Brothers Forever

by Tawa M. Witko

  “Wait, wait,” he says, rolling his knife in his hand, trying to stop his laughter. “You were in the library? What on earth for?” He asks, wiping tears from his eyes.

  “Screw you,” I answer angrily, turning around and walking out of the room.

  “Elkins, wait,” he says coming after me. “I’m sorry, man, that just struck me as funny. Come on, tell me. I am dying to know,” he says with a chuckle as he motions for me to sit down.

  I sit in one of the chairs in my living room and watch as he goes to the fridge and pulls out a couple of beers, walking up to me and handing me one as he sits down.

  “There isn’t much to the story. I used to stay in the library because it had a direct line of sight to the office I was watching and it was quiet, no one bothered me. One day she approached me and asked what I was doing and, I don’t know, I told her. She found it fascinating. We hit it off and she would come and sit with me while I waited,” I say matter-of-factly.

  “So, did you date or just hang out in the library?” He asks and I can tell he is trying not to laugh.

  “If you’re going to make fun of me then I won’t tell you anything else,” I grumble, taking a swig of my beer.

  “I’m sorry. Please continue,” he replies with a smile.

  “Yes, we dated and yes, we had sex in case you were wondering.”

  I watch him grin and nod his head. He clears his throat, once again trying to stifle a laugh. I don’t know why my personal life is suddenly so amusing to him. I don’t think its funny.

  “What happened, how come you didn’t marry her?” He finally asks.

  I take a deep breath and look down at my beer. My heart is racing as images flash through my mind. When I look back up, he has a serious expression on his face, all kidding is gone.

  “What happened?”

  “I had the ring but umm…” I shrug. “It wasn’t meant to be.”

  He is eyeing me now. I hate when he does that. It’s like he knows I am holding something back, not telling him everything he wants to know.

  “Why?” He asks firmly.

  “She was killed, coming home in the tunnel. Some drunk nicked her and she lost control.” I take another long swallow. “I don't know… Shit happens! I moved west a year later. I was tired of New York anyway,” I finish with another shrug.

  He is watching me with a thoughtful expression on his face. We are silent for a good two or three minutes before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them again, his eyes are full of compassion and understanding, which sort of takes me by surprise.

  “I’m truly sorry for your loss, Benny.”

  He takes a drink and continues to watch me, his brow furrowed. Now what is he thinking?

  “If Sarah hadn’t died…” He leans forward in the chair. “And say she was pregnant with your child and she told you, ‘Benny, I took a job out of state. I hate being here and who you are becoming. I want to raise our child somewhere else. I want you with me because I love you but I can’t live like this anymore’.” He pauses for a moment, assessing my reaction. “Would you leave with her or would you say screw it, I’m staying, do whatever the hell you want?”

  I take a deep breath but don’t say anything.

  “EXACTLY! There was no choice for me. THAT’S why I left. Do I miss it sometimes? Yes, I do, but I love Estelle and my kids more than I miss the life that I had in Chicago,” he says determinedly as he sits up straight, finishing off his beer.

  All I can do is nod. I guess I never thought of it like that, but yeah, if Sarah had told me she was leaving then I would have left with her. Hell, maybe we should have. If we did, then maybe she wouldn’t have been killed in that accident.

  A car honks nearby and I startle awake, looking around. I see him strutting through the airport and laugh. I swear he still thinks he is a mob guy sometimes. I get out of the car and notice blood on his jacket. What the heck? He said everything was okay. He tells me that he got in a fight and he looks happy about it. I don’t care what he says, he likes this stuff. He’s in his element. He insists on going to Cordoza’s right away, and when we walk in to the house, and them guards look pissed as they grab his briefcase. Charles is all nonchalant about it too. Finally, Cordoza brings us inside and I’m staring in utter amazement as Charles bullshits his way through this. When old man Cordoza asks where he wants to do this, Charles turns to me and I stand up, pulling out a piece of rumpled paper from my pocket that has the coordinates of where we will take care of her. Cordoza reads it and laughs. What is it with these mob guys? I look around the room as we get up and there are guards everywhere and Charles is acting like he can take them all on. By the time we are on the road, I just laugh. Watching Charles do his thing is a work of art!

