Chapter Seventeen – Liana
”Wow, that’s amazing,” I told Kara, as I looked over her shoulder to take in the artwork she had been working on all day.
Ever since we had visited Star at the tattoo shop, Kara had been showing a tentative interest in painting, so I bought her a cheap set from the local dollar store and set her up at the kitchen table, and, though she had made a total mess of my landlord’s furniture, she had been utterly absorbed by her work. I didn’t care how many tables I would have to replace, it was worth it to see the way her tongue stuck out as she focused all her energy on her work.
And it was a good distraction for me, too, from the stress I had been feeling since Lee had left earlier today. I knew this was their big attack on the Lombardi compound, and I had almost begged him to take me with them – I didn’t like the thought of being left behind, left out of all of this, when I knew there was so much I could do to help.
But, at the same time, I was sure I would have been nothing more than a distraction to him. Better for me to stay home with Kara and keep watch on her than go out and put myself in the middle of a war. I might have known my way around biker clubs, but this? This was way above my pay grade.
”Do you like it?” Kara asked, looking up at me with a smile on her face. I nodded.
”I love it,” I replied, picking it up and admiring it. ”Is it finished?”
”I think so...”
”It’s beautiful,” I told her. It was a picture of a little house – a red roof, blue windows, and a bright yellow door, daubed in her childish style. But to me, it was a damn masterpiece.
”I think I’m going to put it up here,” I told her, reaching for one of the tacky magnets on my fridge. I shifted it and planted the new painting right there against the door, stepping back to admire it.
I glanced over at her and found she was gazing at the new work with a huge smile on her face. God, there was so much joy in seeing her smile like that – I was sure I would never get over it. She deserved to be happy, truly happy, after everything she had been through. I would do anything to make that happen.
I cleaned up after she ate some dinner, and, as I was putting her to bed, she reached out to squeeze my arm.
”When is Lee coming?” she asked me. I bit my lip.
”Soon,” I promised her. I didn’t know if that was the truth, but I couldn’t bear to let her down.
I tucked her in bed and went to make myself something to eat, though, tonight, it was me who didn’t have anything close to an appetite. I just didn’t know how long I could wait for him. Should I see if there was anything I could do? Call him or something? No, I could just picture it – me blowing their cover because I called at the wrong time, and he forgot to put his phone on silent. It was better for me to wait.
Even if I felt like I was going to lose my mind in the process.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, I heard a knock at the door, and I sprang to my feet and ran towards it – throwing it open, I breathed a long sigh of relief when I saw Lee standing there. Other than the bandages on his hand from the other night, he looked unharmed, much to my relief.
”How did it go?” I asked him, as I pulled him into the apartment. ”Is it over? Is Lombardi done?”
He shook his head.
”Not yet” he replied, as he made his way inside. ”We hit the compound, but he got away. We’ve got a guy locked up that we’re going to get information out of in the morning. He needs some time to stew first.”
”Okay, so...are you okay?” I asked him. He nodded – and then, to my surprise, he shook his head.
”I don’t think so,” he admitted. My eyes widened. Was he carrying an injury I couldn’t see? What was going on?
”What happened?” I gasped. ”Did you get hurt-”
”No, not...not physically,” he replied. ”Can I get a beer?”
”You can have anything you want,” I replied, darting into the kitchen to grab him a bottle. I popped the lid and handed it to him, and he took several long gulps, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. I stared up at him, trying to get a feel for what was going on. I scanned his face, searching for some hint as to what he had been talking about when he told me that not everything was as okay.
I lifted my hand to his cheek. There was something heavy hanging over him, something that he couldn’t quite put into words – but I needed to know what it was. I needed to help him, and the only way I was going to be able to do that was if...
”Can I tell you something?” he asked me.
”Of course, you can,” I replied, as I guided him to the couch. My heart was thrumming madly in my chest. My mind reeled as I tried to guess what this could be. A man in a biker gang...he had to have some serious darkness in his past. Could I handle whatever he was about to tell me? Was I ready for it? I didn’t know.
But I was sure as hell willing to find out.
He took another sip of his beer, his eyes fixed straight ahead, and then began to speak.
”I... a long time ago,” he started, haltingly. ”I had a child. A little girl.”
I slid my hand to his. I could hear how much this was hurting him, like saying this out loud was almost more than he could take. I couldn’t imagine what he was getting at – a little girl? He’d never had a little girl as long as I had known him...
”Her name was Dina,” he continued. ”I was young when I had her, her mother and I both were – the two of us, we were never going to be anything serious, but God, that little girl...she was perfect.”
A small smile crossed his face when he said that – as though he was remembering, all too clearly, what it had been like to have her close to him. A lump rose in my throat. I could already tell that this was going to be emotional, but I was here for him. No matter what, I was here for him.
