by Toby Neal
“Well, I’ll go put my stuff upstairs in my old room.”
Lucy stopped him with a hand. “Don’t be mad at Avi. She’s hurting right now. It can’t be easy having you around. You’re so much like him.”
“I know.” Oh, how Dolf knew.
So much like him. But not him. It should be his epitaph, and it still might be.
Dolf walked across the street to Frankie’s a few minutes before his patrol shift. He’d dressed in his usual black casual, and was strapped with his three weapons. Frankie stood as Dolf approached. “Mr. Lexus.”
“I don’t have that car any more. Traded it for this.” It was only sort of a lie. He’d abandoned the Lexus to its fate to retrieve the Humvee and its contents. He opened his hand to show the bullets, cut down to a small pile of heavy metal chips.
Frankie opened his hand and Dolf dumped the gold into it. Frankie stirred it with a finger, bit down on a slice, leaving an indentation. Frankie grinned. He was missing an upper canine on one side. “I hope that gold wasn’t all you got for that Lexus.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Ha!” Frankie clapped him on the shoulder. “Mr. Lexus is a cagey one.”
Dolf winced but made himself smile. “You ready? Let’s go keep the neighborhood safe for another day.”
Chapter Eight
Avital
Avital checked the grimy clock on the hospital wall. “4:32 p.m., August 20.” She looked over at Oona. The woman’s vibrant brown skin, which had always seemed to glow even under the harsh florescent light of the Emergency Room, was dull and chalky. The nurse’s eyes were red-rimmed and hung with dark circles.
Oona caught Avital’s gaze and the two women exchanged a look. They’d done this countless times over the last week, Avital called out the time and date while Oona scribbled it down. How many more death certificates would they fill out before the numbers became too great, the time too tight, and the paperwork utterly useless? How much longer until there was no one to report the deaths to?
Oona unfolded a sheet. “This is the last one.”
“What do you mean? The waiting room is packed.”
“This is the last sheet. We’re out.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Dr. Keller.”
“I already did. There aren’t any more. We’re going to have to start taking them to the trucks exposed.”
Avital nodded, curtly, professionally—but inside, all of her organs squeezed in revulsion. She didn’t want to be a naked body tossed into the back of one of those garbage trucks.
As a doctor, it wasn’t her job to dispose of the bodies, but Avital knew what was happening at the loading dock. She could smell it. And from the second floor, while crossing from the OR to the cafeteria, you could see it. White bundles and black body bags piled up and then loaded into the back of green garbage trucks, the metal crushers smeared with blood—from this point on it would be naked corpses.
Avital stepped out from behind the curtain and crossed the worn linoleum floor, grabbing another chart off the nurses’ station, then opened the door dividing the treatment area from the waiting room. She looked down at her chart to find the name.
“Avital.” Dolf appeared and stood next to her. She started, moving away as awareness tingled over her skin. His dark hair was pushed back from his forehead and those brown eyes of his were almost black. Dolf’s face looked sharper since she’d seen him, hard-edged, like a statue rather than a man. A beautiful, haunted statue.
She hadn’t seen him since their fight four days ago—since she’d thrown her own wedding dishes onto the kitchen floor, when she found out that her husband left what they built together to him instead of to her.
But she’d dreamed about Dolf. Every time Avital’s eyes closed, his body came to her, caressing her, arousing her, making her moan in her sleep so that other doctors in the crash room had joked that they wanted “what she’s having.”
The way Avital’s body betrayed her was humiliating, and it made her angry all over again.
“What are you doing here?” Avital snapped, gripping the chart hard to keep from pushing the single curl that had fallen over his forehead back into place.
“You need to come back to Mama’s house.”
“I am extremely busy here. Obviously.” She reached over to the antibacterial pump on the wall and pushed it twice but nothing came out. Turning to the nurses’ station she called to José. “This needs to be refilled again.”
“I think we’re just about out.”
“Then get some more,” she barked at him.
Dolf touched her elbow and she jerked away from him. “Mama’s sick.”
