Hal held me as I cried. How was I going to read the poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye? "You can do this," Hal whispered. I nodded as I looked at my shoes. Hal gently raised my head until I saw his eyes. "Steph, you've got this. I'm here for support."
"Okay," I whispered. As much as I hated people seeing me cry, I had to read the poem Grandma had selected. We had it engraved on the back of Grandpa and Grandma's shared headstone. Clearing my throat, I read, "Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow." A slight breeze moved my hair, making the tears fall thickly down my face. I brushed them away with the back of my hand.
Hector, Lester and Ram moved through the other mourners to stand with me. Ram stood behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. Hector stood beside me and wrapped an arm around my back, a few inches above Hal's arm resting lower around my waist.
Drawing the strength from my husband and friends, I continued, "I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sun on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush. Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night." I had to stop briefly to wipe the tears blurring my vision. Hal kissed my temple. I used that comfort to read the last two lines, "Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there; I did not die."
I buried my face into Hal's chest, unable to look at Mom and Valerie sobbing in Dad's arms. Angie, Mary Alice and Lisa were with Lester, Ranger and Tank, crying in their arms as Albert sat on the bench to feed Bert a bottle of breast milk.
"Let it out," Hal whispered. I felt him lift me into his arms. He sat on a bench near the walkway and let me cry. It doesn't take long for the tears to run dry. My spidey sense suddenly went haywire. A sense of danger arrived with the sound of a loud voice.
"Edna," a woman called from a few hundred feet away. I recognized the voice as belonging to Lula. "Oh, Edna." Lula's voice was much too loud. I don't want her here. She was supposed to stay away from me.
"What are you doing here?" Mom demanded.
"I heard Edna died and has to see for myself on account there was no visitation at Stiva's," Lula said. She glared at me as though it was my fault for not having the visitations at the funeral home.
Dave caught my eye and waved me over. Hal and I went to him, where he stood over the hole above Grandpa's coffin. I permitted Dave and watched as he lowered Grandma's urn into the neat, square hole. The thought that Grandma was finally on top of Grandpa entered my mind, and I stifled a laugh. Dave nodded at the cemetery groundskeeper, who was off to the left, waiting for instructions. The grieving family wasn't typically at the cemetery to witness the burial, but Dave and I worried Lula would upend the urn filled with Grandma's ashes and allow them to disperse with the wind.
Hal and I stood with our backs to the hole as the groundskeeper shovelled the dirt to cover the urn. Grandma didn't want us to drop a handful of dirt on her ashes since it wasn't a ritual she honoured. It was thought to be a blessing and well wishes in the afterlife. Grandma said the spirit would leave once the dirt hit the coffin or urn. She was worried about the spirit moving into a mourner's body and possessing them. I had to honour her request.
"You can't stop me from seeing my grandma!" Lula shouted. "She adopted me, see?" Lula waved a document in Mom's face. Dad snatched it from her fingers, passing it to Hunter behind him.
It was time for me to intervene. "Lula," I calmly said, "You don't belong here. Grandma only wanted her family and close friends at the interment, which is why I never published it. The church service was open to all. I noticed you never attended the ceremony. Why are you here?"
"Edna was my friend. She let me call her grandma," Lula falsely claimed. Grandma used to think Lula was a friend until she tried to sue me for money she never earned. It wasn't until that moment that Grandma realized how much Lula used me for a convenient source of income.
I watched Hunter approach Robin Russell, Carl Costanza and Big Dog, who attended the interment at my request. They were here to manage Lula and Morelli if they appeared. Hunter showed Robin the document. I wondered what it contained when Robin's brows rose to her hairline. Robin shook her head and mumbled something. She was too far away for me to hear anything.
Whatever Dad took from Lula was about to blow up in her face. I bet Lula tried to contest Grandma's will and had some falsified DNA or adoption document to prove she was a Mazur relative. Little did Lula know that Grandma didn't have anything to give us. I have yet to visit the bank to open the safe deposit box.
Grandma's will was ironclad. Everything deferred to the terms in Grandpa's will, which nobody had contested at the time. I hoped Grandpa didn't have millions in stocks and bonds hidden in the safe deposit box because I had more than enough money to spend in my lifetime. My children and grandchildren wouldn't have to work, though Hal and I would instill the importance of a hard day's work and supporting the economy. I liked the thought of having children with Hal.
Lula got in my face. "Listen here, Little White girl piece of shit whore from the Burg, nobody wants your opinion. You're a worthless waste of skin. Even your cousin Vinnie agrees with me. He gets more from Joyce and me as his bounty hunters. You were too afraid of using your gun," Lula snarled. She made a huge mistake when she pulled her illegal firearm from her purse and fired. Thankfully, all of the children were behind Lula.
