Chapter 5
Kat
Ethan was silently furious for the entire drive, but I was unmoved. He had made this big, bloody, public mess that was sprawled all over the national and international news. On my behalf, but without my permission.
And I was going to look Tony Petruzzi, Jr. in the face. I had no idea what I might say, do, feel. But I’d been hiding from that man half my life. I was done hiding.
Good thing Ethan was too angry to speak. I had nothing to say to him, or anyone. I couldn’t have said what roads Ethan took, what exits, what towns we drove through. All my energy was spent psyching myself up for this.
We arrived at the Sable Point Hospital. I followed Ethan through the lobby as he made murmured inquiries.
A smiling older woman who introduced herself as hospital head administrator come out, shook hands with Ethan, and schmoozed with him.
Somehow, she had gotten the memo that he was a big shot, to be courted.
God alone knew how. I couldn’t follow the thread their conversation, even to be polite, but the woman soon excused herself, and we made our way down the corridor.
Ethan knew just where to go, of course. That guy didn’t miss a trick.
We stopped outside a room where a uniformed police officer sat on a chair by the door, half asleep. A problem had just occurred to me. “They aren’t going to let me in,” I said, under my breath. “I’m not family.”
“Sure they will,” Ethan said grimly.
“Oh yeah? What makes you think so?”
He shrugged. “Because in my true sneaky and Machiavellian fashion, I prepared the ground for us. I’m a recent private donor to this hospital.
Also to the one in Beech Springs, since I didn’t know which one he’d be admitted to once we called nine-one-one.
So I covered both of them. I wanted a reason to be here. And status.”
I shook my head. “Wow. You never cease to amaze me, Masters.”
Ethan gave me a martyred look. “I am just going to go ahead and take that as a compliment, because why the fuck not?”
I couldn’t help myself. I had to know. “How much did you give to these hospitals? Like, a new coffee maker for the nurse’s station? Or, like, a new wing?”
“More like a new wing,” he admitted. “So please. Don’t hold a pillow over Tony’s face. It would reflect very badly on my reputation as a philanthropist.”
I snorted at him, as the nurse stepped out of the room. “The hospital director said that Mr. Petruzzi’s cousin was here to see him? You can go right on in, Miss. He is a bit groggy from the pain meds, but he’s awake now.”
“I’ll go in with you,” Ethan said swiftly.
“No,” I said. “I’m going in by myself. This is between me and Tony.”
His mouth flattened. “Kat. Jesus. You’re killing me.”
“You set this all in motion with your own hands, so don’t you dare complain. Go wait in the car if you can’t handle it.”
He leaned down to whisper into my ear. “Are you going to hurt him? For fuck’s sake, Kat. Just give me a head’s up.”
“That depends on Tony,” I said, merciless. “No promises. Off you go.”
I was being a total hag to him, but when I was wound up this tight, anything that came out of my mouth was an attack.
Better if he stayed away from me, while I was in my hell-bitch state.
The chances were better for salvage later.
“I mean it, Ethan,” I insisted. “Go. Leave me be. It’s better this way. ”
The cop had noticed the tension between us. Ethan muttered something frustrated and profane under his breath and strode away.
I walked into the room. The first thing that surprised me was that Tony was so small.
He was still a tall, big man, with lots of thick muscle and tight-packed pudge on top of it.
But I remembered him as enormous, looming over me like a hideous giant.
A reddened face, wet lips, staring eyes, foul breath.
He was human-sized, now. His eyes were sunk deep into bruised, discolored swelling. His lips were split, puffy, as Raffi’s had so often been. His neck was immobilized in a collar. He must be in a lot of discomfort, but I felt no compassion. No satisfaction, or vindication. I felt nothing.
Tony’s eyes opened a slit, then opened still wider, shocked. “Oh, fuck,” he muttered thickly. “Raff? You’ve come to take me to hell?”
“I’m not Raffi,” I said. “I’m Franci. And Raffi’s for sure not in hell. But if she were, I bet she’d pull strings to make sure you got put elsewhere. Nope, nobody’s taking you anywhere, Tony. You’re staying right where you are.”
Tony cleaned his throat with a painful, hacking cough. “You look just like that cheating blonde slut.”
No need to dignify that trash with a response, so I just stared at him, trying to figure out the sense of this encounter for me.
“You come here to kill me?” he asked. “Did that cock-sucking man whore Vinny bring you here? Like he brought those other dickwads, to beat me up?”
I shook my head. “I brought myself. And I’m not here to kill you.” I realized just as I said the words how true they were.
I’d fantasized for fourteen years about killing Tony, but in my fantasies, I was killing a monster. This pathetic, broken thing on the bed was no monster. There would be no big cathartic kill-the-dragon moment for me with this guy.
Tony sensed an opportunity slipping away from him, and lunged for it.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Kill me. Put an air bubble in my IV bag. Turn my morphine all the way up. Pull out a knife, open my jugular. I don’t give shit how you do it.
