by Gina LaManna
“Later maybe,” I said. “I need some answers first.”
“All right, chickadee.” Meg stood and gave me a gruff hug. “Don’t think this means I’ve forgiven you for ‘forgetting’ to invite me for the manicure. Next time you do that crap I’ll break your fingers.”
We exchanged a best friend smile before she disappeared from the doorway, the sounds of wreckage following her every move. I heard her mention something to Mister Butler, and not long after, Harold poked his head in the room. “Why, hello, Ms. Lacey. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” I smiled. “Thanks, Harold. Is Anthony around?”
Harold crooked his eyebrow with a sly grin.
“He has been sitting right there since he carried you in here.” Harold gestured towards the window seat, and I now noticed the pillows were a bit smushed, apparently by a large, male frame. Harold smiled.
“He sat there the whole time?”
“Don’t worry,” Harold said, with a wink. “I sent him away as soon as you started snoring.”
“I don’t snore!”
“You can join him in the kitchen, if you’re feeling ready. Otherwise, I’ll send him up when he’s finished his meal,” Harold said, standing straight and guarding the door.
“I’ll join him,” I said, slowly getting out of my bed. I tested my limbs, but they seemed to work just fine. I hugged the unfamiliar robe that’d been placed around my body, and padded past Harold, a few guards, and the statue that might be David on my way to the kitchen. I passed through the great entryway, barely noticing the magnificent chandelier or the beautiful new display of handmade candles along the wall. I passed through the hallway where my spelling bee certificate hung with pride.
A warm, glowing light emitted from the end of the swinging door at the end of the hall. The kitchen awaited me – the coziest room in the house; its yellow walls inviting full bellies and entertaining banter, knees knocking against family as we ate together, stories told over handcrafted wine and spirits. A feeling of excitement bubbled in my stomach. I was alive. And I was happy to be home.
I pushed open the door and was slightly surprised to find Anthony inside, alone. Usually Nora and her wine ruled the kitchen with a flushed face. Today, Anthony sat by himself at the table, staring at a full plate of pasta before him.
“Not hungry?” I asked.
Anthony looked up at me with a pained expression. “This is the third plate. I eat it all, then your grandmother comes in here and refills it before I can say a thing.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to the Family,” I said with a grimace. “Keep eating the pasta. Otherwise, the dessert comes out. The cookies will break your teeth.”
Anthony patted the place next to him. “Hungry?”
“Yeah, actually I am.” I surprised myself. I hadn’t eaten anything since before my capture, and now my stomach growled. Meg was right; I had some replenishing to do. I plopped in the seat next to Anthony and gave him a glance. “Talk.”
Anthony watched as I piled a huge scoop of pasta onto my plate. He pushed his unfinished food towards me, and I smiled gratefully, lining it up right behind my own heaping meatball mountain.
“Well, you know about what happened up until the, ah, mini bomb.” Anthony watched me eat, and I couldn’t tell if he was disgusted or impressed. Once again, I didn’t much care.
“Yah. Wha was dat?” I asked around a meatball.
“The earring,” Anthony said. “I noticed that when you get nervous you tug on your earlobe. I thought if I gave you them it’d be an easy way for you to have some backup security. There were sensors inside. It was foolproof, almost. See, by using one of your natural tells, you wouldn’t even realize you were setting the alarms off.”
“You didn’t trust me to set them off myself?”
“Not really,” said Anthony. “Normally, by the time you ask for help, it’s too late.”
“Lesson learned,” I said. “I’ll try to do better. And I won’t sneak around you anymore. Probably.”
“Please try,” Anthony said. “But that’s also not the only reason. Using a natural motion without your realizing it helps to not arouse suspicion. Anyone who knows you, knows your tell.”
“Am I that obvious?” I asked.
“Don’t play poker,” he said. “Plus, there was one additional bonus.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Every time you got nervous, you’d be reminded of me.” Anthony smiled. “And I liked that.”
I looked over at him, touched. “That’s sweet.”