In a move she never expected from me, I had Lula disarmed and pinned on the ground with her arm twisted behind her. Ranger gave me his cuffs to restrain Lula. My left arm ached from the bullet, which grazed the fleshy part of my inner arm. Another few inches to the right, she would've hit me in the heart. I was fuming. Bobby and Ranger pulled me off Lula before I could pull the trigger on the gun I had held to the back of her head. Ram and Hector restrained Hal, who was fighting against them to get to me.
Ranger not so gently pulled Lula to her feet. Tank kissed Lisa's forehead before passing her to Woody. Lisa smiled and babbled to Woody, who grinned and took her to the bench to sit. Binkie, Manny and Junior organized the others to keep them from interfering with the crime scene.
Carl rushed to my side and checked my weapon. "I never discharged my weapon. Lula took a shot at me," I said, pointing at my bloody left arm.
"I know, we saw. Your friends, Ram, Ranger and Hector, unholstered their weapons but didn't risk the shot with the kids so close," Carl replied. He returned my gun after recording the serial number in his notebook.
"Where did you have that stashed?" Bobby asked.
Looking at Bobby, I answered, "In my thigh holster. Carl, I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. It's in my purse." Ram and Hector released Hal so he could remove the permit from the purse I shoved in his suit jacket pocket.
Carl confirmed I never fired my gun because it was cold and lacked the stench of gunshot residue. Lula's weapon smelled of gunpowder. Carl checked my permit and called headquarters to ensure its validity. Eddie stood with Mom and Dad as his colleagues commanded the scene. However, Eddie helped my Rangeman friends move the other attendees away from everything. Mary Alice was sitting with Lester, crying into his chest after seeing Lula shooting me. Angie was occupying Lisa's attention when the gunshot sounded in the area. I appreciated my Merry Men taking care of my family.
"Did you touch Lula's gun?" Carl asked, gently lifting it using a pen. Robin produced an evidence bag from her pocket and brought it to Carl. I shook my head and smiled at her. She winked and opened the bag for Carl to deposit the weapon.
"No. I twisted Lula's wrist, and she dropped it," I explained. Carl nodded. He gestured to Robin to take Lula from Ranger and Tank, who held her in place.
"I'm charging you with assault," Lula screamed as Robin and Big Dog pulled her away from us.
"And I'm charging you with attempted murder," I calmly replied. Hunter nodded and spoke to Carl about filing the formal charges.
Lula yelled that she was going to kill me, and I rolled my eyes. Hopefully, she never ran into anyone Hector knew in lockup. She wouldn't last the first night.
I hissed when Bobby poured the antiseptic on my arm. He worked silently to stitch my arm. Hal sat on the grass with me on his lap as Bobby worked on repairing the damage caused by Lula's bullet. Mom was crying in Dad's arms. "I don't understand why Lula shot her friend," Mom said.
"Lula isn't and never was my friend. Most of those car fires, bombings and apartment attacks Lula instigated. She never considered my safety when she mouthed off to one of my skips. I even heard Lula had given a few skips my address and phone number. Lula also wanted me to give her money from capturing Johan Smith," I explained. "She hindered the apprehension and endangered me by telling my skip that I was a bounty hunter. If that wasn't bad enough, Lula filed a lawsuit to force me to give her two-thirds of the money I received from the FBI for his capture since he was on their most wanted list under a different name."
"How would Lula know about that?" Mom asked. I told Mom about the money when I mentioned purchasing a house. She had stopped by my apartment to clean it, but Dillon said I moved and he changed the locks. Mom and I have different ways to grieve. I needed to keep my brain occupied while she needed to clean.
"According to Grandma, it was Joe Morelli," I replied. Mom gasped as Dad growled. My watch alarm chimed, signalling it was time to go to the VA Hall to set up. "We'll talk more when we don't have an audience."
"Okay," Mom said. She kissed my cheek and thanked Bobby for stitching my arm. I watched Mom and Dad leave with Valerie and the children. Woody and Junior followed them, offering Dad a ride, which he accepted.
Carl got my statement, which I promised to sign later. He was attending the reception at the VA Hall and offered to bring it with him for my signature.
My guards refused to let me out of their sight. Hal was beside himself, worrying about me. "I'm okay, Hal. It's just a graze," I said, shaking furiously from shock. He rested his forehead against mine as the others surrounded us, hiding us from view. Hal held my face between his hands.
"Steph, I have never been more scared in my life," he confessed.
"Me too," I replied. I breathed in Hal's scent and matched my breaths to his. Within a few minutes, I stopped shaking. I kissed Hal's lips. "Thank you."
