Luke’s response was to shove me behind his back.
This meant Billy was aiming his gun at Luke.
“No!” I shouted, coming out of my frozen bout with terror.
At the same time, Billy screamed, “Godammit, give her to me!”
“Don’t even think about it,” I heard and my eyes swung to the left.
I saw Lee had a gun trained on Billy.
“Fuck you!” Billy said, swinging his gun wildly, aiming at Lee.
I felt my stomach clench and my lungs squeeze and visions of a tangerine and chocolate wedding faded into an even worse nightmare.
“Billy, no,” I said, moving around Luke. “Don’t, I’ll go with you.”
“Luke, get her out of here,” this came from Hank, who was several feet behind Lee and moving forward.
He also had a gun and it hit me, in a vague, slightly crazed (okay, maybe entirely crazed) way, how easily he handled it, just like he drove his 4Runner; natural, like he was one with the gun. His right hand around the butt, finger on the trigger, the left hand cupping his gun hand. Both his arms were up, but cocked loose, his head was tilted slightly to the side and his gun and gaze were aimed at Billy.
Luke had already shifted in front of me, stepping back, forcing me to move with him. The crowd was still easing away. I noticed people exiting the room just as I saw Marcus, also carrying a gun, sliding along a back wall.
“Don’t move!” Billy shouted. He hadn’t noticed Marcus and he swung his gun back at Luke and me.
“Billy, don’t. Please,” I begged, peeking around Luke’s body.
Luke kept moving back, he was unfazed by the gun as well as unarmed.
Billy didn’t listen to me. He fired.
Luke’s body jerked.
I screamed.
The gunshot caused pandemonium. My scream wasn’t the only one. People were no longer cautiously moving but now running everywhere, clearing the room.
Luke didn’t go down. Instead, he shoved a hand in his jacket and pulled a gun out of a shoulder holster and trained it on Billy. I barely noticed, because Billy was now pointing his gun at Hank.
Both Lee and Hank were side by side, maybe three, four feet between them. They’d both advanced while Billy had fired and were only six feet away from him.
Both brothers were in a faceoff with Billy.
This isn’t happening, I thought with dread and then I didn’t think anymore. Instead, I moved quickly, thanking my many years of practice in high heels, because they came in handy. I came wide around Luke so he couldn’t grab me and started toward Billy as fast as I dared.
“Luke, get her out of here!” Hank’s voice cracked through the room.
“Billy, I’ll come with you,” I said, moving forward more quickly to avoid Luke, pulling at a strength I had no idea I possessed and ignoring Hank. All I could think was that if I had anything to do with it, Billy wasn’t going to shoot Hank or anyone. I didn’t know if he’d hit Luke but if he had, that was the end as far as I was concerned.
“Shoot him, Luke,” Lee said.
“Roxie, get out of the way,” Luke ordered from behind me. Then when I didn’t do as he ordered he said to Lee, “I can’t get a clean shot.”
I made it to within arm’s length of Billy and his hand came out and nabbed my arm, twisting me and pulling my back to him so hard I slammed into his body. His arm wrapped around my waist.
He was using me as a shield.
Hank’s expression shifted, going from controlled rage to out-and-out fury.
Then Hank moved toward us.
Billy shook his gun at him.
Hank halted, but then Lee moved forward.
“Stop fuckin’ movin’!” Billy yelled at Lee and Lee halted.
“This isn’t happening,” I whispered my earlier thought aloud.
Someone was going to get hurt, probably already had been hurt. All I could think was that I had to stop it.
“We have to go,” I said to Billy.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Billy returned, still pointing his gun at Hank.
“No! Don’t. Please, don’t. Let’s just go,” I cried.
“He tried to take what’s mine. I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him,” Billy yelled.
He was crazed, out of control and I was scared he’d do it.
I put my hand up to his arm, my fingers curling around his bicep just at the moment Billy fired again.
Then, I didn’t think, I just moved.
I twisted and shoved him with my entire body. He wasn’t expecting it and we both teetered and then went down. Billy on his back, me landing on top of him. I tried to roll away, I wanted to check Hank, needed to do it, but Billy grabbed me and rolled us both. Coming up, he brought me with him and held me, my back to his front again, arm still round my waist.
