Sleeping With The Enemy Page 7

  Imposimato saw her running wildly cross the street, in the opposite direction, and he turned the motorbike in a dangerous U-turn and raced after her. As he got closer to her he yelled her name and she stopped. He stopped the ’bike next to her and she stared with wild eyes at him.

  ‘Jump on!’ he shouted.

  She leapt onto the ’bike behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso as he raced the ’bike down the road. He saw the traffic lights up ahead change from green to amber and made a crucial decision that he would have to make the cut if he would get rid of the Navigator that was gaining speed behind him.

  He charged the motorbike at full speed and it managed to squeeze through as the traffic from the other ends started traversing the road he was on. The lights turned red and the Navigator’s tires screeched noisily to a halt. Cambiaso’s men watched helplessly as the motorbike was swallowed up in the heavy traffic of New York City.

  Imposimato rode the ’bike and went round the block of high-rise Manhattan buildings until he came back to the street where he had left the van. He turned the motorbike and headed towards his abandoned vehicle.

  Cambiaso was still trapped inside his vehicle.

  Imposimato aimed the motorbike at the back of the van, from which he had emerged moments earlier. He pressed a remote control device in his hand and an inclined platform lowered itself down onto the tarmac. Imposimato rode the motorbike on this platform into the back of the Vito panel van. Quickly, he leapt from the motorbike and swung the doors closed. He pressed the device in his hand as he went quickly to sit behind the steering wheel and the inclined platform rose back to its holding position under the car.

  Then he started the van and sped quickly down the road, followed quickly by Cambiaso’s van.

  * * * * *

  Imposimato and Rosina were now on the freeway, speeding away from the city, towards his home in the Hamptons when they noticed in the rearview mirrors that Cambiaso’s van as well as the Navigator were following steadfastly behind them.

  Both the van and the Navigator came in line with Imposimato’s van, flanking it. The Navigator’s passenger’s window slid down and a gun coughed out bullets. Rosina ducked quickly at the sound of the gunshots, but Imposimato remained sitting still, unconcerned with the gunfire.

  Rosina stared at him in shock.

  He smiled at her and explained. ‘The van’s body’s bulletproof. Sometimes I forget too.’

  Cambiaso’s men realized this too and they stopped firing.

  The three cars approached an overpass. Imposimato stepped on the gas and sped the Vito forward, leaving the two other cars behind. When he reached the overpass he did a hair-raising turn in the middle of the road, turning the van in a half-circle that left the Vito’s right side facing the oncoming two cars of his pursuers.

  Cambiaso and the other driver noticed too late what Imposimato was doing and they both simultaneously tried to swerve from hitting the van. The Navigator was the more successful of the two vehicles. It managed to dodge hitting Imposimato’s van but succeeded in slamming into the protective roadside rail. It leapt into the air on impact and did a downward spiral to the road below. The car spun and nosedived relentlessly to the underpass. It dropped hard onto the heavy tarmac with its nose and immediately burst into a raging inferno of flames, causing oncoming traffic to screech to a frantic halt.

  Meanwhile, on the overpass, Cambiaso caught a glimpse of Imposimato and Rosina on top of a motorbike that shot out of the back of the Vito moments before his own van crashed headlong into the other’s side.

  There was no explosion. Just the explosive sound of the airbags as they sprang into action. And the sound of crashing metal.

  Imposimato and Rosina rode away without bothering to look back.

  Fifteen

  They got to the house in silence.

  As soon as they arrived at the house he went straight to the fridge to get himself some water to drink. He stared at her and questioned her with genuine concern on his face. ‘What was that?’

  ‘I do not know what got into Lucas Cambiaso.’

  Imposimato was visibly shocked. ‘You know him?’

  She cast her eyes down in embarrassment, and then looked up at him with a miserable face. ‘I was married to him.’

  ‘Jesus!’ It escaped voluntarily from his lips and he placed the glass of water down and covered his face in his hands.

  Rosina stared back at him silently.