Just kill me now, bitch. You look like you have the balls for it.
Or maybe not. Maybe you’re just a big, boring nothing.
Like your dumb cunt of a sister. Kill me. ”
I took a step back. “I don’t think so.”
Tony showed his teeth. “Come on, you stupid whore,” he ground out. “You know you want to. You watched me kill both your sisters. The little one, too. The shrimpy little bitch who wouldn’t stop screaming. You know what? I woulda fucked the little one, too. I woulda fucked all three of you.”
Tony’s oily, rasping voice kept on, his bruised, cracked lips spewing words like a fire hose spouting sewage, but something strange had happened to me, without my realizing it. Everything I’d gone through had changed me. Beyond recognition.
Tony Petruzzi, Jr. had no more power over me. None at all. And not just because he was immobilized, disarmed, penniless, alone.
It was because I was different now. More than equal to this guy.
I could have taken him, even at the peak of his powers and his influence.
Maybe the whole Petruzzi clan together would have been a logistical problem, but not Tony himself.
I was smarter, stronger and tougher than he had ever been, or ever would be.
It felt strange, letting that truth in. How much I had changed, from that wounded, terrified fourteen-year-old girl.
The realization set me free. The filth spewing from him didn’t register as words anymore.
He was trying to manipulate me into compromising myself, maybe even actually killing him, so he didn’t have to face the life before him.
Maybe even doing time for it. Killing two birds with one stone. God knows, he loved killing.
Hell, no. I was not furthering Tony’s agenda. I had better things to do with my precious time and energy, and one of them was waiting outside in the car, white-knuckled.
“Sorry, little Tony,” I told him. “I’m leaving you here, in your own bad shit. Have fun reaping what you’ve sown.” I turned, and headed toward the door.
“Get back here, you fucking whore!” he gasped out, but he didn’t have the force to punch the sound out.
I didn’t turn. I was done with him, and my whole life spread out ahead of me, free of him at last. As light as air. Full of wonderful possibilities.
Gabri and Raffi could rest in peace. Mamma, too. And Ethan had made it all happen, by being his magnificent, sneaky, secretive self. I hadn’t had to lift a finger, risk a hair. I had no blood on my hands at all.
It was an incredible gift. In lieu of the engagement ring I’d refused to allow him to buy for me.
This was infinitely better, and all I had done was scold the guy for it.
The nurse gave me a puzzled glance as she passed me, coming in to see what Tony was whining about.
I smiled and hurried onward…towards the rest of my life.
I was running by the time I exited the automatic doors. I could see Raffi and Gabri in my mind’s eye. Mamma, too, smiling at me. Looking smug and delighted.
Do you see, Francesca? Didn’t I tell you good things were coming for you? You just had to be patient!
Well, damn, Mamma. You could hardly blame me for doubting it, the way things were going for me. But yeah, you were right.
Ethan was sitting there in the car, facing grimly forward. Eyes straight ahead.
I jerked the door open, and got in. We sat in silence for a few seconds.
“Well?” he prompted. “What happened? Did you kill him?”
I let out a slow breath. “Italy,” I said.
He looked at me, perplexed. “Huh?”
“Italy’s where I want to go on our honeymoon.
I want to see where my grandmother was born, near Salerno.
I want to eat those big lemons on the Amalfi Coast. I want to ride a gondola in Venice, and see Michelangelo’s David in Florence.
I want the Roman Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Sistine Chapel.
Every last Italy cliché, including eating pasta until my pants don’t fit. ”
His face had lit up with that huge grin I loved so much, so intense, it activated all of his dimples. “You mean, you’ll marry me? For real?”
“Anytime you want. I’m convinced. Can we do it today? Is there paperwork?”
“We could do a short-cut,” he said. “We could stop in Las Vegas on the way home. Get a same-day license. Get married by an Elvis impersonator. A wedding night in a luxury hotel suite. Then we can let Holly and Frey and Angela plan us another wedding, for friends and family. Another wedding night, yum.”
“Okay,” I said. “We might have to wait a little for the honeymoon, until the kittens are a little bigger, but sure, I’ll marry you twice, no problem.
I’d marry you a thousand times over. I’ll have as many wedding nights with you as you have the strength for.
And since you asked, I didn’t kill Tony.
I left him just as I found him. He wasn’t that interesting to me, so I’m leaving him behind. I’d rather focus on you.”
“You’re not pissed anymore?” he persisted.
“Um…not right now,” I hedged. “You’ll piss me off again soon enough, I’m sure. And vice-versa, because I never hold back. But I’ll try to keep a lid on it if you will. I’m not changing my mind. Like Mrs. S. said, I know a keeper when I see one.”
He was still laughing when we came together, into one of those breathless, over-the-top kisses that lit me on fire and filled my heart with joy.