Tess's Tale (The Chanel Series Book 3) (11 page)

I pulled a face. The Billy part was difficult. We were hoping we could reconnect in a few years once this had all gone away.
If
it all went away.

She let go of my shoulders and leaned back. ‘When?’

‘As soon as my passport turns up.’

‘You’ll have to change your names, and stay away from the capital cities. And Tess,’ she grabbed my arm again, ‘this is really important. You can’t sing.’

‘What? Why?’ Not sing? I may as well cut off a limb.

‘Honey a voice like yours will attract attention. They’ll be looking for things like that.’

She was right again, damn it. I was going to have to change my appearance, what I did, who I was. I looked down at my stomach. I would do it for them. For my unborn child. That would make it worthwhile.

‘Come on.’ I grabbed her hand and stood up. ‘Thor will be wondering where we are.’

As we ate breakfast I soaked up everything I could about Liss and Thor. Their voices, the taste of his omelette, the way he looked at her as if he had just found something amazing, the way she teased him continuously. Out of everything I had experienced in my short life, those were the things I would miss the most.

***

I spent all afternoon preparing dinner. I set the table and lit the candles, something I hadn’t even done last night. Then I picked out my outfit and did my hair. After all, it’s not every night you get to tell your husband you’re pregnant.

‘Tess.’

I heard Harry call out as I was putting the finishing touches to my hair.

‘Coming.’

He was out the back with a beer when I got back downstairs. The bruises on his face had bloomed through the day and he looked exhausted, but his face lit up when he saw me and he let out a low whistle. ‘Come here.’ He held his hand out and when I took it, he pulled me onto his lap and wrapped himself around me.

I sank into his kiss, blissfully aware that this was the first time we’d been alone at this hour of the day since Jim’s heart attack.

‘You managed to shake off Mickey and Riley,’ I said when I came up for air.

He grinned. ‘They’re back with their rightful master.’

I curled my fingers into his thick hair and pulled his mouth back to mine. I could spend all day kissing Harry. The thought occurred to me that now would be the perfect time to tell him, but I had planned to do it over dinner. So I waited.

I broke away before things became too heated. It had taken a long time to get my hair looking this good. ‘How’s your Dad?’

Harry picked up his beer and took a swig. ‘Much better now that he knows we’re safe.’

‘You told him?’ I pulled away so I was perched on his knees rather than curled into his chest.

‘I had to. I didn’t want him worrying.’

‘The retribution for last night is going to be worse.’

‘Not if they don’t know what happened to them.’

‘They’ll find out.’

‘How? Only the five of us know.’

‘You can’t tell me that they won’t talk. Maybe not now, but in a couple of years, or when they’ve had too much to drink, or to impress a woman.’ I could hear my voice starting to get hysterical.

‘Tess.’ Harry pulled me back to him. ‘It’s all right.’ But his face didn’t look as certain as his voice sounded.

‘They will come for us Harry. We have to leave.’

‘I know. We will.’ He kissed me on the forehead. ‘Did your passport come today?’

As I shook my head a buzzer sounded from the kitchen. ‘Dinner’s nearly ready.’ I stood up and smoothed down my skirt. ‘Why don’t you go have a shower?’

‘Not working tonight?’ He smiled at me as he stood up.

‘I enjoyed last night so much I thought we could do it again.’

His smile turned positively wolfish as he bent to nuzzle my neck. ‘Excellent, because it was all I could think about today.’

I laughed and pushed him away. ‘Go shower while I save dinner.’

‘You could come and shower with me.’

For a second I really thought about it. The thought of Harry’s hands, hot water, and soap nearly made me change my plans. Hell, I could tell him in the shower just as well as I could at the dining room table. But, no, I had put too much effort into making tonight perfect.

‘Maybe after dinner you can help shower
me
.’

He patted me on the bottom as I walked past him towards the kitchen.

When he came back ten minutes later his hair was still damp and he smelt of cologne. He pushed me up against the pantry and ran his hands up and down my body before settling them onto my breasts. ‘I thought about you the whole time I was in the shower,’ he whispered in my ear.

I groaned and pushed my breasts into his hands as he massaged them. ‘I thought about what it felt like to be inside you.’ He took my hand and put it on the front of his pants. His erection strained hard into my palm. ‘And this was the result.’

One of his hands left my breasts and made its way down to my leg. It stroked the delicate skin on the inside of my thigh before making its way up. His mouth covered mine and his tongue darted into play as his fingers rubbed over my core. I shuddered and pushed into him and all self-restraint left me.

He slid down my pants, then scooped me up and carried me to the sofa. All thoughts of well-made plans left my head and the only thing left in it was Harry; the smell of him, the taste of him, the feel of him on me and in me. It was all consuming.

We didn’t come up for air till the wine was warm and the dinner was cold.

