Two months go by, almost completely without incident.
I spend all day at school and Nino doesn't bother to come home at night1 anymore. I know he spends his nights in Pilar Santos' bed. He told me so himself. "I'll be sure to say hello to Danny for you," he had sneered that first night as he breezed through our bedroom on his way out the door.
I hadn't replied.
I've become the quiet little submissive wife for Nino and that's fine by me.
Let him think he has me where he wants me. Let him think he's won.
I lay awake in bed at night letting a thirst for vengenance turn cold and icy within me, nuturing my hate until it's as blossomed and showy as one of Benard's prized roses.
Nothing breaks through the frost. Not my schoolwork, not my friends, not even my brother.
Nothing that is, until the night Danny called.
I was sitting in bed, studying chemistry, and thanking God that Nino was gone again when the phone rang.
I absentmindedly picked it up,my mind still in a world of protons and electrons. "Hello?"
"Michelle."
My fingers had automatically tightened around the receiver, but I had kept my voice cool and collected. "What do you want,Danny?"
He sighed. "I wish I knew. I just...I guess I just wanted to hear your voice."
That almost broke me. Everything in my being screamed for me to tell him that I'd missed him too, that I wanted him there with me to take away all the ugliness that had invaded my life.I wanted his arms around me. I wanted his lips on mine. I needed those things.I needed them so bad it scared me. But I had remained silent until he said, in a very soft voice that crept over me like mist, "Do you miss me?"
"No," I replied stonily.
"Liar."
And then he hung up.
I sat in bed for nearly an hour that night, holding the phone to my heart, telling myself that there was no room for Danny Santos in my life and wanting him in it desperately anyway.
I sit by that same phone now, again trying to study. I haven't seen Nino for two days.
When the phone rings, I jump.I find myself, once again, both praying it's Danny and hoping it's not all at once.
It's not. But it is a Santos.
"Michelle Rivera? "
The voice is soft, feminine, with a slight, breathy lilt and I know at once it's Pilar.She's been crying.
Before I can ask her why she called, she begins to sob.
"I-I know y-you must h-hate me, but please, please, listen to me!"
Panic tugs somewhere deep within me. "What is it,Pilar?"
"It's Nino...Nino and Danny. My brother, he asked Nino to meet him at the docks tonight and Nino agreefd. But j-just before he...he...um..." At least she has the good grace to appear embarrassed.
"Before my husband left your bed?" I ask bluntly.
"Yes," she says softly. "Befiore Nino left, I overheard Dany on the phone. Michelle, he means to kill Nino. Tonight. Because of you."
My heart actually freezes in my chest. "What?"
"You have to stop him, Mihelle," Pilar begs me, her voice taking on a hysterical edge.
"I-I'll call the police," I say weakly,my head spinning. Danny kill Nino because of me? How can he know what Nino did to me?
"No!" PIlar shrieks. "NO police. They'll arrest Danny and I love my brother,Michelle."
Her voice grows softer. "But I love Nino too. Only you can stop him, Michelle. Please!"
"Alright," I hear myself say. "I'll go."
I hang up the phone as if in a trance. In the darkest corner of my heart, I know I want Danny to succeed tonight, but I can't let him ruin his life because of me.
I won't.
I grab my keys and run out the door.
The docks are quiet when I get there.
I listen hard, trying to catch the sounds of two achingly familiar voices raised in anger.
But there are no voices. Only the soft lapping of the water against the wooden piers. It makes me think of when I was little and my dad used to take me fishing, not far from this very spot.
I remember those sunny afternoons so clearly. I can still feel Dad ruffling my hair and saying, "You were born under a lucky star, sunshine. I just know it."
What if he could see me now?
"Nino?" I call out hesitantly. "Danny?"
There's no reply, only the sift whispering of wind and water.
"Nino?" I call again.
"Here I am, dear."
I whirl around at the sneering voice to see Nino standing an a shadow.Even through the darkness, I can see the white of his teeth as he smiles and the glint a beam of moonlight casts on the gun in his hand.
It's at that moment that I know it wasn't Nino walking into a trap.
It was me.
My knees go weak and I feel bile rise up in my throat as I look at that gun, pointed straight at me.
"Pilar-" I murmur numbly.
"Quite the actress, isn't she?" Nino beams, like he's some sort of proud father. "I wish I could think it was your concern for me that had you running out here, Michelle," Nino continues, "But I know all you really wanted to do was save your lover from a lenghthy jail sentence."
"No," I manage to say, head high. "I just wanted the chance to kill you myself."
Nino laughs, a big booming laugh that makes me flinch. "Always a spitfire, Mrs. Rivera. Is that what drew DAnny to you?"
I keep my eyes on his. "I don't know," I reply evenly. "You'd have to ask him."
"I won't have to," Nino shrugs. "The police will do that for me."
"Police?" I ask, sure I'm going to throw up now.
"Why, yes," Nino says feigning surprise. "I assume they'll ask him all about your relationship when they're arresting him for your murder."
The world tilts crazily and for one horifying moment, I think I'm going to faint.
"You see," Nino continues casually, "The gun I'm about to shoot you with is DAnny's. And since I'm wearing gloves-" only then do I notice the rubber gloves on his hands- "his fingerprints will be all over the murder weapon."
"You can't do this," I say hoarsely.
"I can," NIno says, leveling the gun at me. "And I will."
"Not this time, Rivera," a cold voice says from behind me.
I turn, dizzy with relief, and see Danny. I mouth his name and take a lurching step towards him, my head spinnig, my heart singing.
I feel the stinging pain in my arm before the sound of the gunshot even registers. I look down and see my blood turning the sleeve of my sweater and the edges of my sight turn black as I sink to the ground. I hear muffled shouting then look at Nino just in time to see a bullet pierce his chest. I try to shut my eyes as, dying, the man I had once loved and now hated and feared, crumpled and lay still.
Then I faint.
*****
When I come to, it's raining. The pain in my arm is nothing but a dull ache now. It is that ache that brings back the memory of what just happened.
It reminds me that Nino is dead.
I look up into the eyes of DAnny Santos. His mouth is set in a grim line and, if I'm not mistaken, that's panic in his eyes.
"Michelle," he murmurs over the pounding of the rain. "Oh, God, Michelle."
His lips come down on mine and I rise up to meet him, suddenly forgetting the pain and the coldness of the rain as it seeps through my clothes. I thread my fingers through his hair, pouring out all my fear, all my despair, into that one kiss.
It's DAnny who pulls away.
"You're hurt," he says at last.
Oh yes, I think. More than you know.
But I just nod my head. "I-I don't think it's that bad," I say through chattering teeth.
Danny shifts me in his arms and examines the wound. "No, it's not. The bullet just grazed you. It's a pretty deep gash though. Someone needs to attend to it."
"We can't c-call an amb-ambulance," I remind him. "T-that's just as g-g-good as calling the p-police."
HIs eyes are unreadable as he looks back at me.
"You know Nino's dead."
I nod and push a rain drenched curl out of my face.
"You know I killed him."
I take a deep breath and nod again.
"And you still want me to look after you tonight?"
I don't answer that. I simply disengage myself from his arms and start walking, staggering, actually, towards his car. After a moment, he follows.