The Falling Kind (19 page)

CHAPTER 17

              Cole angrily slammed his fist down on the dining room table and I jumped. I could see his mind racing and I feared for a moment that his anger would get the best of him and he would again become unrecognizable to me.

              “I don’t believe you,” Cole said, narrowing his eyes at Harvey.

              “I didn’t know it was him for many years,” Harvey clarified. “The pieces didn’t fit at first. It was a hit and run, so there was limited information. Back when it happened I had no clue. I didn’t even really know your dad back then, he was so much younger than me. Occasionally he’d play in some poker games I was a part of, and he even worked in the bike shop here and there. But he was always in and out of prison. It was mostly petty stuff, drugs, conversion, theft.”

              “Then how did you find out about the hit and run?” Cole questioned. I sat there in complete silence.

              “When you were twelve, that’s when your daddy was put away for ten years for that arson charge. He got mixed up with the wrong people and he got busted for that,” Harvey explained. “That’s when we took you in. I knew he’d be gone a long time and you needed someone. When he finally got released, you were a man already. You were twenty-two – not that young, scared boy he left behind all those years before. You refused to see him when he got out.”

              “There was no reason to,” Cole said sternly. “The only memories I have of that man are of his fists and his slurred, angry speech. He has no claim to me.”

              “You set him up after he got out,” Harvey said quietly.

              “Damn straight I did, he deserved it,” Cole replied angrily. “How did you know it was me?”

              “I facilitated the entire thing in some way,” Harvey answered hesitantly. “When your father got out, he insisted he would draw you away from me. He didn’t want you working for me and insisted he had some information that would make you turn on me. He said I deserved it for taking you away from him.”

              “None of this is making sense,” Cole said irritably.

              “I set up the job knowing your father would have a trail to it, because those were the old boys he used to work with. I knew the operation would get busted, it was intended to,” Harvey stated with a steady voice. “I wanted proof of your loyalty. I wanted to know if you would try to cover it for him or if you would throw him into the flames.”

              “Why would you need proof of that?” Cole exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table again. “I’ve felt so much guilt the last two years over putting him away. I did it out of spite, just because I could. Don’t you realize how heavily that’s weighed on me?”

              “I do,” Harvey confirmed solemnly.

              “Then why didn’t you say something then?” Cole huffed. “Why did you ask me to take the heat for him? You made up that entire story, like he was going to be joining the business with you and you needed him. What was all that?”

              “A test,” Harvey said directly.

              “What test for you have I ever failed?” Cole said loudly with expressive arms, standing up from the table. “Why would I ever side with that piece of shit man who has never done anything for me? What did I have to prove? What hadn’t
I
proved to you by then?” Cole’s anger was all over his face. “I just wanted him out of the picture! And then you asked me to take his sentence? That’s not a test Harvey. That’s some bullshit penance you wanted held over me to give you power.”

              “I wanted
you
in jail, Cole,” Harvey admitted. “I honestly thought out of your loyalty to me, you would do it because I asked you to.” I looked over at Cole who just stood there, shaking his head in disbelief.

              “That’s sick,” Cole said through gritted teeth.

              “That’s the only place you would’ve been protected from what was supposed to happen,” Harvey replied cryptically. “I had received correspondence from your father when he got out of jail. The message simply said he’d already taken one of my boys from me, with a promise to take my other boy.
You.
I couldn’t let that happen.”

              “I still don’t understand what you’re saying,” Cole breathed.

              “I wanted you in jail for something petty, just briefly, so there was no way you would be a suspect for what I had planned to happen. I’d made arrangements for your father to ‘disappear’ the following day. I vowed that your father would take his last breath before anything happened to you. I set up a bad job, hoping you would be picked up for it to get you out of the picture so you couldn’t be tied to your father’s disappearance in any way. But instead, when things went bad you pinned your father. That messed with my plans, but I thought if I could convince you to take the heat, I could still proceed with what I wanted to do, but you didn’t go for it, and your father was sent back in.”

              “So what now? What does this all mean right
now
? He’s been released again. He’s already out. What are we doing?” Cole asked Harvey. “And don’t you lie to me about anything else. Just tell me what we’re going to do.”

              I still sat in silence, trying to follow everything being said. This was such a messed up situation on so many levels.

              “Your father needs the justice he deserves, for everything he’s done,” Harvey stated calmly. “The guy he’s working for, Burton McClellan…”

              “Wait, Burton from the poker game? The guy who gave up Sonita?” I interrupted, trying to make sure I understood the connection.

              “Yes, that Burton,” Harvey continued, “he’s been shorting our payments and causing trouble. He’s been interfering with our business, and you know I don’t tolerate that. The fact that your dad is mixed up with him too, that just makes this all the more easier to rectify. Burton has six hundred thousand dollars that belong to me, you know that,” he said towards Cole.

              Cole nodded in return.

              “So the job is two-fold. We get back the money, and I make sure your father is permanently out of the picture,” Harvey stated.

              “You’re going to murder him?” I shrieked. “I feel like I shouldn’t be hearing this. I don’t want any part of this,” I said nervously, shaking my head.

              Cole looked at me with apologetic eyes, and it felt like there was so much he wanted to say to me, but he didn’t speak. I hoped once we were alone he would be more willing to talk all of this over with me. Hopefully he wanted no part in this as well, but his expression told me otherwise.

