The Gambler (13 page)

Gramps had said she was making waking noises, but the medicine had done its thing and she was still out. He didn’t want her waking up and finding him gone. That’s another reason he didn’t waste time with Bonata the fuck. “Shit; I didn’t see who all was in there, was old man Petridis one of them?”

“No boss he’s still on the loose it seems.”

He bet the wife knew where he was, and what about Minnelli and her sister, should he go after them? The search hadn’t shown any unknown devices in his house, so if she’d been spying she was doing it within the hours she worked with him.

Thank heavens he hadn’t spent too much time around her, or hadn’t been dumb enough to give into her subtle come-ons. If they’d thought he would spill shit after she’d fucked him blind
, they were sorely mistaken.

He never said two fucks to any of the women he’d screwed around with in the past. Never had too much interest in anything they had to say. With his little Jenna he wanted to listen to her voice all day and night.

He called the men at the beach and got the confirmation; next he called his guys on the warehouse and apartment where the rest of the almost fifty Bonata men had been congregating, probably strategizing on ways to catch his ass, murdering fucks.

He got the a
ll clear, his enemies were dust; her enemies were dust. He eyed the boxes of shit his boys had lugged on the plane behind him. He saw computers: laptops, files, and a whole assortment of shit that was meant to make him crazy figuring this shit out.

“Jameson
, tell Frankie we have a change of plans, we need to swing by the old place.” The man nodded as he made his way to the cockpit to warn the pilot before takeoff. Only Andros would think it was okay to change flight plans in the middle of a flight.

The man would have no patience for the FAA rules and shit that you’d normally have to adhere to. Besides
, the old place was Andros’s childhood home not far from where he lived now, and they had a lawn big enough to land.

It was c
oming onto dark now anyway so who gives a fuck? Frankie took the news in stride; he was accustomed to his boss’s mercurial ways, probably pulling a maneuver or some shit to outsmart an unfriendly.

He couldn’t be farther from the truth. Andros had already put the business of dispatching his enemies behind him. His only thought now was on seeing the smile on her face when he brought her her butterfly.

He smiled again and caught his men staring at him. “What the fuck?” Everyone suddenly found something else of importance to do.

Things sure were changing; their boss hadn’t pulled his berserker move
, as they like to call it. And they’d done a hit without destroying the entire place; progress.

Maybe this Jenna Petridis would be good for him after all, good for all of them. She’d probably just added a few years onto their life expectancy, because just a few short days ago with the way things were it had been a toss up.

It had been a while since he’d been back here, back to this place of darkness. He wondered now that he didn’t feel that sense of dread, of impending doom, as he walked through his old stomping ground. This place that had once held such joy and had, because of the evil of a few young men, become his worst nightmare.

It was here that he’d found her, broken and near death. Here that he’d left his heart. They’d come here so often before, to catch the butterflies that she seemed so obsessed with. She could sit for hours; just watching the things flit around from place to place, mesmerized by their antics.

He wasn’t surprised to find the old net where he’d left it, no one ever really came here; only him and the young innocent
, who saw no danger in the dank darkness of the woods, with its overhanging trees, that kept most of the sunlight out in certain spots.

It was a lot worn and there was some damage, but it was lying there in its hiding place
, as if he’d just left it the day before. He ignored the pain in his heart that came and went. He figured that would always be a part of him, until the day he died. But he noticed it wasn’t quite as harsh as it had been even a day before.

He knew just where to go to find them for her; he’d get just one or two for now
, until he could make a place for them. Shit he needed the cage; he’d have to find something around the house to keep them in for now. He wasn’t sure about letting them just fly around the room, they might escape, and who knew how she’d react to that.

Always he was thinking of her and how to shield and protect her from all life’s little fuck ups. If he could take the brunt of all that life had to throw at them, sparing her any and all of it, he would be more than happy to take on all comers.

With his task at an end, he was suddenly in a hurry to be away from this place. He missed her, he realized, as he headed back at a fast clip to the plane that had landed on his parents’ lawn.

He couldn’t wait to see her, to touch her. “Find something to put these in ‘til we reach the house.” He passed his precious offerings off to Garrett who looked around like ‘what the fuck am I supposed to do with this shit?’

Back at the house
, he took the stairs two at a time to get to her. Gramps was half asleep in a chair next to the bed, while Sue was in another, sewing or knitting, he couldn’t tell which since they had the lights turned down low. His eyes were only for her though, as she laid sleeping. “I thought you said she was up.”

“She was
, but she was hurting so the doc gave her something, it was too much listening to her fret from the pain and asking for you every other minute, poor thing was in a state.”

“What do you mean?” He felt his heart kick at the thought of her crying out for him in pain and he wasn’t here.

“I don’t know what happened, but after you called she became very over excited, kept calling for you and trying to run down the stairs…”

He walked to the bed quietly and sat next to her. “Thanks for taking care of her for me. Gramps you’re staying here until I’m sure this thing is all the way done.”

“Boy…”

“Gramps I’m tired, don’t give me any of your shit. You know where your room is. Sue I can have one of the guys run you home if you’d like, or you can stay here tonight if you’d like.”

“I’d like to stay here with our Jenna
, if you don’t mind.”

“You’re more than welcome to, thank you. You two can go get some rest now.”

He waited until the door closed behind them to kick off his shoes and lie down next to her. He’d changed his slacks and discarded his jacket on the plane, but he was sure there was still some blood somewhere that he needed to wash off. But first, he needed the comfort of her warmth after the night he’d had.

