Chapter 47: Chapter Forty-Seven

June

Tears slowly tracked down Gloria’s cheeks as Nora drove her through the dark streets of New York toward the airport. She hadn’t told Nora about Frankie’s frantic visit to her apartment and his demanding her to stay put. It had taken everything in her to not react to him in a tux, his hair slicked back, roses in hand for her.

“Megan is a doll,” Nora interrupted her thoughts, misreading the reason for Gloria’s tears. She turned onto the highway and picked up speed. “The house is right on the beach. She’ll get you set up at a cafe down the street for work.”

“That’s great,” Gloria said, her voice small as she recalled the deadly determination in Frankie’s eyes. Would he come after her? Did he really not believe her lie that she never had any feelings for him?

“Jesus Christ,” Nora hissed, looking at the mirror on her left.

“What is it?” Gloria asked.

“Nothing, just some jackass in an SUV speeding and weaving through lanes,” Nora explained, her eyes facing forward again. “The nursing program at the local university is really good too. Maybe not as good as the ones up here but…” Nora shrugged.

“That’s okay. It’s better than the alternative,” Gloria said with a sigh, turning her head to look out the window at the passing cars. She wondered if Frankie had made it to the Royale. Was that why Sergei was in town? Maybe he was only here to sign another deal. Maybe he hadn’t found her. Maybe…

“Fuck!”

Nora’s arms locked against the steering wheel. The tires squealed as she slammed her foot down on the brakes. Gloria lurched forward but was caught by the seatbelt. The car stopped, the smell of rubber filled the air, horns honked, people yelled. Gloria looked up and saw the source of everyone’s confusion: a black SUV turned perpendicular to traffic.

“Are you okay?” Nora asked, touching Gloria’s arm.

“Yeah, what happened?”

“I don’t know. We need to stay in the car. I’ll…” Nora sighed, resigned. “I’ll call for help.”

As Nora pulled her phone out of her purse and opened the screen to do just that, the driver-side door of the SUV opened. Gloria stared through the windshield of Nora’s sedan as the driver walked into view. She should have gasped. She should have been surprised. Yet, somehow, she’d been expecting this to happen. He’d removed his jacket and the bowtie hung loose around his neck. The sleeves of his dress shirt had been pushed up, revealing the black-inked tattoos running along his skin. His hair was no longer slicked back. Instead, curls had sprung loose and danced across his forehead. His eyes, darker than the night surrounding them, pinned her back to her seat tighter than the seatbelt had. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He held it to his ear, still staring at her from across his car hood.

“Hey,” Nora began. “I know you’re busy with that thing tonight but some idiot…” Nora finally glanced up. Her mouth fell open in shock. “Frankie. What are you doing?”

He said something to her. Gloria wasn’t sure what. She couldn’t hear his voice through Nora’s phone. She only knew he’d spoken because she could see his lips moving. Nora glanced over to Gloria, her eyes wide and her face pale.

“No. No, Frankie. I’m putting her on a plane to Florida,” Nora told him, taking Gloria’s hand tightly in hers.

This time, Frankie didn’t respond. He ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket while shaking his head. He stalked around the hood of his car. Nora’s fingers tightened around Gloria’s hand.

“Don’t get out of the car, Gloria,” Nora warned her.

Outside of the car, Gloria could still hear people yelling and cursing. Horns blared and she could hear sirens in the distance. She noticed someone walk by her, a large man headed in Frankie’s direction. Frankie’s eyes didn’t leave hers. Instead, he raised a handgun she hadn’t noticed him holding and shot the man in the knee. The man fell to the ground and people started to scream for a different reason. Her breathing notched up to a dangerous degree as Frankie walked to the passenger side of Nora’s car. He raised the gun again and used it to tap the side of Gloria’s window.

“Don’t,” Nora warned.

Frankie braced his free hand against the roof of the sedan and lowered himself down. “Get out of the car, Gloria,” Frankie ordered, his voice harsh and demanding. She looked at Nora who shook her head. A large crack sounded on her window, making both women shriek. “Get. Out. Of. The. Car,” he repeated. Nora’s hand was tight enough to cut off blood circulation.

“I’ll call Leo,” Nora said quickly, letting go of Gloria’s hand to reach for her phone that had fallen into the floor.

Gloria watched her protector fumble for her phone. A second shot rang out and glass shattered, blowing inward. Gloria covered her head with her hands and leaned as far away from the window as possible. Frankie’s hand snaked in and unlocked the door. He opened it and the same hand reached in and grabbed her arm. He tried to pull her out only to be hindered by her seatbelt.

“Frankie! Stop! What the fuck!? You’re scaring us!” Nora screamed.

