Chapter Forty
For You
Menace
Henny blew in like he was ready to air the place out, but he turned into a teddy bear when he saw Rumi. He was always that way where his little girl was concerned. He went up to the hospital with her, leaving me and Sammy alone with Ziggy.
It always killed me when newer inmates cowered to the loudest man on the cellblock. Anyone who's real knows it’s the ones who don’t waste their air on threats that you had to keep your eye on. A look and a smile were a deadlier threat than anything someone could shout at me.
Especially if it was issued by a real motherfucker.
And Ziggy Nash was that.
He didn’t say shit while Henny hugged my niece or explained his plans.
“Drink?” Sammy asked.
His gaze flicked toward her and anchored until Sammy retreated to the sink, giving him space and her back, much the way Octavia had me that first day. His murderous glare returned to me, and he kept it on me as he made his way to the table, slid out a chair and sat down on it. He stared into the family room like there was someone he knew in there, but there wasn’t a soul outside of the kitchen.
Finally, after Henny had been gone for about ten or fifteen minutes he cleared his throat, and those hazel eyes tightened before his gaze shifted to me. He looked me up and down, then met my gaze, “Give me a minute with my daughter.”
Sammy gripped the counter ledge behind him, and I shifted my head.
“You can say it to me, too.”
Zig’s dry laughter slowly climbed his throat until his expression caught up to the sound. “Boy, you’re a new type o’ fuckin’ simple, aren’t you? Huh? Did you think I was bluffing, or… wasting air for your benefit because it made me feel good when I told you what the fuck would happen if you tangled my Babygirl up in your bullshit?”
He pulled the pistol off his waist and the sound of him cocking the hammer sent Sammy scrambling toward us. I shot out of my seat to get between them, unwilling to let her face my battles. She grabbed my arm and jerked me back, just as her father grabbed my shirt, and lodged his pistol under my jaw as he jerked me toward him in one fluid move.
“Oh my God!” Sammy screamed, “Stop it. Stop it. You’re a fucking animal!”
Zig’s jaw set and his eyes weren’t hazel anymore. They were black, demonic wells of hate. I’d seen them before. I usually loved it when he got that look about him. It was a sure promise of a night of chaos. A night of thrill seeking and violence that usually made my every fiber stand up and salute our cause, but it was a little different feeling the cold tip of that gun jutting into the soft flesh beneath my own chin.
“Do you have any idea how many people’s brains I’ve worn, Menace? Huh? What the fuck is one more?” Zig tightened his eyes like he was a little disgusted by what he saw staring back at him, “The way I figure, you ain’t got much in there anyhow, so it shouldn’t make too much mess.”
“Dad, please. I love him!” Sam wailed, covering her face.
“It’s fine,” I tried to tell her, but it came out fucked up since I couldn’t really open my mouth all the way.
“It’s not fucking fine!” Ziggy roared, his face turning red, and that gun jutting upward, until it was shoving at my tongue through the underside of my jaw.
“I’m gonna fix it.” I didn’t even know how, but I intended to try with everything I had left. “I don’t want the mob coming after her, after I’m gone. Let me make it right, for Sammy.”
The color drained from Ziggy’s face, and he shoved me away from him and raised the gun.
“Goddamn it,” Sammy’s arms flailed with uncertainty.
“Don’t move, Samantha,” I ordered, and she closed her eyes and sobbed.
Ziggy lowered the gun, and huffed, shaking his head.
“You fuckin’ better. You got forty-eight hours, Menace… After that, the police are the least of your worries.”
He shot outside, and Sammy collapsed in my arms. I took her downstairs and held her, finally drifting off in the wee hours of the morning. We awoke to the car doors again and Sammy buried her face in my shirt.
“Don’t you dare move,” she pleaded.
I stroked her hair and kissed her crown just as my brother did a police-style knock on the basement door. She came up hard, catching me solid on the nose.
I groaned and clutched it, blood dripping while she hissed and followed me up the stairs, hovering with concern every step of the way.
“I’m sorry. Shit, I’m sorry babe,” she cried as I flung the door open.
Henny’s eyes widened and he stepped back when he saw my bloody, gushing state. I heard him flirting over there with my woman while I hunted for a towel.
“I knew your daddy said you had a hook girl, but shit… If I'd known you enforced like that, we might have considered hiring you for Friday nights.”
“I didn’t do that. I mean– I did, I didn’t mean to. Babe.” She came rushing after me and tried to look at it while I was busy tipping my head back and holding it to stop the drip.
