Wanted: An Outlaw Anthology

by Lane Hart

  I made coffee and came over to give her a hug and a morning kiss as the coffee percolated. I had already mapped out everyone I could talk to who could help confirm my notions that it was the work of the Ricci family.

  I was going to start with one of my friends who was on the force. I would try and contact him today to meet with me privately so we could talk. I couldn’t just walk into the precinct so soon after this tragic event, but I was going to get to the bottom of this.

  I really wished I could take Maddie somewhere nice or fancy to make her forget everything, but it was still too risky to just let her walk around. She needed a place to go to feel hopeful again.

  I needed to work that part out for her, a safe place to go. There weren’t many places I could think of at the moment. Maybe I would have a definite solution by the end of the day.

  Madeline drank her coffee in silence as I sat down next to her. “What are you thinking about?” I watched as she nodded her head.

  “I was just thinking about my designs.” She continued to nod her head as she pursed her lips. “Yep, I am thinking about my designs.” And then she gulped down more coffee.

  “You know how I’ve been studying fashion design at college?” she asked me, sounding chipper. I nodded my head.

  “Well, there’s this design school that one of my professors told me about, and she has written me a letter of recommendation if I apply.” She stared off ahead of her and smiled.

  “That’s great, Maddie.” I rubbed her back.

  “Yeah, the design school is in Italy.” She was so direct when she said this.

  “That’s great, Maddie. I think you should go. In fact, I think you should go to Italy the moment you can.” She turned her head and smiled at me. We both hugged each other.

  I thought the idea of Maddie going to Italy, with or without design school, would make her happy. If I remembered Mr. Bianco correctly, they still had family and connections there. She would be happy there away from all this.

  We pulled away from each other for a second. I smiled at her until she turned her head away from me and then she looked down at my feet quickly. “Blake?” she said with a much lighter tone, and I jolted with a whiplash to my neck.

  “Yes?” I responded as if to my drill sergeant.

  Maddie looked at me weirdly and then continued, “Will you come with me into my house to get some of my stuff?” She stared right into me with wide eyes.

  “Yeah, of course.” I put my hand on her lower back.

  I waited till Maddie had finished her coffee and went to watch TV. Her spirit seemed somehow dead, and it hurt me to see her like that. I felt it was my responsibility to Mr. Bianco to make her happy. I said I was taking a shower and grabbed my phone as I left her to slump on the couch.

  I closed the door to the bathroom and ran the shower head. I dialed up my detective friend, hoping that I wouldn’t catch him at the police station. I became anxious as the rings went on and I sat down at the toilet to settle my nerves. “Hello?” I heard on the other end, and I shot right back up on my feet.

  “Detective, it’s Blake Grey,” I said nervously, and then there was silence.

  “Let me call you back in a minute, Blake.” And the line went dead. Shit! I had called him at work.

  I turned the shower off because the steam was filling up the bathroom. My phone rang and I answered quickly. “Blake?” he said in almost a whisper, and I responded. “What’s up?” he said, a little more relaxed now.

  “I’m calling about last night.” There was silence “Detective?” I said.

  “Yes?”

  I breathed and asked him if we could meet privately and discuss everything. He agreed, and then we set up a time and place to meet safely and we both hung up.

  I took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief. I was going to get to the bottom of all this and I was going to make sure I kept Maddie safe. I turned the shower head back on and jumped in and began to lather up in the steam. When I got out of the shower and out of the bathroom, I saw that Maddie hadn’t moved an inch on the couch. I walked over to her and massaged the top of her head. “Maddie?” I said to her quietly, and she tilted her head up to meet my gaze.

  “Yes?” she said in an even more hushed tone.

  “I have to go meet a friend in town, and I would feel terrible just leaving you here alone with your thoughts.” I looked at her as she nodded her head in agreement.

  “Is there any friend of yours you can think of that is trustworthy enough for you to be at their house while I meet with my friend?” She shook her head yes. I smiled and kissed her forehead. I began to walk away from the couch to the bedroom to change.

  I heard Maddie get up and follow me. “What friend are you meeting with?”

  I stopped and turned to look at her. “I have a friend at the precinct who has a lot of knowledge about the local mob families. He will help me in discovering who did this,” I said as plainly as I could.

  Maddie tilted her head at me in curiosity. “So that means you are going to the precinct where the police are?” She was looking at me as if I was going against my earlier advice about her not going to the cops last night.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Maddie. I won’t be going to the precinct. I will be meeting him outside the precinct in a further location to talk.” I watched her as she tilted her head even more.

  “That’s a little shady and crooked.” I thought her neck was going to snap in half from how far she was tilting it.

  “Yeah, well, your father was in a shady business with other shady people who need to work outside the law.” I turned to open my closet.

  I looked back as I saw that Maddie was nodding her head in agreement with me. “True story, but why can’t I meet with crooked police outside the precinct in secret locations?” She went to sit on the bed and grabbed her phone. It looked like she was scrolling through something and I knew I still had her attention.

