“They’ve forgiven you. That I’m sure of.”
“Yes, it’s in their nature, but I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself. Even after living through the agony I saw on my mother’s face every time she looked at a picture of my father, I went off and had her suffer a more prolonged pain and, once again, ask her herself a question she has never stopped asking since my father was killed … what did I do wrong?”
“She told me it was her in-laws who forced your father to join the police force.”
“Yes, and that’s the truth. But before he made that fateful decision they had talked about moving far away, leaving them the house, and escaping their orbit of influence and the constant nagging. She begged, but with two toddlers he talked her out of it. The expenses would be too much and he couldn’t risk, or fathom the possibility, that he wouldn’t be able to provide for her and the children.”
“And so all these years she has blamed herself for not begging enough …”
“And I compounded her grief a million times over because my actions defied logic and not only did I hurt her but betrayed my sister.”
Eighteen
Nick looks out the window of their hotel room at the beautiful city of Santa Barbara. The contrast between this beachside paradise and where he was less than six months ago could not be more striking. The stench of death, the cries of the soldiers and the sterile atmosphere of the hospital were so vivid that it was like he was experiencing a sensory overload and was about to explode, but he would never let that happen. Like so many other things, he had no other option but to bury the last two years as much as was possible. It was when he closed his eyes and slept that he couldn’t control the narrative. It was like the rough cut of a horror movie before the editor turns it into something meaningful.
Nicole steps out of the bathroom in a lovely white summer dress and looks across at Nick staring out the window.
“A penny for your thoughts,” she says in a soothing and playful manner.
“A penny … that’s kind of cheap.”
“I would pay a lot more if I thought that would allow me a few more glimpses into the mind of Nicholas Righetti.”
“You would be greatly disappointed and I wouldn’t want you to waste your money.”
“Why don’t you let me decide that,” Nicole remarks as Nick turns and looks at his beautiful lady.
“What’s wrong … you don’t like?” Nicole asks as she twirls around and lifts her dress slightly above her knees.
“There’s not a single thing not to love.” He takes her hand and they walk down to the edge of the ocean.
Nicole slips off her sandals and steps into the water. She splashes Nick with her foot and is laughing and moving backwards when a wave strikes her from the back and knocks her down. With a little shriek of surprise she steadies herself and stands up, her summer dress soaked. Silhouetted against the majestic Pacific Ocean, the golden rays of the sun strike the lovely lady as a divine halo arises from the ocean spray and casts a warm glow across her perfectly defined figure.
Nick grabs her by the waist and pulls her close. She giggles as he runs his hands through her hair. They look into each other’s eyes, two unsettled souls connected by the solace and protection they provide each other. They kiss passionately for a long time.
Nicole runs back into the water, spins around, and throws her hands up to the sky. “It’s so beautiful, here. So beautiful!”
Nicole and Nick sit at a window table with an ocean view at the famous Harbor Restaurant on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. They eat fresh oysters and clams and drink Cristal Champagne. Nicole occasionally looks out at the ocean as though hypnotized.
“Nope. Never stepped foot in an ocean until today.”
“Didn’t you touch the ocean even once on the night I destroyed your computer?” Nick asks.
“Don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. You must be thinking of another girl.”
“Certainly don’t remember that other girl wearing a summer dress. You’re probably right. I must be mistaken.”
“Your sister looked so comfortable wearing this type of dress. I told her that I just had to get some and a few hours later she had a whole box delivered to me. She’s such a doll.”
Nicole turns and looks across at the bar. The man in the Armani suit, Anthony Mancuso, stands there and slowly sips his drink. He looks around as though he is waiting for someone.
“I know that guy,” Nicole says, her face reddening.
Nick looks over. “From Vegas?”
“Yeah, and no, he wasn’t a client. At first I thought he worked for that piece-of-shit Evans, but then I realized that he works for the company. He’s a hitman.” She looks back at Nick. “And I’m the target.”
“Maybe he’s just here having a drink.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence and I know damn well you don’t.”
“Finish your food as though you don’t suspect anything. I’ll pay. On our way out make sure he gets a good look at you … a really good look.”
“I’m not carrying … This could turn into a suicide.”
“Trust me.”
Nick pays the bill and they walk toward the bar. Nicole looks directly at Anthony Mancuso and a spark of recognition registers in both their eyes. Once outside, Nick takes Nicole by the arm and leads her toward the edge of the wharf, about thirty feet from the entrance of the restaurant.
“And is this your plan … to sit here and let him come out and gun us both down?”
“He’s not reckless. He’s calculating and he knows the feds are all over the place. Costello is lucky if he survives the rest of the week.”
Nick reaches behind his back and takes out the Maxim 9 he has hidden beneath his sports coat. He places the gun between his legs and crosses his right leg over his left to provide cover.
“No,” Nicole says. “This is my fight. Give me the gun. I’ll take care of this son of a bitch.”
“What are you going to do, just gun him down? If he were here to kill you, he would have followed us out of the bar. When he comes out, go back in the restaurant, sit at the bar and order a drink. And don’t move from there until I come back. I promise, I’m just going to follow him to see where he goes.”