Anthony gave the smallest hint of a smile, which disappeared as he continued talking with a serious expression. “I can detonate them remotely with a Wi-Fi connection, which is what I’d planned to do when you began tugging on your earlobes. However, neither Clay nor I estimated Kitty’s preparedness – or the existence of The Chamber.”
“She said there was no Wi-Fi down there,” I said. “So how did you detonate it?”
“I didn’t,” Anthony said. “I tried, but I don’t think it was me that detonated it.”
“What did, then?” I asked.
“There’s one last resort safety feature, if you will.”
“Safety feature?” I raised an eyebrow. “Or danger feature?”
Anthony ignored me. “With enough compressed force, the earring can be activated without a signal. I didn’t tell you the diamonds doubled as a weapon, because I hadn’t thought you’d need it. Not with us standing watch over you, plus all of Clay’s devices. But Clay underestimated her abilities with technology.”
I looked up. “Uh-oh, I bet he isn’t happy.”
“I’d maybe not go home tonight if I were you,” Anthony said. “I think he’ll be okay tomorrow. I talked him off the ledge.”
“Are you trying to get me to stay here with you?” I asked.
“Mmm,” Anthony murmured. “You don’t know where I live.”
I mumbled a nonsensical response, slurping a stray noodle. “Tell me about the earrings.”
“The diamonds in your ears encapsulated an incredibly small, extremely compact form of a flash bomb. The real weapon is the gas, though. It knocks anyone in a ten foot radius out on impact, and it lingers for around ten minutes, so if anyone else were to barge in to see what happened…”
“Kaplooey.” I mimed a tree falling over.
“Exactly. I had a device hooked up to the earrings, so I’d know when they detonated, if ever. That specific function operates without the use of Wi-Fi, so the command center was alerted when the bomb went off. I received a phone call from them, telling me that your earrings had detonated – which confused me, because I hadn’t told you the emergency release safety feature.”
“That would have been nice,” I muttered.
“We were already aware something had gone terribly wrong,” Anthony said. “So, when we got the call, Clay and I rushed into the spa and very quickly discovered The Chamber. That’s where we found everyone knocked out...you, Kitty and six guards.”
“The spread of the bomb was probably extensive – Kitty had already opened the door, so the gas could have gone through easily,” I mused. “The guards would have been knocked out on impact before they could even enter the room.”
Anthony nodded in agreement.
I looked up, not exactly seeing Anthony. “Hey, wait a minute. Diamonds don’t just smash.”
Anthony suddenly busied himself looking at his lap.
“Those weren’t real diamonds.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
Looking up helplessly, he gazed around the kitchen but there were no distractions for him to latch onto. “Well, wouldn’t you rather have had the weapon?”
“Yeah,” I said, relenting. “I guess I forgive you this time. But not in the future.”
“Who said there’s more diamonds coming?”
It was my turn to look sheepish. “I’m just saying.”
After an awkward silence, I stood up and dug in the fridge for some dessert that would
n’t send me to the dentist in need of new enamel. Finding nothing, I pulled out a bottle of Grappa.
“Shot?” I asked.
“Please.”
Heating up a quick espresso, we sat next to each other, each of us slowly relaxing as we sipped the hot caffeine jolt mixed with Grappa. He had a few more questions for me, and I extracted a few more details from him about the whole mission. When we were each satisfied, I looked over.
“Thanks,” I said. “For everything. I appreciate your help. I should have come to you sooner.”
“Clay wants you to live with him again,” Anthony said, changing the subject. “I think you should. He misses you.”
“Yeah, I missed him too. For the one night I was gone.” I paused, thinking. “I still can’t believe he pre-ordered gadgets to fill my room. I suppose I’ll just have to sleep on the couch until I can get a new bed.”
“I have extra space,” Anthony said.
“In your bed?” I asked.
“It’s a nice bed.”
“You know what?” I turned to face him. “I don’t understand you. At Vivian’s wedding, you told me that you got permission to date me. Now, you just kiss me left and right.” I wagged a finger at him. “But at my party, when I brought up the situation about you asking me to be your girlfriend, you said no. What’s going on here?”
Anthony set down his glass. “At your party, you asked if I was debating asking you to be my girlfriend.”
