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“Right.” Carlo smacks himself lightly on the forehead with the hand holding the gun, like he’d forgotten to close the garage door when he left home. “Tony.” He holds out his hand, snapping his fingers at Tony until the other man deposits a shiny silver silencer into Carlo’s hand. Carlo grins as he spins the cylinder into place on the end of the gun.
“There’s that taken care of. Now, out of the way. This bitch is dead. Run off with my with kid. The fuck? I said move,” Carlo bellows at Liam.
The door splinters open, sending Tony flying across the room. When Carlo spins toward the noise, Liam sweeps at the back of his leg, buckling the man over. Liam grabs him around the neck and tries to wrestle him to floor.
The room is so loud now, Peters is shouting and police are pouring through the door. Tony is one the floor, arms jacked up behind him, cuffs clicking into place as an officer yells into his ear for him to stay still.
Liam’s trying to wrestle Carlo to the ground. The light reflecting off the silencer flashes in Willow’s eyes. She blinks, the scene suddenly coming into sharp relief around her. She watches in stunned silence for a minute, until she hears Liam grunt when one of Carlo’s elbows find a place in his ribs.
Willow launches herself off the chair and lands on Carlo’s back, sinking her teeth into his ear. He bellows and tries to shake her off. Willow bites harder and something coppery oozes across her teeth. Carlo’s bellow becomes a scream. Willow feels something come lose in her mouth, something rubbery and crunchy and salty warm. She spits and the tip of Carlo’s ear lands on the floor. Carlo sways under her and she let’s go of him just before he slides to floor and lands on his face with a thud. Carlo fainted.
Liam is staring at Willow. She looks at him and wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand. It comes away red.
“What?”
Liam shakes his head pulls her into his arms. Willow watches as police officers pull Carlo up and lock his arms behind him. His eyes flutter open and he peers up at Willow blearily. She grins at him, she can still taste the tang of his blood in her teeth.
“Bitch,” he slurs at her “you’re fucking dead, you hear me. You and him. And the kid, too.” Peters clips him across the temple and he slumps back into unconsciousness. Two officers haul him out of the room and down the stairs.
Willow shakes her head, taking in the room around her. The place is destroyed, chairs and tables knocked over, Carlo’s gun glinting at them from the floor and spatters of his blood staining the carpet. Willow doesn’t care anymore. She turns her face into Liam’s chest and cries silently.
She feels a soft touch on her back but doesn’t look up.
“Let’s get you folks down to the station. Get your boy back. And talk about where you’re going after this.”
Willow doesn’t say anything as Liam leads her out of the room and down to the waiting police car.
Epilogue
Somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains
Willow is peering through the kitchen window as Liam chases Frank through the bright green grass surround their cabin. She grins at their antics and turns to pull a blueberry pie of the oven. Liam and Frank found the blueberries on a walk yesterday and they were plump and juicy and begging to baked into a pie. She places it on the table to cool and wanders out onto the porch that surrounds their homey little cabin. Willow pulls in a deep breath of fresh mountain air, loving the tingling in her chest.
“Mommy, mommy. I found a bug.” Frank yells at her. He’s stopped his game of tag and is bent over a small bush in the corner of their yard, poking at the yellow flowers that bloom profus
ely over the bush.
“Eww,” she laughs back at him.
Liam grins at them both and heads over to the garden, checking on the dampness of the earth and pinching at a few brown leaves. Then, he turns and studies the road leading up to their mountain home, looking for cars he doesn’t recognize. When he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he turns back to the garden.
Willow couldn’t imagine a more perfect life if she tried.
After the police had taken them to the station, they’d made immediate arrangements for Willow, Liam and Frank to be placed into the Witness Protection Program. They gave them new identities and moved them away to a small town Liam remembered from his wanderings around the country after his prison stint. It was a sweet little town, nestled into a valley in the center of the mountains and protected from the outside world by a single road in and protective population. Willow had never felt safer. It was good place for Frank to grow up. Willow rubs her hands over the belly that’s just beginning to burgeon underneath her clothes. It would be a good place for her little girl to grow up, too.
At first, she was scared here. She remembered Carlo’s shouted threats as the police dragged him away. She was sure he was going find them again and kill them all. She spent her nights wandering the house, making sure all the windows were shut tight and the locks were engaged. Then, she and Liam followed the televised trail with interest. Carlo’s entire empire was dismantled and his security and compatriots turned on him and each other to keep themselves out of trouble. The trial lasted months, with Carlo eventually being found guilty of over one hundred and fifty different charges from extortion to murder. Willow finally lost her fear when he was given the death sentence.
As for Harriet, she was put in the joint for a long time. Even with her new name, she couldn’t help but get into trouble. She mixed with the wrong man, but instead of her turning him into the police, he caught up with her and did the honor of turning her in. It was poetic justice and enough for Liam to let sleeping dogs lie, especially when he received the divorce papers and was officially not married to her anymore
That’s when she knew her life with Liam and Frank could finally start. That’s when she started sleeping with the windows open and Liam stopped searching the roads and the woods for threats.
Frank, luckily doesn’t seem to remember much about what went on. He doesn’t talk about their time in California or ask about the apartment or the library. Willow hopes that his memories of their time there has been wiped out by the move to here. Sometimes, she catches him with a thoughtful look on his face and when she asks him what he’s thinking he’ll look at her strangely before giving her one of his bright Frank grins and saying “Just pie. The cherry kind.”
She calls Liam and Frank inside for dinner. She gets to cook dinner every night now and has been testing recipes on Liam that she’s planning to serve in her new café when it opens up in town. He loves her blueberry scones but didn’t think much of her zucchini muffins. Meatloaf sandwiches are going to be their specialty. She’s also found the perfect striped curtains for the windows.
Liam and Frank clatter up the wooden steps to the porch, bringing the smell of dirt and grass and happiness with them. Liam proudly shows off a tiny green worm he found clinging to the side of a flower and Liam hugs her from behind, his hands sliding around to cup protectively at her belly. Frank is very excited about becoming a big brother. Or a “bug” brother as he calls himself. He chatters incessantly about his little sister and about all the bugs he’s going to teach her about. He wants to name her Lady, after the ladybug, of course. Liam has told him they’ll consider it. Willow just rolls her eyes.
They live quietly and occasionally her grandparents come to visit. They’re even discussing being part of their grandchild’s life and maybe move to the mountains themselves.
