“God damn it!” Dolce clapped his hand over her mouth again. “Shut up!”
He didn’t need to repeat himself because this time they could both hear the sudden rumble of car engines not far away, followed by the shuffle of running. The sound scattered, footsteps splitting to their far left and behind them. Celestina’s heart leapt into her mouth.
“What is happening?” she whispered, terrified.
“Shh,” Dolce hissed.
There was the clattering of stones trickling down an incline very near above their sheltering boulder.
“Shit,” Dolce whispered. “Here we go. Don’t move and keep your mouth shut.”
He squatted and reloaded his gun.
Before Celestina could answer, bright lights switched on and flooded the canyon, the beams aimed directly at her line of sight. Blinded, she held a hand up to shield her eyes and squinted into the painful brightness.
She could see only in a small radius around the boulder where the lights shone; scrappy green and brown bushes scattered throughout a Doctor Seuss-colored network of salmon, saffron, peach, white, and scarlet stone that swelled and burst into hills, boulders, cliffs. Everything was surreal, like marbleized fire or Mars. The black ribbon of highway snaked around bizarre forms of rock like a bending river only a few yards to the left. She still couldn’t see the motorcycle, or the men behind the lights.
What she could see was that she and Dolce were surrounded. The lights came from five vehicles that cut them off in a semi-circle. They were cornered. Their boulder was tucked into the concave fold of a cliff that shot up fifteen smooth feet, impossible to climb. Beams of light stabbed down at them from the rocks above and from the highway on every other side.
Dolce and Celestina squinted as the silhouettes of four pairs of feet, four legs, and four arms wrapped around two AK-47s appeared in the light, inching off the highway and carefully approaching their boulder. Between the shadowy guards the figure of a man emerged, shrouded in light.
“We can take it from here, Mr. Dolce.”
Dolce and Celestina both blinked at the sound of the smooth, slightly accented voice, surprised. It took a moment for Celestina to register who it was. The context seemed so bizarre.
“Mr. Kang?” Celestina used the cliff wall as leverage to balance and push herself up with her good leg, sliding her back further up inch by inch. “Mr. Kang, is that you? Thank god! How did you find me?”
“Not so fast!” Dolce’s hand shot up, pulling Celestina back down to the ground with a thud. “I know you! Don’t I know you from somewhere?” He peered with his good eye over the edge of the boulder. “Show your face, damn it! How do I know you?”
“Yes Mr. Dolce, we have met before,” returned the voice. “. I am a…business associate of Mr. Auditore’s. I had the unfortunate experience of forming your acquaintance in the company of your Bronson Ramsey, Rowan Thomas, and Luther White at the Venetian. Perhaps you remember. I cannot say it was a pleasure.”
“Oh my god, yeah, you’re that john!” Dolce chuckled. “You poor son of a bitch. Why you still in town? I’d figure you’d had enough of us.”
“You’ve insulted me one too many times,” said Mr. Kang, with dignity. “Release Miss Auditore, Mr. Dolce. And stand up nice and slow.”
“Can’t do,” Dolce returned. “See I don’t know you, really. I know we shared a very intimate experience and all, but I’ve got instructions. Miss Auditore goes back to her pop, nobody else.”
A car door opened and slammed.
“Do as he says, Dolce. Enough of this.”
Celestina started at the sound of Cosmo’s voice, so close by, and scrambled frantically back up to her feet. Her voice raised hysterically, a lost little girl.
“Daddy! Daddy? Where are you?”
Cosmo’s silhouette cut through the lights from the highway, coming to a stop at Mr. Kang’s side. “Here, honey. I’m here. I’m gonna get you out of this mess. I can’t leave you with these bikers. I am your father, and you are done with them. I don’t want to know how this happened, or who your boyfriend is. Just come on out, Celestina.”
Celestina’s body went cold and for the first time she was afraid of her father. How had he found out?
“Daddy,” Celestina was sobbing. “I didn’t know. I didn’t! Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”
Cosmo took a deep breath. “Just come out, baby. Don’t try anything, Dolce. You’re slightly outnumbered and this ends here. Just give me my daughter, nice and easy.”
“What the fuck going on?” cursed Dolce, jumping up. “What’s with all this drama? I was on my way to meet you.”
