Love or Justice

by Rachel Mannino

  “Tactical advantage. The boy needs to see who’s coming up the driveway.” Albert lifted his hands in frustration.

  “Oh, Albert, who do you expect to be coming up the driveway?” Emma slammed the refrigerator door.

  “Despite what you may wish for, our son is not here for a visit. He’s working. He needs to protect the girl. To do that properly he’ll need to have a clear view of the only road entering and exiting the property.” Albert slammed his hand on the table.

  Emma threw her hands in the air.

  “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it.” Dante held up his hands in surrender. He chuckled as he hugged his mother. “Thanks for baking the cake, Mom.”

  “Thank you for coming home.” His mother took Dante into her arms.

  Dante kissed her on the cheek and turned to lead Laurie into the hallway. He put his hand on the back of her shoulder, guiding her toward the stairs. He grabbed both bags, and followed her up to the landing.

  “Which one?” she mumbled. He smiled, leading her in the direction of the room at the front of the house.

  He flipped on the light. The bedspread was pink and floral, which matched the peeling wallpaper. The four-poster bed took up most of the room, but there was a nightstand and a small dresser. His mom definitely wanted to give her this room. He set Laurie’s bag down by the dresser. She began to dig through it to find her nightgown.

  “Let me find the bathroom for you.” He smiled at her half-hearted nod, and left.

  Dante discovered it was the room between his and hers. He flipped on the light for her, and Laurie quickly went through the motions of getting ready for bed.

  When she returned to the room, Dante was over at the window. She quickly shut the door. They slipped into bed and Dante wrapped his arms around her as she shivered in the cold sheets.

  “Are you going to tell your dad about us?” She curled up on his side.

  “Don’t know yet. Haven’t quite figured out what I would say if I did.” He sighed. She nodded her understanding. Without any more words, they both fell fast asleep.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Dante

  Dante awoke early. He could feel the morning chill hovering just above the covers. He pulled Laurie closer to keep her warm, and give himself the selfish pleasure of enjoying her pressed against him. He knew he had nowhere to go, no shift to take. The thought felt foreign to him. He had his fair share of days off, but to be on assignment and sleep in—well, that was an oxymoron.

  He knew he needed to make a plan. He wouldn’t be able to bring Laurie back to Hawaii unless the mole was caught. Yet he wouldn’t know it was safe unless he kept tabs on the entire operation. He hated the thought, but he had to ask his father for help. His father might be retired, but Dante knew he still had contacts at the agency. His father was still friends with Hilton. At the very least, his father could use that connection to help him by playing the bereaved parent that wanted answers for his son’s disappearance. Dante would have to ask him.

  Laurie began to stir as the sunlight streaming through the window grew brighter. Dante heard his parents on the stairs, and he knew he should get up before they went looking for him. However, he had a lot of trouble dragging himself out of bed these days. It was another half an hour before he finally made himself get up. Laurie was still asleep, so he kissed her forehead and crept to the bathroom. He changed clothes and went downstairs.

  “Good morning!” His mother’s smile was so radiant. She looked like Christmas had come early, and she got the biggest gift.

  “Morning.” He went straight for the coffee maker.

  “I hope we didn’t wake you.” She disappeared into the pantry. “We get up pretty early to get a jump on the weeding.”

  Dante smiled at the notion of his CIA father plucking weeds all day.

  “No, I was up when I heard you come downstairs.” He joined his father at the kitchen table. Albert was reading a paper, his empty breakfast plate beside him. Dante’s coffee warmed him as he wrapped both hands around it, drinking deeply.

  “What would you like for breakfast?” Emma asked him from the stove.

  “Oh, whatever you two have is fine by me,” he said.

  “How about some eggs and toast? I can make some sausage too.” Emma picked up a frying pan. “Is Laurie awake?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

  Emma turned back to the stove, humming.

  Dante smiled. He had never seen his mother so happy. Made him feel guilty for being away so long. He started thinking about the last time he had seen his parents. He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice his father studying him. Dante got to the bottom of his coffee mug, and looked up into his father’s eyes.