"Steph, I love you," Hal whispered against my lips.
"I love you too," I reciprocated and smiled. Hal leaned back to look at my face. He raised a brow, encouraging me to share. "Grandma always said she wanted to go out with a bang, but I doubt this is what she meant." Hal tried to suppress a laugh but snorted, which made everyone laugh.
Ranger produced flowers from somewhere. Likely, he conjured them or had Diesel pop in a delivery. Hey, it was a valid possibility. I accepted two white roses and placed them in the vase holder attached to the headstone. "Goodbye, Grandma. I miss you. Grandpa, let Grandma enjoy being on top."
Lester and Ram snickered at my comment. I let them take the comment any way they wanted.
"Steph, Ella has another dress at Rangeman for you," Ranger said. I raised my brows, wondering why she left it there. Ranger's lip twitched. "She assumed you would have an incident today." I wanted to be angry, but I was glad Ella thoughtfully purchased another dress.
Ranger's phone chimed, as did mine and my guards' phones. Hal let me read the message on his phone, assuming I received the same on mine. I watched the footage as a man with Joe Morelli's build approached my SUV. He checked the plates before lying on the ground and attaching something beneath the passenger seat. As he got up, I saw a clear image of Joe's face, and I knew it was him because of the scar sliced through his right eyebrow. I remembered thinking the slightly drooping eyelid made him appear menacing and unsettling.
"Caught you, fucker," I mumbled. We wait until Morelli disappears from view before we walk around the mausoleum containing stacked tombs of deceased men and women from the Corleone family. I sensed him watching us. Morelli walked up the roadway, keeping to the driver's side of my SUV.
The men surrounded me as we approached the vehicles. Ranger had parked behind mine. Hal and Ram opened the door to my SUV, but I climbed inside Ranger's Cayenne instead. With the black wall along the driver's side of the vehicles, there was no way for Morelli to catch me slamming the door and walking to Ranger's Cayenne, especially when I kept low and Tank blocked me from view.
Hector swept the vehicles for devices and bombs, finding trackers on the Rangeman vehicles and a bomb on my car. We had Morelli by the balls. "What will detonate it?" I asked.
"Heat from the exhaust or a remote detonator," Hector said. "Do you have anything in the glove box?"
"Only the vehicle ownership," I replied. I removed the other letters and pertinent paperwork yesterday. My spare clutch piece was at home, locked in the safe.
Ranger called the control room and asked them to record everything from the exterior of my vehicle to the cameras Woody had installed inside. We wanted to charge Morelli with attempted murder. I don't understand what I had done to piss him off enough to harm me physically.
The windows in Ranger's Cayenne were dark enough to obscure me from people looking into the vehicle through the windows. I sat in the middle between Bobby and Hal. Lester climbed into the backseat of my car, pretending to buckle the seat. He climbed through the opposite door and crab-walked to the vehicle behind Ranger's car. From Morelli's viewpoint, he couldn't see our shadows or feet moving beneath the vehicle. I was confident we had fooled Morelli.
Using practiced Military precision, everyone started the cars and pulled away from the curb when I pressed the remote start for my SUV. We moved three car lengths away before my car exploded. "Holy fuck!" I screamed.
Ranger dialled his phone. "Get that fucker!" he ordered. I never realized Ranger had men among the casual visitors in the cemetery. He jumped from the vehicle and ordered Tank to drive me to Rangeman and the VA Hall for the reception. Ranger wanted me to continue my day as though nothing had happened.
I changed for the reception in Hal's Rangeman apartment. He wasn't living there as much, but Ranger kept the room available whenever I needed a safe haven. It was thoughtful, generous and completely unnecessary. My phone rang as I stepped into my dress. I smiled and connected the call, "Hi, Jules."
"Oh. Thank God you answered. Can you talk?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied. Julie offered her condolences and explained the situation at home. It was not a healthy environment for her. "You should tell your dad," I suggested.
Julie cried, "I can't. I'm so embarrassed. What am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "But if it happens again, you come to me. I'll let you know where I'll be at all times."
"Okay," Julie snuffled. "Thank you, Stephanie. I wish you were my mom."
"Me too," I thought when Julie ended the call.
I called an old college friend, Stella Simon, in Miami, asked her to check on Julie Martine, and explained the situation. She worked as a child psychologist for the judicial system in Miami-Dade. Stella promised to investigate and insisted I let her handle everything without telling Julie's biological father. Keeping secrets from Ranger doesn't bode well, but I had to wait until Stella confirmed my complaint and talked to Julie. If everything Julie told me were true, she would need a therapist to help her get past the trauma.