“I remember it well,” I said.
“So look, here’s what I’m gonna do,” Tamburelli said. “Davey’s about as dumb as a box a rocks. He’s always doin’ dumb shit like knockin’ over ATM machines and shit. So he’s not my favorite person if ya know what I mean? So for that, I’m gonna let this one slide. I ain’t gonna come after your brother as a favor to you. But that’s as much as I can do. I can’t get you no lawyer. That yous gonna have to do on your own. Capisce?”
“I understand,” I said.
“Good,” Tamburelli said. “And don’t worry about Davey and his boys retaliatin’. I already done told Alfie that there was no money in this thing and if there’s no money in a thing, you don’t do it. He listens to me. They all do. Now why don’t yous come on ova some Sunday and have lunch with me?”
That was the extent of our conversation. Now, reading that, you might think I got nowhere with that phone call. You’re pretty much right. But here’s another way of looking at it. If I hadn’t made that call, I might’ve found Kevin in a ditch somewhere. I doubted Tamburelli would come after me, given our past, but he’d have no problem taking out my brother who meant absolutely nothing to him.
So I was back to square one. Finally, the hospital allowed me to go in and see Nikki. She was sitting up this time, her hair a bit of a mess, and she was trying to force down some red gelatin. Call me a pervert if you want, but I won’t pretend I didn’t stare at her and at the way her hospital gown hung loosely over her bare tits. Her nipples were hard in the frigid room and were the only two points on the gown that seemed to be in contact with her skin.
“Breakfast?” I asked as I entered.
She let her head fall back onto her pillow and rolled her eyes.
“I’m dying here,” she said. “I think I’m ready to go. I’ve been trying to convince the doctor for the past hour. I think it finally worked. He said he’d be back with my paperwork.”
“How is it you still look adorable even when lying in a hospital bed?” I asked.
“How is it you can flirt with me even after all that happened last night?” she replied.
“How is it you could expect me not to flirt with you when I’ve been doing it since we were kids?”
“How is it you cannot hate me right now?”
“I could never hate you,” I promised.
I sat down next to her on the bed and pushed some of her blonde hair away from her eyes.
“You gonna eat that jello?” I asked.
“Damn right I am,” she said.
“Kidding aside,” I said. “You okay? I saw the news report.”
“What news report?”
“About the Simple Simon phone call at Swift Fleet.”
She sat upright and her eyes shot open wide.
“That was on the fucking news?!”
“It was.”
“And Kevin?”
“Not the part about him,” I said. “He’s still locked up though. Babe, you don’t really think my brother is a killer, do you?”
The way she looked at me was like I’d just told her I’d run over her favorite pet. Her lip trembled and her eyes became glossy.
“I know that look,” I said. “Don’t cry. It’ll be okay.”
“James, you didn’t hear the voice on that call?” she said. “He’s coming after me or something. It wasn’t the first call like that. This time he said I’d be familiar with one of the bodies. And he stuttered like Kevin. He whistled that same tune Kevin is always whistling.”
“But did he actually sound like Kevin?” I asked. “I mean I know that’s a hell of a coincidence but Kevin isn’t the only guy in the city who stutters. He’s probably not the only guy who whistles and stutters.”
One tear dropped from each eye and she quickly wiped at her face with a balled up fist.
“I don’t know if it sounded like him. I mean…I think so. But I don’t know.”
“Kevin’s not a killer, Nikki,” I said.
“I didn’t think so either, but he…I just…he kind of…the killer followed me last night in the parking lot and I ran right into fucking traffic, James.”
I leaned forward and hugged her. I was so tempted to remind her to call me Ivory but in a weird way, I liked when she called me by my real name. It was cute. Like she was the only person around who knew it. It was reserved for her.
“So when Kevin walked in here and I was alone and I saw him all beat up looking, I guess I freaked out,” she finished. “And I thought for a second that…”
She cried into my shoulder.
“…that you might be that dead body I’d be familiar with.”
