Chapter Twenty-Seven
Snake
I ignore the violent coldness invading my bones, and step further into the room.
“What’s up, Sal?” I say, extending my hand to him. “This is a surprise.”
Salvatore stands, stoically shaking my hand. “I was in the neighborhood. Thought I’d drop by. Where were you at this hour?”
I rub the back of my neck. “Just, uh, trying to catch the sunrise.”
While Salvatore glances back at the sunny window, I grab Jess’ hand. Her fingers are ice cold and stiff.
“Why don’t you make us some coffee?” I say.
Jess nods numbly, then makes her way to the kitchen. Salvatore and I sit down on the couch together.
“The sunrise?” Sal sneers.
“I figured it was the least I can do,” I say, keeping my voice low. “Letting her see it one last time.”
Salvatore narrows his eyes in disgust. “A little soft for my taste. Does she know anything?”
I shake my head, quickly. “I want to keep her in the dark. Keep her comfortable. It’s easier that way.”
“Good.” He leans back, crossing his long legs. He stares at me out of the corner of his eye. “You had me worried for a second there. I thought you two had made a run for it.”
I laugh, maybe a little too loud. “No way. I’m a Mariano for life. You know that.”
“You’re right. I do know that.” Sal looks up at the ceiling and laughs, grimly. “I can’t wait to see the look on her face when you pull a gun on her. Fucking smug bitch.”
“I know right,” I say, playing along. “She has no idea.”
At that moment, Jess walks in, carrying two mugs of hot coffee. She eyes me suspiciously while handing me mine.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” Sal says, accepting his mug.
“So, yeah, we’ll be by around eight,” I say, then take a large swallow of coffee. It’s too hot, and burns my mouth.
Salvatore checks his phone that’s lying on the couch beside him. “It’s almost that time now. We’ll go together.” He uncrosses his legs, then stands up, looking at Jess. “Mind if I use your restroom?”
“Not at all,” Jess says with a sweet smile. “Down the hall.”
She follows him with her gaze until the bathroom door closes, then turns to me frantically.
“What do we do?” she asks, starting to shake.
I bury my face in my hands, trying to think. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“We should kill him,” Jess whispers forcefully.
“No.” I shake my head, staring into her eyes. “I can’t do that.” There has to be another way.
Jess presses her lips together. “You were so eager to kill Steve. Why not him?”
“You know why,” I snap. I hear the sink in the bathroom cut off. I grab Jess’ hand. “Just act cool for now. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Salvatore saunters coolly back into the living room. He picks up his mug, takes a sip, then gathers his phone from the couch. “I know it’s early, but we should get going. I have a lot to take care of today.” He jerks his head towards the door. “Come on. I’m driving.”
Salvatore’s a few steps ahead of us as we walk through the parking lot. He has headphones in his ear, his head bobbing to music we can’t hear. Jess nudges my side, and gestures to the gun strapped to my waist. I glare at her, shaking my head.
It can’t come to this. I can’t kill Sal. I think, frantically, trying to find away out of this. Maybe I could just talk to him, reason with him. If I let him know how much Jess means to me, he’ll let her go.
We get into Salvatore’s car, Jess in the backseat, me in the front. Who am I kidding? There’s no reasoning with Sal. As much as I love the guy, he’s a cold, calculating monster who wouldn’t know an emotion if it hit him in the face.
I can’t let him take us to Monty. The place will be crawling with heavily armed Mariano’s. I don’t think I can get both Jess and me out of there alive.
Salvatore is still listening to music when he starts the engine and drives away. He seems distracted. I slowly shift my hand to side, and wriggle my fingers, trying to find the handle of the gun. My plan is to scare him, to threaten him so he’ll let us out. I hope I don’t have to kill him, and I’m betting he won’t want to kill me as well. But if the choice is between him and Jess, I choose Jess.
I finally get a grip on the handle, and start to draw my gun.
“Stop,” Sal says, not even looking at me.
In a flash, his arm extends over the console, and I see a flash of metal. I can see right into the barrel to the bullet waiting for me. Jess gasps from the backseat.
My fingers freeze. I make myself smile as I lift my hands up.
“What the fuck are you doing, Sal?” I ask, with a laugh. “Is this some kind of joke? Did you think I was going for my gun?”
Salvatore takes his eyes off of the road for a second, giving me a chilly glare. He lifts his phone to his mouth, and rips out the headphone cord with his teeth, allowing us to hear what he was listening to.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“We should kill him.”
“No. I can’t do that.”
Salvatore mutes the conversation Jess and I had, then turns to me with a sickly grin.
“I never thought you’d break my heart, Snake,” he says. “I always considered you to be my brother.”
“Salvatore, wait. We are brothers,” I say, as calmly as I can. “Let’s go somewhere. Let’s talk.”
