We ushered Earl inside. Thunder shook the house
walls and rain steadily drummed on the roof.
“Still like Earl Grey tea?” I asked as I set
down three cups. It was some inside joke Graycen and Earl had. Something about
their names, I didn’t really get it.
“Thank you,” he said. He wrapped his hands
around the mug. There was art to tea which I hadn’t quite perfected yet, but
the cop drank it all the same.
Chantel materialized from some dark corner.
“Who’s this?”
“Where’s Ella?” I asked.
“At her friends for the night,” Chantel said.
“Perfect,” I said.
Chantel took a seat and as Earl told her about
Hersch, Chantel’s red nails dug into the denim.
“He’ll come here,” she said.
Earl nodded. “Most likely.”
“Ella can’t know. She needs to be away from
here,” Chantel said.
I was glad the one thing we agreed on was
Ella’s future. Ella needed to be far away as possible. I didn’t want to send
her away but she couldn’t witness this type of violence again.
“Felix busted Hersh out for a reason. He’s
coming for you, Daniel. Hersh will probably come for you, Chantel.”
“Not if we get to them first,” Graycen said.
Earl glared at his son. “I can call in police
protection. You are not going rogue.”
“Why not? Dad, you know how they are,” Graycen
said.
Chantel’s
hand curled into a fist. “I want Hersch to pay.”
Earl looked at the two of us. Broken and
reforged, we were looking for revenge and closure. We wanted to end this toxic
and dysfunctional relationship. Of course, it wasn’t going to be easy. This was
going to end in violence. We were born, bred, and raised in blood. Our bodies
were houses for bruises and verbal abuse. Chantel’s tongue ran across her lips
as if she could taste how sweet completing her revenge would be. Chantel was a
very different woman now. She sharpened herself. The news always blared on the
T.V. and at night her face was stuck in a book. She displayed her knife skills
openly in the kitchen. She was not the same woman I held an umbrella over while
she sobbed in the rain.
Chantel was going to kill Hersch. I knew it. My
dad wasn’t going to kill me. But maybe, just maybe, I could work up the courage
to kill him. I gulped down the ice-cold tea and almost spit it out. I had too
many problems. I wanted to hide and not be found.
“And we definitely need to hide Ella,” Chantel
said.
“Ella
can stay with my dad, if that’s alright,” Graycen said.
I actually agreed. I had never really liked
Earl but he was useful.
“So, what’s our plan?” Graycen asked.
“I’ll go to my dad,” I said. The words were out
my mouth before I had a chance to even think about it.
“And do what?” Graycen asked.
My lips sealed shut.
“Exactly. You are not going alone to him. We
are going to tell him not to meddle with your life anymore,” Graycen said.
I felt a warm tingling sensation like I got
from Ella. Was it happiness? Or love? Hearing him say those words filled the
void within me. We would be together.
“Chantel, I will be
waiting outside with a team. Hersh will come here and you will not be alone,”
Earl said.
She nodded. Her nails tapped the side of her
leg. Whether she was impatient to kill or nervous about seeing her ex-husband,
I didn’t know.
A week passed. I watched the trains and smoked
an entire pack of cigarettes. Ella was at Earl’s house. It was Monday night.
Graycen and I drove down to my childhood home. Dad was practicing martial arts
in the basement. It was set-up like a gym, complete with weights, a wooden
training dummy, and a punching bag. The smell of chalk, sweat, and wood slapped
me. The iron-tang of blood seeped from the corners of the room. I was reminded
of the days when dad and I would practice down here. He and I would wrap our
hands in cloth. We would spar and sometimes his fists would find my ribs.
Cracked bones were a common occurrence. I would strain lifting weights and
moving the equipment. This basement held a lot of pain and grit and
disappointment.
Dad’s eyes met mine and crinkled in the corners
as he smiled. “Hey Daniel.”
“Hey,” I said.
“What brings you here?” he asked.
“You. What do you want? I did your dirty work by
getting rid Ricky. I’m done. I came here tonight to tell you to stop meddling
with my life,” I said. I was sure I sounded even more scared than I felt.
Dad stepped forward and before Graycen could
draw his gun, my friend hit the wooden floor. He was unconscious. Dad stepped
into my personal space. His breath reeked of alcohol and his eyes were glazed.
I was fucked. Even slowed down by the alcohol, my dad was still stronger than
me. He grabbed me by the collar. My breath seized in my lungs. Rotating images
of fists, neon bar signs and slow-motion rain spun in my mind.
“Why? Why did you break Hersch out of prison?”
I asked.
“Most of the White Cobras are Ella’s family.
You’ll never guess who their original leader was,” dad said.
“Hersh Waters? The pot belly drunk?” I asked.
“He wasn’t always a lazy-ass idiot. A good
twenty years ago, he created the White Cobras. Then, a
few years later, his slime-ball brother Ricky took it over. Hersh and I
used to be friends back in the day. I figured I owed him one since he kept me
out of trouble.”
Small pieces of my childhood clicked together.
“Is that how you always avoided being arrested? I thought you bribed the cops.”
Dad smiled. “What can I say? Everyone loves me.”
I didn’t even have the words to describe what a
jackass I thought my dad was. There was no way he would ever be out of my life.
I didn’t know why I thought I could face him.
“Anyways, thanks for stopping by. We should
grab dinner sometime.”
“Dad, I mean it. I have to protect Ella. I
can’t be your errand boy anymore,” I said.
He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Come for
dinner sometime.”
I watched as he walked away.