Skepticism (Life. Destiny. Fate. #4)

by LK Collins

I promised Natalene a happily ever after, so I’m going to do everything in my power to give her that. She blinks a few times and looks at me, so peacefully. I kiss her plump lips again and again, not wanting to stop…but have to.

  Rocco stops the plane and walks back into the cabin. “Smooth flight,” I tell him.

  “Yeah, it was,” he says opening the door to the plane. The humidity hits me right away. It smells like home, a scent I’ve missed. Closing my eyes, I remember why I loved Maryland so much.

  Nat grabs two bags, and I take three, including the money. “Thank you for everything,” I tell Rocco shaking his hand.

  “Of course. Good luck to you.”

  We all exit the plane and I look to the row of cars. “Where did you park?” I ask Tomas.

  He points to the corner of the lot, and sure enough, my dad’s black 1937 Ford Model 74 is waiting for us. This car was his pride and joy. We worked on it so much together growing up, and seeing it again instantly makes me happy. A good omen. Tomas passes me the key and I tell him, “Thank you for taking care of her.”

  “Of course, cuz, I’d do anything for you.”

  Opening the trunk, we throw in our bags and get inside. The car still smells like him. I breathe in a deep inhale, imagining what life would be like had he survived.

  “Have you told Moretti we’re coming?” Nat asks.

  “No.”

  “How are we going to find him?”

  “He’s still at The Shack. I’ve had eyes on him all day,” Thomas says.

  The Shack is his bar that he operates out of and runs all his money through. Turning onto the main road, my memory is flooded with so much. I can’t tell you the number of times I drove down here, and after a decade away…

  “Nothing has changed,” Natalene says, which is just what I was thinking.

  “No, it hasn’t.”

  Reaching over, she grabs my hand. “Are you nervous to walk in there unannounced?”

  “No, actually anxious to get this over.”

  “Why?” she asks me.

  “Because we have an insurance policy.”

  “But he doesn’t know that.”

  “Oh, he will. You know he’s told his men to leave us for him. He wants to be the one to kill us, but now he can’t. We’ve completed our end of the deal. Now let’s go secure our future, baby.”

  I park on the side of The Shack and observe our surroundings. Moretti is already aware that we’ve arrived. A few of his goons saw us pull up in my dad’s car and I know how word travels around here.

  She nods her head at me and my mind flashes to when I was shot. I shake it away, knowing that won’t happen again. I walk to the trunk and feel a little light-headed as I pop it open. I grab the money and Nat takes the folder with his children’s information inside, then I slam the trunk shut. The noise is so loud, my ears ring.

  “Are you okay?” she asks me as I stand there feeling dizzy.

  “I don’t want to fail you, baby.”

  “You won’t. We need to keep moving; standing here with targets on our backs isn’t smart. Let’s go.”

  I listen to her words and pray to my parents and brother to give me the strength that I need right now. They will get me through this.

  We enter the bar and it’s just as I remember – dark, dingy, and cold. They must run the AC in here year round. Pulling Nat close to me, she crosses her arms over her chest and we move through the smoke and dinge of this hellhole ’til we reach the back. Normally Moretti has a man guarding the entrance, but now no one is here. I go to enter and she stops me. “It could be a trap.”

  I look at the clock on my phone, it’s 11:56pm. “We don’t have time to wait.”

  I enter first, then Nat close behind me. Before I even know what’s happened, Nat is screaming and being pulled away from me. I lunge towards her and end up taking the barrel of a shotgun to the face. It knocks me to my knees, where I am kicked repeatedly. All that I hear is Nat screaming, and I never let go of the bag.

  When the kicking stops, I heave for air. The room around me spins and a puff of smoke surrounds me. I cough and look to see Moretti standing over me. He’s aged horribly and smiles with his one shiny gold tooth glimmering in the dim light.

  “You shorted me on my wire,” he snarls.

  I lift the bag to him and he looks at it before taking it from my hand and unzipping it. I look to Nat being held back. She is so scared and keeps wiggling, fighting to get free.

