I nodded. “I try to celebrate everything as much as I can. Why not thankfulness? That deserves a party, for sure.”
“Good. You would’ve broken my cook’s heart if you’d said no. She’s been at it all morning, yelling at me every time I wander into the kitchen.”
I stopped short. “Today’s Thanksgiving?”
“Yes. Did it sneak up on you this year?”
My mouth fell open, perplexed at how quickly time was whipping by. “I guess so. I’ve been so worried about all the drama that I completely forgot about what day it was.” My eyes fell on Antonio’s lopsided gait, and I frowned. “How’d you injure your knee?”
Antonio quirked his eyebrow at me. “Did Eli tell you about that?”
“No. It’s my job, or it was my job, anyways. I can tell by your walk. Your hip and your knee took a serious beating.”
He lowered his voice, as if the topiaries might overhear. “Bullet to the hip. Then a car accident not too long later. Tore my meniscus.”
“Oh, jeez. I’m sorry.”
“It was a very long time ago.”
“Sounds like a typical injury for someone in… finances.” I squinted one eye at him, but he merely shrugged in response. We walked through the greenery together, and Antonio pointed out the different flowers his gardener had planted. I’m not sure how, but it seemed as if Antonio had found a way to preserve nature through the shifting season. Everything was so fresh and lovely. I fingered a flower in a pot that was still hanging on to the remnants of the summer for all it was worth.
“Would you like to walk straight again?” I asked. “Because I can help you with that.”
Antonio’s eyes brightened, and then fell to politeness. “You’re resting. You’ve been through a traumatic ordeal. You don’t need to bother yourself with my old injuries.”
“I think three days of moping is enough. I’m not trying to be pushy, but if you want help, I can do that.”
“My limp makes me feel like a cripple,” he admitted. “I don’t like my weaknesses so visible. Makes me a target. It doesn’t suit my lifestyle.”
“Agreed.”
“You really don’t mind?”
“Since we’re both grounded for now, let’s get started.” I turned away from the beautiful garden he was kind enough to show me, and walked inside while he went to go change.
Of course Antonio had a personal gym in his mansion. Why wouldn’t he? It was all top-of-the-line equipment, set up in a wide circuit so he could go from one machine to the next, working his body from top to bottom.
I didn’t waste a second, but got right down to business, eager to pay him back and be useful somehow. I didn’t hold back, but worked him hard, knowing that if his previous therapist had allowed his gait to settle in this wonky way, it would be an uphill battle to undo the damage that the bullet, the car accident, and time, had done.
“You’re going to kill me. This is how I’m going to die,” Antonio whined after thirty minutes, wincing at the strength exercise I had him doing with his bum leg. “This is your payback for when I had Eli on the graveyard shift, isn’t it!”
I sniggered at his frustration. “You know, I did my internship at a center that mostly treated children. I think you whine even more than they did. You want me to get you a fistful of lollipops if you finish your set?”
“Yes. I want suckers, and a whole turkey, and one of my guards back here to protect me from you!” Sweat was dripping down his forehead, and the teasing had turned to out-and-out irritability, which amused me to no end.
“You’re about to lose your lollipop, mister. I don’t give treats to babies.”
“I’ll buy you a whole factory that shoots out suckers if you let me call it a day.”
I adjusted the weights, moving into his eyeline. “You can quit anytime you want. Antonio “The Quitter”. Not all that great a boxing nickname, but if that’s what you want, then okay.” I fixed him with my most condescending stare to issue a challenge straight to his masculinity. “I hear some ladies like a gimpy guy who can’t even ride a bike.”
“Evil!” I’m not sure he was teasing anymore, or if he was actually pissed. I knew that when someone in his condition migrated to genuinely upset, he was finally where I needed his body to be for optimum effectiveness, as far as healing. Sweat was pouring down his face now as he glared at me through each pump of his legs.
I counted out his reps, and then helped him off the machine. “Alright, time to stretch.”