He was breathing heavily now. I’d knocked the wind out of him but he was hanging on.
My eyes immediately went to where Hank was and he was still standing, much closer now, nearly on top of us. He, Lee and Luke had used the tussle to close in.
Hank’s face was hard, a muscle moving in his jaw, he wasn’t in control of the situation and I knew it was pissing him right, the hell, off.
All I felt was relief that he didn’t seem to be bleeding.
Then, everything happened at once.
Billy whirled, taking me with him and pulling us several feet away from Hank. Luke, Lee and I saw, now, that Vance was moving down the hallway toward us, gun raised. Then Billy stopped pulling back and whirled again and I saw two more men, both wearing black suits, white shirts and thin black ties, both arriving from another doorway and closing in. I had no idea who they were but they also had guns pointed at us.
Again Billy whirled and there were two more men I’d never seen before, coming from even another doorway. They were dressed a lot like Billy, except they looked cleaner and their eyes were not wild but clear and purposeful. They also had guns pointed at us.
We were surrounded, with eight guns aimed in our direction and that didn’t count Marcus who I figured was somewhere in the room (although no one else was and, for that, I allowed myself a tiny prayer).
“Put down your gun, Flynn,” Hank demanded.
Billy whirled again and we faced Hank.
“Fuck you,” Billy retorted.
“Put it down!” Hank’s voice was like a whiplash.
“Desmond wants to talk to you, Billy,” one of the leather jacketed men said from behind us, ignoring Hank’s order and all the other people in the room. Billy whirled us to face him and he kept talking. “Let go of the girl.”
“Fuck you and fuck Desmond too,” Billy returned, shaking his gun at his new target.
“Would someone please shoot him?” Lee asked, his voice sounding impatient, like he wanted another glass of champagne and this was an annoying delay.
“Where? I got a clean shot at the back of his knee,” Vance asked conversationally from behind us.
“Take it,” Lee ordered casually and Billy whirled us around to face Vance.
“Billy, quit jerking me around. I’m getting dizzy,” I complained stupidly (but, in my defense, he was making me dizzy and not in a good Hank-way).
“Now I got a clean shot,” Luke shared. With our latest whirl, Luke was behind us.
“Just don’t hit Roxie,” Lee instructed.
Billy whirled us around to face Luke.
“Oh for goodness sakes!” I snapped, beginning to lose my fear as well as my temper. I’d never been held hostage, pre-abduction, so I had no idea they were playing with him, messing with his head.
“No one’s shootin’ him. Everyone stand down,” Hank said.
I chanced a glance to my side and saw Lee’s head turn to Hank.
“Stand, the fuck, down,” Hank repeated, not taking his eyes, or gun, off Billy.
Billy moved us to face Hank and Lee gave a nod to Vance and then to Luke, then he dropped his gun arm and stepped back.
This was for show. I figured Lee
was a faster draw than just about anyone. Don’t ask me how I knew this; I just knew it like I knew that Wolford hosiery was the best, bar none.
I felt, rather than saw, Luke and Vance drop their weapons to their sides. I had no idea what the other men did. This should have changed the danger level in the room but instead, with Hank facing off against Billy it heightened so it was palpable.
“Let her go,” Hank demanded and something about the way he said it made it sound like he was demanding more than just Billy taking his hands off me.
“She’s mine,” Billy returned, understanding Hank’s demand and giving me a jerk to make his point.
“Let her go. Now. If you do, no harm will come to you. If you don’t, I’ll shoot you myself,” Hank said.
It was clearly time for me to intervene. I didn’t know, in such a situation, if Hank would get in trouble for shooting Billy but I didn’t want to find out. What I did know was that Billy was prepared to shoot Hank, he’d already tried it once and I wasn’t about to let that happen again.
“Billy, let me go,” I said quietly.
“No, Roxie. You and I are gonna walk out of here. We’re gonna disappear,” Billy replied.
“Billy, look around you. We’re not going anywhere,” I told him.