A knife appeared and, undeterred by Nora’s words, he cut through the seatbelt with one harsh tug. He finally succeeded in pulling Gloria from the car. She stumbled over her feet as he dragged her toward his SUV without a word. She looked around at everyone ducking behind their cars, terrified of the unhinged man dragging a woman across a three-lane highway. She noticed Nora getting out of the car.

“Frankie, what are you doing?!” Nora yelled, running to catch up to him.

“She’s not safe,” Frankie said, his voice even but firm.

“I know, that’s why I’m taking her to…”

“She’s not safe there either,” Frankie interrupted.

“Well, then where is she safe?” Nora asked, exasperated as she tried to negotiate a hostage situation.

“With me.” They were at the SUV now and Frankie pulled open the passenger door. He roughly deposited Gloria into the seat. “Make sure she stays put, Stephen,” Frankie ordered. That’s when Gloria noticed the man who had dropped him off the night he was badly beaten sitting in the back seat.

“Sure thing,” Stephen said, racking his own handgun and pointing it at her. Gloria gasped and reached for Frankie, grabbing him by his shirt.

“Not like that, you fucking imbecile,” Frankie said with a sigh.

“Steve? Is that you?” Nora asked, trying to see around Frankie.

“Hey, Nora!” Stephen yelled.

Frankie pried Gloria’s hand from his shirt and slammed the door shut. Nora and Frankie’s voices were muffled as they spoke just outside. The windows must have been bullet-proof, preventing her from making out their exact words. Nora reached for the door handle but just before she could open it, Frankie raised the key fob and locked it. Nora stomped her foot. Frankie placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed before shoving her slightly away. He walked around the hood of the car just as the lights of police cars started to illuminate the highway behind the pile-up of cars he’d created. He used the key to unlock only his door and pulled himself in. Nora held onto the side of the car, desperately trying to communicate through the glass. Gloria still couldn’t hear what she was saying but, reading her lips, she could make out ‘promise,’ ‘safe,’ and ‘okay.’

The engine roared to life and the tires squealed as he slammed on the gas. He pulled away from the traffic, and a confused Nora, without looking back. He stared straight forward as he broke every speed limit driving down the highway. He passed the exit for the airport and eventually got onto the Long Island Expressway. He blew through tolls and maneuvered through traffic like a man possessed. It wasn’t until about two hours later, when they turned onto Sunrise Highway, that she gathered enough courage to speak.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, turning to face her captor.

His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel and his eyes narrowed to slits.

“She speaks!” Stephen yelled from the back seat. Her eyes moved to the figure lounging in the back like he was soaking up sun on a beach rather than riding in a SUV. “I was starting to think you fucked the voice right out of her, Brother.”

“Shut the fuck up Steve-O,” Frankie growled.

“He hasn’t…” Gloria started. Frankie turned and raised a brow. “We haven’t…” She closed her eyes hard. “Tell me what the heck is going on!”

“‘Heck,’” Stephen repeated with a snort. “This is going to be a long week.”

“Week? What is he talking about?” she asked Frankie whose eyes had already returned to the road ahead.

“We’re going on vacation, Sweetheart,” Stephen told her.

“Don’t call her ‘Sweetheart,’” Frankie warned.

“So you can talk to him and Nora but not me? The girl you just kidnapped?” Gloria asked.

Frankie inhaled slowly and sighed deeply.

“Trust me, this is just as bad for me as it is for you,” Stephen said, face still buried in his phone as he played some sort of game that involved coins making an obnoxious noise every ten seconds. Gloria reached back, snatched the phone from his hand and threw it in the trunk. “Hey! What the fuck!?” Stephen yelled.

Gloria sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. From the corner of her eye, she caught the briefest smile grace Frankie’s face. By the time she glanced over though, he’d smothered it. The road they were on turned to gravel and he pulled into a driveway with large hedges obscuring the view of the house within. He entered a number into a keypad and scanned his thumb before the gate opened.

“I want to know what this is all about,” Gloria demanded as Frankie drove down a crushed shell driveway.

Frankie parked the car in front of a two-story beach house. He unbuckled his seat belt and made a sound halfway between a sigh and a growl. Then his dark eyes swiveled to her. “Sergei Vasiliev,” he said, his voice monotone. Gloria’s mouth dropped open at the name of the man her father signed her over to as a child. Frankie shoved his car door open and stepped out before slamming it back.

“Yeah…” Stephen drawled behind her. “That’s about as bad as it can get for Frankie, Sweetheart.”

“Don’t fucking call me ‘sweetheart!’” Gloria yelled.

“Woah,” Stephen said, holding his hands up in surrender. His natural smile spread to a grin. “So you do curse. Alright, we may get along after all.”

Gloria groaned as she opened her door to follow Frankie into the house.