Finding Gary (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 4) (30 page)

“Can’t we see the crate numbers on the feed?” Roman asked, stepping up next to her with a much calmer voice than Val.

“That’s what I’m waiting for,” Jessica said.  “If Marcus could just sit still long enough.”

“Oh God, my baby…”

Jessica threw Zoey a look when she whimpered from next to her, raising her eyebrows.  “Hey… we’re in the right place, Zoey.  Once we find them—” Her eyebrows went higher.  “And we will find them… I promise you that one of them isn’t coming out alive.  And it won’t be Marcus.”

“There,” Gary said, suddenly, catching everyone’s attention as he pushed in from the back and stepped in-between Reggie and Jessica.  He pointed to the top corner of the screen as the picture continued moving from box to box.  “Do you see that in the top corner?  It looks like a five.”

Jessica rewound and froze the feed.  After zooming in, she looked over her shoulder at Gary.  “Good eye.”

“But half the number isn’t visible.” Roman cringed.

Jessica looked up and saw that Val was already deep into the crates, going the wrong way, but didn’t want to risk calling after him.

“It’s good enough,” she said, pushing her hair behind her ear when the wind picked it up.  She pointed to the opposite end of the dock, several hundred feet to the right.  “The crates are lined numerically, and we know King and Marcus are near the fives, which starts there and ends…” She moved her finger to the very end of the dock where the Hudson River began and lapped a serene path all the way to the Manhattan skyline on the opposite side.  “And ends at the water.”

Roman was already moving sideways towards the crates, but Jessica snapped at him.  When he returned to her with wide eyes and his arms out at his sides, she faced everyone else.  They naturally made a circle.

“We’ve lost Val, and that’s for the best.  As long as he’s going the wrong way, his emotion can’t sabotage this for us.”  She shot her eyes to Zoey.  “You can’t come either.”

Zoey’s face cringed with the objection that was on the tip of her lips.

Jessica held up a hand.  “You’re his mother.  That makes you prone to compulsive acts and rash decisions that could get your son killed.  Besides, someone needs to stay here and act as a lookout.  We’re not supposed to be on this dock.  If an employee finds you’re here, it’ll serve to keep their eyes on you, and not on us.”  Jessica looked at Reggie.  “Reggie, I want you to stay here with her.”

Zoey shot Reggie a disgusted look.

“Because I don’t trust you, either,” Jessica said, giving Reggie a side eye before motioning to Leo and Roman.  “The two of you?  Split up.  I want a gun in every corner.  Roman, you start at one end of the fives and Leo you start at the other.  And please guys… step lightly.  You’re two big sons of bitches, and I don’t want anything tipping King off.  He thinks he’s gotten one over on all of us, but he’s got another think coming.” She waited for Roman and Leo to nod their understanding before looking at Gary.  “You’re with me,” she said.

Leo and Roman were already moving away, guns at their sides as they headed towards the shipping boxes at the end of the dock.  Jessica watched them go, amazed that the massive crates made the two biggest men she knew, look minuscule and insignificant in comparison.  She thought of Marcus, helpless and in danger as he was lugged through that jungle of steel, and said a silent prayer.

But she made sure that prayer was gone from her eyes when she turned back to Zoey and Reggie.

“We’re going to find him,” Jessica said to Zoey, already backing away with Gary next to her.  “I promise, Zoey.”

Zoey had her hands in fists, pressing them to her lips, and as she jammed her eyes closed she managed to give a strangled nod.

Gary and Reggie met eyes as he backed away with Jessica, and just before Gary turned and broke into a run, he saw Reggie mouth the words that he knew would get him through this.

‘I love you.’

***

One minute turned to five.  Five to ten.  Ten to twenty.  And soon, Jessica began to doubt whether or not she’d be able to keep the promise she’d made to Zoey.  The sun was setting rapidly, or more clouds were moving in.  She couldn’t tell which.  Couldn’t think one straight thought past her pounding heart, but as she and Gary moved as quietly as they could, deeper and deeper into that steel crate labyrinth, her heart sank more and more each second.

Then, it happened.

The feed on her tablet was suddenly awash with light, and she knew King and Marcus had emerged from the crates.  Her eyes shot up, zooming in every direction, searching desperately for a shard of light in the dark maze.  When she found it, she quietly motioned to Gary to follow her as she picked up her pace and followed the subtle beam of light peaking in between two bright red shipping boxes.

They followed the light for several more minutes, staying close to the edge of the crates, and it wasn’t until they nearly reached the end of the last crate, the crate that opened up to the end of the dock and the beginnings of the Hudson, that she held out a hand to stop him.

