Dysfunctional Affair

by James, Hadena

  “Patrick went to get coffee. Thomas was sleeping. When Patrick got back, Thomas had flat-lined.” Anthony took a cup of coffee. I picked up the pot and smashed it against the wall. Melina went to pick it up.

  “Don’t mom, just leave it.” The anger was being replaced by complete rage.

  “Where’s Patrick now?” I kept my voice calm.

  “On his way here.” Anthony took a sip of the coffee.

  “So you’ve spoken with him?” I made it a question but knew the answer. Of course Anthony had spoken with him. Anthony nodded.

  “It’s not his fault Nadine, it could have happened to any of us. Visiting hours were over, Thomas should have been fine.” Zeke pressed hard on the wound, harder than needed. I turned to look at him.

  “Really? Would it have happened to you, Zeke?”

  “It could have. When you were in the hospital, I left the room twice after visiting hours had ended to get coffee. We expect the hospital to be safe when the doors are locked for the night.”

  “So this was someone already inside the hospital. Great.” A car pulled into my drive way, it’s lights reflecting through the house. Patrick. I worked hard to control my breathing. Zeke was right, it could have happened to any of us. We did assume a hospital was safe once unnecessary visitors were shooed from the building.

  Liam went to let him in. I concentrated hard on picking up the broken coffee pot. Someone had already conjured up a second one, it now sat percolating on the counter. I was pretty sure I hadn’t owned two. Maybe someone brought it thinking I wouldn’t have coffee.

  Patrick came into the dining room. His face was pale and care worn; black circles ringed his eyes. A fine tremble ran through him.

  “Nadine, I…” he fell into a chair, sobbing.

  I stared past him, unable to watch the raw grief on Patrick’s face. He was in his own private hell. He had failed and he knew it. Instead of some anonymous client, a friend had died. My eyes wandered the room, avoiding contact with anyone. They fell on Anubis. A thought took shape.

  “Anubis, come,” I commanded in Russian. Anubis padded over to me.

  “Open.” He did as he was told. I examined his mouth. Strong, powerful jaws, sharp long teeth, I shoved my forearm between those jaws, trusting him not to close them. It fit, his long canines touching the inside flesh of my arm. I have small arms.

  “Zeke, come do this,” I pulled it out, petting Anubis’s ears. Zeke did as I asked, a skeptical look on his face. His forearm didn’t fit as neatly as mine, the canines were directly over the bone.

  “Son of a bitch, definitely an inside job.” I jumped from the floor. Tossing down the pieces of glass. “Good boy Anubis, very good boy.”

  The phone rang twice before Ivan answered, his voice heavy.

  “Ivan, Thomas died and I think I know who killed him.” I said as soon as he’d finished saying hello.

  “What?” Ivan was not one of the those people that instantly woke up.

  “My employee, Thomas, he did in the hospital from non-threatening injuries. I think I know who did it.”

  “Nadine,” he sighed.

  “Just listen to me. Remember Anubis attacked one of the gunmen? Anubis may be a domestic, but he’s still a large predator, I can’t remember the number of times he’s chewed up an animal. His mouth is huge, he can fit my entire arm into his mouth, but on Zeke, the teeth come down on the bone. What if the guy Anubis attacked went to the emergency room?” I took a breath, letting it sink in. “A very large random dog bite. The hospital would keep him overnight not to mention the fact that the guy would have a really nasty wound. The reason I don’t use Anubis as an attack dog is that he’s a shaker. He shakes the hell out of everything he grabs. His teeth would have torn out a ch…”

  “Because he may not be a tiger, but he’s still a hell of a predator.” Ivan was catching on. “I should check the hospital for people admitted with dog bites. Can we match Anubis to the guy?”

  “You mean besides the DNA from Anubis’s fur?”

  “That takes months to process.”

  “Um, the teeth marks would probably be worthless, he would have shredded the skin. I guess we should have checked his stomach contents.” The thought of that made me a little green. It didn’t do much for the others in the room, either.

