“Italian, huh? So, you’re real close to your parents?”
“Not real close, but I mean, I do want them to respect me. I don’t want them to turn their backs on me because, even though I don’t agree with what they do, they have helped me tremendously throughout the years.”
“With what they do?”
I hesitated to go further. I didn’t want to tell him too much, but I trusted him enough to point him in the right direction. “Um, they are just really overprotective sometimes.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. Well, anyways, I need to get some rest so I can deal with my kids in the morning. They are impossible to deal with if I only get a couple hours of sleep.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. I guess I will see or talk to you tomorrow?”
“For sure.”
“Alright. Sleep tight.”
“Goodnight.”
I waited on the phone until I heard him hang up. After that, I put my phone on the nightstand, then wrapped my naked body inside of the blanket, imagining that the pillow beside me was Harrison as I cuddled up next to it. I didn’t know what was going to happen between us, but I was ready for the ride, wherever we ended.
Chapter 11
Harrison
When I woke up the next morning, the ceiling fan blew softly onto my bare chest as I laid on top of the covers. Memories of Carina clouded my thoughts as I reached for my phone to check my email. I had almost forgotten that I was on assignment. Carina was supposed to be a point of entrance for me, but she had literally turned into a point of interest for me in half the time. I scrolled through my email until I landed on info from O’Malley. It was an order for me to meet him at a location on the outskirts of Chicago so we could go over a few things regarding the case. O’Malley could read men like books and I was no exception, so I was going to have to admit that I was already in contact with Carina and I knew how that would go.
Just as I was about to put my phone back on the desk, I received a text message from her.
“Hey. I know you are probably still asleep, but for some reason, I feel great. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking about you. I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to talking to you later.”
I closed my phone and placed it back onto the nightstand. I couldn’t find the words to say to her, especially right now. If I was going to start separating business from pleasure, I had to step into the state of mind right now. I was paid to do a job and I knew that, no matter what, I had to carry it out, regardless of the collateral damage that may spring from it. After I got out of the shower, I responded to her.
“Hey. I was thinking about you, too. We will talk later for sure. Don’t be too hard on the kids.”
After I got dressed, I left my home and made my way to the meeting spot to talk to O’Malley. He was parked outside of an old, abandoned building right off of highway 45. The sign in the front was missing a few letters and as soon as I parked my car, one of the visible letters flickered as if it was on its last stages of life. I removed a cigarette from my case and lit the end of it, then climbed out of the car and walked towards O’Malley’s. The door was unlocked when I got there, so I hopped inside. His front window was cracked and inside of his mouth, there was a thick, Cuban cigar that he took hefty puffs out of, then blew it through the crack of the window.
I tossed my cigarette when I finished the third drag.
“Damn it, Harrison. You are wasting good nicotine doing that shit. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“One or two puffs are all I need.”
He peered at me. His wide frame filled the front seat completely and if he was in any other vehicle, he may not have been able to fit.
“Let’s get out,” he said as he opened his door, “I need a little more space. It is going to get crowded in here much too fast.” When we got out, a handful of cars zoomed by on the freeway much faster than they should’ve been going. O’Malley took his cigar and put the end out, then slid it into his holder.
“You see, that is how you save shit, Harrison. You don’t just fucking toss it out halfway through.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets as we stood near the back of his vehicle.
“So, did you make any headway into the case?”
I few thick clouds passed before the sun, momentarily dimming the bright light above. “Still kicking around,” I answered.
He quickly glanced in my direction. “Bullshit, Harrison. Bullshit. By now, I’d be damned if I believed that shit. You’ve been working here for four years and every case I’ve given you, you have made significant progress in just a few days.”
“Yeah, boss, but every case is not the same. This one is a little more complex.”
“Complex? What the fuck is complex about it? I tell you about the bad guys, give you a fucking cover story and background information about the targets. You take that shit and parlay it into some arrests a few months later. What the fuck is complex about that?” The clouds finally moved past the sun, allowing the bright rays of light to come crashing back into us relentlessly.
“Well, Harrison? I didn’t bring you all the way the fuck out here just for you to stand there in silence. What the fuck is the–” he paused. His stared at me intensely. I looked down quickly so he wouldn’t see my eyes.
“I know what is happening here. You’ve got a thing for the gal, don’t you? That gal,” he snapped his fingers to recollect, “Carina. Carina Dellucci. You met her and now you are fucking her pretty ass, right?”
“What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me, Harrison.” He laughed. “Fuck. I mean, I told you she was beautiful. You saw that from the pictures, but now that reality has set in and, my guess is, you’ve met her and now you can’t fucking move one foot in front of the other on this case.”
I still didn’t utter a word. How the fuck was he able to figure everything out? He laughed out loud. His deep voice echoed off the walls of the vacant buildings surrounding us.
“Mother fucker! Please don’t tell me that is the issue. Please don’t tell me that the best undercover cop in Chicago is getting worked up over a fucking mafia princess.”
