HELEN JUMPED ME. Wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face next to my ear. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” she whispered. “Whatever you want, you got it. I owe you. I mean it. Whatever you need, I’m there for you.” Her tears wet my cheek and neck.
I stood there, not knowing what to do with my hands, and held them out away from the both of us. Marie shot daggers at me with her eyes. I said, “This is Stephanie’s aunt. She was the one who asked me to—”
Helen pulled away from me wiping her eyes with the heels of her hands, sniffling. “I’m so sorry. I’m acting like some kind of high schooler. I’m not normally like this, really.” She wiped her hands on her pants and offered one to Marie. “I’m Helen Hellinger. Your husband is a prince among men. Really, I mean it.”
That was all the attention Helen gave us. She hurried into the master bedroom to check on Stephanie.
Marie came over close, her expression still angry. It shifted to a smile as she went up on tiptoes to kiss me on the cheek. She whispered, “Just as long as he remembers he’s my prince.”
“Oh my God. Look at her leg,” Helen said from in the bedroom. She stormed out of the room, headed for the door to the suite. I grabbed on to her. She tried to shrug away. Marie jumped in to help and took hold of Helen’s arm.
Waldo barked.
“Let me go. I’m going back there and—”
“And what?” Marie said. “Your niece needs you here. What good will it do her if you go to prison? You’re the only one who cares about her.”
Helen froze. The scar on the side of her face stood out bold and white where the rest was red. Her chest moved in and out too fast.
She relaxed. Marie and I let her go. She calmed; her breathing evened out. “That’s why you did it without me, isn’t it?”
I shrugged.
“Not just a handsome prince but a smart one as well.”
Marie said, “You up for helping me? I need an extra pair of hands to get that wire off her leg.”
“My wife is a doctor.”
“Not a doctor, a physician’s assistant.”
“Whatever you need, just tell me what to do,” Helen said.
Marie put her arm around her. “Come on, then.”
I said, “I’m just going to lie down in here on the couch. Give a holler if you need something.”
I lay down, unable to sleep, the adrenaline like an obstinate genie who refused to go back into the bottle. The violence from the Cogswell rescue continued to play out in my head. Phantoms and apparitions flitted around in the ether behind my closed eyes. So many things could’ve gone wrong but didn’t. Someone was watching over little Stephanie. I closed my eyes. How did that work, exactly? The random fate of it. How did Stephanie catch a lucky card and Emily Mosley roll snake eyes?
I woke, twenty minutes, an hour, two hours later, to Waldo scratching at the suite door a moment before it burst open. In came Drago, large and intimidating.
He came right over to me. “Bad news, bro.”
I sat up rubbing sleep from my eyes. I’d been sleeping far too much lately. My body needed it and said to hell with my mind, which was supposed to be the one giving the orders.
“Give it to me,” I said.
“Word on the street, Ruby Two has your moms. Your moms went to Ruby Two, trying to help you out with your problem with Calvin Ivory. That’s the way I heard it.”
Helen and Marie came out of the master bedroom, Marie wiping her hand on a clean towel. “What’s going on, Karl?”
Karl spun, turning to put his back toward the wall.
I said, “A gangster by the name of Ruby Two has Bea.”
Marie shook her head. “When’s it going to end? I’m going home tomorrow, Bruno. With or without you.” She turned, went back into the bedroom, and closed the door. Trying hard to shut out the violent world that continued to pursue us.
“Who’s Bea?” Helen asked.
Drago said, “She’s Bruno’s moms.”
Helen looked from him to me. “She’s your mother and you call her Bea? You seem awful calm for just finding out a street gangster has your mother.”
“It’s a long story.” I turned to Drago. “What does Ruby Two want? She has to want something.”
“Two million. She says she wants her money back. The money you took. Did you take two million from her? That’s a lot of Benjamins, bro.”
I whispered, “Whitey.”
Helen came closer. “What?”
“When the Lexus crashed into that tree, I took off after Calvin Ivory. I yelled at Whitey to go after Ruby Two. The money from the kidnap payoff was probably in the trunk.”
Helen nodded. “So, he didn’t go after Ruby—he took the money and ran. Now Ruby wants her hard-earned cash back.”
“We have to find Whitey, and fast.”
Drago turned toward Helen. “I know a couple of places to look for that little shitweasel.”
The back of his football jersey was soaked in red from mid-back down to his waist. He’d been wearing a leather jacket when we hit the house on Cogswell.
“Hold it, big man.”
“No way are you going to keep me out of this one.” He knew I’d just seen his injury.
“Marie?” I said loud, but not a yell.
The door reopened. Out popped Marie. “What’s going on?”
Drago had spun around to face Marie so she couldn’t see. She looked from him to me. “What?”
“I have to go out again. Drago wants to go.”
“I’m okay with Waldo here,” she said. “Go ahead, just be back by tomorrow or you’re going to find this place empty.”
“Tell her, Drago, or I will.”
“What’s he talking about, Karl?”
“It’s not a problem, it’s just a scratch.”
“What?” Marie said, venturing out a little farther. “Karl, come here, show me.”
He dropped his head like a scolded child and turned around.
“Oh my God.” She hurried over and raised his shirt. He had tried to cover it with a poorly applied bandage, three Kotexes strapped down with duct tape, the whole rig now soaked through with blood. She gently pulled it off to reveal an ugly gash that sagged open. He didn’t just need stitches; he probably needed surgery. Wizard had tagged him good with that Bowie knife while I had searched for Stephanie.
Tears filled Marie’s eyes. “You’re not going anywhere, Karl. Go in the bedroom and lie on the bed on your stomach. Try not to move around too much. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Drago said, “I gotta go with Bruno.”
She raised her arm and pointed to the bedroom. He shuffled along, doing as he was told.
She turned to Helen. “I’m going to need your hands again to help me clean and close that wound.”
“I have to go with Bruno. He’s going to need help.”
Marie didn’t hesitate, just nodded.
From the open door to the bedroom, Drago said, “Take Waldo.” He spoke German to his faithful sidekick. Several long sentences.
Waldo listened, his eyes alive and anxious. I could’ve sworn that damn dog nodded. As if a dog could understand a string of orders like that. Who was Drago trying to kid? Not me, that was for sure. I wasn’t buying it.