Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) (26 page)

“We will be.”

“
Right now
!” her voice rose to ear-splitting levels.  “Right now…” She brought her fisted hands onto the top of her head.

Jack’s breathing picked up as she threw her fists through the air, stunned at the sight.  In seconds, she gave up the fight, her shoulders collapsing and eyes going glassy.

“Is it your husband?”  Jack took a deep breath, preparing himself.  “You’re still in love with him?”

“No.” She made claws with her hands.  “This has nothing to do with Anthony.”

“But it is the divorce trial, right?  That’s what’s got you over the rails right now?  That’s why you’re crying?”  Jack sighed.  “You want him back?”

“
No.
”

“Then why are you this upset?  Why?”

“It’s none of your
business.  Isn’t that your motto?  Your favorite thing to say to me every time I tried to talk to you? ”

Jack licked his lips.  He reached for her.

She stepped away.  “Don’t do me any favors.  You don’t want to make small talk, right?  You don’t want friends.  You don’t want marriage.  You don’t want kids.  You don’t want
anything
but to be left the fuck alone, right?”

“All I want right now…” Jack took her arms, tightening his hold when she immediately tried to pull away from him.  “Is for you to talk to me.”

Jack jolted when she snatched her arms out of his grasp, watching her stumble away, the strap of her top falling farther down her arm.  He ached to lick her glistening skin and tear it to shreds all at once.  He couldn’t decide which side of him was stronger, so he just stood in a stupor, watching her walk away, and dying to figure out why the hell he couldn’t just let her.

He saw her bring the back of her hand to her lips from behind, lingering alongside the bus before sending the toe of her sneaker barreling into the tire.

“You’re right.  It’s not
fair
for me to even try.” He began moving in behind her.  “I just…”

“What?” She turned to him, trying to smile, but the pain in her eyes wouldn’t allow that smile to bloom, not even ironically.  “You just what?”

Jack sputtered, held her eyes, and then looked away.

She scoffed with a roll of her eyes.  “Three hundred missed calls from an army of people who could have real cash in your hands in minutes.  You’re so full of shit.  God.”  She pushed past him.

“I’m full of shit.” Jack’s voice rose, following her as she walked away.  “What about you, huh?”

When she didn’t stop moving, he sped up, closing in behind her.

“What about all the shit you’re running from, Nina?  What about that photo in your back pocket?” he countered.  “That photo of your “cousin”.”

She turned to him just in time to see his fingers curled into air quotes, and her entire face changed.  “I’ll kill you, Jack,” she whispered.  “If you ever bring him up again, I’ll kill you.”

“He’s your son.” Jack nodded.  “Isn’t he?”

Her lips curled and her eyes reddened.

“Is that why this trial is so important to you?  Is it about your kid?  About custody?”  When she didn’t answer, Jack held his arms out.  “Tell me that’s what it’s about… and I’ll call my family right now.  I’ll make the call, and I’ll get the money.  I’m
sorry
that I didn’t do it sooner.  Maybe some part of me…” He looked away, cursing under his breath, struggling.  “Maybe some part of me wanted you to miss the trial.  I wanted your marriage to end.  As quickly as possible.”  When she shot him a horrified look, he shrugged.  “Maybe I really am the empty man you think I am.  Maybe I really
am
an Aries.  Selfish as hell, only out for myself because I selfishly
wanted
you to be single again.  But if I’d have known it was about your kid… If you tell me it’s about your kid, and not about sticking it to your husband, then I’ll make the phone call right now.  Because while I’ll
never
support keeping your marriage alive, I won’t hesitate to support your son.”

The wind picked up her soaked curls, making them fly and stick to her lips just as she brought her fists to her eyes and crouched down, weeping into her palms.

Jack was on her in seconds, leaning down in front of her.  She tried to rear away when he cupped her shoulders, but he wouldn’t let her.