  “Look, Maddie, right now, the less involved and out and about the town you are in this, the better. These are dangerous people we are dealing with who do unspeakable things. I’m trying to protect you here, remember? That’s my job, to protect you.” I could tell what she wanted to respond to me with when I mentioned the words job and protect in the same sentence.

  She opened her mouth wide, and I put my hand up. “Save it,” I said shortly, and she closed her mouth and continued to scroll through her phone.

  As I got dressed, Maddie eventually got up and left the room to get ready. It didn’t take her long and she looked perfect. She told the address of where her friend lived and I tried to take an off-the-road path, just in case were being followed by anyone. So far, so good.

  I made sure we left way before I met the detective. I dropped Maddie off with some trustworthy friends in the neighborhood. I figured that she could use this girlfriend time and not be stuck in the back house for the whole day or more than she had to. It would be good for her to not be so close to the scene of the crime.

  I also didn’t know what was going to happen from day to day, and if she was going to be living in the same space as me, I needed her to not go insane and attack me like she did last night.

  I knew it was drawn from her anger, but I’d had girlfriends before. Too much time spent together could lead to you driving them crazy. I wanted to keep her as happy as I could so she could stay productive and focused on her life after all this was over. I was devoted to doing this for Maddie.

  I had to fight off Maddie’s two other friends who seemed to have crushes on me as well. They kept holding me in conversation as they tried to get me to come inside and go swimming.

  I tried to be as polite with them as I could and said I didn’t have my swim trunks. This initiated annoying laughter and Maddie shooed them off. Once I knew they had gone inside and couldn’t see us, Maddie and I kissed goodbye.

  I drove off to go talk with the detective. I waited at Starbucks with a tall coffee. We had agreed to meet at a Starbucks on the other side of t
own in a safe zone neighborhood, free from any mobsters coming in or walking by.

  The detective told me that no one on the force drank Starbucks. They preferred Dunkin Donuts. So, we would be safe from any of them walking in and seeing us talking. He also told me that my encounter with some of the cops last night had triggered some interest in me on this case.

  So far, it was only chit-chat among the cops, but he would do his best to notify me if he saw my name on any files in the case.

  I sat and drank my coffee nervously as I tried to figure out what I was going to ask him. As I sat there waiting, I saw a lot of young women coming in and out, and it made me think of Maddie. Maybe I should bring her one of those flavored coffees. I quickly texted her to see what she would want.

  The second I sent the text, I looked up and saw the detective walking in. He spotted me right away. I tried to sit as far back as I could from everyone else. He sat down without ordering a coffee. This told me he didn’t have much time to beat around the bush.

  We had a few seconds of small talk and then he dove right in. “What is it you need, Blake?” He was so direct with me that I almost choked on my coffee.

  “I’m trying to investigate who caused the car explosion.” I lowered my voice as a woman with a baby stroller walked by.

  She sat a little too close to our table for our comfort level. The detective gave me an insider signal that she might be a hired spy by the Ricci family or someone else, disguised as someone who could pass on anything she could overhear from our conversation.

  This made me curious whether there was an actual baby in that stroller. I leaned as far back as I could when she wasn’t looking, and I happened to see a sleeping baby. But regardless of this, we still kept our alert up about her presence.

  The detective lowered his gaze and then spoke softly to me. He even turned away so that no one could read his lips. “I’ve been at the station all night investigating. I had a feeling you’d be calling me about this, which is why I gave you all that extra information about where to meet.” He changed his gaze to my coffee.

  Noticing this, I slowly pushed the still-full coffee toward him. He took a long, well-deserved gulp and then thanked me. He moved back to the position he was in. “I had to be sneaky and make it look like I wasn’t investigating any powerful families, but my results led to the Ricci family. It was the only possible solution.” He became quiet and took another long gulp of my coffee.

  I tried to follow the detective’s lead and covered my mouth. “The Ricci family. Shit.” I guess I had emphasized shit a little too much because the mom gave me a dirty look and turned the stroller more toward her.

  The detective gave me more details about how he concluded the Ricci family was involved. While he was talking, I started to come up with a plan in order to pull one over on the Riccis. “I would be very careful in your actions. I think they are on the alert that Madeline Bianco is still alive somewhere.”

  I looked straight at him with a terrified look. I needed to protect her most of all, but it was apparent I would have to use her in my plan as bait for the Riccis and this thought killed me.

  I remembered that she had mentioned something about Donato Ricci, the son of Mr. Ricci. She had mentioned how disgusting he was and that he had tried to ask her out a couple of times. She’d refuse to go out with him and then Donato would get a beating from whatever boyfriend Maddie had at the time.

  And then I thought about Maddie having dated people other than me, but technically, we weren’t exactly dating. I still hated the thought of other men with her. I shook my head and tried refocus on what the detective was saying.

  We finished our meeting and I stayed back a while as the detective left. He promised if anything else urgent came up on the case, he would contact me, not the other way around. He said it was too risky for me to be calling him. He was going to be at the precinct around the clock over the next several days working on this case. If he kept receiving random calls from me, he would have to leave the station and it would start to look very suspicious to everyone else.