  “Why don’t I call the hospital,” Ivan sounded like he was going to be sick. I gave a look at Anubis and scratched his ear again. It wasn’t his fault he was a predator.

  “Yeah, get back to me on that.” I hung up and stared at Patrick. “Patrick, I’m going to have Anthony take you home. Get some sleep.”

  The coffee pot was still on the floor. I started cleaning it up again.

  “Nadine,” Patrick started again.

  “Patrick, it could have happened to any of us, we learned a lesson tonight. In a few days, we’ll throw Thomas a wake and make sure he has a proper burial. For now, I have some phone calls to make.” I tossed the glass shards in the trash.

  The library was unlocked. I grabbed the laptop, taking it into the dining room. Checking the clock, I booted it. I opened a file. Emergency contact information flashed on the screen. Scrolling quickly I found the name of Thomas’s sister in Buffalo, New York. This would be better in person. Pity I couldn’t hop a plane and go out there. I steeled myself, dialing the number.

  “Hello?” A man answered, at least she wouldn’t be alone.

  “My name is Nadine Daniels, I am trying to reach Erica Logan.”

  “Hold on,” the man was an instant waker.

  “Honey,” I heard him start to talk, but not to me. Liam sat down, putting his hand on top of mine. Zeke stood behind me. Mom busied herself with coffee. Tense moments for all of us.

  “This is Erica.” The woman sounded scared, I guess 1 a.m. phone calls from strangers will do that to you.

  “Erica, my name is Nadine Daniels, I own the company your brother, Thomas, works for.”

  “Has something happened?”

  “Thomas was in a work related accident this evening, I’m sorry to inform you that he passed away about forty minutes ago.”

  The woman broke into heavy sobbing. I hoped the man that had answered the phone was giving her comfort. Tears came down my cheeks. When it came to death, I was a sympathetic crier.

  “The company will make all the necessary arrangements for his funeral. We will also fly you and your family to Kansas City. Is there anything I can do for you in the interim?”

  “No, um,” she choked on tears.

  “Fine, Lucy Reynolds will be contacting you later this morning, to give you the flight information. It will be a private flight, able to hold ten or so people. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me.” I gave her my phone number. She thanked me and hung up.

  That was the worst part of my job. I had only had to do it twice now, but it would never get easier. The phone clattered to the table. Zeke folded it up. I sat with my face buried in my hands. The land line rang. Mom answered it. At this moment, even with all her craziness, I was glad she was there.

  “Nadine,” Zeke pulled me into him. “Nadine, you need to make the announcement at the office. Lucy needs to be told now so she can start making arrangements.”

  “Let her sleep a couple more hours.” I shut the file, pulling up my cell provider’s webpage. I could send a companywide text message. That was a shitty way to tell everyone, but I couldn’t talk to them now.

  “Thomas Gamble passed away at 12:20 a.m. His family has been notified. Funeral information will be made available later today or tomorrow.” I typed into the little box. I hit the send button. When they woke up they would check their phones and get the news. For now, I was willing to let them sleep a while longer. I hoped they could ignore the phones in their sleep.

  “Nadine, they got the trap off Adar’s foot, but they want to keep him a for a few days.” Melina came into the kitchen. “I’m very impressed that you call the families yourself, instead of having the police do it.”

>   “It’s the least I can do,” I said absently. All I needed now was for Ivan to call me back. Once he did, I’d get to go to bed. I didn’t think I’d sleep, but at least I’d be in my bed.

  “Honey, are you all right?” Zeke was leaning very close to me.

  “Stop calling me honey,” I closed my eyes.

  “I could go back to pookie-ookie.”

  “Never mind, stick with honey,” I turned to face him. “Did work ruin your marriage because you were never home or because she was always worried that you wouldn’t come home?”

  He was saved from answering when my cell phone rang. I checked the ID, it was Ivan.

  “Tell me you have something.” It sounded desperate.

  “Oh, yeah, I have something. Two men were admitted for dog bites. The doctors say they can’t say with certainty but they are guessing it was either a Great Dane or a Sheep Dog.”

  “Excellent,” I put my head down on the table. “That is most excellent. Can you have patrol units arrest them?”

