Revengeful Deceptions

I'd like to dedicate this book to
my daughters, Samantha and Jacqueline, the countless number of friends who
listened, advised, read and put up with all of my ever changing ideas. My earth
sister, Julie. We share more than the same birthday. Thank you to each and
every one of you for listening and simply being there for me.

 Chapter One

Brandon Caruso and his henchman
Nick Kilarmo took a couple hits of coke and helped it down with a few swigs of
vodka.

“Don’t want to fall asleep during
the long ride home,” he snorted, as he spoke to the low-level drug dealers to
who he had just handed over a kilo of cocaine.

One of them let out a small chuckle
before replying,

“Yeah, I heard that man. Come on
let’s do this.”

Smacking his partner on the back,
they walked over to the trunk.

“Go ahead and open it, but do it
slowly,” Brandon threatened and gave Nick a nod. Nick wasn’t worried at all; he
knew his nine millimeter was well within reach should anything go wrong.

“It’s all there,” the dealer told
Brandon as he handed him the black bag filled with fifty and one hundred dollar
bills totaling forty five thousand dollars.

“Oh I have no doubt that it is
gentleman, but I’m still going to count it.”

Twenty-five minutes later Brandon
zipped the bag of money closed, and gave Nick the Okay.

“Well gentleman that concludes our
business for tonight, if there’s nothing else, we’ll be

on
our way
back to Boston and we’ll see you’s next month. As the small time dealers drove
off with the kilo of cocaine, they had no way of knowing that in a matter of
hours they would be pulled over and arrested for drug possession.

After handing the bag to Nick to
put in the backseat of the Escalade, Brandon got behind the wheel and with Nick
sitting on the passenger side, started the drive back home.

Chapter Two

It was almost midnight when the
telephone rang at the Greenway residence. Both Stephen and Dominique were
stirred from their deep sleep. Stephen Greenway thought he was still dreaming
when he reached for the phone. Sleep still dominated his voice when he
answered.

Stephen cleared his throat,
“Hello?”

“Stephen? It’s me Beth, Conner’s
mom? I’m so sorry to bother you.”

Stephen nudged his wife Dominique
awake as he sat up fully alert now.

“Yes of course, what is it Beth?
Everything Okay with Teddy?” He asked, concern filling his voice. He had only
dropped him off at Conner’s house about six hours earlier for his first Cub
Scout sleep over.

“What is it?”  Dominique who
now was also fully awake asked.

“Yes everything is fine Stephen but
I’m afraid that Teddy has had a terrible nightmare and try as we may, there is
just no soothing him. Now normally I wouldn’t have called but he’s terribly
upset and he’s beginning to frighten some of the other boys. I feel terrible
for asking this but would you mind coming to pick him up?  I know it’s
late. John was going to do it but Teddy just absolutely refuses to have anyone
drive him home, he wants you to come and pick him up. Would you mind?”

“Of course not Beth, just tell him
to sit tight and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Hanging up the phone, Stephen
climbed out of bed while explaining to Dominique that he had to go pick up
their son, because he had a nightmare and wanted to come home. Stephen didn’t
mind taking the late night drive to pick up their son, he had missed him the
moment he dropped him off at Conner’s house.

“It will be good for him,” his wife
had told him. At the time, he agreed but missed him none the less and was already
heading out the door when his wife called out to him.

“You forgetting something babe?”
She said lying sleepily in bed.

“Sorry,” said Stephen as he kissed
his wife goodbye. He smiled as he remembered their small pact. Whenever one of
them leaves the other they must always remember to kiss one another good bye.
Even if they were angry with each other or had a fight. Their anger and fights
were few and rare as the moment they did kiss, all seemed forgotten.

“You better get your rest while I’m
gone,” grinned Stephen, “because when I get back, I’m going to keep you up for
the rest of the night.”

“Now that is something I will
definitely be looking forward to babe, hurry back, love you!” She yelled after
him as he closed the door.

“Love you too.” She heard, though
the door muffled the sound.

As Brandon headed towards U.S.
Route 101, the car swerved.

“Hey watch where the hell you’re
going!” Nick shouted as he tried to steady the hand holding the small vial of
coke.

“I’m watching, I’m watching. There
ain’t
nothing
around here anyway, what are you worried
about?” Brandon said while holding out his hand to await the vial.

“There may not be people or cars
out but they got a shit load of animals around here man, so watch out.”

 
“Oh yeah like what? Asshole, we’re in New
Hampshire, not fuckin' Maine!”