  “I told you, I wanted it all in a wire.” He squats next to me sucking on his cigarette.

  “Money is money, I got you your $20 mil.”

  He looks at the clock on the wall and says, “It is 12:01; you’re late.”

  “Fuck you, I’m not late.”

  “Say you’re not, I’m still going to need you to do one more thing.”

  “No, fuck that.” I hop off the floor with the adrenaline running through my body, pissed off, and stand up to him, now taller than he is. “We got you your money, now we are done.”

  “But I gave you specific instructions,” he says, looking to one of his men that puts a gun to Nat’s head.

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” I scream. “If you care anything about Nicco, Antonio, and Luca, I’d have him put the gun down.”

  Moretti stops and looks at me with venom in his eyes. Then nods to his meatheads to hold off, turning back to me to explain further. I don’t think anyone has ever challenged him. Even after he gave my dad a bullshit lie about my mom’s death being an accident, my father stuck by his side…at least on the surface.

  “What the fuck did you just say?” he bellows.

  “You heard me. If anything happens to us, or our family, your children will get picked off like my entire family did.”

  “You’re bullshitting,” he snarls an inch from my face.

  Walking slowly towards Nat, with my hands in front of me, she looks down and hands me the folder, which somehow she is still holding. I pull it away, hating how barbarically they are treating her. I pass it to Moretti, and he opens it, flipping through the pictures that I have, along with all of the personal information for his sons.

  He gestures his men to lower their weapons. I look at Nat as she stands now just being held but no longer with a gun pressed against her skull.

  “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” he says.

  “You should’ve, because now you can’t touch me and you’ll soon die of old age knowing I am still out there.”

  I turn away from Moretti to Nat. “Let her go, motherfucker,” I order the asshole that has his hands around her arms and throat. He looks at Moretti before dropping his arms.

  Nat stumbles and gasps for air, coughing. I grab her hand and look at Moretti. “Are we done here?” I ask. He gives me a wave, pissed to be done with us, but knowing that his hands are tied. We begin walking out. It doesn’t feel real…but it is.

  When I woke up this morning, I thought I was still dreaming. This can’t be my reality…can it?

  “Are you okay?” Micah asks, coming back into the hotel room with a fresh bucket of ice.

  “Yeah.” I watch him put a few pieces in a bag and then bring it to me.

  “Here, keep this on your neck.” I take the ice from him and rest it on my throat. It’s black and blue and sore from that asshole’s chokehold.

  He pours us each a glass of Scotch and sits next to me. Leaning down, he presses his lips to mine, then puts my drink to my mouth. I fill my mouth with a good amount then swallow, letting the alcohol burn and take away some of the physical pain I am feeling.

  “How are you?” I ask Micah, looking at his body that is yet again bruised.

  “I couldn’t be any better, beautiful.”

  “For real?” I ask, wondering if he really means it.

  “Yes, for real. We changed the way that things ended for Romeo and Juliet; what more could I ask for?”

  Setting the ice down, I straddle his lap, holding his face close to mine. He closes his eye
s and kisses me. The heat of our tongues searching for one another is so hot, my pussy tightens with need for him. Grinding myself against him, I am rewarded with his thick member. The tip is wet against his shorts and I can feel it on my skin.

  He sets our drinks down and flips me over. My legs are slacked and my hands roam his body. Vigorously he rubs himself against my sex and then slides a hand under my shirt.

  He tweaks my nipple in between his fingers, and I pull his shorts off his ass with my feet. His dick springs free and he rubs it all over my pussy, tantalizing me in just the right way. Using my feet again, I push his thighs up and urge him to enter me. Breathlessly, he stops kissing me and asks, “Do you want me to fuck you?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “How?” he asks, slowly rubbing himself against me.

  “Like that.”

  He slides inside of me. His pupils widen with every inch of me that he fills. “Yes,” I whine, “Just…like…that.”

