Life Begins (24 page)

              But, for the sake of the children, he gave his wife a wink. “It should not take me long. I have to drop off something important.”

              “Okay,” she finally said. “If you’re not back by dinner, I’ll put it in the usual place.”

              “I definitely look forward to it.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, letting him know that Srecko had been much closer to him than he’d thought. He transferred a crying Juljiana back to her mother and left the backyard, moving fast before he changed his mind and just stayed home where he wanted to be. It wouldn’t be a good look for a leader, and one thing that Žarko had never been willing to do was punk out over a hard decision.

              He couldn’t make his men do anything that he himself wasn’t willing to do. Besides, this was a personal vendetta and not something business related. If he had to kill the girl, then he would take it out of Gary’s hide. After all, it was his fault for getting other people involved.

Chapter 25

              Josie definitely knew that there was a problem. Her husband had been so somber when leaving the house. For all that he tried to hide it, the children must have noticed, too, because they no longer wanted to be outside and had determined that it might be better if everyone just watched a movie together.

              Nenad, too, knew more than he let on, because he was uncommonly watchful, always having to go check on something, as if the family suddenly was no longer safe with the man of the house gone. It concerned Josie deeply, making it almost impossible for her to calm down. It should have been impossible with the way that they’d designed the family den, with plush couches and plenty of comfortable pillows to lay on.

              “It is not good for the
beba
if you worry,” Ljiljiana whispered in her ear, half way through the Lego Movie. “
Tata
will always be okay.”

              Josie’s laughter wasn’t from amusement, but from bitterness that she had to be comforted by a young girl. She couldn’t be upset about it, considering this would not have been the first time that both girls have gone through this. Before, they didn’t’ even have a mother to take care of their feelings.

              “You’re right, of course,” she said, and wrapped her arms around her stepdaughter in a hug. She really did love Žarko’s girls, same as if they’d come from her own womb. “Obviously, I don’t like it when he has to leave the house.”

              The younger girl nodded. “I know.
Tata
makes us all feel safe.”

              This time, the laugh was genuine. “You are so wise, Ljiljiana.”

              They finished watching the movie, before deciding upon another. Baby Juljiana had been put down for a nap half way through, and she still hadn’t woken up yet. Josif tried his best to be a big boy, but when the girls decided that they wanted to watch Frozen, he grew too bored and fell asleep against Desa’s shoulder. Nenad paused in his guard duty just long enough to take him up to his bedroom. Even the girls didn’t last too long in the movie. Desa fell asleep herself and Ljiljiana wanted to finish reading a book for her homework.

              Since Josie had the television to herself for a while, she turned off the movie and decided to catch up on some of her favorite shows. She’d already decided that she was going to order pizza instead of cooking something for dinner. Her heart just wasn’t in it and she feared that Nenad wouldn’t be as much of a help as he’d been in the past. So, she wanted to do something that was easy on everyone.

              As soon as Juljiana and Josif woke up from their nap, it was decided that they would all just continue being lazy. With warm pizza and juice, dinner was completely relaxed that night. Žarko still hadn’t arrived by the time she put the kids to bed, which meant that Nenad had to stay.

              Josie set him up in the living room, on an air mattress that she’d purchased on a whim. Now, she was glad that she did, because the house didn’t feel comfortable without her husband around. She’d been so glad after the case with Gary, that she’d thought the feeling would continue, but now, she wondered if she would ever feel safe.

              She didn’t like that. Not one bit.

~*~

              The drive to the safe house took two hours in driving time, which made sense considering the only place to hide someone would be well outside of the city and into the country part of Illinois. Srecko pulling into the long driveway of a worn farmhouse. There was only one other SUV, dark, with tinted windows. Flashy, too, as only a young man could get away with.

              Danijel appeared at the front door as soon as they pulled up and parked. “It’s about time I got a replacement, Srecko,” the young man shouted until he saw Žarko exiting from the passenger’s seat. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t realize it was you.”

              Žarko waved it off. He entered the house, finding minimum furniture, but a lot of banging happening. He turned to Danijel who rolled his eyes and mimicked choking himself. “She’s been like that since she arrived. I’d have shot her if I had permission.”

              “What is she breaking?” Srecko asked. “There’s practically nothing here in the first place for that reason.”

              “It doesn’t matter,” Žarko said, pulling out his gun from behind his back. “Did you ask her what it would take to keep her mouth shut about what happened?” He’d decided on the ride over to send a text and get an initial reaction.

              Danijel nodded, before responding, “That’s what set her off. Apparently, she’s the type of whore that has standards.”

              Žarko sighed, before pulling out a silencer from his jacket pocket. “Then, she must fully be taken care of.” Josie wasn’t going to live in fear that he would be sent to prison and he had a duty to protect his organization from the police to the best of his ability.

              His underling perked up. “Can I shoot her? I’m the one that has been tortured from the moment I met her.” He pulled out his own gun and silencer.

              “He’s the one that shot the boy,” Srecko said, even though he had to know that Žarko didn’t care about the details.

              “Then I suppose it’s only fair that you finish the job.” Žarko put his own equipment away and stepped aside for Danijel to precede him. The three men climbed the stairs, not bothering to hide their heavy steps. Even the girl must have noticed because she stopped throwing things about and began to yell.

              “You are so dead when I get out of here. Do you know who I run with? Real thugs, not you wannabe mafia idiots.” She kept yelling nonsensical things about her boyfriends and their guns. It was all so trivial, the thoughts of these small minded criminals. Just because a boy had a gun did not make him a man. You didn’t use a weapon to gain respect. Fear made people retaliate.