              “I know you mean a great deal to Cole,” Harvey said to me softly. “But he’s not safe right now. His father wants revenge, as do the people he works for. And if there’s a target on him, there’s a target on you.” I noticed Sonita slowly raise her left hand and touch the scars on her face. I could see so much sadness in her eyes. “Sydney, this is the best thing for you both. We will finish this now, and he will be set free. Otherwise there is no end for the violence that surrounds him.”

              “I still don’t understand,” I said quietly.

              “One of two things will happen,” Harvey replied simply. “If the job goes well, like I plan, I’ll get the money I’m owed and Cole’s father will be paid off. He will disappear. I have no plans to harm him Sydney, I just simply need him to vanish. There’s a difference.”

              “And the other scenario?” Cole asked, still maintaining his stern expression.

              “If he doesn’t take the money, then his disappearance will be forced,” Harvey replied hesitantly. “But one way or another, he needs to be out of the picture.”

              “What if I won’t help you? What then?” Cole demanded, shaking his head.

              “That’s not a risk worth taking,” Harvey answered. “Cole, so many things… The scars you have, the motorcycle accident years ago – none of the things you’ve been through were accidental. They were all done intentionally. Your father has had people working for him the whole time he’s been in prison, and he’s been connected to Burton since before he even went in. The blackmail threats I’ve received, those won’t end until your father is removed from all of this. Those people are all out for me, Cole, but you know they’ll go through you to make that happen. They know hurting you hurts me, and they aren’t afraid to do that. Not even your own father.”

              I thought back to the night Cole followed me home from that West Cove dive bar. I thought he was just being protective and crazy, insinuating someone would hurt me just to hurt him. Now in this conversation, I saw Harvey treat him in the same overprotective way. And Sonita’s face – that was clearly an attempt at someone’s retaliation against Harvey. I suddenly felt less safe now than I ever had since meeting Cole.

              “This is it, Harvey,” Cole said firmly. “This is the very last thing I will be a part of. But only with your guarantee that I’m out after this. Completely. Forever.”

              “You have my word on that Cole,” Harvey agreed. “This is it. You will be released from all of this. But this goes down tomorrow night, so there isn’t any time for wavering. You participate, and this is all over.”

              Cole looked at me and I didn’t know what to say. I knew there was so much I still didn’t know. But I didn’t
want
to know. All I wanted was for things to go back to how they were – the last couple months we spent splashing in the summer sun, and learning about each other under perfect, starlit skies. Somehow in an instant we seemed so far away from that and I hated it. I knew I would give anything to get that back – that’s what I wanted.

              “I’m taking Sydney home,” Cole said bluntly, reaching out for my hand.

              “What about the lovely pie you brought?” Sonita replied warmly.

              “You guys enjoy that on your own,” Cole said dismissively. “Syd, come on.” I stood up from the table and reached out for his hand. “I’ll be by tomorrow,” he added towards Harvey, and that was it. Within sixty seconds we were headed back to my condo on his motorcycle.

              “What are you thinking?” Cole said softly as we entered my house.

              “Honestly, I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t understand any of this. I just want to wish it all away.”

              “Can we go up to the roof?” he asked with sweet eyes and an exhausted smile. “I want to lay by the fire with you.”

              I nodded and we headed to the rooftop, stretching out on the sofa next to the fire pit like we’d done so many other nights.

              “I feel like I’m losing you,” I said quietly, tracing my fingers lazily across his chest.

              “What happened to our promise? Me and you at the end, no matter what, right?” He grabbed my hand and pulled it up to his mouth, gently kissing it. “That hasn’t changed.”

              “Do you ever wish you hadn’t met me?” I asked honestly. It was a valid question. Maybe I was trying to change who he was. Maybe he wouldn’t be caught up in all of this if I wasn’t trying so hard to pull him away from it all.

              “I’ll never have that thought,” he replied shaking his head. “Look, I know all of this is messy. It’s ugly and it’s complicated. I know that. And yeah, I wish I never got you involved in any of this. I hate myself for that. But not at the cost of giving you up. I knew when we met, I wasn’t good enough for you. I wasn’t worthy of your love then, I knew that. But for some crazy reason, you chose me anyway, just on the promise that I would be good enough for you eventually. I know I’m still trying, but don’t give up on me.”

              “I can’t give up on you,” I shrugged. “Trust me, this would be so much easier if I could. But I feel like I’m making this worse for you. Like you have one more thing to deal with. I just wish this was all…. simpler.”

              “Boring people have boring love stories,” he snickered, squeezing my hand. “Just think of the story we’ll tell our children someday.”

              “Geez, you move quick,” I teased. “Who knew we’d go from tacos to felonies to planning a family.”

              “I didn’t say the kids would belong to us jointly. I meant you could tell your kids and I would tell mine,” he said with a sarcastic laugh. “Why would I want to have children with you someday? They would come out all smart and good. Bleh.”

              “But they’ll also have tattoos by the time they’re ten and a vocab full of curse words,” I teased back. “They’ll be well balanced.”

              He leaned down and kissed me, interrupting my smile. It amazed me the way he could talk about our future together when I wasn’t confident we’d even survive another forty-eight hours.

              “I’m going to fix all of this tomorrow,” he said softly as he pulled away from me. He stared at me as he said it and I believed him. “I’ll go to Harvey’s and do what I have to do. One way or another, tomorrow will be the last day of my old life. The entire life I knew before I met you – all of that will be left behind and then it’s just you and me.”

              I kissed him again, memorizing the way his lips felt against mine – the way his hands felt as they grazed my skin – the way he breathed in the silence that surrounded us.