The Gambler(16)

Jameson and Garrett got on the boat with them of course, but it was  gramps he entrusted her to. "Keep pressure on her shoulder gramps, I  think it was a through and through." Turning to the throttle, he sped  across the water with his heart in his throat. She could've died. Why  the fuck did she do it? He knew the answer to that of course, she was  trying to save him and probably had.

He couldn't think about the fact that she was back there bleeding and  unconscious, as he sped towards home. His only focus was on what he had  to do once they got there. Thank fuck there wasn't too much traffic on  the water or he would've probably crashed at the rate he was going.





He pulled up to his dock and waited for Garrett to hop out and tie them  off, before taking her from the old man. "Call Dr. Pruitt, tell him to  get here yesterday." He was moving as he threw the order over his  shoulder to the old man. Inside he yelled for his housekeeper even as  Willy came rushing to the door. "Sue I need you upstairs."

"What happened to her?" She came rushing over to his side as he made his way up the stairs.

"She's been shot."

"Oh the poor little thing."

He placed her on their bed and hovered as the woman started tending to  her. Now that the danger had passed and he'd got her home safely, he  felt the full effects of what had happened, what could've happened. His  knees started to shake when he saw all the blood that had soaked through  the top of her dress. Shit, he hadn't even shaken like that the one  time he'd been shot.

She was bleeding like stink and he started to worry that maybe it was  worst than he'd thought. "How bad?" He looked over Sue's shoulder, as  she eased the dress away from the wound. There was a deep gash where the  bullet had sliced through her skin.

He saw red in that instant and wished he'd done more than shoot the  fucker that had done that to her. Now for the rest of their lives he'd  always be reminded that she'd taken a bullet for him, had risked her own  life, which was worth so much more than his, to spare him a bullet to  the heart.





Chapter 13





The doc showed up half an hour later and took over. "She's gonna need stitches."

"Fuck, can we give her something to knock her out? She's asleep now but I  don't want her to wake up with a needle in her skin, she'd freak the  fuck out." Alice had hated needles, was petrified of the shits.

"I don't want to risk it since she's been unconscious since this  happened. Let's just see how it goes." He climbed on the bed beside her  and held her while the other man cleaned the wound. The whole time he  was praying that she didn't wake up. He couldn't bear the thought of her  suffering anymore than she already had.

This is all my fault, why am I such a fuck up? I'll protect you. Yeah,  two days with you and she's already been shot. Some protector you are,  you can't be fucking trusted. He beat himself up with every pierce of  the needle into her precious skin. This shit ends today. I'll level the  whole fucking city until every last Bonata is in the ground. That  thought sustained him and brought him back from the brink.         

     



 

"I think she'll be okay, it wasn't as bad as it looked." The doctor closed up his bag and prepared to leave.

"Stick around doc, you have to take a look at gramps and I need you here when she wakes up, she might need something."

"I'll have a look at your grandfather, but he called me away in the  middle of … I'll stick around." The look Andros gave him didn't bode well  if he didn't.

He stayed there with her wrapped in his arms, just staring at the wall,  willing her to wake up. It was an hour later when he heard Vito's voice  downstairs and remembered the mother. He hated like hell to leave her,  but he needed answers. He called Sue back up the stairs to watch over  her while he took care of business.





She was sitting in the study, a little slip of a woman in her early  fifties. He could see some of his flower in her, in the hair and the  mouth, but that was it. His Jenna's beauty came from somewhere else  altogether he was sure. She looked up from the book she'd been reading  when he walked in. Her eyes widened as she stood.

"Are you Andros?"

"Yes."

"You're hurt." He looked down and noticed the blood that covered him for the first time.

"That's your daughter's blood. Your friend Bonata's doing."

"Jenna, where is she is she …

"She's alive no thanks to you and your family. I need some answers and  you're going to give them to me, and trust me lady, the mood I'm in, you  do not want to fuck with me. I have the need to shed blood and yours  will do just as well as any other." She backed away back to her seat.

"What is it that you want to know?"

"For starters what the fuck were the Bonatas using her for?"

"I don't …

He drew his gun and pointed it at her. "I told you, don't fuck with me."

"It was nothing, she just helped them out a little with … stuff."

"What kinda stuff?"

"I don't know I swear. Look she was good with numbers and other things.  She hears things that no one else does, and sees things I guess. It  started when she was a teenager. The men made such a big deal out of it,  all these things that I didn't understand.

So when they made such a big deal and then Mr. Bonata came to me and  asked me to let her help them with the business, I saw nothing wrong  with it. I was so proud of her, finally there was something she was good  at. And she seemed to enjoy it, I never would've agreed otherwise."

"Do you know what kind of business she was helping them with?"

"I don't know, computers or something like that. We got her one for Xmas  when she was sixteen and she became a whole new person. When they told  me how good she was, a genius they said. My daughter who'd been shunned  all her life could do something these great men were amazed at. I was so  proud of my girl."

"They trained her to be a fucking criminal you ass."

"No … they never said … I thought … "

"Were they paying her?"

"She … Jenna doesn't understand money and stuff like that. Her father and I took a little something."

"And what did she get out of it?" She took a minute to answer.

"When she was little, each time she did something good, or learned something new, I gave her chocolate."

"I'll wring your fucking neck you bitch. You and your husband and your  piece a shit son got rich off of her and you gave her chocolate? Tell me  why I shouldn't put two in your head?"

"I didn't know what they were doing I swear to you."

"I don't believe you. Do you know how fucking special she is? She's  worth more than all of you combined." He was pissed beyond measure,  hearing her talk so casually about squandering her daughter's gift for  something so dark, and to gain from it …





"Who is senator Winthrop?"

"I don't know the name doesn't sound familiar." He studied her to see if  she was telling him the truth. There was something amiss he was sure,  but he was too fucked up to think straight.

"Your daughter in law's sister was working for me, was she a plant?"  Again she took her time answering and he could see the fear coming off  of her in waves.         

     



 

"Yes."

"Why? I never had any dealings with the Bonatas. What the fuck did they want with me?"

"That was Jenna's doing?"

"What?" Her answer threw him. Eileen had been working for him for two years; he'd only known Jenna for two days. "Explain.

"She saw you. He felt that tingling shit down his spine again.

"In a news article I think it was. She kept calling you Angel. At first I  thought it was because she had difficulty saying your name, but then  she started talking crazy. Saying how you were her angel and you were  gonna come for her."

"Two years?"

"Yes, Alphonso Bonata didn't like it, and we couldn't understand what  was going on in her head, but with everything else that she was capable  of, they got spooked I think. He thought it was a good idea to keep an  eye on you just in case." His thoughts were racing; this was all crazy.  How could she have known about him when he'd never heard of her? Maybe  the same way Alice had known that you'd meet a woman who would call you  her Angel.

He stormed out of the room sick to his stomach. He had even more questions now than when he started.

"Will you take me to her?"

"Lady of you go anywhere near her I'll throw you off the fucking roof."  He slammed the door as he left. "She stays in there, if she tries to  come near those stairs shoot her." He headed back up the stairs after  giving his man those orders.





Chapter 14





JENNA



"ANGEL."

"Shh, shh, it's okay."

"Hey I know you."

"I know." The pretty lady took her hand and started leading her away.