“You gotta learn, Roxie. It’s you and me, just you and me. That’s all it’s ever been. That’s all it’s ever been for me. My life began when I met you,” Billy said and his voice was beginning to sound funny. It was not his slick talk, there was a thread going through it that made it tremble.
I closed my eyes and when I opened them, Hank was looking at me.
I kept my gaze on Hank, direct and steady, and said to Billy, “You know, he took me on a horse drawn carriage ride on our first date.”
Billy’s already tense body went solid as a rock.
“You promised me that, remember Billy? Said we’d go to New York City, have a carriage ride in Central Park. Do you remember?” I asked, my voice was not cruel; it was soft with the sad memory of an unfulfilled promise.
“Don’t, Roxie.” Instead of sounding angry or crazy, Billy’s voice sounded like a plea.
“He has a dog,” I continued, still looking at Hank. Billy knew how much I liked dogs. “A Labrador,” I went on. Billy also knew how much I liked Labradors. He’d never let us have a dog. We were on the move too much and anyway, he didn’t like dogs. In the last few years I didn’t get one because I didn’t want to bring a dog into my life with Billy. It wouldn’t have been fair to the dog. I kept going. “You’ve seen him, when you were watching me. He’s a sweet chocolate lab named Shamus. He sits on my feet and I’m going to teach him to play Frisbee.”
“Roxie,” Billy’s voice was now an ache and I guessed I still felt enough for him to feel it slice through me. Nevertheless, I kept my eyes on Hank.
“He’s got a good job, a nice house. He protects people for a living,” I carried on and I felt Billy’s tense body start to go slack behind me, as if my words were pulling all the energy out of him. His gun lowered a little and I knew I was getting somewhere.
“He has nice parents and his sister told me he did up the house himself. You ever fix anything Billy? You ever make anything that was going wrong, go right?” Again, it wasn’t an accusation, just a soft question.
“God, Roxie,” Billy murmured, even low, his voice was shaking.
“I feel like I’ve been waiting,” I said to Billy, looking at Hank. “Waiting for a long time, but I guess I know what you mean. My life began when I met him.”
At my words, to my surprise, and likely everyone else’s in the room, Billy just gave up.
His gun arm wrapped around my middle and he shoved his face in my neck.
“Roxie,” he muttered there.
Hank started toward us, slowly, not lowering his gun, not taking his eyes off me. They were not lazy, not in the slightest, they were hyper-alert and so intense, I thought they might burn me.
“You want me to have that, don’t you, Billy?” I asked quietly, my eyes on Hank.
“I want you with me,” Billy said against my neck.
I took my eyes off Hank and turned to face Billy. He lifted his head at my turn and I put my hands to his cheeks. I looked at him and ran my thumbs down the stubble below his cheekbones. His blue eyes were filled with pain.
I wanted to care, but I didn’t. If that made me a bad person, so be it.
“Billy, I don’t want to hurt you but I don’t think I’ve ever been with you.”
For the first time, I realized this was true. Billy was fun. He was freedom from the small town I grew up in. He was rebellion, which was something I’d been honing for a decade before I met him. He was also energy and adventure.
What he wasn’t was a life force.
Not like Hank.
I put my forehead to Billy’s.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered
And I was.
“You’re the only good thing I have, the only good thing I ever had,” Billy whispered back.
I didn’t get a chance to reply.
Hank was through.
I felt his strong arm wrap around my waist and, with a tug, he pulled me out of Billy’s arms. We walked back several steps, clearing Billy, and then he swung me to the side. I collided with Lee and Lee pulled me back as I watched Billy try to lift his gun to Hank but Marcus was at Billy’s side, his gun pressed to Billy’s temple.
“Drop it,” Marcus said.
Billy kept raising the gun, almost like he wanted Marcus to shoot him.
I held my breath. Lee kept moving us back.
Hank still had his weapon trained on Billy, as did Marcus, but Billy kept raising his gun.
“Drop it!” Marcus bit out.
Billy’s hand twisted and I realized what he was going to do.
He was going to shoot himself.
Terror seized me and I screamed. “Hank, stop him!”
