by Jolie Damman
I was going to die, and I wasn’t going to marry Alide after all.
Chapter 9
Discovering Each Other
Alide
Ijumped, throwing my whole weight with me, and brought Angelo down with me. I came here just in time. I had just a glimpse of the white man in a white sleeveless tee pulling the trigger, and it was all the proof I needed to intervene and save him.
This time, I was saving him from certain death, and doing so meant so much to me.
He and I both collapsed on the filthy, battered floor with a loud thud, puffing out some of the layer of dust. He got up in an instant and looked at me like he couldn’t believe what was happening.
He had very little time to react, though.
The guy he was chasing and fighting was already zapping his gun at him. “Get down,” he shouted and shoved me with him to fall behind the couch.
The shot exploded in the air and ricocheted against one of the walls.
His hands found my face like he couldn’t believe my presence here and, to be frank, neither did I.
But I needed to do this.
He made me curious.
I felt pulled to him like he was a magnet.
At this moment, I felt like kissing him. Time had stilled, and it was just us now. But I had very little time to think about that, ponder the costs and imagine what being more than his waitress would be like; the bald man with a blond beard was already firing at us again.
We scurried to the other end of the couch, my hand feeling so filthy thanks to all the dirt on the floor. More gunshots exploded in the air, and I grew aware of the bullets puncturing through the material of the couch.
I needed to do something, but what?
I had no idea. All I knew I needed to do was to stay close to him for as long as possible.
At this moment, anything could happen and, most all, I didn’t want to lose my life or him.
We had a chance to become more than colleagues, after all.
He scurried to the other side of the couch, and I could feel his mind was considering something. He shook his head and murmured, “Stay here. I’m going to kill him.”
Fuck. It was like a vice was gripping my heart right now. He was risking so much when he didn’t have to.
But that’s what made him so knight-y right now. It was like I was living a dream of mine, where I finally had a man willing to sacrifice his life for me.
Time stilled for me again, and I covered my heart with my hands.
I just admitted he was my knight.
My King, and I was his Queen.
He jumped, rushed to the other wall, and more bullets whizzed past him. They got so close. I imagined they were going to kill him. That’s a thought I couldn’t control, couldn’t consider again.
It wouldn’t happen.
For one very simple reason, it wouldn’t.
Angelo was one of the best shooters in the city, and he was going to bring that man to his due justice. Of that, I was sure.
But there was a barrage of bullets trying to kill him. The man with a blond beard and bald hair kept shooting his pistol, and it felt like it had infinite ammo. Didn’t he have to reload or something like that eventually?
I was so imprudent and ignorant when it came to guns. I knew nothing about them.
Angelo tried and tried to pop out to aim and shoot in a flash at his target, but the guy was relentless. I felt so useless right now. I was sitting on my own legs, behind the couch, and the other man, who kept shouting all kinds of obscenities, just couldn’t stop shooting.
I needed to do something.
I spun my head around, trying to figure out something – anything that could bring him down. Anything to take his attention away from Angelo, who I shouldn’t be thinking of as a possible lover of mine, but still did.
I needed to be useful one way or another.
I needed to help him when he needed me.
That’s when I found it. A small boot. It was brown and worn. Whoever used it didn’t care about it anymore. If I could…
I snatched it and popped my head over the couch. Angelo shouted something, but it was too late. The guy with the blond beard zapped his arm to me. He was going to pull the trigger.
Maybe I was going to make it.
Maybe not.
Too late.
I hurled the boot to him. Just when he squeezed the trigger, it hit his forehead. His head was forced to jerk backward, and he stumbled. I popped my head back behind the couch and prayed I did the right thing.
An explosion shook the atmosphere.
I whizzed my head in the direction it came from.
Angelo was now positioned past the wall he was hiding behind. His hand was holding his pistol, and a line of smoke was meandering out of it. The man he had been chasing fell down on the floor with a soft thud. On his face was an expression of bewilderment mixed with thanks.
Thanks?
I had no idea why the thought traversed my mind, but there was no denying I had that impression. That half a smirk was not the kind of thing someone did if they didn’t want to die, after all.
I slowly ascended and didn’t know what to do with my hands and legs.
Angelo hurried up to me and asked, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
I smiled, not knowing how to react. “No, he didn’t. Thank you for saving me.”
He looked dazed, like he didn’t expect at all my showing up here. And to be honest, neither did I.
Before I knew it, I was already running on the streets to get here. I sensed that something horrible was going to happen.
It was like a premonition.
He didn’t smile back, and I hoped he had.
“That’s good. I… thought for a moment he was going to kill you.”
He had grabbed my hands and now finally withdrew them. It was like he forgot he had done that. I could almost chuckle now, but didn’t. I felt that doing that, in here, wouldn’t be a good thing.
“Are you okay, though?” I asked. “It felt like you really wanted to kill him.”
