26. Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Tyler
T yler’s heart was in his throat as he sat beside Julien and across from Hailey. The stranger, Anthony Rossi, sat at the end of the table next to Wally and his mother, and Tyler thought that at any moment, he might hurt someone.
But Rossi tucked his napkin into his shirt and picked up his utensils. “This is delicious, really good. My compliments,” he said once he had finished his first bite.
Tyler didn’t think he could stomach a bite of food. Instead, he took a sip of wine and tried not to stare at the dangerous man who ate dinner with his family.
“What a surprise to have another guest tonight,” Cece said. “What exactly are you doing here?” she asked Rossi with that snotty tone she always used when things weren’t going her way.
Tyler wished he could have stepped on her foot, but she was too far away .
“I heard Jules was here, and I thought I should pay him a visit since I was also in town.” Rossi sipped his wine. “Oh, this is fantastic. What is this, a Pinot?”
His dad beamed. “Yes. One of my favorites, actually. I thought it would go nicely.”
“Great choice.” Rossi lifted his glass to Dad and took another sip. “You guys seem like a really nice family. It’s good to see my friend cozy for the holidays. You know his mom died almost ten years ago now. Shame, really,” Rossi said. “It was around Christmas too, wasn’t it, Jules? No one wants such a tragedy this time of the year.”
Tyler put his hand on Julien’s knee and squeezed. The words were a threat.
“Yeah,” Julien said. His hands were tight around his fork and knife.
“That’s awful.” Mom shook her head. “I am so sorry about your loss, Julien.”
“It was a long time ago now,” Julien said.
Tyler looked up from his plate and caught Hailey’s eye across the table. He widened his eyes just a little and darted a glance at Rossi before looking back at her. Maybe they could band together and do something if she could be on the same page as him.
Hailey gave him a slightly confused look but glanced at Rossi and shrugged one shoulder.
Tyler shook his head just enough that he knew she would see it.
She nodded.
“Kinda weird, though.” Brad leaned forward with a dangerous sort of grin on his face. “I mean that you picked the worst night to get here. You take your life in your hands driving on these roads.”
“I was on my way when it got bad. Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Rossi said after another bite of his food. He made a noise of appreciation and leaned over to seek out another helping.
Hailey glanced at Wally and nudged him a little. Wally looked at her and smiled like she hung the moon before the smile disappeared as he saw the slight distress on his fiancé’s face.
He turned his head to Rossi, who was still leaning over, touching every cheesy bun to find the best-looking one, and Wally’s face went white.
“He has a gun!” Wally shouted. He leaped up from his seat and pointed at Rossi.
Tyler’s heart leaped in his chest, and he leaned back as if Rossi were actively shooting. When the words registered with his family, chaos erupted.
Hailey yelped and grabbed onto Wally in terror. His mother gasped and clutched her chest. Brad said, “Oh, shit.”
“What the fuck?” Cece rushed around the table to her children and looked at Rossi in horror. “Why would you bring him here?” she accused Julien, pointing a finger at him.
Kelsey started crying, though Tyler was pretty sure she didn’t understand. God, he fucking hoped she didn’t. The therapy bills would be huge at this rate.
“A lot of people have guns,” Dad said in an odd, calm tone, holding his hands up. “For self-defense.”
Rossi leaned back and sighed. He pulled the gun from his pants and placed it on the table. “Everyone, please, calm the fuck down, alright? It’s just a gun.” But he clicked the safety off and held onto the piece, which did not instill confidence in anyone.
“Rossi, take it easy,” Julien said.
Tyler stared at the gun next to Rossi’s wine glass. He couldn’t even remember if he’d ever been this close to a weapon that wasn’t meant for skeet shooting.
“You got what you wanted. You don’t have to do this,” Julien continued.
“I think I do,” Rossi said. “Unless you give me more money.”
“Can someone please explain what is going on?” Mom asked. Her usual even tone was replaced by a shrill pitch, which betrayed all of her concern.
“Yeah, how about I explain,” Rossi said. “About ten years ago, Julien borrowed a substantial sum from my uncle and had a deadline to pay it back. But the deadline passed, and now I need another fifteen thousand dollars from him, or I’m going to start shooting people.” He lifted the gun and pointed it directly at Tyler. “I guess we can make this a family discussion. Right, Jules?”
Tyler didn’t know what he felt, staring down the barrel of a gun, with a man’s finger hovering so close to it that a sneeze would make it go off. It didn’t feel real. He didn’t want to die, but he also didn’t feel like this was actually happening to him.
He barely registered his mother shrieking, Hailey sobbing, and his father yelling about how he would call the police.
“If anyone so much as fucking moves from this spot, I’ll shoot him,” Rossi said.
Tyler squeezed harder on Julien’s thigh. “You’ll actually kill someone over fifteen thousand dollars?” he heard himself ask. Oh my god, why did I say that? Why the fuck did I speak?
“I’d rather not spoil my appetite, but if I have to, I will,” Rossi told him. “Now, about my money.”
“We don’t have that! Are you crazy?” Cece yelled. “We don’t have it. Take the wine or something if you want. We don’t have it!”
“Not my wine,” Dad said, and Tyler moved his eyes away from the gun to look at his father in shock.
His dad was pale and clearly not thinking right, but really?
“Dad!” Hailey shouted. “Dad, just let him take the wine.”
“I don’t want the wine!” Rossi shouted. He slammed his left hand on the table. “I want my goddamn money.”
A hush fell over the room, aside from Kelsey’s quiet sobs.
