Shay Savage - Otherwise Unharmed

“She has a nice, tight little pussy,” he said.  “I figured you couldn’t fill it up.”

He stuck a finger in his mouth and sucked on it.

I pushed myself up, lashing out with one boot to his shin.  Davies lost his balance and fell but kept hold of his gun.  I grabbed for his wrist, and we rolled to the side.  He cried out as he hit the glass, then wrenched his hand free and punched my gut with the butt end of the gun.

My left fist made contact with his jaw, and his head snapped back.  It didn’t deter him, though.  He punched me again with the revolver, knocking me back to the floor.

My head swam.  I was on my back again, blissfully not in a pile of glass, but I could barely move from the dizziness in my head.  I looked up to see Davies standing over me again.

“Time to pay, Arden,” Davies said as he raised the gun to my face.  “Who’s the fucking hero, now?”

The blast rang through my ears, leaving me deaf for a moment.  I waited for the pain, but there was nothing.  For a moment, I thought I might be dead, but then I realized I could hear Lia screaming.

“It’s all right, babe,” Jonathan’s voice echoed from behind me.  “You did good.”

I pushed myself up on my elbows and focused on the body of Kyle Davies lying near my feet.  There was a gaping hole in the back of his chest and blood everywhere.  I looked over to Lia who held my Beretta in her hands.

Her face was white.

The dust was clearing, and as my vision returned, the nausea subsided.  I looked around the room to see Rinaldo standing in the middle of it, a gun in each hand.  He was looking over the scene with his knuckles white against the pistol grips, his nostrils flared, and his eyes blazing.

There were no more shots.

I made my way over to Lia and kneeled in front of her.  She still held the gun out at the ready as she looked into my eyes.

“I killed him,” she whispered.

“I know,” I replied.  “It’s okay.”

She shook her head rapidly, and her hands clenched.  I needed to get the gun out of her hand before she inadvertently fired it again.

“Give me the gun, baby,” I said softly.

Lia’s eyes were still wide, and her chest rose and fell rapidly.  I reached forward and placed my palm over the barrel of the Beretta and gave it a bit of a twist, freeing it from her fingers.  She collapsed into a heap as soon as I did, and I dragged her closer to me.

“It’s all right,” I told her.  “You’re okay—I’m okay.”

“I killed him,” she said again.

“I know.”  I held her to me.  “You had to, baby.”

Rinaldo was holding Luisa gently by her good arm as he picked his way through the rubble, kicking at Rurik’s body in the process.  Victor and Matthew both lay still, but I couldn’t tell if they were dead or just unconscious.  Milena was holding Nick’s head in her lap, but his eyes were open and he was talking to her as tears ran down her cheeks.  I looked toward the window and saw Micah’s body bent at an awkward angle on the floor.

“You okay?” Jonathan asked.

“I think so,” I said.  I looked down to my leg.  The tear in my jeans revealed the bullet wound across my calf.  “Hurts like a bitch, but it’s not serious.  We need Doc Franklyn.”

“I’ll get him,” Jonathan said.

“Call in a cleaning crew, too,” Rinaldo called out as Jonathan stood and headed out.

By the time the doctor arrived, Jonathan and Rinaldo had moved Matthew and Victor’s bodies to one side of the room and Micah, Rurik, and three of their cohorts’ bodies to the other side.  Johnson—or whatever his name was—and Davies were still right where they fell.

Jonathan had cleared an area in the center of the room for Luisa to relax and for Rinaldo to pace.  Nick was sitting up, but like me, he had also been shot in the leg.  The wound was deeper, and the bullet was still inside, but Franklyn didn’t think he would lose his leg or anything.  He bandaged it, but said he wanted to take him to his office to get the bullet removed and his leg properly patched up.

Luisa’s scalp needed a couple of stitches, and her arm was put into a sling until Franklyn could get everything he needed to reset the break and apply a cast.  The doctor checked over Rinaldo, but other than a few scrapes and bruises, he was fine as was Jonathan.  Franklyn bandaged up my leg after agreeing that it wasn’t anything too serious and then handed me a bottle of antibiotics, which I pocketed after taking one of them.  He was more concerned about the obvious concussion I had suffered, but I told him to get off my ass and deal with the others.

Rinaldo looked over to me as the doctor wrapped my leg.