  “I really want to help you, Grey, but I can’t risk anything.” He leaned in so close I thought he was going to kiss me. Which made the suspicious-looking woman with the stroller scrunch her nose at us as she turned the stroller away from us even more. At this point, I really didn’t believe she was a spy for the Ricci family. Just an uptight soccer mom.

  The detective stood up straight and bowed his head to say good bye to me. He then turned to the soccer mom and winked at her. I enjoyed watching her shift uncomfortably in her seat.

  I waited for him to exit the Starbucks. As soon as the detective closed the door behind him, I checked my phone and saw Maddie’s complicated coffee order. I wasn’t even sure I was allowed to order this drink as a former Navy SEAL.

  I got up and walked to the counter to order. I kept my phone in front of me as I ordered it for her. I felt ridiculous carrying it with me, but it was for the woman I loved and that’s what I had to keep telling myself as I picked it up. I also made sure the employees of that Starbucks understood that in case they came up as witnesses in court if this Starbucks became part of the case.

  The drive back to pick up Maddie was surprisingly peaceful for me, and I didn’t understand why. There was so much drama and tension happening all around me, and I somehow felt happy that I was going to pick up Maddie and bring her the complex coffee order she desired. I threw in a few pastries she might like.

  What the hell? I felt like I had already handed over my balls along with the cash I gave the cashier. And I just couldn’t wait to see Maddie again. It got me thinking that Maddie was different from any other woman I had dated, slept with, or in general was acquainted with.

  I picked Maddie up and had texted her to try to avoid bringing her friends with her to say goodbye to me. She listened to me and practically jumped into the car and kissed me. She looked happy and healthy. She had an extra bounce about her and a glow. We drove back, and I noticed as her mood shifted down, but she didn’t seem sad or angry.

  We went inside and I watched her mood continue to shift and her energy went down a little more. I asked her if she was okay and told me she was fine, but I didn’t believe her.

  But I had work to do and I sat down at the kitchen counter. Maddie just sat beside me and drank her coffee and ate all the pastries I got her. I started to research more on the Riccis and began to fully map out in my head what I was going to do to keep her safe.

  I also watched Maddie’s behavior. She would look happy and then completely switch to bawling her eyes out and curling up in my arms. I still felt guilty about having sex with her, even though it was some of the best sex I’d had in a long time. If she could get it together, she would agree with me.

  I gave her soothing rubs and tried to console her as much as I could when she would hit her crying fits. I started to wish that I could let her stay with one of her friends, but it was way too risky. The police were swarming all over any family or friends connected to the Bianco family. Maddie was going to have to stay here with me, and I just had to suffer along with her as she broke down.

  Maddie was a grieving girl mourning her parents. Losing someone so close just gave you unpredictable behavior. All I could do for her right now was to be there, but it was absolutely killing me every time she cried. It was just unfortunate that we were on her family’s estate where if she walked outside, memories would surround her.

  It reminded me of when my whole team died with the Navy SEALs. I was devastated. But I discovered my best friend had also died, my one last hope in this world at the time. I was tempted to end my own life right there and call it quits.

  Thankfully, I found the strength not to off myself. But I saw a dark and endless hole that day, one that sucked whatever ounce of life you had left in you. I didn’t come from an encouraging home, but my best friend had been that ounce of hope for me. I clearly remember the pain I felt as I held his head in my lap. I didn’t cry, even though I r
eally wanted to. That pain stung far worse than actually losing my best friend.

  After I was honorably discharged, I felt I was even worse off than when I started the SEALs. I don’t think I felt a single emotion of any kind until the day I walked into the Bianco home and saw the beautiful face of Madeline trying to catch a glimpse of me. I remember feeling a warm spark after meeting her.

  I just didn’t want Maddie to go into a dark place that she would never return from. I wanted to see her grow from this experience and become wiser because of it. Maddie had somehow turned into my new ounce of hope, which filled me up more and more each day I was around her.

  And that, I think, scared me the most for the first three years I knew her. I wasn’t used to feeling that kind of love and affection. In a sense, it was almost a feeling that existed in books and movies, not in real life. She had really changed that ideal into a reality, and I knew I would always be grateful for that from her.

  Then again, she seemed so attached to me and I didn’t want to break her heart and make her think that I didn’t want to be around her. I needed my head space to mourn and plan.

  It was proving to be difficult with her hanging off my arm sometimes, because I just wanted to give her the love and affection she needed. That I needed for her.

  Later in the afternoon, I had helped Maddie get all her important stuff out of her room, which took longer than I cared for it to take. I had never been in her room before, and all she wanted to do was show me the entire contents of her room. Which I found to be odd, because we were inside her house. I would’ve thought that this would have made her the most vulnerable.

  But then I remembered a high school girlfriend I had who’d snuck me into her house one time when her family wasn’t home. I thought we were just going to have sex, but she delayed that for what felt like hours to show me everything in her room. I finally stopped her by shoving my tongue down her throat and putting my cock in her. I really wasn’t a nice kid back then.