A bullet whizzing by his head answered his question, sending him diving back under the boulder. Celestina threw her arms over her head and sank to the ground.
“Don’t shoot you idiot,” barked Cosmo, smacking the gunman next to him. “He’s got my daughter!”
“Jesus Cosmo,” Dolce breathed. “You fucking double-crosser, we had a deal!”
“The deal is off,” grunted Cosmo.
“Celestina!” A new voice shouted. “Are you all right?”
Celestina’s blood froze. “Jesse?!”
Her head was spinning as she turned to locate the familiar voice she had heard. This was not a good place for him, and he was too close for comfort.
“Jesse, no! Run!”
A trickle of cascading pebbles scattered over Celestina’s head. Up on the cliff there was the sound of a crash. Celestina heard a sudden scuffle above, punches, and the metallic ring of a knife slicing into flesh. The lights on the ridge of the cliff snuffed out abruptly and the body of one of Cosmo’s men toppled through the air from above, landing with a gross thud in front of the boulder.
“Jesse,” she screamed. “Don’t, they’ll kill you!”
“Yeah no shit!” he retorted.
Mr. Kang and Cosmo’s men emptied their AK-47s at the top of the cliff, blindly trying to exterminate the enemy lurking above.
“Jesse!” Celestina screamed as the shots reverberated to silence.
She heard the cock of a pistol slide clicking back into place.
“Damn Mr. Auditore,” Jesse’s voice rolled down the cliff like lazy smoke, thick and dreamy. “We meet at last. You know, you are one hell of a buzz killer.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Cosmo shouted.
“Think of me as the pain in your ass,” Jesse said.
“Shit Nitro,” Dolce called. “What took you so long?”
“I’m not talking to you Dolce,” Jesse grunted. “I’m a little upset with you right now and I need some time to get my feelings under control. I’m talking to him, your boss. Mr. Auditore! You there? I am sorry I had to kill two of your men up here, but they started it. I want you to know I have a clear line of fire on you, the rest of your idiots, and your daughter. Just a heads up.”
“All right asshole,” Cosmo shouted. “What do you want?”
“Let’s talk before we try to kill each other, Mr. Auditore.” Jesse said. Celestina thought he sounded off, a little slow and reckless. “Maybe we can settle things like gentlemen, eh? Even though neither of us are very nice guys. Maybe I’m nicer than you, though. Just a tiny bit. Tell me out of curiosity, how do you sleep? Well?”
“What?”
“I never sleep anymore, Mr. Auditore. Without heroin, I can’t. My dreams are against me. When I am alone in my bed I see the face of every man I’ve ever killed, starting with my Uncle in Mexico, the one who sold me to the cartel. He was a bad man like us, like your brother. I see your brother’s face every night too, Mr. Auditore, but for him I feel nothing.”
“You’re the pyro son of a bitch aren’t you?” Cosmo said icily. “That your handiwork at Caesar’s tonight?”
“What is he doing?” Celestina whispered.
She knew her father. He was letting Jesse talk, letting his anger boil over inside. When he struck it would be that much harder.
“Stalling?” Dolce offered. “Freaking out. I don’t know, Jesse�
��s crazy. At least no one’s shooting.”
“Yet,” Celestina breathed, her chest constricting.
Jesse’s voice changed and grew colder. “But I do not see any women’s faces, Mr. Auditore, no children. You targeted innocents. So we had to as well. How else can we communicate with you? I took your daughter, yes. But you went after our town first. Enough is enough! I know my brothers would want to be here to talk to you about this, too. In fact I think the welcoming committee is on its way. Here they come, listen.”
Everyone shuffled as the roar of not-so distant motorcycle engines ripped through the night out of nowhere, howling closer and closer with impossible speed.
“Fuck,” muttered Dolce.
“Fuck,” Cosmo swore, turning to give orders. “We gotta get out of here.”
“Too late Mr. Auditore,” Jesse called, eerily. “Everybody’s together at last. Let’s have that talk now.”
Celestina could hear rushing footsteps as faceless figures behind the cars shuffled positions and readied their guns, but in the dark she couldn’t see which direction they aimed. The motorcycle engines buzzed to a climactic frenzy, and she could hear the sound of tires screeching to a stop not far away. There was the confused cacophony of shouting, running, more guns loading.
