I didn’t know what else to do but drink some wine. My tension headache was gone by now, but my face felt so puffed up. I was doing everything to avoid mirrors. Blake sat down next to me on the couch and turned the TV on.
He rushed through any channels that might have news and left it on Nickelodeon. This was actually calming, and knowing that food, clothes, and beauty products were on their way to me made me feel a little better. I needed to feel better and get the recurring image of the car on fire out of my head.
As I sat and stared at the TV screen, the colors began to blur and I wasn’t watching anything. My mind began to race as I thought of my mother and father.
We were about to head out for the night, and I had realized I forgot my phone. The rest blurred out, and then my mind raced even faster as I began to remember snippets of my childhood.
My dad pushing me on the swings, the Christmas parties, the country club, and his helping me with my homework when he would come home late during high school. I would always procrastinate and have to pull a few all-nighters.
I was delirious from studying and he would make me an ice cream sundae and add coffee. I can never remember if it tasted good, but it did the trick and it was among my favorite times spent with my father. He would even stay up with me until it was time for me to get an hour or two of sleep before slumping off to school.
My mind wandered from memory to memory and then I thought of my mother. I remembered her cooking and how much I loved helping her chop and peel and sauté. And then it dawned on me that I would never cook with her again.
I would never be able to drink wine on the terrace with them late into the summer nights. I would never travel with them again. I would never hear my father’s laugh when he thought something was really funny. I would never know the joy they would feel when they would see their first grandchild. My father was not going to walk me down the aisle.
This thought stopped my heart for a full minute and then I felt a deep sadness that I’ve never felt before. I was starting to feel loss in my life, the loss of the two people closest to me. I would never speak to them again. And soon after, I began to feel guilt and I started to feel cold again. The tension headache was beginning to return.
I must have showed my emotions through my face. Blake had been holding me the whole time and I hadn’t even noticed, and he kissed me on my cheeks and then on my mouth.
I started to kiss him back and felt the shivers and pain go away. I got on top of him and he ran his hands up and down my back and my ass. We kept kissing till the doorbell rang.
I listened as Blake was trying to shoo off the nosy delivery guy. He kept asking about the police tape at the front of the property. Blake played it cool and got rid of him.
A short time later, my friend showed with bags of stuff. She stuck around for a bit to show me everything she got, and I said I would reimburse her once I felt a little better. She told me to forget it and that she would count it as her charity act of the week. I didn’t know how I felt about being an act of charity, but I hugged her anyway.
The rest of the night was calm between Blake and me. There was no tension between us, only company. I was afraid to talk, mostly out of fear that Blake would make me talk about things. I didn’t want to talk at all. I just wanted to hold on to the memories that popped up in my mind when they appeared. I didn’t want to forget my parents. I slumped into Blake’s arms and then curled up comfortably in his lap.
Eventually, we found ourselves in bed, and he held me close as I began to cry myself to sleep.
Chapter Six
Blake
It was morning when I opened my eyes next, and my eyelids felt so heavy. I opened them slowly as I got a grasp of the room. The bedroom felt quiet and peaceful, and I eventually looked down to see Maddie still sleeping with her hands tucked under my pillow and grasping my arm.
She looked cute and I gently stroked her ear. I didn’t want to wake her just yet because she looked so comfortable and she had barely slept.
I lay next to Maddie, holding her for so long that I almost fell back asleep. I watched as her eyes slowly opened and she looked at me. There was so much crust in her eyes, and I began to wipe it away as I smiled at her.
“Morning,” she said with a very hoarse and groggy voice. I just continued to smile at her and asked her if she wanted coffee. “Yes, I would love that.” And she rolled over. She had put an emphasis on the word love, and she began to talk about a weird dream she had. I listened as her voice went from hoarse to clear.
She followed me to the kitchen, and I had her sit at one of the barstools in the kitchen. She looked so small in one of my old SEAL T-shirts I gave her to sleep in. She was smiling, but I felt like that had more to do with her avoiding thinking about her parents’ deaths.
I made coffee and came over to give her a hug and a morning kiss as the coffee percolated. I had already mapped out everyone I could talk to who could help confirm my notions that it was the work of the Ricci family.
I was going to start with one of my friends who was on the force. I would try and contact him today to meet with me privately so we could talk. I couldn’t just walk into the precinct so soon after this tragic event, but I was going to get to the bottom of this.
I really wished I could take Maddie somewhere nice or fancy to make her forget everything, but it was still too risky to just let her walk around. She needed a place to go to feel hopeful again.
I needed to work that part out for her, a safe place to go. There weren’t many places I could think of at the moment. Maybe I would have a definite solution by the end of the day.
Madeline drank her coffee in silence as I sat down next to her. “What are you thinking about?” I watched as she nodded her head.
“I was just thinking about my designs.” She continued to nod her head as she pursed her lips. “Yep, I am thinking about my designs.” And then she gulped down more coffee.
“You know how I’ve been studying fashion design at college?” she asked me, sounding chipper. I nodded my head.