After much complaining, Antonio laid down on the mat, lying flat like a beached whale. He looked funny in gym clothes, when I’d only seen him in business attire. The black shorts and gray shirt erased the financial class barriers between us, making me the person with the power, since I knew how to fix his walk. Antonio moaned like a child. “My leg is dead now. You murdered my leg! Are you happy?”
“Ecstatic. I’ll put it in my collection of limbs I’ve killed. Here.” I knelt on the mat before him and took his good leg, hooking it over my shoulder. I leaned forward slowly, giving his body time to acclimate to the stretch. “Easy, now. You’re tensing up.”
“Clearly you’ve never met Eli before. I’ve got his girlfriend between my thighs. I couldn’t relax if you slipped me a Valium.”
I sniggered at the conundrum. “I don’t trust you to do this yourself. Whoever your last PT was didn’t finish the job. They really signed off on you being fine?”
Antonio grimaced, shrugging sheepishly. “I may’ve fired him before we finished therapy.”
“Ah. That makes more sense. Well, since you’re not paying me, you can’t fire me. We’re in this until you’re walking like a runway model, got it?”
“I hate you so much right now.”
I leaned into the stretch a little more. “Tell me how you like me now.”
“El Diablo!”
My grin was too catlike, too evil, but I couldn’t help it. “You just lost your lollipop, buddy.” After counting out the necessary beats of his stretch, I helped him rotate his hips gently, so nothing cracked.
When I reached for his bum leg, he wrenched his torso into a half sit-up and held his arms out in protest. “That leg’s fine! It doesn’t need stretching.”
I paused, meeting his eyes without the sass we’d been doling out to each other. He was scared, and I saw his insecurity clearly. “Hey, I won’t make your limp worse. This is what needs to be done. If you don’t get this taken care of, it’s only going to get worse as you get older. You’ll have to go on a diet to keep your weight level, so no additional pounds are put on your bum hip. You’ll need a cane in just a few years. Do you really want a cane for your fortieth birthday?”
Sadness washed through him, and he flopped back down in defeat, as if my words had pinned him, declaring my logic the victor. “I don’t want a cane. Just be careful. It really hurts when I move it too much.”
“Talk to me, then. Tell me when it’s too much. We’ll go slow with this leg.” I hooked his right knee over my shoulder, and I could already feel him tensing. I inched forward, taking in his staccato breaths with a measure of patience for his plight. We didn’t make it half as far as his left leg had gone, but I held his furthest point in the stretch for an entire minute, securing the back of his thigh to my chest while his heavy breaths filled the weight room.
When footsteps descended the stairs, I expected them to belong to Brady, but the face I’d been missing greeted me with shock. “Jays! What are ye doing?”
Antonio’s head whipped to Eli, his eyes wide with excuses. “This isn’t what it looks like! She was just helping me stretch. Honest!”
“I can see tha. Is she helping give your dick a workout, too?”
I shot Eli a withering look. “Of course, I am. What kind of PT would I be if I didn’t offer the full service?”
Antonio panicked, waving his arms. “No!”
I chuckled as I slowly lowered Antonio’s leg to the mat. “Hot bath,” I told him, gripping his hand so he had help sitt
ing up. “Go soak that for at least twenty minutes.”
Though he was sore, Antonio moved quickly to get away from us, fearing Eli’s temper. “Do ye want to tell me about tha?”
“I’m helping him with his limp. That old injury healed wrong, so I’m correcting his gait. I think it’s cute that he’s afraid of you, though. I mean, he’s your boss.”
“He pays me to be scary.”
I tilted my head up at him, taking in the bags under his eyes and the slumped shoulders that looked tired, but not defeated. “Are you okay?”
“Aye. Has he been treating ye alright?”
“Of course. Eli…” I didn’t want to be dramatic, but we hadn’t gone three days without seeing each other since the beginning of our relationship. Our eyes connected, conveying how miserable we’d been in these few measly days apart.