              No, this girl would have to die just for her stupidity alone. Danijel threw open the bedroom door, scaring the chick, no matter her words. This girl, Žarko had to sneer, may have had the appearance of Josie, considering her skin was just as dark, and her figure was luscious and perfect for handling. But, this girl would never turn his eye like his wife did in her daily life. For one thing, he didn’t do false hair, or glittery tight clothing. Those were things for whores, not respectable women.

              “Get the fuck out of my room,” she said on a snarl. “You’re going to have to shell out some real money if you want to get a piece of this.”

              Žarko looked the girl up and down, clearly not impressed by anything he saw. “She is not pretty at all,” he said in Serbian. He didn’t get it. “Why would any man have to pay money for that?”

              Srecko shrugged. “Why does any many want a low quality hooker?”

              “Just tell me that I can do away with her, please,” Danijel practically begged.

              Žarko held off for just a moment. In English, he asked. “What will it take for you not to run to the police about what you saw in little hood boy’s death?”

              She buffed up her chest. “You can’t afford this. I only protect real niggahs.”

              Žarko nodded. “Fine.” He turned to leave the room. “Finish her.” The body had dropped before his foot touched the first stair. Calmly, he made his way down the staircase and outside where he lit up a cigarette.

              “What do you want us to do with the body?”Srecko asked.

              Žarko allowed the taste of nicotine to soothe him as he thought. “Cremate her. Then bury the ashes. I don’t want the slightest chance of anyone finding her.” Danijel had joined them outside to hear this last bit.

              “I can take her to my cousin. He owns a funeral place.”

              Srecko was already shaking his head. “That’s not discrete enough. We need something that doesn’t require taking the body back to the city.”

              A regular fire wasn’t going to work, not even with an accelerant. They would need to really be creative. “Take out the bullet so as to leave no evidence. Build an old fashioned kiln and make sure the body is inside it. There’s probably going to be bones and stuff left, but just make sure that you bury them very well away from anything owned by the organization.”

              “You got it, boss.” And Danijel returned to the building to complete Žarko’s orders. Srecko went with, leaving him to enjoy his cigarette and the lovely view of country land. He wanted to raise his family in a place like this. Not in a city with only buildings for comfort.

              “I’m going to have to work on Josie,” he determined. Maybe by the next year, they could relocate somewhere that suited the whole family. Srecko and Nenad could handle the Chicago branch of the organization. He was starting to really want something else.

              He pulled out his phone and began doing an internet search. All he needed was a home with a view, and he was pretty sure that he could sell Josie on it. If he could get her out of the country before the birth of the new baby, that would be much better. He kind of wanted all of his children to have Serbian citizenship.

              “Do you want me to take you back to the house now?” Srecko asked on his way out the door.

              Žarko responded in the negative. “We need to make sure that this is done correctly. Josie will be fine with Nenad at the house.” It would also help a bit with his plan of making Gary think that his plan was working. He tossed his phone back into his pocket. “Call Djordje. I know that he has the right kind of equipment for this.”

              “You don’t think it’s going to take too long? I heard that he moved to Evanston.”

              Žarko shrugged. “We’ve got time.” Especially as he wanted it done right. Srecko did as he requested. It took the whole night, from the moment Djordje arrived, to the moment the last of the girl’s bones turned into ash and were finally buried deep into the earth. He was exhausted on the ride home and so were his people, making it almost necessary for them to stay at a motel overnight. But, no one really wanted that, preferring to spend the night in their own beds, with their own wives and girls.

              Srecko managed to drop Žarko off at his house just as the sun was coming up. Nenad was already awake and opening the door for him. The younger man took one look at his face and determined, “I’ll just stick around until you’re fully awake.”

              Žarko simply nodded before heading off to his bed, but not before checking on all of his children. Baby Juljiana, naturally was awake and staring at her hanging mobile, so he picked her up to take into the room with him. It was close to time for Josie to awaken anyway. He stayed awake just long enough for Josie to roll over and notice him at her side.

              She sat up, reaching for the baby at the same time. “You’re just getting back?”

              “
Da
,” he answered as he got dressed to lay down. “The situation was a little complicated.”

              He felt her eyes on him, but did not allow that to bother him. He climbed into bed, rolling so that his back was to the window against the back wall of the room. Having Josie and the baby there relaxed him enough that he fell asleep quickly.

              He awoke in the afternoon, to the feel of Josif bouncing on his back. His little boy flopped against him, allowing his small head to rest on top of his father’s. Žarko couldn’t move without harming the boy and so had to wait for his son to decide that he was ready to get off him.

              Slight footsteps, ones he assumed were from his wife entered just as he was deciding to risk waking Josif from his chosen napping spot. “Good grief,” he heard Josie muttered. He felt the weight lifting from him, finally allowing him to roll over.

              Josie sent him a quick smile as she left to settle her son in his own bed. While he was alone, Žarko left his bed to finish his waking process by taking a shower. The cooler water soothed the last of the sleep from him and gave him the sense of being rejuvenated.

              Even better was the feel of his wife slipping her naked body against his back. “You were gone all night,” she said.

              “We talked about this when I came in.”

              He felt her kiss against the middle of his back. “I know, but now we are both awake to be able to talk about it.” He turned to watch her pull a wash cloth from the top of the stall and putting soap into it so that she could wash his back. She applied pressure that helped to relieve a little bit of the tension that he felt left over from the previous day. “I’m not going to ask what you did, but I just want to tell you that I felt very uncomfortable with you gone. I’m really starting not to like that feeling.”

              He didn’t blame her. “I know. Is not something that can be fixed right now, but is something that I am working on.”

              He felt and heard the sound of her deep sigh. “I’m not giving you criticism. I’ve been dealing with it and I appreciate that you’re making sure that this doesn’t affect me negatively. All I ask is that you tell me if there’s a reason for me to be so afraid and warn me when you aren’t coming home at night. It would just be nice to know.”