Page 9 of Free to Fall

Gino stares at me in shock before his eyes move past me to his brother. “Paulie? What the fuck did you do to Pops?”

“Shut your filthy hole, Gino. You just had to tell him, you cunt,” Paulie snarls. Before I can take umbrage, he’s yanking me back against him as a shield.

Gino’s eyes widen before they narrow into furious slits. “Let the doc go, Paulie.”

“The hell I will.”

“This is between you and me.”

“The fuck it is. It’s this bitch’s fault!” he shouts.

“Fuck you, Paulie. You killed Pops? For what?”

I frantically signal to the hospital security guards for help. They take a step forward.

It’s their last.

Flipping open his coat, Paulie yanks out a semi-automatic pistol and takes aim. One shot each, both guards are taken out. That’s before he holds the weapon up to his brother and fires. Blood sprays across my face, warm and wet.

He leans over and licks it slowly off my cheek.

A wheezing sound escapes my lips.

“Aww, doc. Now, what are you gonna give me for not fixing my pops? It’d better involve spreading those pretty legs of yours.”

I gag and scratch across his muscular forearm with my nails. Cursing my soft-soled shoes, I try to fight him with everything my father and uncles have taught me. I’m rewarded by a burning agony ripping through my shoulder and much to my shock, Dr. Moser falls in front of me.

No. This can’t be happening. My head spins even as I try to hold it together.

I won’t go down without a fight. I can’t.

“Wrong answer, cunt.”

Paulie sprays the emergency room with semi-automatic fire. In my head, I hear screams and cries of agony from where one of the bullets ricocheted off the pillar and clipped someone. I let my body slacken in Paulie Tiberi’s arms. He flings my weight away, my body hitting the concrete floor. I slowly inch my way across the floor. My hearing is blistered. Are the haunting sounds repeating over and over in my mind made by people suffering over the loss of their loved ones or new suffering being inflicted?

I can’t separate them.

Tears track down my cheeks as I listen for someone, something to approach and end all my suffering.

The only thing I hear is agony until the ER doors swoosh open and then closed.

Then there’s another stream of fire before silence descends.

I just can’t determine whether it’s my soul rising up to heaven because I’m dead or Tiberi’s gone. Then agony shoots through my shoulder and mind. I recall Paulie’s words as I writhe in pain.

Did I do this? Did I get them all killed?

Much later, when I think about the questions the police asked me in my hospital room with my parents safely stationed on either side, I’ll remember informing them all, “I’m not certain exactly what happened next. Did someone scream? Other than me, that is?”

“You did your job, Doctor Lockwood,” the detective clipped out before leaving me to my parent’s ministrations.

But something in the way he behaves tells me I must have fallen down on the job. In doing so, I failed to protect the people I swore a vow to uphold.

At least that’s how I remember it.

Chapter

Three

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