Then, a gunshot blasted through the room.
Everyone went still as we watched Billy’s hand explode in a mist of red. He shrieked a hideous cry of pain as the gun fell free.
There was a nanosecond of silence.
Then Hank ordered, “Call the paramedics.”
Hank moved toward Billy and in my line of sight so I couldn’t see.
I looked to Luke, thinking he shot Billy. Luke was shrugging off his jacket, blood was running down his arm. The sight of it overwhelmed me. I sagged against Lee and he took my weight into his body at the same time he shoved his gun in a shoulder holster.
“Back off. Police,” Eddie was there, gun raised, badge out, danger was back in the room.
The two men who had to be from Chicago were approaching Hank, Marcus and Billy. They moved back when they caught sight of Eddie.
“Drop your weapons and against the wall,” Eddie continued. Without hesitation their weapons fell to the ground, their hands went up.
The other two men in suits had disappeared, vanished, as if they’d never been there.
Billy was sitting on the floor, Hank hunched beside him, blocking my view.
“Get her out of here, Lee,” Hank ordered, not turning to us as what appeared to be an army of uniformed officers, led by Carl, came into the room.
“Let’s go, Roxie,” Lee said into my ear and my body went stiff.
“Luke –” I started.
“He’ll get taken care of, honey, let’s go,” Lee’s voice was soft as he was pulling me back.
I started to struggle and Lee’s arm went from gentle to no-nonsense. I gave up and allowed him to pull me out of the room.
* * * * *
I was sitting on a barstool in Daisy’s kitchen, being mother henned by eight women and two gay men.
Kitty Sue and Malcolm had arrived late (thank God). Malcolm was somewhere with the men, Kitty Sue was with us.
There was so much food on the counter at my side, it could have fed the Chicago Bears, Bulls and Cubs for a week. There were four uniformed officers helping themsel
ves to the food.
When Lee guided me into the kitchen, I noticed Dad experiencing a fleeting relief, then he detonated, cursing and blinding. Lee went to him and carefully guided him out but we heard him yelling all the way down the hall.
Jason followed them; his usual good-natured expression had again disappeared.
Detective Jimmy Marker had come and gone, taking my statement while he was there. The whole time I talked to him, Mom stood beside me holding my hand. Annette stood close behind me, taking the weight of my shoulders into her torso. At that time, it was too fresh, I couldn’t have held myself up without Annette and, like any best girlfriend would, she knew it.
Detective Marker told me Luke had a flesh wound in his arm. It was superficial and he’d be fine. He went on to tell me Billy was going to the hospital, under armed guard, but his hand looked bad. Finally, he told me that it was Vance who shot Billy.
“Boy’s a good shot. So’s Lee and so’s Stark. Even though he used you as a shield, you were covered. If they’d fired, none of those boys would have hit you,” Detective Marker said calmly, as if, the whole time, I had nothing to worry about.
“Stark?” I asked, confused.
“Luke. Last name’s Stark. Known by that on the street though Lee’s boys call him Luke,” Detective Marker explained.
“How do you know they’re good shots?”
Detective Marker hesitated, shuffled a bit realizing he shared too much and finally said, “Just do.”
Now, with Detective Marker gone, the activity was beginning to die down and Ally was helping herself to some Brie and apple slices while Shirleen spread a wodge of pâté on some French bread.
“Well, Sugar, you made certain sure I’m gonna get a doozy of a write-up in the society pages,” Daisy told me on a tinkling laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
“Damn straight, Daisy-girl. Never read the society pages but I sure as hell won’t miss this one,” Shirleen threw in.
Annette’s arm came around my chest and neck and she kissed the top of my head. I leaned further into her, realizing, finally, that it was over.
Over.
Thank God.
And I breathed another sigh. This wasn’t a happy one, this one was relieved.
“I’m just glad he didn’t tear her gown or get any blood on it. I don’t know if blood washes out of satin and I don’t want to know. That is a piece of laundry knowledge I’d be happy to go to my grave without. You girls are killer on my dresses, what with bar brawls and the like. I have to go shopping weekly to keep stocked up,” Tod added.