Unforgettable (30 page)

“
Don’t think like that.
Speaking of evil, David called.”

I began to nervously pace the
windows.

“
He says you’re doing
something tomorrow. I called Silverman who blew me off. Something’s
up and I want to know what.”

I was silent for a long
time.

“
One of the rules for
tonight is no talk about the future. No marriage talk, no babies
talk, and no talk about Silverman and Welsh.”

He stood up and yelled.

“
And why are you the only
one setting rules?”

“
They’re just my rules. If
you don’t like them you can leave!”

This wasn’t going the way I had planned
at all. I turned my back to him and tried to think of what to say
next.

“
But, I’d really like you to
stay.” I felt too small, like a wind was about to blow me off the
edge.

“
Why, Sam? All of a sudden
you want to have sex with the three of us. Why?”

“
I’ve just been thinking a
lot. About how David has these women…and I was feeling
lonely.”

“
Bull shit. Is this the big
kiss off? You’re done…?”

“
Why? Because you have
someone else in the wings?”

“
You’re fucking my two best
friends-best they’ve ever had, according to them-and you’re asking
me about infidelities? You can’t have it both ways. Fritz and
David…well, maybe not David…but Fritz isn’t going to be bounced
around like this for long. And then you’ll go from three to two to
one to none.”

I sat down on the coffee table and
traced the veins of the marble floor with my toe.

“
Why do we fight like
this?”

“
Because we’re not getting
what we want from each other.” His voice sounded tired,
worn.

“
I just want tonight, Jack.
That’s all I can focus on right now.”

I kicked my shoes off and turned the
stereo on.

Unforgettable
played.

I was trying to capture smoke and had
failed.

“
I guess you should go…” I
whispered.

Gabrielle held her
breath.

“
Ted, he can’t leave. You
know…you know she’s going to need him.”

Tears rolled down her
cheeks.

Ted walked over to Jack and
screamed in his ear, “Love her, stop her, now, before it’s too
late!”

He scooped me up and carried me to the
bedroom, lying down on top of me.

He stared at me, desperate. I touched
his face and he kissed the palm of my hand.

“
I was beginning to think I
was never going to hold you again, kiss you again. I think of you
and I ache. I see you and I can’t breathe,” I whispered.

“
I swear you’ll be the only
woman in my life. Forever and ever and ever.”

I held his face in my hands. A tear
dropped onto my face. It was a surprise. I kissed his face over and
over.

“
Do you know what you’re
saying? No other women, at all, forever?”

He nodded.

“
I swear, too, Jack. Only
you, forever and ever and ever.”

He wrapped me in his arms and pressed…
and then he began to giggle, resting his head on my
chest.

“
Why are you laughing? We
have this big emotional moment and you’re laughing?”

“
I was holding my breath,
waiting for Silverman to walk in.”

I laughed wrapping my legs tightly
around him.

“
I’m never going to let you
go,” he mumbled kissing me, moving to my neck and
shoulders.

“
I’m going to have special
clothes tailored so you can go with me just like this.”

“
But how will we go to the
bathroom?”

“
That’s a
problem.”

“
And how will I do my
yoga?”

“
Hmm. That’s a problem.” He
started undressing me.

“
I think you have way too
many clothes on.”

“
You too.”

I giggled and undressed him, loving how
he looked. God, I had missed him.

We made love, cathartic wild humping
and then slow, sweet, and tender.

Melting.

It was as if our bodies had learned the
other and responded automatically, instantly.

Nothing hidden. All shared.

At last we snuggled together. He fell
asleep. I went to the balcony and cried, my heart breaking, knowing
the sun would soon be up and it would all be over.

Oscar had the simple locks
to the empty furniture store beat within a few minutes.

“
The Morning Sun said she
was going back to her old apartment today,” Robert mumbled as they
drove the stolen UPS truck into the empty furniture store
warehouse. Eddie jumped out and began scoping it out.

“
Electricity’s still on!”
Eddie said.

“
I gotta lay low, they have
my picture out everywhere. I think Oscar ought to do a beer run.
And pizza. And chicken,” Robert said, setting up his cot. “I’m
taking a nap. ‘Got another fucking headache.”

Monday

Jack left at six. I woke just as the
elevator doors closed. My heart was racing and I felt
nauseous.

At nine-thirty-two Dennington, two
other agents, and Silverman arrived.

Dennington called in Justin and
Jess.

“
You’re dismissed,” she said
and flashed her badge.

“
No one told us about this,”
Justin protested.

“
It’s okay, guys. Go back to
Nolan’s house,” Silverman told them.

They left, calling Roger.

“
I would like to still go on
record that this is a bad idea.” Silverman said. “These guys are
smarter than you think. They’ve been out there all this time and
haven’t slipped up yet.”

Dennington turned her back on
him.

Like a hunter gutting his prey
Dennington pulled up my shirt and bra, exposing my breasts to
Silverman and the agents.

Embarrassed they looked away. Then she
attached the transmitter under my left breast.

“
Kind of hot for those
boots,” Dennington said.

I just gave her a look.

“
Good for hunting,” I
whispered.

“
Suitcase?” she
asked.

“
In the bedroom.”

One of the agents brought it out. It
was empty. A prop.