“Don’t worry, we’re men of honor,” Jesse shouted. “We settle this quickly.”
“Yo Cosmo!” called a deep voice. Celestina recognized it as Bronson Ramsey’s. “That you? How sweet, it’s a reunion. Where’s the whiskey?”
“That you Ramsey?” Cosmo roared. “Fuck me. You have a nasty habit of stealing women and it’s getting on my nerves. Rowan, Lola, Celestina. Welcome to the grand finale. Your last hurrah.”
“Don’t bet on it Cosmo,” Ramsey shouted back. “I’m more in the mood for a come-back. I’ve been thinking: has it ever occurred to you that maybe the ladies just don’t like you? You gotta admit the Ruiners have some major mojo going on. Even your daughter seems to think so.”
There was a shot.
“Touchy!” shouted Bronson, whistling. “Truth hurts, I know.”
Another shot.
“All right,” Bronson laughed. “If that’s how you want it!”
Automatic gunfire erupted in blazing confusion. Jesse was shooting from the cliff, Cosmo and Kang and their men firing back in both directions at the two fronts of bikers.
Inexperienced as she was with violence, Celestina could tell this was shaping up to be a bloodbath. Over the roar of the bullets, she could hear more motorcycle engines approaching from the other direction, more harbingers of destruction cornering her in a hopeless situation. She heard her father’s men running and shouting, bullets mangling cars and steel.
Bullets were impersonal, like money. Celestina understood money. She put two and two together and realized that even if she wasn’t a direct target, she could die. She pressed her body as low to the ground as it would go. Her breath was ragged with stress as she belly-crawled along the rim of the cliff, desperate to escape into the anonymous, impersonal darkness, anywhere but here in the belly of the beast.
“Where you going?” Dolce grabbed her by her hair and jerk her back. She winced and smacked blindly at him as he snatched her body to his and stood, draping her across him like a shield. “Not without me, babydoll. You’re my ticket out of this rodeo.”
“Jesus, Dolce,” Jesse shouted in between gunshots. “Get down! You’ve done enough stupid shit for one day!”
Dolce was sweating. “It looks like I have what everybody wants,” Dolce shouted. “Shit,” screamed Jesse, “You idiot!”
Celestina saw it coming before it happened, as if the sands in the hourglass of time slowed down to make sure she didn’t miss a detail.
Her father’s back was turned towards her as he grabbed an AK-47 from one of his men and fired at the bikers on the road, squinting into the muzzle flashes. His face was foreign and cruel in the light of fire, like a savage stranger. The world seemed sideways. Celestina felt invisible, forgotten.
But this momentary bubble of imagined protection burst. It was Mr. Kang himself who locked in on her, leveling the barrel of his gun deliberately at her chest. She was caught, a target, a deer in the headlights. Her survival instincts abandoned her. Charles Kang’s handsome face was like a porcelain death mask devoid of emotion, his brown eyes glinting as he aimed and began to squeeze the trigger.
It didn’t even surprise Celestina, somehow. Considering the new shape of the world, it would be fitting to die at the hands of a man she had spent many afternoons with folded over conference tables in weighty conversation. A partner. A family friend.
Cosmo turned at the last moment and saw Mr. Kang aiming a pistol at his daughter. His face contorted in shock and rage, processing the betrayal.
“You bastard!” He screamed, diving at Mr. Kang. “That’s my kid!”
With the hyper-awareness of panic, Celestina watched as her father hurled himself, fists swinging, on Mr. Kang. For a grim second the men grappled together struggling over the gun, snatching at it, locked in a deadly fight. Cosmo was screaming. Mr. Kang was screaming. Celestina was screaming.
The air was screaming.
A shot rang through the melee and Celestina’s heart burst as Cosmo stumbled to his knees, wild eyes glaring at Mr. Kang as his lips moving in a final curse.
“That’s my kid,” Cosmo repeated. His eyes glazed over in pain as he sank to the dusty rocks.
“Daddy!”
But it was too late. Cosmo twitched and fell to the ground, still. Celestina watched in shock as Mr. Kang calmly reloaded his gun. Again he raised the barrel and set his sights on her.
“Goodnight, Miss Auditore.”
