Freedom

by S. A. Wolfe

  “That’s the cash transaction Robert told me about. But he didn’t know he was being set up by his own father,” Emma adds.

  “Yeah, it was a dumb move on Robert’s part, but it’s not enough to burn him. He’s already cooperated with the Feds and he turned over two audios and then he let them wire him for something that went down recently. That’s what Robert was trying to warn you about, Emma.”

  As Emma casts a wary glance at Cooper and then at Sean, I hold her tighter.

  “What went down?” she asks, her voice sounding tiny.

  “This whole goose chase isn’t about getting you,” Cooper says. “Vinnie wants to make his kid pay for the crimes, and they know you’re the magnet that leads them to Robert. Old loves die hard, I guess, so they were counting on Robert coming back to you and he did. Vinnie has two of his guys tailing Robert. I saw them in the city following both of you.”

  “When?” I snap.

  “SoHo, when you left the Mercer store. Don’t worry; I made those two when they came into town. I was tailing you, found them, and managed to leave a nice package inside their car with a tracker. They’re probably heading through the Lincoln Tunnel as we speak, and they’ll get a nice stop and frisk on the other side for reckless driving. Then they’ll get the fun search and seizure treatment. They won’t be coming around you again.”

  “Jesus Christ.” I have little patience for this story, and Cooper’s seriousness tells me he is leading in to something that is going to be upsetting to Emma.

  “And where does Robert go?” Emma asks.

  “Into hiding until it’s over,” Sean answers.

  “Until what’s over? And what does it have to do with me?” Emma shrieks.

  “The Feds want the two biggest fish, Emma. That’s Vinnie Marchetto and another guy that has been eluding us for years. Well, he was until Sean put it together and Robert got him on the wire.”

  “Who?” I demand. “Just fucking tell us.”

  “Christ on a bike,” Sean says. “Emma’s father. Sorry, kiddo, but it’s true.”

  “What?” she asks quietly.

  Sean looks extremely uncomfortable at giving her this news. “Your dad has been on the in with Vinnie for the past few years. You thought he was still paying out, but he started working with Vinnie and helping with the drug distribution. He’s taken a huge cut of the cash and has it socked away under various fake business accounts, and when he travels with your mother to Florida, he always makes a special, private excursion to his offshore bank. He hired me to protect him and you before he got into this shite, before he turned. He assumed I wasn’t aware. I couldn’t stand by and go along with this load of bollix. I’ve never done anything illegal, and I wasn’t going to let your arse of a father bring me into it now, so I contacted Cooper. We have some mutual friends, so Coop was easy to find.”

  Emma’s face is ashen as she absorbs the news.

  I turn to Cooper. “How did you end up in this? At my brother’s company before Emma?”

  “When we figured out that Robert might go down, we also knew what Vinnie was thinking. He was going to follow Robert’s desperation, namely Emma. Robert only cared about seeing Emma, and Vinnie would use that to watch Robert’s next move. I went and talked to Carson as soon as Sean told me that Lauren was getting Emma a job at your company. Didn’t you ever wonder why your brother hired someone who has no background in your business? Man, I didn’t even know how to use a table saw.”

  “Yeah, and now I see why he hired you while I was out of town. It was a good cover. And he trained you himself and put you on the oven, the easiest job in the factory. So Carson knew about everything?”

  “He knew my background and he knew Lauren wanted to help Emma get a job, but he only knew a little about Robert’s situation. I fed it to him on a need-to-know basis. He wouldn’t have hired Emma or me if he thought anyone was being put in danger, however I wasn’t tricking him into anything. I wouldn’t do that.

  “And by the way, the job is real to me,” Cooper explains. “Since I left law enforcement for good, I actually was looking to do something new, and I like Carson and the company. He didn’t hire me on a whim, Dylan, and I wasn’t hired just to be a watchdog. I wanted a more easy-going job, and I like the place. Carson and I weren’t trying to pull something over on you.”

  “Whatever,” I mutter.