“
Let’s go,” Dennington let
me enter the elevator first.

The paparazzi were thick as mosquitoes
after a summer rain.

“
Who did you sleep with last
night, Sam?” “All three at once? Which one’s the best, honey?” “So
Jack kicked you out? Is it drugs? Did he hit you? Got a baby in
there?” “How’s it feel going back to that old crappy
apartment?”

Dennington had done her work, they
seemed to have all the details.

I covered my face with my hands and
climbed into the black sedan.

It took forty minutes to get to Jack’s
house. The news was on the radio. No music, no sweet words to
comfort. The sterile trip lasted a decade. Or two.

I was surprised to see my old Ford
sitting at the bottom of Jack’s driveway.

My knees felt like rubber bands,
wobbling so hard I thought I would collapse. I had never missed my
parents more. I threw the suitcase in the back and started my
car.

Roger trotted down the driveway. I
smiled and waved good bye to him. Then I drove.

It felt odd to drive again. It had been
weeks since I’d driven. I fought the tears. Images of the last
three days penetrated the terror.

Fritz holding me by the
fire.

David pouncing, laughing.

And Jack, his tear, his kiss, oh God,
my dear Jack…

When I made it to the apartments no one
was around. Silverman told me they had emptied the building,
telling everyone there was a gas leak.

The silence felt itchy, like
electrified air before a storm.

I parked and walked to the rusty
staircase. Everything was in slow motion as I took the first step
to my apartment.

Thirty seconds and I could be
dead.

My head was swirling. I grabbed the
rail.

It was possible that he would be
waiting for me on the other side of that door.

Twenty seconds and I could be
dead.

I worked hard just to
swallow.

Ten seconds and I could be
dead.

I closed my eyes just before I touched
the doorknob and pictured Jack…

The deadbolt lock turned easily with my
key.

No sound.

I opened the door.

Nothing.

Everything in me told me to turn and
run, to get out. But I thought of the little boy, the boy with his
frog named Curtis.

I stepped in.

It seemed dark, coming in from the
bright summer sunshine.

Somehow I knew closing that door meant
I would never go back.

Robert was rocking back and
forth behind the apartment.

“
Almost mine, almost mine,
almost mine…” he muttered over and over.

He polished his
knife.

When I closed the door and stepped,
something moved under my foot. A hard plate. A click.

I dove onto the floor, covering my head
with my arms. The explosions were sequential, six in all, far away
then closer, closer, louder, closer. My heart was beating so hard I
thought it would burst.

“
No!” I screamed to God. I
felt a loving touch on my cheek.

Ted and Gabrielle wrapped
themselves around her, shielding her. An angel joined them as the
world became a burning, crashing inferno.

Explosions were enveloping me. I
watched my floor tumble into the apartment beneath me. Fires. A
large hole blew open in the kitchen wall, the refrigerator was
airborne, knocking me backward, throwing bricks and plaster all
over me.

I coughed, smothering in the
dust.

Then… standing before me was Robert
Welsh, the self-proclaimed son of Satan. He seemed ten feet
tall.

Louder, earth shaking explosions hit
all around me, debris was bruising and cutting and suffocating
me.

I heard myself screaming.

“
Mom!” I screamed,
terrified.

Welsh dragged me through the hole in
the kitchen wall. I watched the floor collapse.

A giant explosion hit.

He threw me over his shoulder smacking
my face into the brick wall. We were down in seconds. I heard
shouts, gunfire, and then we were in a truck. With lots of
packages.

He set me down. Gently. And dabbed at
the blood on my face with the corner of his shirt.

Eddie tore at my clothes scratching
me.

“
Stop! What are you
doing?”

“
Looking for your
tracker.”

I reached under my breast and handed
him the metallic transmitter. Grinning he took a rubber ball out of
his pocket, attached the transmitter to it, and threw the ball out
the window. It bounced into heavy traffic. The three of them
laughed.

“
Did you see that shit,
man?” Eddie asked. “You really did it, Bobbie boy! Damn fine
job.”

“
You still got that FBI’s
name?” Oscar asked.

Robert was laughing
uncontrollably.

“
Yeah, Dennington. She’s in
charge, but they’re probably going to call in a negotiator,” Robert
said. I didn’t understand why they had Dennington’s
card.

The world had become surrealistic to
me. Here was the man I had been terrified of for almost two years
looking like one of the Three Stooges.

Eddie smiled at me and licked his
lips.

“
Spread those legs, angel,”
he laughed, poking at my thighs. “Or should I call you
Sandra?”

Robert threw a box at him.

“
Whatever you touch her with
I’ll cut off. Slowly. And feed it to you with ketchup.”

This was the Robert I knew.

Eddie looked away.

They pulled into a grocery store
parking lot.

“
Get out,” Robert grabbed me
and pulled me out the side.
Oscar had a van
open already. It said “Simmon’s Plumbing” on the side. He helped me
in.

“
They still following us?”
Eddie asked.

“
Just that black cop. He’s
on us. Don’t see the FBI pricks. No Dennington.”

Silverman is coming, I thought. I wish
he’d get away. ‘Don’t want him hurt. And then I realized how it was
odd that Dennington's name came up...