“Maine, New Hampshire, it don’t
matter man they run out in the road and before you know it, BAM! There goes the
car, and I don’t know about you man but I don’t want to get stuck out here in
the middle of nowhere so keep your damn eyes on the road.”

“Whatever you say boss, now give me
another hit.”

“Thank you so much for coming out
to pick up Teddy Stephen,” said Beth wrapped up tight in her red flannel robe,
tired eyes matching the color.

“Oh it’s no problem, I’m glad you
called.”

As seven year old Teddy walked up
behind Beth, his father couldn’t help but smile when he saw that his son
already had his shoes on and tied, coat zipped and his favorite ninja turtles
backpack strapped onto his back.

“You ready to go buddy?” Stephen
asked, reaching out to take his son’s hand.

“I hope you feel better Teddy,”
Beth said while she watched them walk to the car.

Teddy turned and gave a weary smile
and wave to Beth as he climbed into the back seat.

“That’s it buddy, climb in back,
buckle up and let’s get you home to bed.”

“But I’m not tired anymore dad.”

“You will be by the time we get
home son, and it’s straight to bed, hey you think we can convince mom to make
pancakes in the morning?”

“We should ask her tonight!” His
son exclaimed, eyes bright as if it were twelve thirty in the afternoon.

Stephen chuckled at the thought of
Dominique making pancakes at almost one o’clock in the morning. But he had no
doubt that if Teddy put on his “pretty please” face that she would happily get
out of bed and do just that.

By the time Stephen put his mustang
into drive and glanced behind him, he saw that Teddy was already nodding off. A
light drizzle had begun to fall and as he made his way onto route 101 towards
home he was careful not to drive too fast as the ‘66 mustang did not handle
well in the rain or any slick weather for that matter.

Driving southbound on 101, Brandon
couldn’t wait to get back to Boston, back to civilization. He’d give the bag of
cash to DiNunzio, get his cut and head straight to the afterhours bar where
he’d do some more blow, and hopefully he’d get lucky and get blown himself.
That
won’t be hard
, he thought to himself.
I go in there flashing the cash
and the ladies will be drooling,
he smiled as he reached for the bottle of
ciroc vodka.

The rain had begun to fall more
steadily now as Stephen turned his wipers to “high” and slowed down even more.
I’ve
got some precious cargo in the car,
he thought to himself as he neared the
exit.

Brandon sped up as the anticipation
of the fun he was going to have at the bar was making him even more anxious to
get back.

“Hey let me get another hit,” he
said to Nick, “I’m starting to come down.” As Nick held the vial out for him,
Brandon took his eyes off the road for a moment, turned and bent his head down
to take the hit up his nostrils.

Stephen glanced into the rear view
mirror and smiled when he saw his son Teddy sleeping. In the seconds it took
him to return his eyes to the road, it was too late. The Escalade veered
towards the small mustang at such a high rate of speed that Stephen was unable
to avoid it completely and made a swift, sharp turn towards the right. He had
turned the steering wheel so hard, that it caused the mustang to take a turn
into a ditch.

Stephen yelled out his son's name
while the sound of crunching metal, glass shattering, and the thunderous impact
of the car flipping over and striking a tree was ear splitting. The car hit the
tree so hard that it bent around the front end, forming a “V” shape. 
Smoke and fumes hissed from the undercarriage as Stephen, lie dying, choking on
his own blood. It was impossible for him to move, the pain had stopped and for
a moment Stephen saw everything around him with such clarity that he thought he
was dreaming, his mind flashed back to hours earlier. 
You better get
your rest Dominique, because when I get home... I love you Stephen, I love you
too babe.
His son Teddy broke through his thoughts.
Daddy it's time for
us to go home, grandma is here and she says that it's time for the both of us
to go be with her and granddad. Come on daddy, daddy can you feel the light?
It's so warm daddy.

While images of his wife and son
soared through Stephen's mind, Brandon and Nick sat stunned. “What the fuck was
that?” Nick yelled, as he got out inspecting the front end damage to the
Escalade.

Trying to shake the daze and fog
from his “high” out of his head, Brandon walked across the road. He stopped
when he saw them. For a moment he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him
and that someone had simply thrown their old dolls out of the window, but then
Nick screamed, and the sound made Brandon cringe as he looked several feet past
the mangled metal of what was once a car and saw the body of a child laying
perfectly still on the grass.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?”
screamed Nick as he began pacing back and
forth.
Even
though it was a cold October evening, he began to sweat.

Stammering, Brandon told Nick that
it wasn’t his fault and they should get the hell out of there before someone
drives by.

“Look, there’s nothing we can do
for them now,” he said as he stared at the lifeless body of a little boy. For
some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the little boy.