  “Listen, I’m serious,” Cooper says defensively. “I had no interest in being involved in this shit anymore. That’s why I resigned a few months ago. But when the info on Vinnie and Robert came down my network pipeline, I couldn’t ignore it. I had to tell your brother, which means I had to come clean about myself.”

  “I believe you,” I say flatly.

  Emma’s silent sobs tear me away from thoughts about my brother always being one step ahead of me.

  “Hey,” I say softly to her. “You didn’t know, and your dad didn’t tell you because he wanted to… shield you from this crap.”

  Cooper gives me a questioning look. It’s dumb to defend her father, but I am trying to lessen the blow, even if it is a lie.

  “I can’t believe this,” she says through a hiccup of tears.

  When Sean hands her a box of tissues from the desk, she dries her eyes and keeps her head down.

  “Does the FBI want Robert now?” I ask. “Is that why he’s running?”

  “He’s running from Vinnie’s thugs,” Cooper explains. “There’s enough evidence to arrest both Vinnie Marchetto and Emma’s father. It would be a plus to have Robert testify in court against them, but they don’t need him. Vinnie doesn’t know that yet. He still thinks he’s safe if Robert is out of the picture. Only a few of us know that arrests are gonna happen in the next forty-eight hours. Robert is smart enough to hide until then. I guess he couldn’t resist seeing Emma, and maybe he thought he’d warn her about her dad, or maybe he didn’t want to be the one to tell her.”

  “So what do we do now? We’re hiding out, too? Waiting for the arrests?” I feel defenseless without information.

  “That’s exactly what you’re going to do. You and Emma will lay low here while Sean and I go back to Hera. I’ve already taken Emma’s cell phone, including the burners from her dad. I even pulled the phone from this room so she’s not tempted to call her dad. And I’m sorry, but I need your phone, too, Dylan.”

  When Cooper extends his open palm, I reluctantly put my cell phone in it.

  “So my father is going to be arrested along with Vinnie. Is this why I couldn’t reach either of my parents over the last two weeks?”

  “Your dad probably doesn’t want you involved. I think your mom knew your dad was up to no good, and that’s why she left for Florida weeks ago. She’s not involved in this, so she won’t be indicted or anything like that if that’s what you’re thinking about,” Cooper explains.

  I admit, he is pretty good at playing the good cop, and he sounds sincere. Sean looks broken up over seeing Emma take it all in.

  “Won’t they arrest Robert, too? For what he did two years ago?” she asks, and I hear the sadness in her voice.

  I am not distressed or worried over that. One of the reasons I fell in love with her is because of her big heart, and that isn’t something she turns off just because she broke up with the guy. I get that now. I am more concerned about how she will be affected by her father going to prison. I don’t think it has fully hit her yet.

  “They already cut a deal with Robert. He wore the wire and that absolved him—so to speak—of that cash transaction he participated in two years ago. He has a clean slate. It’s up to him if he is going to come in and testify, but you know how that could go down…” Cooper’s voice trails off.

  “Why didn’t Robert recognize you?” she asks Cooper. “If you were an undercover agent, wouldn’t he have recognized you when we met him at the restaurant? He saw you.”

  “Did you recognize me when you met me on your first day of work at Blackard?” Cooper asks.<
br />
  “No. Why would I?” She looks confused.

  When Cooper takes out his cell phone and plays around with it before handing it to her, I look at the photo on the display. A guy dressed in khakis with a polo shirt. Very short, blond hair, shaven, and wire-rimmed glasses. It’s Cooper, looking about twenty in the shot.

  “That’s me two years ago.”

  “You look like you work for NASA,” I say. “Geeky.”

  “Thank you,” he smiles. “I was undercover. I was a fake science grad student. I didn’t understand any of the shit going on in those classes, but I saw plenty of Robert… and Emma on campus. You never noticed me.”

  “Huh,” Emma says as she looks more thoroughly at Cooper.

  “Robert wore the wire for the Feds after we all met at the restaurant. It’s going to help him.”

  “What’s going to happen to him?” Emma is persistent with the questions, I will give her that.

