Love and Fear (9 page)
He raised his hand to slap her again.
But before Vespucci could bring his hand down on his wife’s face a second time, Tony pulled his piece. He shot his boss through the hand that had slapped Maria.
“You disloyal son of a bitch!” Vespucci raged. “I’m going to—”
He didn’t finish the sentence, because Tony shot his boss and best friend through the heart. Vespucci didn’t fall. Not for a few seconds. And in those stunned seconds before Joey fell to the bar floor, Gulliver
dove over the table and knocked Maria to the floor. He threw himself over her. Just as he landed atop her, Joey’s lifeless body collapsed. His head made a sickening thud against the tiles.
Without instructions from their boss, Vespucci’s bodyguards hesitated, and that proved to be a fatal mistake. Above Maria and Gulliver, the din and smoke of gunfire filled the air. Another body dropped. Then another. The noise stopped as suddenly as it had started. Maria tried to get up, but Gulliver held her down. Then, finally, a fourth body hit the floor. Tony’s.
Gulliver crawled off Maria. He took out his weapon and checked Vespucci and his men. Maria checked Tony. Joey Vespucci was dead. He was probably dead before he hit the floor. One of his men was also dead. The other was still alive—barely. Gulliver kicked that man’s gun away and called 9-1-1. After that he turned to Tony.
Maria was crying. She had Tony’s head cradled in her lap. She was pressing her hand down on a red hole in the middle of his chest. There was blood all over her clothes and her hands. Gulliver could see that Tony was already in shock and wouldn’t live for more than another minute. If that.
“That was a brave thing you did, Tony.”
Tony smiled. He coughed up blood. Then he said, “Listen, Bug…I don’t know why he did it…but the guy who killed… your sis—” Tony stopped speaking, his whole body clenching as if it were one big fist. Then he relaxed a bit. “He’s dead.”
Gulliver clutched Tony’s shoulders. “How do you know that?”
“I put two pills…in his ear. Joey had me do it last year…after your cop friend was murdered. Joey said…he owed you that much.”
Then Tony’s body clenched again. And this time when it relaxed, it relaxed forever.
Maria looked more shocked than anything else. Then she said, “I don’t know how to get in touch with Bella.”
Gulliver stood, placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. News like this spreads. She’ll read about it.”
“I loved them both.”
“I know.”
Gulliver tried to think of something else to say. But there was nothing to say in the face of so much blood and devotion.
Gulliver didn’t have his answers. He had an answer. He didn’t know why Keisha had been killed, and now he probably never would. Did he take some satisfaction in knowing her killer had also been killed? Some, he guessed. But the important thing was, he had come to as if out of a long coma. Keisha was dead, and nothing would bring her back. Knowing why she’d been killed was no longer as important to him as it had once been, he realized. Living was what was important. Loving was what was important. Perhaps more important
than anything in the universe. What else mattered without love?
And so, armed with that thought, Gulliver stood in front of the door to the condo he had bought for Mia. He raised his right hand and knocked. He waited. And as he did, he looked down at the blue-velvet-covered ring case in his left hand. As he waited, he hoped Mia liked diamonds and emeralds. He hoped she remembered how to say yes.
Thanks to Bob Tyrrell for taking a chance on Gulliver. Also to David Hale Smith and Erin Mitchell. To my friend and super Gulliver fan Marjorie Tucker.
But none of this would be worth it without the love and support of Rosanne, Kaitlin and Dylan. Thanks guys.
Called a “hard-boiled poet” by National Public Radio’s Maureen Corrigan and the “noir poet laureate” in the
Huffington Post,
REED FARREL COLEMAN
is the author of twenty-one novels and novellas. He has been signed to do the next four books in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series and by Putnam to begin a new series of his own. He is a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award and a three-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony awards. He lives with his family on Long Island. For more information, visit
www.reedcoleman.com
.
