“Ok, even then, she lied for you.”
“She didn’t do anything for me.”
He rolled his eyes. “She lied and that lie kept you safe. I’ll let the hospital decide how they want to interpret her involvement.”
“We will do no such thing,” I said. “Drop the damn matter. You’re not interested in justice and I just want the incident forgotten.”
“What was the incident?”
“I got shot.” There was no way he could know more than that. “That’s exactly what happened.”
“Oh, but it matters why you got shot, doesn’t it?” He smiled horribly. “In fact, once this gets out the heat’s going to be even more on you. I bet that’s why you’re here.”
“It may or it may not. Like I said. I did nothing but field a bullet. I’m only here to protect Rosa.”
“Protect her from the damage you caused?”
I shrugged. “I won’t deny my part in that. But the only one threatening her now is you.”
“Just let it go.” Lem ran a hand along the elegant side of his hood. “She’s not going to risk her job. She’ll do what I ask and you’ll be safe.”
I eyed the car. The hood was impregnable. But there were other parts where I could make a point.
I sent a vicious knee into the right headlight. It shattered.
“What the fuck!” Lem said, crouching next to it.
“Huh,” I said. “You care about that car?”
“Fuck yes, I care about it.” He looked up with glowing eyes. “You piece of shit-“
“Most people in this world,” I said. “They reserve that level of care for people. Not objects. And not just their own narrow desires.”
I thought of how my mother’s death had ravaged my father. I remembered the wetness in Rosa’s eyes as she talked about her own father.
“People go mad when something happens to people they care about.” I set my knee right at his nose. “Just imagine the lengths they’ll go to prevent a thing from happening in the first place.”
The rage left his eyes, as they grew wide. “You can’t threaten me. I figured she might pull something like this. I already set the file to auto release if I didn’t stop it tonight.”
“I’m not going to hurt you now, Lem. She made me promise not to do that.” I crouched down next to him. “But I’m going to make you a different promise.”
“What?”
“Leave Atlanta or die.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I patted my chest. “You see this cut? You know what it means.”
He eyed it. “You’re in a biker club.”
“Tell me what it means.”
“You’re a Storm’s Soldier.”
“I’m
one of
the Storm’s Soldiers. You might be able to get me in trouble. I don’t know. But there will be dozens of others around to get revenge. And they will find you. They will find you in some dark, quiet place, and you will never leave. I promise you that.”
He started breathing hard. I hadn’t expected to enjoy this, but seeing him quake was kind of fun.
But then, he started laughing.
“Oh you son of a bitch,” he said. “I fucking got you.”
I checked my back, but there was no one put pedestrians far away. I heard no sirens, no signs of security.
He pulled the phone out of his polo pocket. On it, the screen said transmitting over an icon like a microphone.
The breath left my lungs.
“I had nothing,” Sygard said. “The security tape didn’t have a clear shot of Rosa. The hospital already saw it. I was just bluffing her cause I knew she was hiding something. But now? Now I have you on tape stealing the bullet, hanging with gangs, making threats. Everything.”
All of it was circumspect. In a crime with no real victims, it wouldn’t hold up in any court except for the threat.
But it was plenty of a violation from the UCMJ. Montego would have enough to lock me up. I would never wear a uniform again.
“So, Mr. Black?” Lem said with a toothy grin. “Do you like being a Storm’s Soldier? Cause that’s all you’ll have left. Threatening a civilian? Continued involvement in an outlaw biker gang? I’ll make sure the army has you out on a rope. Or, you can back off and forget all this.”
I stared silently at his pungent face. I didn’t trust it, but he wouldn’t risk his life to reveal me unless I forced his hand.
I had joined the army to protect my club. But I had found more joy in protecting the innocent. I had been ready to take a bullet in service of that goal.
This couldn’t even compare. In fact, shouldering my crime took Rosa off the hook for good.
I shrugged. “You can release it if you want, but you’ll still be die.”
His smile cracked on his lips. “What?”
“I didn’t make an idle threat, boy. You were going to what? Use this now to blackmail me? To have me back off and let you do your thing with Rosa? No. I came for her alone. You have nothing that matters to me or her anymore.”
“If you tell her the truth, I
will
release this tape.”
I stood. “I’ll pay the price for my crimes. For yours, someone will find you and kill you. My offer remains. Leave the hospital. Leave the city. The sooner, the better your chances.”
He tried to stare me down, unblinking, but his eyes were far too wide open. I had nothing else to say to him, so I turned and left.
The street greeted me with life. A mom walked past, rolling a gargling baby. I smiled at it, feeling my heart float. Sygard could be a fine cardiologist at times, if accidentally.
I called Rosa.
“Is everything ok?” she asked.
“Everything’s perfect,” I said. “He has no evidence. He never did.”
“Oh god.” She whooshed with relief. “Calix, thank you. Thank you so much.”
“It was nothing.” I smiled just hearing the freedom on her lips. “He gave the information quite easily.”
“Really?” she said. “He didn’t ask for anything?”
I thought of Dennis, of Homer. Of teaching recruits, of recruiting Raynor. Of my time overseas, of the times stealing weapons for my father.
All of it might be gone soon. But this voice at the other end of the line flowed through free and clear as spun silk.
What else mattered?
“Nothing I hadn’t already lost,” I said. “Take care of yourself, Rosa.”
I hung up and headed back to face my reward.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rosa
I came into work Monday, expecting the worst. I didn’t even know why. Lem had nothing. That’s all that should have mattered.
