LEO
It’s late, and we’re sitting out on the boat together. In the city, this would make me nervous. An easy target for anyone in the distance with a
decent aim.
Out here in the sticks, with nothing but the surrounding ocean. Anyone out there willing to take a pop at me? Good luck to them.
I’m not thinking much about dying. I’m thinking how good it feels to have Amelia curled up beside me. She’s nestled into the crook of my arm, wrapped up in a dressing gown and not much else.
The breeze is warm despite the lateness of the hour. It’s quiet out there except for the waves. I think she might be asleep, but then she twists her neck and looks up at me and says, “You miss Rex, don’t you?”
“Of course,” I reply. “Don’t you?”
“I was thinking of taking one dog home from the shelter. Maybe you can come and help me pick? If you’re around for a while, I mean.”
“I’m thinking of staying in Gordon’s Cove. Monitor the casino while I’m here.”
“What? In the hotel?”
“Nope.”
“Where then?”
“Bought a house.”
She looks up at me and wrinkles her brow. “You bought a house?”
I nod. “Big enough for two people and maybe some kids too.”
“What are you saying, Leo?”
“I’m saying I’m staying here with you. Didn’t think I had to spell it out. Thought you were smarter than that.”
She runs a hand up my naked chest. I’ve only got my underwear on. No need for anything else, not when it’s just the two of us. We were settling down to sleep in the Kapoor suite when I mentioned I got my boat in the harbor.
An hour later we’re setting sail and I couldn’t be happier. Leaving it all behind for a while, just the two of us making love for the second time in one night, the boat rocking one way and us rocking another.
Afterward, we sat together, and we’ve been sat like this for a while. She traces lines over some of my scars. “Where’d you get all these?” she asks.
“Long time ago,” I reply.
“Tell me about it. I want to know about you, Leo. Where’d you grow up?”
“New York.”
“What was it like?”
I have a flash of memory. The shouting, the beating, my mom crying all the time. “Rough,” is all I say.
“That’s all I get? What were your parents like?”
“My dad was a piece of shit who walked out on us when I was eight, left me trying to bring in money for my mom. She couldn’t walk, couldn’t see. He’d burned her this one time with cooking oil and it blinded her.
“Crippled her another time after kicking her down the stairs of the apartment block. Ill, too. Cancer. He came back long enough to fuck things up again and then she died and he fucked off for the last time.”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not. She was better off dead. Didn’t see the gang I fell into. Didn’t see the shit I got up to. I was running with a dangerous crowd and there was this girl. I thought she loved me, but she set me up. Sent me out to carjack a guy, told me it would be an easy score.
I was supposed to get shot. She’d had enough of me. I didn’t know it, but the car belonged to Don Gianni. He was right there when I started boosting the thing. Saw me do it. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I bring the gun around and he’s looking down the barrel.
“He’s the first guy I ever saw who didn’t flinch with a gun in his face. Right then, I thought I wanted to be as strong as him.”
“What happened?”
“He could have killed me, but he let me live, told me he needed a job doing. If I did it, I’d get paid and I could come work for him after. Had to be a kid, he said.”
“What job?”
“Whacking someone.”
“Fuck. How old were you?”
“Twelve. I walked straight into this school. The guy was a teacher, and he owed the Don money. Had disrespected the famiglia when they tried to get the money back, busted his lip wide open.
“So the Don wants a lesson making of the guy. I walk in looking like one of the students, got right up to him, and bang. He was gone. The Don was so proud of me when I got back. Gave me five hundred dollars and the key to a place of my own. Been there ever since. Until now. Now I’m moving here.”
“Shit. Wow. What about Rex? Where’d you get him from?”
“Found him on a job. Went out to a Belucci warehouse, and they had this guard dog, but it was only a pup. They were yelling at it and kicking it when I got there for shitting on the floor. The poor thing had no idea what it had done wrong.
“I was only supposed to scare the guys there, but I saw red, killed them all, and took the dog. The Don was pissed because he thought I went too far. Took months to get back in his good books. I used to bring the dog with me on jobs. He was an extra pair of eyes, saved my neck a few times. Until
I brought him here.”
“Did you ever think he’d get shot?”
“I never gave it any mind until it happened. But then I thought I couldn’t do it to him anymore. He had no idea why he got hurt and I couldn’t tell him. I knew he’d be better off with you. I was right. He had a good life with you, didn’t he?”
Something catches in my chest, and I have to cough to clear it. I swallow it back down and then I’m myself again.
“He had a good life,” she replies. “Used to come with me to the shelter a lot. Played with the others.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
We lapse into silence for a while, and then something occurs to me. “That place we went,” I say. “The abandoned mansion up on the other bluff opposite the casino.”
