All That Matters (42 page)

“I doubt that she's ever happy,” Caroline replied. “Anyway, I'm going to go and help Jillian if you've got it under control here. Everything else is ready to be carried out, and I'll be back to help with that.”

“I've just got to take the biscuits out in like four minutes, and then we'll be good to go. I'll start bringing stuff out when I get these in the serving tray.” Meg added a bit more salt and pepper to the potatoes and decided that they were delicious.

The timer dinged for the biscuits. Meg walked over to the oven, took them out. The sound of a scream from the common room made her heart jump painfully in her chest. She set the biscuits down and followed the sound.

It was Kay who had screamed. Now everyone was simply staring at her. Bones looked more pissed than Meg had ever seen. “You grabbed me. Don't fucking grab me.” Kay's voice carried and she didn't seem to care. “You heard what I said. I've spoken to my parents, I'm taking the girls and going back home with them. I will not raise my children like this. The car should be here for us now. Girls, get your bags, now.”

“You aren't taking my kids. You want to go, go. They're staying,” Bones spoke in a careful tone. Meg figured he was trying to keep calm because of the girls.

“No, they're not. They're coming with me. Girls, I said go,” Kay screamed.

The situation hit entirely too close to home for Meg. Her stomach churned. The smells that had been delicious only seconds earlier now made nausea rise fast and hard. She pressed her hand to her mouth as if that would stop it.

“Hold on now,” Buster spoke up. “You might not like the situation that you're in right now, but you can't just take a man's children away on a whim. He's got the same rights as you.”

“Maybe I should call the cops right now, let them sort it out. I'm pretty sure that they'd be thrilled at all the things they'd find laying around here.”

You could have heard a pin drop. It had never been so quiet. “Take the girls, for now.” Bones said finally. “But this is far from over.”

Meg had to go back to the kitchen as he crouched down to be at eye level with his daughters. It was too much. She heard the door swing open behind her, but she kept going right out the back. Technically, it was too dangerous to be outside, but it was the preferable option to even hearing the painful goodbye. There was a pack of cigarettes on the railing, and she lit one.

“You're smoking too much lately,” Train chided from behind her. “Give me that.” He plucked the cigarette from between her fingers. “That hit a little close, huh?”

“Just a bit,” Meg ran her hands through her hair. The longer length reminded her that she needed to get it cut, but now wasn't really the time for that. “Is she gone?”

“A car pulled up outside for her while she was having her hissy fit. She grabbed the kids as soon as he was done saying goodbye and split. Got to admit, I'm not really that surprised. You could see how much she hated it here.”

“It wasn't just being here. I think it was Nightshade she really hated. I don't think she understands what it really is. She doesn't get it. All she saw was her husband having a life outside of her and the kids.”

“You get it. I wasn't sure that you would or that you'd want to, but you get it.” Train took a pull off of the cigarette and handed it back to her. “We should head back inside before there's no food left. You need to eat. You're going to need the energy.”

“Am I?” Meg felt herself smile. She snubbed out the cigarette.

“You are,” he confirmed. “What part of it did you make?”

“The mashed potatoes, biscuits, and I helped a bit with the mac and cheese.”

“I thought that I smelled mac and cheese. We should eat more mac and cheese when we're back home.”

“I'll keep that in mind. Would you eat broccoli if it was in mac and cheese?”

“Why would you even ask that? Disgusting.” He made a face. “I'll have some salad.”

“A little lettuce, drenched in ranch dressing, isn't really even a vegetable, Train. I swear, for someone who works out as much as you do, you think you'd eat better.”

“I work out the way that I do so that I can eat the way that I do.” It was something he'd told her before. It didn't work that way for her, so she was a little bit envious.

“More vegetables wouldn't kill you,” she pointed out while making a mental note to start exercising more.

“You don't know that for sure.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Yes, I do know that for sure.”

“What if I'm allergic to asparagus?” he countered.

“When have I ever made you asparagus?” Meg raised an eyebrow at him.

“It's just the first vegetable that came to mind.”

“Do you know how I got the boys to eat it? I told them that it would make their pee smell funny. They had to try it out.” Meg smiled.

“Funny how?”

“Eat some and find out,” she suggested. “And there's no asparagus here tonight, just some roasted carrots and green beans. They're really good. Jillian made them.”

“I'll try them,” he relented. “But if Jillian made them, they're probably not really good. She's a shitty-ass cook.”

“Train, that's not nice.”

“It doesn't have to be nice, it's the truth. Come on, let's go.” Inside, the mood was much more somber than it had been before Kay's outburst. It was the first time that they'd had dinner where you didn't have to shout to be heard. Meg realized she preferred it loud; everyone was always laughing. Tonight, no one even seemed to crack a smile.

Amelia came downstairs when they were in the middle of the meal. She'd told Caroline she wasn't hungry, but she went to grab a plate. Meg thought she might have actually gotten some sleep. She was wearing one of Danny's shirts, it was stretched over her belly and the sight was both incredibly sad and beautiful.

