Endings & Beginnings (New Mafia Trilogy #3) (15 page)

Natalie

My mom and I sat in a waiting room at the end of the
floor. Al had left to find me a change of clothes. There were a few other
people in the room with us. One woman watched the television with glassy eyes
while an older couple were huddled against each other and seemed to be asleep.
Windows looked out over the Camden Aquarium and waterfront. If I had
binoculars, I’d be able to see Dom’s condo across the river.

We sat in silence holding hands. I laid my head back
against the chair and closed my eyes. All of the shock, adrenaline and various
other emotions had drained me and while I was completely exhausted, nervous
energy made it impossible to sleep.

Familiar voices forced me to sit up. Miranda entered
the waiting room followed by Cici and Paulina who were clearly upset,
especially Paulina. She was tugging on Miranda’s t-shirt as if trying to stop
her. That’s when I realized Miranda wasn’t wearing regular clothes and not a
hospital gown.

   “You’ve been discharged?” I asked.

   “Yeah and they had to wheel me out to the car in
a wheelchair in order for me to come back in as a visitor. So here I am,
where’s Grant?”

   “Let’s go see if it’s okay for you to go in. He’s
in rough shape,” I warned her as we walked towards the nurse’s station.

   “In sickness and in health, right?” 

   “You need to be prepared so you don’t get too
stressed.”

   “I get it, Nat, and I’ll be okay. I need to see
him.”

Moments later Miranda stood outside Grant’s room
with her hand poised on the doorknob. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail
making her look years younger, not a newlywed and expectant mother.
Straightening her shoulders, she took a deep breath and opened the door,
slipping inside. I waited for her, leaning against the wall across the hallway
like Al did for me.

About ten minutes later a nurse went into Grant’s
room and Miranda came out. She was pale and her face was drawn. I knew exactly
how she felt after having seen both Dom and my brother unconscious and
injured. 

   “God, I could use a drink,” she joked in a shaky
voice.

   “Don’t let your mom hear that, she’ll put you on
lockdown.”

Miranda laughed and agreed with me. She was quiet
and reflective as we walked back to join the others. Visiting hours were almost
up, a passing nurse reminded us. None of us wanted to leave, but didn’t have
any choice. Al had returned and handed me a shopping bag from Target. “New
clothes – you might want to change since the media is still downstairs.”

   “Good idea.” I pictured the reporters as hungry
sharks drawn to bloody bait. I changed in the bathroom, which could have served
as a walk-in refrigerator. I never understood why hospitals were always so
cold. My t-shirt was crispy from the dried blood by this point and that
completely grossed me out so I threw it away. My shorts weren’t too bad, but I
decided to toss them out too. They were one of my favorite pairs, but the
memories of today left them tainted. As I was getting ready to leave, my cell
phone rang. I saw it was Chelsea calling and immediately answered.

   “Please tell me you’re okay and you were not at
that mall with Dom!”

   “Wait, how do you know about the shooting?”

   “It’s all over the freakin’ news and it’s
trending on Twitter. I take it you’re fine since you answered your phone.”

   “I was there and you’re right, I’m fine, but
Grant isn’t.”

Chelsea gasped. “How bad?”

I told her what I knew and explained that we were
getting kicked out of the hospital for the night and I’d give her an update in
the morning.

   “So you’re not coming home on Thursday. Is there
anything I can take care of for you here?”

   “No, I’ll call Callie at Dirty and let her know
what happened. If she can’t hold my position open, so be it.” It was a bar
waitressing job after all and I was easily replaceable. I’d have to figure out
rent and bills, but those were the least of my concerns.

   “Do you need me there?”

   “No,” I said and my voice cracked. I sniffed back
tears, overwhelmed that she even offered.

   “Oh don’t cry then I’ll cry and I’m at work, damn
it!”

I laughed and promised to keep her posted on Grant’s
condition. Chelsea was my best friend, more like a sister to me, and talking to
her made me feel better. The hallways were empty and half of the overhead
fluorescent lights were off. As I was walking towards the elevators to meet up
with everyone, an announcement was made over the PA system that visiting hours
were over.

Miranda was going to her mom’s house with Cici and
Al was going to check in with Dante and Rico on how things were with Dominic,
but he was taking my mom and I back to the hotel first. We were crossing the
Ben Franklin Bridge, heading into the city, when my phone rang again and I was
surprised to see Victor’s number on the display.

