by ML Michaels
It was everything she’d ever imagined. The twinkle lights were all around. They were surrounded by the magic and the romance of a childhood past and a future just beginning.
Then her phone rang breaking the spell. Lily looked away, but she had a smile on her face.
“I’m glad we’re over a river,” she said. She pulled her buzzing work phone out of her pocket.
This time she didn’t answer it. She dropped it into the calm waters below. It barely made a splash. Noah raised his eyebrows, impressed.
“I’ve made my choice,” Lily said. “I love you.”
I love you, too,” Noah said.
He swept her into his arms once again and their kiss was the sweetest one she’d ever known.
It was like going home.
The End
*****
Guarding Bella: An Italian Mafia Bad Boy Alpha Male Bodyguard Law Enforcement Romance
By Bess Hart
For the second time this week, Kenny was late. Bella sat at the bar where she worked and ordered a drink. Ed, the bartender, raised an eyebrow at her but poured her a vodka soda anyway.
“Rough day?” he asked.
“Yes and no,” Bella replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“Well I hope this helps.” He set the drink on a napkin, and gingerly placed a lime on the rim.
“Me, too,” Bella muttered as she raised the glass to her lips. Bella was bored. She needed a change. The monotonous hum or drone? (drawl isn’t the right word) of working in a restaurant, of having a boyfriend who couldn’t seem to understand the concept of time, of not knowing what she was doing with her life, was starting to get under her skin. She took another sip of her drink. The vodka burned on the way down, warming her chest and making her ears turn red.
Ed stood behind the bar, absent-mindedly polishing wine glasses. A customer approached the bar, but Ed didn’t notice as he stared at the glass in his hand. Bella rolled her eyes.
“Ed!” She nodded her head in the direction of the customer. Ed turned and nearly dropped the glass. “I am so sorry,” he said, clumsily setting the glass on the counter. “What can I get you?”The business of the eatery was enough to make Bella crazy even when she wasn’t clocked in. She needed to get out of here. She stood up and downed the last of her drink in one big gulp. The sound of the bell above the front door jangled as someone entered the café. Bella knew who it was before she turned around from the scuffling of feet and baggy pants dragging across the floor.
“Baby!” Kenny exclaimed. “What are you doing getting up? Sit back down, we’ll have a drink.”
“I’ve been here all day, Kenny. I want to get out of here.”
Kenny plunged a hand around her waist and kissed her on the cheek. “Just one drink. Then we’ll leave.”
“I’ve already been waiting for you for over twenty minutes. Let’s go,” Bella said, pulling his arm toward the door. “Please.”
“Fine. Okay. We’ll go somewhere else. No biggie.”
“Bye, Bella!” Ed called after her, but she didn’t reply as she hurried Kenny out the door. Chilly evening air hit her face and neck. The door jangled as it closed behind them.
“Why are you in such a rush, baby?”
“Because you were late again! You know how much I hate waiting for you. Is it so hard to just be on time?”
“Look, I’m sorry. I’m in the middle of business with Dom. I came as soon as I could.”
“Can we just go now?”
Kenny unlocked the car doors, and they climbed into his 1967 Ford Mustang. As angry as Bella was at Kenny for being late, she loved riding in his car.
Dom, Kenny’s older brother, was standing on the steps of the apartment complex, smoking a cigarette, when they drove up. Dom was three years older than Kenny, twice his size, with darker skin, and shorter hair. Bella didn’t like him; he was cold and unkind to her, without ever trying to get to know her, and he rarely addressed her directly.
“You ready?” Dom asked Kenny as they walked up the steps.
“You know it.”
“Let’s go then. We’ve got details to discuss. She can’t come up with us.”
“Come on, Dom. She’ll just sit in my room and listen to music or something. She won’t hear anything.”
Bella looked down at her shoes. Sometimes Dom frightened her. She knew he was involved in some shady stuff. Kenny too. At first, it excited her. Kenny always seemed to have money to indulge his adventurous side. They’d gone on spur of the moment trips to Vegas, Atlantic City and casinos around the country. She had enjoyed their jaunts early on. But now, whatever the brothers were doing seemed to take more and more of Kenny’s time. And Dom was always giving Kenny a hard time. He wanted him to spend more time on the “business” whatever that was. She sighed and shook her head.
“Fine, but she stays in your room, and you make sure she wears headphones.”
“Sure thing, Dom. Let’s go.”
Kenny’s apartment was a mess. He had way too much stuff—shoe boxes, car magazines, video games, and empty beer bottles cluttered the floor and every surface. Bella often spent her time cleaning up because she hated the clutter. She was tired of all of it. Tonight has to be the night, she thought to herself. I have to break up with him. I can’t live like this anymore. Tonight at dinner she would tell him she was done. He wasn’t the exciting, stylish, spontaneous Kenny she thought he was. He was irresponsible and self-centered. And he wasn’t honest and honorable like her dad had been before he died fighter in the Gulf War. She deserved better. Her father would have insisted on it.