  ‘You were married to a man who just tried to kidnap you?’

  ‘He’s a dangerous and ruthless man. When I divorced him he promised not to come close to me as long as I didn’t reveal the truth about him being the Mob.’ She began to pace about and fiddled nervously with her hands. ‘I don’t know what got into him.’

  He stared fixedly at her. ‘The rules have changed.’

  She stared back at him silently.

  ‘Come here.’

  She went forward to him. He took her in his arms and embraced her in a firm hug for a long moment. He kissed her forehead and then unexpectedly scooped her up in his arms and walked with her to the bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and then got on all fours above her body. ‘I want to make love to you.’

  ‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘Hold me. Hold me close. And let’s let our hearts dance together to the music of our souls.’

  He lay down next to her and pulled her into his arms in an affectionate embrace.

  * * * * *

  Imposimato awakened in the middle of the night with a full bladder. He slipped out of bed and went to relieve himself in the bathroom. He was still half-sleep as he emerged out of the room, but even in that condition he had a sudden premonition that an intruder was in the house, but the feeling had not fully registered itself in his psyche when he was struck a heavy blow at the back of the head with something that felt like a four-pounds hammer.

  Imposimato reeled forward with a loud groan. Instinctively, he reached for the African artifact that rested on a small table next to the door leading from the bathroom. It was a small statue made of stone. He grabbed it firmly in his hands and lashed out with it at his attacker. It crashed into the man’s chest and he was rewarded with a loud groan of pain.

  Suddenly the room was bathed in light, and Imposimato quickly cast a glance at the bed and saw Rosina with her hand still on the bedside switch. She screamed suddenly and Imposimato turned just in time to see the knife in his attacker’s hand make a dive for his throat. He swerved back and the blade missed him. When he saw his attacker’s face, Imposimato was not really surprised, but he was stunned at how the man had penetrated the security of his mansion.

  More thoughts on that though – for now he was facing clear and present danger.

  Cambiaso lunged again with his knife at Imposimato’s midsection. Imposimato blocked the attack with the artifact. As soon as the knife made contact with the artifact, he released it from his hands and pummeled a fist into Cambiaso’s face. Cambiaso screamed in pain as the fist caught him squarely in the face and broke the bones of his nose. Imposimato kicked him in the groin and swiftly followed that up with another blow to the man’s head with his strong fist.

  Cambiaso slumped onto the floor in a dazed state. Imposimato picked up the stone artifact from the floor and dropped to his knees before the agonizing man. He raised up the artifact in both his hands, ready to crush it into his enemy’s skull, but a shrill scream from Rosina stopped him.

  Still holding the statue firmly in his hands, high above his head, he looked at her, and saw the horror written on her face. She was sitting up on the bed now, watching helplessly as the two men connected to her life one way or the other fought.

  Imposimato slowly lowered the artifact and dropped it to the floor. He rose to his feet and stepped back slowly from Cambiaso, still engulfed in a maddening fit of murderous rage.

  Cambiaso struggled weakly to his feet. He wiped away some blood from his nose and gazed fixedly, tauntingly at Imposimato. ‘The soft heart will never
be warm enough to respond to the stimulation of violence.’

  ‘Get out,’ Imposimato said in a dangerously quiet voice laced with vehemence. ‘Get out of my house.’

  ‘Or what, huh?’ questioned Cambiaso boldly. ‘Or kill me?’

  He did not get an answer.

  ‘I don’t think so. Not in front of you angel.’ He cast a glance at Rosina and then brought his eyes back to taunt Imposimato. ‘She’s the best thing that’s happened in your life, isn’t she?’

  No response.

  ‘Are you equally as good and honest to her as she is to you?’

  ‘Get out of my place, Cambiaso.’

  ‘Tell her, Imposimato. Tell her the truth.’ Cambiaso warmed up hysterically, raising his voice. ‘Tell her that you are no saint. Tell her you are a heartless brute with a criminal record, who has hands full of blood…’

  For the first time Rosina’s voice penetrated the tense air in the room. ‘What is this, Ferdinand?’ she said, getting out of bed. ‘Do you know this man?’