“You promise, no heroics?”
“I promise.”
One hour later, Anthony Mancuso walks out of the restaurant and in the opposite direction of where Nick and Nicole sit watching. Nicole gets up and goes back into the restaurant while Nick trails Anthony through a maze of people, staying about fifty feet behind. The squawking of seagulls pierces the air above. In the distance, the sun settles into the ocean. As they approach the entrance to the wharf, Nick picks up his pace and moves closer to him.
Anthony turns left, onto the main boulevard running along the beach, and suddenly Nick is there with his gun out and the barrel shoved into the lower part of Anthony’s spine.
“Don’t even think about turning around because if you do I will send a bullet straight up your spine and by the time they get you to the hospital and save your life, you’ll wish you were dead. Lovely night, isn’t it Anthony? Just keep on walking.”
“What do you want?”
“What every boy from the Bronx wants … to play center field for the New York Yankees. Now, see those benches? Walk over there, take off your jacket, very slowly, and lay it on the last bench.”
Anthony starts to move forward and Nick follows closely behind with the gun pointed directly at him.
“By the way, you have wonderful taste in clothes. What’s Costello paying a guy like you these days?”
Anthony looks out at the people on the beach as he slips off his jacket and sets it on the bench.
“Now, bend down and pull up your trousers and take out the gun you have strapped around your ankle.”
Anthony takes out his gun and puts it on top of his jacket.
“Empty your front pockets, keep your wallet and hand me your car keys. And remember, one wrong mo
ve and a hospital bed is in your near future.”
They start walking again. “So tell me, who’s your target here in beautiful Santa Barbara?”
“There is no target.”
“Really, not a pretty brunette with a killer body forced into prostitution by you and your boss?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not here to kill anyone. Like everyone else in the company, I’m on the run … trying to get as far away from Costello as possible.”
“Did you kill Evan Thomas?”
“No, someone beat me to the job, but how I would’ve loved to have erased that fungus from this earth. Sadly, someone else got to wipe the world clean of that son of a bitch.”
“Now is that anyway to talk about the dead?”
“Who are you working for?”
“Costello.”
“Bullshit. He would never turn on me.”
“Please, Anthony. So naïve, after all this time. You’re the guy who knows everything from the start. You’re the one person who can tie him to the entire operation. He has twenty bodyguards protecting him. Surely, you understand how a paranoid mind operates.”
They stop in front of a BMW and Nick hits a button on the key chain and the trunk opens. “I hear these cars last forever … but then any wise man knows that nothing lasts forever. Get in!”
“No!”
“Fine, have it your way.”
Anthony spins around and is treated to a devastating kick to the midsection that sends him flying into the trunk. Nick punches him across the face, knocking him out. He closes the trunk and locks it.
“Told you not to turn around, you piece of shit.” He slams the car keys on the top of the trunk. “Eventually, we all pay for our sins.” He walks away.
Nineteen
Nick watches from a distance as FBI, local police and SWAT teams surround the BMW. They open the trunk and pull Anthony Mancuso out, then handcuff him and put him in the back seat of a police car.
Nick pulls out his phone and calls Nicole. “I should be there in a few minutes. Please order me a chocolate dessert and a couple of cold beers. The man in the Armani suit should be the lead story on tonight’s news.”
Nicole relaxes visibly as soon as Nick enters the restaurant. She can barely suppress the enormous smile that’s spreading across her face, but she forces herself to frown as Nick joins her and sits across from her at a table overlooking the ocean. In the middle of the table sits a chocolate mousse pie. Nicole drinks a mojito as she samples the pastry and a little bit of the chocolate.
“Tastes good?”
“Delicious!”
Nick grabs a frosty beer out of a bucket filled with ice.
“So, what happened to the man in the Armani suit?”
“He decided to take a nap in the trunk of his car just as the FBI and SWAT teams showed up. But a few minutes before that, we had a very civil conversation. You weren’t a target. He had no idea who you were. He came up from Los Angeles trying to keep ahead of the feds. He was supposed to take out Thomas but someone beat him to it.”
“And you believe him?”
“Yes. The people involved in the operation are on the run. I imagine Costello’s days are numbered.”
Nicole shakes her head, then leans across the table and slaps Nick across the face.
“Okay … that’s the second time in two days.”
“Just be happy I don’t kick your ass from one end of this restaurant to the next. You stupid, inconsiderate ass. No heroics, you promised! What would I say to your family if, God forbid, you got yourself killed trying to save a whore like me. Tell me, Nick, how would I explain that?”
“It didn’t happen, so why don’t you calm down. And I told you not to use that word.”
“I’ll use it if I want to, and I’ll calm down once you’re out of my life for good.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it has to be.”
“What’s the real reason we’re in Santa Barbara?”
“Because it’s where I am going to spread Elizabeth’s ashes.”
She looks out the window at the ocean and starts to cry. “We always talked about coming here once we were free. Neither of us had ever seen the ocean and the pictures always made it look so pretty and clean. That’s why I’m here.”