But I needed to see that Calix was ok. I needed to know what had happened. I felt like I’d failed him in some way by having him save me.
I’d tried calling him twice again yesterday, but it had gone to voicemail both times. First I’d been annoyed - now I was just a ball of worry.
I went up to the second floor by the long route, specifically to avoid Lem’s office. When I got to the nurse’s station, I checked the rounds board to see what his schedule might be. His name was nowhere to be seen though.
My palms went damp. What had Calix done for me?
I sat jittery at the nurse’s station until I saw Lilly coming back from her rounds. I waved frantically, and she rushed around the ovular booth.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, leaning over.
“I don’t know,” I said, twirling my thumbs viciously. I’d wanted to play this more discreetly, but my nerves were frayed and the lack of sleep last night wasn’t helping.
She cupped my hands. “Hey, it’s fine, just calm down and tell me.”
“Is Lem not here?”
She tilted her head like an owl. “I thought you guys went out. Did he not tell you?”
My head cleared a tiny bit. Lem had to be alive to tell people anything.
“Tell me what?” I said.
“Really? It didn’t come up on the date?”
“Lilly!”
“Ok, fine. He resigned his position. He said he’s moving back to New York to be closer with family for some emergency or other.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“I mean, he didn’t tell me, but the doctor that’s covering for him was plenty pissed enough to share.”
Another heap of worry sloughed off. There was still plenty of room for doubt though. “Did he mention a reason?” I asked. “Wait, are we sure it was him? Maybe he’s in trouble.”
Lilly frowned. “What exactly happened on your date?”
“Nothing, it just didn’t go well.”
“I’ll say. Did you chase him off?”
“No,” I said, but of course I did. Calix had to have something to do with it. The only question was sort of deal he made. Or how one sided it was.
“Anyway, I saw him. He was emptying out his office in a rush this morning,” Lilly said.
“He didn’t leave a note or anything?”
“For you? I don’t think so, but we can check if you’re really this antsy about it.”
We squeaked down the polished hallway and into the office wing. Lem’s door lay flung open. I walked in remembering how neat he had kept everything in here. This had been the perfect little space where he kept everything in its place.
The room was still neat, just also completely empty. Only the filing cabinet, a desk and the hospital’s computer remained. It was like he was never here.
The stress rushed out of me like a dam had broken. If I were alone, I would have kicked my feet up on the desk or twirled around until I went dizzy and ran into something. Instead, I went over by the window and beamed out somewhere I couldn’t be seen.
“No note,” Lilly said. “Sorry, sweetie. You did say that the date wasn’t so good.”
“It’s ok,” I said, smiling at the gorgeous sunny day. “It’s better this way.”
We headed back to the station. The hall seemed to glow with sunlight from all the open rooms along the way. I had no idea what I would have done if I had to see Lem coming up the hallway at me ever again. Even if he hadn’t left, just knowing the darkness in him would have made me cower in my own workplace.
Calix hadn’t just saved me, he had saved my future here. But what had he given for it? The anxiety came tumbling back.
Lilly rubbed my back. “You feel ok about all this?”
“I’m fine.” I breathed heavy. “You know how fast my flings flame out.”
“This seemed like a different thing, though.”
“It turned out the same.” My mind was still on Calix though. Lem didn’t count as a relationship except in the most perverse sense of the word.
“You can’t read too deep into that. It’s not anyone’s fault.”
“Mmm.” There were plenty of people at fault for what happened yesterday. Me for trusting the wrong guy. Lem for being a colossally evil asshole.
And Calix for ending it.
Even in the sunlit hallway, my body felt cold thinking again about this monumental thing that he had done for me. He had chased Lem over the freaking Mason-Dixon Line. That was how much he was willing to do.
How different would things be if Lem hadn’t revealed the truth about Calix’s past? There was cold purpose in his doing that - that was clear now - but it was still something I needed to know.
Would it have taken me two weeks to find out? Two months? Would I just keep testing him and testing him until he roared the N-word at me?
I couldn’t imagine him ever saying that though. I believed what he’d said about not seeing himself as superior. So why couldn’t he let go of his race thing? That’s all I had asked.
It can’t have been harder than dealing with Lem. He did that without hesitation, without protest. And he hadn’t demanded a single thing from me.
Not even my heart.
The thought spread like a wildfire through my head. Why would he just walk away from me?
I took a shuddering breath as we entered the nurse’s station. I had managed to chase off the wrong guy.
“Did you say something?” Lilly asked glancing back at me.
“Nothing,” I said solemnly. “Nothing at all.”
She gave me a probing look and pulled me down to a seat.
“You need to focus on something happy,” she said.
I checked the digital wall clock. “I need to start my rounds.”
“Fine, do that, but tell me what you think of the name Marshall first.”
“Marshall?”
“Yeah.” She smiled bashfully. “I’m thinking that’s a good name for a boy.”
I gaped at her, then at her completely flat belly. “Lilly, you know that’s not a good idea.”
“Yeah, I know it’s my grandfather’s name, but these things are cyclical. It’ll be cool by the time he grows up.”
The blaze in my brain burned out. I pressed in close so the other nurses couldn’t hear me whisper. “You know what I mean. You’re not even a month pregnant. The miscarriage rate is close to half for a month and still freaking high until your second trimester. You said it yourself.”
“So, worst case, coin flip?” She patted her belly. “That’s better odds than I was looking at a month ago.”