  “What?” Dante felt his shoulders stiffen.

  “Just wondering what’s on your mind, son.” Albert folded his newspaper.

  Dante knit his brows together. He didn’t want to talk about what was really on his mind, so he got another cup of coffee instead.

  “Nothing.” Dante sat back down. “I’ve just been thinking about how I can keep tabs on what’s going on in my department from here. I can’t bring Laurie back until it’s safe. I left them a note saying I would bring her back when the mole is caught. But I won’t know when that happens. I can’t keep track of whether Kaimi is caught, or whether they find the kidnapping victims. I can’t do much of anything here.”

  His father nodded, taking a sip of his own coffee.

  “Well, I don’t think you have to worry about all of that right now.” Emma glanced at him over her shoulder.

  “I have to worry about it, Mom. Laurie and I won’t be safe until Kaimi and his mole are caught.” Dante looked from her to his father.

  “You’ll be safe here. Don’t even think about it.” A hard edge entered her tone. “Now, sit back down. Your breakfast is ready.”

  Dante nodded, deciding to drop the subject. He sat back down at the table and looked at his father, but Albert resumed reading the paper. Dante thanked his mom for breakfast. Then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

  Dante turned to smile at Laurie as she walked in. She wore a sweatshirt and jeans. She looked like she had just come down from the shower. She went straight for the coffee. There was a chorus of good mornings all around.

  “It’s cold here.” Laurie shivered as she sat down beside him, her hands buried in the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

  “Oh, well the cold’s just getting started.” Emma set Laurie’s breakfast down in front of her. “I hope you have something warmer than that.”

  “I don’t.” Laurie shook her head.

  “We’ll pick you up some winter clothes. I’ll need some too. We’ll need some toiletries. I’ll have to pick them up the next time you go get groceries.” Dante got Laurie the milk and handed it to her.

  “We don’t get groceries but once a month at most, so if you need something before that, we’ll have to make a special trip.” Albert folded his newspaper and set it down beside him.

  “You don’t buy groceries?” Confusion passed over Laurie’s features.

  “Don’t need to. We have plenty of vegetables from the farm, fruit from the orchard. The Kinney’s down the road raise and slaughter their own animals. They sell milk and eggs, too. We have to go into town to get flour and sugar and maybe a few other things, but that’s about it.” Albert looked quite pleased with the arrangement, and Dante saw his first genuine smile in years.

  “Wow.” Laurie raised her eyebrows at that.

  “We live off the land here.” Emma sat down beside Laurie. “Sometimes we’ll trade with the neighbors for this or that.”

  “I’ll need your help in the barn today,” Albert said to Dante. “I have a leak I need to patch or we won’t be able to bring in the hay.”

  Dante grimaced. He didn’t like his father volunteering him for manual labor. But he owed his parents now. He owed them big.

  “I’ll be doing some weeding in the garden t
oday if you want to help.” Emma smiled at Laurie.

  “Oh, okay. Sure.” Laurie sipped her coffee, her mouth drawn into a frown.

  “We should get started.” Albert nodded to Dante.

  Dante said nothing. He begrudgingly moved toward the door with his father. He cast a parting glance at Laurie. She gave him a small wave. That cheered him. Knowing she was warm and safe made him feel content. He wondered at that. Dante knew he could put up with his father, so long as it was for Laurie. He wondered at that, too. His urge to protect a witness had never been so strong. Of course, Laurie was much more than a witness to him. Even with previous girlfriends, the need to keep them safe had never been so strong.

  Dante got his first glimpse of the farm during daylight as he followed his father. The farmhouse was a light blue-grey, with dark grey shudders. Well-kept, modest flowerbeds stretched around the base of the house. Out back was an expansive garden, which had every manner of vegetable growing. Dante spotted ripe tomatoes, green beans, and peppers, just for starters. The barn towered over everything else, rising up behind the garden, casting long shadows in the morning sun.

