Ripped (23 page)

He laughed. “Okay, well, then I guess that won’t work, love. But you still can’t come in.”

“Why not?” I said.

“Look, if you’re worried about Ice finding us, I won’t be able to stop him if we’re inside anyway. I’ll be a little preoccupied. So, you’d have to take care of him on your own anyway. And that’s what you’ll do. If you see him, you shoot him, just like I showed you.”

I nodded slowly.

“I don’t want you to watch me do this,” he said.

“I can handle it,” she said. “This guy is a bad guy, right? He deserves this?”

“I don’t want you to see it.”

“I saw you dump the body of that other guy,” I said. “The one in the trunk.”

“Just stay in the car, love,” he said. “I’ll be back soon.”

I didn’t argue. Maybe he was right. Maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to follow him in there and watch it happen. And besides, I didn’t really know how I would explain my presence. Maybe I’d get in there and balk at the whole thing, run screaming out and draw attention to us.

When I thought about actually killing someone, I got cold inside.

So, I just nodded, sat back in my seat, and watched him go.

He got out of the car, shut the door, and walked across the street to the pizza place.

I saw him open the door and head inside.

Then, I waited.

At first, I just fiddled with the stations on the radio, bored and trying to find the perfect station to drive away listening to. Classic rock? Hip hop? I was undecided.

But after I had been around the FM band about three times and still come up with nothing, I began to wonder how long it was that this was going to take.

I peered at the pizza store.

There was a
Closed
sign on the door. I was fairly sure that hadn’t been there before.

Well, I figured, Cade had probably flipped it. He didn’t want people walking in on a dead body.

But now that I was thinking about this, I didn’t understand why he was going to a pizza place to kill someone. Wasn’t a public place a bad place for a hit? Cade did this for a living, so I supposed he knew better than I did, but it just seemed strange to me. It seemed like something like killing someone would be a thing you’d want to do with as few variables as possible. Being in a public place would have lots of variables, lots of things that you couldn’t control.

I bit my lip.

Had he been in there for too long?

Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t told me who the heck he was killing anyway.

But I knew this person wasn’t a good person.

He’d mentioned Russian crime families at the headquarters, and this was an Italian pizza joint, so it probably meant the Italian mafia.

Shit. Those people were tough. They could hold their own.

What if something had happened to Cade? He was all by himself in there, and I didn’t know how long this should be taking, but it was starting to seem like he’d been in there for a long time.

I chewed on my bottom lip, unsure of what to do.

Outside, cars went by on the street, obscuring my view of the pizza place.

I kept staring at it, hoping that when the next car passed, I’d see Cade coming out of the door, jogging towards the car, ready to go.

But he was never there.

I looked at the clock. I wish I’d paid attention to what time it had been when he’d gone in there, but I hadn’t.

So, I resolved that I would give him fifteen more minutes.

I stared at the clock.

It didn’t budge.

This was the longest minute in the history of the universe.

Well, what was I really going to do anyway, if he didn’t come out in fifteen minutes? Was I going to run inside with my gun blazing, shooting everyone in sight?

I couldn’t do that. I’d had one fucking shooting lesson, and I might have only done it well because I wanted Cade to touch me and make me feel good.

Damn it.

He hadn’t laid a finger on me since we left his house, either. Not a kiss. He hadn’t even squeezed my hand.

Not that I should even be thinking about that right now.

But what did that mean? Was he rethinking whatever was between us?

I didn’t even know what
was
between us.

But I did know that I didn’t want anything to happen to him.

I looked at the clock again. Only two minutes had passed.

But screw it. If something had happened to him, I couldn’t forgive myself if I did nothing.

Decided, I reached over and took the keys out of the ignition. I got out of the car, shutting the door behind me.

Cars passed in front of me, obscuring the pizza place from view.

I waited once more, heart in my throat, hoping he’d come out. But he didn’t. And I started across the street.

When I got to the pizza place, I wasn’t sure what to do. The door was glass, and I peered inside.

All I could see was a counter with a register sitting on it. There was no one there. Behind the counter was the menu. Baked ziti for fifteen bucks.

My stomach growled. We hadn’t really eaten much today. Okay, nothing. Before this, I hadn’t noticed, but I
was
hungry.

I tried to imagine Cade eating a big plate of carbs and cheese.

Yeah, not likely.

I tried the door to the pizza place.

It was locked.

Figured.

I started to walk around the building, stopping to look inside the windows of the restaurant. But no one was in there. I could see the booths against the wall, and I could see the tables in the middle of the room. One of them had a half-eaten pizza sitting on it, but there was no one eating the pizza.

I walked all the way to the back of the building. Back here, there was a gravel parking lot with four or five cars in it.

There were less windows back here, and the smell of the dumpster permeated the air.

But there was one window near the back door. I crept over to it and peered inside.

Almost immediately, I saw Cade. He was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, and there was a man circling him, talking. I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying, but I was close enough to hear the pitch and rise of his voice. He sounded angry.

There were three other men in the room. One of them had gray hair. He sat opposite Cade, clutching an ornate cane.

The other two men flanked him. They were both wearing black sunglasses.

Cade was in trouble. My instincts had been right. I had to do something. I had to help.