The pad of his finger closed on the trigger in a slow embrace.
“Why?” she breathed.
Celestina watched Mr. Kang’s gun recoil. The air rippled apart as the bullet launched from the barrel and seared a path toward her. Mesmerized she stared, knowing the bullet approached. There wasn’t time to feel anything but dread, and she couldn’t hear any sound other than the laggard beating of her heart in what must be it’s final song. It was her turn now to follow her Uncle and Father into the cold shadow of eternal night. She pressed her eyes shut.
But the bullet missed her heart.
What hit her instead was the momentum and figure of a man. Jesse leapt from the darkness of the cliff above, soared through the air like an avenging angel. Celestina felt his impact on the ground beside her. He tucked and rolled, launching through a parkour roll into her side with the eruption of his entire weight. His body knocked the wind out of her, shoved her out of the line of fire.
And took her place.
They all fell down in a confused jumble, sweat and breath and adrenaline mingling. Celestina was pinned on her back. Jesse was on top, his body cloaking hers, and Celestina felt Dolce’s legs squirm away from under her like a worm. She caught a glimpse of him limping away into the periphery, crouched low and using a fist to staunch a flow of blood leaking from his shoulder.
There were more shouts as Cosmo’s men noticed their fallen leader. The gunfire turned in on itself, flashing in every direction, and the thuds of more bodies dropped. An odd silence fell.
“Jesse?” Shouted Bronson. “What happened over there? Who’s left?”
“Let’s go!” Shouted Mr. Kang. “We will meet again, Ruiners.”
Celestina peered up through her disheveled hair and watched as Mr. Kang’s men melted into the desert like shadows. She saw Mr. Kang grab Dolce as he tried to spring away and throw him inside a car. The engines roared to life and the vehicles sped away, burning rubber as they fled.
Another burst of sound roared over her throbbing head and she saw legions of motorcycles screaming past on the highway, giving chase to Kang’s cars and speeding into the night. Soon the patch of highway in front of her vision was dark and empty. The screech of engines faded into the distance. All was quiet. Only the hidden desert filled the void, the naked night air se
nding chills down Celestina’s spine as the shock of the event began to wear off.
“Jesse?” Celestina’s breath caught as she realized he hadn’t moved since landing on top of her. “You saved my life, Jesse. Are you all right?”
Jesse didn’t stir or answer. He was perfectly still, like a blanket over her. There were no signs of life, consciousness, or presence. His body was slack and heavy and his face buried in her belly. Celestina couldn’t feel any breath. His back didn’t seem to rise or fall. What if…he was…
“Jesse? Please wake up.” Celestina felt a cold and terrifying pain, almost physical, in her chest. “Oh god, no. Please, no, be ok. Please be ok. Jesse? Jesse.”
His name became a prayer she whispered with every breath. Still, no response. Afraid to look down, afraid to know for sure, Celestina felt the pain and pressure in her chest spread like quicksilver freezing around her organs. The pain left no space or warmth or possibility of future motion. Everything inside her went cold, still as a statue. Time froze.
Celestina thought she might turn to stone like this, holding Jesse’s body over hers in the hollow of the rocks forever. They’d become a national monument, the stone lovers cradled in the Valley of Fire. People would come from around the world to weep over them. That was the only option that made sense, the only future Celestina could imagine. She didn’t ever want to move, know, or feel again. Perhaps she was stone already.
But stone couldn’t cry, and scalding hot tears were spilling onto her cheeks.
“No!” She sobbed into Jesse’s hair, clutching his shoulders with her hands. “No, no, no, baby, please. Please not you too. I can’t. Not both of you. I can’t lose you both. Jesse, wake up! Please, Jesse. Oh god!”
Her voice rose in a wail but he didn’t move. The coldness inside Celestina’s chest broke into a thousand sharp needles piercing her lungs in every direction. She couldn’t breathe through the shock of it, the tangible manifestation of heartbreak. It was the first time she’d felt it, and she knew she what she had said was true. She couldn’t lose him and her father, both. She couldn’t survive it. It was too much to bear.
“Don’t leave me,” she pleaded, stroking Jesse’s hair. “Please, not now, not like this. Not now, Jesse, not now that I know everything. Now that I know I love you. Please. Please. Please, Jesse.”
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