He threw his hand in front of him dismissively. “No, nothing like that. I was just- I only need the key he must have with him. Still don’t really know why he was running away from me to begin with, though...”
My heart was racing. The whole thing was crowded with adrenaline.
Still, I leaned down on the wall, crossed my arms over my chest and expressed, “Maybe he was just afraid. You are a scary guy after all.”
He snapped his head to me, and on it was a smile.
And it was cute. It was shiny.
I smiled again too, not believing a moment like this one was bringing us closer together. It was like being in one of those romance movies I didn’t like much.
But now that I was thinking about them… Maybe they weren’t so wrong after all about where romance could lead a girl like me to.
He walked to the man, squatted beside him and said, “You shouldn’t have done that. I thought we had a deal…”
He was conversing with himself. It felt like his mind was scarcely cognizant of me now. When I minced to him, that changed. The sound of my footsteps was very faint, but he still heard them just fine. Maybe that was just his battle-hardened mind speaking, but I took it as something else.
I took it as a sign he wasn’t the stubborn, uptight man I’d rumored he was.
I considered it as an indicator of a possible bond between us. Still, I decided not to act on it at the present moment.
Why would I anyway? This was being so good to us. The dead man now didn’t even matter much to me. It was like I couldn’t care about him anymore.
His head turned slowly to me. “Look, you are not supposed to be here. I don’t want you getting involved in this kind of thing.”
“And what is this kind of thing?” I dared to ask.
He exhaled. “It’s not for you.”
I supposed he was going to tell me something else, but he didn’t. His hands went under the
shirt of the man. He was looking for a hidden pocket of sorts. But he found nothing. He scavenged then the pockets of his pants.
It almost seemed like he wasn’t going to find anything, until his eyes flashed.
Ah. He’d found something, and it was a key.
“What is it for?” I questioned, cocking my head.
“As I said, this is none of your business.”
The line struck me as cold, and I quickly stood up and dusted off my pants. No point putting my job at the Bello Italiano at risk.
Luca needed me so much, after all.
He led me to the door. I turned and put my hand on his chest. It felt wide. It felt like it was made of steel.
And most of all, it felt like it was made for me.
Maybe the act was being seen by him as something I shouldn’t be doing, but I thought little of it. I could probe a bit further, right?
Just a little more. It shouldn’t hurt him.
“You are not going to leave that guy dead in here, right? You know nobody is going to come for him,” I advised. I didn’t feel like having some neighbors complaining about a putrid smell in the coming hours.
He shook his head and walked past me.
It was like he didn’t care about that man at all.
The act alone should have taught me one more thing about Angelo’s character, but if there was, it zipped right over my head like a bullet.
“I don’t care about him. He got what a traitor like him deserved.”
“Wait, he’s a traitor? What did he do?”
He spun to me and barked, “Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
I halted. I was going to say something else, but this time, I decided not to be nosy. It felt like going against my instincts, though, and it was a hard thing to do.
Being nosey throughout my life, after all, bore me many fruits, but I knew that doing it was pushing too further. His stare on me was cold. He couldn’t believe I was trying to involve myself with the dark side of his life.
It was with that thought in mind I lowered my head and walked to the sidewalk in front of the house. In the distance, I perceived Manhattan and the taller buildings of Brooklyn. The Empire State building was like a beacon among all the others. And the One World Trade Center was even more than that.
In stark contrast, there were no buildings nearby. The locale was devoid of life. Not even grass wanted to grow here.
He started down the sidewalk, and I asked, “You don’t have your car with you?”
“No, I’m going to have to call Prudenzio to pick me up, wherever he is.”
Wherever he is? Had something occurred?
“Is he okay?” I questioned, trying not to sound too worried.
“He should be.”
A moment of silence. I thought about asking him to stay with me in my home for a couple of hours, but decided not to.
That would be too weird.
He halted. There was a moment of unnerving silence. Was he going to kill me now because I knew too much?
Doing so would be so easy for him, after all. I was nothing more than a sitting duck on this cracked sidewalk.
“Thanks for helping me out here.” He smiled. “See you tomorrow at work.”
I gulped. I thought he was going to kill me, but he didn’t. His hand didn’t even edge near his pistol. It was tucked in his waistband, but there it remained.
He continued down the pavement. His soft footsteps were the only things that shattered the peace, other than the sound of the distant traffic. The wind kissed my legs and my arms, but I was scarcely paying attention to it. The ocean waves crashed against the shore, but again, I didn’t care about it.
Because, there was only one thing that mattered to me now, and I also didn’t know how to act.
It was like being in a distant plane of existence.
Ultimately, his silhouette disappeared in the fog that enclosed the neighborhood. I pictured myself running at him to ask more questions, but decided not to once more. He had shared enough, and I was satisfactorily smart to know I could then be meandering into a dangerous territory.
It was the kind of place someone like me should never get near to.
