I don’t know what’s got their backs up, but they’re barking orders at us, and Ari and I fall in line. The garage is quiet. No sound of footsteps or other vehicles. All the same, the hair on the back on my neck goes pin straight. Ari lengthens his stride until he’s a half-step in front of me, putting himself between me and whatever we all sense is about to come at us. It’s a big brother move he can’t help but make, no matter the current tension between us.
Johnny is at the front of our group, several steps in the lead as he remotely unlocks the car. Senses hyper-alert, I register that the first click doesn’t do anything.
Johnny picks up speed, jogging toward the car as he tries the remote a second time. There’s a click, the headlights flash, and everything looks normal. Except, I know it isn’t.
I have a split-second to move, grabbing my best friend bythe collar and yanking hard right before Ari blocks me with his body. We move fast, but not fast enough.
The garage shakes and the overhead lights shatter as my car explodes, a ball of fire and fumes that sends all four of us flying backward, the world blacking out before I even hit the ground.
26
LENA
“What’s happened?” I’m trying so hard not to panic but my mouth has gone sour, my stomach churning at the thought that something’s happened to Rem. “Where are they? Are they okay?”
“I-I don’t know,” Bianca cries. “Bruce, he came back, covered in blood…I can’t understand what he’s saying, Lena. None of it makes sense.”
“Bia. Bia, try to take a deep breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth. You’ve got to catch your breath before you faint. The baby, Bia…”
I hear another wrenching sob then a deep inhale as Bianca pulls herself together.
“Sorry, I’m just?—”
“Don’t apologize. There’s nothing to apologize for. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“The guys left this morning. Johnny didn’t tell me where they were going or who they were meeting, but that’s normal. He keeps me out of the day-to-day Family business as much as possible. I didn’t think anything of it until he didn’t show up for our doctor’s appointment. He doesn’t miss those.”
Bianca takes a shaky breath, continues, “He wasn’t answering his phone. I didn’t dare call Rem, he’s been in such a foul mood the past few days. So, I called Bruce. He didn’t answer either. So, I’ve been screwing up every recipe I’ve started for the past two hours, trying and failing to keep myself distracted, until Bruce walked in?—”
Bianca cuts herself off. What sounds like muffled sobs comes through the line. “I’m so worried, Lena. Bruce is torn up, cuts and blood everywhere. He says he’s fine, but he won’t tell me anything else. Won’t tell me what happened or where they were or anything. He just keeps saying that Rem and Johnny are okay, but he won’t tell me where they are. And he won’t let me leave the fucking house!” Bianca’s voice is pitched high, panic amplifying every word. “What if something’s happened to them? What if Johnny is dying somewhere and I don’t get to see him again? What if he never gets to meet our baby, what if….”
I silence a cry with my hand, curling in on myself as a scream builds in the back of my throat. Bianca doesn’t need to hear me fall apart on top of everything else. It takes a second to make my voice work. When I speak everything comes out gravelly. “He’s going to be fine, Bianca. Johnny and Rem are going to be fine. Bruce wouldn’t keep you in the dark if Johnny was seriously hurt. He’d tell you if Johnny was dying.”
Wouldn’t he? Bruce wouldn’t keep Bianca away from her dying husband just because he was ordered to, would he?
“I’m going insane, Lena,” Bianca says. “I can’t stay here, doing nothing, not knowing where he is or how badly he’s hurt. I just can’t.”
The same urgency is crawling through me. I grip the nearby table, trying to anchor myself to something so I don’t collapse. “I know, Bia. I get it. You can’t do nothing. So, talk to me. I’ll stay on the phone as long as you need. Tell me...tell me…” I flounder, not knowing what to say. She needs a distraction, we both do. “Tell me how you met.”
After a beat of silence Bianca says, “What?” She sounds confused, which is better than broken.
“You and Johnny. Tell me how you met. Tell me what you love about him, and what he does that drives you nuts. Just keep talking. We’ll get through this together, Bia. You and me.”
Her inhale is shaky but after a moment Bianca starts to talk. I’m only half listening, my brain trying to keep up with her as fear runs roughshod over me. I interject the occasionalhmmandoh, letting Bianca know I’m still here, still with her, but I can’t stop the tears from falling, or calm the dread that’s making it hard to breathe. All while the same unforgiving question hammers into the back of my brain.What has happened to Rem?
I can’t process it, can’t absorb the possibility that he’s hurt, or worse. Can’t comprehend that even now he could be injured somewhere and I have no way of getting to him, no way of helping. No way of even knowing, because right now the penthouse is quiet, no one rushing in to give me any news about my husband.
“So, he was…” Bianca stops her story mid-sentence, her voice cutting out without warning. “Oddio.”
“Bianca?” Nothing. “Bianca,” I repeat, louder.
I hear Bianca cry, the sound of male voices in the background. My vision goes white, a detached calm falling over me as I brace myself for impact.
I’ve done this before.
I’ve been told that someone I love is dead. With Aunt Mable, I watched it happen before my own eyes. But even as I wait, body numb, for Bianca to whisper those awful words, I feel a part of myself that’s never existed before, a place deep in my soul that has only just come to life, cry out in anguish. Because if Rem dies, that part of me will too.
“Lena.”