”What happened to her?” I breathed. He paused for a moment before he continued.
”Her mother and I split, and she spent an equal amount of time with both of us,” he continued. ”We were still figuring out all the custody agreement stuff when it...happened, but she knew I adored Dina. I would have done anything for her. Anything to keep her around, it didn’t matter what it took, I just...I just loved her so much.”
His voice choked again, but he pushed it away.
”Before what happened?” I whispered though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. His head dropped to his chest as he picked at the label on his beer.
”Before she died.”
I closed my eyes. There it was. The last thing I wanted to hear. The worst thing I could imagine.
”I’m so sorry, Lee,” I told him. ”I – I can’t even imagine what it was like to...”
I trailed off. My words felt useless, almost insultingly so, in the face of what he just told me. Losing a little girl like that? Hell, I’d only had Kara in my life for a matter of weeks, and I still felt like I wouldn’t be able to recover if something happened to her.
”No, you can’t,” he replied. Not angrily, just matter-of-fact. ”And I hope you’ll never have to find out what it’s like, either. Nobody deserves to go through that. Nobody.”
I swallowed again. This was it – this was what he had been keeping from me all this time, holding back, clearly still carrying some enormous guilt over what had happened to his daughter.
”What...what happened to her?” I asked him. ”If that’s okay to ask ...”
”It’s fine,” he murmured. He took a deep gulp of beer and continued. ”It was...a car accident. Drunk driver. Hit and run. She was outside playing on the sidewalk one second, and then the next...poof. That was it. She was gone.”
”How long ago was this?” I wondered aloud. I knew no answer would soften the blow of her loss – it could have been a hundred years, and any parent would still be carrying it just as closely as they ever had.
”Nearly ten years now,” he replied. ”But I can still see...I can still see the moment it happened. It plays on my mind all the time. Like it’s torturing me.”
”Oh, Lee,” I sighed, and I slipped my arm around his shoulders. He leaned into me, and I pressed a kiss to his temple. If I could just lift some of the weight from his shoulders, I would consider it worth having this conversation.
”Why are you telling me this now?” I wondered, after a long pause. He had been so defensive before, as though he didn’t want me to know any part of the truth about what had happened. What had changed to make him spill his guts to me like this?
”Because I saw the man who killed her again tonight.”
His voice was hollow as he spoke, and I had to pause for a moment to take in what he’d said to me. He...?
”What are you talking about?” I gasped. ”What do you mean...?”
”He was working for Lombardi. Is working for Lombardi, I guess,” he replied, shaking his head. ”I... after Dina...after what happened to her, I went after him. The cops didn’t do anything about her case, and I figured I had to take revenge for what he did. I couldn’t let him keep living, knowing what he took from me. I tracked him down, I pulled a gun on him, but I couldn’t...”
He shook his head.
”I couldn’t pull the trigger,” he admitted. ”I had never killed someone back then, so I just shot him in the foot. Every day since, I’ve wanted to get revenge for what he did, that alcoholic bastard – it was his bullshit that got Dina killed and he never paid for it, not really.”
He chuckled, hollow.
”I should have guessed he would end up working for someone like Lombardi,” he muttered. ”An asshole like that, he doesn’t know anything else but that life. That kind of bullshit. The only person who would want to work with him would be Lombardi...”
He trailed off, shaking his head.
”So what happens now?” I asked him. I didn’t even know what to do with the enormity of the information he just hit me with.
”We have him locked up in the compound, behind the tattoo shop,” he replied. ”And we need information out of him. Someone’s going to have to shake that information loose.”
His eyes flashed with dark cruelty – a cruelty that could only be reserved for the man who had harmed his daughter. I didn’t blame him. It was how I felt about Lombardi, for what he had done to Kara – and she was, thankfully, still alive, sleeping in the next room, utterly oblivious to everything going on here.
I grabbed Lee’s hand and squeezed it tight.
”You do anything you need to do,” I told him firmly. ”Anything. Whatever it takes to bring Lombardi down. All right?”
”All right,” he replied, and he turned to me and planted a kiss on my lips. He knew it was a promise – a promise that he could do anything he needed to do, and I would support him. I wasn’t going to get spooked; I wasn’t going to run, and I wasn’t going to blame him for getting his revenge. I just wanted this over. And if it meant taking down the man who hurt his daughter, too? So be it.
”Come on,” I told him, rising to my feet, and tugging him upright behind me. ”You should get some rest.”
”I’m all right,” he protested, but I shook my head.
”I want you to sleep next to me tonight,” I whispered to him. I couldn’t remember the last time I shared a bed with someone, but I knew it was what I needed right now, what we both needed, more than anything. His arms around me, the promise that everything was going to be okay.
Whether or not I believed it.