Bella allowed Kenny to lead her down the hallway to his room, which was just as messy as the living room. He handed her a pair of headphones, one of his most prized possessions, and said: “Here take these and listen to some music or something. It won’t be long. I promise. We’ll go out right after this.” And with that, he was off, closing the door behind him, but it caught against a magazine and didn’t shut all the way. She could see the bathroom through the sliver that remained open. She yawned as she set the headphones on the bed. She heard the brothers talking in the living room but couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. A car magazine lying on the floor looked interesting enough, and she picked it up. Flipping through it for a moment did little to entertain her. The voices grew a little louder and more heated. Wondering what they were arguing about, she stood up and tiptoed to the door.
“We got to get this shipment out on the streets before Friday, Kenny. How are you going to do that when you’re hanging out with your girlfriend every day?”
She opened the door a little wider. Kenny responded, but Bella still couldn’t hear.
“You need to start taking the family business more seriously, Kenny. You’re the youngest, but with Pops gone, we need you now more than ever.”
Bella stepped into the hallway.
“I need you to take it and drive it to this address. It’s about thirty minutes away.”
“But Dom, I’ve got Bella with me.”
“Doesn’t matter. All you’ve got to do is drive it, then you can do whatever—”
An old fast food bag crinkled underneath Bella’s foot.
“What was that?” Dom’s voice was alarmed.
“Nothing, nothing,” Kenny reassured him. Bella could hear Dom stand up anyway. She tried to make it back inside the room quickly, but Dom saw her.
“Bitch,” he said under his breath as he stomped down the hallway and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans and held it to her head as he dragged her out into the living room.
“Whoa, Dom. What are you doing? Put that away!”
“Your girlfriend was spying on us,” Dom spat at his brother. And then to Bella, he demanded, “What did you hear?”
The barrel of the gun burned into her temple. She shook all over, barely able to hold herself up.
“N-nothing,” she stuttered. “I d-didn’t hear anything.”
&n
bsp; “Stop lying.”
“Put the gun down, Dom.”
“What did you hear?” Dom demanded one last time, before Kenny swung his hand up, knocking the gun out of Dom’s hand. It clattered on the floor and slid under the Play Station. Bella ran for the door in the few moments that Dom was distracted. The two brothers fought for possession of the gun. Bella slammed the door behind her and ran as fast as she could down the hallway. Just as she made it to the stairs, she heard the gun go off. She didn’t look back.
***
It was raining outside. Large drops hit her face and streamed into her eyes making it difficult to see as she ran. It was late, and there wasn’t another soul on the street. She ran down one block, then took a right, crossed the street, and took a left down an alleyway. She was familiar with this area of town from hanging out with Kenny and knew that the closest high traffic street—where she could find a cab—was another five blocks away. She did not stop running.
The gun had gone off. Who pulled the trigger? Bella imagined Kenny lying in a pile of blood, an unholy addition to the clutter of his already grimy living room floor. Or had it been Dom? Was Dom the one lying in a puddle of blood? Was one of them chasing her now? It was too dark and rainy to be able to tell. Bella put her head down and pushed herself to run faster. A siren wailed in the distance.
Finally, she reached Main Street and put her arm up to hail a cab. Two passed her without stopping, but the third pulled over. Without hesitating, she jumped in, and sunk into the dry, warm back seat. She looked out the window, toward where she had come from.
“Drive!” she instructed the cab driver frantically. She saw Dom running toward the cab. He had the gun.
“Where to, miss?”
“Anywhere, just drive! Now!”
The cab pulled out into traffic and sped off before Dom was close enough to shoot. A knot that had been clutched tightly in Bella’s chest since she slammed the door to Kenny’s apartment, unraveled. She exhaled deeply and realized she was shaking.
“Miss?” The cab driver said gently. “Where to?”
Bella sighed, wiping rain and sweat from her forehead, and breathed. “The police station.”
The cab driver asked multiple times if she was okay, and each time, she said yes. But she wasn’t so sure; her breathing was erratic, and she couldn’t stop shivering. She knew she was in shock. Kenny was dead, or close to it. Dom was who knows where. Bella knew Dom had a dark side but didn’t realize he was violent enough to kill his own brother. Her arm still hurt from where he had grabbed her. She needed to get inside the police station.
She paid the cab driver, and thanked him, surprised by how normal her voice sounded. The rain poured down in angry sheets. Wrapping her jacket tightly around her, she hurried up the steps and barged through the front doors. When she let go of her jacket clutched tightly around her, it fell down gently over her shoulders, revealing her face and neck. She stood like a deer in headlights. The two police officers behind the counter stared at her until one of them said, “Can I help you?”
“I—I…” she tried to say, but then she fainted.
***
When Bella woke, she was spooked. Memories of Kenny’s apartment, of a loud bang, of running and of rain, swirled around in her mind until she couldn’t take it anymore. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times before the world came into focus. An older woman in a white doctor’s coat stood over her, shining a flashlight in her eyes, asking her questions she couldn’t yet comprehend. She closed her eyes again and heard a deep, male voice say: “It looks like she’s been through a lot. Let’s give her a moment.”
Bella kept her eyes closed while she asked, “Where am I?”
“You are in the emergency room at the hospital,” the male voice answered. “Can you tell us your name?”
