by Terra Kelly
Finley snatched the bread from her grasp. “Shhhhh…We try to ignore those things.” Smiling he offered, “French toast?”
Cristiano nodded. “I had that at school once, it was so good.”
Letizia laughed. “You make it sound like we never enjoyed American food. I did at the bakery. Alessandra just loved everything Italian, so our meals at home were always authentic.” She knew it would take time to get used to the new way of living…because she missed her aunt.
There was a knock on the door as Finley was flipping the last two pieces of toast in the pan. “That should be Miles; can you grab that, Cris?”
When his partner, Miles, walked into the room, he burst out laughing. “Nice apron.”
Letizia had insisted he wore an apron, so here he stood barefoot wearing this frilly piece of material. Finley just did what any cop would do, he held up the spatula and did a little turn. “Like?”
Miles shook his head. “Shit, where are the video cameras when you need one?”
Finley smiled. “Laugh it up.” He served the last two pieces of French toast on a plate. “Hungry?”
Miles shook his head. “Nah, Preslie made a feast this morning. She just watched this new cooking show and has to try out all the dishes.”
Finley stepped next to Letizia. “We need to introduce you to Preslie and the kids.” Looking at Miles, he arched a brow. “But first, were you able to grab the phones?” He realized they needed some way to communicate when he was at work. He took the devices Miles offered. “Okay, I know you hated being on lockdown at the other house, but we have to do that again here…kinda.”
Letizia turned her head to look at him. “Kinda?”
Finley nodded. “Right. We’re adjusting the rules some. You can only go out with myself or Miles. We plan to take you to his house, his recording studio, and maybe Vikki’s house. She’s Preslie’s best friend. We have no idea where the mob boss is or when he will strike again. But leaving you locked up until this is all over is not an option either.”
Cristiano stepped forward and grabbed the one handheld device. “Can we play games on them, too?”
Letizia picked up the second smart phone. “Um, okay.”
Finley could tell she seemed distressed. “What is it? Talk to me.” He wanted to reach out and pull her into his embrace, but he tamped down on that need.
Letizia sighed. “Nothing, honestly. Cris and I will just keep ourselves busy. I discovered a Soap Opera and was thinking of taking up crocheting.”
Cristiano snickered. “Z, I don’t remember you ever doing either of those things.”
Zia shushed her brother. “Cris.” She glanced at Finley. “Hey, I need to go take care of something; it was nice to see you again, Miles.” She headed out of the room as if running from something.
Cris made a noise of disapproval and Finley gave him a questioning look. “What? She’s that upset?”
Cristiano shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, she’s okay. We’re both just still trying to adjust to this new life. Give her some time and she will be fine, promise.”
Finley let out a sigh. “Okay, Miles, I’ll meet you at the precinct. Cris, I should go talk to her. Sorry to make breakfast and then leave you alone.” He headed out of the room. “Any advice to soften the mood?” He was caring about Zia and upsetting her had never been his intentions.
Cris shrugged his shoulders. “Lately, nothing helps.” The kid shrugged and then bent his head to take a bite of his breakfast.
Finley was upset with all this shit but kept calm. How was this even fair? They both deserved none of what was happening. As he headed toward Letizia’s room he could hear soft sounds of music playing. He stopped in front of her door and took in a deep breath, releasing it while knocking twice.
He could hear her rustling around. “Zia. Can you let me in?” Suddenly it was silent beyond the closed door. “Z, please.”
“Finley, can you let me be for now? I’d like to be alone.” Her voice was close, like she was standing right behind the door.
He leaned his shoulder up against the wood frame. “Letizia.”
Finley could hear her sigh. “It’s not your fault.”
He knew it wasn’t his fault, but it didn’t make her pain any easier to handle. Placing his hand quietly on the wood surface, he bowed his head while closing his eyes. Softly he spoke. “I will get these sons-of-a-bitches, I can promise you that.” Zia never said a word and nor did he expect her to. “Call me if you need me.” Then he headed towards the kitchen and grabbed his keys. Finley planned to make a quick stop on his way to work, but it would not be your normal house call.