  He kisses me again and very sweetly rocks himself in and out of me. Although Micah and I have done this so many times before, this feels so new, so fresh. I guess because what we are embarking on now is a new chapter in our lives. Freedom makes everything feel better.

  He groans with each thrust, pulling almost all the way out. I hang on to him, letting him take me where he may. He picks up speed, the sensation so strong that I cry out in pleasure. My pussy is clamped tight, milking his dick. My body twists and turns as he hovers above me. His warmth shrouds me as I hang on to his biceps, searching for anything to keep me from coming.

  But Micah knows just how to push me there, and at the same time, we simultaneously come together. His balls erupt, and my cunt tightens to a new level. We moan and convulse, our bodies becoming one.

  He stops his movements but leaves his dick inside of me. We smile at one another, and I reach up for a glass of Scotch to take a drink, then give him one too. We lie like this together, enjoying the solitude of this moment. It’s really the first we’ve had in a decade.

  “What did she say?” I ask Micah as we drive to the cemetery.

  “She was in shock.”

  “She had to have expected the call though?”

  “And she did, she told me that. But I also think that deep down she thought we were both dead.”

  “Really?” I ask.

  “Yeah, it’s just the way she was on the phone. She was…different.”

  “What did she say about Michelle?”

  He looks over at me and says, “That she has your eyes.”

  “Mine?” I ask putting my hand over my chest.

  “Yes, yours, baby.”

  “What else?”

  “Not much. She said for us to come over after we visit the cemetery. Michelle is in school, so we’ll have some time to talk.”

  Driving with Micah, I think about what the possibilities for today could hold. Looking at him behind the wheel of his dad’s Ford, it seems like only yesterday when we used to steal this car late at night and go joy-riding. Now…so much has changed.

  “Are you okay with how this all played out?” I ask him, nervous that he’s hiding his true feelings.

  “Am I okay?” he blazes the question back to me. “I feel blessed that I have you by my side for the rest of our long lives. Just yesterday, we could have ended up dead, and now we have nothing but the blank chapters of our life to write.”

  I love his positivity. “You haven’t seen your brother and father’s graves, have you?” I ask.

  “No, once I left the hospital, I drove straight to Denver. You?”

  “Me neither,” I respond, sad that, especially since I was pregnant, I’d needed to go into hiding.

  He pulls into the familiar place where we have both laid so many friends and family to rest. Nothing has changed here either.

  Micah drives to the back row where his mother is buried and puts the car in park. “My grandma said that Nick and my dad are buried right beside her.”

  “That’s good,” I tell him, grabbing the three bouquets of flowers from the back seat. “Are you ready?”

  He stares out the window, his brow furrowed in thought. I know this isn’t going to be easy for him. But he gives me a nod, so I get out and walk to the front of the car. I can see Michelle’s name clearly on the tombstone. Micah hesitates and then gets out, grabbing my hand, and we proceed together. Once we reach the grass, we both stop. Although his family is buried deep below us, it just doesn’t feel right to walk where they are laid to rest.

  We kneel together and Micah leans forward, dusting the dirt and old grass from the base of their headstones. I lay each of their bouquets down, and he says, “We need to bring vases here.”

  Both of us sit in silence, holding on to each other’s hands, saying silent prayers. I ask his mother to guide me through parenting, if our daughter wants to be in our lives. I ask his father to protect us and keep us all safe, and I ask Nick to watch over Micah, giving him strength.

  Micah rests his teary face upon my shoulder. Leaning over, I kiss his forehead and catch sight of someone watching us. It’s his grandma, Joye. She gives me a wave and sits on a bench that overlooks the lake. “Your grandma is here,” I tell Micah. He lifts his head and focuses on her silhouette in the distance.

  Kissing my cheek, he grabs my hand and guides me to my feet. We walk to her, neither of us saying a word, knowing that in this moment, there is nothing that can be said. We owe so much to this woman.

  She looks over her shoulder, sensing us coming and stands with both of her arms outstretched. We each hug one side of her and she squeezes us fiercely. She breathes heavily and looks to the sky, whispering, “Thank you.”