“You thought Kevin would kill me?” I asked, shocked at the absurdity of it.
Kevin had never put a hand on me in all the years I’d known him. I’d pushed him and slapped him a couple of times when he did something really stupid, but even then, he never hit me back.
“Kevin would never hurt me. The cuts and the bruises,” I said. “Those weren’t from wrestling victims. He went after the guys who beat me up. They’re in this hospital too. It’s bad, Nik. He hurt those boys bad. I don’t even know how he would’ve had time to come after you after all that.”
Nikki was quiet and I could only assume she was chewing on all I’d said.
“How are you feeling?” I asked. “How badly were you hurt in the accident?”
“Hardly at all,” she said. “The car didn’t hit me that hard. I dodged it and got clipped. Bounced off and hit my head on the ground. Blacked out. Woke up here.”
“You should take some time off work,” I recommended.
“Swift Fleet?” she asked. “No, fuck that place. I’m quitting. If this…this…Simple Simon wants to call and brag about his kills, let him bother somebody else. I can’t handle that shit.”
“From the shop too,” I said. “I don’t know when Kevin will get out, but it’s probably a good idea if you take some time off from there. I can get you the equipment you’d need to finish up Jane’s work from home if you really want to, or I can have you meet me at the shop after hours and do it, but I don’t want you running into Kevin again by accident or something. I’ll help you out if money is an issue.”
“It’s not. I have money,” she assured me. “My ex set me up. I can survive for a while. Don’t worry about that.”
I was worried about her though. Her ex had some money, that was for sure, and I didn’t know what she meant about setting her up, but surely she needed some kind of support.
“James,” she said. “What do you think he meant when he said I’d be familiar with the body? I don’t know anyone.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
When Nikki was finally released, she was given a ride home by the police. They snuck her out through the back loading dock and made sure she got home safe. I wanted to go with her but they refused to let me ride along. With a kiss on her forehead, I watched her lie down in the back seat where no news cameras might accidentally see her. Since her name hadn’t been released and nobody knew who she was, she’d be okay. I promised to visit her later that night.
Nikki wasn’t the only one to get a police escort home. I woke up at about two in the afternoon to the sound of his keys jingling in the front door. He was tired and looked like shit. I immediately dashed out to greet him with a hug.
“Kevin,” I said. “I tried to visit you but the cops wouldn’t let me anywhere near you. I tried to get you a lawyer too but that didn’t work out either.”
“I’m f…f…fine,” he promised. “T…tired is all.”
“Kev, I saw the guys in the hospital. Davey and the other guys you roughed up.”
Kevin looked down at his feet, ashamed. I knew the look. It was the same one he gave me when he was ten and I was eight and I found out he’d stolen a candy bar from a gas station. I’d reprimanded him, telling him even though we were poor, we didn’t take shit that wasn’t ours. It was the same look I saw when he grabbed a classmate’s boob and she compla
ined to me about it. Again, I told him we don’t touch shit that wasn’t ours. That lesson wouldn’t work in this case. This problem was mine and Kevin had taken it upon himself to make it his too.
“So it happened at a strip club?” I asked.
He kept his gaze on his feet. I felt bad. He knew he’d lied to me and I knew he knew it. That was enough of a lesson. He hated lying to me. I knew that much. I hugged him again.
“Kev, I know you wanted to help me,” I said. “And I know you were angry. But you hurt those guys so bad that God forbid they tell somebody it was you and you could get locked up on those charges alone. You damn near killed those boys. I know you were protecting me, but I can’t do it again. I can’t, Kev. I went away for a long time and I can’t do that again. I don’t think I’d make it next time. If this blows up…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence. Prison wasn’t a place I had any intention of visiting again. I’d taken the heat once before for Kevin and I couldn’t do it again.
“Then, on top of all that, this shit with Nikki,” I added.
He finally looked up into my face with that same look of shame.
“Did you call Nikki at work?” I asked.
“I…I…I…don’t even na…na…know where she wa…works,” he said. “I…I…don’t. I s…s…swear it, Ivory.”