“Well, there’s this design school that one of my professors told me about, and she has written me a letter of recommendation if I apply.” She stared off ahead of her and smiled.
“That’s great, Maddie.” I rubbed her back.
“Yeah, the design school is in Italy.” She was so direct when she said this.
“That’s great, Maddie. I think you should go. In fact, I think you should go to Italy the moment you can.” She turned her head and smiled at me. We both hugged each other.
I thought the idea of Maddie going to Italy, with or without design school, would make her happy. If I remembered Mr. Bianco correctly, they still had family and connections there. She would be happy there away from all this.
We pulled away from each other for a second. I smiled at her until she turned her head away from me and then she looked down at my feet quickly. “Blake?” she said with a much lighter tone, and I jolted with a whiplash to my neck.
“Yes?” I responded as if to my drill sergeant.
Maddie looked at me weirdly and then continued, “Will you come with me into my house to get some of my stuff?” She stared right into me with wide eyes.
“Yeah, of course.” I put my hand on her lower back.
I waited till Maddie had finished her coffee and went to watch TV. Her spirit seemed somehow dead, and it hurt me to see her like that. I felt it was my responsibility to Mr. Bianco to make her happy. I said I was taking a shower and grabbed my phone as I left her to slump on the couch.
I closed the door to the bathroom and ran the shower head. I dialed up my detective friend, hoping that I wouldn’t catch him at the police station. I became anxious as the rings went on and I sat down at the toilet to settle my nerves. “Hello?” I heard on the other end, and I shot right back up on my feet.
“Detective, it’s Blake Grey,” I said nervously, and then there was silence.
“Let me call you back in a minute, Blake.” And
the line went dead. Shit! I had called him at work.
I turned the shower off because the steam was filling up the bathroom. My phone rang and I answered quickly. “Blake?” he said in almost a whisper, and I responded. “What’s up?” he said, a little more relaxed now.
“I’m calling about last night.” There was silence “Detective?” I said.
“Yes?”
I breathed and asked him if we could meet privately and discuss everything. He agreed, and then we set up a time and place to meet safely and we both hung up.
I took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief. I was going to get to the bottom of all this and I was going to make sure I kept Maddie safe. I turned the shower head back on and jumped in and began to lather up in the steam. When I got out of the shower and out of the bathroom, I saw that Maddie hadn’t moved an inch on the couch. I walked over to her and massaged the top of her head. “Maddie?” I said to her quietly, and she tilted her head up to meet my gaze.
“Yes?” she said in an even more hushed tone.
“I have to go meet a friend in town, and I would feel terrible just leaving you here alone with your thoughts.” I looked at her as she nodded her head in agreement.
“Is there any friend of yours you can think of that is trustworthy enough for you to be at their house while I meet with my friend?” She shook her head yes. I smiled and kissed her forehead. I began to walk away from the couch to the bedroom to change.
I heard Maddie get up and follow me. “What friend are you meeting with?”
I stopped and turned to look at her. “I have a friend at the precinct who has a lot of knowledge about the local mob families. He will help me in discovering who did this,” I said as plainly as I could.
Maddie tilted her head at me in curiosity. “So that means you are going to the precinct where the police are?” She was looking at me as if I was going against my earlier advice about her not going to the cops last night.
“I know what you’re thinking, Maddie. I won’t be going to the precinct. I will be meeting him outside the precinct in a further location to talk.” I watched her as she tilted her head even more.
“That’s a little shady and crooked.” I thought her neck was going to snap in half from how far she was tilting it.
“Yeah, well, your father was in a shady business with other shady people who need to work outside the law.” I turned to open my closet.
I looked back as I saw that Maddie was nodding her head in agreement with me. “True story, but why can’t I meet with crooked police outside the precinct in secret locations?” She went to sit on the bed and grabbed her phone. It looked like she was scrolling through something and I knew I still had her attention.
“Look, Maddie, right now, the less involved and out and about the town you are in this, the better. These are dangerous people we are dealing with who do unspeakable things. I’m trying to protect you here, remember? That’s my job, to protect you.” I could tell what she wanted to respond to me with when I mentioned the words job and protect in the same sentence.
She opened her mouth wide, and I put my hand up. “Save it,” I said shortly, and she closed her mouth and continued to scroll through her phone.
As I got dressed, Maddie eventually got up and left the room to get ready. It didn’t take her long and she looked perfect. She told the address of where her friend lived and I tried to take an off-the-road path, just in case were being followed by anyone. So far, so good.
I made sure we left way before I met the detective. I dropped Maddie off with some trustworthy friends in the neighborhood. I figured that she could use this girlfriend time and not be stuck in the back house for the whole day or more than she had to. It would be good for her to not be so close to the scene of the crime.
I also didn’t know what was going to happen from day to day, and if she was going to be living in the same space as me, I needed her to not go insane and attack me like she did last night.
