Sly gave a strong, hearty laugh and it was impossible for me not to join in. God, I'd missed him.
"I'm sorry about Blackie," I said when we both recovered a little. Blackie Murphy had been the club founder and past president. He was also Sly's uncle on his mother's side. Sly had gone to live with him when he was ten. Blackie had been a right bastard and after seeing Sly one too many times with black eyes and cigarette burns on his arms, my mother brought him to stay with us from the time when we were about twelve years old on. I knew Blackie had finally succumbed to lung cancer.
Sly shook his head. "Thanks. But you and I both know it was time for Blackie to go."
And it had been. Not long after that, the membership had voted Sly in as president. What would have happened if I hadn't been locked up during all of it was the question that hung between us now. But I knew that wallowing in the what-ifs would sink me just as I'd finally started to feel like maybe I could breathe again.
"You're all right," Sly said and it was a question as much as it was a statement. "It's behind you."
I knew what he meant. "The feds have dropped all charges against me. There isn't going to be a new trial."
Sly shook his head and blew out hard. "Someday you're going to have to fill me in on all the details about how that went down. When Charlie blew out of here to get you, he said Tora had a hand in it."
I pressed my thumb against the table, wiping hard at a spot that wasn't there. My gut clenched at the mention of Tora. She was my daughter. One more person I'd been forced to leave behind when I'd been framed for federal drug trafficking. She was only ten years old when I went in. Twenty-three now, she'd grown into a beautiful, strong woman, just like my mother. And all of it without me. Now she had a life of her own but she was safe and whole. She was going to be okay. No thanks to me. She never gave up on me. She found a way to get me out even when I told her to forget about me. Just like I'd told the other woman in my life to forget about me.
"Most of it isn't my story to tell, Sly. It's Tora's. But yes, she was pretty much the key to finding evidence to get me out of that hell hole once and for all." I looked back down at the phantom smudge on the table. I didn't want to say anymore. Knowing what Tora did to find the evidence to free me was one more burden I had to carry. But just as I told Sly, that was Tora's story to tell, not mine.
Sly smiled. "She grew up to be something, didn't she? She's just like your mother."
I nodded. "That's the blessing in all of this, I guess. Mum and Da were gone long before I got locked up. It would have killed her anyway."
There was something else we needed to talk about but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not then. And it wasn't lost on me that Sly hadn't asked. I didn't know what that meant just then but it unsettled me. While my daughter managed to get me out of prison, the man responsible for putting me in was still out there drawing breath.
George Pagano. He was the head of one of the largest organized crime families still around. During Blackie's time, we drew a large part of our income from our association with them. But those days were gone now. Pagano wasn't. But today wasn't about that.
Sly sat back in his chair and looked off to a point on the wall. "They'd have known you were innocent, but yeah. I suppose that is some small blessing."
I ran a hand through my hair. "God. Enough of this sad shit. Tell me something good, Sly. Tell me about all of this." I waved my hand in a circular motion around the table.
Sly raised a brow, his lip curved into a broad smile. "We got there, Dex. Just about, anyway. All of the crap you and I dreamed of, it's happening. We have a stake in some real, legitimate businesses. It's taken me almost every day since Blackie died, but we have a future now. And I want you to be part of it. You are part of it."
I shook my head. I never would have believed Sly could shake off the specter of Blackie Murphy and the club's outlaw days in less than a decade. But it seemed he had.
"There's the bar," Sly went on. "The Wolf Den is a small chain. We've got 'em here, in Vegas, near Detroit. There's some merchandising that goes along with it. But the main thing is the gym. Some of the guys are going to take you out to GWG tomorrow if you're up for it. I want you to see what we've got set up."
"Shit, Sly." I whistled. "Don't tell me you've gone corporate."
He threw his head back and laughed. "We've always been corporate, Dex. It's just a matter of doing things that won't land us under law enforcement radar anymore."
His smile dropped. I knew he hadn't meant to bring the conversation down that fast and he really hadn't. I raised a brow and smiled to let him know it was all right.