  Ferdinando stared at her for a long moment without responding. ‘This man…’ He turned to look at Cambiaso but found Cambiaso having disappeared.

  Imposimato avoided Rosina’s eyes and looked down. A long, tense silence followed.

  * * * * *

  She drew a distance from him and spoke quietly. ‘Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.’

  It was a quote from Isaac Asimov.

  ‘I’m not an incompetent,’ he said softly.

  ‘What are you?’ she demanded hotly. ‘The Mob?’ she spat the word out as if it was some vile demon defiling her body.

  Shamefully, Imposimato stared at her and nodded silently.

  Rosin stepped away from him. She began to pace about the room restlessly. She let out a loud sigh and came back towards him. She stopped before him and gazed into his eyes lovingly. ‘The rules have changed…It’s no longer bout me…’ Her voice trailed off but returned moments later. ‘It’s about you, isn’t it?’ she asked gently. ‘It’s you that Cambiaso wants.’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ Imposimato responded quietly.

  They stared at each other silently for a long moment.

  Rosina eventually broke the silence. ‘Goodbye, Ferdinand,’ she said in a quavering voice, tears wetting her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek.

  He tried to hold her but she shook her head and pulled away from him and walked to the door. She gave him one last glance and walked out of his life.

  Sixteen

  She was sitting on a chair under a tree, with an open book on her lap. In front of her were twenty seven children, who also each had a copy of the book that was on her lap. One of them, a small girl of nine, was standing up and reading aloud to the class. The girl mispronounced the word “familiarity” and Rosina took a moment to correct her.

  Suddenly the whole class burst into noisy cheering, shouting hysterically and clapping their hands in unison, “Mr. Imposimato! Mr. Imposimato! Mr—.’

  Rosina rebuked them harshly, having glanced over her shoulder and seen the man himself, standing there, clad in a long black coat, holding a bunch of beautiful red roses in his hands.

  The children quieted down.

  She stood up to face him, color rising on her face.

  He handed her the flowers. ‘These are for you.’ He turned to point his hand at the convoy of cars parked a distance away on the driveway. ‘And in those vans are boxes full of gifts for the kids.’

  She glared at him angrily, whispered something to the sub-teacher, and then she stomped down the park to a tree a bit further away from the children. She faced him with a flushed face. ‘What are you doing here?’ she fumed.

  ‘Take the flowers,’ he said calmly.

  She folded her hands across her chest.’ I do not want your flowers. I want to know what you want here.’

  His hands fell to his sides. ‘I brought some presents for the kids, that’s all.’

  ‘We do not need your charity, Ferdinand. This center shall not be associated with blood tokens.’

  He grimaced painfully. ‘You know as well as I do that these children need—.’

  ‘Not if they were obtained with blood money.’

  He sighed heavily. ‘It’s pointless to stand here and argue about where the money came from. What matters is that these children get these goods so that they can at least lessen their suffering—.’

  She cut him short. ‘What do you know about suffering, huh? You come here clad in your fancy clothes, driven in an expensive car, and you stand there and talk about suffering. What can you possibly know about suffering?’ She was yelling now.

  ‘A lot!’ he yelled back angrily, and then stopped when he realized that the children, a distance away, were startled. ‘A lot,’ he repeated in a lower voice.

  They stared at each other angrily for a long moment, and then he sighed deeply and looked away from her face. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Tell me why,’ she said in a quiet voice.

  He brought his gaze back to her and stared at her with a puzzled face. ‘Why?’

  ‘Yes. Why choose this…this life.’

  He stared at her as she leaned against the tree trunk, her hands folded firmly cross her chest. ‘I never knew my dad,’ he said with a sigh. Ma got pregnant with me when she was very young. And the man responsible vanished. Ma had a small income from her job. We didn’t have enough to get by. I was an angry and hungry kid. Got involved with a bad crowd. I had this hungry desire to succeed…’ He looked away from her penetrating gaze. ‘Ultimately the end justifies the means.’