  “We’ll worry about that when we get to that part. Right now, we need the arrests. Sorry. Carson wants you two here for your own safety. You’re not being held by the FBI. This isn’t bureau business; it’s your brother’s doing. He wants to make sure Robert doesn’t lead any more of Vinnie’s guys your way.” Cooper takes back his cell phone from Emma, makes a call and hands me the phone.

  “Are you and Emma okay?” my brother’s gruff voice asks.

  “Yeah. We’re stashed in Tarrytown. Nice play, brother.”

  “As long as you’re both safe. We’ll talk about it when you come home. Give it a couple of days. Emma is tough, but she may be in shock for a while.”

  “I got her. Don’t worry,” I reply as Emma’s eyes lock on mine.

  “Dylan…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry shit keeps happening to you. I love you, brother,” Carson says and then disconnects the call.

  If he only knew that all of this is worth it to have her.

  Twenty-Four

  Emma

  After Sean and Cooper leave, Dylan unpacks our bags. He is quiet, as though he wants to give me my space and time to absorb the shameful information we’ve received about my father. I never claimed to have a kind or loving father, however I was always the first to defend our circumstances and insist that my father was at least fair. Now I can’t even say that. I can’t justify what he has done or that, like my mother, I have been complacent about our connection to the Marchetto family. Never did I expect to be in this position, though, and I’m more than sad—I am shocked and angry.

  After I take a hot shower and change into more comfortable clothing, Dylan gives me a soft peck on the cheek on his way to the bathroom to shower. I flip mindlessly through TV channels, expecting to see breaking news about the Marchetto revelations with my father’s jowly face front and center in an unflattering mug shot. I hold my breath as I switch to every news outlet I can think of. No news yet.

  “Don’t torture yourself with that,” Dylan says, coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. With the exception of a small, purplish cut on his lip, you wouldn’t know he’s been in a fight.

  As he takes the remote from my hand and shuts the TV off, that’s when I start crying. All these weeks I’ve thought I’ve been the resilient girl—starting over in a new town, a new job, removed from Robert and my father’s business and vile associates. I’ve felt strong that I could detach myself from those lifelong connections. Now there’s a tidal wave of grief surging through me and I weep uncontrollably. Everything I have been holding in— the fear and rage—comes forth, taking with it all that confident power and self-esteem that I’ve spent years building up.

  Dylan quickly embraces me, his damp, warm skin covering and enveloping me so I can cry into his chest. I am not a dainty crier, either. I gasp loudly as the tears blind me and mucous clogs my nose. The entire time, Dylan remains quite, merely putting a box of Kleenex on his lap and continuing to feed me clean tissues.

  “I suddenly feel like an orphan,” I say between hiccupping cries.

  “I know what that’s like.” Dylan holds me more firmly. “You’re not alone, though. You have me, and you have your friends back in town. Whatever happens with your dad, I’m going to be with you. And you have your mom and grandmother.”

  “I used to be close to my grandma, but she basically stopped talking to me a few years ago when I started dating Robert. The same way she distanced herself from my mother. I think they both knew my father was getting into something, getting in too deep. Getting greedy, I suppose. My mom and her mother have been hiding at Grandmas place in Boca for weeks. It’s like they betrayed me, too, by not telling me what they suspected or knew was going on. All of them abandoned me.”

  “Maybe not telling you was their way of sparing you from this shit. The less you knew, the better. You couldn’t be brought in for questioning; you’d be useless to people on both sides if you were completely ignorant. Like Sean and Cooper said, you were only good for leading them to Robert, assuming he’d seek you out. And he did.”

  “They’ll try to kill him. Marchetto and his guys haven’t been arrested yet and a lot of the time, these guys get off; the arrests blow up on technicalities. The first thing they’ll do, or they’re already attempting to do it, is kill the evidence. Robert is the evidence as far as they’re concerned.”

  “You heard Cooper. Robert already turned in audio recordings and the wiretap, so that’s done.”

  “Marchetto doesn’t necessarily know that. Just because Cooper is aware of the recorded meetings, doesn’t mean Marchetto knows the Feds have possession of them. If Marchettto thinks his son is holding onto this info to use as leverage for himself to cut a deal, Robert is a walking target.”