Chapter 10
An Offer of Loss
Angelo
Of all the things I’d expected to happen today, this wasn’t alone. Another lead squandered, and now, here I was. In her house. The other time, which was like weeks ago, I didn’t get inside it. I had nothing more than a glimpse of it.
I stumbled upon her house. I was chasing him.
I was chasing Vinicio.
I saw him. I was all alone. I couldn’t call my friends, or else he wouldn’t have managed to escape me. One moment he was right within my grasp, and the next.
Well… the next he was like a mile away from me. Damn, was he fast when he needed to.
I had no idea how he managed to get out, though I did see some Ancelottis with him. They were chasing him. If they were going to catch him again, I had no idea, but they better not.
Or else, I was going to come for them.
Alide found me for the second time by her house. At least, this time, I wasn’t right in front of her porch. This time, she found me on the next block. It was kind of some interesting luck to have her find me when I needed someone to aid me.
She offered me her hand, and I couldn’t even walk. I had to put my arm around her shoulders while she brought me to her place.
“I’m going to thank you for this somehow, Alide, but I don’t want to feel like a burden right now.”
As we clumped ahead, she smiled.
It was the most angelic smile I had seen in my life.
Very bright, like the reflection of the sun on the ocean.
And her hair… Despite the gloominess of Brooklyn at night, it shone so gently. Everything about her just felt right.
She took me to her home. A woman, who I took to be Rita, and then quickly confirmed it, ushered us inside. On her face was an expression of shock. She didn’t think her friend, who was like a daughter to her, was going to bring someone like me in.
I knew I was dangerous.
People like her knew what I was like the moment their eyes landed on me.
“It’s fine, Angelo. You don’t need to thank me for anything. Working for you is already good enough.”
She put me on the couch. My whole body hurt so much. I shouldn’t have rolled down that plaque – or whatever it was called – when I didn’t even know what was going to happen to me.
Vinicio was just so much nimbler, and maybe he even knew the layout of the place beforehand. That would explain a lot.
I shifted on the sofa and Alide went to a room to do something. I questioned myself what it was, but didn’t have time to come up with an answer. She then came marching with a box of medicine packs. She opened one, and Rita, whose eyes were still as wide as before, brought a glass full of water.
“Thank you, you two. I don’t know how I can repay this.”
Alide giggled softly, and it came out like the most adorable thing I’d heard the whole day. Just one of the many reasons why I shouldn’t think about involving her in my life more than she already was, I thought.
Although, with dad still so intent on making her marry me, maybe I wasn’t going to have much of a choice.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Just drink this, and you will be good in no time.”
In no time? I didn’t know about that. I was wishing I could stay here for a lot longer.
Too much longer, in fact.
I put the pills on my tongue and gulped it down with some of the water in the glass. I gave it back to her, and just when I thought about resting on the couch for a little bit, my eyes caught sight of something that petrified me.
It made me feel so bad for her.
It was the little boy - the same one she was taking with her to GameStop.
He was rubbing his eyes with his fingers, and it was evident why he was doing that. He was in hi
s soft blue PJ’s as he padded to the kitchen, and in his hand he had a phone. At other times, someone like him would be taking a Teddy bear with him.
Like I used to, back when I was his age, I recalled.
He went to the sink, filled half of a glass with water from the faucet, and gulped it down. When he turned, his eyes finally landed on me.
And I just remembered why seeing him petrified me a little.
He looked so skinny. His cheeks were sunken in, like he hadn’t eaten for days. I took a good look around the place. No wonder she was desperate for the job, I concluded.
They barely had a light bulb in the living room. The kitchen’s stove looked like it had been through hell. The trash bin was almost empty, as if they never wasted anything. The floor was made of cement. It should have been finished a long time ago.
Overall, this wasn’t a place for someone like her.
And despite that, she was still a naïve woman who didn’t worry about much.
I envied that about her.
The little boy’s eyes fell on me. He halted for a second, and then waved his hand with a shy smile on his face. Excuse me, because I need to sleep. I could almost hear him saying that. But all he did was to close the door to his room.
At least the door they still had.
“So rude,” Rita was speaking, “He should have introduced himself. I’m going to get him and fix that right now.”
She began to trot to the little boy’s room, but I raised my hand and said, “No need.” I smiled too, for good measure. “He’s probably just feeling tired.”
She looked like she couldn’t believe what I’d just said, but she still calmed down and seemed to understand that there was no point.
Alide approached me and denoted, “He’s just Luca. He has school tomorrow morning. He’s a good kid.”
“I can see that.”
I then weighed this one thing I thought about asking her.
Should I get involved in her life?
Was it fair?
I’d been pushing her from mine because I didn’t want to hurt her.
But yes. It was fair, if she needed me.
“Is there something wrong about him? If you need anything, I can help. I’m your employer, after all, and I want to make sure you’re alright.”