One last deep and painful moan came
from the direction of the car before all got quiet.

 
“What the fuck was that?” Nick cried, as he
turned towards the direction of the car.

“Brandon man someone is alive over
there, we gotta do something man, we can’t just leave him!”

“Shut up Nick! They're gone man,
and I gotta make a call.”

“You calling 911? “

“No, just shut the fuck up so I can
figure this out!”

Brandon walked on the side of the
road running his fingers through his hair worriedly as he waited for the person
on the other end to pick up.

Chapter Three

Dominique awoke with a start,
something startled her awake but she didn’t know what. Glancing at the time she
thought to herself,
they should be back by now, maybe they are and Stephen
is still in Teddy’s room getting him back to sleep
. As she got up and made
her way down the hallway she thought,
I bet Stephen fell asleep on Teddy’s
bed
. A smile crept across her face as she remembered what Stephen had said
about keeping her up for the rest of the night.
Yup, he’s asleep,
she
thought as she peered in the pitch black room. But something wasn’t right, she
knew that Stephen would never put Teddy to bed without putting the night light
on. A nauseous feeling grabbed hold of her as she gently laid her hand upon the
bed and found it empty and cold.

 
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do Nick,” said
Brandon after he returned his cell to his jacket pocket. Brandon was shaking
and wet as he grabbed Nick by the shoulders and guided him towards the body
that had stopped moaning a while ago.

“What the fuck do you mean
we
?” Asked Nick who had been chain smoking since the
accident and was now on his sixth cigarette.

“WE are going to get their driver’s
license, write down everything we can and get the fuck out of here, oh and we
need to get the plate number too.”

“And just why the fuck are we going
to do that? And who the hell were you on the phone with man?”

“Nick, it’s not a request, it’s an
order and don’t worry about who I was on the phone with, it’s none of your
business! Now go back to the Escalade and find a pen, the quicker we do this,
the quicker we can get the fuck out of here!”

Brandon swallowed hard as he neared
the body. He could tell that it was a man and somehow that made him feel
better.  He was hoping that it wasn’t a woman that he killed.
It was an
accident
he told himself.
What the hell were they doing out so late
anyway? Jesus fucking Christ man
. “I’m sorry buddy,” he whispered to
Stephen's dead body. Too scared to look into the eyes of his victim, Brandon
turned his own head, closed his eyes and reached into Stephens back pocket to
retrieve his wallet.

“Jesus Christ man, here, take your
fucking pen!”

Nick handed the pen to Brandon as
he lit another cigarette.

“Nick, write this shit down man, I
can’t do it by myself, Jesus!” Screamed Brandon, and with shaking hands he
removed Stephen's driver’s license from his wallet.

“FUCK!” Shouted Nick as he snatched
the pen back and fumbled for a piece of paper.

“Why don’t we just take the fucking
license man? It’s not like he’s gonna need it.”

“Hey have some respect asshole, the
police are going to need to identify the body, the guy’s wearing a wedding
ring, I’m sure somebody’s gonna be looking for him!”

“Yeah and the kid too. Jesus I
don’t want to be here man, can we please just get the fuck out of here?” Nick
almost cried as he turned his head away from little Teddy.

 
“In a minute, now start writing…. Name Stephen
Greenway, address…..”

Brandon couldn’t read fast enough
as his stomach had begun to churn.  He carefully wiped the driver’s
license clean before he slid it back into its sleeve and returned it to its
owner.

After taking down the plate number,
the two got back into the Escalade, but not before they took one last look
around, just to make sure they didn’t leave anything behind. They had finished
just in time too, as a car was headed their way.

It was now almost three thirty in
the morning and Dominique was wide awake. In one hand she held the house phone
and in the other, her cellular. Stephen was not answering his cell, nor was he
returning her frantic calls.
He’s driving,
she told herself,
he’s
driving and he won’t pick up if he’s driving
. In a panic, Dominique called
Beth. When a sleepy Beth told her that Stephen had picked up Teddy hours ago
she fell to her knees. She couldn't catch her breath. She gathered all the
strength she could and ran to Teddy’s room, she needed to be in Teddy’s room.
Dominique needed help; she quickly dialed the number of her and Stephen's
closest friends, Pam and Rob.

Once Pam was able to get out of her
what was going on, she told her that she and Rob were on the way and to not
move until they got there. Ten minutes later, Pam and Robert still dressed in
their pajamas, walked into the house. They found Dominique still sitting on
Teddy’s bed holding
herself
while rocking back and
forth. Before they could get any words out there was a knock at the door. “Oh
thank god! Dominique said as they rushed to the door.