  Dylan sighs. “I think Robert knows that, and that’s why he’s been running.”

  The waterworks taper off and I clean my face as best I can with the tissues. My skin feels hot and blotchy, and I am overwhelmed with fatigue.

  “I’m sorry I compared myself to an orphan. I really don’t have any right to feel sorry for myself, especially since you were orphaned as a child. Your circumstances were out of your control. Mine are delusions I’ve been perpetuating for years, thinking there was nothing wrong with how we lived, and that I was an innocent benefactor to whatever my father provided. I’m such an idiot.”

  “Hey, you are not to blame for anything your dad did.” Dylan pulls my chin up towards him with two fingers. “There’s nothing idiotic about trusting your parents. We all want and need that. And there’s not much you can do when they disappoint you.”

  As he leans down and kisses me with barely a sweep of his lips against mine, it’s enough to lessen the pain. He moves back slowly, surveying my eyes, as if he looks hard enough, he could see deep inside of me.

  “I’m definitely not qualified to give advice on fathers. Mine killed himself when I was a teenager,” he says.

  “Tell me about that, Dylan. Please,” I beg.

  Dylan pauses for a moment, and I can tell he’s struggling with how to tell me because sometimes it hurts too much to say these painful things out loud.

  “I was destroyed when my dad committed suicide. It was seven years after my mom’s death. He had been MIA for most of that time and we only survived because of Carson’s strong will and friends like Lauren’s family. I assumed my father didn’t think twice about leaving Carson and me all alone. And I was hurt that he loved my mother more than us. At least, that’s how a screwed up fifteen-year-old saw it.

  “For a long time, I mostly felt anger towards him, and I took it out on everyone else. It took a long time—maybe not until I met Brian—for me to understand that my father and Brian were living with a different kind of pain. I can’t explain it, and I hope I never know what that’s like.

  “When I got the call about Brian’s suicide, I started feeling angry all over again. I grieve for my friend’s pain, but I’m angry that I’ve had to lose him. It’s a selfish feeling because
Brian, like my dad, was the one I looked up to. Brian had to succeed in the program because that meant I could succeed. It’s pretty scary when the guy you idolize leaves you in the most violent way. First my dad and then Brian.”

  When Dylan’s expression twitches, as if he’s holding back tears, I reach my arm up around his neck and bring him closer to me. I force a kiss on him, which is not at all tender. My tongue pushes for more and he returns the kiss with fervor before gently removing his lips from mine.

  “You need to rest. It’s been a helluva night and it’s late. You need real sleep.”

  He turns down the bed covers and rolls me underneath. I grab his shoulders and pull him down with me, causing him to lose his bath towel in the process. His naked body is glorious and the perfect medicine for anything that ails me. I want to get lost in him and forget about my father and Robert and all the ugly news I expect more of.

  “Emma,” Dylan whispers. He grabs the towel off the floor and covers his perfectly sculpted ass and thighs. “I’m not going to take advantage of you when you’re in this… vulnerable condition.”

  “You could, and I’d let you,” I say rather sharply. “I don’t want to keep crying. What’s wrong with having sex to feel better?” I am thinking of what I did to him the night before and how Dylan submitted to my touch.

  “Nothing is wrong with it. I’m trying to be a stand-up guy here—the shoulder for you to cry on—not the guy who fucks the pain away.”

  “Why can’t you be both?”

  “You always have a quick answer or a fast fist.” His mouth curves into a smile, and my groping limbs retreat and take the hint to relax.

  He swiftly pulls on a pair of sweat pants underneath his towel as though he’s not allowed to have sex on his mind. “I can go down to the front desk and get a pizza delivered or something. I’ll pay cash and have it go through reception so we’re not violating Cooper’s little set of rules. You must be hungry.”

  I chuckle and cry at the same time. “Oh, Dylan. Thanks for making me laugh. Pizza instead of sex,” I mumble. “We both know sex sounds a lot better than pizza.”