Sempre (Forever) (74 page)

Breathing a sigh of relief, she walked to the family room, but her footsteps faltered when she looked through the large window. Someone stood down by the tree line. Haven’s knees went weak. She wasn’t alone.

The person was covered in black from head-to-toe, a ski mask concealing his face from her.

Haven closed her eyes, willing her frantic heart to slow down, and when she reopened them, the man was gone. The back yard was empty, everything once again still.

*  *  *  *

The room was bright and cold, so silent Carmine could hear the clock ticking behind him. Glaring at the paper on his desk, he read the question for the twentieth time, but he was no closer to an answer than he had been five minutes ago.

He groaned as he slouched back in the hard plastic chair, trying to shift position to get comfortable. The girl sitting beside him shot him an annoyed look, and he cocked an eyebrow at her, daring her to say something. She huffed dramatically before focusing back on her test. He stared at her, unable to place her name.

Michelle? Mandy? Monique? He couldn’t fucking remember.

She cut her eyes at him again and mouthed, “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” he said, turning back to his paper. He didn’t care about her. He barely noticed anyone anymore. They were all the same, and there wasn’t a single thing any of them could do for him. Haven was everything he wanted, the reason he was sitting in this room, stressing over this ridiculous test, so he could take her away and start a new life somewhere.

The administrator announced there were only five minutes left, and Carmine sighed loudly as he read the last question once more. He tried to wrap his brain around the analogies on the paper, but he didn’t know what half of the words meant. He gave up and dropped the pencil, not even bothering to answer it. The only analogy that mattered to him was ‘weed is to smoke, as pussy is to fuck’, because that was the only thing he was interested in then.

Time wound down and the tests were collected before they were dismissed. Carmine headed for the exit, rolling his neck in an attempt to get the tension out of it. He strolled out to the parking lot with the rest of his classmates, where the sound of squealing tires stopped him in his tracks. He looked up, his brow furrowing in confusion when the old pick-up truck pulled into the parking lot.

“Isn’t that Nicholas?”

Carmine cringed as Lisa spoke behind him. Nicholas parked his truck and climbed out, glancing around in a rush. He looked in Carmine’s direction, muttering to himself as he started toward him. “Carmine, I need to talk to you about Haven. She—”

He didn’t even have time to finish. Carmine’s nerves were still on edge, his frustration getting the best of him. He drew his fist back and swung. Nicholas’s head snapped to the side when it connected with his jaw.

Staggering backward, Nicholas glared at him. “There’s something wrong with you! I told her you’d go psycho if I came here!”

“Excuse me?” Carmine grabbed a hold of Nicholas’s shirt. “What do you mean you told her? When did you talk to her?”

Nicholas pried his hands off, shoving Carmine away. “Twenty minutes ago when she called me.”

The words stung. “What do you mean she called you?”

“I mean—
ring, ring
—she called my phone,” he said. “What else would ‘she called me’ mean?”

Carmine lunged at him, but Nicholas was prepared this time. He barely stumbled before striking back, jabbing Carmine hard in the ribs. He gasped at the unexpected shot. Before he could recover, Nicholas struck him in the nose.

Carmine’s vision blurred as the sharp pain shot through his face, blood flowing instantly. Someone grabbed his arm before he could get his wits about him, and he turned to see a crowd had formed.

“Is this how you two always greet each other?” Graham asked, glancing between them. Carmine laughed dryly and wiped his face with the back of his hand, smearing blood all over himself. He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pinched his nose with it, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Don’t you know?” Nicholas asked, licking his busted lip. “This is how he says hello to his old friends.”

“You’re not my friend.”

Nicholas shook his head. “You know, you’d think you’d at least show some damn gratitude. I didn’t have to come here.”

“Why did you?” he asked. “Trying to fuck up my life some more? You’re wasting your time. You’re not gonna come between us.”

“You think I’m trying to break you up? Stop being so paranoid and listen for once! I came here because Haven called me.”

Before he could say anything, Lisa’s sharp laughter rang out. “You two are fighting over that girl? This is unreal. She’s nobody.”

“Shut up, bitch,” Carmine snapped, turning to glare at her.

“Don’t say that,” Nicholas yelled. “She’s a good person.”

