The Gambler (11 page)

The doc showed up half an hour later and took over. “She’s gonna need stitches.”

“Fuck, can we give her something to knock her out? She’s asleep now but I don’t want her to wake up with a needle in her skin
, she’d freak the fuck out.” Alice had hated needles, was petrified of the shits.

“I don’t want to risk it since she’s been unconscious since this happened. Let’s just see how it goes.” He climbed on the bed beside her and held her while the other man cleaned the wound. The whole time he was praying that she didn’t wake up. He couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering anymore than she already had.

This is all my fault, why am I such a fuck up? I’ll protect you. Yeah, two days with you and she’s already been shot. Some protector you are, you can’t be fucking trusted. He beat himself up with every pierce of the needle into her precious skin. This shit ends today. I’ll level the whole fucking city until every last Bonata is in the ground. That thought sustained him and brought him back from the brink.

“I think she’ll be okay, it wasn’t as bad as it looked.” The doctor closed up his bag and prepared to leave.

“Stick around doc, you have to take a look at gramps and I need you here when she wakes up, she might need something.”

“I’ll have a look at your grandfather
, but he called me away in the middle of…I’ll stick around.” The look Andros gave him didn’t bode well if he didn’t.

He stayed there with her wrapped in his arms
, just staring at the wall, willing her to wake up. It was an hour later when he heard Vito’s voice downstairs and remembered the mother. He hated like hell to leave her, but he needed answers. He called Sue back up the stairs to watch over her while he took care of business.

She was sitting in the study, a little slip of a woman in her early fifties. He could see some of his flower in her, in the hair and the mouth, but that was it. His Jenna’s beauty came from somewhere else altogether he was sure. She looked up from the book she’d been reading when he walked in. Her eyes widened as she stood.

“Are you Andros?”

“Yes.”

“You’re hurt.” He looked down and noticed the blood that covered him for the first time.

“That’s your daughter’s blood. Your friend Bonata’s doing.”

“Jenna, where is she is she…

“She’s alive no thanks to you and your family. I need some answers and you’re going to give them to me, and trust me lady, the mood I’m in, you do not want to fuck with me. I have the need to shed blood and yours will do just as well as any other.” She backed away back to her seat.

“What is it that you want to know?”

“For starters what the fuck were the Bonatas using her for?”

“I don’t…

He drew his gun and pointed it at her. “I told you, don’t fuck with me.”

“It was nothing, she just helped them out a little with…stuff.”

“What kinda stuff?”

“I don’t know I swear. Look she was good with numbers and other things. She hears things that no one else does, and sees things I guess. It started when she was a teenager. The men made such a big deal out of it, all these things that I didn’t understand.

So when they made such a big deal and then Mr. Bonata came to me and asked me to let her help them with the business, I saw nothing wrong with it. I was so proud of her, finally there was something she was good at. And she seemed to enjoy it, I never would’ve agreed otherwise.”

“Do you know what kind of business she was helping them with?”

“I don’t know, computers or something like that. We got her one for Xmas when she was sixteen and she became a whole new person. When they told me how good she was, a genius they said. My daughter who’d been shunned all her life could do something these great men were amazed at. I was so proud of my girl.”

“They trained her to be a fucking criminal you ass.”

“No…they never said…I thought…”

“Were they paying her?”

“She…Jenna doesn’t understand money and stuff like that. Her father and I took a little something.”

“And what did she get out of it?” She took a minute to answer.

“When she was little, each time she did something good, or learned something new, I gave her chocolate.”

“I’ll wring your fucking neck you bitch. You and your husband and your piece a shit son got rich off of her and you gave her chocolate? Tell me why I shouldn’t put two in your head?”

“I didn’t know what they were doing I swear to you.”

“I don’t believe you. Do you know how fucking special she is? She’s worth more than all of you combined.” He was pissed beyond measure, hearing her talk so casually about squandering her daughter’s gift for something so dark, and to gain from it…

“Who is senator Winthrop?”