“Tell me what he needs,” he said.  “And I’ll take care of it.  Is he unsafe?  Is he a ward of the state? Is your husband after full custody?  What?  What is it?”

Her cries intensified, and Jack’s hold on her shoulders lightened.  He sat down on the asphalt completely, stretching his long legs out on either side of her body and pulling her into the warm concave of his chest, shaking her gently once she was encircled in his arms.

She sniffled.

“I can help you get him back,” he said.

She peeked up at him from behind her clenched fists, cheeks stained with mascara.  The moment her eyes hit his, she looked away, toward the stalled bus, sniffling again.

“How old is he?” Jack whispered, pushing her hair away from her face.  A long silence passed.

“He was six.”

His eyes slammed closed.

Was.

Jack’s eyebrows flew up high, and he had to take a deep breath as realization thundered in all around him, and he yanked her closer, deeper into the warmth of his chest when her quiet cries exploded into sobs.

Her fists found solace slamming into his chest as he pulled her in tighter.  She pushed against his pull, and he took every blow that she delivered, knowing that he’d pushed her too far with his questions, and it was his fault that she’d just spiraled into a place he hadn’t known existed.

“I’m sorry, Nina.  I’m so sorry.  I didn’t know.”  When she kept trying to push away, he met her eyes.  “I didn’t
know
.”

Nina cringed.  “They were supposed to… to fix him.”  Unable to shoulder both the pain and anger, she gave in, collapsing into his chest.

Jack exhaled when she gave herself to him, cuddling her close while his wide eyes danced over her head.  This time, he didn’t dare push her for more.

Her hoarse voice rang out again.  “Doctors are supposed to fix people…”

He pressed his chin to the top of her head, eyes widening and dancing back and forth as her cries eased.  This time, it was Jack’s eyes that filled with tears.  His heart, which was already shattered on the street at their feet, seemed to incinerate and sink into the Earth, and he was sure he’d never find it again.

“He killed my baby,” she wheezed.

His hand disappeared into her hair, but Jack didn’t enjoy it like he usually did.  He couldn’t.  Not when the truth was hitting him like a rocket.

“Who?” he whispered, already terrified to hear the answer.

She breathed in deep.  He couldn’t see her face, but assumed her tears must have dried, because she was no longer crying.  The anger, it seemed, wouldn’t allow another tear to hit her eyes.

“Dominic Octavio,” she spat.  “All the kids in the Peds ward called him Dr. Dom.  They loved him.”

The color drained from Jack’s face.  His breathing grew labored.  “Oh, Nina…”

“He killed my baby, and I need the money from my…” She hiccupped.  “From my divorce… to keep the malpractice suit going.  Most of the other mothers have already let it go.  It was getting too expensive.  They wanted to move on with their lives.  To let go.  But I can’t…  I won’t…”

Jack ran his hands over his wide eyes, passed his flared nostrils and over his trembling lips; hardly able to accept the words he was hearing.

“He killed my… my son,” she wheezed.  “And after he killed
himself
, his son spent the next six years making it his mission to defend him in court.  To protect every dollar he made on the backs of the kids he slaughtered.”

To anyone else, her words would be nothing but gibberish.  The rantings of a deeply wounded woman.  But Jack understood her.  He heard her, loud and clear, but he wished to God he didn’t.  He wished to God that every word she was saying didn’t ring so true, so deep, so close to home, that it brought tears to his own eyes.

He wished to God… he
begged
to God, not to be this cruel.

With every word she said, Jack’s eyes grew wider, more frantic.  “You don’t have to talk about this…”

“He
defended
him.  For six years.  Stretching the trial, on and on, for years and years, waiting for the moment when I finally gave up.  Until the moment I couldn’t afford it anymore.  He’ll stretch it until the day I die to protect his precious inheritance.  But I’ll never give up.  I have to get back to New York, Jack.  I have to do it for my baby…”

Jack shushed her, wrapping his fingers up in her hair before collapsing back onto one hand, hardly able to process what he’d just been blasted with.