“Nah- Huh-uh- Nah,” I mumbled at her.
She ducked her head back and stared at me, “If we’re gonna have secret codes, I’m gonna need you to spell them out before we put them to use, okay?”
I pointed toward the kitchen, despite my smile, and she went off and found us some breakfast. Henny munched on some bacon while we brought him up to speed on everything.
“Where is the girl now?”
“School.” He managed between bites.
“You made her go to school– When her mom was unresponsive?”
He raised one shoulder, “She wanted to go, she was texting with her friends all night. I think she just wanted something normal, instead of the hospital room and sitting out here waiting on news.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed. “We didn’t have a phone, or we’d have let you know what was going on.”
Henny nodded, but I wasn’t so sure he believed me.
“I’m gonna go gather up the laundry,” Sam announced.
Henny’s gaze followed her to the basement steps.
“Hen–”
“Don’t.” That one word came so quietly.
I licked my lips and shook my head, “I’m not going back.”
He sucked in a breath and looked away with a strained, raspy groan.
“If I go in, the Double Nickel gang or the guards will kill me. They’ll be slow about it, too. Why do all that when I can be done with it before I make it inside? My last breath can be a free one.”
“That’s a whole lot about you, little brother. What about the rest of us? What about– I don’t know—Sammy who will have to live with knowing she couldn’t talk you out of it? Suppose she goes on to feel like her love wasn’t strong enough to make you want to stick it out, or fuckin’ spend her life nitpicking every decision to see how she could have been more or did more or— or Rumi who may be here when it happens, for all you know? She’ll have to have that memory of the yard, “ Henny’s face was getting red and his hands more animated, he scarcely stopped for air as he continued on, “or God- fucking -forbid inside the cabin here– Hell, I ain’t anymore fond of the police or feds than you are, but don’t you have some fucking sympathy for the poor bastard who will be left thinking they reacted too hastily, or might carry some guilt or grief about having been the one to pull the trigger. Dude, Menace– You’re a selfish fucking bastard.”
His jaw was tense and his words sharp enough to cut by the time he finished. They did cut, if I was being honest. Tears stung my eyes. I wanted him to know the truth. I’d dove into this pile of shit to avenge him.
I started this in his honor. I never meant for it to go this way. His fingers curled like he was grappling for restraint.
I let the silence double and thicken between us, allowing him time to relax his jaw and hands, before I attempted again.
“You’re my big brother, and I’ve always–” I smiled, I always sucked with expressing emotions, that's what I always did. “I always felt like because I was bigger in size that it was my job to protect you. From other kids, when we were small. Then it was Mom’s boyfriends– When that motherfucker carved your eyeball out of your head while you were still recovering in a hospital bed–”
My eyes widened, my mouth opened, but the words lodged in my throat.
“Henny, I don’t know how to let a thing like that go… The thought of losing you, so fucking savagely. The more I pictured it, the way they did you, the pain you must have felt. I had to make ‘em pay. When she called and said that he was sitting in that seat, in my seat… I had to act.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
I blinked, the lump swelling in my throat again. “What?”
“What the fuck are you on about? What fucking call, who called?”
“The bartender. She said the guy that took your eye was sitting in a certain spot, but… afterward, she mouthed, ‘wrong guy.’”
“So, you got the table or–?”
“No. I sat at a certain spot when I’d go see her at the bar. She said– He’s sitting in your seat, but it was a different guy in that seat. It was Keefe Kilbride.”
“Some bartending broad just accidentally suggests that you off an Irish hitman?” Henny stared at me until I caught on.
“You think that she meant for me to–”
“What's her name?” he whispered, as the steps sounded in the basement.
I glanced behind me before whispering back, “Jessica.”
I made sure when Sammy mounted the steps, I was shrugging. I didn’t want her chasing ghosts after I was gone. Whether it was a set up or not.
“The point is, I only did it to honor you. I never meant for any of this to happen. You know I fuckin’ love you. I love my club.”
Henny slowly nodded and tapped my arm.
“Everything will be fine, just… Let me think on this for a few hours,” he mumbled, before heading outside.
I heard his lighter flick and saw a cloud through the screen door.
It felt like half my worries had melted away, being able to talk with Henny. I smiled and sat back in the chair watching him for a while.
I finally knew what I had to do to make all of this right, I just hoped he was here for Sammy when I did it.