Letizia rested her back against the door until gravity took over and she slid to the floor. Looking around the room all she wanted to do was cry. She was in yet another house, and oh right, another room not unlike the previous one she occupied. Glancing down at her hands, she saw the white gold band with a diamond-cut amethyst she always wore on her right ring finger. The ring had been given to her by her mother, well actually, aunt. Alessandra shared that the ring was special and encouraged Letizia to keep it safe. When Alessandra had gifted her the special piece of jewelry, she also gifted a locket to Cris. Suddenly, she stood up. The locket! What if there was something hidden in the confines of the little treasure? Without thinking Zia headed straight to the kitchen to find Cristiano, secretly hoping Finley had left for work already.
As she rounded the corner to find Cris, it was like something pummeling into her. Thinking it was Finley, her mind formed excuses…but it wasn’t Finley. “Cris, where are you going in such a rush?”
Her brother seemed determined. “You okay?”
That was probably the best quality about him: He cared so much. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She grabbed his hand. “Cris, do you know where the locket Ali gave you is stored?” She crossed her fingers and said a silent prayer. When he nodded, she let out the deepest sigh. “Oh, I could kiss you right now.”
Cristiano put his hands up in front of his face. “No. Stay away.” She watched as he took a few steps back from her. “Why do you need the locket?”
She smiled. “Have you ever looked at it?”
He scowled. “I did.”
Letizia laughed. “No, I mean look at it? We need to find a key that my Dad hid, and we both inherited their belongings.” She could see the imaginary light bulb brighten up around him.
Cristiano headed downstairs toward his room. “I have this one box where I keep all my special items.” They both made their way down to his room in record time. As he riffled through his luggage, he let out a few curse words.
Letizia hated reprimanding him. “Cris, you need to watch your language.” Then just like that he held up his hand and in his grasp was a small box. “Are you serious? You found it?”
He laughed. “Well at least I’m organized, right?” The box he was holding was about eight inches long and only maybe three inches wide. “There’s a watch, and the locket protected by special wrapping to keep it from moving around,” he explained.
She looked around the room, feeling like they were being watched—which seemed impossible.
“Why do I feel so nervous right now? It’s just a few pieces of jewelry.” Cris carefully opened the box, peeling away each layer of tissue paper from around the hard surface. Just before the last piece of wrapping was removed, they both just stood there and stared at the discolored wrapping. Then Letizia reached forward and pulled away the last layer to reveal both the watch and locket sitting side by side. It was like a treasure hunt, except they wouldn’t be receiving any prizes. Instead, they could potentially be handed over to Giano Nesta.
Cris let out a whistle. “Isn’t she a beauty? Your Dad had great taste.”
Letizia smiled. “If I remember correctly, when Ali gave you the locket, she said it belonged to our Grandfather.” They both looked at each and then she released the latch that held the two pieces of the locket together. Inside were two black–and-white images. One was of an older wom
an and the other looked like her father. It must be pictures of her grandparents. She sucked in a breath. “Cris?”
Her brother laughed. “Yeah, I see it, too.”
Letizia realized she needed little tweezers to remove the photo, but just then they heard footsteps coming from upstairs, followed by Finley calling for them both. Her nerves were in overdrive, so hearing his voice calmed her some. “We’re down here.”
They both waited until Finley reached the bottom step. He looked confused. “What are you doing? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Letizia held up the gold locket. “Um, I had a thought, which lead us here.” She then told him about the special treasure and why they were holding it. “I need to get tweezers.” She pointed to the corner of the image of her grandfather. “See that crease?”
