“Hello?” Frankie answers after two rings.
“You alone?” I ask before saying anything of importance, just in case.
“Yeah, Dominic. What’s the plan?”
“Meet me in the garage at Isle of Capri in thirty minutes,” I tell Frankie, then I hang up without giving him time to respond.
“Why thirty minutes? We’re only ten minutes away.” Alannah asks, with a furrowed brow.
“I know, but we need to get there before he does, so I can make sure he shows up alone.”
Alannah nods her head in understanding as I veer onto the highway towards Isle of Capri. Every time I think of the Isle, I can’t help but remember what happened the first time I took Alannah there, when a goon walked up to the window and started shooting at us, sending glass shards and bullets flying through the restaurant. He didn’t hit us, but he hit an innocent bystander in his attempt on my life. It was a really bad way for Alannah to start her life in St. Louis, but my crew found the shooter later, and I’m sure he and Tommy are burning side by side in hell.
I hold out hope that we can avoid the same fate at Isle of Capri this time around, as I pull up to a stoplight at the bottom of an exit ramp off the highway. I do another survey of the surrounding cars as my anxiety suspicion up again: Ford Escape, Tahoe, F-150, Denali, Honda Accord, Lexus. I don’t think any of them look familiar, so I relax and press the gas.
We enter the city, and Isle of Capri is only a couple of blocks away. I can even see the sign for the casino two stoplights ahead of us, and I almost feel at ease for the first time during the ride over, as we reach the second-to-last light. I do another survey just in case: Denali, Lincoln Towncar, Explorer, Expedition, Supra. None of them look familiar except one, and I feel my brow furrow as I look at it. Directly behind us is a Red Lincoln Denali. The driver has his sun visor down, obscuring his face, but I can tell he’s a big guy.
Am I being paranoid? Did I see a Denali tailing us when we left River City, or did this one just happen to pull up as we came to this stoplight? I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want to alert Alannah for no reason, so I decide not to say anything right now. The light turns green and I drive away, the red Denali still directly behind us. There’s only one light left before we make the turn into the garage at Isle of Capri. Just one more light.
If life were perfect, there’s no way the last light before we reach our destination would turn red. It’d stay green, and Alannah and I would just roll right into the protection of the underground garage. Even if we weren’t protected by the concrete structure, if the Denali followed us underground, then I’d know we were being followed, and I could act accordingly. If we had any luck at all, the stupid light would just stay green for another ten seconds so we could go through it. But there just isn’t enough luck in the world.
The light turns red too early for me to keep going, and I slow the car to a stop. I look in the rearview mirror to check for the Denali, but to my surprise, it’s gone. I even adjust the mirror to try to get a better look of the view behind us, but there aren’t any cars there now.
“What’s the matter? You see something?” I hear Alannah ask with worry coating her words.
“It’s nothing,” I reply with another sigh of relief as I turn to face the front. When I turn my head, out of my peripheral vision, I see red. The Denali is right next to us.
My head snaps over to see who the driver is, and my heart sinks as I recognize him.
His name is Giovanni Cirillo, and he’s here for me.
The bald driver has his head turned in our direction, and all I can do is watch as his hand comes into view holding a pistol. The light just couldn’t have been green for five more seconds.
“Get down!” I scream, as I grab Alannah and pull her down just as the popping begins. Glass shatters and catapults, landing on our backs and heads as I unbuckle Alannah’s seatbelt and push her down into the lowest part of the car. I roll myself up into a ball as I lay on the floor and the bullets buzz by, piercing metal only inches away from and Alannah. It seems like it lasts forever, the deafening blare of gunfire and whizzing bullets mixed with Alannah’s panicked screams.
In the middle of it all, I realize how close the bullets are to hitting her—to hitting our child—and my blood boils with rage. I don’t know who the fuck this bitch thinks he’s shooting at, but he obviously has me confused with somestronzowho would duck and hide while watching the mother of his child being shot to death.
You better remember it forever. I’m Dominic Collazo.
While protecting my head, I reach under my seat and grab my nine millimeter, and I waste no time chambering a round. I lift my hand and start pulling the trigger, completely disregarding aim. As Giovanni stops shooting, I get up to a seated position and start popping off rounds as fast as my finger can possibly pull the trigger. Giovanni responds by stepping on the gas as my bullets pierce his door and shatter his windshield, I hear screeching tires and a roaring engine. My heart hammers in my chest and I can feel my blood surging through my veins.
“Alannah!” I scream after I fire my last round. I pull her up from the floor and start to look her over. “Are you hit? Are you hit?”
“I don’t know,” she responds. “I don’t think so. I don’t know. Oh my god.”
I inspect her body from top to bottom, ignoring the shattered glass on my head and the blood rolling down my arm.
“You’re bleeding!” Alannah screams, reaching for me, but I smack her hand away.
“I have to make sure you’re okay!Bothof you!” I snap, totally focused on her and the growing fetus in her belly. Once I see she isn’t hit, I can think clearer. “Okay, now we need to go.”
Ignoring the bullet holes and blood from a wound I can’t see, I reposition myself in the driver’s seat and look to drive away from the scene of the crime, but before I can release the clutch and step on the gas, I see something ahead of us that makes me stop.
“Shit. Get out, now!” I scream as my eyes catche the image of the red Denali speeding towards us.
I hear Alannah screaming, but her body is still moving. She gets out of the car as fast as she can, and I climb out on her side behind her, just as the Denali hits the Challenger head on with a violent crash that sounds like a bomb just went off. Giovanni looks dazed for a second, but quickly shakes it off and searches the street for something—for me. When he relocates me, he wastes no time aiming his gun again.
I’m out of ammo, and my other guns are in the car the Denali has all but crushed. There’s nothing left to do now but try to protect Alannah and the baby. I grab her by the hand and force her to run inside a department store directly behind us as the gunfire starts up again. The glass of the store’s door explodes as we run towards the back. It’s like a warzone all around us as clothes jump and fly off the racks from the jolt of bullets zipping through them and I push Alannah from behind. But before we can reach the back door, I hear one last pop from behind us, followed by a searing pain in my left leg.