“I don’t know the name doesn’t sound familiar.” He studied her to see if she was telling him the truth. There was something amiss he was sure, but he was too fucked up to think straight.

“Your daughter in law’s sister was working for me, was she a plant?” Again she took her time answering and he could see the fear coming off of her in waves.

“Yes.”

“Why? I never had any dealings with the Bonatas. What the fuck did they want with me?”

“That was Jenna’s doing?”

“What?” Her answer threw him. Eileen had been working for him for two years; he’d only known Jenna for two days. “Explain.

“She saw you. He felt that tingling shit down his spine again.

“In a news article I think it was. She kept calling you Angel. At first I thought it was because she had difficulty saying your name
, but then she started talking crazy. Saying how you were her angel and you were gonna come for her.”

“Two years?”

“Yes, Alphonso Bonata didn’t like it, and we couldn’t understand what was going on in her head, but with everything else that she was capable of, they got spooked I think. He thought it was a good idea to keep an eye on you just in case.” His thoughts were racing; this was all crazy. How could she have known about him when he’d never heard of her? Maybe the same way Alice had known that you’d meet a woman who would call you her Angel.

He stormed out of the room sick to his stomach. He had even more questions now than when he started.

“Will you take me to her?”

“Lady of you go anywhere near her I’ll throw you off the fucking roof.” He slammed the door as he left. “She stays in there, if she tries to come near those stairs shoot her.” He headed back up the stairs after giving his man those orders.

JENNA

“ANGEL.”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay.”

“Hey I know you.”

“I know.” The pretty lady took her hand and started leading her away.

“Come sit with me for a spell.”

She looked back over her shoulder, looking for her angel.

“But…Angel, he’s hurt.” She started to cry as she looked around and nothing looked familiar. The place was pretty enough, some type of garden with a riot of colors. But she was sure she’d never been there before.

“Your angel is fine, you protected him.” She looked back at the woman who was even prettier than the picture in her angel’s room.

“Where am I?” She felt different in this place. Her thoughts weren’t jumbled and she didn’t feel like she had to run to catch up to them. She could actually take her time and speak too.

That’s the reason she only spoke in short sentences, because her thoughts were sometimes racing ahead of her tongue, and she found it was easier to keep it short and sweet. But somehow in this magical place she felt calmer.

She followed the lady
, who led her by the hand to a small stream at the edge of the garden, where there was a bench to sit. “You’re doing very well Jenna, I’m proud of you. But you’ve got to stop with the chocolate.” She smiled and squeezed her hand.

“What, but why? I like chocolate.”

“I know you do, but you’ve been conditioned to ask for it whenever you think you’ve done something good. Next time ask your angel to catch you a butterfly.” She had a winsome smile on her face as she gazed off.

“A butterfly?”

“Yes, he’ll understand.”

They sat in silence for a while
, just taking in the calming ambience of their surroundings.

“Alice, how come I see you and nobody else can?”

“I don’t know sweetie that’s just the way these things happen I guess. Thanks for taking care of him for me, he’s…wounded, that’s the word.”

“Why
, who hurt my angel?” Jenna was getting upset; she didn’t like the thought of anyone hurting her angel. It made her tummy hurt.

“No one hurt him exactly, it was…it was a long time ago. I was young and naïve. Stefano always looked out for me like a big brother should, but more.” She smiled that winsome smile again in fond memory.

“He was always there whenever I needed him, tried to shield me from the ugliness of the world. We shared a bond that nothing and no one could break. When I was sixteen, he had just started university. It was the first time we were apart. It was hard on both of us. There were these guys in the neighborhood; they’d never bothered me before, because everyone knew that Stefano would pound them into the ground if they even tried.”

“One day, it was the day Stefano was due back from school, I don’t know how they knew but they did. One of them came through the garden gate where I used to sit and look at the flowers and the birds and butterflies. No one had ever really harmed me before, I didn’t know the difference, didn’t understand the danger. So when he told me that my brother was waiting for me I believed him.