***

“Noah was born with a bad kidney,” Nina said, squinting at the orange cast the rain had left behind on the mountain range in the distance.  “But every doctor told us it wasn’t a death sentence.  Said Noah could live a healthy life with just one.  So we didn’t worry ourselves about it.  Not until the second kidney went to hell.”  Nina shifted from where she and Jack were leaning up against the giant wheel of the truck. The rain had passed, and Nina’s tears had tried, but her heart was still as shredded.  She couldn’t make sense of the change that had occurred in Jack, but could only assume he felt sorry for her.  She was clearly completely insane.  She stretched her legs out, amused at how short they looked next to Jack’s never-ending ones, breathing deep.  “Luckily, I was a match.  I used every penny of my student loans to pay for the best surgeon in the city.  That’s why I had to drop out of law school…”

Jack nodded.

“The finest pediatric surgeon in Manhattan,” she beamed.  “
Dr. Dom. 
Dr. Dom swore the transplant would be a breeze.”  Her voice went as deep as she could get it, and she waved her hands in the air with a frown.
‘I’ve done this a hundred times, Nina’
,
‘I could do this operation with my eyes closed, Nina
’,
‘He’ll be better than ever, Nina’.
  I believed his bullshit, because he believed it, too.  I guess addicts always do.”

She looked over at Jack, saw that he was staring ahead, his chest rising and falling slowly, almost too slowly.  He wouldn’t look at her.

She took a few deep breaths.  “When Noah went into surgery… Dr. Dom spoke to me and Anthony.  He went into detail about the procedure, how long it would take, and what Noah’s chances were.  He made it clear that time was not on our side—that he had to cut Noah open
that very second,
or he wouldn’t live another day.”

Jack frowned.

Nina’s voice lowered.  “The moment he walked away, I looked at Anthony, and I said…
‘I think I smelled scotch on his breath.’
”

Jack’s eyes jammed closed.

“
‘I think he’s drunk.’
  Those were my exact words.  Anthony fought me on it.  Talked me out of it.”  Her voice broke. “We both just wanted Noah better, so badly.  We wanted him better; right that very second.  Anthony begged me to stand down and just let the doctor
help us. 
And, I listened.  I agreed.  Told him all the excitement must have had me paranoid.  That no surgeon would
ever
be good enough, smart enough; accomplished enough, in my eyes, to operate on my baby.  So we sat in that waiting room, and even though he didn’t say a word, I know Anthony could see it in my eyes.  He could see that I would never forgive him if anything happened to Noah.”

“Nina, I’m so sorry,” Jack breathed.

“A few hours after Noah flat-lined, the great Dr. Dom went to a bar mitzvah and got even more trashed.  On his way home, his Porsche jumped the median and went careening into oncoming traffic.  His wife was in the passenger seat.  Died instantly.  Both of them.”

She looked at Jack, again, and found his eyes shut tight.  She wondered why he looked at pained as she felt.

“Did you know that son of a bitch had a blood alcohol level of .40 when he crashed?  It was probably even higher than that when he took a knife to my kid’s chest.”  She gasped dramatically.  “And only
then
did colleagues at the hospital feel it necessary to bring up his erratic behavior in the operating room.  His penchant for lateness.  The perpetual bourbon scent to his breath.  Only when he killed
himself
did they feel it necessary to mention that he was a knockdown, drag out drunk.  Only after he’d taken countless babies down with him.  That fucking bastard.”  Her eyes went back to Jack, and saw his eyes still closed and his fists clenched.  His jaw grew tighter by the moment.  “Jack?” she whispered.

His eyes flew to hers, wide open, and when their gazes met, he suddenly sat tall, straightening his clothes.  “Yeah?”

She saw how hard he was working to appear composed, and wondered why.  Her eyebrows rose high.  “I’m being too intense.”