Carmine turned back around, prepared to jump on Nicholas again for talking to him that way, when he realized his gaze was centered past him. Irrational jealousy hit him. “You don’t even know Haven.”

“I know she has all the reason in the world to be disgusted by you, but she loves you for some reason,” Nicholas said. “And are you seriously going to stand here and argue with me about this? I’m wasting my time even bothering.”

“Then leave,” he said. “I didn’t ask you to come here.”

“No, but she did,” Nicholas said. “She didn’t have anyone else to call, and she needed you to come home. I try to do her a favor, and instead of listening, you’d rather fight me for no reason.”

“Why did she ask you to come get me?”

“I think someone was there or something.”

Carmine tensed. “How do you know?”

“I don’t know. I just heard a doorbell and she seemed edgy.”

Carmine pushed past Nicholas and sprinted for the car. He knew his father was leaving town, so there was no one that should be at the house. Nicholas yelled after him, but Carmine didn’t respond as he jumped into the car and threw it in reverse.

He sped through the streets of Durante. The only thing that would alleviate his concern would be seeing her with his own eyes. Fresh skid marks aligned the driveway when he arrived home, ruts dug into the path. There weren’t any cars in the yard, and the house looked just as quiet as he’d left it a few hours ago.

Parking near the porch, he climbed out and looked around. Everything seemed still, nothing raising any red flags. He unlocked the door and disabled the alarm when it beeped, his blood running cold when he saw the phone lying on the floor in the foyer. Glancing around suspiciously, he tried to remain calm as he made his way upstairs. He didn’t find Haven on the third floor, so he slipped into his bedroom and pulled his gun out of the top of his closet. He’d hid it there a few days ago when he dropped the Mazda off to be fixed, not wanting to carry the gun in his brother’s car. After checking to make sure it was loaded, he slipped the pistol into his waistband and started back down to the first floor.

His footsteps echoed in the seemingly vacant house as he headed toward the kitchen, stopping abruptly in the doorway. Haven stood behind the island, her arm drawn back as she clutched a rolling pin. Carmine could see her trembling from where he stood.

If he hadn’t been so confused, he might’ve found it amusing. “Are you okay,
tesoro
?”

She nodded. “Are you?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

She blinked a few times and continued to gaze at him. “What happened?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking that?”

“Yes, but your nose…”

Carmine grabbed his nose, wincing. In his panic, he’d forgotten all about his injury. “Just had a little scuffle with Nicholas.”

She gasped. “You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

“No, he got me worse than I did him this time.” He cringed, not wanting to admit that. “Why did you call him? What happened?”

“Jen was here. Dr. DeMarco told me to call you, because something wasn’t right. You didn’t answer, and Jen was upset that I wouldn’t open the door, so I called him. I’m sorry, but I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “So, did Jen give up?”

“I don’t know. She threatened me and said—”

“She threatened you?”

“Yeah, but then she left, and—”

“What the fuck did she want?”

“I don’t know. I looked outside and—”

Her words faltered as the roar of an engine approached. Carmine walked over to the window to look out, seeing the truck pulling up in front of the house. “It’s just Nicholas.”

Nicholas headed for the house as Carmine went into the foyer and opened the door.

“Everything cool?” Nicholas asked, stopping a few feet away.

“It’s fine,” Carmine said. “You didn’t have to come. Hell, you shouldn’t have come.”

“Carmine,” Haven scolded as she stepped past him. Her eyes darted around as she stepped off the porch and loosely wrapped her arms around Nicholas in a hug. “Thank you. Not many people would’ve done that for me.”

Nicholas stood frozen before half-heartedly patting her back. “Ah, no big deal,” he said, but Carmine knew it was a big deal. He almost felt bad for hitting him, but the throbbing in his nose counteracted any guilt. “So, crisis averted and all that jazz?”

“Uh, well—”

“It was just Jen,” Carmine said, stepping off the porch. “My father must’ve kicked her to the curb. You know how scorned bitches are.”

“I don’t think that—”

“She always was shady,” Nicholas said. “I never understood why Dr. D would stoop that low. Even I wouldn’t touch her.”

“Bullshit,” Carmine said. “You slept with her.”