  She stared sympathetically at him. ‘But you had a choice—.’

  ‘I had no choice!’ He hurled away the bunch of roses with such vehemence she flinched back into the tree.

  ‘I had no choice,’ he repeated in a calmer voice. ‘Only when I started peddling drugs was I able to put food on Ma’s table. Only when I did that was I able to have decent clothes to wear.’

  Rosina looked down. When she looked back up at his face she demanded, ‘Did you ever think about the millions of young lives you were destroying?’

  ‘You get so involved in bad actions that you cannot tell wrong from right…’

  She braced herself upright for her next question. ‘Have you ever killed anyone?’

  ‘I have,’ he said quietly.

  Instant shock covered her eyes. She covered her face in her hands. ‘Oh God!’

  He edged closer to her. ‘It was either me or them. In the world we live in that’s the code we live by.’

  He grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands from her face.

  She pushed him away. ‘Go away, Ferdinand. Please go away.’

  He raised his hands in surrender and took a step back. ‘You are angry.’

  She took a while to answer. ‘I’m not angry that you are what you are; I’m angry that I’ve fallen in love with you, and everyone knows what the Mafia does.’ They faced each there silently for a moment. ‘You stand for all the wrong things I’ve been trying all my life not to get involved in.’

  They stood there, facing each other, and did not speak for a long while. Tears fell from Rosina’s eyes, and when she spoke her voice quavered with emotion. ‘Go away, please.’

  ‘Rosina, please just accept—.’

  ‘I said go away.’

  A crowd cried suddenly in unison. ‘Go away!’

  He turned around and was surprised to find the whole bunch of kids behind him, urging him to leave.

  ‘Go away!’ they repeated their chorus. ‘She doesn’t want to talk to you.’

  He lifted up his hands in surrender, walked slowly back to his convoy of cars and got inside the limo. He had a pensive, pained look on his face as the chauffeur drove the big car out of the orphanage.

  * * * * *

  He was attacked by terrible angst. Beside the loss of his mother, losing Rosina was the single most painful thing to ever happen to him. He had in reality
spent few moments with Rosina, but during that time he had fallen deeply in love with her. He loved her more than he had thought himself capable of loving someone.

  She had waltzed into his heart and taken over his senses. He would give everything he had now to have her back in his life. Life was so futile, so worthless – without her. She came into his dreams and whispered sweet, wonderful things in his ears. In those dreams he made love to her passionately and tenderly… and then he woke up to the reality of her not being there next to him.

  The pain was so intense he found no other remedy for it but to go to her and see her – even if just for a moment.

  When he arrived at her apartment he knocked on the door. She opened the door slightly ajar and saw him. ‘Please let me in,’ he begged.

  ‘She shook her head, tears springing into her eyes. ‘Go away!’ she slammed the door shut in his face.

  She leaned against the door on her back and then slid down as the tears rolled in torrents down her face. Her phone rang and she stared at its screen and saw that it was him calling her. She hurled it forcefully at the nearest wall and it crashed onto the wall and fell silent. She hugged her knees to her chest and burst into a bitter sob.

  He was there, on the other side of the door, hearing her pained sobs, and he cried too. The pain in his heart was too much to take. Eventually, reluctantly, he steeled himself and walked away. He took the elevator downstairs and descended to the streets of New York. He took a cab to the Hudson River. He walked along the river as the sun set. New York was alive at dusk, and the river was a beautiful sight to behold at this time of the day, but he didn’t see the beauty in it all. His heart was sore, and his mind was numb. He wanted a bullet to his chest that would end all this pain. He walked aimlessly about, images of her filling his mind. A deep pain churned in his heart and he found tears wetting his face.

  If she has died at least you know that she is never coming back. But she’s here, alive, breathing, and you know you can have her…but she doesn’t want you. Nothing can be more painful than that.