Nick looks at her, then lowers his eyes and shakes his head. The missing piece from the puzzle. A farewell to a loved one who was way too good for this world.
Twenty
Nick sits on the bed in the hotel room waiting for Nicole to come out of the bathroom. She opens the door and sits down next to him.
Nick takes her hand. “When Natalie and I didn’t feel comfortable going to our mom with a problem, we would often go visit our father’s grave. Even though neither of us remember him, when we kneeled down beside his grave we would come up with an answer to our problem. It was a great comfort just knowing he was there and we could visit him whenever we wanted. I guess what I’m trying to say is that before you set free Elizabeth’s ashes over the ocean, you might want to reconsider.”
“It’s not like my memories of her are going anywhere.”
Nicole stretches out next to him and shuts off the lamp beside the bed. Nick leans over her and whispers, “I love you so much, Nicole.”
“I know you do and I love you so much. And no, I’m not running away, but I’m also not ready to forgive you for your inane heroics. And just for the record you’re still six I love you’s away from the targeted amount set by Miss Ava.”
“And it would be a sin to disobey her.”
Yes, it would be. But I’ll tell you what, if you whisper one more time in my ear how much you love me and hold me tight all night long I won’t tell.”
Nick does as he’s asked and tries not to move or burst into a million pieces.
Nick wakes up as Nicole stirs. She looks down at him with her beautiful and mesmerizing eyes. “I would love to get an early start, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sounds great,” Nick replies as Nicole starts to get up from the bed. “And Elizabeth’s ashes?”
“You were right, I can’t part with them. She’s just going to have to go on whatever ride life takes me on.”
Nick drives out of the parking lot of the hotel and onto the main road that leads to US 101. Nicole lowers the window and breathes in the ocean air. “It’s so lovely and clean. Don’t forget your promise — when Natalie finally gives us a vacation you are going to take me back to this heavenly paradise.”
“You can count on that,” Nick replies.
“Really, your promises haven’t meant much lately,” Nicole remarks as she takes her phone out of her purse and looks down at all the emails left by Ava throughout the night. “Does Gina know that her lovely daughter is up half the night writing emails?”
“I’m sure she does, but what’s she supposed to do? The child has an abundance of energy and by the time Gina closes her eyes at night she’s completely exhausted.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would think she’s your child. You both have an aversion to sleeping.”
“I slept wonderfully last night.”
“Of course you did. You had me to hold on to,” Nicole remarks with a laugh as she reaches over and kisses Nick on the cheek a bunch of times. “Just following orders from Miss Ava. For all we know, she might be listening in. And by the way, Speed Racer, I’ll take over the driving once I finish replying to all my emails. I’d love to get to our destination before we turn fifty.”
Nicole pulls into a hotel parking lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She parks and they walk into the hotel. It’s late and the sky is littered with stars and an eerie sense of nothingness. They stop at the hotel bar and sit down. Nick orders a beer and Nicole a white wine.
“You see, if I let you drive, we might still be in California. Instead, we’re nearly halfway there. So it really is true that New Yorkers can’t drive, or is it just boys from
the Bronx?”
“I think it’s a little bit of both,” Nick replies and laughs.
Nicole glances up at the TV and asks the bartender if he could make it louder.
In a stunning string of events, the FBI, along with other federal and local law enforcement, have announced that they have uncovered a human trafficking operation, originating in the Appalachia regions of Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky. Girls no older than fifteen, sold by parents, guardians and relatives into a life of prostitution. Before entering the profession as high-end prostitutes, the girls are schooled in an old monastery on the banks of the Hudson River in upstate New York.
The monastery, with Latin inscriptions of holy verses engraved in the masonry, is shown on the TV. Other footage shows police officers leading doctors, educators, politicians and Ms. Lynch, the hall monitor with the soft and soothing touch, out of the buildings and into police vans.
The head of the operation, reputed mob figure Carmine Costello, recruited investors throughout the world of entertainment, Wall Street and Fortune-500 companies to start the illegal business, which the FBI estimated has earned a net profit of half a billion dollars a year. In a shocking development today, Mr. Costello met an untimely death as he got into his automobile surrounded by bodyguards. We would like to caution our viewers that this next piece of eyewitness tape is graphic and that some may find it disturbing to watch.
Shaky video footage shows Carmine Costello and his associates getting into his car and a few moments later, the car exploding into a million pieces.
A spokesperson for the FBI said the death of Mr. Costello and his associates was under investigation. In another related event, Anthony Mancuso, reputed hitman and enforcer for the Costello Family, was shot to death as he tried to escape while being handed over to the FBI from the local police in Santa Barbara, California. And as if this story couldn’t get any more bizarre, the Las Vegas leaders of this high-end prostitution ring refused to surrender to law enforcement and instead entered into a gun fight with the FBI and SWAT teams. All five members of the ring were killed, while eyewitness reports suggest that many of the girls forced into prostitution looked on and cheered.
Per Verse Vengeance Page 12