typea_all (34 page)

     "Well, I can't say it was nice knowing you." I told her.

     "Bitch," she said.

     I took Ryan's hand and whispered, "I love you. I wish we had gotten..."

     Then the large metal door came crashing down, and a dozen guys wearing FBI jackets came in like a commando raid.

     "FBI, drop your weapons."

     Jimmy dropped the gun and turned around with his hands in the air. Julie looked at me and mouthed the word "bitch" silently. I mouthed "slimy maggot pig snot" before she turned around. Some FBI agents handcuffed Jimmy and Julie, and a few others started searching the place.

I recognized Agent Jackson when he walked up to me. "What are you doing here?” I asked him. “I'm glad, but how did you know?"

He pointed to Lipschitz, who said. "You don’t think I’d be crazy enough to come with you without getting help?"

"I never thought of that. But the ninja outfit..."

"Is still our little secret," he said.

I turned to Jackson. "How did you know we were down here? Why did you wait?"

"That's easy. We wired Lipschitz and told him the information we needed to hear. We didn't want to come in until Jimmy incriminated himself or said where the bodies were buried."

"How did you wire him, he has his shirt off?"

"We wired his legs. The sword kept interfering with the reception. Good thing we did too."

We went outside into the fresh air, and I hugged Ryan, holding onto him with all my strength.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said.

"I hope not," I told him.

It was wonderful and peaceful, and I finally had my life back. Then someone screamed "Get out, he's headed right at you!"

Agent Jackson ran over and pulled Ryan and me to the side, just as a dark car careened over the sidewalk and into a fence. The car’s air bag went off, pinning the driver between the bag and the seat.

"Must be another of Jimmy's guys," Jackson yelled, and out of nowhere, five FBI agents swarmed over to the car and aimed their guns at the driver. One of the agents opened the door and dragged the driver out.

"Anyone know this guy?" he asked.

"I do," I answered. "His name is Jerry Odor." I was glad Jerry picked this special time to humiliate himself in public.

"I'm gonna kill you," Jerry yelled. "That's why I followed you here, to kill you, run you down."

******

I took the rest of the week off from work, at John's suggestion, and spent three days with Ryan at his place. He took vacation days. When I finally got home, I spent one entire day cleaning and catching up on all my soap operas, and I could still feel him inside of me.

Jerry was arrested for assorted traffic violations and attempted vehicular homicide.

Jason Reynolds died of his cancer a week later, and I went to the funeral with Bruno and Jules.

About a week after Jason's funeral, I was upstairs sewing when the doorbell rang. Now that it was all over, I wasn't afraid to answer the door, as long as no one wanted to come into my clean house. It was Jules and a tall guy in a suit.

"Hi, Brooke. We have some papers for you to sign."

"What kind of papers?"

"These are deed transfer papers between the Voci's and you," the tall guy said.

"Just sign them," Jules said. "We don't have to come in."

"What are you talking about?"

"I bought you this house. I owe you a lot for finally getting Jimmy and my mother to pay for what they did. Jason left me the entire business, and thanks to you, it's still clean."

"But I didn't do anything.  I can't accept this."

"Sure you can. With Jimmy going away for a long time, the business will stay in our family, not his. I'm even changing my last name to Reynolds. Now just sign these papers so you can go back to cleaning." She smiled.

"But..."

"If you don't sign them, we're going to walk right in with our shoes on."

"Okay, I'll sign."