When she cursed under her breath at the sight that met her, Gary ignored the hand she had on his stomach, the hand that was holding him back against the crate, and stepped out into the light.

What he saw also made him curse under his breath.

***

“Zoey, Jessica told us to stay near the car,” Reggie said, struggling to keep his voice down as he followed after Zoey.

Crouching down slightly, Zoey gave him a venomous look over her shoulder but didn’t respond before turning back to the crates she’d just snuck into.  She weaved and wagged, hearing his shoes crunching behind her the entire time, but wouldn’t speak.

“If you insist on this,” he said.  “Then Jessica was right… we should split up.”

Zoey gave him another hard look.

She froze, holding his gaze.  Then, for the first time, Zoey’s eyes softened, and she nodded before making her way deeper into the crates.  She didn’t speak another word and eventually turned a corner out of sight.

Reggie watched her go and didn’t speak anymore either.

Because he knew, if Marcus was his child, there was no way he could stand by quietly and do nothing while that child was in danger.

There was no way he could stop himself from throwing on the armor and giving the fight of his life.

And he couldn’t blame Zoey for refusing to stop herself, too.

He couldn’t blame her at all.

***

“Gary,” Jessica warned, trying to grab him and pulled him back into the shadows.  He was too fast, however, and she cursed under her breath and followed him out onto the edge of the dock, mumbling to herself when she met eyes with Victor King.

He stood at the edge of the dock, one step away from taking a twenty-foot fall down into the water.  Marcus wiggled in his arms.

Jessica reached into the back of her jeans and produced her gun, cocking it and aiming it square at King.  She didn’t pull the trigger, however, no matter how badly she ached to do so.

She couldn’t risk hitting Marcus.

“You piece of shit,” Gary spat, bracing his feet, squaring his shoulders and clenched his fists.  This time, when Jessica stepped in front of him, gun still drawn and aimed at King, he didn’t fight the hand she pressed to his stomach.  “Let him go,”  Gary screamed.  “He has nothing to do with this.”

Victor King smiled.

Jessica blinked rapidly at the sight.  It wasn’t a smile of joy or even sickness.  No, it was a smile of peace.  How a man could be peaceful at that moment, standing on the brim of a dock with an innocent child in his hands, escaped her.

“Victor, you don’t have to do this,” Jessica said, gun still squarely pointed at him, her hand still on Gary’s stomach. 

Victor’s smile brightened. “You really think I didn’t know that sap would leave Zoey every shred of evidence she needed to lead her straight to me?”

Jessica’s chest began to heave.  “Please just let Marcus go.  He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

“He has everything to do with this.”  Victor laughed.  “This little bundle here?  Gosh, this is my insurance.  Any presidential candidate worth his salt always makes sure he’s adequately insured.  Though I suppose that’s not something I have to worry about anymore, or will ever have to worry about again…” For the first time, his smile vanished.  “Since this family took that from me.”

“We didn’t take shit from you,” Gary roared, in his fury also managing to hold himself back, knowing that one false move could send Marcus over the edge of that dock right along with King. 

Victor met his eyes, and then he laughed again, with such vigor it made the tears in his eyes apparent for the first time.   He got so caught up in his laughter in fact, that he didn’t realize Roman was creeping in from behind the crate next to him, blue eyes riveted to King.

Jessica’s eyes moved to Roman subconsciously, but she tore them away in an instant, praying King hadn’t noticed.

He hadn’t, too tied up in his own emotion, the tears in his eyes and the smile on his face doing nothing to hide it.

“They took from me,” he said, still oblivious even as Roman came within a foot of him.

Jessica shifted.

“So I’m taking from them, and they’re going to watch me do it

Roman leaped for Victor, his big arms getting him around the waist.

Victor’s neck bent back, but his body flew forward, and Marcus went flying too, out of his arms, through the air, and straight over the edge of the dock, disappearing behind the wall and down into the river.

Jessica screamed at the top of her lungs, hardly able to grasp what had just happened, even as Gary blazed past her and broke into a run.  She didn’t know when Val had found them, but her wide eyes zoomed to him when he moved past her in a flash.  Both he and Gary made it to the wall of the dock in seconds, leaping over the edge without a hint of hesitation before disappearing out of sight.

“Jesus Christ!” Jessica cried, never having been so thrown off guard in her life. 

Her attention snapping back to the present, her eyes found Roman and King, who were wrestling around on the ground. 

Victor’s hands locked around Roman’s wrists, fighting to take the gun out of his hands. 

