Footsteps (40 page)

“Do you have a request for how this problem
is resolved?”

“What? I want Trey home. Obviously.”

“And the woman who took him? And the man she
was with?”

He was starting to understand, he thought.
“Are you asking me if I want them dead?”

Uncle Ben shook his head. “No. That’s been
decided. If we get them before our friends in the bad suits do—and
we will—then their fate is sealed. I’m asking if you want a hand in
it. You make that choice, nephew, and you cross a line. I want you
to see the line, see it clearly.”

“Think about it first, Junior.” Uncle Lorrie
had been standing quietly. “We’re offering you the respect of the
choice. But if you choose it, there’s no going back.”

And again with the riddles. Or maybe Carlo
was simply too distracted and worried to think clearly. “I don’t
understand. I’m sorry, but I just don’t.”

“A kill makes you one of us. It weaves your
life with ours—your interests with ours. If we bring you into that,
then we will come to you when we need you. And not just once. This
is the way on, as you and your brothers and sisters say, the other
side of the pews.”

“Can we even talk about this here?” Carlo
looked around; they were in a public waiting room—empty of anyone
not there for Joey, but public nonetheless.

“We swept the room after the cops left,
Junior. We can speak freely for now.” Uncle Lorrie looked over
toward the rest of the family. “Quietly, but freely.”

Carlo thought. The Uncles were telling him
that if he participated in dealing with Jenny and whoever had been
with her, he would be coming into their fold. He very much did not
want that. But he knew for a certainty that he wanted her dead. It
wasn’t even vengeance he was after. As furious and full of hate as
he was, she was too unstable for him to feel a need for revenge.
But he needed security for Trey, and he wouldn’t have it if she
lived.

But could he just farm that job out? This
was all his responsibility—he had married her, had a child with
her, underestimated her, left Sabina and Trey alone with his fuckup
baby brother as ‘protection.’

“It should be me. It’s my responsibility,
isn’t it? But why would it make me one of you? I mean no
disrespect, but I don’t see my future in your business.”

Uncle Ben put his hand on Carlo’s arm. “Then
let us handle the situation. Because there’s no avoiding the
entanglement if you’re involved in that way. And I know you see
why—if you looked, you’d see.”

But he didn’t see. He was too fucking tired
to see. Trey was gone. Trey was fucking
gone
, and he was
sitting here having a surreal conversation with his Uncles,
apparently preparing to sign on for a life of crime.

Uncle Ben sighed. Uncle Lorrie leaned over
and answered his unasked question. “You commit murder, on our
watch, with our help, that’s us…entangled. You don’t get loose from
that. So think and make your choice. But if things go right, you
don’t have a lot of time to make the choice. When we find Trey, you
gotta know.”

Carlo sat back, his head pounding. “I need
to think.”

“Yes, you do.” The Uncles stood and left the
waiting room, going to stand in the hallway with their
bodyguard.

Bina came over immediately and stood before
him. “Would you prefer company or to be alone?”

He looked up at her and held out his hand.
“Stay with me.” She put her hand in his and sat at his side.

“Have they news?”

“No. But they seem confident. I wish I could
share it.” His head full of his talk with the Uncles, Carlo pulled
Bina’s hand into his lap. “I need…I don’t know. Help. Advice?”

“I understand. You should seek help where
you need it.”

He smiled a little at her deference. “I
meant you, Bina. I need to talk something out.”

“Yes, of course.” She blushed, a faint pink
rising on her cheeks.

“You understand what the Uncles will do when
they have Jenny?” She nodded. That was all he needed—of course she
would understand. They had solved her trouble in a similar way.
“They have offered me the chance, when they find Trey, to…to kill
Jenny myself.”

Again, she nodded—and that surprised him.
He’d expected surprise from her. “Yes. I wondered.”

“You did?”