   “Why am I not surprised that you’re involved in
the latest shooting tragedy?”

   “You assume a lot, Drago.”

   “Well, Princess, if Dom was there I figured you
weren’t too far behind. Am I right?”

Damn it, he hadn’t known me very long, but he
already knew me too well. “Am I that predictable?” This light banter was just
what I needed to take my mind off of everything, unfortunately it didn’t last
long.

   “I just wanted to check in and see how you’re
doing and to give you a heads up, Gio saw Dom get brought in and is expecting a
call from someone. He wants guarantees that business isn’t affected. Can you
pass the word?”

I glanced in the front seat at my mom and Uncle Al.
My mom was looking out the window, but I could tell she was eavesdropping by
the tilt of her head in my direction. Al didn’t try to disguise it, and our
eyes met in the rearview mirror. I’m sure the mention of Victor’s last name got
his attention. “Later,” I mouthed and he nodded, focusing on the traffic again.

   “Yes, I can do that. Thanks for the notice.”

   “No problem. Now that business is out of the way.
How are you and what the fuck happened?”

I told him about Grant and that I didn’t know what
was going on with Dom except he had lawyered up, but Dante and Miranda were
fine. He didn’t need to know about Miranda’s scare. From what I heard Gio was
old school and wasn’t too keen on women being a part of the business. He might
see her pregnancy as a weakness.

   “Doesn’t sound too bad and Grant will be okay. If
he’s as stubborn as his sister, he’ll be back in action in no time.”

   “Hey, I’m not stubborn!”

   “Ha! I call bullshit, Princess. Call if you need anything,
alright?”

   “I will, thanks Victor.”

I hung up with a smile on my face and I held onto my
phone in case someone else called. Leaning my head back against the headrest,
my eyelids fluttered closed. A headache had been slowly building and my eyes
burned from all of the crying.

Before long, Al was pulling up in front of the
hotel. He got my mom’s suitcase out of the trunk. “Mom, go on in, I’ll be right
there.”

   “Okay, Nat,” she wheeled her suitcase behind her
and only once she was inside the lobby, did I talk to Uncle Al.

   “What did Victor want?” he asked.

   “He asked me to pass along a message from Gio.
Dante needs to call and assure him its business as usual.”

   “Alright, I’ll let him know. Why did Victor call
you?”

   “Well, I guess you could say we’re friends,” I
said and he raised his eyebrow. “Friends, Uncle Al, nothing more. Sheesh!”

He smiled then and pulled me into a hug. “Glad to
hear that, Nat. Now go get some rest, it’s been a hell of a day.”

   “Goodnight,” I said and stepped out of his arms
and met my mom in the lobby where was waiting. I had two nights left for my
reservation and since I wasn’t going right back to Los Angeles, I needed to
figure out where to stay. Fuck it; I thought to myself, I’ll deal with that
later.

When we walked past the old suite where my mom had
stayed she stopped. “I have a different room now, Mom,” I said.

   “Why?”

   “Malfunctioning key card reader – so they moved
me to another suite.”

   “Oh.” We continued down the hall, our footsteps
muffled by the carpet, and I let us in to the other suite. “It’s just like the
other one,” she said, looking around the small living room and kitchenette.

We branched off into our separate bedrooms and I hit
the shower, eager to rinse the rest of the blood off my skin. I didn’t realize,
until I washed my hair, that the ends were covered in it. My hair wasn’t pulled
back so it was possible that it got dragged through blood at some point. I
shuddered at the memory of Grant’s lifeless body being resuscitated as I stood
by helpless.

After crawling into bed, sleep remained elusive even
though I was exhausted. I couldn’t get my mind to power down and I kept
thinking about Grant. Life was short and his could have ended right there on
the mall floor, but it wasn’t his time just yet. The city had quieted outside
by the time I drifted off to sleep with one last thought bouncing around my
brain: none of us knew when our time was going to be up and I still had some
living to do.

DOMINIC

I spent the night in a holding cell with two other
criminals; a drunk guy who was arrested for DUI and an eighteen year old high
school senior who tried to hold up a 7-11 for cigarettes, rolling papers, and a
case of beer. We kept to ourselves, especially the drunk guy who passed out and
didn’t wake up the entire night, not even to use the toilet, opting to piss his
pants instead. His funky ass was rank by the time the officer came around in
the morning to take us in for our arraignment hearing.