Jessica aimed but didn’t shoot; this time terrified she’d get Roman.

“Shoot him!” Roman screamed after finding himself trapped under King, still clutching the gun, clenching his test with all his might as King tried to pry it out of his hands.  “Shoot him, Jessica!”

“I don’t have a clear shot,” Jessica yelled.

“Pull the trigger,” Roman heaved, losing strength as King nearly overpowered him.  “God damn it, Jessica, pull that fucking trigger!”

When a shot rang out, Jessica jolted, because it hadn’t been hers, and as she watched King catch the bullet, square between the eyes, making his head fly back, she shot her stunned gaze over her shoulder.

Behind her, clutching a gun that wobbled under his fingers, Reggie King’s brown eyes were manic.  He pulled the trigger again, and Jessica looked back at King just in time to see the second bullet sear his chest.  Reggie fired again, catching King in the stomach.  Again, in the eye.  Blood splattered like mist at the bottom of a waterfall, flying in every direction, some of it decorating Roman’s pale face from where he was still frozen in shock on the ground.

Reggie shot and kept shooting until there wasn’t a single bullet left to fire, and even then he continued pulling the trigger until no sound remained but the silent click of the empty barrel.

Panting, Roman pushed himself into a sitting position and met Jessica’s eyes across the dock, his mouth open, and jaw slack as King seized on the ground next to him.

Without another word, the click of Reggie’s gun still permeating the air, Jessica raced to the edge of the dock and leaned over it deeply, her long hair floating into her face and dancing with the wind as she peered down into the water.

Only when she saw Gary and Val backpedaling in the water below—only when she saw Marcus cradled to Gary’s chest, screaming at the top of his lungs—did Jessica finally take in the breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding.

As she took her first breath in minutes, behind her, Victor King breathed his last.

And only then did the click of Reggie’s gun come to a halt.

26

A smile lifted the corner of Val’s lips as his eyes searched the hospital room.  Flowers, candy, and balloons littered every corner, having built up so quickly in the few hours he’d been there that the stark white walls were barely visible anymore.  He readjusted himself in the bed, the most uncomfortable he’d ever been in in his life, frowning when even that tiny movement caused the IV’s to shift in his veins, sending a shot of pain rushing through him.

He cursed under his breath and readjusted the needle with a gentle hand. 

When a soft voice cleared their throat from the open door of his room, Val’s eyes went to the door, and he sat up a little taller, even though his bed had already been adjusted, so he was upright.

The young nurse who’d been taking care of him smiled shyly from the doorway, her fingers clutching the sill.

“Mr. Romanovsky,” she said, her voice just above a whisper.  “There’s someone here to see you.”

Val’s half smile lifted higher.  “A visitor?  Five minutes after you threw my entire family out of here, claiming visiting hours were over?”  His smile bloomed to both sides, making his face light up.  “Sorry, again, by the way, for their overdramatic reaction.  We’re a high-strung bunch.”

She waved a hand.  “Family is supposed to be up in arms when visiting hours are over.  They love you and hate the thought of leaving your side.  I’m more worried when families don’t get angry at me for kicking them out.”

Val shrugged.  “So visiting hours are over?”

“They are, but the nurses and I decided to make an exception.”

“Why’s that?”

The nurse leaned back and looked out of the doorway with a smile.

When Zoey stepped into view, meeting Val’s eyes from the doorway with Marcus kicking happily in the tight cocoon of her arms, Val sucked in a breath. 

He pushed himself into a stark straight sitting position, his eyes going big and filling with emotion.  He opened his mouth to say, “Aye,” but no sound came.

The nurse gave him a knowing smile, patting her hand on the doorsill.  “I’ll give you two some privacy.”

Zoey thanked the nurse and waited until she’d disappeared out of the doorway before looking back to the bed.  She raised her eyebrows dramatically and moved to the bed with a nervous titter.  She dropped her purse on the table next to Val’s bed and met his eyes.

“Zo,” he whispered, finally managing to speak the only word he could.  The one word that always lived at the forefront of his mind, even when he wasn’t in her presence.  His eyes fell to Marcus, and he couldn’t help a chuckle at the sight of a bumblebee stick balloon that said “Bee Better Soon” clutched in his tiny fist. 

“Marcus insisted we get you a balloon,” Zoey stated the obvious.  “You know; since you almost died saving his life and all.”

Val released a strangled laugh, his eyes shining as he took Marcus in.

“I don’t recommend trying to claim your balloon, however, because he
will
scream bloody murder.”  She leaned over the bed.