  “Not tonight, but we were able to station guards outside their rooms. Seems both men are wanted for questioning involving a shooting yesterday morning.” Even over the phone, I could tell my brother was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Well done, Ivan, well done.”

  “Don’t thank me, thank your dog. The doctor let me see the pictures of the wounds Anubis made, that dog is scary. He did some serious damage, even broke a bone in the guy’s arm. I think you need to treat him to a steak.”

  “I won’t complain next time he brings a raccoon up and starts gnawing on it.”

  “Yuck. And you let this dog lick you.”

  “He probably has better hygiene than you.” I shrugged, realized he couldn’t see it and sighed.

  “You sound tired.”

  “I am tired. Good night, Ivan.” I hung up listening to him say good-bye.

  “What now?” Liam asked.

  “Now we go back to bed, try to get a couple hours of sleep before dawn. Ivan’s got units stationed in the hospital. I’m almost positive those assholes finished the job. Maybe he can beat a confession out of them tomorrow. Maybe they’ll even give up their employer.” I groaned. “Shit, the employer. I hate men with more money than ethics, they tend to hire contract killers.”

  “How many people are we talking about?” Liam frowned.

  “I don’t know, maybe a dozen or so. Of course, it could be some rich moron that I’ve never met too. I might be the target simply because he can’t think of another explanation. This is going to be complicated.”

  “Sounds that way. Can you think of any women you’ve helped escape from an abusive brother?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t. It could be any of the women I’ve helped run away.”

  “Is there any way to get records of who you’ve helped?”

  “No, it’d put too many people at risk. Once someone’s gone, they’re gone for good unless they contact me.” I shrugged. “Shit.”

  “Nadine, I’ve let it slide a couple of times, but you had better watch it.” My mother warned. Little did she know that when she wasn’t here, I cussed like a sailor.

  “All right, maybe we’ll all think better in the morning.” Liam stood up. “There’s nothing we can do tonight except wait.”

  I made the journey back up the stairs. My leg had stopped bleeding and I was exhausted, possibly too exhausted to sleep. When I closed my eyes, I would probably picture Thomas in my head. These things made my job painful, irritating. I wanted to save the world, not let my guys get picked off one by one while I sat around twiddling my thumbs. The door opened as I crawled into bed.

  “You doing ok?” Zeke asked, closing it behind him.

  “Yes, are you going to answer my question now?”

  “Does it matter what happened to my marriage?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. I’m surrounded by single people. Well, not everyone is single, but a good deal of them are. I’m trying to figure out why.”

  “My marriage won’t help there.” He spoke softly.

  “Why?”

  “Because it was a special circumstance. Most of the guys and gals are single because it’s hard to maintain a relationship with someone when you aren’t honest with them. Think about Vladik, you don’t even know what agency he works for. Why? Because he can’t tell you. He can’t tell you what he does or who he does it for or when he’s going to be able to make it to Christmas. Imagine having that relationship with a wife or husband. It would be hard. While you allow us some freedoms of conversation, there’s still stuff I wouldn’t tell my wife.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, like the mob thing. She knew I was doing something dangerous and crazy, but she didn’t know what. And she certainly didn’t know who was getting injured or killed. That would have driven her mad, wondering if it was me all the time. Or if the next call she got was going to be from you.”

  “So that’s why it disintegrated.”

  “No, there were other issues with mine. But that’s how it is for most people.”

  “What other circumstances?”

  “You don’t want to know, go to sleep.”

  “I won’t be able to sleep, you might as well tell me.”

  “It won’t make you feel any better.”

  “Fine, good night.” I rolled over in the bed, focusing on the destruction of Zeke’s marriage. It was easier than the alternative. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Russia had drifted completely away from me. I’d been back in the country less than two weeks and my life was ready for a made-for-TV-movie about it. Ah, home sweet home.

  “Nadine, are you awake?” Zeke asked. I had never spent this much time with Zeke before, he was turning out to be a pretty decent person. I didn’t even find it odd that he was sleeping in my bed anymore. Boy was my life screwy.

