Callahan's Fate (19 page)

After clearing the table and putting the
things they’d used in a sink of dishwater to soak,
Raine
maneuvered behind him and massaged his shoulders. “Your muscles are hard as
granite.
 
Relax, sweetheart.”

“Ah, that’s good,” he told her. “Don’t
quit.”

Her thumbs worked in circles to relax
his tight muscles.
 
Raine
turned the conversation away from danger and pain. “Since you’re off tomorrow,
I thought maybe we could go to church, at Holy Innocents, if you want,” she
told him. “It’s All Saints.”

“Yeah, sure, I’d like that all right,”
he told her. “Then maybe we’ll go out to grab some dinner or something.”

“Maybe we could go to a movie or a show,
if we could get tickets.”

“We’ll see.”

Something about his flat tone made her
think they probably wouldn’t.

****

In the morning, with chill temperatures
but bright sunshine, they made it to Mass.
 
Raine
had never gone to church with a lover
before, and a few pangs of guilt plagued her until she decided it was no one
else’s business, not even God’s.
 
She
loved Callahan with a fierce, deep emotion, and there couldn’t be anything
sinful about such love.
 
The old church,
one of the oldest buildings in midtown Manhattan, dated back to just after the
Civil War.
 
That sense of history and the
familiar comforting words of the Mass soothed some of her tensions, and they
walked out together, hand in hand.

Callahan’s eye remained swollen,
although he claimed he could see through it fine.
 
The bruises around it had gone darker, black
against the paleness of his skin.
 
Around
the edges, there were hints of purple and a little green.
 
Raine
knew it had
to be very painful, but he didn’t complain.
 
He wore a haggard look, though, and when she suggested they stop by the
market to buy supplies so she could make Sunday dinner, he agreed.

“That’d be great, doll,” he told her. “I
haven’t had an old-fashioned Sunday dinner in years, and I’m still tired.
 
We can pick up today’s papers, too, and read
them while the food cooks.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.
 
What would you like?”

His lips curved into a wide smile.
“Jeez, I don’t know. I’m not used to much besides picking up a pizza or a
sandwich or nuking something in the microwave.
 
I eat a lot of salami and pastrami, frozen crap, and stuff.
 
Do you know how to bake a chicken?”

Raine
smiled back. “I
do. Would you like stuffing, potatoes, or dumplings with it?”

“I haven’t had dumplings since my
grandmother passed away,” he said. “That sounds awesome,
Raine
,
if it’s not too much trouble.”

“It’s not,” she said as they strolled
down the sidewalk, almost as busy on Sunday as any other day of the week.
“Besides, you’re worth the effort.”

He whisked her into a doorway and kissed
her, slow and sweet. “Glad you think so,” he said. “I got you fooled but good,
huh?”

“I suppose so. Next you’ll try to sell me
a bridge or something.”

“You want the Brooklyn, Manhattan, or
Williamsburg? I’ll give you your choice.”

“Give me all three.”

“You bet,” he said. “And how about I
throw my heart in for free?”

“I like that idea,” she said. “Let’s go
buy groceries so I can show off my skills as a cook.”

The roast chicken turned out succulent
with a crisp, brown skin, and tender meat.
 
Her dumplings were the perfect comfort food.
 
She served frozen peas, and they bought a
peanut butter cream pie for dessert.
 

“Doll, that’s one of the best meals I
ever had,” he said when he finished. “I think it finished me off.”

“How?”

“Wiped me out,” he replied. “About all
I’m good for now is a nap.”

“You could use one,” she said. “You had
a late night, last night.”

Callahan reached over and grasped her
hand. “We both did, doll. You look a little tired.”

“I am.”

“Then let’s turn on the football game
and maybe we’ll fall asleep.”

She wanted nothing more. “Let me clean
up, then I’ll join you.”

After a long pause, he grinned. “You
wash, I’ll dry,
then
we’ll do it together.
Whaddya
say?”

There were just three words to say, and
she said them. “I love you.”

Together they drowsed to the sound of
the Giants game on television, fully dressed, and propped against the
pillows.
 
Raine
woke around dusk, sleepy and curled against Callahan.
 
He watched her, wide awake.
 
“Did you sleep?”

“Yeah, for a while.
 
Doll, we
gotta
talk.”

His serious tone brought her awake.
“What’s wrong?”

He made a face. “Same old shit,
different day,” he said. “You
gotta
work tomorrow, or
can you take off?”

“I’m supposed to work. I don’t know,
maybe. Why?”

“I’m concerned about Snake.”

“Well, so am I,” she said. “But so far,
he’s not been anywhere around here.”

“But you travel all around the city, and
that makes you a potential target. If he wasn’t looking before, he will be
now.”

Raine
rejected the
idea. “I don’t think so.
 
He’ll be hiding
out, mourning his brother.”

Callahan snorted. “Not that guy—he’ll be
out for blood.
 
That’s how he rolls,
baby.
 
You weren’t there and you didn’t
hear the stuff he shouted, both while Bull was trying to kill me and
after.
 
He
ain’t
gonna
quit and he’s not going away.”

“What good will it
do
for me to miss one day of work then?”

He frowned. “Well, that’s the other
thing I wanted to discuss.
 
How would you
feel about taking a leave of absence for a while?”