  Pulling away, she looks us in the face and says, “You two look amazing.”

  “So do you, Joye,” I tell her. She grabs our faces and kisses the both of us. Taking time to study Micah, she holds his cheek and he rests his face comfortably in the palm of her hand. “You look so much like your father,” she says and then she directs us to sit down. With the three of us sitting overlooking the lake and our hands intertwined, she says, “Is everything over with?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Micah responds in a soft tone as we all just gaze at the water enjoying this moment. And it’s so amazing to know it’s true.

  “How am I supposed to act?”

  “What do you mean?” Nat asks me as we wait for my grandma to bring Michelle home from school.

  “I mean, what should I do? I’ve never even been around kids before.”

  “Just be yourself. I’m sure she’s going to be excited.”

  “Or angry?” I challenge, thinking of how badly this could go.

  “She’s not going to be angry. Your grandma covered very well for us.”

  “Is she really going to believe that we were gone working for ten years and couldn’t call once or even send a birthday or Christmas card?

  “Yes,” Nat says, grabbing my hand. “Kids always believe in their parents, and I’m sure Grandma had gifts for her from us at the right time. Look at all of the pictures of us all over the place. She’ll know who we are right away.”

  I sit uncomfortably, feeling like a fucking failure. There is no reason that I should have missed out on ten years of my daughter’s life. I should have handled things differently long ago.

  “What are you thinking?” Nat asks me.

  “I just have a lot of regret. I shouldn’t have left you and Michelle. It’s my biggest mistake in life.”

  “But you’re getting the chance to make up for it now.”

  I hear two car doors close outside and I freeze. My eyes get wider, as my heart is pounding out of my chest. Then I hear Michelle’s laughter so evident and my grandma says, “Just wait.”

  “No way,” she yells and the door gradually opens. She peeks her beautiful, innocent face around at us and in that moment, I know I will never be the same. Part of me breaks for my idiocy. But what she does next heals me a little bit. She runs as fast as any ten-year-old can and jumps in
to our arms. Nat holds her tighter than anything, and whispers into her soft hair, “My baby girl.”

  Michelle just cries in her mother’s arms, and I hold my two girls, my heart aching. The world might have been terrible to me, but in this moment, every single bad thing that I have had to ever endure makes sense. It is all worth it, holding on to my daughter and seeing the way that she accepts us already. There doesn’t seem to be any anger, or even a shyness…just the pure, unadulterated love of a child. I let out a breath of air that I feel like I’ve been holding for years, thanking my angels for this moment.

  Looking at what I can see of Michelle’s face, she looks bigger than the school picture I found, but when she intertwines her little hand with mine, my heart explodes with joy. I know, no matter what…she’ll always be my little girl.

  “I told her to go easy on you two,” my grandma says finally entering the house. I smile at her for a moment and then press my lips to Michelle’s hair. She wiggles a little and Nat holds her face in the palms of her hands. Michelle continues to hold on to one of mine but cups Natalene’s cheek as the two stare into each other’s crying eyes.

  “You are gorgeous,” Nat says.

  “Thank you, I have your eyes.”

  Nat lets out half a cry and half a laugh, “Yes, you do, and your daddy’s lips.”

  She looks at me and touches my face. “And my daddy’s lips.”

  I can’t seem to find the right words, or any words for that fact. But what I know is that the love inside of me is finally complete. My life has been a hellish ride, lots of horrible lows and not many highs. But Nat and I are still young and we’re going to take this second chance and give it all we got. From this day forward, I am making up for a decade lost. I’m not even sure where to start, but I know looking into my daughter’s eyes she’ll help me figure it out.

  Recently I’ve been so skeptical that we would survive to see this moment, but being back with my girls has shown me to never give up no matter what, especially during the hard times. All of all my doubts are erased and all my skepticism has vanished.

  Reaching over I pull them into a hug, feeling completely content for the first time in years. Michelle is squished between us and Nat softly whispers into my ear. “Thank you, Micah, for giving me my happily ever after.”