A Sin For A Sin

My eyes never leave the door, sliding open slowly. Gazarra is ranting, waving the gun around like a maniac. I'm hardly even hearing what he's saying anymore, because my heart is beating too loudly. The door opens enough so I can see Frank standing in the hall, gun in his hands. We make eye contact and then he quickly brings his attention to Gazarra.

"Eddie." he says. Gazarra stops turns his head to look at Frank and then in one fluid movement, moves to grab me. All I can see is his gun coming up towards my face and then I hear a gunshot. I scream and jump away with my eyes closed. Then I hear a body fall to the floor with a thump in front of me. I open my eyes and look down at Gazarra. Frank shot him in the shoulder, not a life threatening injury, but debilitating. He groans in agony and crawls over to sit against the wall, leaving a trail of blood across the floor. Frank crosses the room, kicks Eddie's gun into the kitchen and then crouches down beside him. I plunk down on my coffee table and start taking deep breaths. I can hear Frank trying to talk to Gazarra.

"Why didn't you come to me? I could have helped you." Frank says.

"You...can't help...me anymore. I killed my wife." Gazarra says on a ragged breath.

"Jesus, Eddie." Gazarra passes out and Frank stands and walks over to me. I stand up and fall into his arms.

"Are you OK?" he asks.

"Yeah. God, I thought he shot you."

"I'm OK. Let's get you out of here." he puts his arm around my shoulder and guides me out to the hallway just as the elevator opens and John and Dom run up to us. They both skid to a stop in front of the door and look in.

"What the hell happened. Is he dead?" Dom asks.

"No. I got him in the shoulder. Medics are on their way. I thought I told you to stay away from here."

"The fuck if I was gonna do that." The elevator opens again and two EMT's run up. Frank nods them into my apartment.

"I'll be right back." he tells us. I walk over and lean against the wall opposite my apartment. John stands facing me.

"How are you holding up?"

"Not the best. But I'm past the point of vomiting or passing out."

"It'll be OK."

"Dom's going to be alright. He's not going to jail." I say.

"Nope. I'm right here." Dom tells me, his eyes flicker into my apartment and then to the elevator, obviously waiting for the cops to show up.

"You called Frank?" I ask.

"Yeah. Luckily he was in the neighborhood. I thought it was weird when you never came out of the bedroom, so I went in there and you had skipped out. I panicked. I couldn't get ahold of John, so I just called Frank. He told me to stay at the house, but as soon as Johnny got back we came over here. I knew something was wrong. For some reason, I just knew that Gazarra would be here."

"I'm just glad it wasn't you who showed up. He would have killed you." Neither of us say what we all know, that Dom would have killed him first and not just given him a mercy shot like Frank.

The elevator opens and two cops come out. Frank meets them at the door and they talk in whispers for a minute, the two cops look over at Dom a few times, but they don't say anything to him. They all walk into my apartment and I let out a shaky breath. We watch silently as the EMT's wheel Gazarra out on a stretcher and take him to the elevator. Dom's eyes harden a little, but he doesn't say anything. Frank comes out and walks over to us.

"They need to take your statement, but if you're not ready, we can do it tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow would be good."

"I'm gonna call the owners of your building and have them pay to clean everything up. Do you have somewhere to stay?"

"Yeah, she does." John tells him before I can say anything. Frank nods and looks at Dom then.

"Looks like you're clear. I'm sorry about everything." Dom nods.

"What are you going to do about finding Anna's body?" he asks.

"After Eddie gets out of surgery we'll question him. I have a feeling he'll tell us where she is."

"Let me know what you find out." he says.

"I will." Frank says, then returns to my apartment. John puts his arm around me, pulling me into him and kisses me just above my ear.

"Let's get out of here." he whispers. I nod and the three of us take the elevator down to the lobby.

************************************************

A week later, I walk into John's house after Anna's funeral. I'm wearing my short black skirt with a matching blazer, black stockings and black pumps. To my surprise he's home early. I drop my big black bag on the floor by the door and walk into the kitchen.

"Hey, how did the funeral go?" he asks.

"It was a nice service. Frank showed up."

Eddie spilled his guts as soon as he got out of surgery. They found Anna's body buried in a patch of state land on the edge of town. She was strangled to death. Eddie pled guilty and was admitted to the ward for the criminally insane to wait for sentancing.

The owners of my apartment building decided to remodel my entire living room while I was gone, so I've been staying with John. Dom skipped out the day after they found Anna's body. He said he was going somewhere to chill and absorb everything for a while and he didn't know when he'd be back.

"I saw the service go by when I was on my way home."

"Yeah, I didn't think it would be appropriate to go to the graveside service. I mean, it's not like I knew Anna very well... But she was the mother of my...niece or nephew. And I had to go for Dom." I say. This all has hit me way harder than I thought. Dom leaving really hit me. When one of my siblings is in pain, we're all in pain and my whole family is in a state of mourning right now.

"You don't have to act strong in front of me," he says, "It's OK to fall apart."

"I've already done that a few times. I'm alright." he comes over and gives me a tight hug.

"I ordered some food. It's on it's way." he says.

"Chinese?" I ask, hopefully.

"You bet. And I bought a six pack." I smile.

"Thanks for sticking around through all of this. I swear my life is usually very boring."

"Cupcake, your life is far from boring."