“Muerto! Get your ass over here and quit laughing,” Gus ordered. “Step back, Rachel. I’m not giving you a weapon or the keys. You’re acting like Crazy Louie. You heard Muerto. He and Julius took care of the situation like adults. Get a grip.”
Nick handed Quinn to Rachel. The feel of her son’s body bled away enough rage Nick was able to lead her toward the house entrance. “We like Sonny too much to kill his parents, honey. After a few months when someone asked him how well he was getting along without his Mom and Dad, he’d suddenly realize they really were gone and be devastated.”
That elicited a repressed snort of laughter from Rachel as she tried to maintain her anger but failed. “Damn those two! You could have had Phil sorting mail in a security max prison and Clarice would be working her true calling doing two dollar blow jobs on the street corners in San Francisco. All would be well, but noooooo… you had to adopt them as your little welfare project. Can I at least twist the knife they stabbed into your back?”
“Don’t worry about the Salvatores. Think about being back in Pacific Grove, walking down to the beach without a bump. We’ll have Quinn in a stroller and do a couple days celebration with a bit of the Irish in our morning coffee. We can listen to Gus whine about the cold wind and watch John show Cala how to become a bird nest.”
The mention of John’s penchant for bringing a loaf of bread down to feed the myriad flock of scavenger birds buzzing around until he looked like a bird totem pole finally relaxed Rachel into sigh of acceptance. “Fine. I’ll think no more about the fate of the Salvatores. I swear one of these days they’re going to do something so aggravating I’ll show up at their door with an axe! I’m telling you they kidnapped Sonny from a hospital when he was a baby. No way did that skank Clarice give birth to him.”
“Tell us what you really think, Mom.” Jean applied the needle over Rachel’s over the top threat and insult. “She’s still Sonny’s Mom. What if Sonny and I get married someday.”
Rachel’s gasp and spin move complete with open mouthed horror face amused her companions to no end. “Don’t even joke like that! Holidays with the Salvatores? You would have children who would have to call Clarice - Grandma, and Phil - Grandpa? There must be a law written somewhere in the cosmos against such a travesty, isn’t there?”
By then Rachel was smiling at the appreciation her comical diatribe against her supposed arch enemies evoked from her extended family. At the door, Tina, Cala, and Deke the dog waited in the wings as if for the color smoke emerging from the Sistine Chapel. They seemed relieved as everyone came in the house smiling and in one piece. Deke danced around his beer and walk buddy Nick as if he were a piece of bacon on a string until Nick knelt to give him the attention demanded. Cala, five and a half feet tall, with emerald eyes, and long black hair, approached John with smiling hesitation in a simple but dazzling red shift dress. When he reached out to her she hurried to his side, blushing. Nick and Gus noticed, but upon receiving an El Kabong deadeye stare, refrained from comment.
“We heard about Kensky on the news,” Tina remarked. “Sorry the conviction didn’t work out, Nick.”
Nick grinned. “It worked out just fine, Tina.”
Chapter Two
A Farewell and Kader Trouble
Kensky watched the young woman from his car as she walked home from Everett Community College. She lived on Rucker Avenue and left classes to go home by way of 8th Street. He made sure no one followed him before beginning his long hunt for different prey. After the college girl, Kensky planned to leave the area. In the East somewhere, he could get lost in the big city, maybe even go over the Canadian border to play. First though, he would do the unexpected. He knew just how he would do it. Kensky looked down at the Seattle Police Department Detectives ID he had made. It would be fine to fool the girl. He chuckled as he resumed watching the young woman’s trek. He would drive alongside, holding out his fake ID for her to see while urging her inside, explaining there had been an accident, and he was to drive her to the hospital. She would say ‘is it my Mom or whoever’ and of course Kensky would have his cover story filled in for him.