Avital clutched the locket at her breast, digging the soft gold into her palm.
“I’m so sorry. The fever or the cough?”
“She’s asking for you.” Dolf’s voice was monotone. Dolf didn’t look upset, but then again, he didn’t cry at his twin’s funeral. Maybe even his own mother’s death wouldn’t touch that empty “tin man” chest of his.
“Okay, I’ll come.” Her mother-in-law deserved a last visit for all their years together.
The cooling rain had passed and the summer heat ramped up, the scorching weather pushing the teetering metropolis to the very edge—the fire burning in North Philadelphia was raging out of control and Center City was being evacuated. The air was thick with smoke and the putrid stench of death.
Avital and Dolf walked back to his mother’s house, Avi pushing her bike, having refused Dolf’s offer to help. They passed bloated, stinking corpses wrapped in bedsheets, waiting for the garbage men to come. But even the garbage men were dying. There were so few people healthy enough to help that the city was crumbling.
The Lucianos’ house was cool, the generator in the yard still chugging along. There were two fans plugged in, circulating air in the small living room.
JT and Elizabeth had returned from DC, Avital was surprised to see. Lucy and a perfectly healthy-looking Ana Luciano sat on the other couch facing them. Boxes of medication vials were on the coffee table between them.
Avital shot Dolf an angry glare. “I thought you said your mother was sick,” she whispered.
“I lied,” Dolf said flatly. “I had to get you here, and I couldn’t think of anything else that would make you leave that damn hospital.”
He had a point, even though she resented the hell out of it. Avital turned to the four seated people. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing here. If this is some sort of last attempt to get me to go to the heaven, haven, whatever it is you’re calling your farm in Idaho, it won’t work. I’m not coming.”
“That’s only part of it.” JT sat forward on the couch and cleared his throat. The tallest of the Luciano brothers, Jacob Teodoro took up more than half the couch, dwarfing the slight woman sitting next to him. Avital had met her briefly at Nando’s funeral. She’d thought JT was taking her to DC and coming back alone.
“Elizabeth and I discovered something in DC.” JT looked over at his traveling companion, his hazel eyes softening as they rested on her. A small smile curled his mouth despite the serious tone of his voice. JT’s skin was a dark bronze, the muscles of his forearms knotted. The last few years living and working on his farm had changed him—he didn’t look like a city boy anymore. JT looked like the farmer he claimed to be now—rough hands, shaggy hair, sun-kissed skin, a worn and practical plaid shirt and jeans.
“We have a vaccine,” Elizabeth said. Avital looked at the young woman, her blonde hair pulled up into a tight ponytail, large glasses perched on a tiny nose. She looked like something from a rich white girl’s doll collection. Did they make Barbie dolls named Elizabeth?
“A vaccine?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, her voice steady. She stood and crossed the room taking Avital’s hand, surprising her. “I know that you’re working in the emergency room so you need this inoculation. I can give you some to take to your co-workers. You’re on the front lines and you need it the most.”
Avital was stunned into silence.
“I think you should give me some for Frankie and the boys, too,” Dolf said.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in question, not seeming to understand who Frankie or the boys were. “We have to be extremely careful with this. No one can know what it is when they’re injected, it could cause a riot or worse.”
“You’re spending an awful lot of time with those neighborhood boys,” Ana said, the disapproval in her voice obvious.
“I’m just trying to keep us all safe,” Dolf responded, his voice cool—a ghost of Nando, but missing all the heart even if he was saying the right things. Nando would have tried to keep them all safe. He would have worked with the local guys to patrol the neighborhood—so what was so different about Dolf doing it? Nando would never lose his way and be sucked in by them—and it sounded like Ana was nervous that Dolf might be.
Avital glanced at Dolf and found those dark brown eyes with their occasional depth of green waiting for her, challenging her. His gaze felt like a touch, and she shivered, turning back to Elizabeth. “How did you get a vaccine? And when will there be more?”
