“Waited too long. It’s time to start over. Clean slate,” Frankie said.
“Babe –” he started but Frankie looked away and closed her eyes.
“I’m tired,” she whispered and his hands tightened again on hers.
“Frankie –”
“Go away, Ben, I need to rest.”
His hands tightened even further. “Look at me.”
She tried to pull her hand away.
“Francesca, fuckin’ look at me.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him.
“You’re not movin’ to Indy,” he repeated.
“Go away.”
“We gotta talk.”
“Nothin’ to say.”
“Frankie –”
It took a lot of effort and the rest of the energy she had but she yanked her hand from his.
Then she whispered, “I took my hit for your family today. I atoned. It’s done. All I did was fall in love with Vinnie but you took your penance from me like I did wrong and I loved you all once, so I gave it. I bled for you today. This is good this happened. It gave me my chance to do what you needed me to do. But you aren’t gettin’ anything more.”
Benny left his seat but he did it in a bent over squat, his face getting in hers.
“You’ve had a bad day,” he stated, “so I’ll give you this shit right now. Then I’m comin’ back and we’re gonna talk.”
“No, we aren’t,” she replied then sucked in a painful breath when both his hands came up and framed her face and his got so close all she had to do was tilt her chin and his lips would be on hers.
“Yes, we fuckin’ are.”
Then his eyes dropped from hers to her mouth where his thumb traced the lower edge of her lip while he watched it move and she held her breath. Then he released her and she watched him saunter out of the room.
*
Sal avoided Theresa and Vinnie’s eyes and looked to the couch.
Cal was sitting there, hair nearly dry after his shower, wearing new jeans and a t-shirt that Theresa had run out and bought him. The bandage on his arm could be seen under the sleeve of his tee.
His woman was curled on her side on the couch beside him, her head resting on his thigh, her hand curled there in front of her face. She was wearing new jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt that Theresa also bought. Her hair was wet too but it was drying fast since Cal was sifting his fingers through it. Her knees were curled up to her chest and she didn’t have shoes on. The bottom of her feet were clean and glistening with antibiotic goo. Being clean, you could see the redness and scrapes.
She’d stayed at the hospital wearing nothing but Cal’s t-shirt which was spattered with Daniel Hart’s blood, getting her feet seen to, talking to the cops, eating the cannelloni Gina brought, speaking to her daughters on the phone and waiting for word to come out about Frankie. Once they knew Frankie was all right, Cal carried her to Benny’s car, he climbed in with Benny and they all went to his house to shower. Just over an hour later, they all came back.
Sal studied her sleeping face. He was a younger man, he’d want in there. He could see Cal going all out for that. He could see something like her healing a bad break in a strong man. He could even almost see Hart being willing to losing it all for his shot. But only almost.
Benny walked into the waiting room and Sal noticed he looked pissed. He didn’t have to guess why. Francesca Concetti could throw some attitude and Sal figured she was so good at it she could even do it after being shot. She had a lot of different blood in her but Italian always won out.
Sal wondered when Benny would get his head out of his ass about Frankie. Seven years the boy had been dicking around. Sure, it’d be strange, Frankie moving onto Benny after she’d been with Vinnie. But heart was heart, gut was gut and balls were balls. You want something and that something was worth you wanting like Frankie was, who gave a shit?
“We gotta get on the road,” Sal heard Cal say and his eyes went to Cal.
Violet was awake, eyes blinking, she’d lifted herself partially up but she still had her fingers curved around Cal’s thigh.
Benny stopped in front of them. “Right. Let’s go.”
She looked at Benny then twisted to look at Cal. “Can I see her before we go?” she asked.
Sal watched as Cal didn’t even hesitate. He just shifted her so she was in his arms and he carried her out of the room and down the hall toward Frankie’s room, giving her what she wanted without argument.
Sal grinned to himself and then his eyes scanned the room and he saw Benny, Theresa, Manny and Vinnie Senior all looking after Cal and Violet. Benny still looked pissed. The rest of them were smiling.
Sal’s phone rang and all their eyes came to him and none of them were smiling.
He pulled out his phone, looked at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear.
“You got me,” he said into it.
“Weird,” he heard one of his boys say in his ear, “cops are scratching their heads seein’ as that footage of Callahan has been in evidence less than a day but the hard drive has been wiped.”
Salvatore Giglia grinned.