  Albert and Dante crossed the cut green field that bordered the garden. The rest of his parents’ land, as far as he could see, was corn. Dante took a deep breath. The cold, fresh air woke him up. The sky was brilliant, almost as bright as Laurie’s eyes. The thought made Dante smile.

  When they reached the barn, Dante saw bins and bins of corn lined up on the left. Toward the right was a giant table. A bandsaw sat at one end, but the rest of the table was clear. On the far right side was another long table, this one full of tools, saws, and rope. His father turned to him.

  “Dante, it would be best if you never brought up intelligence gathering in front of your mother ever again.” Albert rested his hands on his hips.

  Taken aback, Dante looked at his father confused.

  “What do you mean?” Dante crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I mean, when you were talking about finding out information on Kaimi and the mole in the department. Now, I can help you with that, but your mother can’t know.”

  “Is there a reason she can’t?”

  “Well, let’s just say it’s been a little difficult giving up my old job.” Albert looked away, studying an old hay bale in the corner. “She just wants me to be retired and stay that way. It’s crazy, but I at least let her think I’ve lost touch with my old contacts.”

  “Are you saying you’re lying to Mom?”

  “Not lying, just not telling her everything. You’ll understand when you’re married.” Albert waved away his concerns.

  Dante scowled.

  “Do you want me to help you or not?”

  “Fine, but I don’t like not telling Mom.”

  “It just has to be between you and me, no one else.”

  “Are you going to Hilton or the agency?”

  “The agency. Hilton will know you’re here the moment I call him.” Albert went to the table and picked up a tool belt. “If I ask him about specifics he’ll just get dodgy anyway. He was never one to give away anything. I suppose he’ll be calling me any day, once he gets wind of you being gone.”

  “No one at the agency would tip off the Marshals?”

  Albert smirked. He shoved his thumbs into the wide belt loops of his jeans. Then he rocked back on his heels as he gazed at his son with an amused gleam in his eye.

  “Would you if it was the other way around?”

  Dante smiled.

  “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”

  “Good. Now that that’s settled, I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Fair enough.” Dante surveyed the barn.

  “Let’s get this leak patched. Climb the ladder up to the rafters. Let me get the work gloves.”

  Dante walked to the ladder his father gestured to and climbed hand over hand to the loft. He surveyed the roof. He couldn’t see any obvious damage, but he knew almost nothing about handiwork. The loft area had a couple of stray bales of old hay, but there wasn’t much up there now.

  Albert joined him in the loft with the work gloves and tool belts. They strapped on the belts, put on the gloves, and went in search of the leak. Albert surveyed the far side of the wall, but they realized the leak came from the roof, at a point right above the wall. They spent the better part of the day up on the roof, replacing the metal sheet that was the problem.

  From the roof top, Dante could see Laurie out back with his mother. Both of them were crouching over a vegetable. Her gold hair was down, blowing around in the crisp wind that kept him cool in the midday sun. Her beauty overwhelmed him. She was all warm sunshine. Whenever he touched her skin, it was like fire in his hands. He never wanted to be with someone as much as he wanted to spend every second with Laurie.

  “Son?” Albert said sharply. “What is it? What do you see?”

  “Huh?” Dante jumped. “Oh, nothing. Thought I saw an animal, a deer. That’s all.”

  Their job finished, Dante followed his father back to the ladder. When they reached the ground, they walked back to the house where they met the women bringing in some baskets of vegetables. Laurie was breathless as she jogged up to him with a heavy basket. Her eyes were wide and they sparkled with excitement as she gave him the biggest grin he’d ever seen.

  “Dante! Look!” Laurie walked backward in front of him toward the house, holding an oddly shaped tomato up like a trophy. “Have you ever seen a tomato that looks like that before? It’s a German striped tomato. Isn’t it amazing?”

