Harmony (38 page)

“
Yeah, but we caught the big fish, and I want to have some fun boys.”

The guns were torn from his hands and he was kicked in the side. Vinnie rolled and tried to rise but another swift kick to the head knocked him out cold.

The cars stopped. They were only a mile away from the cabins.
Why stop now?
Panic rioted in her chest. She struggled to calm her nerves.
It could be anything Harmony, don’t lose it. Wait and see.
Grease Man got out of one of the cars and strolled toward hers with his gun in his hand. She rolled the pane down and he leaned in a bit to peer in at her. “Last chance, Doll. Hang back here and we’ll bring your boy out.”

“
No. I’m going too.”

“
You sure about that sweets? No one here is going to take a bullet for you.”

“
I’m going.” Harmony said. “Now let’s do it.”

Grease studied her for a moment. She knew he questioned her reasons for such loyalty to a mobster like Vinnie but she didn’t care. She’d rather die saving him than sit here waiting. She was going to see it through. Grease straightened and stepped back. He tipped his hat and strolled away toward his car at the front of the caravan.

They were on the move again.

Moonlight changed the landscape. Darkness from the surrounding forest trees closed in on them as they travelled down the one lane road. She leaned forward on the steering wheel to peer out of the windshield, prepared for anything. The cars sped up. From nowhere the men drove faster than the wind. Harmony slammed her foot on the gas and did her best to keep up. She heard the gunfire immediately and grabbed the Ringo from the seat next to her, bringing it to her lap. Should she duck, pull over, or drive straight into the mayhem?

Her car cleared the forested path and she slammed on the brakes to keep from slamming into the Ford in front of her. Grease and at least twenty men from the Forty Thieves were out of their cars and firing. Harmony froze in horror. The main cabin was ablaze. The fire and smoke was so intense it curled up into large black clouds filling the sky.

“
No. No. No. No,” she shook her head and refused to believe her eyes. She could hear the bullets whizzing past her. The car in front of her took a few shots. The men inside were using their open car doors for cover and firing back.

“
No, God, please. No! Vinnie!!” she cried out. She grabbed the gun and turned to open the door when she spotted something else. Men ran out of the open door of the barn where the horses were kept. One in particular caught her eye. It had to be Mickey Collins. Harmony saw the doors to the barn were open. There was light inside.

“
Vinnie. Please let it be him. Please.”

If Mickey Collins was in the barn she knew damn well what was left of her man was there too.

Grease must have seen them too. His car and three others sped toward the barn with men hanging out of both windows firing wildly into the night. Harmony gripped the gearshift, threw the Packard into reverse, and then shifted into drive and sped after them. There was no time for thought or second guesses. She kept going. She drove right into the middle of the fight. The left passenger window shattered spraying glass into the backseat. The men were intent on killing each other and that was a perfect plan. She remembered on a visit to the stables that there was a back entrance. When she veered in that direction a man jumped out in front of the car firing. The windshield cracked and Harmony hit the guy so hard he was thrown to the roof of the car and then rolled off the back. She spun the wheel left and the car did a half-circle before coming to a complete stop.

There was no air in her lungs. Harmony struggled for several moments to remember how to breathe. She shook all over. Did she kill the man? God she prayed she hadn’t. Whatever the case she had to get out of the car and get moving. She reached down at her feet and grabbed the Ringo then exited the vehicle.

Moving quietly on a battlefield of blood and bullets she hurried to the barn door. It was unlocked. She had to hold the gun in her left hand and pull hard with her right to slide the door open. It all happened in a matter of seconds. Vinnie was there. His arms were raised above his head shackled to chains that were thrown over a beam and tied to another post. He wore no shirt. His trousers were darkly slick with his blood. The beating and scarring along his back ran red with blood from open cuts. Her heart stopped. She couldn’t move or speak. The gunfight outside of the barn indicated that Mickey Collins’s men were holding off Grease. There were only two men inside of the barn with Vinnie.

Both men were so focused on the fight to the front of the barn they hadn’t heard her enter from the rear. One of the men turned and saw her. Without thought Harmony raised her gun and fired. She hit him in the chest. The other turned spraying bullets her way. She fired twice before dropping to her knees. She had hit her target. Harmony caught her breath thinking she’d been shot. She hadn’t. She sucked down another deep breath and struggled to rise. “Vin-Vinnie….” she panted. “Oh God please be alive. Please God!”

She hurried around him though her feet felt as if they were weighted to the ground. He hung with his head bowed and blood dripping from his mouth. Both of his eyes were swollen shut. “Vinnie!” she wept.

The door of the barn opened and Grease walked in. Harmony whirled and fired at them in an extreme state of panic. Both men ducked in time. Grease yelled at her to stop shooting. She was crazed with grief. The other man drew on her but she didn’t care. She kept the gun switching from one to the other, covering them both.

“
Get him down!! Get him down now or I will shoot!” she yelled at them.

More men entered. All of them stared up at Vinnie Romano, transfixed. No one seemed shocked at her wielding a gun, or the fact that she aimed it in their direction.

“
I mean it! NOW!!”

Grease snapped his fingers. Two men hurried over to bring Vinnie down from the chains. Vinnie was lowered to the ground and Harmony was there at his side. She brought him into her arms, trying to see if the blood to the side of his face was because of a bullet wound. She didn’t see one. His chest heaved and he staggered a breath but his eyes were swollen shut.

“
He’s a dead man Jazz Singer.”

“
No! No baby, you are fine. He’s fine. He’s just fine.”

Grease approached and stood over her. “Mickey and some of his boys got away. We have to go after them. Our work is done here. Where’s the money?”