“I can’t tell you,” Elizabeth said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” She squeezed Avital’s hand and then took off her glasses so that there was nothing between the two women. “Can you trust me? Can you trust that I’m doing everything I can to make sure that this gets to those who need it and eventually to everyone?”
Avital looked over at JT. Avital had been at his wedding. She, Dante, and Nando had been the only witnesses to his and Mary’s union. She’d been in the hospital when Mary died, and she’d sat in the waiting room as they transferred tiny Zoe to the NICU. Avital had put her hand through the small opening in the warmer, and JT’s preemie daughter had grasped her finger. She’d never forget it.
At the double funeral for his wife and daughter, JT had cried so hard that his sobs shook the church pew, rattling it against the marble floor, the sound echoing through the building. Avital had taken his hand and he’d grabbed onto her like a drowning man, burying his head into her hair, whispering Mary’s name over and over again.
And now, JT gave Avital a slight nod—he trusted Elizabeth.
Avital turned her gaze back to the younger woman. “Okay. I believe you.”
Elizabeth smiled, grateful. “Thank you, Avital. I hope that you’ll join us at the Haven, but I understand your work here is vitally important.”
“I’ll take those vaccines. I’ve got to get back to the hospital and distribute them as soon as possible.”
Elizabeth turned to the table and picked up one of the vials. “I’ll inject you.”
As Elizabeth crossed back over to her, holding an alcohol-soaked cotton swab and the syringe filled with vaccine, JT’s eyes followed her. He was in love with Elizabeth—Avital could tell by the way he looked at her, his eyes glowing with pride while his hand tapped on his knee, as if he was keeping it busy to prevent himself from reaching out and running his fingers through her ponytail.
Avital’s heart squeezed with a brief beat of happiness. JT deserved love. He was a good man and his heart had been so broken—that he could find someone, someone like this young, trustworthy, sweet woman—it was the first good thing to happen since the plague broke out.
Elizabeth injected the vaccine and began to pack up ten vials for Avital to take with her. Lucy stood up and crossed the room to grab a tissue from a box on the mantelpiece. She blew her nose and wiped at fresh tears. “I just can’t believe all this is happening.”
“So when are you leaving?” Avital asked.
Ana answered. “The four of us are leaving this afternoon. Dolf will stay until you’re ready to leave the city.”
“He doesn’t need to stay. I’m going to be at the hospital, and I’ll be safe there.”
“I promised Nando I’d look out for you.” Dolf had moved to stand behind her, leaning against the wall. She turned to him and had to suppress a hysterical bubble of laughter. Promised Nando? Did you tell him you’d take care of me in bed, too? “Suit yourself. But I’ll be at the hospital.”
“Then I’ll be here. Waiting for you to see reason.”
His words infuriated her, but there was no time to respond as Ana stood up and approached Avital. “I need to speak to you alone for a minute.”
Butterflies took flight in Avital’s stomach and swirled up into her chest. “Sure,” she managed to squeeze out. Did she know? Ana took her hand and pulled Avital towards the kitchen and then into the back yard.
They stood in the shade of a tree ten feet away from Nando’s grave. The sunflower was still there—tortured in the sun so that now it was just shriveled black with a few twisted yellow petals clinging to it.
“I’m worried about Dolf,” Ana said.
Avital dragged her eyes off the grave and looked at her former mother-in-law. “He should just go with you to the Haven.”
Ana shook her head, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand. “I’m talking about him spending time with those men. Frank and his guys. I don’t know what he’s getting mixed up in, but I doubt it’s any good.”
“He’s a grown man. He can do whatever he wants.”
“I just want to make sure you look after him. He’s not doing well with losing Nando.”
“I’m not going to look after him,” Avital’s voice tightened with anger. “Nando’s gone.” She pointed to the mound of earth under which his corpse lay. “So I’m not a member of your family anymore.” Avital turned to leave, but Ana grabbed her arm—the woman’s fingers dug into Avital’s bicep, biting hard enough to leave bruises.
