Center Guy was demanding the drugs again. “Where are they?” He had started to sweat. He pointed the gun at Kelly’s head. “Where the fuck are they, Kelly?” When he didn’t get a response, the gun moved and trained on me. “You have two seconds, or you’ll be cleaning up your wife’s brains from the street you love so much. One.”
Kelly made a subtle move, one where either way he was getting the bullet, but on Center Guy’s count of two, Maureen swung the garbage bag with all her might, and it connected with his head in a sickeningthunk!She must’ve filled it with rocks or something. The crack seemed to echo before all hell broke loose.
Kelly shoved me to the ground. He swept up the gun that Center Guy lost after he went down and shot Guy One point-blank in the head. Guy Two shot Kelly in the shoulder, but a second later, Kelly made two more head shots—one for Guy Two and one for the guy who got whacked by Maureen.
I’d never seen anyone move like that, so quick that it was hard to keep up.Bang. Bang. Bang.All three men were laid out on the concrete, blood spreading on the cement.
Kelly stood for a second, his breathing normal, but his eyes were so dangerous that it sent a spike of fear up my chest. It was the kind of look an animal got while hunting. The pulse in his neck was frantic, but it looked like it belonged to the tiger.
I lay on the concrete, my palms and knees burning from the fall. My elbow was bleeding. My ears were ringing. The scent of blood and gunpowder filled the night air.
Kelly seemed to snap out of his thoughts when Maureen picked up the trash bag. He held out his hand. “I’ll take it,” he said.
She handed it to him without a word. Then she nodded to me. “Come with me, Keely.”
Kelly leaned down to help me up, but I slapped at him. “Don’t touch me,” I hissed.
His eyes narrowed before he looked at Guy Two and then back at me. The guy who told me the truth about what Kelly’s business was all about.
I stood on my own and walked next to Maureen as we made our way back to the house. A few steps away, another gunshot blasted through the air, and I turned, afraid that one of the three guys had gotten up and took his revenge on Kelly. But it was Kelly who held the gun. He had put another bullet hole in Guy Two. Right in his heart.
20
Cash
“Ah,” I cleared my throat to speak, but only thoughts came.It’s been however long since my last confession, and after my wife walked out of our place to fly to Italy for her friend’s wedding, I’m an animal in a cage who can’t stop pacing. This cage feels worse than prison.
That was not the reason I came to church, but it was the only words that seemed to keep circulating in my head. Instead of trying again, I stepped out of the confessional.
Father Flanagan stepped out a minute later. “What’s the trouble?”
“I’ve come to a point. This.” I waved a hand around, the necklace dangling in its grip swinging like a pendulum. “Is pointless. What I’m about to do has been known before I even knew I was going to do it.”
“From my understanding, that was neverthepoint of you coming here.” He pursed his lips at me and then they opened with a pop. “How many times does one man have to repeat himself, Cashel Fallon Kelly? If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a million times. Perhaps our actions are known before, but that doesn’t mean they’re written in stone. We can change our minds. We can have a change of heart. We all have the right to change our courses while we’re here, so we don’t have to answer for them after we’re gone.”
I paced up and down the aisle, my grip on the chain even tighter. I’d given her a metal heart because it was stronger than a real one. A prosthetic replacement for what couldn’t be developed in the natural sense.
“My wife left me,” I said. She packed up her things and took them to a different room. The next day, after she left for Italy, I found the necklace I’d given her on my pillow.
He was quiet for so long that I stopped moving. We faced each other.
“Ah,” he said. “Your discord comes from marital strife.”
“There can be no marital strife if only one married person is left.”
“Did she leave for good? Or did she leave for her friend’s wedding in Italy? Which I believe, if gossip in this community serves me right, you were supposed to attend with her.”
“Plans change,” I said. “Still doesn’t make it right that she believed the words from another man’s mouth over my actions.”
“Actions,” he repeated, like he was thinking over the meaning of the word. “Does she even know why you fight as hard as you do?” He held a hand up. “She knows who you are,Marauder, but does she know the plight Ronan Kelly left to you? And why you took it up so fiercely? She sees a community that looks up to Cash Kelly, but no reason behind it. By all means you’ve done some senseless things in your life, things I’d rather not discuss out in the open. No rhymeorreason to them. But the one thing that feels like your salvation, you haven’t shared with her.”
“There was no rhyme or reason for you to not tell me my mother wasn’t dead.”
Seconds passed. He opened and closed his mouth. He shook his head. “She did. In Ireland. What are you talking about?”
“Scott Stone delivered the news.”
“He’s a liar, and I’ll say it right here.” He stomped his foot. “Your father told me.”