***

‘I’m sorry about dinner.’ I could tell by the cheeky smile on Harry’s face that he wasn’t really sorry. I didn’t mind because I wasn’t sorry either.

I topped up his wine glass and pulled out my seat to sit down.

‘You’re not drinking?’ He nodded towards my empty glass.

‘Actually,’ I said, ‘there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.’

The shrieking of the phone interrupted me. I rolled my eyes and mumbled, ‘Just bloody perfect.’

I picked up the receiver and a female voice started babbling hysterical Italian into my ear.

‘Rosella. Is that you?’ The babbling continued without a break.

‘You had better take it.’ I held the receiver out toward Harry.

He stood and hurried towards the phone, the look on his face making me realise what I had missed. There was only one reason Rosella would be ringing here. Something had happened to Jolly Jim.

He spoke to her for a minute, his voice low and urgent. When he hung up, his face under the bruising, was grey.

‘Is he alive?’

He nodded and some of the tension I had been holding released.

‘He’s on his way to the hospital.’

‘Are we picking up Rosella?’ I snagged the car keys from the hook and picked up my bag, casting a rueful glance at the table. It seemed dinner was doomed to never be eaten.

‘Yes.’ His previously animated face was wooden.

‘Hey,’ I reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘He’ll be okay. Just like last time.’ But I knew what he was thinking.
How could we leave if his father was sick?

I pushed that thought out of my mind and herded him towards the front door. It was all going to be okay, it was.

Now if only I could get myself to believe that.

It was
not
like last time. This time pipes and hoses were attached to Jim’s arms and mouth. A nurse bustled around him, checking bits of equipment.

Rosella let out a shriek and launched herself at Jim’s side. Harry caught her in his arms and held her.

‘What’s that?’ I pointed to the machine that was connected to the tube running from his mouth.

The nurse looked at what I was pointing at, her deft hands still continuing their duty. ‘A respirator. It makes him breathe.’

Oh yes, it was
definitely
not like last time.

‘What happened?’ Harry’s voice was strained.

‘The Doctor will be back soon.’ She stepped back and eyed all the equipment and then turned towards us. ‘Why don’t you take a seat and wait for him.’ She pointed at a lone chair sitting against the far wall.

‘I’ll race you,’ I said to Harry. He didn’t even smile. He was too busy staring at his father.

I took his hand and turned to see what he was seeing. It didn’t look good. The only dead men I’d ever seen had all had bullet holes in their heads. So if I set them up as a ten, and a healthy person as a one, Jim was an eight. With his grey skin and all those machines around him, he looked one step away from the grave.

‘Rosella, you have the seat.’

I pulled the chair up so that it was close enough to the bed that you could see Jim, but far enough away that no-one would trip over you if an alarm sounded. I’d watched enough
General Hospital
to know what happened when one of them went off.

Rosella shuffled the seat close enough to the bed that she could hold Jim’s hand. I was guessing they didn’t have Italian subtitles for
General Hospital
.

I scooted out to the hall and looked up and down. Another seat sat farther down the hall towards the nurse’s station. I grabbed it and took it back to the room and set Harry up next to Rosella.

‘I’m going to get us all coffee.’ I had a feeling it was going to be a long night. Neither of them looked at me as I left.

I was struggling with conflicting emotions. Dread and hope that Jim would die. Apart from Billy, he was the only thing holding Harry here, but my own selfish emotions were not enough to warrant someone dying. I was a mean, horrible person, but no matter how much I berated myself I couldn’t get that little voice out of my head.

I found a coffee machine and carried two foam cups back to the room for Harry and Rosella. Harry started when I tapped him on the shoulder.

‘Sorry,’ I said, handing him the cup.

I found a third chair and parked myself next to Harry, taking his hand in mine. We sat like that, none of us talking as we stared at Jim.

It seemed like forever before a man with a white coat walked into the room. His name badge said Dr Roberts.

‘You are Jim Milano’s next of kin?’ the doctor asked.

‘I’m his son, Harry.’ Harry leapt to his feet. ‘This is my wife, Tess. This is Rosella.’ He didn’t bother mentioning that Rosella wasn’t related. Let the man assume she was Jim’s wife. ‘Was it another heart attack?’

‘No,’ Dr Roberts said. ‘This time it was a stroke.’

‘But why would he have a stroke?’ Harry asked.

‘Your father is not a well man.’

Dr Roberts was obviously a rocket scientist. I mean anyone looking at Jim could tell he was not a well man.

Rosella said something to Harry in Italian. ‘She wants to know if he will recover,’ Harry said. ‘I mean we
all
want to know if he will recover.’

‘If he makes it through the night, he has a chance of recovery. But I think you have to start to come to terms with the fact that your father will never be the man he was.’

