Kirsten had worried about convincing her in-laws to come with her to the hotel but she need not have. Whatever Sandy had said to his sister worked and all three women left the hospital with her. All three sad and all worried about Sandy. It wasn't like him to not be with his family at a time like this. Whatever he was doing must have been very important to him.
Sandy had arrived at the apartment Denise had told him about but he wasn't sure what he was going to do. He stood there for a few minutes just staring at the door, when he thought about it he should just leave it to the police. He could give the police this address and they could deal with the people who killed his little brother. He stepped away but he couldn't leave. His hand seemed to do what his heart rather than his head was saying. There was a loud knock.
"What do you want?"
"Is Gary there?" Sandy was glad is voice didn't sound as shaky as he felt.
"Who's asking?"
"Look is he there or not?" Sandy couldn't believe how sure of himself he sounded because it sure wasn't a reflection of how he felt.
"No Gary is never here. I don't even know a Gary." He was lying Sandy knew it, he was so good at spotting lies his lawyer days had taught him well.
"Yeah okay. Sorry to bother you." There was no point arguing with this guy now so he started for the stairs. He'd only walked down a couple of flights when he heard his name called.
"Mr Cohen is that you? Obviously I mean the senior Cohen I doubt the younger one is in any shape to be walking down stairs." His voice was harsh and cold. Sandy turned and started walking up the stairs he had just come down. "I don't think you want to do that, Sandy. You saw what happened to your brother didn't you?" Sandy stopped, torn between desperately wanting to see this guy's face and also wanting to wake up tomorrow.
"Why did you do it? I mean I know it must have hurt that your wife liked my brother better but he wasagood guy."
"Don't try and wind me up you're going to want to get out of this building alive your family needs you. I still need my money. Now if I don't get it I've seen you have a very hot wife so I might like her or there are your two sons who like comic book stores. I mean how old are they, twelve! Don't even get me started on that mother of yours." Sandy was stunned; this guy knew his family not just his mom but he had seen Kirsten and they had obviously been following Seth and Ryan in Manhattan.
"You will have your money tomorrow I'm already sorting it. Don't mess with my family though you will regret it." Sandy couldn't believe it was him talking, something had taken over him maybe it was fear. He ended the conversation. He walked away, they parted on his terms. Now it was back to the hotel and time to get everyone else back in Newport with as little fuss as possible. He knew that was going to be so hard but he'd have to do it.
When Sandy opened the door to his room he was surprised to find everyone there. He had expected that by now his mother would have insisted on going home and he thought the boys would have been in there own room. Kirsten saw him first, she had been willing him to walk through that door for over an hour and she hurried over to him. The Nana watched as Sandy obviously gained comfort from his wife's touch.
"We're so glad to see you." She was whispering in his ear. "Are you okay? Where have you been?"
"I need to talk to you, outside. Mom?" He let go of his wife and walked over to her. She embraced him and his sister soon joined in. "we're going to see if we can get you all rooms here too. Just for tonight, I think its best we're all here together." Everyone looked at him, all a little shocked but all trusting him. He went over and hugged Seth and Ryan neither of his sons knew what to say to him but they didn't need to say anything at all. "We'll be back in a bit." He took Kirsten's hand and led her out of the room.
"Sandy what's going on? You're scaring me. Today is scaring me." Sandy stopped walking and turned to face her. She looked scared, scared and tired.
"I'm sorry honey I don't mean to scare you but I'm scared myself. The people who killed my brother are evil and we have to keep out of their way. I'm going to get the money that Ben owed them and as soon as that is done I'm going to the police but everyone else has to get out of New York." Kirsten couldn't believe this, did Sandy really think his mother was going to leave her home?
"Sandy how are you going to get the Nana to leave? If you are staying then so am I. I don't care what you say, those vows we made over twenty years ago, they mean I stay with you. You and I together." Sandy couldn't help himself he just kissed her. If it was possible he thought he loved her more than ever before. They stopped kissing and just held each other.
"Kirsten you don't know how much that means to me but you can't stay its too dangerous. I can't live with something happening to you, I'm only going to be here a couple of days then I will follow you all out with Ben's body. I think if we're all going to be in California then he should be buried there. Then there will be no reason to ever come back."
"Sandy have you heard yourself? Never come back to New York? Your mom, Sarah and Jane they all have lives here they won't want to just up and leave everything."
"They don't have a choice, honey. These people have been watching us. Here we are like sitting ducks. What happened to Ben was no mistake and there is no way I'm letting them get to anyone else. I can't live with another member of my family dead because of them. I feel guilty enough about Ben."
"Ohh Sandy it's not your fault, really it's so not your fault. Ben was a big boy he got himself into this mess not you. You have no control over those men either." She had his face in her hands; she could see the fear in his eyes along with sadness. "I'm not going anywhere unless you are but I'll help you convince the others to go if that's what you think is best." He didn't know what to say, there was nothing to say. She was just amazing. He finally broke down shedding tears of sadness and fear while he was comforted by his wife. They both knew the next few days would be some of the toughest they had ever faced but together they would come through it.