I sneak a glance back at Jess. She’s sitting up rigidly straight, her face pale. She doesn’t move a muscle, making her seem frozen in time.
Sal rolls his eyes, groaning, like we’re a minor inconvenience. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”
He turns the car up the winding roads of a mountain. There’s a few mansions up at the very top, but other than that, it’s secluded. I try to talk to him, to remind him of everything we’ve been through together, but Sal doesn’t even acknowledge me. I’ve seen him treat his victims like this, like they’re no more than a bug beneath his shoe.
He stops the car at the base of a canyon, then gets out. The passenger door is locked from the outside, so I have to wait for Salvatore to open the door for me. He reaches inside, grabbing my arm, and forcing me out. With the gun pointed at my head, Salvatore pushes me violently against the car and pats me down. He finds the gun on my waist, and the smaller one on my ankle, and tosses them into the wild brush.
“Stay where you are or she dies,” Sal growls, before opening the backdoor. Jess is still in a catatonic shock. Her limbs are rigid as Sal forces her out.
It’s a deadening, empty feeling to be unarmed, and watching another man touch her like that. I want to grab Sal’s head and rip it off of his neck. I want to pin him to the ground, and beat his pretty face into a bloody pulp. But I can’t do anything. Not yet.
Sal lines us up against the edge of the canyon, never lowering the gun. Finally, he looks me in the eye.
“I’m glad to hear you wouldn’t kill me, Snake. But that was a your fatal mistake.”
My blood turns to lead as the dark realization dawns on me. Jess and I aren’t going to make it out of this. What he had burned hot and heavy, and now it’s over. I should’ve known that things would end up like this. What we had to overcome was too fucked up. We never stood a chance.
I want the last thing I see on this earth to be Jess. She’s been the only good thing about my shitty life. I turn to her, and despite Sal’s warning, I wrap my arm around her waist and draw her towards me.
“Pathetic,” Sal says. “You gave up everything for her, Snake. You’re a fucking idiot. I should’ve left your ass on the street to rot. That’s what I get for being charitable.”
My touch seems to awaken Jess. She blinks, looking at me, and her eyes quickly fill with tears. I want to be as close to her as possible when I draw my last breath. I wish I could sink my cock in her one last time. I grasp her body desperately, and at her waist, I feel something hard and cold.
A gun. My gun. The 9mm. Salvatore never searched her. He’s made the same mistake as other men in Jess’ life. He underestimated her.
“I’m going to kill her first,” Salvatore says, almost gleefully. “Then I’ll deal with you.” His eyes focus on me, narrowing with pure hatred. He turns the gun on Jess. “Get on your knees.”
Jess looks up at me. We stare into each other’s eyes with shared understanding. I give her a small nod. While Jess lowers to her knees, I slip my hand up her waist, and grab the gun.
I push Jess away from me and point the gun at Salvatore, firing a wild bullet. He falls to the ground with an echoing yell, gripping his bleeding thigh where the bullet hit. He lets go of his gun, sending it scattering across the asphalt road. Jess goes after it.
“Fucking traitor,” Salvatore yells, writhing on the ground in pain. “You’re scum, Snake. You’re nothing. You couldn’t even shoot me in the face.” He spits towards me. “Coward.”
Jess comes up on him, aiming the gun at his head. “Should I put you out of your misery?”
I extend my hand towards her, shaking my head. Salvatore’s not a threat anymore, and I still don’t want to see him die.
Salvatore smiles, gritting his teeth hard, and wheezing through the pain. “Your old boyfriend wasn’t worth all this. He was a rat. He had to die.”
Jess shakes her head, stepping closer to Sal. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why would Jake talk to a reporter? All he cared about was money. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. Why did he really die?”
Salvatore cranes his head back, laughing darkly. Jess grimaces, then slams the gun across Sal’s face. Blood splatters from his nose and mouth.
“Tell me,” Jess yells, desperately. “Tell me or I’ll kill you.”
I rush up to her, and gently on push her arm, lowering the gun.
“You don’t have to do it, Jess,” I whisper against her ear.
Sal shakes his at me, spitting out blood. “Fucking coward.” He goes to wipe his mouth, and when he takes his hand away from the wound in his thigh, a massive amount of blood spurts out. Salvatore instantly turns several shades paler.
I panic. Even though moments ago, Salvatore was about to kill us both, I still can’t forget all he did for me.
“Fuck,” I yell. “I think I hit an artery.”
Jess clutches at my chest. “We should leave him here to die.”
I can see the rage glowing in her eyes. I know what she’s feeling, because I know it well. It’s a murderous intent that’s out of her control. It infects the mind like a virus.
I grip her wrist, hard enough that she drops the gun, then yank her towards me. I wrap my arms around her waist, holding her in a vice like grip.
“Remember when I didn’t kill Steve,” I say, aggressively. “We don’t have to, Jess.”