  ~*~

  “Benny, what are you doing?”

  I stare at her. What is she doing here? I start to make my way over to her when Sonya pops up behind her, holding a knife. She smiles as she runs the blade down her neck, making a huge gash. Sarah falls to the floor as blood goes everywhere. I drop to my knees and put my hands against the wound but it’s too late. She just watches me as the life drains out of her eyes. I look at my hands and they are covered in blood and I can hear Sonya laughing in the background.

  I startle awake and look around. I’m in the motel and Charles is tossing and turning in the bed next to me. I glance at the clock, three a.m. I run my hands over my eyes and plop back down. I haven’t thought about Sarah in ages, yet I have thought of her twice in the span of a day. Why would I think about her now? And more importantly, why is Sonya killing her? I close my eyes again, hoping I can get some sleep.

  By the time, Charles is throwing stuff at me the next morning, I am pissed. I woke up three more times with various nightmares related to Sarah and Sonya. I argue with him a little but there ain’t no use in that so I get up and about an hour later we head to our meeting spot. Charles had said he wanted something isolated and in the desert where no one would routinely go. He then asked me to dig a shallow grave, only a few feet deep. That sucked too because it was hot and I swear I heard coyotes or something not far away. I wait in the car and watch him. As I look at him right now, I don’t see a business man at all. He is something else. Strong and without fear, like whatever he is doing is nothing new, a piece of cake. When I see the dust of an oncoming car approaching, I get out and walk over to him.

  “You sure about this?” I ask and he nods, not looking at me.

  After a few moments, he calls my name and I look over at him and I think he can see that I am a bit nervous. No, I know he can see it. Charles can tell stuff like that. He usually uses that ability to our advantage but oddly enough he just has a look of sympathy on his face that is very out of place right here and now.

  “I will take care of this. You won’t need to do anything but I need her to believe that you will. I won’t make you do something you will regret and… I will protect you,” he says sincerely. “After this, Bolʹshoĭ retires for good.”

  I have no words right now so I just nod and try to control my breathing. I almost laugh when Sonya gets out and sees us and then tries to get back in the car. Stupid witch! As they bring her up, one of Cordoza’s men says that they are giving her to us as a peace offering of some sort. What did Dimitri say to him?

  “Thank Mr. Cordoza and tell him that I will consider his offer, and will let my brother know that he was cooperative in this matter,” Charles says all coolly, like they aren’t talking about taking someone’s life right now.

  The guard nods as I walk up behind Sonya and start tying her wrists together with the rope Charles carries. The guards step away and I jerk her hands down, forcing her low so that I can lean in close to her ear.

  “Shit’s not so funny now, is it?”

  I push her forward and we follow Charles to ‘the spot’. My stomach is in knots as I try to steady myself. I need to trust Charles. I am barely listening to what he is saying though because, to be honest, Charles is scaring th
e crap out of me. And from the way Sonya is trembling, he is scaring her too.

  “We can do this the easy way,” Charles says, tapping the tip of his gun against her cheek. “Or the hard way.” He taps her other cheek with that hunting knife of his. “Now personally, I would enjoy cutting you up and leaving you out here for the animals to scavenge. They will smell your blood and rip you to shreds. It’s the least you deserve for what you have done.”

  She starts saying all kinds of stuff, trying to get Charles to ease up, but then she mentions something about having nowhere else to go and he hesitates for a moment, closing his eyes and I think he is having second thoughts. But that’s when I see it, that smirk she gave us in Cordoza’s house that first time we came by, when she thought Cordoza would protect her.

  “You lying witch!” I shout.