Kevin didn’t lie to me. At least that’s what I liked to think. As I mentioned earlier, I’d always been suspicious of this “girlfriend” he supposedly visited at night and figured he’d either picked up some part time work or was spending his time at the strip club, but that was as far as I would ever think his lying could go. Plus, my brother wasn’t a big thinker. To be a fucking serial killer takes some planning and some serious wit. Unless he was a fucking idiot savant all these years and had kept his assassination skills a secret since youth, I didn’t see how it was possible. No, Kevin had to be innocent. He was guilty of almost killing the guys in the hospital, but the phone calls hadn’t been him and he sure as shit wasn’t Simple Simon.
“Nah,” I said. “You’re a sweet soul. You’ve had a rough night, big brother. You need to get some rest.”
He smiled at me and my faith was restored in the man. He was kind hearted and needed my support more than anyone I knew.
“A l…little,” he said. “B…b…but I need to wa…wa…work l…later.”
“Sleep. Don’t worry about work.”
Telling Kevin not to worry about work was like telling Nikki not to keep a bag packed. That was my main thought when I sat across from Kevin later that evening at the Motor Quill. Chunk was sitting in front of Kevin, telling him some crazy ass story from his time with the Iron Claw motorcycle club. My brother was roaring with laughter and I was forcing grins and snickers through a hazy mind filled with thoughts of Nikki bailing on me at any moment. Valerie was my girl and yet she hadn’t answered the phone any of the times I’d called her or messaged her. She was way more pissed about the beating of her ex than I thought she had any right to be.
Yet, even with Valerie not talking to me, my thoughts were more on Nikki than ever before. I loved her. And I was wondering how deeply that really went. I’d always been infatuated with her and when I lost her to other men in the past, I missed her so much it broke not only my heart but felt like it snapped my fucking bones. Still, that had always seemed like it had something to do with letting a friend down, or missing someone I was so used to spending time with. This time was different. If she disappeared, I wasn’t sure I could handle it. If she’d ever had reason to in the past, all this new shit with a killer and Kevin and me spending so much time with Valerie…all that had to trump anything else. I needed to talk to her. I needed to tell her that she couldn’t leave, because if I didn’t, I knew she would.
Chunk had finished his story and had walked into his back cave when the bell above the door jingled.
“Yo!” called out a voice I’d be happy to see in my shop anytime.
It’s no shock that there’s no love lost between the cops and me, but seeing Reid, my old private investigator friend was always a pleasure. It dawned on me that I should have called him for help when Kevin was locked up. He’d been in the shop recently to discuss getting a special tattoo for a lady friend of his, some woman who apparently meant a lot to him.
“Reid. Twice in one week,” I said as I stood and made my way over to him.
By his side was what can only be described as a ray of sex-kitten sunshine. Does that even make any fucking sense? I don’t know, but damn if she wasn’t great looking. She was petite with long blonde hair and eyes that seemed to catch every overhead lamp in the place, swirl them around, and throw them back in my face in a warm, almost wooden glow. Honey Pledge would be my nickname for her if it were my place to give her one. Her eyes took the color brown and polished it up to perfection.
“This must be Ava,” I said as I tried my best to give my buddy the respect he deserved while I fought to keep my eyes from catching glimpses of his girl’s body.
If this is going to be my canvas tonight, God…God bless you.
I’d never thought about blessing God before but in this case, the man upstairs deserved a pat on the back. Reid had mentioned something about her having a kid too and that just didn’t seem possible.
“Hey man, thanks for doing this on such short notice,” Reid said.
He towered over the gorgeous little thing at his side and had to look down at her as he spoke.
“Hey, sweetheart, you done checkin’ out Ivory yet?” he asked. “I’d like to introduce you, and preferably not have to kick my friend’s ass, because my woman’s eyes are buggin’ out of her head.”
Reid carried with him a sense of humor that I’d only seen in ex-military and ex-cons. He had no shame and loved to call people out on their shit. Even if he was only kidding. Ava blushed and laughed under her breath.
