C Box - Below Zero

There was a phone on the wall of the dining room, past Corey Talich. No way she could get around him to use it. But there had to be another one somewhere, right? Maybe down the hall? Upstairs?

Nathanial saying, “You lied to us, Leo. You said the boss was dying and squealing to the feds. You said come with you and we’d be all right…”

Stenko saying, “The money, Leo. My money. I know you well enough to know you’ve got cash here. I need that cash and I need all the account numbers and passwords so I can get the rest.”

Corey saying, “I know where the safe is, Stenko. It’s in his office under the desk. I seen it there.”

She thought, his office. There would be a phone in the office. How to get there, though, without being noticed?

Leo saying, “I know I did the wrong thing, Stenko. I know now. I guess I panicked, you know? I shoulda trusted you to do the right thing, but… you know. I mean, we all screw up at times, right? Everybody screws up. I’ll come back-it’ll be like it used to be…”

Nathanial reaching over and slapping him again, hard.

“Jesus, Natty!” Leo complained, his voice cracking with a sob.

“Tell Stenko the fucking numbers for the safe!” Nathanial hissed, leaning in so close to Leo their foreheads were touching.

Leo sobbed out the combination.

Stenko pushed away from the table, saying, “I’ll go get the cash, Leo. But you’ll sit right here and write down the account numbers and the passwords to all the offshore accounts. ALL OF THEM. And you’ll have them all written on that napkin by the time I get back.”

Leo stared dumbly at the napkin and the pen on the table until Nathanial leaned over and cuffed him on the back of his head.

She felt sorry for Leo, who looked weak and soft. He didn’t look evil. He just looked like a man being picked on by bullies. The concept of men hitting men distressed her. They were like overgrown children, no better than animals. She knew the world could be like this-and was-but she wanted no part of it. She wanted to grow up. She wanted to get away.

On the way to the office Stenko saw her standing there and for a brief moment she saw the face and eyes of a monster, a man she’d not seen since that evening in the campground. And although he softened when he saw her, the image lingered, hung in the air like a mask.

“I told you to stay outside,” he said to her. “I don’t want you to see this.”

She didn’t respond, but she hoped her being there would make him change his mind, rethink what he was doing.

It didn’t.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“No,” Stenko said. “I don’t want you around right now. Go outside, April. This will be over soon.”

The way he said it sent a new chill through her.

She said, “I don’t know where Robert is. I don’t know where to go…”

“Out,” Stenko said, raising his voice to her for the first time. “Out. Now.” He paused to make sure she obeyed, and she turned for the door. As she crossed the floor toward the door, she looked over her shoulder to make sure he’d entered the office. He had. So instead of going out through the screen door, she pushed it open hard and let the spring bang it back. Stenko would think she was outside rather than down the hallway. She glanced back to see if the Talich Brothers were watching her. They weren’t. She ducked into the dark hallway, looking for a phone.

While Leo scribbled numbers on a napkin at the table, she could hear him muttering to the Talich Brothers, saying now was their chance to take over the operation, that he’d show them how, that they could become equal partners in everything like they deserved to be, that they didn’t have to answer to Stenko ever again, that it could all be theirs.

She paused and looked back down the hall into the dining room. She could tell Corey was listening. Chase, too. Both of them glanced toward the office where Stenko was, then exchanged looks.

Leo stopped writing. He knew he had their attention. His voice was more urgent. As he talked, blood from his broken mouth flecked the napkin on the table. He said, “Stenko is in his last act, like I told you. He plans to take the money and run. He’ll probably give it all to his useless son. The whole operation-all the businesses, the casinos, the real estate-it’ll all go away. You’ll have to start over somewhere. Me, too. And we’re too damn old to start over now…”

And she heard Chase ask Corey, “What do you think?”

And Corey say, “He has a point. Stenko doesn’t look right. There’s definitely something wrong with him.”

They talked as if she weren’t down the hall at all, like she was invisible. She had to find a phone, but she needed to warn Stenko. She couldn’t let him come out of the office into a trap. But how to let him know?

Nathanial missed the exchange between his brothers, but he’d heard Leo. He slapped him again, said, “How do I know you’re not lying again, Leo?”

The slap must have stung, because there were tears in Leo’s eyes. He glared at Nathanial and said, “Stop hitting me,” in a little-boy voice.

Nathanial hit him again, this time with his fist. Leo’s head snapped back and thumped the wall with enough force that a picture in a frame came loose and crashed to the ground.

“Natty!” Corey said sharply.

Nathanial ignored him and hit Leo again. “He’s a lying little shit. He’ll never turn anything over to us. He’ll keep it all because everything’s in his head. He’s been planning this for years, Corey. He’s not going to just hand it over to us now.”

And he hit Leo again, knocking him to the floor.

Tears filled her eyes and she wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know what to do.

Then Nathanial said, “Hey…” and she saw that he was distracted by something he saw in the pasture outside the window. “Who is this asshole?”

“What asshole?” Corey asked.

“Some pretty-boy asshole,” Nathanial said. “Creeping around out there in the bushes.”

Leo managed to pull himself back up by grabbing the edge of the table. When he stood, he wobbled.

Nathanial said, “Who is that?”

Leo sighed, “It’s Robert. Stenko’s loser son. The one he’s gonna give his money to. Robert thinks he wants to save the planet or some damned thing.”

“What’s he doing here?” Nathanial asked.

From the corner near the bookcase, Chase said: “Ambush.”

The way he said it made a chill creep through her scalp.

Nathanial barked a laugh and tapped on the glass with the muzzle of a.45. “Hey, you! Trust fund boy? What the fuck you doing in the bushes? You here to ambush us?”

There was a loud sharp pop from outside, and a pane of the window glass shattered. Nathanial grunted, “Ung,” and stepped back.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. The window imploded.

Nathanial doubled over like someone had punched him in the stomach. Corey and Chase dived out of the way.

She didn’t see Leo reach up under the table and pull a pistol loose that had been taped there all along, point it at the window, and start shooting. The pistol still had strips of tape on it. The shots were so loud inside the house that her ears rang from them.

Stenko materialized at the entrance to the hallway holding a large cardboard box that appeared heavy. He’d ducked and snatched the napkin from the table and it was crumpled in one of his fists. He saw her, yelled, “Run, April!” and started toward her. He spun and ran. There was a door at the end of the hallway with a window that streamed light, and she ran toward it. Stenko was behind her.

One of the Talich Brothers yelled, “Stenko! Stop!” but she felt him close in on her and she was relieved to find the outside door unlocked.