  Charles’s eyes shoot open and he must catch a small glimpse of the smirk I saw and without hesitation he brings his knife to her neck and makes a large gash. Blood spews everywhere, on me, on him, just like in the damn dream I had. I scream out every curse word I can think off as I drop her hands and step away from her, wiping blood away from my eyes.

  Charles steps back and kicks her in the stomach, pushing her into the grave. He is yelling at me to go to the car but I can’t move. I am just staring at him and her. There is so much blood. I think I am going to be sick. He jumps in the grave and looks up at me, trying to soften his expression but he still looks at me with this sense of urgency.

  “Benny, please, go to the car!” He says softly and I slowly start shaking my head and blink a few times before practically sprinting to the car.

  I rest my head against the steering wheel and take several deep breaths. I have never seen that much blood before. Suddenly there is a loud pop and I jump in my seat, glancing over at where Charles is and see him stick his gun in his waistband. I turn back around, my stomach twisting and turning. I am not paying attention to anything until the car door opens.

  “Are you okay?” Charles asks, but it’s like I have no vocal chords.

  The next thing I feel is my legs being moved out of the car and being planted on the ground. I can’t even see him but I feel him wiping my face off. He helps me out of the car and has me lay down in the back seat where I bring my arm over my eyes, hoping it will mask my tears. The car door shuts and I am left alone.

  God! I hate the smell of hospitals. I walk past several beds and there is one that makes me pause. A guy is getting some stitches and I can smell the booze on him. He reeks of it. Is that him, I wonder? The nurse looks back at me and puts her arm on my shoulder leading me away from that particular bed, and based on the look on her face, I think I have my answer. We walk a little bit more and then she stops, pulling the curtain back some so that we can walk through.

  “I am so sorry for your loss, sir,” she says sincerely.

  I can’t say anything though. I just stare at Sarah’s lifeless figure on the bed. They cleaned her up good but I can still see where the blood was.

  “She didn’t suffer,” the doctor says, entering from somewhere.

  He proceeds to tell me about blunt force trauma, internal injuries and that she appears to have died almost instantly. Almost! What the heck! That means she suffered, right? This guy needs to shut up or work on his bed side manner because he just contradicted himself and it’s pissing me off. I’m shaking my head, trying to calm myself down.

  “Umm, can you give me a minute?” I finally choke out.

  “Sure, take your time, sir,” the doctor says, motioning for the nurses to leave as well.

  I sit down next to her and take her hand in mine. I close my eyes and breathe in deeply as I lay my head on the bed next to her. I don’t know how long I lay that way but when I open my eyes I feel weird inside. Numb, I guess. I glance at her face. She looks like she is sleeping, except, I know that she’s not. I reach my hand up and move a piece of her hair away from her eyes and then stand up. I stare down at her for a long time before reaching into my pocket and pulling out the ring I have been carrying around for a few weeks now. I planned on asking her tonight. I had told her I wanted to talk to her about something important and I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t paying attention, thinking about that so she didn’t notice this guy driving erratically. I blink my eyes a few times, holding back my tears as I place the ring on her finger. I don’t say anything, I don’t need to, she already knows. I take another deep breath before leaning down and kissing her softly on the lips before turning abruptly and walking out of the hospital room. The doctor tries to stop me but I just wave my hand above my head and make my way outside. I’m done!

  I hear the door open again, and before I realize what’s happening, we are moving. After several minutes, I finally sit up, feeling like a complete freaking idiot. I look out the window and try to figure out how to salvage this because Charles has probably lost all respect for me.

  “I’m sorry I put you through that. I will understand if you no longer want to work with me,” he says with sadness in his voice as he looks at me in the rearview mirror.

  Why is he upset? I’m the one that froze and made him do everything on his own. “I’m sorry I turned into such a wimp about the whole thing,” I say, facing him with a confused expression on my face.

