Cole (The Leaves) by J.B. Hartnett Read Free Book Online

coming back to me.
    “Cole, Aimes and I were wondering if we could start getting things ready for when Inky gets home?” Gus asked.
    “What do you mean? Should I call a doctor or something? God, I didn’t even think about that. Oh my God, how is this fucking happening?!” I pulled the hair on my head as hard as I could to distract me from the pain in my heart.
    “Cole…” Aimes’ voice was soft, trying to break through to me. “We have a sort of ritual we do when this happens. It won’t be happening again. I heard what that guy was saying… concrete boots?”
    “Something like that.” We all understood, even if it was never spelled out.
    “So, when she arrives…” she began.
    “Aimes don’t take this the wrong way, but I got it.”
    “You sure?”
    “I am… what if…?” The doubt was settling in and festering in me.
    “No, no, no. Don’t even go there. She’s coming back, do you hear me?” Aimes’ voice took on an edge I’d never heard.
    “He didn’t let her talk this time.” I said, defeated. No crying, no whimpering like the weak mess I’d been for several hours. I just resigned myself to the facts.
    Gus motioned to the door, “Come on man. Let’s get some food in you. You’re gonna need it when she gets here.”
    Everyone was so sure. I went to the kitchen and sat down. Food magically appeared before me, as well as coffee. The coffee was exactly what I needed. My mother walked in and threw a bag on the counter along with her keys and poured herself a cup. “What’s in the bag?” I asked.
    “For her hands, Cole.” I was glad everyone else was thinking about these things.
    “Five exactly, Richard.”
    “Thank you, Daniel.” My father looked at me. “He’ll call.”
    I fucking hoped so. I left the kitchen and went back upstairs to the studio and looked out the window. The sky was just beginning to change. Anika would have a color for this. She’d tell me it was cerulean blue or something. I made the bed with fresh sheets and went back down the stairs to the bedroom. I opened the closet and took out the beautiful night gown and robe I’d bought for her, along with my matching bottoms. I went into the bathroom and got everything ready to bathe her, my beautiful girl. Finally, I went back and looked out the window again and sent up a prayer for the millionth time that night that my angel on earth would be brought safely back to me.

Cole 6
    Anika
    Something was happening.
    First I heard a pounding noise, as if someone was banging on a door. Then Joe moved around the room in a panic saying something that sounded like swearing in Italian.
    “Do not try to move and do not make a sound, Annie. I need to save my energy for my beloved, but if I have to waste it on you, so be it. Understood?”
    I nodded.
    The door closed and I heard footfalls on stairs and him trying to calm a woman. Then as clear as anything I heard, “You promised me, Joe. You promised you would come back to me if I helped you get her. I did that. Make the deal and let’s go!”
    I could have screamed, but I was sure I knew who the woman downstairs was. If I was right, she had no intention of saving me.
    Again I heard Joe, but I couldn’t make out what he said. But I was now positive who the woman was.
    “I let you have my fucking daughter, Joe. You made me promises and then you up and disappeared when she did. You asked me to help you, I did. I’ve been waiting all fucking night for us to go.”
    Then I heard something else, something I once again couldn’t make out.
    Then I heard a door slam and footsteps echoing and finally Joe returned.
    “Sorry about that. We had a visitor. But that person had to leave.”
    That was when I saw the blood on his hand. It wasn’t my blood from earlier, this was fresh, bright, red blood. Then he did something that terrified me; in all the years that Joe had been around, all the things he’d done to me, he never threatened me with a weapon. He opened a drawer and took out a