"Come on then, already," Sly said, rising from the table. "Those guys are going to start tearing the place apart if you don't get out there and throw a few back with them. It's time to celebrate."
"Yeah. I know." I didn't move from my seat. There was one last thing I needed to know and it was the thing I'd dreaded asking from the moment I lit out of Illinois and headed west.
"I need you to tell me about Ava, Sly. I need to hear it from you."
Her name seemed to hang in the air between us. In the two thousand miles between here and Chicago, her name had been on my lips. It had been thirteen years but I remembered every single detail about her. The sweet smell of her hair, the feel of her lips when she kissed me. The curve of her hips when I pulled her close to me. Pain seared my palms and I realized I'd dug my nails into the flesh there. I had to know, but I almost didn't want to hear it.
"She's okay, Dex," Sly said. "It tore her up pretty bad when you went away. But you knew that. She's strong. Except for the train wreck that was Tora's mother, you made a habit of surrounding yourself with strong women. Ava was one of them. She's doing all right. You told her not to wait for you and she didn't. She made a life for herself."
While one weight lifted from my shoulders, it seemed another settled in its place. She made a life for herself. Good. It's what I wanted. It tore my guts out when I told her to forget about me. I told her I'd do the same. It was the biggest lie I'd ever told. But now I had to live with it. I remembered her face, the tears she cried when she came to see me at Marion. I'd been cruel. I'd been definite. I didn't want her to ever come back to that place. Not for me, not for anything. At the time, there was no hope I'd ever see the light of day again. They sent me away for life. I set her free.
I stood up from my chair and Sly put an arm around me. He said some things as we walked toward the door together. He opened it and I was greeted to a chorus of cheers, old familiar faces and new friends, all raising their glasses to me. It was good. It was home. But all I could think about was the girl I left behind.
I had no right to ask if I could see her now. No right to even ask where she was. When I said goodbye, I meant forever.
It turns out forever can sneak up on you faster than you think.
Chapter Two
Ava
"All right, Mrs. Pulaski, you just count to three and you won't even feel the stick." The old woman gave me a dubious scowl as her clouded gray eyes narrowed to slits.
"Don't you let that very large black man come near me!"
Keeping a firm but careful grip on Mrs. Pulaski's left arm, I glanced over my shoulder. Cal, the very large black man in question, shook his head and gave a shrug.
"We're just trying to help you, Mrs. Pulaski," he said. I didn't like the look of the angry welt on Cal's cheek where she had scratched him when he tried to help her onto the gurney. She apparently also tried to kick him in the balls when he put her in his rig to transport her to my E.R.
I turned back to her. "Cal's going to stay right where he is, I promise. Now you just do what I said. Give me a quick three count and we'll get you feeling better in no time. You're dehydrated."
She gave me a defiant harrumph but started counting. I rolled her arm quickly and got the needle catheter in on the two count. Before she could move, I pulled the needle and hooked up her lines. She gave me a sweet smile as I untied the tourniquet from her bony upper arm. Her skin was soft and brittle like crepe paper. I patted her on the knee.
"Nice moves, Nurse O," Cal said from the corner. I shushed him. Mrs. Pulaski did better when she focused just on me. I smiled back at her.
"You just give that a little time and you're going to feel good as new." Her eyes narrowed to slits again as she watched the fluids drip into her arm. I checked the bag and slid the IV stand as far behind the bed as I could so she couldn't reach it.
"Now you stay put," I said. "The doctor is going to be here in just a second. Can we call Judy for you now?"
Misty, the World's Greatest Nursing Assistant, poked her curly red head around the curtain and wagged her eyebrows at me. I smiled and jerked my chin up. She smiled and nodded. We were under control now. On a scale of one to ten, Delores Pulaski was only at about a five on her usual difficulty meter. She suffered from advanced Alzheimer's and had a habit of wandering off from her daughter Judy's apartment. This was the third time in a month. She really needed round-the-clock care but Judy Pulaski couldn't afford it. We did the best we could for her. For now, some electrolytes and blood pressure meds would set her to rights. Next time, she might not be so lucky. Unfortunately, there was really no way Social Services wouldn't have to get involved now.