  He gives me that quirky smile and laughs heartedly. “I’ve been around this type of thing for a long time so it doesn’t affect me anymore, but it did in the beginning. I forgot what that was like. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” He raises both of his brows for emphasis before continuing, “Benny, I’m really sorry you had to see that.”

  I don’t say anything right away. He has nothing to be sorry about. I knew what I was doing. And, why would he think I wouldn’t want to work with him anymore? Hell, that ain’t gonna happen. What else am I going to do? Well, I guess I got my answer about what he did with 'the family'. I take a deep breath and nod.

  “Let’s go back to Sacramento, and don’t you ever send me to this shithole ever again.”

  “You got it!” He replies with a hearty laugh.

  I go back to looking outside and when we pull up to the motel he tells me to go inside and shower, that he is going to make some calls. I can’t help but smile. Normally he has me wait outside in the car. I tease him about Estelle and then go inside. I grab a clean pair of clothes and head into the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror. I still have blood on my face and clothes. I sigh and lean back against the door.

  “Would you do it?” I ask curiously.

  I am watching him do some kind of exercise that’s supposed to strengthen his shoulder and the area around the gunshot wound he got. I had come by to give him an update on what’s going on with Sonya. But now he has me wondering what he plans on doing about it. He sounds like he wants to kill her.

  “Yes,” he says quickly. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my family.” He turns to me and sees that I am thinking. “You wouldn’t?” He asks and I shrug.

  “I don’t know if I could kill someone.”

  He stands and taps my shoulder. “Well then, let’s hope that you never have too,” he says with a smile.

  He rolls his shoulder and glances at me as he walks up to the bar.

  “Yeah, well, you and me both,” I say with a frown.

  He just laughs and nods as he pours us a drink. “Well, if it comes to that, I will take care of you,” he says with a wink.

  “Oh yeah! And who exactly is going to take care of you?” I challenge him.

  Now he gives me a devilish smirk. “I’m invincible, man.”

  I roll my eyes. “Only in your dreams.”

  He hands me my drink. “Nope, in reality,” he replies, downing whatever it is he poured.

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Maybe Charles is right. Maybe he is invincible. Well, I am lucky that he did take care of things because if something had happened to him because I had frozen up like that I would never forgive myself. I know he doesn’t see me as a friend but, he�
�s the closest thing I have to one. I shake my head and jump in the shower. At least this is done and now we can go back to destroying people on paper versus in real life.

  Outtake 3

  Dimitri Komarovski

  I am watching out the car window. We made it inside, but before the driver could start moving, I see him making his way down the steps of the church towards the car. He is wearing that same scowl he used to get on his face when he didn’t like something I was doing. I grin. I have missed that look.

  “Hold on,” I tell the driver and he puts the car in park.

  Charles opens the door and slides inside. “Where are you going? You aren’t coming to the house?”

  “No. We came for the Baptism. I won’t intrude on your home.”

  He leans back against the seat, glaring at me and all I can do is laugh.

  “Don’t look at me that way, Bolʹshoĭ,” I say smirking and he cracks a smile before becoming serious again.

  “My home is secure. No one will know that you are there. Please come.”

  I look back outside and see his family at the top of the steps. Estelle and his children are looking over, and then his daughter starts walking down the steps with a determined look on her face. I frown, what is she doing? She knocks on the window and then just opens the door, sliding in next to her father.

  “You can’t leave yet,” she says taking my hands in hers, squeezing them and looking me deeply in the eyes.

  Everyone is staring because she must have no clue what I do. Stephan and Viktor are looking at her hands wrapped in mine with their eyes wide open. No one just grabs me like that. And, of course, Charles is just giving me a knowing look.

  “I have a flight to catch,” I try to say but she is shaking her head and I stop talking and find myself shaking my head as well. Why am I doing that?

  “No, dad has a plane so you can take his back. Come to the house. You must,” she says leaning over and kissing me on the cheek. “I won’t take no for an answer.”