“Carlo. I understand the way of your uncles.
Their way helped me to be here with you—to be here at all, maybe. I
think to offer you that is respect, yes? And you said earlier that
you would kill her.”

He nodded. “I want her dead. She needs to be
dead. Even if I get Trey back—”

“
When
. You must think ‘when,’ not
‘if.’”

He waved that away. “Even then, he won’t be
safe as long as she’s alive. And what she did—I’m to blame for a
lot of it. Making the situation possible.”

“No. I don’t agree.”

“It’s my responsibility. I can’t just slough
that off. But that brings me into the business. I don’t understand
exactly how, but however, I never wanted that.”

“May I say my opinion?”

“Yes. That’s what advice is.”

“Please don’t, Carlo. You’re not that man,
but I think you would become that if you did this yourself. You
carry enough already on your shoulders. But you are not hard. You
are not ruthless. Let your uncles do what they do. They have
offered this, too?”

“Yes.” In fact, Carlo felt sure that Uncle
Ben would prefer him to stay on his father’s side of the
family.

She clutched his hand in both of hers. “Then
don’t do this thing. Trey will come home to you, and your family
will see to it that he is safe. It’s
not
your
responsibility. To take care of Trey is. Let your family do what
they do to take care of you. Please.”

Carlo looked into Bina’s hazel eyes. The
strength he saw in them was resolute. “If…If I do, if I make that
choice, will you stay? Could you stay with me even then?”

“I’m here, Carlo. With you. Make the choice
you must, and I will be here still. But please think smart. You
are, right now, the best kind of man. The best kind of father. You
are who Trey needs. Who I need.”

He fed his hand into her hair. She’d had it
in a ponytail earlier, but at some point she’d taken it down, and
the silk of her long locks curled around his fingers. She tipped
her head to the side, resting on his hand, and something inside him
gave way.

Since he’d talked to Luca, while he was
still in Providence, and found out what had happened—hours ago,
now—Carlo had felt a disabling sense of internal division. Even as
his head and heart had rampaged with fury and terror for his son,
he had seemed to become numb at the same time. By the time he’d
hurt Bina, the break inside had been complete. He’d felt like a
cardboard cutout of himself, like he was standing in for himself as
he watched his life fall apart from some point in the distance.

But this small gesture, his hand in her
hair, her head resting on his hand, shattered the barrier inside
him, and brought the terror and fury full force to suffuse him,
body, heart, and mind. “Fuck. Bina, oh fuck. Trey.
My
boy
.”

She must have heard the crisis in his words,
because she dropped to her knees on the floor in front of him and
pulled him into her arms. He tucked his head into the crook of her
warm shoulder and wept while she combed her fingers through his
hair and made loving murmurs at his ear.

His boy. His boy was gone. Trey was
gone.

~oOo~

Carlo had settled but he and Bina had not
moved when there was activity elsewhere in the room. He looked up
to see Joey’s doctor. Carlo’s father and siblings were moving to
circle the man, as they had before. This time, Carlo stood, too,
and joined them, taking Bina by the hand and keeping her close.

“He’s going to the ICU now,” the doctor was
saying as Carlo moved in. “He’s not stable yet, but his vitals are
stronger, and he’s fighting. I’d say there’s more reason for hope
now than there was an hour ago.” As a whole, the group relaxed, but
the doctor wasn’t finished. “Until he regains consciousness, if he
does, we won’t know the full extent of the damage from not only the
bullet but the blood loss and shock.”

Carmen asked what Carlo assumed they were
all thinking. “Are you saying there could be problems?”

“I’m saying that it’s likely there will be.
But I can’t tell you more than that at this point. For now, let’s
focus on getting him stable. Then we’ll focus on getting him awake.
And then we’ll see.” He looked at the large group of Joey’s family
surrounding him. “The ICU rooms are very small, and there is a lot
of equipment. The doctors and nurses there are doing serious work
with very ill patients. I’m sorry, but we can’t have so many of you
even in the ward at once. Two at a time, please.”