Zia watched as Finley grabbed the locket and inspected every inch of the gold surface. “We need gloves if we go any further with this inspection.” He then walked over to a closet. “I keep odds and ends down here, so I don’t have to run back and forth for items.” Suddenly he made a sound of approval. “Gloves, but no tweezers. Hey, let’s use this needle and carefully pull the image out.”
As they hovered around the small piece of jewelry, the room became silent, almost to where you could hear a pin drop. Letizia held the locket still while Finley had the gloves on and was carefully using a needle to pull the photo out. Just then they heard small clink and stopped. Letizia gasped. “Um, that key must be tiny if that’s what we heard?” The locket itself was about two to three inches in diameter, so if a key was hidden, it had to be a very small locker type key.
She noticed Finley shake his head. “That or there’s something else tucked back there.”
Cris waved his hand, gesturing to continue. “Come on, what are we waiting for? Get the photo all the way out.”
Finley nodded. “Fine. Keep your pants on, kid.” Just then, Letizia noticed a little piece of glass click out and the photo lifted up easily. Underneath was a small key. The top of it was missing the round plastic handle that usually would be attached to the metal portion. It was obvious the plastic piece was purposefully removed to make the key fit snuggly in the locket.
Letizia wanted to grab it, but she refrained from touching anything that could be potential evidence. “Oh my God, we have the second key.”
The three stood there in silence for what felt like hours but was only minutes. Finley sighed. “I need to take this in and have it analyzed. We may find finger prints or possibly trace elements of bodily fluid of some kind.”
Zia nodded. “Yeah do what you need to but please be careful. It’s still a family heirloom.” She felt speechless over their discovery. How was this even possible? Why would her father hide the key in the locket? Every time they made a new discovery, it was like adding more fuel to the already overly lit fire. This discovery put them even closer to the answers they were looking for and possibly impending danger.
Sixteen
Five days later, Letizia was sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn resting in her lap. She was watching a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond and trying to keep her mind full of happy thoughts. Whenever she stopped and let her mind wander, fear would creep in and almost paralyze her whole body.
Finley had ensured her that everything would be okay, but she knew he had no way to know that. When the techs analyzed her father’s locket, they found a partial fingerprint. Since there was only a partial and no record of her father’s fingerprints in the data base, it would be hard to know exactly who left the print on the locket. The technicians planned to work around the clock going through files, but it would take triple the time to find the person…if at all.
Her phone chimed with an incoming text from Finley: Want to go see Miles practice at his recording studio? She smiled and responded immediately. Yes! He answered with a smiley emoticon and said he would be there in thirty minutes.
She looked down at what she was wearing and gasped; the worn baby blue sweats and a tight t-shirt would not cut it—especially as a first impression. She walked over to the stairwell for the basement. “Cris?”
He made a grunting noise. “Yeah?”
Being locked up in a house obviously meant sleeping a lot in his mind. “Hey, get up, let’s get out of here?” She could hear him rustle around.
Cris appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Okay. Where are we going?”
Letizia smiled. “To watch Miles’ band practice. I think his wife is a backup singer, too.”
Cris ran out of view. “Oh cool, hold on.”
She shook her head and headed to her room to change. Letizia had finished getting dressed and had her head bent while brushing her teeth. Warm arms wrapped around her waist and she lifted her head. “Shit.” Her eyes had fear written all over them.
Finley stepped back. “Sorry, bella.”
Shaking her head. “Superman, you shouldn’t scare a poor woman like that.” She playfully punched.
He grabbed around her waist and pulled her close to his body. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known better.” He kissed her temple. “Ready?”
She loved being in his embrace because all her bad thoughts seemed to disappear.
Finley was driving and shaking his head. “So, is this a twenty-question game or what?” Cris had spouted off questions about Miles’ band the moment they got in the car.
The kid let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I guess. Sorry.”
Finley looked back at the boy. “Hey, it’s fine. I was joking.” He reached over and grabbed Letizia’s hand. “I think you’ll love Preslie and Vikki. Just be forewarned—Vikki loves speaking her mind.”
