Cole (The Leaves) (31 page)

The wedding.

As much as I tried to fill my head with the sight of Anika, so beautiful and so happy, the mental image of the fucker that hurt her kept winning. First when he bent that young guy’s finger back, then the snapping sound that followed… there wasn’t a man in that room who didn’t feel tremendous respect for David Parker. You knew it must’ve hurt, hurt like a mother-fucker, but he actually smiled. I watched his old man, Anika’s dad for his reaction. The guy had just told me about his virtuoso son and everything he’d achieved for someone so young. I suddenly remembered a conversation we had not ten minutes before. “You’re that tattoo guy, right?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s me.”

“I thought, well, I would like to get a leaf. Like Cole and Anika. My wife and my son want to get one too.”

“What’s up Nico?” Rusty, such a cool guy. I did his ink when he got back from his tour.

“Oh, we haven’t actually met. I’m John Parker… I’m-“

“I know who you are, John Parker.” He smiled. “I don’t think there’s anyone here that doesn’t know how you and Anika came back into each other’s lives.”

“Right.” John said. “So, do you think she’d be alright with that?”

I thought about it. Gus and Rusty were now part of our audience and that left only David who was fast approaching. I was kind of on the spot but hey, these were all people who knew what Anika had been through.

“What’s the story, Rusty?” Gus asked.

“Well, it appears that the Parker family here want to get a leaf like Cole got for Anika.” He stopped, looked at Gus, looked at me then said, “I think we’d all like to be in on that. But listen, Gus, you know your Missus is not going to stand this one out.”

“Yeah, I know. Nico, can you tattoo a pregnant woman?”

“I can but I don’t. You get the risk of infection and then, from what I’ve read, it’s kind of like women who color their hair during pregnancy; they don’t really know if the dye or ink passes from the mother to baby. I just don’t to be on the safe side. Let’s see how we go but I think she should wait until after. It won’t be long.” I smiled at him.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone was discussing where they were getting their leaves, how they should tell Anika when I saw Olaf and Richard pull Cole forcibly from the room. I glanced back toward David to see his thumb and finger were being pushed completely backward by that fucker Joe. The room was instantly tense, no one knowing quite what to do. Joe wasn’t even there a second before. I knew Rusty and Gus were both ex-marine’s and could take Joe down with ease but Joe had a gun in the waist of his trousers. You see a gun, you don’t just go balls out and try to take the threat down. That I knew. My parents had taught me that over and over again. I knew how to shoot and I knew how to fight and defend myself if I needed to, but I’d never needed to. Not until now had the possibility ever really presented itself.

I didn’t see this guy appear but out of nowhere a guy with black hair, Hispanic I thought, was behind Joe where he couldn’t see him. Joe demanded to see Serena, whoever the hell that was. The door to the room opened again and a gorgeous woman walked in. Serena I presumed. She looked like a magazine model. Behind her was Olaf who kept a close distance.

“Let the boy go, Joe.” Her voice the only sound in the room…

“I knew you’d come.” He said and let the over six foot David Parker go.

“Give me the gun, Joe. It’s me you want.” He handed her the gun without question, maybe knowing he was outnumbered.

Olaf wasn’t far from me and I heard him say, “No blood on your hands, Cici. You say goodbye, let the hired man finish the job.”

I knew I was their only audience but my life was keeping peoples’ deepest darkest secrets. “He took my innocence. He took my youth.” I heard her voice catch.

“Say goodbye, Cici.” He held her wrist gently. I had no idea what the relationship was between all these people, but apparently Olaf and this Serena chick had something special.

Serena, black haired man-fairly sure now he was a hired gun, and Joe rounded a shelf and went down some stairs I hadn’t known were there before. I mean, five minutes ago I was having a talk with a bunch of guys, happy as fuck. Now I was knee fucking deep in drama. You could hear everything; it was so quiet in the room. I even heard water rush through a pipe in the wall behind me.

But I’d seen enough movies to know the sound of a gun being shot with a silencer and the unmistakable sound of having the wind knocked out of you.

Less than a minute later, the woman and the black haired man appeared. Serena went into the arms of Olaf who hid her face from view. “It’s over, Cici.” He said to her.

A phone call was made, and then another, then four men who I can’t describe because I made a conscious effort not to remember them, went down the stairs. A door closed, Olaf led Serena out of the room and soon, we were all leaving, making our way to one of the best weddings, bar none I had ever been to. There were maybe fifty people there, a small intimate affair and it was an honor to be a part of it.

Now I was at the studio. In the dark, alone with my thoughts and looking up to the lit windows of cottage three. I had to fight the urge to go say hello to her, come up with an excuse about a gas leak or some other lie, but nothing seemed right. It would be another few weeks before I would grow the balls to talk to her again. And when I did, I was going to put Prince fucking Charming out of business.