Val jolted, unprepared for her to hand Marcus to him with zero fight, and then he threw his arms out eagerly, taking Marcus with a soft sniffle and immediately cuddling him to his chest.  Marcus waved the balloon through the air while holding Val’s eyes, almost as if he were taunting his father with it.

“That’s okay, buddy.  You can keep it,” Val said, fixing Marcus’ clothes while searching his eyes.  “What’s mine is yours, right?”  Val took him in for a moment longer before looking up at Zoey.

She sat on the edge of the bed and let her hand fall to the mattress, stopping next to his upper thigh.

Val’s eyes fell to her hand, itching for her to move it even an inch to the right.  To touch him even if only with the tips of her fingers.

“How did you convince the nurses to let you and Marcus in here outside visiting hours?” he asked. “They just got done throwing the whole family out.”

“I heard they threw a fit.”

“Yeah, well, you know them…”

“I do…” She grinned, looking out of the window next to the bed.  “After he was born, Marcus spent a lot of time winning the hearts of every nurse in this hospital.  They adore him, so when I asked if he could see his daddy after visiting hours, of course they couldn’t deny him.  He’s special that way.”

“He is,” Val agreed.  “And so are you.  I’m glad you’re here.”

Zoey held his eyes for a long moment, then she took in a heavy breath, making her entire body rise.  “Val, I’m so sorry—“

“You have nothing to be sorry about—”

“All you’ve ever tried to do was protect the family—”

“I should’ve been honest with you—”

“You were right all along—”

“You had a right to be angry, Zo—”

“You told me all along that King was a danger to me and Marcus—”

“That doesn’t justify—”

“But I wouldn’t believe you—”

After nearly a full minute of talking over each other, they laughed simultaneously, both looking down with reddened cheeks.

Marcus cooed in Val’s arms, offering him the balloon. 

“Oh yeah?” Val asked, taking it.  When Marcus didn’t immediately scream at the top of his lungs in the absence of the balloon but instead let Val have it, Val shook him.  “Thanks, little man.”

Zoey sniffled.  “Every member of the family called and left me a voicemail.  I wasn’t even going to listen to them because I’ve been such an idiot—”

“Zo…”

“No, let me say this,” she insisted, holding out a hand.  “I wasn’t going to listen to them.  Then I sat down, and I thought about it.  I thought about you guys telling me that the truth put me in danger.  That the reason you never spoke about that night was because King had threatened your lives, and the lives of everyone you loved, if you did.  Clearly, he wasn’t bluffing.  He tried to take my baby…” She forced her eyes shut and corrected herself.  “Our baby.  If you and Gary hadn’t been there to jump over the edge after Marcus…” She couldn’t finish.

Val swallowed, allowing her to take her time.

Her eyes flew open, wetter than before, and went straight to the ceiling, her voice heightened by the tears in her eyes. “So I listened to the voicemails, and they said that you were in the hospital.”  She broke, the first tear falling from her eyes.  She covered her mouth with her hand and cried softly.

“I’m fine, Zo…” Val said, reaching out and cupping her arm.  “Thank God Ma is so paranoid.  After we’d got Marcus out of the water, she noticed I was acting strangely.  Short of breath, lethargic, forgetful.  I told her those were simply byproducts of my heart… my heart… that’s been shattered since the day I lost you two…”

Zoey tilted her head, frowning.

“Ma wouldn’t hear it,” Val said. “Insisted I go to the hospital, even though all of us thought it was ridiculous.  Turns out I had a lungful of water.  I didn’t even know what dry drowning was until tonight.”

Zoey sniffled.  “Bette always was overly paranoid.  Looks like it was justified.”

Val raised his eyebrows. 

“Secondary drowning can be common in babies.  In her voicemail, Bette told me to get Marcus to a doctor as quickly as possible,” Zoey said.  “So I had him checked in the Paeds ward before we came up here.  He’s fine.  But what if he hadn’t been?  What if I hadn’t listened to those voicemails, because of my own stupid pride, and he’d had fluid in his lungs, too?  He could’ve been hurt because of me being pigheaded.”

“He wasn’t,” Val said, cuddling him closer.  “And you’re the farthest thing from pigheaded.”

Zoey moved her hand closer to his thigh on the bed, just enough to brush it with the tips of her fingers.

Val’s eyes fell and took in the sight, wanting to remember this moment—her touching him—just in case he never experienced it again.

Zoey cupped his thigh completely.

They both breathed in.