I followed him…
anyway; the others were waiting for us in the woods not far from our home. I thought we were going to catch butterflies, that Stefano was going to catch me butterflies. These boys, they…hurt me. No Jenna don’t cry that was a long time ago. I’m better now, but Stefano, my brother.” She shook her head as she felt the remembered sadness.

“He found me after, after they were done with me. All I kept asking him was why? They’d hurt me something awful and something inside me broke I guess…and now I’m here.”

Jenna wiped the tears from her eyes, she didn’t know how or why in this place her understanding was different but it was. She didn’t understand, had no knowledge of that kind of ugliness, at least not in the world in her head, but she knew.

“What happened to those boys? The ones who hurt you.”

“He killed them, one by one, a year apart on the anniversary of my death. I need you to take care of him now. He’s not the same, he was once a fun, smiling, happy boy, now he’s angry and cold and lost, so lost is my brother. He’s calling for you now you’d better go back.”

“Why is she crying?” Andros almost throttled the doctor when he came back into the room to find a still sleeping Jenna
, with tears running down her face. Climbing onto the bed, he lifted her shoulders so he could roll her into him. “She’s dreaming I think, I don’t think she’s in any pain.”

“You better hope she isn’t you fuck. Jenna, baby; wake up sweetheart.” He kept calling to her, kissing her cheek her forehead anywhere he could reach. Willing her to wake up and tell him what was wrong. The tears and sadness on her face were enough to break his heart. She twitched in her sleep and her eyes flew open. He almost jumped off the bed in surprise. Just then, for a split second, he could’ve sworn he was looking into his sister’s eyes.

“Let me get you some water baby.” He eased her out of his arms and went to pour the water.

“Angel?”

“Yes sweetheart.”

“Catch me a butterfly.” The cup flew out of his hand as he took a step back.

He walked calmly towards her, his eyes never leaving hers. Just what in the blue fuck was this shit? Had he finally lost it, had he cracked the fuck up? There was no other explanation. When he reached the bed, he knelt at its side, his hand going to her hair smoothing it down, more for the needed contact than anything else. “Jenna, baby, where did you hear that?” He kept his voice soft and even so as not to freak her out anymore than he probably did when he dropped the cup. But when her eyes strayed to the picture he kept on the dresser he almost lost his shit.

He was a man of action, a man of strategy and logistics
. He didn’t believe in this hoo-hoo bullshit. But how the fuck could he explain what was happening right in front of his eyes? He’d always known the ones he called his treasures were endowed with a little extra something special, but this? The fact that she could hear things, could break into places and was good with numbers and computers was more readily acceptable. But whether he accepted it or not the shit was real.

He wanted to ask her so many questions
; there was so much he was dying to know. His sister. Damn, just the thought of her made his heart ache still. It had been so long ago, and yet it seems like yesterday. The old anger was still there, it would never go away.

That one event had changed the course of his whole life. Until that day
, he’d thought he would follow in his late father’s footsteps and become a doctor of science. He’d looked forward to it his whole childhood. He knew exactly what he wanted to do then too. He was going to spend his life seeking to understand people like his sister. He’d never accepted the norm; that there was something wrong, he believed it was quite the opposite; still did.

But that day everything had changed for him. The light had gone out of his world and darkness set in. He’d approached gramps about letting him into his business, he’d always known what the old man was up t
o; he’d heard the whispers. Gramps had fought him all the way. He was his late son’s heir; neither of them had wanted this for him. But Andros had been adamant, either the old man let him in or he’d go out on his own.

In the end they’d made a deal; he would finish school and then they would revisit the issue. If he still felt the same then, so be it. He’d pushed himself to finish ahead of time, shutting himself off from the rest of the world had made that easy. Each year
, he’d hunted down the ones responsible and taken them out systematically. He had blood on his hands; no way he could ever be a doctor now in good faith. The oath says ‘First harm none’; he intended to harm plenty.