Fuck. I knew he would figure it out eventually. I just didn’t want him to figure it out this quickly. When I didn’t respond, his laughter faded and his smile was immediately replaced with a serious, stone cold expression. I cleared my throat.
“No, it’s not that at all. It’s just a little tougher than I thought it would be, but I can handle it.” I had pushed confidence in my voice and I stared directly at him, hoping that he wouldn’t catch on to my lie. O’Malley glared at me for a moment before he spoke.
“You god damned right you better handle it.” He paced back and forth from one end of his vehicle to the other, and back. “I didn’t give this fucking case to you thinking that you would get weak in the knees over his daughter. Shit. She could be playing your ass because I am sure that you have had your guard down around her. She could be playing you right now, Harrison. Did you let her cut your hair?”
“Cut my hair?” I asked, quizzically.
“Cut your hair. Samson? Delilah? Have you ever read the fucking bible?”
“Occasionally.”
O’Malley let out a sigh. “There was a guy back in the day. His strength was in his hair, but this gal comes around and she was sent from the enemy. She comes around asking him where his strength came from and eventually, he let his guard down and he told her. She immediately used that against him and told his enemy and they told her to cut his hair when he was asleep. As soon as that happened, he lost his strength and his enemies came in and took him away. Moral of the story; never trust the enemy. We have a job to do and so do they.”
He quickly walked away from me and went back to the driver’s side of his vehicle. As he opened the door, he spoke again, “the next time we meet, I don’t want to hear any bullshit about ‘it being complicated’. I want more information. I want the inner workings of her family and
if not that, I want to know that you aren’t scared to take her and the rest of her crime ridden family down. They are a terror to our fucking city, Harrison. Don’t forget who the fucking enemy is. Trust me, it will end bad for you if you think twice about double crossing the right side of the law.”
He slammed his door shut and burned rubber as he reversed out of the parking lot. I watched him speed off while I removed another cigarette from my pack and set the end of it ablaze. Fuck. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, he was right. I had a job to do and no matter what, I had to keep my feelings for Carina separate. As I inhaled my fourth puff, I was finding out that it was going to be easier said than done.
***
Later that evening, I made a phone call to Carina. She answered with a light voice.
“Hey. I was just thinking about you.”
“Yeah, I was just calling to see how you were doing. Um, are you busy?”
“Just grading a few papers. Why?”
“I was thinking about coming over to visit you. I’ve got a little time to burn, so I figured I’d spend that time with you.”
“Sure. I am just about finished grading.”
“Alright. I’m on my way.”
“Sounds good.”
After I hung up the phone, I went into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of liquor out of the freezer. As I poured some into a shot glass, I thought more about what O’Malley had said. He was right. Carina did take to me pretty fast and for all I knew, she could have made out who I was before I even knew her name. She could know a lot more about the family than she let on. Maybe she was sent to me from her family? She claimed that she wasn’t involved in what they did, but maybe she had been lying to me the entire time. I threw the shot into the back of my throat, grabbed my pistol, then darted to her house.
I waited outside for a few minutes, observing the area before I went inside. A young boy walked his dog down the sidewalk as it anxiously sniffed every blade of grass in its path. Another group of children sat on the porch, laughing and joking with each other. Across the street, an older man pushed the lawnmower over his grass. The engine sputtered like a go-kart as he pushed it over the thicker places. It was like perfect white picket fence suburbia here. Not a single sign showed that the mafia was near.
Finally, I exited the car and walked to the front door. Carina opened the door and welcomed me with a smile.
“Hey, babe. I mean,” she said, as we stepped inside. “Is it alright if I call you that? I know it has only been, what? A few days?”
I stepped inside. “Yeah. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Babe is cool with me.”
I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips, then walked into the front room and sat down on the couch. Flashbacks of me taking her on the couch played in my mind as I took my seat and put my arm on the edge of the cushion.
“I had a short day today,” she said as she folded her legs beneath her body and sat on top of them next to me on the couch. “The kids weren’t bad. They all did their homework and I didn’t have to pull teeth to get them to answer questions.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good day to me.” My answer was dry and monotone. I needed to quit being such an ass if I wanted her to open up to me about her family. I looked ahead towards the fireplace. A picture of an older couple sat on top of the mantle. Right before she could nestle closer to me, I stood up.
“Those your parents?” I asked, walking closer to the picture. I already knew who they were. The man was Tony Dellucci and to his left, I knew that it had to be his wife.
“That is my mother and father. Yeah. I love them to death, but they just have their ways about them, you know?”
“What ways?”
She stood up and joined me by the side. “Just ways.” She took the picture out of my hand, smiling, “why do you ask?”
“Just curious, I guess.” I looked to the right. There were two more pictures beside that one. “Who are they?”
