Page 632 of Not Over You

Two guns went off. Two shots fired.

Sebastiano took a step back, looked down at his chest, then crumbled to the ground. A body hit the cement behind me. Norah. The impact of the bullet must have knocked her down. A blossom of crimson blood stained her dress, over her shoulder. Her nose ran with blood that looked black, her lip was split, and her right eye was swollen shut. He must have roughed her up.

“He was going to kill me one of these days,” she said, then she held pressure to her shoulder and turned her eyes to the sky. “At least it wasn’t my ribs this time. I’ll get up in a second. I always do.”

The door to Valentino’s was open. The lights were out. The air was cool. It smelled like it always did. Fresh-baked bread, sugar, and coffee. My feet barely touched the floor as I made my way through the main area to upstairs, where the bakers did their thing. The Head’s comment about ashes told me just where he was keeping my wife. With the ovens.

There were two ways to get in. The most obvious entrance was from outside. The door was constantly kept open while the ovens were on to allow fresh air in. But there was a door that was kept locked in the baking area. It led downstairs to where the ovens were.

A noise from behind me made me turn, gun pointed. A gun pointed at me, too. I lowered mine.

Michele stood between the doorway, his hair sticking up in all different directions. He was pale, but his cheeks were red. He smelled like he’d gone a week on a serious bender. His white t-shirt was stained, and his pants were wrinkled. His arm dropped to his side, and he swayed.

“She’s your Carine, you know that?”

“I know,” I said.

“You fuckin’ it all up! You see me? You see what it means to lose yourself?” His voice was raw and full of emotion. But it wasn’t the time to hash this out.

My life was on the line—my wife.

“I have to save her,” I said, “or I’m done.”

“That’s the most sense you’ve made in your entire life. Your entire life.” He blinked at me. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Where were you?”

“In the office. I fell asleep after a couple of drinks. Thought I heard something. Here you are. What’s going on?”

I rushed out the story.

“The stairs,” he said. He was blinking rapidly, like he was trying to wake up. “He won’t expect you. Most people only know about the one on the street.” He started for the door. “Fuckin’ thugs! In my bakery. In my bakery! With my daughter.”

I grabbed him by the arm. He looked at my hand before his eyes turned to mine.

“You think you can shoot and hit?”

He lifted the gun, pointing it toward the window, and got into the firing position. “Everything seems stable enough.” He lowered it.

“I’ll go down from the street. Surrender my gun. You’ll have to take the shot. Wait by the door.”

“You call him a bum, I’ll know it’s time to take the shot.”

I nodded and turned to leave.

“Lilo.”

“Yeah?”

“She told me I didn’t know you. You didn’t know me.”

“She told me that, too.”

“Your ma was the smartest woman I’ve ever met. That’s why I fell in love with her. But I didn’t always listen.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Me, either.”

“You think you have forever,” he mumbled to himself, going for the door. “Forever to hear the sound of her voice. My Carine. Life is not life without you.”

---