“What about it?”
“Seeing as we’re sharing. Tell me about it.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Hey, I just shared my story. Time for you to do the same.” She sighs, getting to her feet.
“Where are you going?”
“If I’m telling this story, I need a drink.”
“Make it two.”
She comes back with glasses of bourbon, passing one to me before draining half the other in a single gulp. She sits back down, not looking at me. She starts to talk. I listen, not saying a word until she’s done.
She goes all still while she’s talking, her voice cold. “I used to walk past the Mansfield place when I went hiking as a kid. They were a big deal in the town.
“Pop Mansfield owned the general store and about a dozen other properties he rented out. Anyway, I saw they had this puppy tied up in the garden, tied to this pole in the hot sun. Panting like crazy and desperate for water.
“I want to do something about it but I’m too scared. So I walk on and I feel so guilty. Every time I go past, whatever time of day, the dog’s tied to the pole.
“Sometimes it had food and water, but most of the time nothing. I talk to my grandma and she suggests maybe I could buy it from them. But I’m just a kid and I’ve no money, so she says she’ll lend it to me.
“I go up to the Mansfield place and I knock on the door and say I’d like to buy their puppy and Pop Mansfield just laughs at me and says not for sale. So I beg him and he says fine. Two grand and it’s mine. I know Grandma has no chance of getting that much, but I tell her anyway and she says she’ll get it.
“Comes to me after school the next day and there it is. This time she insists I take my boyfriend with me because it’s so much money. So we take it up there and hand it over. Pop Mansfield tells me to come back the next day for the dog.”
She goes quiet like she’s getting hold of herself. I wait in silence.
“I go back and he’s got rid of the puppy. Had it put to sleep and acts like he’s never seen me before. My boyfriend took my money, Leo. Split it with the Mansfields. He took my grandma’s money, and I never saw that dog again.”
She buries her head in my chest and her breathing changes. She starts to cry, and I let her let it out. It’ll do her good. “So I vowed never to see another dog put down again.
“That’s why the shelter’s my life. I won’t see another dog die on my watch.” She starts crying again and I just hold on to her.
“I know where your grandma got the money from,” I say when she’s breathing normally again.
“Where?”
“Cam Oakley. He was a loan shark back in the day. I bet that’s how he got hold of the shelter.”
“You think?”
“Why else would your grandma just give it to him to run? He lent her the money then took the shelter when she couldn’t pay it back.”
“I don’t even know why he wanted it so bad. I always thought he was taking the donations and spending them at the casino.”
“Maybe, but that’s over now. It’s all in the past. Time to look to our future.”
“Our future?” She straightens up and examines me closely, eyes narrow. “You’re saying we have a future together?”
“The Don gave his permission, and that’s difficult to get, what with you coming from outside the families. Told me I’d earned it after everything that happened out here. Told me finding the snitch was an impossible job, but I did it. So I earned this.”
“Earned what?”
“Moving in with you. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
She grins. “Well, duh.”
“Only I thought you were still pissed at me for disappearing.”
“Maybe I can forgive you.”
“That’s big of you.”
She kisses me. “I’m a big-hearted girl.”
“Big titted too.”
“Hey, watch it. I can slap you again if you like.”
“Not if I tie your hands down, you can’t.”
“Promises, promises.”
She settles into my arms again, and we look out at the water together. The boat’s turning slowly and the lights of the town come into view. They twinkle in the distance and for the first time, I can really see myself settling here.
Sure, I’ll have a hell of a lot of work to do and I’ll have to commute into the city sometimes, but it’ll be worth it to wake up every morning with the woman I love by my side. “Ready to go in?” I ask.
“Any chance we can sleep out here tonight? I’ve never slept in a boat before.”
“Sure, as long as you promise me something.”
“What?”
“That I get to choose the name for the dog.”
“I already picked a dog, and I already picked a name. He’s a German
Shepherd like Rex. Reckon you’ll love him.”
“And what name are we giving him?”
“How about Don?” She giggles. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s time I took you to bed.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“Who said anything about sleeping?” I lift her to her feet, take her hand and together we walk inside. The waves continue rocking the sides of the boat. The lights of the town continue to twinkle in the distance.
All I can see are her eyes in the darkness. They guide me toward her until we’re laid together, and then I don’t care about anything but the feel of her against me and the way she’s breathing.
I close my eyes and shut out everything but the woman I love. I hope every day of my life is like this. Until I breathe my very last breath. “Reckon you can live with a bad guy?” I whisper.
“I can be bad too,” she replies. “So I might need a spanking from time to time.”
“That I can do,” I reply, moving my hand down to her ass in
preparation. “That I can definitely do.”