“Right,” I said. “And you said no.”
“I’m not debating,” he said, leaning forward and taking my face in his hands. “I’ve already decided. Now, I’m just waiting for the right time.”
Speechless, I think my jaw dropped open. Anthony bent towards me and pressed his lips to mine, giving me a long, slow kiss that made my appetite for pasta completely disappear. When he pulled away, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“I worried about you in the spa,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
Anthony looked as if he had more to say on the subject, but he refrained and shook his head.
“I appreciate you waiting upstairs with me while I was out,” I said. “Harold and Meg told me.”
“I wouldn’t let anyone else do the job,” Anthony said.
I tried to hide a smile and turned back to my pasta. Maybe it was too soon, but I was pretty sure that my feelings for Blake were already fading. Maybe I’d already been over the relationship, and had been trying to convince myself I wasn’t. Now, I found myself not particularly minding if he and Laura worked out.
“About the spa,” I said. “What’d you do with them anyways? The guards and Kitty?”
Anthony poured two big shots of Grappa into our espresso glasses. We mixed the alcohol with the bitter espresso remains and the sugar kernels at the bottom, downing them together.
“Eh,” Anthony said. “Consider your job done.”
“But what does that—” I started, but stopped when Carlos entered the room.
Looking quite dapper as usual in a suit and tie, I stood and kissed him on each cheek.
“Sit,” Carlos said. He poured himself a shot, and another for Anthony and me. “Salude.”
“Salude,” we cheered. I tapped my glass against the table and took the alcohol in one gulp. I was starting to feel a little loopy from the sudden liquor intake. Clearly the alcohol was hitting my bloodstream faster than the carbs.
As we all grimaced and let the Grappa settle, I glanced around the kitchen, feeling suddenly very lucky to be alive. To be home. To be part of my Family, albeit it a crazy one.
I broke out into a smile.
“Why so happy?” Carlos asked.
“Can’t I be happy?” I looked at Anthony as he made a small noise in his throat that sounded like amusement. “I’m alive!”
“Is true,” Carlos said, the tiniest accent creeping into his English. “On that note, brava. A job well done.”
He pulled a check out of his pocket.
I gaped at the amount as he handed it over. “But this is more than I thought…”
“I did not expect you to topple the entire pyramid,” he said. “I expected you to merely divulge a few names. You did more than I asked. Grazie mille, bella.”
I stood up, a little bit wobbly.
“Th-thank you,” I managed. “I-uh, I need to go deposit this. I need to pay Clay rent. I need to move home. I need to…” I trailed off.
“Can you drive me?” I looked at Anthony, realizing I didn’t have a car. And even if I did, I was seeing two of him, thanks to the Grappa. I didn’t want to add airbag deployment to my list of accomplishments for today.
“Yes.” Anthony stood and grasped one of my arms to keep me steady, guiding me out the swinging kitchen door.
Anthony waited when I tugged on his arm. I paused a half a step into the hallway, glancing back as Carlos helped himself to another round of espresso.
“Hey, Carlos,” I called. My grandfather’s eyes flicked up from the dinner table.
“Yes?” he asked, the tiny glass balanced between his fingers.
I put my hands on my hips. “One more thing.” Both Carlos and Anthony cast skeptical glances in my direction.
“The top dog was a woman.” I gave a serene smile at the two intimidating men, and I raised an eyebrow. “I absolutely don’t approve of Kitty’s style – but keep in mind – it’s not impossible for a girl to play in a man’s world.”
THE END.
Note from the author:
Thank you to all my readers, especially those of you who have stuck with me from the beginning of Lacey’s story. By now, I’m sure you all know how important reviews are for Indie authors, so if you have a moment and enjoyed the story, please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. I know you are all very busy people and writing a review takes time out of your day – but just know that I appreciate every single one I receive. Reviews help make promotions possible, help with visibility on large retailers and most importantly, help other potential readers decide if they would like to try the book.
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To continue with Lacey’s story…
** **
Lacey Luzzi: Book 4 (secret title)—out Summer 2015!
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