before taking it from her.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s over.”
He took her hands and pulled her from the couch. Samantha was sobbing quietly as she collapsed into Charlie’s arms.
Chapter 67
“I feel like a wife-beater,” Denton whispered.
Lisa leaned against his shoulder as the jet taxied slowly on the runway. She held a paper napkin up to cover her facial bruises as a stewardess passed in the aisle.
“I feel like a bandit,” she said.
“You look like one.”
The federal agents had let them go a few hours after news of Nicholas Cuccia’s death was public. They planned to spend a week relaxing in California. Then Lisa would have to call Charlie and start the process of getting a divorce. Denton was anxious to start their lives together. When the jet left the ground, he turned to kiss Lisa on the forehead.
“Finally,” he said.
“Don’t jinx it.”
Denton took her right hand and set it on his lap. “Jinx this,” he said.
Lisa turned to him with a surprised smile on her face. “Why, counselor,” she said.
“Shut up and give me a kiss.”
“Shut up and give you a kiss?”
He winked at her. “I’ve been hanging around gangsters the past few days.”
“Me, too,” she said. She kissed Denton from one side of her mouth.
“That was weird,” he said.
“Tell me about it,” she said.
They held each other’s hand as the jet climbed. They closed their eyes from exhaustion. They were both asleep when the jet finally leveled.
The first person Agent Marshall Thomas saw when he awoke from his coma was his wife. Her image was blurred. He heard her say that she loved him. He heard her crying.
He was out of the coma just under forty minutes. He tried but couldn’t move his arms. He wanted to sit up. He wanted to see without the blurring.
Thomas wasn’t sure what had happened to him. He couldn’t remember.
He watched as a nurse adjusted one of the intravenous tubes hanging from a stand. He felt sleepy again as the blur of a white uniform passed in front of him. He looked for his wife again. He saw that she was holding his hand. He closed his eyes as the touch of her hand registered somewhere in his brain.
When Beau Curitan’s body was found, it was by a pair of coyotes on the Arizona side of the Black Mountains. The coyotes had sniffed the flesh through the hastily made grave covered with dried sticks and branches. The blood from Beau’s fresh bullet wounds filled the air with his smell for the predators.
Beau had been shot twice in the back of the head. The coyotes licked at the blood from the bullet wounds first, but Beau’s skull impeded their feast. They pulled at his arms and legs until his body turned to one side. The coyotes found the softer flesh of Beau’s stomach and ate through it until they tasted his intestines. Then the coyotes growled at one another over pecking order.
Chapter 68
Two days later, when the police were finished with their investigation and they were finally alone, Charlie dressed Samantha’s leg wound with fresh gauze. They were in the living room. The new window had already been installed, but they were still missing a televisn.
They were listening to the intermezzo of Mascagni’s
“The dog likes it,” Samantha said.
“It’s therapeutic,” Charlie said. “It’s used to show the passage of time during the opera.”
“How do they wake the audience up?” Samantha asked.
“Gently,” Charlie said. “The ushers come and shake them gently.”
Samantha laughed.
Charlie moved to a chair in front of Samantha. He set her wounded leg across one of his knees.
“This is looking better,” he said.
“It’s going to be hot again tomorrow. One-twenty.”
“We’ll stay inside.”
Samantha petted the dog. “Carol is in California. I hope she’s okay.”
“I’m sure she is. Iandolli, one of the detectives, claims Beau won’t be a problem anymore.”
“Huh?” Samantha said.
“It’s nothing to bank on,” Charlie said. “But I’m sure Carol is safe now anyway. The guy can’t show his face anywhere after what he did.”
Samantha peeled some of the gauze back to air her wound. “Do you really think it’s over now?” she asked. “For you, I mean. For both of us?”
“Not according to Iandolli,” Charlie said. “You decapitated that particular gang, my dear. They’re officially headless. The one I nailed had outstanding warrants besides the new charges.”
Samantha frowned. “I wish I could believe it’s that easy.”
Charlie kissed her. “Maybe this time it is.”
They sat quietly for a while. When the music stopped, Charlie stood up to stretch. Samantha used the empty chair to rest her leg again.
“We’re missing something,” Charlie said.
“What’s that?”
“A nice, light aria.”
Samantha made a face.
“Trust me,” he said, “it’s better than Aerosmith.”
Charlie was at the stereo searching for a CD from the collection he had brought to Las Vegas. He held one up.
He set the disc in the CD player and pressed PLAY. He adjusted the volume as the first few strings of a harp were plucked. He sat on the couch alongside Samantha and kissed her cheek.
“What happens now?” she whispered in his ear.
Charlie pointed to the dog. “We need a bigger place,” he said.
“He can sleep with me,” Samantha said.
“What about me?”
“We’ll see.”
“You still holding a grudge?”
“I should.”
“I was -”
“Shhh,” she said. “I think I love you.”
Charlie could feel the dog moving on her lap. “You talking to me or the dog?”
Samantha reached for him. Charlie picked the dog up from her lap and set it on the couch. “There,” he said. “My turn.”
