Page 62 of Working for the Mob

Why would they turn down this road? The hairs on the back of my neck stood up; something didn’t feel right. We needed to get off this curb now.

“Jamie, we’ve got to go,” I said, in an urgent tone. The headlights grew bigger.

“Don’t rush me on my birthday,” Jamie said, and snailed his leg onto the curb.

“Jamie!” I pulled him out of the seat. He fell on top of me as the foreign car drew level with us. After the blinding headlights, I could barely make out the silhouette of the car, but I caught a shadowy figure rising above the hood.

“The Valuncias say hi,” a reedy voice yelled into the night.

My insides seized once I caught the gleam of a gun barrel, pointed straight at us. Could we make it to the house? Was there any other cover? The moment lasted forever as every scenario played out in my head. Instead, I just yelled two words.

“Jamie, duck!”

Gunshots burst into the night as I threw Jamie against the door of the car and huddled next to him. My car’s windows showered glass on us as a stream of bullets rained overhead. The car was not bulletproof, but two sets of doors should protect us.

The ground in front of us exploded, accompanied by a downpour of dirt. I kept my hands over my head, out of instinct.

The deafening shots ended and were followed by a muzzled clicking––the shooter’s magazine had run out. Without thinking, I pulled my revolver from my waistband and fired shots at the dark vehicle, but it was already speeding away. I saved a shot in case they came back, and lights popped up on the houses down the street.

“That was a close one,” I said. I un-cocked the gun and stashed it back into my waistband.

“Do you need a hand?” I asked Jamie, and bent over to help him up. But Jamie didn’t grab my hand. “Jamie?”

I leaned in closer––his eyes were closed and his body limp; blood ran down his shoulder and onto the grass. “Jamie! Jamie!”

???

They wouldn’t let me into his room. Only family could visit him back there. Cissy came with us to the hospital, while I drove the thirty miles to Turnersville to get there without any windows. It was a fucking cold and terrifying drive.

They rushed him into surgery as soon as we arrived. I sat in a hard, wooden chair with Cissy while they dug the bullet out. She cried. We prayed. She would cry more and then we would pray again.

After two hours a doctor came out to tell us that the surgery went well, but Jamie was far from out of the woods. The next forty-eight hours would determine whether he lived or died.

Just after the sun came out, the doctor let Cissy go to the back and see him. I didn’t know whether he let her back to keep him company, or to say her goodbyes.

This was entirely my fault.Iprovoked the Valuncias. They were followingmeto Jamie’s. The bullets weren’t meant for Jamie, they were meant for me. I should be the one back there in a hospital bed. Not Jamie.

Cissy shouldn’t have to be back there with him, unsure whether her husband will live or die. It should be me. No one would be back there with me. Lance might check in on me, but he wouldn’t be back there like Cissy, holding my hand.

No. I didn’t have anyone to sit at my bedside, praying I’d pull through. And it was better that way. I was a danger to everyone around me.

But what if something were to happen to me. Would anyone be here in the lobby to waiting on the verdict?

Would Genevieve?a small voice asked in the back of my head.

Probably not. Not with the way I treated her.

I closed my eyes and tried to think of better thoughts. But it was a long time before I drifted to sleep.

???

Angry shouts startled me awake. I swung my head around and tried to blink the blurry lines out of my vision. The shouting continued, until I located the cause of the commotion: Lucy, in less makeup than I’d ever seen her, shouted at a nurse while her sister held her back.

“You let me go back there to see him. We’re practically family, dammit!” Lucy snarled with venom. I was surprised the nurse didn’t call security.

Genevieve clenched her teeth and held onto the back of Lucy’s dress to prevent her from accosting the nurse. “Lucy, it's okay. We’ll just wait out here.”

“Wait here for that shrew hiding behind her clipboard? The one that wouldn’t even let us know how he’s doing?”

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