You never liked the rules.”
“And you do?” I balked.
“Mob rules,” Frankie corrected.
Lou’s wife sobbed, and he wrapped a protective arm around her. “I might have been willing to bite it, but I wasn’t going to let it hurt the girl I loved. I wanted out.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Frankie stated as if Lou were asking him to trade his revolver in for a squirt gun. “Once you’re in, you’re in. You can’t just leave. Gangsters retire six feet under.”
“You’re right,” Lou said, resigned. “I couldn’t leave.” He wet his lips. “But I could make a change.” He looked to his brother, as if willing Frankie to understand.
“Like when you called in sick for the Spiro job,” Frankie mustered.
“As part of the South Town Boys, me and Frankie handled business down this way for your daddy,” he said, bringing Chastity along.
“Who’s her dad?” I asked.
Lou didn’t answer, but she did. “Salvatore Spiro.”
“Bloody Sal Spiro?” Frankie threw his hands up. “Oh my God, Lou, you know the rules!” He dragged both hands down his face. “You’re not supposed to look at Sal’s daughters. You don’t talk to them. You don’t ask them about the weather. You don’t even look at their pictures in the paper.”
“We were in the society pages a lot,” she admitted.
“How could I ignore this beauty?” Lou asked, gazing down at her.
“You did more than look,” Frankie declared. “You were the one who deserved to get shot between the eyes the second you thought about maybe saying hello. You deserved a bag over the head, cement shoes, and a trip to the bottom of the river. Not me. You.”
Lou still hadn’t taken his eyes off her. “I fell in love.”
“I don’t care if you fell on top of her,” Frankie said. “You don’t talk to her!”
She stroked his cheek. “We snuck down here to get married in secret.”
Frankie spun a circle. “That’s why Sal’s guys were looking for you!”
“I thought we could disappear here,” Lou said. “Other guys did it.”
“Well, sure,” Frankie admitted. “Nobody rats out the hometown guy. It’s not our problem if you owe somebody money or if you maybe drove off with a truck that wasn’t yours. It was tough times. But you? You stole a crown jewel.”
“Nobody in Sugarland gave me up,” Lou insisted.
Yet somehow, they’d been discovered. “Somebody must have seen you,” I reasoned. It was hard to do anything in Sugarland without your neighbors noticing. Plus, the safe house in the flower shop stood above a speakeasy. It wasn’t exactly a shack way out in the middle of nowhere.
“The town stuck together. Even regular people,” Lou insisted.
“It’s what you did back then,” Frankie said as if reluctant to admit Lou could be right. He looked at Chastity. “Nobody said anything about a girl. Not even to me.”
“I didn’t go out,” Chastity insisted. Her face fell. “I didn’t see anyone. It was awful.”
“I didn’t think you’d have to hide that long,” Lou told her. “I had no idea your dad would go so nuts.”
Frankie snorted.
“I mean, we were married,” Charity reasoned. “I wrote my mother and told her so.”
“That might not have been the best idea,” I told her.
“Pastor Delmore Clemens married us,” Lou said. “He kept our secret, too. He wrote our names in the marriage book as Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
“Clemens?” Frankie dragged a hand over his chin. “That guy was straight as an arrow, never touched the business. Why him?”
“Because he was straight as an arrow,” Lou stated. “We wanted a proper wedding, and he swore he wouldn’t tell nobody.”
“Well, somebody told,” I pointed out. “It could have been Pastor Clemens. It could have been your mother,” I said to Chastity.
Her mouth dropped open. “It wasn’t!”
“Well, I don’t think it was Pastor Clemens,” Lou countered.
“It wasn’t me because I was busy doing all the dirty work while you ran off with the mob princess.” Frankie threw up his hands.
If he wasn’t careful, I was going to poke him again, and to heck with the shock.
“So what happened after you were married?” I asked the couple, trying to keep the conversation on track.
Lou gazed down at his wife. “We had it great for a while,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. “The best year of my life. I had been so wrapped up in Chicago business for so long, I didn’t think they would look for me here.”
Beside me, Frankie stiffened. “But then Sal and his enforcers came down from Chicago to do that deal. I wondered why Sal bothered to come.”
“He was sniffing out his daughter,” Lou admitted.
Chastity held on tight. “One day I ran out to get some milk for the baby and spotted a man across the street, my father’s enforcer, Vinny.” She paled at the memory.
“Yeah, I know him,” Frankie said, balling his fists in his pockets. “Ugly mug, even without that one busted eye sitting lower than the other one. I heard he killed his own grandma.”
Chastity’s lips formed a thin, determined line. “I knew I had to hide. There was no time to tell anyone. I didn’t even take the baby back to the apartment. Bonnie and I went underground, to another safe house, the one by the river.” Her eyes dulled. “But Vinny caug
ht up with me. He brought us back to my father. As soon as he saw me, Daddy went purple with rage.”
Lou took both of his wife’s hands in his. “I’m sorry I never told you the danger we were in when we eloped. We should have never come back to Sugarland. We should have run out to the middle of nowhere. I thought this was nowhere enough. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“I was his perfect little girl. I think he would have come around eventually,” she assured her husband before lowering her head. A tear dripped down her cheek.
“You could have told us,” Frankie said. “The South Town Boys would have stood by you.”
“I wanted to keep my family separate from the job,” Lou said quietly, his attention on his wife.
“The South Town Boys were your family,” Frankie insisted.
“No,” Lou said simply.
“I was your family,” Frankie shouted.
“No,” Lou thundered. “They were your family. I was nothing to you anymore!”
“Whose fault was that?” Frankie demanded, tossing his arms up. “I invited you to go to Memphis to bust some heads. You said you had a wedding to go to.” His eyes widened when he realized whose wedding. “I asked you to help Suds and me fix a horse race. You said you had a dinner.”
“I was trying to get out, and you dived straight in,” Lou shouted.
Frankie looked ready to shoot his brother again. “They talked to me. They listened to me,” Frankie spat. “They actually gave a damn!”
Lou looked like the weight of the world had just been dropped onto his shoulders. “I just couldn’t do it anymore. I never wanted to do it in the first place.”
For the first time in his life, Frankie stood speechless.
Chastity held on tight to Lou’s arm. “You’re a good man. That’s one of the things I love about you.”
“I didn’t protect you,” he said quietly.
“It wasn’t your fault, Lou,” she insisted. “Daddy wanted to annul the marriage. He dragged me back to Pastor Clemens and demanded the preacher undo the marriage at gunpoint.”
“He can’t do that,” I insisted. “It wouldn’t be legal, even if it was moral.” Which it was not.
“You don’t understand—when Daddy didn’t get his way, he’d go crazy. Still, I was his angel girl. He’d never hurt me, not in my whole life,” she insisted. “I thought when he saw the baby, he might come around.” Her expression hardened. “But he wanted me back under his thumb. I refused to sign the annulment papers Daddy brought with him from Chicago. That’s when he killed me.