“No! I don’t want to do that, Callahan.”

“Let me finish, doll. Take some personal
leave,
get outta here until things are resolved. Or do
you think you could you find a position where you stay at one school every
day?”

It might be possible, but
Raine
didn’t like the idea. “I relocated to New York to do
what I’m doing,” she said.
 
“I like
working with at-risk kids.”

“There must be some in the regular
school system,” he said. “I’ve heard they always have some job openings. Or
maybe it’d be a good time to go visit your folks.”

Anger exploded within
Raine
, and she pulled away from him.
 
She sat straight up and glared. “Don’t try to
take over my life, Callahan,” she told him. “What is with this? I didn’t move
with you so you could tell me what to do.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

His eyes narrowed. “No, I’m trying to
talk to you about some options to keep you safe.
 
That’s what’s important to me.”

She snorted and climbed off the
bed.
 
Raine
folded her arms and gave him the sharpest look she could manage. “I am
safe.
 
That’s why I moved in here with
you, Callahan.
 
So far, we haven’t
spotted any of the Marsh brothers around here, and as far as we know, they
don’t know where you live.
 
It would be a
fluke for Snake or Shoe to find me, because I do travel to a different place
every day of the week.”

“
Raine
,” he
said.
 
His voice broke on her name.
“Think for a minute. Yeah, you do, and you’ve seen them a few times.
 
If they remember—and I bet my ass Snake does—they’ll
hang out where you’ve been spotted.
 
They
knew where you lived before, remember?”

“I doubt they even know I moved.”

Callahan stood up, too. “Yeah, I’m
afraid they do.”

“You don’t know that,” she said. “You’re
bluffing me.”

“I wish.
Raine
,
I haven’t told you what Snake said or what Bull shouted while he was trying to
knife me.
 
I haven’t told you why we were
trying to arrest them, have I? No, I didn’t think so.
 
We had a warrant for them on arson and murder
charges.”

Her anger throttled down a notch. “What
are you talking about?”

“What time did we pick up your stuff at
your old place?
Around nine?”

“We were finished by ten, and I gave the
key to Mrs. Morales.
 
Why?”

“The whole building was engulfed in
flames at eleven, baby.
 
Two people died
from smoke inhalation on the upper floor, and eyewitnesses saw the Marsh
brothers at the scene.”

Horror crept through her with claws,
slashing enough to hurt.
“Oh, my Lord!
If we hadn’t
been gone, we’d have been caught in it.”

His tone was drier than sand. “Yeah, I
know.
 
And first they busted into your
apartment, and that’s where they poured the gasoline and set it blazing.”

“How do you know?” Her voice refused to
reach full volume.

“Shoe,” he said. “Shoe came to the
precinct to rat on them.
 
He said he’d
had enough, things had gone too far, and he wanted no part of it.
 
He’s in protective custody now.
 
That’s how we knew where to find Snake and
Bull, baby.
 
They had planned a big celebration,
but they put it on hold because we weren’t dead. Snake went wild and vowed to
get his vengeance. Even Shoe, his cousin, said he didn’t know what Snake might
do, but it would be beyond bad. ”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Callahan’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t
want to scare you more than you already
were,
doll.
Are you mad at me?”

“I was,”
Raine
told him. “But no, I’m not now. I’m terrified.”

“Come here, baby.” He opened his arms
and she walked into them.

Uncertain, frightened, and unsure what to
do next,
Raine
nestled against Callahan. “Hold me for
a few minutes,” she said. “Okay?”

“You got it,” he answered. “Whatever
happens, doll, we’ll see it through together.”

With her head pillowed against his
chest, she listened to the steady beat of his heart and prayed it would be so.

Chapter Thirteen

Callahan figured he had until Tuesday to
figure something out.
 
He convinced
Raine
to take Monday off, and she made the necessary
call.
 
His efforts to send her home until
the trouble no longer threatened failed.
 
“I’m not leaving you,” she told him. “And I’m not running away.”

“It wouldn’t be running, doll.”

Chin up, she glared at him. “It would
be, to me.”

He had promised to keep her safe and
would at the cost of his own life if necessary, but what
Raine
didn’t understand and he couldn’t seem to explain was that it was next to
impossible to keep his cop focus.
 
And to
resolve the situation and protect her, he must.
 
Callahan tried one more time to tell her.

“Doll, listen.
 
Out on the street, I
gotta
think like a law enforcement officer.
 
I
have to think on my feet and think fast.
 
I can’t worry about you or it distracts me, and right now I can’t
help
but worry about you.”

Raine
snuggled closer
to him on the couch.
 
After a long nap,
they had warmed up leftover chicken and dumplings for a late super.
 
Now, neither one of them wanted to
sleep.
 
At her insistence, they had
folded the bed back into a sofa but she hadn’t left his side.
 
And he really didn’t want her to. “I’m
concerned, too, Callahan but I’m not asking you to stay home.”

“I can’t.”

“That’s the point.
 
I really can’t either.
 
I’ll skip tomorrow, but I really should work
the rest of the week.
 
Even if I wanted
to go home, which I don’t, I’d have to explain everything.
 
I’m not going to do that.”

“So maybe you should take a little
vacation, go up to Maine or down to Philly or DC or someplace and be a
tourist.
 
Take a break, you know.”