Free A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton Page A

said.
    “There were two of them,” she said. “I was here alone.”
    “What did they say?”
    “Our kids could have been here. Thank God they’re at camp today.”
    “Ellie, what did they say?”
    “They wanted to know where Leon was. They said they had to ask him some questions.”
    “Well, on the plus side, you probably could have taken both of them at once.”
    “That’s not funny.”
    “I know. Look…”
    That’s when Leon appeared behind her. “Alex,” he said. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
    “I was checking to see if you’re all right,” I said. “Did you tell Ellie what happened last night?”
    “Yes.”
    “Especially the part about you inviting me out to Tyler’s studio, and then how the boat crashed and we saved those guys?”
    “Right, and how none of this was your fault, for once.”
    “Yeah, that’s great. Thank you.”
    Eleanor came out the door and hugged me. The trick is to inhale quickly so you don’t end up with any broken ribs.
    “Damn you, Alex. I just…”
    She looked away from me. She was genuinely scared to death by all this, and I guess I couldn’t blame her.
    “It’s okay,” I said. “We’ll make sure they don’t come back here. I promise you.”
    She nodded her head. She put her hand on my arm, then she turned and went back inside the house. That left me and Leon standing there on the porch.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what else to say.”
    “Don’t worry about it. Really. She’ll be fine.”
    “Leon, what did we get ourselves into here, anyway? I thought we were just helping those guys out. It’s not like we could have left them out there.”
    “I guess we should have, eh? We should have let them drown.”
    “As it turns out, Vinnie already has a little history with these guys.” I gave him the rundown, with Vinnie throwing them out of the casino last night. And then walking in on them today, at the Glasgow.
    “Do you think he’ll go after them now?”
    “I’d put money on it.”
    “You need to borrow a gun again?”
    “No, Leon. Come on.”
    “I’m serious. You might need it. You have no idea who these guys really are, or what they’re capable of doing.”
    “Hold on to it. If I need it, I’ll call you.”
    “If you need it, you won’t have time to call me.” A classic Leon line if there ever was one.
    “Thank you. But no, I don’t need a gun. I’ll talk to you later.”
    “Suit yourself,” he said. “But don’t blame me if you end up dead.”
     
     
    As I started to drive home, I couldn’t help wondering if Leon was right. Like he said, we had no idea who these guys really were. Or what they would do.
    I moved from that to wondering how Natalie was doing. What she was doing at that very moment. And if she was safe.
    Natalie.
    Then, for the hundredth time, wondering if this thing was going to work out, or if I was just fooling myself. Leon and Eleanor—now that was a real relationship. It takes about two seconds to see how much they mean to each other.
    Tyler and Liz. That was real, too. They spend every single day together. They go to sleep together. They wake up together. They scare away bad guys with shotguns together. God damn.
    What am I even thinking here? That me and Natalie will be like that someday? It’s almost impossible to imagine.
    That’s what was going through my head as I drove back to Paradise. I’d stop in at the Glasgow, where I belonged. Me and Jackie, the two lonely bachelors.
    That’s when my cell phone rang.
    I fumbled around for it, tried to answer it, dropped it, picked it up again, finally got the damned thing on and next to my ear. I didn’t even check the caller ID.
    “Hello?”
    “Alex? It’s Vinnie.”
    “What happened?” I said. In one instant I had visions of him in jail, of me trying to find a bail bondsman again. The last time around, it had been Leon, but he didn’t do that anymore.
    “Where are you?” he said. “Can you come to the Soo?”
    “I’m