“It'd be great if everyone stopped staring at me,” Amelia said once she was seated. “I don't like people watching me eat, and I think I'm actually hungry.”

“Are you hungry because the baby is hungry?” Zoe, Manuel and Sandra's daughter, asked from across the table.

“That's probably part of the reason, Zoe.” Amelia smiled.

“Is it kicking? Can I feel it kick?” The little girl was at the age where she basically said whatever popped into her mind. Meg worried that Amelia would be annoyed or just not want to be bothered, but she continued to smile.

“He's not kicking right now, but when he does, I'll be sure to find you. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good.” Zoe returned her attention to the food.

“He?” Caroline asked.

“They did a scan at the hospital. It's a boy. Danny won the bet.” Amelia's smile wavered a little.

“Wait,” Ace called out, “that means that he gets to pick the name, right? He said that he had one already, said that you'd hate it.”

“He did. I didn't hate it, exactly. Doesn't really matter, I guess, I'd have named him it anyway, because that's what he wanted.”

“So, what is it?” Ace prompted her.

“Shane Danger Benson. So that one day, he can say, 'Danger is my middle name' and mean it. Go on, you can laugh. I sure as hell did.”

“I like it,” Train called out.

“You would,” Amelia replied with a roll of her eyes.

It was nowhere near their normal banter, but Meg realized that it was a start. Even as they were getting torn apart, they were healing. They were making themselves stronger by being together, staying together no matter how hard things were.

Soon, the dinner was like all the others, with raised voices and plenty of laughter. The mood relaxed considerably. They were almost done with the meal when Meg realized that this could be the last time they were all together like this. Any one of them, or all of them, could be lost when they went face to face with Gagliardi.

Chapter Twenty-Three

There had been several variations of the plan to take down Gagliardi. Each one ended with the man dead, and that was really all that mattered. In the end, they decided that a simple approach would be the best. They'd just cut power to the building, disabling all of the security measures, so that they could breach the building. Once inside, they'd shoot anything that moved.

Nightshade still had enough friends in the area to know that Gagliardi hadn't left the warehouse since before Danny had been killed. Train was starting to think that Gagliardi wasn't as dear to the people back East as he'd have them believe. If he really had pull, wouldn't hell have been raining down on their heads? He kept the opinion to himself, on the off chance that he was wrong.

It was a risk to go into a situation like this too cocky. Normally, the more risk the better for Train, but now, it was different. He had Meg to go home to. He'd do whatever it took to make sure that happened. Seeing the way that losing Danny had dimmed all the light inside of Amelia had shaken him. Even he had to admit that she was one of the strongest women he knew, right up there with Caroline and Jillian. He loved Meg, but he wasn't sure that she had that inner strength. With all she'd lost, losing him would make her lose herself.

Manuel and Bones had remained behind to stay with the women and children. Ace had taken Caesar along with him to cut the main power. They'd go in through the basement to make sure that there was no generator. Train and Buster were going in the side. Einstein and Monroe were going in the front. They were probably going to be outnumbered or outgunned, but those were odds that they were used to.

The instant that the lights went off, all other thoughts were silenced. Train was in the moment. They hit the door. There were two guys right there. He got one with a shot to the head, a little off-center but still, the effect was the same. Buster hit the other one twice in the chest. “Nice shot,” Train called out. There was a burst of gunfire from the basement.

“Keep moving,” Buster ordered.

It had been a while since they had done anything like this. To Train, everything took on almost a surreal feeling. He felt like he was in a video game, blowing shit up. And it felt good. Fuck, it felt right. At the top of the stairs, he caught sight of someone moving. With a laugh, he took the stairs as quickly as he cautiously could.

The last time that he'd seen the man in front of him, he'd been distracting them. Train didn't feel distracted now. He felt focused; he was focused. He saw a shot, took it. The man screamed as his knee exploded, but he managed to fire off a shot.

The impact, even with the vest, set Train back a couple of steps. He raised the gun, fired again, and the man no longer had the ability to shoot. He was, however, going to bleed out pretty quickly. There was a certain poetry to that; it was how Danny had died.

“Fuck.” Train felt like a teenager who'd blown his load too soon. He'd wanted to make the man suffer more. He'd need to be more careful with Gagliardi, he'd promised Amelia.

“Basement and first floor are clear,” Ace came up behind him. “Only one more floor to go. We've got seven bodies including this prick.”

“Got to be at least two guys in there with the fat bastard,” Train pointed out. “I'd count on three just to be safe.”

“I don't care if there's a dozen. We didn't get this far to fail now.” Buster sounded completely confident. “That door is reinforced. Train, you're up.”

It was a small explosive but enough to take out the lock and cause some panic inside. Aside from pain, what Train wanted the most was for Gagliardi to feel fear, to know what was coming. Only then would the pain begin.

They rushed the room. There was only one guard; he took a shot but it went wide. Ace's shot was right on the mark, and the guard was dead. Now it was only Gagliardi and a woman in the room. She looked vaguely familiar to Train.

“Drop your weapons or I'll kill her.” Gagliardi was sweating profusely as he jammed his gun against the woman's head.