She seemed to settle as soon as his arms went around her
, but she didn’t awaken. He guessed that was for the best, if she was still having pain. He’d sent doc home when he came into the house, with instructions to come back in the morning.

For once the older man didn’t try telling him about prior engagements
, or his practice or whatever, just said sure and headed out.

When he was sure she wasn’t going to awaken
, he headed for the shower to wash away the day.

There was a knock at the door at first light and he looked down at her to make sure she hadn’t been disturbed
, before extricating himself from her. If that was someone come to tell him some shit had gone wrong, or they’d missed someone; he’d shoot the fuck.

It was Willie
, and he was carrying a cage with the two butterflies he’d caught her. “I found the cage in the conservatory sir, thought it might do for now.”

“Yeah thanks Willie, I need to talk to you about that a little later.”

“As you wish sir.”

He closed the door and looked around for the best place to put the cage
, so that she would see it as soon as she woke up. He finally decided on the table next to the bed on the side closest to her, before crawling back into bed with her.

It was early yet
, but he had to get a move on soon. There was going to be talk about the hits from last night and he had to make sure his name never came up in anyway shape or form.

She finally woke about an hour later, her eyes flying open to land on his. He didn’t even have to think about it as he lowered his head to take her lips. “Good morning beautiful Jenna.” She smiled wide at him and caressed his cheek.

“Angel.”

“Yes baby I’m here; look.” He turned her head so she could see what he’d brought her. She made a sound of excitement before trying to rush out of the bed.

“Easy baby.” He didn’t want her hurting her shoulder with her quick movements. She ignored him and went to stand over the cage, her eyes wide in wonder. He’d seen that look before, mesmerized.

“Pretty.” She looked at him then and she was so fucking amazingly beautiful
, he felt that shit in his gut and places south.

He let her play with her new friends for the next half hour before it was bath time.

“Come baby time for your bath.” She took her cage with her as she followed him into the bathroom.

“Angel stay.”

Shit, he’d planned to leave her so he could go see what the fuck was going on in his world. He was going to have to break her out of her habit of making him sit in there with her while she took her bath.

For two reasons, one, it was getting harder to see her naked body and not pounce, and two, he’d never get shit done if he started off everyday like this. He should’ve been gone hours ago.

Of course he did as she asked, and after setting up her bath and putting her in, he took his seat. The talking started right away. You’d think she’d talk about the shit that had went down the day before, about being shot or her conversation with the dead, but no.

She peppered him with questions about any and everything else. He was waiting for the dreaded ‘momma’ but she seemed too preoccupied with her butterflies. Thank fuck, because he still didn’t know what he was going to do about that situation.

After he’d coerced her out of the water, he took her downstairs and implanted her in the kitchen with Sue and Willie to have her breakfast.

They knew the deal and distracted her with questions about her butterflies
, while he made his escape with a cup of coffee. The guys were already starting to arrive, so he headed to his office with them following behind.

“The perimeter set up?”

“Yes boss, everyone’s at their post, I saw them changing over when I was driving up.” He still had twenty-four hour security around her for the time being, until the dust settled.

He wasn’t expecting any backlash
, but you can never be too careful; and besides, her dad was still out there and he didn’t know which side of the fence this guy was playing on.

“First order of business, what have you heard? Anything?” He turned to Jameson for an answer.

“The news already picked up the story; the whole Bonata family has been wiped out in one fell swoop, the FEDs are having a feeding frenzy.

There’s no word yet on who orchestrated the hit
, but they have a lot of nominees, the Bonatas had a lot of enemies. I think the FEDs are more interested in who’s gonna be taking over their territories. Talk about a cluster fuck.”

“Fuck I care, as long as they don’t come sniffing around me.” He had some other personal business to take care of, shit he’d been doing before this whole thing fell into his lap so he dealt with that nex
t. It was a good hour later before he got back to the shit that was on his plate now.

He went into his computer and pulled up the senator’s official page.

“I still don’t know who the fuck this is. Nothing on here gives me any indicators, and she doesn’t really have much of a personal presence online.”

Jus
t then Jenna traipsed into the room with her cage in one hand and her toy in the other. He gave his men a look to remind them to watch what they say in front of her. He didn’t want her scared or agitated in anyway.

“Angel what’s...?” She scrunched up her face in that way that meant she was trying hard to put something into words. “Fuck.”

“What the fuck…GRAMPS.” The old man came strolling into the room eating some kind of breakfast sandwich.

“Boy what’s all the yelling about?”

“Were you cussing in front of Jenna?”

“I was teaching her new words.” He grinned like the demented fuck that he was.

“You know what’s gonna happen now? She’s going to be saying that shit…fuck…” He cut himself off and glared at the old reprobate.

“What’s the big deal? She’s an adult she can say any fuck she wants.”

“Gramps I’ll put one in your kneecap swear to fuck.” Shit now he was doing it.

“I’m amazed
, as long as she’s been around the Bonatas that she doesn’t know it.”

That was true, and it got Andros to thinking how that came about. He’d heard her brother say it in front of her that night
, but there was probably too much going on then for her to pick up on it.

But as gramps had said, if she’d been around the Bonatas for any length of time she’d have picked up the word and more. From his experience
, she would be repeating the shit every chance she got once she knew it was forbidden. Hmm, it was something else to look into.