Harmony kept stroking the side of Vinnie’s face, weeping.

Grease raised his gun and pressed the barrel to the top of her skull. “Where’s the money? I won’t ask again.”

She looked up through her tears. “Help me get him in the car. I’ll give you the money then.”

For a brief pause he hesitated. She feared he’d refuse her request. Her unwavering stance may have convinced him. He nodded for his boys to help. They lifted Vinnie and carried him out the back of the barn. Harmony got to her feet swaying a bit. She didn’t look at the two men she killed. She walked stiffly to the back of the barn, then went to the trunk and opened it. She gave Grease Man the last of the money. She’d only kept eight hundred for her and Vinnie to escape with, and it was tucked safely in her bra. When Grease snatched her satchel to see if she had more money he could steal from her he found nothing. The bond was under the floor mat in the car.

“
That’s it. That’s all I have.” Harmony said, her chin high and face void of her inner turmoil.

Grease Man chuckled. “You do realize he’s dead. You can’t take him into the city, no one will help him, or you. He’ll die on you and if you’re caught with a dead white man it’s game over toots.”

Harmony shrugged. “He my problem. Not yours.”

Grease man licked his lips. “Queenie told me to let you go. I got a good mind to teach you a bit of humility. Not sure if I like that mouth of yours, and you took a shot at me. No one takes a shot at me.”

“
Are we done?” she asked, and tightened her grip on the gun. He continued to glare at her as if he were trying to decide. “You asked me if I ever used this gun. Tonight you know I have. I suggest you and your men leave us be.”

He wiped his jaw. “Where will you go?”

She didn’t bother to answer.

“
Leave Woodbury. Mickey’s out there and he’s coming for him.”

She shrugged.

Grease Man tipped his hat and whistled, counting the money as he turned and walked away. Harmony gripped the gun with both hands. She stood perfectly still watching the cars drive out across the field. Her gaze swept the carnage. The main house continued to burn. Vehicles were abandoned everywhere with shot out windows and dead men strewn about. She and Vinnie were alone.

The tension drained from her body, and she turned to check for him in the car. He was stiff, not moving. She could see his scarred chest rise and fall with shallow breaths. She had to get them out of New York and fast.

Harmony jumped behind the wheel and drove to the small servant cabin that he had initially brought her to. She hurried inside and grabbed a fresh shirt for him, slacks and blankets.

When she returned the night was eerily quiet. She glanced around expecting some survivor to appear, or worse Mickey Collins. It was her nerves. She dismissed the feeling of being watched and returned to the car. She covered Vinnie the best she could and then high tailed it out of Woodbury.

She drove nonstop until dawn bled across the sky. She stopped for gas once they cleared New York. The attendant, a tall thin boy with dirty blond hair and dingy overalls spotted Vinnie in the back seat and glared at her. She thought to explain but instead she gave him a hundred dollars. His eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. He filled her tank and didn’t say a word.

Harmony continued to drive. But Vinnie didn’t wake and after a few hours the events of the night and her fear for him got the best of her. They were in Pennsylvania when she veered off the road and stopped the car near an open pasture. Harmony wept. She cried so hard she feared she’d lose her mind. She hadn’t thought the plan through. All she had on her was just a little over six hundred dollars. He needed a doctor. And she was too scared that it was too late. She couldn’t bring herself to pull back the blanket and check his chest for signs of him breathing again. The wounds and the blood covering him had her petrified.

“
Sunnng…berrrd?”

Harmony’s head turned and her eyes searched his face. He lay perfectly still. “Vinnie? You awake?” She feared she didn’t hear him speak. That it was her desperate exhaustion that played on her mind, but he licked his lips and filled her with hope.

“
Oh sweetie, you’re okay. I’m going to get you help. Hold on.”

Harmony heard a horse and carriage. She opened her door and stepped out of the car. A man dressed in a plain blue shirt and an old-fashioned wide brim hat with a long grey beard sat to its center. She ran out into the road waving her hands. She had blood all over her and she knew she looked a state. She had read as a young girl about the people called Amish who lived outside of society. She had no idea what he would think of a bloody colored woman trying to stop him.

He stopped. Harmony, exhausted and desperate half staggered to him. “Please sir. My… I have a friend who’s hurt. Really bad.” She looked back and pointed to the car. “He needs help. Please!”

The man followed her point with his steely clear grey eyes. He didn’t speak. In fact he scowled, then returned his gaze to her.

“
Please!”

She feared he’d force the carriage to go on, but kindness flashed in his cold stare and he gave her a nod. It was a welcome relief. The man came off the carriage and Harmony gave him space. They returned to the car and he peered in. He glanced her way once more, then reached in to touch Vinnie. He then spoke in a different language. It sounded like German. Harmony pressed her hands together and nodded the universal sign of thanks. He pointed toward the road that veered right with several homes in the distance. She nodded that she understood.

The kind man got back in his carriage and Harmony in her car. She followed him from behind as he steered the horse drawn buggy toward a large bell tower. She stopped and watched as he got out and rung a large bell. She didn’t know what he was doing but she prayed he wasn’t getting a lawman after them. If she didn’t find Vinnie some medical attention he’d die. She knew that for sure.

When Harmony glanced out to the fields she was taken aback by the others emerging from homes. Women, in plain blue dresses, white aprons and matching white bonnets on their heads. Men, all wearing the same kind of wide brim hats, had trousers with overalls that were a bit short on the leg. They walked or climbed in their buggies and rode toward the stranger house. Harmony held her breath praying again silently that the strange people would help her.