“No, I didn’t. I never touched her.”

“Yes, you did. We were at the hospital last year, and I dared you to do it. You never turned down my dares.”

“Seriously, Carmine? Are you forgetting you tried to kill me that same weekend? I never even had a chance to try!”

“I didn’t try to kill you. If I wanted to kill you, I’d kill you. I only snapped because you stabbed me in the back.”

Nicholas glared at him. When he finally spoke, he said the last thing Carmine expected to hear. “You’re right.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“I said you’re right. I shouldn’t have said what I said, and I’m sorry about that, but you screwed up too, Carmine.”

It was first time Nicholas had ever acknowledged he’d wronged him, and it caught Carmine off guard. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have tried to get with your sister. I’m so—uh, shit, whatever.”

Haven eyed the two of them in shock. “Wow, are you—?”

“Anyway,” Carmine said, cutting her off before she could make a big deal out of it. “Everything’s fine. Haven could’ve handled it. She had the rolling pin ready.”

Nicholas laughed as Haven blushed. “I didn’t know what to do. Jen went away and then I saw someone standing out back.”

Carmine gaped at her. “Someone? Who was it?”

“I don’t know. He was near the woods and had on all black.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t the landscaper or something?” Carmine asked. “Maybe it was the guy that pushes the lawn-mower.”

“Does it look like the grass was mowed today, Carmine?”

He glanced around. “No.”

The phone in the house started ringing, and Carmine ran into the foyer for it. Grabbing it off the floor, he answered it as he stepped back out onto the porch. “Hello?”

“Carmine?” Vincent’s voice cracked a bit. “Can you hear me?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“So, I have a joke for you,” Nicholas said. Carmine rolled his eyes as his father started talking about something to do with the airport, but the reception was getting worse and Nicholas’s voice drowned him out. “What’s black, white, and red all over?”

“I don’t know,” Haven said. “What?”

A loud bang rang out in the distance. Carmine dropped the phone and cursed, reaching down to pick it up, when a piercing scream cut through the air. The hair on Carmine’s arms bristled as he spun around. Nicholas dropped to his knees as red seeped onto his white shirt. Clutching his chest, he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He dropped forward to the ground within a matter of seconds. Haven screamed again, so loudly Carmine’s ears rang.

Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion. He jumped off the porch and landed on top of Haven. Another bang shattered the air as he knocked her to the ground behind the car, his body weight forcing the air from her lungs.

“Listen to me,” he said, pinning her trembling body there as she struggled to breathe. “I’m gonna count to three and start shooting. I need you to get up and get into this damn car. Got it?”

She was unresponsive, and he groaned as another shot rang out. He winced as it collided with metal, the bullet hitting the car. “Christ, Haven, you need to fucking listen to me. We have to get out of here. I need you to do this, so can you?”

Her voice shook just as hard as her body. “I think so.”

Carmine reached up and opened the passenger door a crack. “It’s gonna be fine. I promise.”

Yet another gunshot cut through the stifling air. He flinched at the sound and took a deep breath. They were taunting them, he realized. Whoever it was could’ve easily executed them by now.

He started counting, and Haven’s eyes widened as she clutched onto him. “Wait!”

“Christ, we don’t have time to fuck around here.”

“I love you,” she said, the words catching in her throat and escaping as a sob. The sound of it burned, like she taken a knife and plunged it straight into his chest, twisting it.

“Don’t act like we won’t see each other again in thirty seconds,” he said, grabbing his gun from his waistband and flicking off the safety. “Get in the goddamn car, baby.
Three
.”

He stood up and aimed at nothing in particular, firing off rounds in the direction the shots had come from. Running around to the driver’s side, he cursed when he almost tripped over Nicholas. Shame overwhelmed him as tears stung his eyes, but he fought to hold himself together for Haven’s sake.

Bullets whizzed by him as he ducked inside the car. Haven was curled into a ball in the passenger seat, sobbing. He fumbled with the keys as he laid the gun down between them.

He threw the car in gear and swung it around, slamming the gas to get away from the house. Reaching over, he brushed Haven’s hair aside to get a good look at her as he flew down the driveway. “Are you okay,
tesoro
? Talk to me, please.”