“Who is it?” Oz knew that voice. It was Petrakis.
Oz whispered to Dody. “Say your name,” he ordered, and then removed the gun from Dody’s mouth.
“It’s me, Trak,” said Dody. “It’s Dody.”
“You can come in,” said Petrakis, and then Oz nodded.
But as soon as Dody opened that door, Mick grabbed Oz and slung him against the side wall as bullets sailed out of that room. Dody was shot repeatedly, over and over, until Petrakis realized his error. And he stopped firing in horror. He had been certain that it was a trick. That it was Oz. He was mortified that he was wrong.
But just when he let his guard down, he realized another startling truth. Because Oz and Mick showed themselves, with their weapons drawn.
“Drop it,” Oz started saying to his longtime friend, until he realized what he was seeing.
Gloria was in that room, too, gagged and tied and sitting right beside Petrakis. And Petrakis, standing, didn’t have his gun on her. It was worse than that. He had a remote in his hand. A remote that would ignite the bomb Gloria had strapped around her. Petrakis had her wired.
And when Oz and Mick saw Gloria in that position, and realized it wasn’t going to be some ordinary shootout, their collective hearts dropped.
“No,” said Petrakis to his longtime friend, “you drop it!” And Petrakis showed them the remote.
But Oz was staring at Gloria. He prayed she remembered what he had said to her.
“Whenever you’re in trouble, and there’s no talking it out, I want you to look into my eyes. My eyes,” Oz had said, “will tell you what to do.”
Gloria remembered. But she had to flip it. Because she needed Oz to look into her eyes. Her eyes needed to tell Oz what to do!
And as soon as Gloria made eye contact with Oz, she began looking down and to her left.
“Let’s not do anything rash,” Mick was saying to the nervous Greek, as Oz looked at Gloria, and attempted to see what her eyes needed him to see.
“I’ve got the remote right here in my hand,” Petrakis was saying. “All I have to do is apply pressure, and she dies. Drop your guns now!”
Oz slyly looked down, at the bottom of the chair where Gloria appeared to want him to look. But at first, he didn’t see anything.
“Drop it now!” Petrakis was saying.
Mick realized Gloria and Oz were making eye contact. He therefore pulled all of Petrakis attention to him. “I’m going to lay my weapon down,” he started saying. “Give me a chance to do it.”
“Just do it!” Petrakis yelled.
“You have to promise you will not harm my daughter.”
“You are not in control here,” said Petrakis. “You do not tell me what I must do! Drop your guns!”
“Don’t harm my daughter,” Mick said as he was laying his weapon down. “You press that button and we all die. Including you,” he added.
But Oz was still trying to see what Gloria’s eyes were begging him to see. And as Mick was speaking, he saw it. He saw it! A tiny button on the bottom of the chair. A button that had a tiny wire attached. It was the trigger. Not that remote in Petrakis’s hand. That button on that chair was the trigger! That was why Petrakis had his foot so close to that button. It was the trigger.
Or, at least, Oz prayed that was what Gloria wanted him to see.
“You hear me, Odysseus?” Petrakis was saying. “You drop yours too. Now!” he yelled.
“I’m putting it down,” Oz said, as he showed his gun and began bending over as if he was going to lay his weapon down.
But then Oz yelled, Do it! And as soon as she heard those two words, Gloria took all of her strength to lean the chair away from Petrakis, and thereby the button he would need to press to destroy them all. And Oz shot Petrakis in the gut, and then between the eyes. Petrakis seemed shocked by the turn of events, and just stood there. And then he dropped dead.
Oz ran to Gloria, to get her out of that contraption, while Mick ran to Petrakis, to remove that remote control from his hand. And he was angry with Oz.
“Are you nuts?” he yelled, as he hurried to Gloria too. “You could have killed my child!”
But Gloria was shaking her head. Oz removed the gag from her mouth. “It’s on this chair, Daddy,” she said. “That remote isn’t the trigger. It’s on this chair!”
Oz pointed out the button, and the tiny wire that led up to the bomb. And then Mick exhaled.
But it was only brief relief as he and Oz worked feverishly to get Gloria out of that chair and away from that trigger.
They untied her as fast as they could, constantly looking down to make sure nothing was disturbing that button.
And then, as they heard sirens outside, they freed her. Gloria got out of that chair, and fell into Oz’s arms.
Mick felt odd seeing his daughter with a go-to man that wasn’t him, but he also was pleased that Oz Drakos was that go-to man. Because Oz was a man as Mick counted men. He knew how to handle himself. He, Mick concluded, could handle Gloria.
But not to be outdone, Mick placed his arm around Gloria, too, as they hurried as far away from that room, and that chair, as they could get.
EPILOGUE
They were in the Biltmore club at The Drakos, and Oz was the life of the party. He had on his big hat, and had his unlit cigar between his teeth, and was passing out drinks and laughing and joking as he and his buddies took over the bar.
Gloria and her girlfriends, including Leyla, were at the center table, sipping wine and enjoying the party too. It was supposed to be just a little weekend get-together so that Oz’s friends and Gloria’s friends could get to know each other. Gloria invited her close friends, including her brother Teddy and his girlfriend Nikki. All told: about twenty people. And Oz invited his friends too. All told: about three hundred. Teddy was over with the guys, too, having a blast. Nikki was with the girls.
“So,” Gloria said to her girlfriends with a smile on her face, “what do you think?”
“He’s a lot, girl,” said Nikki. “I’m not gonna lie. You’re going to have your hands full with that one.”
“I know,” Gloria said, but she couldn’t stop smiling even as she said it.
“He’s definitely extra,” agreed Leyla. “But in a loveable way.”
“A loveable rogue,” said another friend.
And Gloria was still smiling. “I agree,” she said.
“But how do you feel about having a man that larger than life?” Nikki asked her.
Gloria thought about it. “He certainly keeps me on my toes,” she said. “But how do I feel about it? I love it, actually.”
“I’ve never seen you happier,” said Leyla. “That’s a good thing. But I have one bone to pick with you,” she added.
Everybody looked at Leyla. “What?” asked Gloria.
“This music, girl,” Leyla said, “is horrible!” They all laughed. “Who’s picking these sorry-ass songs?”
Gloria hadn’t even paid the music any attention. But when Leyla said it, that was when they heard it. It was Hootie and the Blowfish bloviating on some song none of them recognized. It sounded so country to them, and so removed from what they were used to hearing, that they all were laughing.