Despite his weary disposition, Eli closed the gap between us and swept me in his arms, pressing his lips to mine with fervor I’d been missing. He wasn’t careful, and I didn’t need him to be. He hadn’t shaved in days, and I felt the prickle of his facial hair against my smooth skin as we ravished each other. His breath came in hard pants, desperate to get me closer, to assure himself that I was safe, and we were together.
He tugged my shirt upward, but just as quickly as my flesh was exposed, Eli dropped his hands from me and stepped back. He shook his head like a dog, as if trying to break himself out of our haze. “I’m sorry. Ye don’t want to be touched, not after what Dan did.”
I straightened my shirt, my lips swollen from the delicious kiss. “I like your hands on me. It’s other people’s I have the problem with. What happened out there?”
Eli reached out for my hand, dubbing that as the safest place to touch me. “Ye don’t need to worry about Dan anymore.”
“Did they arrest him?”
“No, and they won’t.”
My nose scrunched in confusion. “What are you talking about? The cops are out looking for him.”
“They won’t find him.”
My chest tightened, but I tried not to panic. “He’s still out there?”
Eli drew me in for a tame hug, so I could rest my head on his chest. It was a relief to reacquaint my body with his. “No. Ye never have to worry about him coming for ye ever again. He’s not coming for anybody anymore.”
I gasped when Eli’s words finally made sense. I backed away, flabbergasted. “Are you telling me he’s dead?”
“I’m not telling ye a thing, other than tha he’s gone, and he’ll never put his hands on ye again. If the police come to follow up, tha’s all you’ll know. Dan attacked ye the one time, but never again.”
“I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t want you killing people! I don’t want you to be a murderer!”
“Then don’t call me one, and certainly not in public when we go upstairs.” He stepped closer with a look that told me what was done was done, and he didn’t regret a second of it. “I’ll not suffer another man to touch ye, threaten ye, and mark ye up. I won’t chance it all on a judge giving him a decent sentence, and then look over my shoulder once he’s served his time, stewing all the while. It’s done.”
I swallowed hard, not knowing what to make of it all. “Does Antonio know you handle things this way?”
“Aye. He hires the best, so we can keep him safe.” His arms swallowed my form, looking down on me with affection, not a command. “You’ll let me protect ye, Mouse. This is how I look after my family.”
It probably wasn’t the moment for me to lean up on my toes and stroke his lips with mine, but that’s exactly what I did. Though I didn’t agree with the way Eli dealt with Dan, I heaved a sigh of relief that I was safe, and my boyfriend cared enough to make sure no one grabbed at me ever again.
38
Going Out with a Bang
That evening, it was Antonio, Eli, Brady and myself at the dining room table, along with Elsa, his cook. The butler had been given the night off, and the rest of the security staff had gone home to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their families after a job well done. Caty was dining with Dennis to keep up appearances, though she’d called me twice, vacillating between murder and tears both times.
Elsa carved the turkey, and we all served ourselves heaping portions of the most delicious Thanksgiving meal I’d ever eaten. Brady and I were on our best behavior, eating in such a fancy dining room. There were faux marble pillars molded into the walls, and a grand oil painting of a landscape in El Salvador, which Antonio informed me was the setting of the town he’d lived in as a boy.
Though we could’ve gone home after that, Antonio insisted we spend the night. The turkey was hitting us all hard, making us sleepy. We lounged around on the deck out back, and watched the built-in waterfall trickle into the small pond off to the side of his vast property. We sipped our drinks, and contented ourselves talking about all we were thankful for.
“Our bucket list is getting thinner,” Brady commented as one of the many things he was grateful for that year. “Some of those things I never thought we’d actually do. I mean, drive a race car? I still can’t get over that. Thanks, man,” he said to Antonio while he sipped his lager. Antonio didn’t serve beer, but lagers. He was fancy like that.
“It’s no trouble. I had fun with you all. I don’t get much fun these days. It’s all work and seriousness.”