“I’m not quite ready for Marcus to spend an entire night away from me,” she whispered.  “But… I was thinking… three days of visitation a week.  No supervision.  Just you and me.”

Val sat taller.

She took a deep breath.  “A few hours each day—whatever part of the day you want.  You can be there when he wakes up, or when he goes to sleep.  It’ll be your choice.  You can even alternate if you want…”

“Zo,” he leaned across the bed and wrapped his free arm around her neck, bringing her into a hug that was deceptively strong for being one armed.  “Thank you.”

Zoey circled her arms around his neck, careful not to stifle Marcus.  Her eyes fluttered shut.

Val’s did, too.  He tilted his head and buried his nose in her curls, drinking in her scent with a breath that filled his lungs to the hilt.  His body responded in the way it only could for Zoey, filling with a poignant mix of love, desire, and hot wanton need, all in the same breath.  His arousal was hidden under the heavy blanket, and he couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing.  On one hand he wanted her to know what she did to him, what she’d been doing to him since he was sixteen, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to ruin whatever change had occurred in her.  Didn’t want to destroy this moment.  So he held her like he had all those years ago when she’d cry herself to sleep in her room.  He held her with love and hid his desire.  He held her with patience because he knew he would wait a lifetime for her desire to match his own.  He would wait if he had to.

When her warm breath tickled the corner of his neck, he held his, wondering if he still had the same self-control and willpower as he had when he was a kid.  How was it possible that his sixteen year old self had a better handle on his will than Val did right then?  Perhaps it was because, now, he’d had Zoey.  He knew the sweet flavor of her lips, the soft weight of her body, the warm wetness of her pussy.  He knew what it was like to finish inside her, looking into her eyes; to tell her how much he loved her and hear her saying it back.  He knew what it was like to love and be loved the same way in return.

And that was going to obliterate his control, whether he wanted it to or not.

The proof was in his whispered words.  “Will you stay with me?”  he begged, moving his hand up her back and letting his fingers disappear within her curls.  “Will you just lay with me?  Until I fall asleep?”

Zoey pulled back and met his eyes.  She brought her hands to his jaw, frowning and shaking her head, digging her fingers into his skin.  “Of course I’ll lay with you.”

Val’s hand traveled from her hair to her shirt, and he took the fabric under a tight claw, as if fearful she would change her mind and run out of the room.

He never broke their gaze as he leaned back onto the pillows, readjusting Marcus on his chest.  Marcus took the change in stride, his eyelids already heavy from being cuddled up in his father’s arms.  He wiggled his stomach against Val’s chest before finally settling, looking up at Zoey from where his chubby cheek was smashed on Val’s collarbone.

Zoey lifted one leg onto the bed, then the other, accepting the arm that Val lay open for her.  With a deep breath, she laid her head on the pillow above his bicep, slung her arm across his waist, and since the bed was so small, one of her legs over his.

Val tightened his arm around her, pulling her in close until all he could feel and smell where her and Marcus’ scents.

And, for the first time in months, he was okay.

“The family is having a picnic in the park this Sunday, to celebrate what happened.” Val said, his lips moving against the curls at the top of her head.  “Not to celebrate Marcus going over the edge of the dock, but the bullet in King’s head, I mean.” He chuckled.

“I’m not ready,” Zoey whispered.

Val closed his eyes and felt her pulling his hospital gown into her own tight fist.  It felt like she was squeezing his heart and every last drop that had kept it beating up until then.  He felt her shift, her curls tickling his lips.

“That’s okay.  Whenever you’re ready for us, we’ll be ready for you.”  Val swallowed.  “I love you so much, Zo.”

A long silence passed, and before he could even wait for her to respond, just from the weight and scent of her and Marcus, Val drifted off to sleep.

“I love you, too.”

He didn’t know if he actually heard her say those words… or if he dreamt it.

***

Gary looked over his shoulder and caught Reggie’s anxious eyes—almost hazel under the brilliant afternoon sun—and tightened their entwined fingers.  The sharp grass crunched under their sneakers, and a smile broke Gary’s face when he felt Reggie resisting.  Gary’s green eyes flew in the direction Reggie was looking in worriedly, and when he caught sight of his entire family surrounding the wooden table in the far corner of the park, he laughed.

“I already told you,” Gary said, looking over his shoulder again as he came to a stop under the shade of a towering oak tree.  He waited for Reggie to come face to face with him.  “They already know you’re coming, and they already gave the ok.”

Brown eyes darker under the looming leaves of the tree, Reggie gnawed his bottom lip and shot the picnic table another look from the corner of his eye.