She exhaled, shaking her head. “Luca and Nico. My brothers,” she tapped her fingers along the fireplace mantle. “They aren’t the type of people that I like to talk about. I mean,” I could tell she had a hard time dealing with what they had become. “They weren’t like that when we were younger. It wasn’t until they turned about 17 or 18 that they flipped out and started following in the footsteps of my father. My father,” she took the pictures from my hand. “My father is not the gentlest man. I mean, he is loving. He loves his family and he would do anything for them, I just don’t approve of the way he goes about doing it.”
She took my hand and pulled me away from the fireplace, “enough about them, though,” she said as we sat down on the couch. “I know you didn’t come all the way over here just to find out more about my family. So, let’s just hang out and see what is on TV. Is that cool with you?”
I kept an eye on the pictures of her family. I had to keep reminding myself that they were the reasons that I was here and as she tucked her head on my shoulder, I could only hope that she didn’t have anything to do with the crimes her family committed.
Chapter 12
Carina
Friday evening rolled around. I was supposed to go Harrison’s house and hang out with him for the weekend and I was looking forward to it. I hadn’t seen Harrison much in the last few days, but we had talked a few times since he came by earlier in the week. I thought it was weird how he kept asking questions about my family, but I just figured he was trying to get to know my background. I was ok with it, but the more he questioned me, the more I realized that I was going to eventually have to introduce him to my family, and eventually tell him what they are involved in. That had always been my biggest fear, and probably why I had never brought guys home in the first place. Who wants to date a mob boss’s daughter?
The doorbell rang as soon as I walked out of the bathroom. I wondered who it could be. When I opened, Freya pranced right in the way she always does. “Well, well, well. Somebody meets a guy, now all of a sudden, I don’t hear from you anymore or anything. Damn, if I would have known it was going to be like this, I never would’ve invited you out.”
She stood in the front room with her neck craned. I laughed and closed the door, “I’m sorry, Freya! With work and everything, I’ve just been kind of busy.”
“Yeah, sure. Busy getting some from your new man.”
“No.” I walked by her in the front room. “Maybe.”
She laughed and took a seat. “Maybe my ass. I know what it is. You’ve been off the market for so long that when you get some new meat in front of you, you don’t know how to act. I’ve been there before.” She took her phone out and scrolled across the screen with her thumb. “So, what are y’all doing tonight? And don’t act like you aren’t going to be somewhere with him.”
“Well, if you must know, I am going to his place to hang out. He is not the type of person who likes to go out of the house much. Sort of like a home-body. I kind of like that.”
“Oh, Lord. Two home bodies together? You two will never leave the house. The whole world is going to pass you two by in the blink of an eye.”
“Well, let it pass. As long as I’ve got someone good to keep me occupied, I’m happy.”
She laughed, then slid her phone into her pocket. “So, did you tell your family about him yet?” Growing up with Freya, she was already well aware of my family. My parents tried to keep her in the dark like I was, but she had figured it all out pretty quickly. She was the one that helped me distance myself from them in the first place. Despite all the she knew, we still remained friends. Freya had my back, no matter what happened.
I sighed. “No, not yet. I mean, he has been asking about my family, so I know that sooner or later I will have to introduce him and I know that will be a fucking shit storm of a problem.”
“Yeah, I know how your parents are.”
I stopped my mind from racing through the possibilities of what would happen when they found out.
“Yeah, I know. But, it’s
only been like a week, you know? So, I don’t want to jump the gun and introduce him to my parents just yet. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want to tell them about him until we get further along in our relationship.” I laughed at my awkwardness. “My God, listen to me. I am speaking like I’ve known Harrison for months and it has barely been a week.”
“Yeah, girl. I’m going to need you to pump your brakes just a little bit, ok?”
I fell backwards on the couch and propped my head against the pillow, “I know, I know. I don’t know what is wrong with me, Freya! It is like I am slipping down an icy slope of adolescent love with no way to stop. Like I am a fucking teenager again.”
“It’s normal to fall hard and fast sometimes. Just try to keep some guard up, alright? I don’t want you to get hurt.” Freya pulled me into a hug and I let out a long sigh. Freya was right. I was falling hard and fast, but I needed to make sure I left some of my walls up so everything didn’t completely tumble down around me. Especially with my family. They weren’t something to be taken lightly. Freya released me from her arms and sighed.
“I was just passing through and I wanted to check on you. I’m headed over to Jade’s place. She wants me to go to this birthday get together with her.” She stood up and threw her purse around her shoulder. “You be safe tonight, alright huh?”
“I will.”
I watched her leave the house and with that, I got ready to head to Harrison’s. I sprinkled a floral fragrance onto my skin, and walked over to my closet. While my leggings were calling my name, it way too soon for me to feel completely comfortable around Harrison so slid on my favorite pair of jeans and a cute top, instead. Then left to go to Harrison’s place.
I was impressed as soon as I parked in front of his apartment building. He must be doing very well for himself, I said as I peered at the complex. When I walked inside the lobby everything looked as though was new, and I felt very out of place.
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