I was guessing by Rosella’s reaction to Harry’s translation that he wasn’t entirely truthful. The stress drained out of her face and she started patting Jim’s hand.

We sat in silence watching Dr Roberts check Jim’s vitals. When he had finished, he turned back to Harry and said, ‘I wish I could give you better news. The scan we ran on your father’s brain showed significant damage has been caused by the bleed. It will affect the left side of his body. Even if he regains consciousness, he probably won’t walk again.’

If I’d thought Harry’s face was grim before, it was nothing compared to what it was now. Rosella, however, kept patting. It was probably for the best that she didn’t know the real situation, this way she wouldn’t have to worry unless it became a reality.

And the reality was not pretty. Jim was either going to die, or be disabled.

It was when I came back from getting the third round of coffee that Harry said what I’d been thinking.

‘I hope he dies.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I didn’t have to feel so guilty.

‘He’d hate to be like that. Stuck in a wheelchair, unable to look after himself. It would be the end of him.’

Shame flooded me. Here I was thinking about how Jim’s being alive would affect our lives, and Harry was only thinking of Jim.

We made it through the night without any alarms going off. All of us were sore and stiff after a night of dozing in the uncomfortable hospital chairs, but I know we were all glad we had done it when Jim’s eyelids fluttered and then he opened his eyes.

‘Harry.’ The word was slurred to the point of almost being unrecognisable.

‘I’m here Dad.’ Harry moved to sit on the edge of the bed opposite where Rosella was. They each held one of Jim’s hands.

‘Tess.’

‘I’m here too.’ There were no hands left for me to hold so I stood by the foot of the bed.

‘Rosella is here as well, Dad.’

‘That’s good.’ The words came out sounding more like, ‘Thash goosh.’

‘Everything is going to be fine, Dad,’ Harry said.

Jolly Jim shook his head. Well I’m guessing he tried to shake it. It wobbled a little to the right. Rosella started patting his hand faster than she had before.

I thought perhaps the doctor should know that Jim had woken up. I rubbed Harry on the back and murmured in his ear where I was going. I told one of the nurses at the station that Jim was talking to us. If the look on her face was anything to go on, that news was unexpected.

‘He’s just doing his rounds,’ she said when she hung up the phone. ‘But he’ll come as fast as he can. ‘

True to his word, Dr Roberts turned up within five minutes. ‘Mr Milano,’ he said, ‘it’s nice to meet you.’ He pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and started examining Jim.

‘I’m going to find a payphone,’ I said to Harry. ‘I want to let Liss know what’s happening.’

He nodded his head but didn’t take his eyes off the doctor.

I found a payphone down the end of the hall near the coffee machine. I put a quarter into it and dialled Liss’s phone number, praying that she would pick up.

‘Did you tell him?’ she said when she realised it was me.

‘I didn’t get a chance. Jim had a massive stroke last night.’ I sighed and rested my forehead against the phone. ‘I think he’s paralysed. Well at least one side of him anyway.’

She was silent for a few moments before saying, ‘This is going to affect your plan, isn’t it?’

‘We can’t go anywhere at the moment. Besides, I haven’t got my passport yet.’

‘You can’t afford to leave it too long.’

‘Harry and Jim think that if the bodies aren’t identified there will be no repercussions.’ I looked nervously over my shoulder to see if anybody was within hearing distance.

‘The Sicilians aren’t idiots,’ Liss said. ‘When their boys don’t come home they’re going to come looking for answers.’

That made far more sense to me than what Jim had said.

‘We can’t do anything at the moment,’ I said. ‘Besides,’ I leant closer to the phone receiver and whispered, ‘now is not a good time to let Harry know he’s going to be a daddy.’

I heard Liss sigh. ‘You’re right about that,’ she said.

Dr Roberts had left by the time I got back to the room. Rosella and Harry were back in their seats.

Harry held his finger to his lips when he saw me. ‘Shhhhh. He’s sleeping.’

It made me wonder what the difference between being unconscious and sleeping was.

The rest of the day continued the same. Jolly Jim would wake for a few minutes at a time, try to talk, and then fall asleep again. It wasn’t until the doctor assured us that Jim was out of the woods that Harry let me convince him to come home. We grabbed some uninterrupted sleep, showered, ate and then headed back to the hospital.

Rosella was exactly where we’d left her. She looked shattered.

‘Give me the car keys,’ I said to Harry. ‘I’m going to take Rosella home.’

It took us a few minutes to convince her to go with me, but eventually she let me lead her from the room. She was silent the whole way. Not that I could have understood her anyway, but I was used to her chattering away. I think she had finally begun to realise the seriousness of Jim’s condition.