I knew it was drawn from her anger, but I’d had girlfriends before. Too much time spent together could lead to you driving them crazy. I wanted to keep her as happy as I could so she could stay productive and focused on her life after all this was over. I was devoted to doing this for Maddie.
I had to fight off Maddie’s two other friends who seemed to have crushes on me as well. They kept holding me in conversation as they tried to get me to come inside and go swimming.
I tried to be as polite with them as I could and said I didn’t have my swim trunks. This initiated annoying laughter and Maddie shooed them off. Once I knew they had gone inside and couldn’t see us, Maddie and I kissed goodbye.
I drove off to go talk with the detective. I waited at Starbucks with a tall coffee. We had agreed to meet at a Starbucks on the other side of town in a safe zone neighborhood, free from any mobsters coming in or walking by.
The detective told me that no one on the force drank Starbucks. They preferred Dunkin Donuts. So, we would be safe from any of them walking in and seeing us talking. He also told me that my encounter with some of the cops last night had triggered some interest in me on this case.
So far, it was only chit-chat among the cops, but he would do his best to notify me if he saw my name on any files in the case.
I sat and drank my coffee nervously as I tried to figure out what I was going to ask him. As I sat there waiting, I saw a lot of young women coming in and out, and it made me think of Maddie. Maybe I should bring her one of those flavored coffees. I quickly texted her to see what she would want.
The second I sent the text, I looked up and saw the detective walking in. He spotted me right away. I tried to sit as far back as I could from everyone else. He sat down without ordering a coffee. This told me he didn’t have much time to beat around the bush.
We had a few seconds of small talk and then he dove right in. “What is it you need, Blake?” He was so direct with me that I almost choked on my coffee.
“I’m trying to investigate who caused the car explosion.” I lowered my voice as a woman with a baby stroller walked by.
She sat a little too close to our table for our comfort level. The detective gave me an insider signal that she might be a hired spy by the Ricci family or someone else, disguised as someone who could pass on anything she could overhear from our conversation.
This made me curious whether there was an actual baby in that stroller. I leaned as far back as I could when she wasn’t looking, and I happened to see a sleeping baby. But regardless of this, we still kept our alert up about her presence.
The detective lowered his gaze and then spoke softly to me. He even turned away so that no one could read his lips. “I’ve been at the station all night investigating. I had a feeling you’d be calling me about this, which is why I gave you all that extra information about where to meet.” He changed his gaze to my coffee.
Noticing this, I slowly pushed the still-full coffee toward him. He took a long, well-deserved gulp and then thanked me. He moved back to the position he was in. “I had to be sneaky and make it look like I wasn’t investigating any powerful families, but my results led to the Ricci family. It was the only possible solution.” He became quiet and took another long gulp of my coffee.
I tried to follow the detective’s lead and covered my mouth. “The Ricci family. Shit.” I guess I had emphasized shit a little too much because the mom gave me a dirty look and turned the stroller more toward her.
The detective gave me more details about how he concluded the Ricci family was involved. While he was talking, I started to come up with a plan in order to pull one over on the Riccis. “I would be very careful in your actions. I think they are on the alert that Madeline Bianco is still alive somewhere.”
I looked straight at him with a terrified look. I needed to protect her most of all, but it was apparent I would have to use her in my plan as bait for the Riccis and this thought killed me.
I remembered that she had mentioned something about Donato Ricci, the son of Mr. R
icci. She had mentioned how disgusting he was and that he had tried to ask her out a couple of times. She’d refuse to go out with him and then Donato would get a beating from whatever boyfriend Maddie had at the time.
And then I thought about Maddie having dated people other than me, but technically, we weren’t exactly dating. I still hated the thought of other men with her. I shook my head and tried refocus on what the detective was saying.
We finished our meeting and I stayed back a while as the detective left. He promised if anything else urgent came up on the case, he would contact me, not the other way around. He said it was too risky for me to be calling him. He was going to be at the precinct around the clock over the next several days working on this case. If he kept receiving random calls from me, he would have to leave the station and it would start to look very suspicious to everyone else.
“I really want to help you, Grey, but I can’t risk anything.” He leaned in so close I thought he was going to kiss me. Which made the suspicious-looking woman with the stroller scrunch her nose at us as she turned the stroller away from us even more. At this point, I really didn’t believe she was a spy for the Ricci family. Just an uptight soccer mom.
The detective stood up straight and bowed his head to say good bye to me. He then turned to the soccer mom and winked at her. I enjoyed watching her shift uncomfortably in her seat.
I waited for him to exit the Starbucks. As soon as the detective closed the door behind him, I checked my phone and saw Maddie’s complicated coffee order. I wasn’t even sure I was allowed to order this drink as a former Navy SEAL.
I got up and walked to the counter to order. I kept my phone in front of me as I ordered it for her. I felt ridiculous carrying it with me, but it was for the woman I loved and that’s what I had to keep telling myself as I picked it up. I also made sure the employees of that Starbucks understood that in case they came up as witnesses in court if this Starbucks became part of the case.
SEALed To Protect (Omerta Series) Page 4