She tries to get away from me, but I don’t let her move an inch. I hold her closer against my chest, and whisper in her ear.
“You and me, Jess. We finally have a chance. That’s all that matters.”
“He was going to kill us.”
“And you almost killed his father. I’d say we’re even.”
Simultaneously, we both look towards Salvatore lying on the ground. His eyes are even emptier than usual. He looks close to passing out. On Jess’ face, I see her rage begin to clear, and her humanity regain control.
“We should get him to the hospital,” Jess says.
“No hospital,” Snake says, weakly, followed by coughing. “Take me to Dr. Stone’s.”
In Salvatore’s trunk, I find rope, duct tape, and cable ties. What a good scout. Always fucking prepared, I think. I rip off a long piece of duct tape, and wrap it around his thigh to stop the bleeding. It looks like it will hold for now. I lift Sal under his arms, while Jess holds his legs, and we carry him to the backseat of the car. I jump into the driver’s seat and rush off of Dr. Stone’s.
I pull up to the back of the medical complex. With the engine still running, I get out and beat on the door. A blonde woman in scrubs opens the door with a tight, annoyed face. But once she sees who I am, that annoyance disappears.
“We have an emergency,” I explain.
She glances at the car behind me, to Salvatore bleeding in the backseat.
“Wait here,” she says, going back inside.
A few moments later, the door opens again. This time, the woman is accompanied by a male orderly. I open the car door for them, and help the orderly lift Salvatore out. Jess eyes me from the front seat.
“Get in,” she hisses. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“We will,” I promise her, while hoisting Sal up.
The blonde woman leads us inside to an examination room that’s already being prepared. The orderly and I lower Sal onto the table. Sal stares up at the ceiling, on the edge of losing consciousness. His hand is as cold as death when I grab it.
“You’re going to be okay, Sal,” I promise him. “I’m sorry it turned out like this.”
The muscles in Salvatore’s face twitch. I can see his eyes darkening. He’s fighting through the fog. He turns to me.
“You fucking prick,” he growls. “You’re dead to me.”
He yanks his hand from mine. Dr. Stone and several nurses enter the room and start fussing over him. I step away from the bed, my chest heavy. Sal’s not dead, but he might as well be.
When I first took my oath to the Mariano’s, never in a million years did I think I’d go against them. The plan was to be a dutiful soldier, prove myself, and rise up the ranks. But then, I didn’t have anything else to live for. I didn’t have Jess.
I give one last look at Sal, then leave the room. My feet are heavy. My steps are slow, until I see the blonde woman through the glass pane. She’s on the phone, talking seriously, and keeps glancing my way.
She’s telling Monty we’re here. That gives me a kick in the ass. I barrel towards the back, and burst out of the back door. Jess calls my name when I get into the car, but there’s no time to say anything. I put the car in drive and peel out of there.
“Is it over, Snake?” Jess asks, as I wind down a mountain road, way too fast for these brutal curves. “Are we out?”
I wish I could reach for her, grab her waist, and tell her that yes, it’s all over. I glance over my white knuckles on the steering wheel, looking out of the windshield. We’re close, but we’re not there yet.
I punch the gas pedal even harder. Jess clutches her seat as we whip wildly around the curves. I grit my teeth. We’re so close to the open highway. So close.
We round a curve, and I see two black cars blocking the road. I slam on brakes so hard my forehead bangs against the steering wheel. I rub my head, biting back the taste of blood.
“Snake,” Jess says, her voice as light as air.
I grab for my gun, but when I look out at the road, I see Bruno, Anthony, and a few other Mariano soldiers, all holding guns, quickly approaching us. If I pull my gun on them, they’ll rain down bullets on us in a instant.
They surround the car. Anthony forcefully opens the passenger door, then Bruno reaches in and grabs Jess.
“Bruno,” I say bluntly. “Don’t.”
He doesn’t even look at me. Jess screams as Bruno muscles her to one of the cars, and forces her inside.
“Fuck it,” I say, going for my gun anyway.
There’s a tap on my window. It’s Anthony. He gestures for me to get out. With my hand on my gun, I do.
“Don’t make me shoot you, Snake,” Anthony warns.
“They don’t have to kill her,” I say. “She’s not a threat anymore.”
Anthony pats me on the back. “Don’t worry, big guy. We’re all reasonable people. I’m sure we can work something out.”
What the fuck does he mean by that? As a show of good faith, Anthony holsters his gun. He looks at me, expecting me to do the same. I decide to play along, so I do.
“There’s someone who wants to speak with you.” Anthony takes my arm, and leads me to the second car, the one without Jess. He opens the backdoor for me. Inside is Franco Mariano.
“Hello, Snake,” Franco says, tipping his hat to me. “Come. Join me. We have business to discuss.