“It’s Bella Watson.”
“Good. That’s very good. Now, can you remember why you came to the police department this this evening?”
Panic hit her in the chest. It felt like she’d been punched. Her eyelids shot open, and she sat up.
“Kenny,” she said. “He’s been shot. Dom shot him, instead of me. I ran…”
A police officer loomed over her bed, but he looked down at her with a sympathetic expression.
“Do you remember where that was?”
“Park and 19th, at an apartment complex. Dom chased me. All the way to Main Street. I thought he was going to get me.” Bella began to tremble again.
“I really should examine her now,” the doctor said.
“Of course,” the policeman replied, and to Bella he said: “You’re safe now. I’ll be back to talk with you after the exam.”
The doctor looked in her eyes, listened to her heart beat, made her do a couple of cognitive tests, and decided Bella was all right, just shaken up. She offered Bella something for her nerves, and said: “I’ll take you to Officer Moore when you’re ready. He’s been waiting to talk.”
Bella swallowed the pill and chased it with water. She stood up and shook out her arms and legs. She was already feeling more centered. She wasn’t hurt, and she was safe. Everything was going to be okay.
Officer Moore was waiting for her in the waiting room. He sat sideways in his chair, his knees spread, an arm across his chest, and the other reviewing a piece of paper he held in front of him. As the doctor opened the door and led Bella in, Officer Moore looked up, put the paper upside down on the table and said, “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Do you mind taking a quick ride back to the station? You were pretty upset, and we want to help you anyway we can.”
“Okay,” Bella said, heading out with him to a police car parked beside the emergency room door. I wonder if this is a good idea, she mused. Then she remembered that Kenny might have been shot. She had to talk to the police. In minutes, they pulled into the station and headed inside.
Officer Moore led her into an interrogation room and pulled out a chair for her. “Here, make yourself comfortable,” he said formally.
Bella shuffled into the room and sat down quietly. She folded her hands in her lap. Officer Moore settled in the chair across from her.
“Now,” he said, “I need you to tell me what happened.”
He put his hands on the table and looked down at her inquiringly. It didn’t feel aggressive, but it didn’t feel kind either. He had a job to do, and Bella had vital information. She could feel the intensity of his need to hear her account of the events from tonight, and part of her felt resistant. What if they didn’t believe her? What if they released her and Dom found her? What if there was nothing they could do?
“Where’s Dom?”
“You mean, Dominic Carracci?” Officer Moore sat up straight. Bella nodded. “We haven’t found him yet. We have a squad out looking. You said the last place you saw him was on Main?”
“Yeah, between 19th and 20th.”
“And what state was he in?”
“I’m not sure. Good enough to chase me.”
“We believe he’d been shot when he went after you. We arrested Kenny Carracci when we found him knocked out but otherwise unharmed at the address you provided.”
Bella stared at Officer Moore, her mouth halfway open and her eyelids fluttering. Kenny was alive—somewhere in this building. She couldn’t believe her ears; she thought he’d been shot. “Why did you arrest Kenny?” she asked. “Dom is the one you should be after.”
“I’ll explain why in a moment. There was a trail of blood leading out of the apartment complex, but it was washed away with the rain once we traced it outside,” he continued.
So they’ve arrested Kenny but still hadn’t found Dom. That didn’t do much to calm Bella’s nerves.
“Dom is the dangerous one. He’s the one who tried to shoot me. Kenny stopped him.”
“Why was Dom trying to shoot you?” The way he asked her made Bella realize she had to be careful with her answer.
“I overheard them talking. When he realized I was
listening in, he threatened to kill me.”
“What did you hear?”
Bella withdrew. That was the same question Dom had demanded of her when he had the barrel of a gun buried against her temple. The barren interrogation room suddenly felt small and oppressive.
“Listen Miss Watson. It’s very important that you tell us what you know. The Carraccis are a dangerous crime family in New York. We’ve been building a case against them for years. Dom is dangerous. But Kenny has been getting more and more involved in their family businesses. Everything you can tell us is vital information.”
Bella brought her hands down on her lap, and pinched the tips of her fingers. Her hands were cold, and she could barely feel it. “I—I…”
Officer Moore looked at her expectantly. His brown eyes were caring but not warm. She had information he needed. That was his main priority.
“It sounded like they’d—Dom and Kenny—had a large shipment of drugs that they were trying to distribute to their dealers by this Friday. Dom had asked Kenny to drive something to an address about a half-hour away. That’s all I know.”
“And how were you involved in all of this?”
Bella was embarrassed. “I used to date Kenny. He was going to take me out to dinner, but we made a stop at the apartment first. I was supposed to be in his room listening to music with headphones on, but I went out in the hallway to listen in on them. Dom found out and threatened to kill me. Kenny tried to stop him.”
“I see,” Officer Moore said as he took notes. “Okay then, I need to share this information with my superior officer, and then I’ll be back to tell you what your options are.” He stood up before Bella could say anything else. She realized how tall he was—over six feet, with wide shoulders and thin hips. His belt clattered as he walked to the door. He exited without turning around, and Bella was left alone in the room to wonder what her fate would be.