Letizia squeezed his hand. “I can’t wait to meet everyone.”
Finley lived only about fifteen minutes from Torn Pieces’ studio. When he pulled into the driveway, they could see several people standing around the back entrance. Suddenly, Preslie let out a scream and started toward his car. “So, yeah, that would be Preslie and that’s Vikki fast on her heels.”
Zia laughed. “Wow, okay.”
He watched as Preslie came up to his side of the car which he was thankful about. He didn’t want her approaching Letizia first since he was unsure how she would react. He slowly opened his door. “Hey, Pres.”
Preslie waved her hands around. “Yeah, yeah, I want to meet her.”
Finley scowled. “Her is right there, and that’s why I brought her.”
Vikki let out a loud laugh. “Men.” Then the redhead bent down and looked at Letizia. “Hey gorgeous. Wow, he wasn’t kidding.” Finley just shook his head and stepped away from the car.
Insecurity took over, Letizia. First, a beautiful woman ran up to the car and waved her hands around in excitement. Then, an amazing redhead sauntered up, looked at her and called her gorgeous. Wow, these women were indeed direct. Why did that make her feel so uncomfortable? Out of place, maybe?
Cris was getting out of the car when Zia called for him. “Hey, Cris.” He looked back at her and seemed so confident. She shook her head. “Never mind.” Taking in a deep breath, she opened the door. Her Superman must have noticed her hesitation.
He offered his hand to help her out and whispered, “You okay?”
Letizia put on her most confident smile. “I think so.” Her reply sounded far from confident, but she tried, so the effort was there.
Finley kissed her temple and whispered in a low voice, “You got this, bella. They’re just excited to see me with a woman.”
Letizia laughed a full belly laugh. Through her tears of laughter, the woman with the long brunette hair, Preslie she assumed, appeared. All she could muster now through her fits of giggles was a simple ‘sorry.’
Preslie smiled. “Sweetie, it’s nice to see you laughing. You never have to be sorry for being happy.” Then the kind woman held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Preslie.”
The redhead walked over and wrapped her arms around Preslie. “What’d I miss?”
Preslie kissed the woman’
s cheek. “An inside joke I assume. Letizia, right? Am I saying it correctly?”
Letizia smiled. “Perfectly.”
Preslie high-fived the redhead. “Miles owes me twenty bucks.” Then she winked at them.
Letizia laughed and held her hand out to the redhead. “Vikki, right?”
Vikki straightened and lunged forward. “I’m a hugger and call me Viks.” She leaned in and gave Letizia the biggest bear hug. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
Zia calmed, which was nice. “Hi Viks. It’s wonderful to meet you both, Finley has told me so many good things about you.” Suddenly both woman broke into fits of giggles.
Finley stepped between them. “This is what I was talking about, so don’t say you weren’t warned.” He leaned in and whispered. “You sure you’re okay?”
Everyone made their way inside the studio. Preslie and Vikki were walking on either side of Cristiano and chatting it up with him. It was funny, her brother seemed comfortable, which was unusual. At the doorway, she noticed Miles standing there waiting like a gentleman…or maybe he was hoping to talk to Finley.
As she approached, Miles let go and walked up beside Zia. “You doing good? The girls can be intense, but they mean well. Preslie has been so excited to meet you both, she even brought Gracie, Jake, and the twins.”
Zia smiled. “That’s sweet. I promise, I’m good.” Then she gave the thumbs up. She was looking forward to the day when things could be normal—whatever that meant.
As she stepped into the building, she had to stop and take in her surroundings. The studio was huge with foam padding on every wall. As she looked around, it felt like they were in a living room with all the comfy furniture scattered around. There was a huge glass window on one side of the room and you could see some band members setting up their instruments. She watched Miles open a door and her eyes caught sight of the many buttons lighting up. Turning toward Finley who seemed to make a point to stay by her side, she asked, “Is that room with the many buttons where all the magic happens?”