“I’ll go up with Pop.” John put his hand on
their father’s shoulder. “Okay, Pop?”

Carlo Sr. nodded, and Carlo realized that,
although he himself had been distracted and out of it, he wasn’t
sure he remembered the last time their father had spoken. That
thought brought with it a powerful sense of bitter nostalgia. Their
father had disappeared into himself for years after their mother
died, and his absent presence, as much as the loss of their
wonderful mother, had changed all their lives.

As John took their father and followed the
doctor, Luca and Carmen came over to Carlo and Bina. Carmen tugged
on Bina’s hand. “Come with me to the bathroom?”

Bina nodded and took her hand from his to
follow Carmen. Carlo was surprised. Carmen was not the kind of
woman who needed a powder room partner. But then he looked at Luca
and understood.

Luca gave Carlo and appraising look. “You
pull yourself together okay?”

“Yeah. I just…I need to
do
something.
Standing here while Trey’s out there makes no fucking sense.”

“What would you do, Carlo? What
could
you do? People are on it. The Uncles, too, I guess, right?”

“Yeah.” He knew Luca was right. He knew they
were all right—he was helpless. There was nothing he could do but
sit. Maybe that was one reason he felt so compelled to be the one
who handled Jenny. Because he needed to do something. Because he
needed to act on her the way she was acting on him and Trey.

Luca huffed. “Christ. They’ll tear Jenny
apart.”

“No, they won’t. They won’t make her suffer.
Uncle Ben wouldn’t tolerate it. I don’t think there’s anything a
woman could do that would make him hurt her. They’ll put a bullet
in her head and bury her deep.” He hesitated and then added, “Or I
will.”

“Fuck, Carlo. I knew it. They want to bring
you in. Don’t do it.”

“This is why you had Carmen take Bina off,
right? She could have stayed. I told her about this.”

Luca’s brows went up in surprise at that,
but then he nodded. “You don’t think clearly when people you love
are fucked up. I’m putting myself between you and a stupid decision
you’ll regret. Think what you need here.”

“I need my son back, and I need her gone for
good.”

“Exactly. The Uncles can handle that. Shit,
the cops could handle it, too. They could put her away.”

“Right. They have a great track record with
justice.”

“Then leave it to Ben and Lorrie. What you
don’t
need is to send your life down the tubes out of some
idiotic idea of responsibility. You’re not a killer, big brother.
And Trey’s father shouldn’t be. Let the people who know how to
carry that shit carry it.”

The elevator chimed, and the doors opened.
Pete and Rosa came out, just as Carmen and Bina returned from the
bathroom. Carmen pulled Rosa into an embrace, but Rosa pushed
herself free and came straight to Carlo.

“Trey? Do we have him back?”

Carlo shook his head and offered his baby
sister the hug she’d rejected from Carmen. This one she took,
crying into his chest.

“I can’t believe Joey let this happen. That
asshole!”

Carlo pushed her back and looked down at
her. “Hey. Watch your mouth, Peanut. Joey did what he could.”
Saying it, Carlo finally believed it. Joey hadn’t done as much as
he
should
have, but he’d done as much as he’d known to do.
He’d put his life on the line for them. Carlo should have known
that Joey wouldn’t know yet how to be a good guard. But Carlo
hadn’t thought there was any more danger than simply Jenny showing
up somewhere and trying to
see
Trey. That, Joey could have
handled. Joey and Bina.

Before Rosa could say more, Uncle Lorrie was
back in the waiting room. “Junior. Come. We got something.”

With a quick look at Luca and a longer look
at Bina, Carlo set his baby sister aside and went out into the hall
to meet with his Uncles.

Uncle Ben was on his phone. “Hold where you
are. I’ll be in touch in three minutes.” He handed the phone to
Lorrie, who ended the call.

“We have them. Trey is safe. Upstate New
York. Looks like she was on her way to Canada.”