Masked (6 page)
I'm staring into Corey's eyes, trying to make him see that I'm telling the truth. He has a little-boy face nowâ full of fear and wonder. At least, I think that's what I'm seeing.
“A baby?” he says, as if he can hardly believe what I'm telling him.
I nod. “Our baby.”
“Liar!” Leon says again.
“Shut up, dickhead,” Corey yells at him. “She's not talking to you. She's talking to me.”
“Pregnant?” my dad says. “You got yourself pregnant?”
“It's mine,” Leon says. “Don't be afraid, Rosie. Tell him the truth. Tell him about us.”
“I told you to shut up,” Corey growls.
“Like she would ever touch you.”
“She did. She and Iâ”
“Shut up, Leon,” I say. He's going to ruin everything. “I already told youâ it's not yours.”
“But you saidâ”
“I said it because of him.” I nod at my father. “He would have made me get rid of it if there wasn't a father.”
Even with a mask on, Leon manages to look crushed. His eyes are watery. His mouth droops. I can't help feeling sorry for him. He's a nice guy.
Corey's expression is different. His eyes are hard now. So is his mouth. He says, “Why would he think the baby is his, Rosie? I don't believe in immaculate conception, not for you. So what did you do to make him think it's his baby, huh? What did you do?”
I'm out of it now. I back up a full pace. No one notices me. Corey is too busy screaming at Rosie. Rosie is too busy telling him it's not what he thinks, that she was only trying to protect the baby, that there was no way her dad would have let her take on some guy's baby all by herself, no way. She tells him, “I love you, Corey. I always loved you. I'll never love anyone else.”
“He didn't protect you,” Leon says. “He didn't even try. He ran out on you.”
“He came back,” Rosie tells him. There's a sharpness to her tone, like she wishes he would go away.
“Yeah, well, where was he when your dad was keeping you a prisoner?”
“Prisoner?” Mr. Mirelli says. “What is he talking about, Rosie? When did I ever keep you a prisoner?”
“It's nothing, Daddy. He doesn't know what he's talking about.”
“Why are you saying that?” Leon asks. “Because you're afraid of him? You don't have to be afraid anymore, Rosie. I won't let him hurt you.”
“Hurt her?” Mr. Mirelli says. “I would never hurt my daughter.”
“Says you,” Leon shoots back. “She told me all about it. She told me how you keep her locked up here and how you beat her when she disobeys you.”
“Beat her?” The old man looks at Rosie. “What is he talking about? When did I ever beat you?”
“It's okay, Daddy.” She turns to Leon. “It's not true. What I said about my dad, I only said it because you never take no for an answer.” She twists her head a little so that now she's talking to Corey. “He never left me alone. He wanted to be with me all the time. I had to tell him something to make him stop bothering me.”
“I wanted to protect you,” Leon says. “You told meâ”
Rosie's eyes freeze over like a pond in January. “I told you so that you'd leave me alone. I don't love you, Leon. It's not your baby.”
“Then why does he think it is?” Corey asks again. “Guys don't think they got a girl pregnant unless they were with that girl, you know what I mean, Rosie?”
“It was just one time, I swear. It's our baby, Corey. Yours and mine.”
Corey's eyes narrow. “How do I know that? Because you say so? You told him it was his. How do I know it isn't? How do I know you're not lying to me?”
“I would never lie to you, Corey.” She reaches for his hand again, but he pulls back from her.
“When were you going to tell me?”
“You wouldn't answer my calls,” Rosie says.
“I don't even want a kid,” he says. “Kids tie you down. I'm too young to be tied down.”
“But it's ours. You'll love it. You'll see. Guys are always nervous at first, aren't they, Daddy?” She looks anxiously at her father, whom she has been spreading lies about. “But it's okay. Isn't it, Daddy? Tell him.”
Her father stares stonily at her. He doesn't say a word.
“You want a baby, be my guest,” Corey says. “But I don't want anything to do with it. You thought you could trap me. Well, you're wrong.” He turns away from her.
“Corey.” She's practically hysterical now. “Corey, please!”
“You see?” Leon says. “He's no good. He doesn't care. But I do. I don't care if it's not my baby. It's yours. That's good enough for me. I'll look after you, Rosie.”
Rosie swings around to face him, her hands clenched at her sides, her pretty face a knot of anger.
“Go away, Leon,” she screams at him. “Just go away. Get out of my life!”
“But, Rosie, I love you.”
The poor dumb schmuck. Maybe his mother thinks he's sweet. But if you ask me, he's not too bright, not to mention he's both blind and deaf.
“I hate you!” Rosie screams at him.
“I'm out of here,” Corey says.
“No!” Rosie lunges for him. “No, Corey. Wait, please don't go.” She grabs one of his arms and holds tight. “Don't go. I'm packed. Pleaseâ”
“Packed?” Mr. Mirelli says. I'm starting to feel sorry for him. Surprises keep dropping on him like bombs. “What do you mean packed? Where are you going? What's happened, Rosie? We can talk about it. Whatever it is, we can talk about it.”
But Rosie isn't paying any attention to her father. She's hanging on to Corey, and Corey is trying to shake her off. Rosie won't let go. She's crying and begging and holding on so that he has to drag her with him with every step he takes.
“Corey, listen to meâ”
But Corey and his temper don't want to listen. They want out. Corey pries her hands off his arm, bending her fingers back so far that she lets out a howl. Mr. Mirelli lifts the panel in the counter so that he can go to her. But before he can slip through the opening, Corey has unlatched her fingers from his arm and has shoved her so hard that she flies backward away from him. She doesn't stop until she hits the ground and her head cracks against the edge of an ice-cream freezer. We all stare at her. We're probably all doing what I'm doing, which is trying to see if her chest is moving, if she's breathing. But I can't tell.