Dante, my dad and Seth Horowitz were waiting for me
in the courthouse. They sat in the row behind me and Agent Phillips occupied
the row diagonal to mine. A guy that looked like Phillip’s clone, who I assumed
was another Fed, sat next to him. After a few hearings, it was finally my turn.
Seth and I stood up when the judge addressed me after reviewing the case
folder.

   “Mr. Grabano, under ordinary circumstances you’d
be fined and would have at least a misdemeanor added to your record, but you
did a hero’s work yesterday. Several people have come forward claiming that
your actions saved several lives.” He pushed his reading glasses up on his nose
and looked at me from over them. “Next time, register your firearm and carry a
permit. This isn’t Philadelphia. Now, according to the FBI, you’re still a
person of interest, so stay out of trouble. Understood? ”

   “Yes. Thank you, your honor,” I said and was
dismissed with a strike of the gavel.

I shook Seth’s hand and we cleared out to make room
for the next case. I hugged my dad and Dante and when I saw the scowl on Agent
Phillips face, my smile grew even wider.

   “Don’t think about leaving town, Dominic,” he
said before stalking out of the courtroom with his clone.

I didn’t take his threat lightly because he was
still working on a case against me, but at least I was out and could organize.
It was time for the cops on our payroll to do some digging of their own. I was
quickly processed out and my belongings, minus my gun, were returned to me.
Fortunately that was a clean piece and hadn’t been used on anything or anyone.
We stepped out into the sunshine and I took a deep breath. After spending the
night in jail surrounded by the stench of vomit and piss, the New Jersey air
never smelled so sweet.

My clothes were stiff with dried blood and a faint
metallic odor clung to the fabric. I didn’t notice this until I was in Dante’s
BMW. Cracking the window, I leaned back, enjoying the soft leather seats.

   “You need to call Gio. He needs assurances and I
figured it’d be better if he heard them from you,” Dante said.

I groaned, but knew he was right. Grabbing my cell
phone, I dialed the 310. It was still fairly early on the West coast, but Gio
answered on the second ring.

   “Dom, I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to call
anytime soon.”

   “What can I say? I’m a local hero now and the
judge had some hero worship going on. All charges are dropped.”

   “Good to hear so that shipment is still on?”

   “Oh yeah, all systems go.”

   “Alright, good. Talk soon.” He hung up and I
tossed my phone in the cup holder.

   “Thanks for taking care of everything, cuz. You
did fucking right, man.” I clapped Dante on the shoulder.

   “That’s what we do.” Dante grinned and turned up
the radio. There was a news update on the shooting. Now the focus was on the
victims of the tragedy. It made me sick to hear that an eight year girl was
among the dead. I’m glad I shot the fucker, just wish I’d been able to blow his
twisted brains out earlier, before he took the lives of so many innocents.

I tried calling Natalie, but got her voicemail. It
was good just hearing her voice and I knew she was preoccupied with Grant, so I
hung up without leaving a message.

Dante took me back to the condo and got out with me,
letting valet take his car. “Man, I need a shower, a drink, some food and a
nap. In that order,” I told him in the elevator.

   “I figured. I’ll hang out and make some calls
then when you’ve had a chance to rest we’ll go see Grant together.”

   “Have you seen him yet?” I asked.

   “No, they restricted visitors last night, but I
heard his condition has been downgraded from critical to stable.”

I quickly showered and threw on a pair of basketball
shorts. Dante had made eggs and bacon while I was in the bathroom. He piled up
a plate and handed it to me, followed by a bloody Mary.

   “Thanks honey,” I teased.

Dante flipped me off then punched my arm when he sat
down next to me at the island counter with his own breakfast. By the time I
cleaned my plate and sucked down the bloody Mary, I could barely keep my eyes
open.

   “Wake me in two hours then we’ll go see Grant,” I
told Dante and disappeared into my bedroom, drawing the heavy blinds closed to
block out any light. I smoked a bowl and that was it, my body shut down.

***

Dante woke me up and I stumbled into the bathroom.
It wasn’t until after I splashed cold water on my face and brushed my teeth
that I managed to get my eyes fully open. They felt dry and full of sand. I
could easily have slept for over ten hours straight, but that had to come
later. One thing I learned quickly about being the boss was that I didn’t get a
lot of down time and the sixteen hours I was locked up required some damage
control. After throwing on the first clean shirt hanging in my closet and a
pair of jeans, I was ready to visit Grant.