  Dante smiled, looking at the tomato she handed him. It curled in upon itself, with bubbly lobes on each side and an irregular scalloping to its juicy flesh. It wasn’t just red, but also green, yellow, and a hint of orange. There was a seam running around part of its edges, which had split and mended itself. To Dante, it didn’t look amazing or appetizing. It looked like a Frankenstein tomato, but his smile deepened. He handed it back to her.

  Laurie waited for his response, looking for a monumental reaction to seeing the Frankenstein tomato.

  “It’s really something.” He reached for her basket. “Want me to take that?”

  She shifted her basket to her other hip.

  “Oh, no, it’s not heavy. Look at these. These things with this papery stuff on them. They’re tomatillos. Have you ever seen them before? Or this? This is okra.” Laurie showed him everything she had collected like an excited child. Dante fought to control his laughter.

  “No. I’ve never seen either of them before. Let’s go in for lunch, okay?” He put his hand on her shoulder to lead her inside.

  “These, well these are just green beans, but they’re fresh. They have this fuzz on them like peaches.” Laurie talked a mile a minute. They entered the kitchen to find his mother slicing fresh bread. His father had disappeared into another room.

  “These are Japanese eggplants. I’ve never seen these before either. I’ve only seen the big eggplants you get in the grocery store, you know? Emma showed me how to pull up potatoes right out of the ground. Have you ever done that before?”

  “No, I haven’t.” He let out a little chuckle before he could gain control of himself.

  Laurie barely noticed as she turned her face down to gaze at the vegetables, trying to decide if she had anything else remarkable to show him.

  “Laurie, honey, why don’t you put all of those good vegetables in the pantry. They’ll be nice and cool in there until we can use them.” Emma pulled plates out of the cabinets.

  “Oh, okay.” Laurie hurried away with her basket to the small doorway beside the refrigerator.

  Dante grinned at his mother, raising his eyebrows. She returned the gesture. Dante let out the laughter he’d been denying. He never would have guessed farm life would suit Laurie so well.

  “Can I help you, Emma?” Laurie bounced back into the kitchen.

  “Why don’t you pour everyone some water? The men have been up on the roof all morning.” Emma busied herself with lunch.r />
  Dante leaned against the counter. He smiled, watching Laurie pour water for him from the jug in the refrigerator. She went to hand him the glass and paused.

  “What?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Like what?” His smile turned into a grin.

  “Like that. Like I missed a joke or something. What is it?” She folded her arms, taking his water hostage. He cocked his head to the side.

  “I’ve never seen you so enthusiastic.” He reached for his water.

  “I shouldn’t be?” She stepped out of reach.

  “No, no. It’s nice. I didn’t expect you would get so into gardening in one morning.” Dante plucked the water out of her hands. He fought the urge to kiss her. He wanted nothing more than to take advantage of the flushed cheeks and red lips the cold, fresh air had given her.

  “Well, it was exciting. Emma and I had a very nice morning, didn’t we?” Laurie walked to the kitchen table. He almost followed her, but his mother distracted him.

  “Where’s your father?” Emma glanced at him over her shoulder.

  “Don’t know. Thought he came in with you. Want me to find him?” He shrugged.

  “Yes, please. Tell him lunch is ready.” Emma busied herself in the refrigerator.

  Dante walked toward the front of the house, but didn’t see him in any of the downstairs rooms. He went upstairs. He heard a barely audible whisper coming from his parents’ room. He looked through the old key lock, and saw his father talking on a cell phone. Dante had a pretty good idea what the call was about. His father hung up the phone. Dante knocked on the door.

  “Dad? Are you in there?” He asked, more for his mother’s hearing than anything else.

  “Be right down.” A muffled thump emanated from behind the closed door.

  “Okay.” Dante was halfway down the stairs. His father wasn’t too far behind him.

  “Where did you disappear to?” Emma whirled on him, butter knife in hand.

  “I changed. Stained my shirt. You’re always yelling at me for it, so I went ahead and soaked it.” Albert’s jaw hardened as he cocked his head at her.