Chaz’s head fell back to the floor. “Oh no,” was all he could muster, and that even before the digital recording of the familiar Godfather theme leaked out of his pocket. It repeated twice.

Harden suggested, “You really should answer it.”

“Fuck you,” was all Chaz could say, his body already slack and defeated. The phone stopped ringing and there was a protracted silence. “Don’t forget your wife and kid,” Harden said as the phone started ringing again. Chaz reached into his pocket with his free hand and raised the phone to his ear. “Yeah, Boss?”

Harden shifted off Chaz’s wrist and stepped back, allowing the young man to stagger to his feet, wincing in pain, the phone to his cheek.

“No, Boss, I didn’t… that was all Dino, Boss, I swear it. I only found out about it afterward. I killed him soon as I learnt. And den I was gonna come right to you, but … no, I know, he was wrong, a hundred percent, but I tried to … ”

Kerri lowered the gun and ran to Harden. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, his free hand holding his gun on Chaz, who was armed only with the smartphone, the instrument of his own defeat.

“Boss, I’d never betray you…” His voice was quivering with fear, tears starting to push out of his eyes. “Okay, Boss… No, Boss, please not that. I’ll get you the money back, and I’ve learned a lot, I got info. And you know how valuable that can… But I… No, Boss, please, anything but that… But… No, Don Paulie, not them, please not them, my boy’s only three years old!”

Kerri gripped Harden, both arms wrapped around his chest.

“Okay, Boss, awright… No, I wasn’t gonna hurt ‘em anyway, I swear… I won’t, Don Paulie, you don’t have to mention them again… I won’t… Awright, Don Paulie, awright. But could you just…—? Don Paulie?” After a mean silence, Chaz repeated in a holler, “Don Paulie!”

No answer came back.

The three stood in the silent living room, before Chaz hung his head and started crying. It began as a low groan but rose quickly to a tearful sob and then to a high-pitched pitiful scream. He hurled the phone down, smashing it against the floor, the electronic rectangle shattering into shards of glass and plastic.

He wouldn’t be needing it anymore, and all of them knew it. Chaz looked up slowly at Harden. “I … I don’t have a gun,” he managed to say, voice cracking.

Harden retrieved the handgun from Kerri, and handed it to him. Kerri said, “Harden, what are you doing?”

“It’s okay, Kerri,” Harden said calmly as Chaz took the gun. The mob foot soldier wrestled with his lesser instincts, lips pulled tight over his teeth.

He sneered at Kerri, then at Harden, and turned slowly. “Don Paulie said to do it outside, so I don’t get more blood all over your floor. And he told me… to apologize. So… I’m sorry, okay—?” He let out a blood-curdling scream, “I’m sorry, okaaaaaayyyy?”

Harden and Kerri just stood in their embrace while Chaz turned and shuffled slowly toward the foyer. His sobs only grew the closer he got to the front door, crying and moaning with greater panic and even greater resolve. He wrenched the door open, looking down at his dead partner’s body, Dino, as it tumbled to the side, lifeless. The shape of things to come for Chaz himself, he let out a heartfelt wail that was all the louder for him being outside, and on the cusp of eternity.

The wail got louder still, a gut-wrenching scream that rang through Kerri’s body, recalling her own. She knew the terror he felt, she knew the sense of hopelessness, of defeat. His scream only got louder as he poured every last ounce of strength into it.

His miserable cry finally trailed off into a stream of low clicks, throat bubbling up with saliva and mucus. It clung to his throat, acidic and disgusting. In that last moment of silence, he flashed on his beloved Mila and little Pete.

Goodbye, my family, Chaz silently spoke. I hope you’ll never know what I had to do to keep you both alive.

God, I don’t wanna die!

Kerri and Harden watched from the foyer as Chaz stood, slouched just outside the front door. He turned, one eye glaring at them from over his shoulder. His voice rose again, raspy and torn, one final battle cry. He took a deep breath, fixed his stare on Kerri and Harden, and let out a gravelly, hate-filled, “Fuck… yyyyoooooouuuuuuuuuu!” Spittle shot out of his lips until his last words rang to their end.

Chaz raised the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger in one swift motion. The blast shocked Kerri, her whole body tensing with horror, fingers over her lips. Chaz’s body fell straight to the walkway. This time there was no silencer, and Harden set his handgun down on the floor and led Kerri toward the front doors to greet the police empty-handed.

Kerri clung to him, stepping over the dead bodies as police sirens got louder in the distance. Kerri wasn’t sure what would happen next, but she knew that everything would be all right as long as Harden was in control.

And as far as Kerri was concerned, he always would be.

“How terrible.”

“He got what he deserved,” Harden said. “It’s still terrible though, yes. This is what happens when little minds are turned to bent purposes, chasing around a helpless widow.”

“Well, I’m not exactly helpless,” Kerri said, but he knew that despite her best efforts, she’d been in dire need of rescue. And she was lucky, and blessed, that Harden was there for her at precisely the right moment. Thought that did raise some questions in the back of Kerri’s grateful, if slightly skeptical, mind.

“How did you know they’d be here?”

“I didn’t.”

Kerri considered in silent confusion before asking. “Then why are you here, Harden? And with a gun?”

“I have friends in law enforcement; I’ve got a permit to carry.”

“And you just happened to have a gun, with a silencer, in your car?”

“Of course,” he said.

“Why?”

Harden smiled. “I think considering the circumstances, the better question is, why don’t you?”

Kerri gave it some thought and she couldn’t disagree. So she finally had to ask, “What about Sandra?”

“That’s why I’m here. I had to explain it to you the way I was explaining it to her.”

“What, your swinging multi-lover lifestyle?”

“Just the opposite, Kerri. I was breaking up with Sandra when you showed up. I was telling her about you, about the connection between us. I was telling her what I told the others, that nobody could take your place, that you deserved all of my heart, my soul, my life. Then you just turned up, and obviously what you saw didn’t tell you the entire story.”

Guilt welled up in Kerri’s gut like a hot well. “Oh, Harden, I’m so sorry I doubted you. I shouldn’t have stormed off like that.”

“I don’t blame you. But I couldn’t let you walk out of my life without explaining, so I followed you here.”

“I didn’t see you.”

“I was about five minutes behind you. I just assumed this was where you were going.”

Kerri let a nervous moment pass before asking, “You were breaking up with her …and the others?”

“With all of them.”

“All of them,” Kerri repeated. “How many of them were there?”

“Not that many, but it doesn’t matter. You're the woman I want, you’re the only woman I want! I love you, Kerri Abernathy, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

“Oh, Harden.—” They exchanged a deep, tender kiss, an unspoken promise of a love that would last, of a future they would spend together, if destiny would allow it. But whatever their futures, Kerri knew their present would be spent together, and that they would live for those moments for as long as they could. Their lips parted as the police and an ambulance rolled up the driveway. Kerri and Harden parted to show their empty hands as the officers and paramedics spilled out of their vehicles, police with their guns drawn.

“Take it easy, officers,” Harden said with a calm, authoritative voice. “We’re glad you’re here, we’re unarmed, this woman is the home owner. Those two men are dead and there’s nobody else in the house.”

Once officer asked, “You sure about that.”

Harden turned to Kerri, their eyes locking. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.—”