We took Dante’s car back over the bridge and I
sipped a cup of coffee while filtering through the messages on my phone,
deleting the old ones from Gio since I already spoke to him. There was one from
my mom; she just wanted to hear my voice. A few others were cryptic messages
from Chan, Ji, Egan and Demetrius. They had all been watching the news
apparently and had business concerns.

The last message was from Natalie and she left it while
I had been sleeping.
“Hey Dom, it’s Nat, I saw you called and heard you were
released. I’m so glad. Anyway, call me back when you get a chance.”
She
sounded as tired as I felt. I called her right back and again it went to
voicemail.

   “Hey Nat, I’m on my way to see Grant. Maybe I’ll
see you there? Call me.”

Media vans and reporters were camped out front of
the hospital leaving enough space for ambulances to get through to the
emergency entrance, but that’s about it. Dante drove around to the back by a
service entrance where he parked in a loading zone. A security guard was
waiting outside and escorted us in through the laundry facilities. I raised my
eyebrow at Dante and he rubbed his fingers together, indicating we had lined
the guard’s pockets for this special access.

We used the service elevator and took it up to the
critical care unit. Uncle Al was in the waiting room reading an issue of People
magazine. He was so engrossed he didn’t notice us enter. Dante and I looked at
each other and couldn’t hold the laughter in.

   “Should I get you a subscription for your
birthday, Dad?” Dante asked, snatching the magazine from Al’s hands and turning
it over to see what article he was reading. “Really? Weight loss success
stories?”

   “Hey, the before and after pictures are
remarkable!” Uncle Al snapped before grabbing the magazine back. Flipping it
closed, he set in on the table then stood up and gave me a hug. “Good to see
you, Dom, what a mess, huh?”

   “Yeah, you could say that,” I said. “How’s Grant
doing?”

   “You can go see him. The docs are weaning him off
of the drugs that kept him in the coma since he stabilized, but he’s still
unconscious. Natalie and Anna are in there with him now.”

I almost asked who Anna was but remembered that was
Natalie’s mom’s name. Popping a piece of gum in my mouth to mask the coffee
breath, I walked with Dante down the hall to Grant’s room. A nurse intercepted
us, instructing us to use the antibacterial hand sanitizer from the dispenser
attached to the wall right outside of the door leading to his room. We
disinfected as thoroughly as possible before pushing the door open. Natalie
looked up in surprise when we walked in. Releasing Grant’s hand, she came over
to greet us, giving Dante a quick hug before turning to me. I pulled her into
my arms and out of habit, buried my nose in her hair, inhaling her scent. We
stayed like that for longer than normal for a casual hug between friends and
when we separated Natalie’s eyes glittered with tears.

   “I’m so glad they let you out of jail,” she said.

   “Me too and I’m sorry it went down that way. Are
you okay?” Natalie’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but a section of the
bangs she was growing out had slipped loose of the band, reaching over, I tucked
the stray hairs behind her ear.

   “Yeah, I’m fine. Grant on the other hand…” she
looked over at her brother who was lying in bed surrounded by multiple
machines. He was propped up slightly and I could see his chest rising and
falling. He was so pale it made his hair seem so dark, almost black in
comparison. I approached his bedside, saying hello to Natalie’s mom. She
glanced up at me and nodded before her turning attention back to Grant. Her
hand held his and she appeared to just be watching him breathe as if counting
the seconds between each inhale and exhale.

Natalie gestured to the chair she had vacated and I
sat down, pulling her onto my lap without any objection. Dante stood by my
side. We were staring at the harshness of reality and knew it could have been
so much worse. I remembered when it was me in the clinic recovering from being
shot. Natalie was forced to watch me then and now her brother was in an equally
vulnerable situation.

   “The doctors say he should regain consciousness
tomorrow and they’ll be able to determine if Grant suffered any brain damage,”
Natalie said, her voice breaking the silence.

   “Brain damage?” I asked, unconsciously tightening
my arms around her waist.

   “He suffered a cardiac arrest while on the
operating table and it took close to three minutes for them to resuscitate
him,” Natalie’s mom answered in a whisper. “Not having oxygen to the brain for
that long can cause brain damage.”

   “Shit…” I trailed off and looked at Grant with a
different perspective. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.