“I can’t picture that lasting long on you,” I commented, drinking my cucumber water from the fanciest crystal goblet I’d ever held. “I’m thankful for the bucket list, too. I’ve been thinking maybe we should check in with Number 34. See how close we are to crossing that one off the list. Her wedding shower’s tomorrow. We’re running out of time. We need Dennis to really feel the weight of all he’s done to Caty.”
Brady stared at his bottle. “I don’t think cheaters actually regret getting laid twice as much.”
I frowned. “Then we need to crank it up a notch.”
Brady chuckled. “You’re not satisfied with pranking Dennis’ house, his car, and messing with his guts?”
Antonio sipped his whiskey, his eyes transfixed by the peaceful flow of the waterfall. “What’s Number 34?”
“Make our enemies regret they day they were born.” When Antonio laughed, thinking I was joking, I held his gaze. “I was thinking we could take it to the next level with Dennis. We got lazy with that one.”
Eli quirked his eyebrow at me, his arm stretched behind my back as we lounged on the deck. Ever since he returned, he’d wanted to remain close without hovering too much. Dan had shaken us both up a bit. “What did ye have in mind?”
For Antonio’s benefit, I listed off the things we’d already done, including the sabotages to his car, signing up Dennis’ work email for all sorts of porn sites, the fish and poop in the attic, and the fly magnet in his light fixtures. Caty had reported that the house had just started to attract bugs, which made their Thanksgiving dinner with Dennis’ proper and pristine family far more interesting. “I was thinking more of the same, of course, but his cars are his thing. Caty should’ve been his thing, but it was always his stupid cars.”
Brady chuckled. “If we stuck bologna to the exterior, it would eat away at the paint job by morning.”
“A polka-dotted BMW? That’s just precious. It just got cleaned, too, from the spoiled milk I put in the trunk, and the anchovies in his heat vents. But we need more. He had sex with another woman. He cheated on Caty. All we’re doing his messing up his autumn. I want at least a year of him regretting the day he was born.”
Eli sighed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I think I can help with tha.”
My spine stiffened. “Dumping his body in a ditch isn’t on the list.”
“I know tha. What Dan did to ye was dangerous. Dennis is just stupid. I know not to kill stupid.” He cleared his throat at the verbal admission that he’d ended Dan in the most permanent way. “I can fix his plumbing for him.”
“How would that cross Number 34 off the
list?”
“Leave tha to me.”
Brady crossed his left ankle over his right knee. “I talked to Caty today, and she said the camera we put into their bedroom caught one of Dennis’ afternoon delights. So there’s the loaded gun she’s been waiting for.”
“I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad about that.”
“Sad,” Eli ruled. “Someone cheating like tha? It’s sad, for sure.”
“She okay?”
Brady shrugged. “No. She doesn’t want to talk about it, though. She’s spending Thanksgiving there to keep up appearances because his family’s in town for the wedding shower, but she doesn’t want to go through with the shower tomorrow night.”
I pulled out my phone and started texting Caty, asking her if she wanted to confront Dennis before the shower or after, when his family went back to Connecticut. When she replied, I reported to the group, “She’s telling him tomorrow night at the shower.”
“Grand. Ah, but I need the house empty if I’m going to do what I want to finish him off.”
I leaned into his side and continued texting. “She’s taking his family to the museum tomorrow morning. She said she can leave the key under the mat for you.”
“Perfect. I’ll go on over tomorrow while Dennis is at work, and set it all right. Tell her to take her shower in the morning before I get there, and to use the can at the museum.”
I thumbed at a thread on Eli’s button-down. He wore mostly pajamas or weekend clothes at the apartment, but at work, he wore nice pants and formal shirts. Since he wasn’t on the clock, he had jeans on and a dress shirt, which just so happened to be a killer combination on his toned form. “No offense, but I was thinking going bigger than overflowing his toilets. It’s got to be something where he looks back on the year he cheated on the best thing that ever happened to him, and he shudders.”
Violet’s Bucket List Page 25