I had wanted to leave her at her house for a few hours to get some sleep, but when Harry had suggested that, she had flat out refused. So I sat in her little kitchen watching as she bustled around preparing a light meal and tea. As soon as she had finished eating, she showered and changed. The whole thing took less than an hour. She packed her knitting into her handbag and I followed her back out to the car.

When we got back to the hospital, she fluttered over Jim like a mother hen over a chick, until she was sure he had gotten no worse while she was gone.

Then she pulled out her knitting, holding the piece she was working on over Jim’s arm. It was a sleeve for a sweater. She was knitting him a sweater and he would probably never even know about it. For the first time I began to pray that he would get better.

***

We were at home the next day when Lou the Brain knocked on the front door. He was one of the only of Jim’s men who hadn’t started coming to our house when Jim had been in hospital, so finding him on my doorstep gave me quite a shock.

‘Tell me it’s not true.’ His face was pale and his hands were trembling.

‘Harry’s down there.’ I pointed toward our living room, stepping out of the way as he pushed past me through the door.

‘Please Harry,’ Lou grabbed on to Harry’s shoulders and shook him, ‘tell me it’s not true. Tell me he’s not dead.’

‘He’s not dead,’ Harry asked.

‘Thank God.’ Lou slumped into the chair next to Harry.

‘What’s this about?’ Harry said.

‘We found Paddy and Johnny,’ Lou said.

‘Dead?’ Harry said. We hadn’t even known Paddy and Johnny were missing. The last 48 hours had been totally devoted to Jim.

‘Bullets to the head.’

‘Execution style?’

‘They were holding their weapons.’ Lou pulled out a packet of cigarettes, took one out and put it to his lips.

‘Don’t even think about it,’ I said.
Nobody
was allowed to smoke in my house, but
especially
not him.

He sighed and returned it to the packet.

Harry’s mouth had a ghost of a smile playing around it. It was nice to see after the last two days. ‘Not an execution.’ He sat back in his chair and, linking his fingers, placed his hands behind his head. ‘So somebody who knew them.’

‘Had to be that Giuseppe.’ Lou’s hands trembled as he pushed his hair out of his eyes. He had good cause. I knew if
I
had been torturing people to find out the whereabouts of the missing money, he’d have been right at the top of my list. He was the book keeper responsible for its safe keeping.

‘Not Giuseppe’s style.’ Harry’s eyes flicked to mine as he said it. ‘We think it may be an attempt to start a gang war.’

‘This has got to end.’ Lou’s hand touched his chest. ‘I don’t know how much more of it I can take. ‘When’s your Dad coming home?’

‘Lou,’ Harry paused before continuing. ‘We’re not sure.’ I was sure he had been going to say something else. Something worse.

‘But…,’ Lou’s mouth moved soundlessly for a couple more beats and fear took up residence in his eyes. ‘He
has
to come home.’ A desperate man’s words.

‘He’s had a major stroke. Even if he comes home he won’t be running the show any more.’

Lou stood and began to pace the carpet. ‘If JJ don’t come home, I’m a dead man. A dead man, you hear?’ His voice raised and his face went red and suddenly I was staring at the Lou the Brain of old. This was the man who had battered my mother and made my childhood a nightmare.

I gasped and moved to the other side of the table, putting it between him and me.

Harry reached out and grabbed my hand. ‘I think it’s time for you to go.’ He pointed toward the door just in case Lou missed the message.

‘I’ll go when I’m good and damned-well ready.’

I cowered against the far wall as he yelled. No longer a grown woman, just a child again. Gibbering terror bubbled up, but before it could consume me, Harry was there. For every speckle of fright I had, he had anger.

He grabbed Lou and shoved him back, forcing him to the hallway. ‘Get… out… now.’ The words were forced out between clenched teeth.

Lou shoved back, his face contorted with anger. A vein bulged on his forehead, pulsing wildly. ‘Don’t you tell me what to do. You’re not my boss.’

‘I may not be your boss, but this is my house. And in this house what I say goes.’ Harry accentuated his words with shoves to Lou’s chest.

Lou clenched his fist and for a second I thought he was going to attack. But then he uncurled his fingers and stalked off towards the front door. ‘You’re not worth it,’ he yelled over his shoulder.

‘You okay?’ Harry pulled me into his arms.

‘I may have over-reacted.’

‘Is that what it was like when you were growing up?’

I nodded. ‘Thankfully.’

He spun me around to face him and peered into my eyes. ‘Thankfully?’

‘Well if it hadn’t been like that I wouldn’t have left home and moved into Liss’s. And if I hadn’t done that, I may never have met you.’ I smiled up at him.

‘You’re right.’ He touched me on the tip of my nose. ‘We’ll have to name our first-born child after him.’

It was the perfect opening to tell him, but I paused for a second too long. He looked at his watch and said, ‘Got to get back to the hospital. Dad will be wondering where we are.’