  “I am now,” I opened one eye. “What time is it?”

  “Six.”

  “In the morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wake me in twelve more hours.” I thought for a minute. “No, make that ten hours, I have things to do today.” I rolled over, sleep instantly started to envelope me again.

  “Can’t do that, honey,” Zeke’s voice brought me back to the surface of being awake.

  “Stop calling me that,” I groaned.

  “Fine, I can’t do that, pookie-ookie.”

  “That’s just sick and wrong, it’s far too early in the morning for that.” I rolled over to look at him. I was amazed that he was fully dressed and seemed to have already inhaled some coffee. “What do I get if I give in and get out of bed?”

  “I won’t call Liam in to drag your ass out from under the covers.” He smiled. Yep, he had been up a while.

  “Why do we have to drag my brother into this? How long have you been up?”

  “About an hour or so. Breakfast is waiting for you if you get up.” I pulled the covers up over my head. Normally, I liked getting up, but today seemed overwhelming. There were funeral arrangements and bad guys on my list of things to do. Nope, definitely wanted to stay in bed for a while longer.

  Zeke yanked the covers off me, tossing them onto the floor. Even with my eyes closed I could tell he was staring at me. He was also too close for comfort. I have a huge personal space bubble, Zeke always seemed inside of it anymore.

  “Get up Nadine.” He whispered in a sing-song voice.

  “Do you realize that if I get up I have to go downstairs?” I complained. “If I go downstairs I’ll have to see my mother and Liam. They will fuss over me and I don’t want that. I will have to talk to the employees which means going into the office and I’m sure I look like a zombie. I will have to sit by while Alex and Ivan try to find our mystery man. Not something I particularly enjoy. And I have to check on Adar. I’m going to have a shitty day and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet.” I took a moment to think. “Oh damn, and Liam is moving in here. I don’t have the
room for this. I hope you meant what you said about building me another house, cause I think I’m going to need it.”

  “So, you’re going to marry me?”

  “I did stop crying last night, that means you owe me a house. I’m still looking for ways out of the marriage thing. Granted, I’m not coming up with any. Of course, if I die, we’ll both be off the hook.” I said that in the most cheerful voice I could muster.

  “Wow, that’s sick. I think I should be offended that you would rather die than be married to me.”

  “Oh come on Zeke, look at me. Look at my life. You cannot honestly believe that my unwillingness to get married has anything to do with you. I can’t believe you’d marry me just because my mother is a fruitcake and you’re afraid of her.”

  “I might have ulterior motives.”

  “Are you broke and wanting my life insurance?” I smiled at him.

  “No, even giving my ex twenty-five percent of my monthly income, I’m not wanting for money.”

  “Holy shit, Denise gets twenty-five percent of your income?”

  “Until she gets remarried she does.” Zeke shrugged. “Of course, if we got married and then divorced, I’d get alimony. I have a feeling you make more than me.”

  I thought about it a moment, “that’s true, I make a truck load more than you.” I smiled at him. “What’s for breakfast?”

  “I thought you didn’t eat anything but cereal?”

  “I’m starting to get used to having a chef in the house. Those waffles were amazing. How did you hide blackberries in my house?”

  “I didn’t, you just never opened the fridge I guess.” Zeke touched my face. I opened my eyes finally. “What do you want for breakfast? Maybe if we give you a good meal, your day will be less shitty.”

  “There’s an IHOP on the way to the office, I’ll just swing by and grab pancakes or something.” His eyes were very blue in the semi-dark room, almost glowing. It was an interesting effect. For the first time I really took a look at Zeke. He was tall, muscular without the look of a body-builder, and the freckles that dotted his nose and cheeks kept him from looking too tough. But his eyes were definitely the show stealer. You could look into those eyes for forever. The blue was pale, almost too pale to be called blue. Darker flecks of color dotted the iris, but mostly it was just an ice blue. They reminded me of glacier ice. All in all, he was very good looking and he was leaning over me. Time to run away. I squirmed from the bed. Definitely ready to get caffeine in my system.