“Don’t you dare say that. You are Avital Luciano. You will always be a member of this family.” Ana’s voice hitched with tears. “You take it back. Avital, you take that back right now.” Avital stared at the grass under her feet, her eyes burning. “I’ve always treated you like a daughter. And I thought that you loved me like a mother.” Ana’s voice lowered but her grip didn’t loosen. “I love you like a daughter.” Ana shook Avital’s arm. “You look at me.”
Avital raised her gaze to Ana’s. She had hazel eyes, like JT and Lucy. They were burning gold right now, reflecting the hot sun, their warmth a mix of anger and purpose. “The only reason I’m not letting Dolf drag you to the Haven, and trust me, that’s what he wants to do—is because I respect the hell out of you. I respect what you do. I trust you to make good decisions. Cutting yourself off from us—that’s a bad decision. I want you to take it back right now.”
Tears welled in Avital’s eyes. She couldn’t speak—her throat was too tight, her jaw clenched. Ana respected her? Thought she made good decisions? Avital had no words. If Ana knew…what would she think of her?
Ana pulled her into a hug. Avital buried her face in her mother-in-law’s hair, closing her eyes and inhaling Ana’s scent—onions cooking in butter, tomatoes roasting in the oven, and plain Ivory soap. “Take it back, sweetheart. It’s okay.”
“I take it back,” Avital sobbed. “I love you guys. All of you.”
“And you’ll look after my boy,” Ana said, stroking Avital’s hair. “That’s what Nando wanted. You know that’s what he wanted.”
As if the will hadn’t spelled that out. “In hopes he will find a home there.” Damn Nando, trying to yoke the two of them together that way! Avital nodded, making a promise she didn’t know how she was going to keep. “I’ve got to be at the hospital.”
“That’s right, you go the hospital. You help people. When it gets too bad, when there’s no one left to help, you bring my Dolf back to me.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can. And you will.”
Back inside the house, Avital hugged Lucy goodbye. Her sister-in-law was bawling—porcelain skin blotchy, hazel eyes swollen, and thick black lashes wet with tears. “You’ll come to the Haven, won’t you? Please? Nando would want you to!”
Avital was getting sick of hearing what Nando would want. She gave a nonco
mmittal shrug and headshake that could be taken either way, and Lucy hugged her again. “I hope you won’t wait too long.”
JT hugged her next. “I’m happy for you,” she whispered as she rose on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around the big man. “Elizabeth seems like a hell of a girl.”
JT’s eyes were shiny when he stepped back from her. He nodded. “She is.”
Elizabeth handed Avital a small box filled with the vials. “I’m assuming you can get needles at the hospital. My supplies are limited.”
“I can. Thank you again,” Avital said.
“I’ll walk you home,” Dolf offered.
“No reason to. I’m headed home to change, then I’ll get back to the hospital.”
Dolf nodded, but she felt his gaze follow her as she left his mother’s house.
Avital carried her bike into her own home. The lights were off, and the generator quiet. A note from Dolf sat on the floor, right where she’d see it when she walked in.
I turned off the generator to save fuel. It’s gassed up though, so you can get it going whenever you need it.
She didn’t need it. Avital did not need anything from Adolfo Luciano, ever again. Damn that man. She wanted to hate him but couldn’t, and that made her mad too.
She should really clean up the mess she’d left behind. After her fight with Dolf and seeing the changes Nando had made to his will, Avital had smashed all their wedding dishes, including the six crystal champagne flutes that Dolf had given them.
Those had made a particularly nice loud crash as they broke. She’d hurled them across the room, loving the way they splintered when they hit the wall, the way the fragments glimmered on the tile floor. Breaking them had brought her back down to earth, back into her body, her life, where she was in control. She was someone who focused on what mattered—saving lives, not empty material things like houses and fancy glasses.
The kitchen was neat as a showroom in a model home.
Dolf must have cleaned up all the broken plates and glasses, the bastard! She balled her hands into fists, wishing he were there so she could punch him in the chest again.