I pulled back from the window. What the hell could I do? There were four men in there, and they all looked pretty tough, even the old guy. I had a gun, and it was loaded with… I looked at it. I didn’t even know how many bullets were in this thing. It wasn’t a revolver or anything, so I couldn’t open up the little spinning thing and check to see how many bullets were there. It had something else.

I thought Cade had called it a magazine.

Yeah, that sounded right. But I still didn’t know how many bullets were in the damned thing. I didn’t even know how to load it. Some shooting lesson that had been.

I messed around with the gun for several minutes, trying to figure out some way to see how many bullets were in the thing. I managed to slide the magazine out of the gun, but that didn’t really help, because all I could verify was that the thing was full of something. Judging from the size of the bullet, I counted how many I thought would fit in there. Twelve? Maybe thirteen?

I jammed the magazine back inside. Why was I bothering with this? I was simply wasting time.

Either I was going in there to help Cade or I wasn’t.

Well, it had to be. Cade didn’t have anyone else. It wasn’t as if I could call the police for help or something. I didn’t know anyone else who could help us out.

I rested my head against the building and tried to psych myself up for it. I could do this. I had to envision myself being successful, blowing all of the men away.

Oh, holy hell!

I was going to shoot people? I didn’t know if I could…

Mobsters, they’re mobsters
, I told myself. I didn’t know that for sure, but I did know that they might hurt Cade, and I knew that I couldn’t let that happen. I had to save him.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to steady myself. It didn’t completely work, but it was better than nothing.

I went over to the back door and tried the knob. I was convinced that it was going to be locked for one second, and I didn’t know what I would do. I would have to shoot out the door or something, and that would be loud, and then the mobsters would all come for me, and I wouldn’t stand a chance, and Cade and I would both—

But the door opened.

I stepped inside a dimly lit hallway. The floor was a wide checkered tile, red and white. It was dirty. Above me, a light was yellow and buzzing slightly.

I swallowed.

And then I could hear Cade’s voice. He was only a room away. He didn’t sound the least bit upset about the fact he was tied up.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I was just here for a slice of pizza. I don’t know why it is you think anything otherwise,” he said. “I hear the anchovies are to die for here.”

“We know someone hired you. Who was it? Someone inside the family?” Another voice with an urban Italian accent.

I made my way down the hallway, trying not to make any noise.

“I like anchovies,” Cade continued. “A lot of people don’t, and I will admit that they’re a bit strongly flavored. But I like biting their little heads off. Do you think that makes me a bad person?”

“Who hired you?”

There was a noise, the thud of a fist hitting flesh.

Cade grunted. “Ouch. Now, was that really necessary? You know, there are these monks out there in India or China or something who don’t hurt any life at all? Not even insects. They wouldn’t bite off anchovy heads and they wouldn’t go around tying people up and hitting them.”

“You’re a funny man now, but I’m going to wipe that smile right off your face.”

Cade laughed. “Really? You know, I don’t think those monks would have liked that sort of talk either. Honestly, this is all a big misunderstanding. Maybe I could just get my pizza?”

Another thud.

Another grunt from Cade. “Okay, okay, no anchovies,” he said. “I’ll be happy to order whatever you recommend.”

I had reached the end of the hallway, and there was a doorway on my left. I looked around the edge of it, and saw the same scene I’d seen before.

I quickly darted back before anyone could see me. What now?

“Tell us who hired you,” said the accented voice.

“Stop, Ludo,” said another voice. This one sounded older. I would bet even money it was the guy with the cane. He was probably in charge. “I will speak to him. Alone.”

“But that’s crazy,” said Ludo. “Let me work him over a little more.”

“I, for one, like Rafael’s plan,” spoke up Cade.

The sound of a slap. “You don’t call him by his first name. Show some respect,” said Ludo.

“Oh, sorry,” said Cade. “How about The Hands, then? That’s what they called you back in the day, yeah? On account of the fact that you always killed with your hands. Liked to get up close and personal, didn’t you? Both of your girlfriends turned up strangled too, as an odd coincidence. But their killers are still at large, and I bet that just breaks you up inside. Doesn’t it, Raffy?”

“Shut up,” said Ludo.

“Stop.” And this time the old guy’s voice was sharper. “Everyone leave. I want to talk to him alone.”

A heavy sigh from Ludo. “All right. You’re the boss.”

I panicked. They were leaving. Were they going to come out this way?

I needed someplace to hide.

There was another door across the hallway. I dashed to it and threw it open.

Yuck. It was a very disgusting bathroom that didn’t seem to have been cleaned in years. But I shut the door after myself and waited.

Seconds passed.

Then minutes.

I didn’t hear anyone go by.

Carefully, I pushed open the door. I tiptoed back across the hallway to look back into the room. I could see Cade, who was facing the doorway, but I couldn’t see anyone else. The old man had been sitting facing Cade, meaning I wouldn’t be able to see him from the doorway, unless I came inside a little and turned…

I did it.

Yes, the man was the only man there.

Cade saw me. His eyes widened for a second.

“I’m waiting,” said the voice of the old man.

Cade recovered. “You think you’re just going to give me the evil eye and scare it out of me? See, if I had any say in the matter, I would
get out of here
. I would definitely
leave
.” He looked at me when he said those things, giving me the tiniest of head gestures toward the door.