Mr. Mirelli runs to her and kneels down. He says, “Someone call an ambulance.” His face is white as he bends to feel for a pulse.
I pull out my cell phone and make the call. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Corey dart for the door. Then I hear a bang, louder than anything I've ever heard before, and Corey crumples.
Leon stands there for a moment, the gun still out in front of him. It seems to take forever for him to lower it. He pulls the mask off his head. His eyes are red. His face is wet, maybe from tears or maybe from sweat. He doesn't even try to run.
“I was going to look after her,” he says, his voice as limp as his hair. “I was going to take care of her and the baby. He was only going to hurt the baby. Why do they always go for the ones who hurt them?”
He's not looking at me when he asks it. He's looking at Corey. So I keep my mouth shut. I mean, he's still holding that gun, and if I didn't know it before, I know it nowâit's loaded.
Leon is still standing in the exact same place when the police and the ambulance arrive.
The cops see the gun in his hand and out come their guns. They're yelling at him, “Put the gun down! Put the gun down!” When he stoops and lays it on the ground, one of them grabs it. Then they yell at him to get face down on the floor. Suddenly they're all over him, handcuffing him, reading him his rights, getting him out of the store and into a cop car.
Meanwhile the ambulance crew has split up. One guy is checking out Rosie. The other is on Corey. As far as I can tell, they're both still alive. It's harder to figure out from what the ambulance guys are saying how badly hurt they are. A second ambulance arrives. There's a lot of activity. Then Rosie and Corey are bundled into the ambulances and whisked to the hospital. Mr. Mirelli wants to go with Rosie, but the cops won't let him, not yet, not until they ask him a few questions. They ask hundreds of them, to both him and me. They ask the same ones over and over. My brain feels like it's going to shut down long before they finish.
Rosie lost her baby. She was off school for a long time. Today is her first day back. She doesn't look like she used to. If she's wearing any makeup, it's not the kind you'd notice. It's weird, but she looks even prettier now than she did before, even though she's thinner and paler and doesn't work at being the center of attention. In fact, she's superquiet.
Corey lost the use of his right arm. He never came back to school. If Rosie ever saw him again, she kept it to herself.
Leon was arrested on a bunch of charges. His mother tried to get Mr. Mirelli to drop the ones relating to the attempted robbery, but he refused. She tried to get Leon out on bail, too, but that didn't work out either. His mom told my mom that he believed Rosie when she told him about her father and that, given what he experienced with his own dad, he just wanted to save her. But he went about it the wrong way. Maybe he was trying to do something good. But the fact is, he scared everyone to death. And he shot Corey.
I'm sitting in the cafeteria the day Rosie comes back to school. I have a mystery-shopper assignment scheduled for after school, and I'm looking over my checklist to see what I have to report on. A shadow falls across my table.
It's Rosie.
She's holding an apple and a container of skimmed milk. She says, “Is it okay if I sit with you, Daniel?”
I guess I stare stupidly at her. I'm too surprised to say anything.
“If you don't want me toâ,” she begins.
“No. It's fine.” I jump up and pull out a chair for her. She sits down and puts her apple and her container of milk on the table in front of her.
“My dad sold the store,” she says.
I already know.
“He held out for a good price.”
I know that too. It turns out he's a good negotiator. He got more than my uncle's friend wanted to pay.
“He says he wants to spend more time with me. We're going away for the summer, just the two of us.”
She opens her milk and slips a straw in. For a moment, it looks like she's going to smile, but she doesn't. She takes a sip of milk and says, “So, what are you working on?” It sounds like she really cares.
Norah McClintock has written numerous novels, including
Marked
,
Bang
and
Snitch
. Norah lives in Toronto, Ontario.
o
rca s
o
undings
The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Knifepoint
by Alex Van Tol.
978-1-55469-305-4 $9.95 pb
978-1-55469-306-1 $16.95 lib
JILL TOOK A JOB THAT SOUNDED PERFECT
for the summer, guiding tourists on trail rides in the beautiful mountains. She didn't realize that the money was terrible, the hours long and the co-workers insufferable. After a blow-up with her boss, she takes a lone man into the mountains for a ride, only to find that he is a dangerous killer. When Jill fights back and manages to escape, she is in a desperate race to survive and make it to safety.
Chapter One
Voices, sudden and loud, jolt me out of my dream. Confused, I try to sit up. But I can't. It feels like I've been tied to the bed with a million tiny threads. I force one eye open. Turn my head. The clock radio says
6:44
. The voices keep shouting. They're coming from the radio. The same radio I've woken up to for the past thirty-five days, at the same ungodly hour.
Except every morning it gets harder.
I raise my head and look at the wooden walls. A million tiny daggers shoot through my skull. Ugh. I prop myself on one elbow and hit
Snooze
. The daggers turn into hammers and spread out across my body. About a thousand go to work on the soles of my feet. I swing my feet out of bed, careful not to touch them to the floor. I can't face that agony yet. Yawning, I reach for some socks. I've
got
to start going to bed earlier. I can't keep functioning on five hours of sleep a night. Not when my job beats the crap out of me every day.
The metal bedframe squeaks as I heave myself up. Owww, ow. I could die right about now. If a serial killer poked his head into my room and offered to stab me at this exact moment, I'd tell him to go right ahead. I wonder if it's normal for my feet to hurt this much.
Well, yeah, maybe. When you spend fourteen hours working and then another five dancing nonstop. But it's so fun!