“I’ll get it,” Julien said. “I don’t have it today, but I’ll get it to you tomorrow, Tony. Just leave them alone. They have nothing to do with this. I’ll go with you, and we can get it together.”
Tyler knew all too well that Julien didn’t have that money. If he needed to pretend to be Tyler’s boyfriend to get five thousand, he definitely didn’t just have fifteen thousand sitting around somewhere.
Rossi moved the gun from Tyler, pointing it now at Julien. “Don’t be a fucking idiot, Jules. I know you don’t have shit. ”
Whatever Tyler hadn’t felt when the gun was pointed at him rushed to his mind when he saw Rossi aim at Julien. He felt nausea bubble up in his stomach, and his hand shook as cold fear poured over him.
“Don’t! Please. Stop. I’ll get you the money when the bank is open. I can get it for you,” Tyler’s words stuttered out of his throat as he thought about what would happen if Julien got shot. He couldn’t see that. He wouldn’t be able to handle it and would rather fucking die.
Rossi glared at him. “That’s not good enough, pretty boy.”
Beside him, Brad let out a deep sigh. “Fine. Look, I have it in the car,” he said. “It was supposed to be for a down payment on a minivan, but I can give it to you.” As he spoke, his eyes were focused on Cece and his children. He spoke with such a cool, calm tone Tyler didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not.
All eyes turned to Brad, though the gun stayed on Julien.
“What?” Cece asked, her voice as shrill as their mother’s. “You said you would never get a minivan.”
Tyler shook his head at his sister and willed her with all his might to shut up! Of course, she would have to chime in.
Brad slowly stood up. “I know. It was a Christmas present. A surprise. Let me go get it, and this can stop, alright?” He leveled at Rossi seriously.
“Once I see that money, I’ll be out of your hair. Merry Christmas and all that,” Rossi assured him. He picked up a bun and took a bite while he waited for Brad to do what he said.
“Okay, I’m going to go to the garage and get it.” Brad kept his arms up and backed toward the garage.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Rossi’s attention moved from Brad to Julien once more. “I knew your new friends would be generous. I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” Mom said. “You can’t just burst into someone’s house and demand money.”
Rossi laughed. “I kind of just did. Sorry, not sorry.”
Tyler looked at Julien beside him. His usually tanned skin was pale. His dark eyes were focused and dangerous, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. “I swear to God, Rossi, if you don’t get out of this house as soon as you get that money, I will kill you.”
Tyler dug his nails into Julien’s leg, silently begging him to be quiet. He didn’t want Julien to give the stranger any excuse to shoot. He couldn’t bear it and felt helpless. Tyler hoped Brad would hurry up and not do anything stupid.
Rossi’s amusement faded, and he leaned over. “You can’t talk to me that way, Jules. We own you. You can try to kill me all you want, but you’ll find yourself buried alive if you’re not careful.” He lifted the gun, his finger moving to the trigger.
Before he could say anything to stop Rossi from shooting, the garage door flew open.
“Let’s fuckin’ go!” Brad yelled, rushing on Rossi with a metal bat he must have found buried somewhere in the garage.
Rossi squeezed the trigger.
“Don’t!” Tyler pushed Julien out of the way as the shot rang out, and something shattered. Tyler landed on top of Jules on the floor, his legs tangled up with the chair and the tablecloth.
Several people screamed. Tyler was pretty sure he was one of them.
Brad swung the bat like he still played on a team. It looked right at home in his hands when it hit Rossi square in the shoulder hard as he shot the gun a second time. The weapon then clattered to the table as Rossi lost his grip. Wally lunged for it. It juggled in Wally’s grip before he wrapped his hands around the base and pointed it at Rossi.
“Get the Hell out of this house!” Wally yelled with an authority Tyler had never heard before. Next to Wally, Brad held the bat up with a sick gleam in his eyes.
“What the fuck ,” Rossi wheezed. His eyes were wild and wide as he stumbled to his feet, holding his shoulder. “What the fuck? What the fuck?”
“Someone call the police!” Tyler’s mother screamed.
Brad hit Rossi with the bat again, this time in the ribs, knocking him backward in his chair, and then pointed to Cece. “Cee, babe, get the kids out of here. ”
Cece didn’t hesitate and rushed out of the room with her children. Hailey followed her with the same amount of haste.
Julien struggled to his feet. Tyler felt sick as he saw blood drip from Julien’s hand. He scrambled to his knees but couldn’t see where it came from.
“Wait, wait, please. No one calls the cops. I’ll be fucked.” His voice broke and crackled.
Tyler’s mother stared at him. “You cannot be serious. This man shot a gun in my house. I am going to call the police.”
Rossi’s eyes were wide as he stared between Wally and Brad. His hand was outstretched as if that might help him block a blow from the bat or a bullet.
“Please, Mrs. Ashford, I know I’ve done nothing that would make you trust me, but please.”
Tyler finally stood up, too scared to look closely at the blood-stained Julien’s shirt. He’d been shot. He had been shot , but he wasn’t dead. Still, Tyler couldn’t move away from him if he suddenly collapsed.
“Mom, please,” he begged.
He didn’t know what they were supposed to do, but if Julien got on the wrong side of some mafia guys, Tyler didn’t know what could happen to him. He could go to jail himself, or worse. He didn’t want to even think of the worst.
“Then what are we going to do?” his mother asked, with such an even tone. Tyler wondered if she had been in a situation like this before.
Julien leaned heavily on the table and pulled out his phone. “I think I have an idea.”