Chapter 8

 

Ava

 

I WOKE UP to the sound of my phone ringing early the next morning. It wasn’t a number I recognized, and the sun hadn’t yet risen, which usually meant no telemarketers. Curious, I reached over and picked it up from my nightstand.

“Hello?” I mumbled, closing my eyes again.

“Is this Ava Rhodes?” a male voice asked.

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“My name is Doctor Farrah and I’m calling from St. Mark’s Hospital. I’m sorry to call you so early, but there’s been an accident involving a friend of yours. Now, he’s in stable condition—”

“Who are you calling about?”

“Dwayne Bordellini. He asked us to call you.”

His words sent my heart racing. “Is he okay?” I asked, fully awake now.

“Yes. He suffered a head injury, but we were able to operate quickly enough. All in all, I think his prognosis is very good. He just needs to stay in the hospital for a few days. He also has a broken arm and some bruised ribs.”

I sighed in relief and then asked about the head injury.

“Nothing major. There was a little internal bleeding, but we managed to stop it. You should probably know that Mr. Bordellini admitted to being under the influence of alcohol, which resulted in the crash. Obviously, he’ll have to answer to the police when he’s able to. Fortunately, there wasn’t another vehicle involved. Just a tree,” he said with a smile in his voice.

That definitely meant a DUI. I groaned. “Can I come see him?”

“Of course.”

“St. Mark’s, you said?”

“Yes. He’s sleeping so don’t feel you have to rush. He’ll be fine. He just needs to rest.”

“Okay.” I thanked him and hung up.

 

A COUPLE HOURS later, I walked into Dwayne’s hospital room and winced when I saw the bandages around his head and arm. He was still sleeping, so I sat down next to him and stayed there until a nurse came to check his vitals. As she was finishing, he woke up, and that’s when he noticed me.

“Hey,” he mumbled, trying to keep his eyes open. “They called you, huh?”

“Yes,” I replied as the nurse smiled and stepped out of the room. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

“I bet. So…”

“I know. I fucked up. Badly. Do you know what happened to my car?”

“No. I don’t have any idea. I just heard that you hit a tree.”

He was quiet for a few seconds and then sighed. “So, nobody but me was hurt?”

“Sounds that way.”

Before he could say anything else, an attractive Middle Eastern man, wearing blue scrubs, stepped into the room with a clipboard.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Farrah,” he said, smiling at me and then at Dwayne. “I see you’re awake.”

“Unfortunately,” Dwayne replied. “My head hurts like a son-of-a-bitch.”

“I imagine it does. “He looked at me. “You must be Ava?” he asked me.

I nodded.

Smiling, Dr. Farrah looked at his clipboard. “Heachache aside, how exactly are you feeling, Mr. Bordellini?”

“Like I ran into a freight train,” he muttered.

“I’ll make sure they get you something for the pain,” the doctor replied and then did a quick examination. 

“When can I get out of here?” Dwayne asked when he was finished.

The doctor explained that he’d need to stay for a couple of days, so they could monitor his head injury. 

Dwayne groaned.

“It’s better than dealing with the cops at the moment, right?” Dr. Farrah said with a grim smile.

He sighed. “I suppose I’m in deep shit, huh?”

“I’d advise you to contact your lawyer and to take an Uber the next time you decide to drive while under the influence,” he replied. “Just so you know, a couple of officers will be checking in with you soon.”

“What a fucking mess,” Dwayne mumbled.

“Yes, but it could have been a lot worse. Next time, it might be,” Dr. Farrah said. “Anyway, I’ll stop back later and see how you are.”

“Thanks, Doc. Don’t forget the pain medicine,” Dwayne reminded him.

“I’ll get on that, too. It was nice meeting you,” he said to me before walking out of the room.

“So, where were you going last night?” I asked him.

“I was heading to Minnesota, if you want to know the truth.”

“Ah. From what it looks like, you’re going to need to postpone the trip,” I replied, sitting down next to him.

“Fuck that. Those guys are going to pay,” he muttered and then winced.

“I agree that they should,” I said. “In fact, I want to go with you.”

“I told you last night it’s not going to happen.”

“Why? Because I’m a woman?”

“Because…” he lowered his voice, “you’ve never done anything like this before and I’m not putting you in danger.”

“And you have?”

“I’ve come close to it for far less than this.”

“But you’ve never actually killed anyone?” I whispered.

“No, but those bastards murdered my boy so now I have to,” he said in a ragged voice.

“He was my brother,” I reminded him again.

“Stop it right now. I won’t allow it. Hell, chances are I won’t walk away from this myself,” he said, looking irritated. “Now, don’t argue about this with me. I’m not putting your life in danger.”

I sighed. “We’ll talk about it when you’re feeling better.”

“Bullshit. My mind is made up. You stay out of this, Ava. I mean it.”

I stood up as a nurse walked in carrying a small paper cup of pills.

“Those for me?” Dwayne asked with a look of relief.

She smiled. “Yep. I hear you’re in a lot of pain.”

He grunted. “You can say that again.”

“I’m going to take off,” I said, picking up my purse. “We’ll talk later?”

He looked at me. “Yeah, but I’m not changing my mind.”

From the look on his face, I knew he wouldn’t, but that wasn’t my problem nor did I care. I wasn’t about to let him stop me.

 

I DROVE BACK to my mother’s trailer and began searching for her financial records. Fortunately, I found a file cabinet in the back of her closet with old bank statements and the deed to her trailer. I learned that it was paid off, but the owner was listed as Andrew, so I wasn’t sure what I needed to do with the place.

I smiled to myself. Although they’d had an estranged relationship, he’d made sure to keep a roof over her head, which made me love him that much more.

As I was going through some more of her records, my cell phone rang. Recognizing that it was the hospital again, I quickly picked it up.

“Ms. Rhodes? It’s Dr. Farrah again,” he said in a grim voice. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, but Mr. Bordellini suffered a massive stroke shortly after you left. He… he didn’t make it.”

I gasped. “What?! A stroke? I thought he was doing fine?”

“So did I, Ms. Rhodes. Unfortunately, this came on very suddenly and there wasn’t anything more we could do. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

The doctor went on, but I barely heard him. This was the third death I’d endured in the last week, all of them people I’d known or cared about as a child. It was true what they said—death happened in threes. 

“Do you know if he has any surviving family members?” Dr. Farrah asked.

I cleared my throat. “I don’t. I’m sorry. I have to go,” I said, picturing Andrew. As far as I knew, he’d been the only living relative. But the Gold Vipers had taken care of that.

He started talking again, but I hung up, my mind on other things. In a sense, the Gold Vipers were also responsible for Dwayne’s death now, too. It made me hate them that much more. They had to pay for this.

Murder.

Could I actually do it?

I reminded myself of what Dwayne had told me last night: these guys were animals who preyed on the innocent. They were involved with human trafficking, prostitution, and the kind of drugs that turned good people into addicts. Not to mention that the Gold Vipers were cold-blooded killers. I didn’t know if I had it in me to actually pull the trigger, but I was hell-bent on finding out who was responsible for all of this. I wanted to confront them and make them pay. If it meant using a gun, I’d make sure that I was the last one standing.