“It’s all good, babe,” I said, turning on my good ol’ boy charm. “I’m used to it. Women just can’t help themselves around me.”
This time she rolled her eyes. Reid squinted his and I was suddenly transported back to my time in prison, where I first met Reid, while he was doing some investigative work. That squinted eye, badass look is probably what saved his ass a few times. He definitely looked like the guy you don’t want to fuck with. Inside the powerful chest of his, I knew he had a hell of a heart and was as dependable as they come.
“Friend or not, you might wanna not flirt with my woman,” he warned.
“Flirting? Man, if you think that is flirting, friend you have been doing it wrong. This is flirting…”
I was only fucking with him. I knew I couldn’t take it any farther. His deep throated growl served as a reminder.
“Dude, that was just too easy,” I said, getting a kick out of Reid’s jealous streak. “Hi Ava. I’m Ivory, nice to meet you.”
She held out her dainty little hand and I took it in mine, careful not to crush this porcelain doll that I was sure was more of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I knew Reid well enough to know he wouldn’t be courting a single mom if she wasn’t giving him quite the work out.
“You too, Ivory,” she replied. “Reid speaks very highly of you, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Highly, huh? Then he’s yankin’ your chain.” I said, passing her my most charming grin. “I drew up some pieces for you to take a look at. Different scripts for you to choose from.”
It was great seeing an old friend and meeting a new one, but then I heard Kevin’s voice call out from behind, asking me about a gasket I’d ordered, and things got awkward. Everything involving my brother seemed to cause a stir lately, so why was I surprised that it did now? Reid and Ava both seemed to watch Kevin with an odd fascination, like two kids taken to their first carnival and seeing one of the attractions at the freak show.
Ava and Reid both mentioned seeing my brother at Ava’s diner, Del Mar’s. I knew Ava looked familiar. I’d probably seen her there a couple of times myself. You should have seen the
way her face lit up when I mentioned their pumpkin pie. It truly was the best San Fran had to offer.
With the meet and greet out of the way, it was time to get to business. I took Ava to the side and showed her some of the details I’d worked up. Once I put the needle to flesh, we were burning on all cylinders. Things were going great and Ava was a trooper. She could definitely handle her pain. You’d be surprised how many girls, and even how many guys, pass out during their first tattoo. It usually happens right around the time they glance over and see some blood.
I always have to fight back the urge to yell, “It’s a fucking needle you dipshit. What did you expect?”
With Ava, it wasn’t an issue at all. Reid stood proudly over us, watching her, teasing her by promising the pain would worsen the longer I worked. Everything was going good until the jingle of the front door bell. I looked over at the door and brought my machine to a halt.
Standing there looking at me was Valerie, looking as stunning as ever, but this time with a young girl at her side. I’d never met Melody but she was a cute kid. Valerie held her hand and swung it back and forth softly. She looked at Reid and for a second it seemed they knew each other. Valerie started to say something but then stopped, looked over at me, and redirected her words.
“Hi, um, I’m sorry to interrupt, Ivory,” she said. “I was just stopping by to give you this.”
By this, she meant a folded up piece of paper, which she stuffed into my hand before backing away too quickly for me to even get up from my booth and give her a hug.
“So this is Melody,” I said, nodding at the little girl who looked a lot like her mother.
Valerie only nodded. Ava had her eyes closed, and I could only imagine she was savoring this moment of painless bliss, or quite possibly the reprieve from the sometimes annoying whir of my tattoo machine.
“You wanna stay for a few minutes and…” I started.
“I…I…Ivory,” Kevin said as he walked out of the bathroom.
Valerie turned her head and glared at Kevin. The fire in her eyes could have consumed him if she didn’t turn so quickly away.
“Come on, Melody, we have to leave,” she said as she dragged her daughter toward the door.
Quills and Daggers - A Second Chance at Love Romance: The Collective - Season 1, Episode 5 Page 11