“It’s on,” he said as he looked around to everyone in the room.  “No one comes to my house like that and lives.  We’re taking out all of Greco’s organization and the Russians.  None saved.”

“Retribution,” Luisa hissed.  “Those fuckers are going to pay—all of them.”

Milena held on to Nick, but he just looked between his father and sister before he nodded his head in agreement.

I turned my attention back to Lia.

She was still white as a sheet, and I had the doctor come over and check her out.

“She’s in a bit of shock,” he said.  “Keep her warm and yell if she gets worse.  She’s going to have a nasty bruise there on her leg, but she’s otherwise unharmed.”

The phrase made me cringe.  I knew by the look in her eyes that she was anything but—it was a look I’d seen many times before, often in the mirror.  I took her face in my hands and tried to get her to focus on me.  As soon as she did, she broke down and started to cry.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her as tightly as I could.  She’d saved my life, no doubt, but right now, she couldn’t see it for what it was.

“He would have killed me, baby,” I whispered into her hair.  “If you hadn’t pulled the trigger, he would have killed me just like he did Odin.”

Lia clung to me, sobbing against my bare chest as her fingers gripped my shoulders.

“It’s over now, baby,” I told her.  “It’s over.”

“Take me away from here,” she whispered.  “I can’t do this anymore, Evan—I can’t!”

“You don’t have to,” I said.  “I love you, and we’re going to leave.”

Nothing would stop me from taking her far away from all of this.

Lia wasn’t happy about it, but I insisted she stay at Rinaldo’s southern house while I bought replacement items for the things that were destroyed when Davies wrecked the apartment.  I also had a few other things I wanted to get done before we left, and I couldn’t do all of those things with her in tow.

I also needed a little time to myself.

I kicked at the curb as I loitered and wished I had put on a warmer jacket.  It was only late October, but the wind from the lake was chilling.  After a few minutes of waiting, I looked up to see Mark Duncan as he was coming out of his office.  With a shout and a wave, I flagged him down before he could get to his Land Rover.

“Hey, Mark!”

“Evan?”  He stepped away from the vehicle and walked over to me on the sidewalk near the office building.  “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to tell you I was leaving town,” I said.  I shoved my hands into my pockets to provide a little warmth.

Mark snorted out a sharp laugh through his nose.

“Now you decide to tell me something?”  His shoulders rose and fell with his breath, which froze into vapor as it came out of his mouth.  “Where are you going?”

I reached up and scratched at the back of my head.  I needed another haircut.

“Not sure exactly,” I said.  I really did have a place in mind, but I hadn’t even told Lia where it was yet.  I wasn’t sure how thrilled she was going to be with the location, but we could always move somewhere else later.

“So what made you stop here?”

I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but what had always been there—genuine concern for me.  It felt odd to recognize it for what it was, but I knew it had always been there from the beginning.  Maybe I could see it now because of Lia and her influence over me.  I didn’t know for sure; I only knew she made me see things differently—clearer and with a mindset more toward what I could be, not what I have been.

“Well, I thought you might like to know I don’t think I’ll be seeing that kid anymore,” I said.  “You know—the one with the bombs strapped to him.”

“I remember.”

“Yeah, I think he’s gone.”

“Why do you think that?” Mark asked.

“Because now I know why I kept seeing him.”

“How did you figure that out?” Mark asked as he appraised me.

“He told me,” I said with a shrug.  He raised an eyebrow, and I snickered.  “I guess I told myself.  Anyway, it’s kind of why I’m leaving.  Well, partially.”

“Are you taking Lia with you?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

“I can only hope this is a good move for you, Evan.  Let me know where you end up, and I’ll recommend someone to continue your treatment.”

“Sure,” I said.  I looked into his eyes, and we both knew I wasn’t going to do it.

“Are you going to be all right?” he asked.

“I’ll manage,” I said.  “Thanks for trying to help me.”

Mark reached out his hand, and I shook it.

“Good luck, Evan.”  His tongue darted out over his lips.  “If you do ever need anything, let me know, okay?”

“I can do that,” I said with a nod.

We parted.

I finished my shopping and then joined Rinaldo at his office.  He shooed Nick out of the room so we could talk privately.

“There’s only one real kind of retirement in this business,” Rinaldo said flatly as soon as we were alone.