by Ivy Blake
“Now Ronald, why don’t we try this again,” Tony said. “Tell me who you are working for, and you will be free to go.”
“I-I’m not working with anyone!” Ronald yelled into his salad plate. Nico pushed the gun harder to the back of the head. I gripped my gun tighter. Fuck, I hated Ronald. But that didn’t mean I wanted to see his head splattered across their dining table. There would be no way I could clean up that mess if that happened. But I couldn’t barge in their either.
Tony stood up and started to pace in the front of the room. “Now, now, Ronald. We both know that is not true.” Ronald struggled slightly underneath Nico’s hand.
“Talk mother fucker,” Nico ground out.
“O- ok ok. I’m not here on business,” Ronald said. Nico loosened his grip and moved Ronald so he was now sitting up. His gun was still pressed firmed to the back of his head. Luca moved his aim to Ronald’s chest.
“Raise your hands,” Luca said.
Ronald slowly raised his hands. Nico with his gun still on the back of Ronald’s head, reached down and grabbed Ronald’s gun out the of the holster in his suit jacket. He flung it on the table towards where Tony’s seat was, completely out of Ronald’s reach. Tony turned around and faced Ronald. He placed his hands on the table as he leaned forward.
“I will say this one more time, and if you don’t give us the answer we want to hear, we will have to go ahead and take care of Cynthia and her two beautiful kids.”
Fear crossed Ronald’s face. I quickly racked my brain and tried to think of who the hell Cynthia was. Ronald wasn’t married so it couldn’t have been his wife.
“H-h-how do you know about my sister?” Ronald asked with a shaky voice. Tony let out a loud laugh.
“You really thought we were stupid, didn’t you? We have our ways of knowing these things Ronald.”
“Please don’t hurt her,” Ronald begged. “She has nothing to do with this, and I will tell you whatever you want.” I lowered my head. Fuck Ronald. I knew he was a cocky son of a bitch, which I always figured was a front, but I didn’t realize he would have been so easy to break. I bet O’Malley didn’t know this either.
“We won’t hurt her, if you talk,” Nico said as he pushed the gun harder into his head.
“I’m a cop!” Ronald yelled. “I’m working with the Chicago Police Department. We have been investigating your family for some time, and I was sent in to find out some information.” Tony stood up from his leaning position and smiled.
“Now, there, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Tony asked. Ronald quickly shook his head. Tony looked at Nico and nodded. Nico loosened his grip and stood back from Ronald, but kept his gun aimed directly at his head.
Tony walked over to Luca and stood right in front of Ronald across the table. “Here is what is going to happen. You are going to leave. You are going to tell your Captain that you were unable to find any evidence at this meeting. That is was just dinner with my lovely family. After that you will tell him that you are finished with this case as you had a job offer in New York.”
“But,” Ronald said, and Tony quickly cut him off.
“Believe it or not Ronald, I have formed some pretty powerful connections over the years. There is a nice cushy desk job waiting for you at the NYPD. Take it and all of this goes away. Cynthia and the kids will stay safe, and you will walk out of here alive.”
Ronald’s face turned completely white. “And if I don’t take it?”
Nico pushed his gun to the back of Ronald’s head as Tony leaned over the table.
“If you don’t take it, then you will have your sister’s blood on your hands.” Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. A picture of a house was on the screen.
“You see this? You recognize that house?” Tony asked.
Ronald shook his head quickly.
“That man right there is one of my associates. I am supposed to call him momentarily to let him know what to do. If I do not call him by 9:00,” Tony looked down at his watch. “Which is in five minutes. He will take care of Cynthia and her beautiful family.”
“Alright, I’ll take it!” Ronald yelled. “Please just don’t hurt Cynthia.” Tony nodded and picked up his phone.
“Ok Marco, you can leave her house now. But stay close by just in case.” Tony hung up the phone and placed it on the table. Nico grabbed Ronald by his shirt and pulled him out of the dining room. I quickly ran from my spot next to the window and through the back entrance to the kitchen. As I entered the house, I could hear Nico and the shuffling of feet near the main entrance. I peeked around the hallway to get a better view.
“We’ll keep tabs on you Ronald,” Nico said. “So, don’t fuck this up,” and he shoved him out of the house and closed the door.
Chapter 24
Carina
I paced back and forth in my bedroom, and jumped when I finally heard the front door slam. I sat down on my bed and sighed with relief. I hadn’t heard any gunshots, which I took as a good sign. If something had gone wrong, there surely would have been a commotion downstairs.
The second that my father asked me and my mother to leave, I knew things were about to get ugly. I just hadn’t realized how ugly. I knew my father was ruthless, but I never had heard that menace in his voice. I had heard the first part of the conversation, and I wasn’t willing to stay in the kitchen to see how things turned out.
A slight knock came at my door, and I slowly walked towards it.
“Carina, it’s me,” Harrison said quietly, and I quickly opened the door and pulled him inside. He pulled me into his arms, and I immediately felt safe. It was as if all the tension in my body melted at his touch. I leaned my head against his hard chest, and slowly breathed in his scent.
“Everything is taken care of,” Harrison said. I moved my head and looked up at him.
“So, will you be alright?” I asked him honestly.
He looked down at me and nodded. “I think your family scared Ronald enough to keep him quiet. Besides the department has no proof that I tipped you off. Ronald believed it was another way that your family found out. So, I should be able to figure everything all out.”
“Are you sure?”
“Honestly? No. But I will do my best to work things out so this all makes sense.” I stared up in his eyes and in that moment, I realized how completely in love with Harrison I was.
“I love you, Harrison,” I said.
He leaned his forehead onto mine.
“I love you too Carina. More than you could ever know.”
Chapter 25
Harrison
I leaned over in bed and smiled when I felt Carina’s body next to mine. Fuck, she was beautiful. Even as she laid there with her hair a mess, and slight makeup running down her face, she was the prettiest woman I had ever seen. I reached over and pulled her body close to mine. We were in my bed at my old apartment. I decided to bring her there last night after we left her parents’ house, so she could see the real me. I looked down at her, and smiled. I still could not believe that she was mine.
My phone rang out in the silent room. I quickly reached over and grabbed it and held back a curse when I heard the other voice on the line.
“Harrison, it’s O’Malley. Get into the precinct as quickly as you can,” and without another the word the call ended.
Shit. I hoped this had nothing to do with Ronald. If it did, I would need to figure out my story before I got down to the station. I leaned back over to Carina and kissed her on the cheek. She had quickly fallen back asleep. She stirred slightly under my lips.
“I need to go to the station, baby,” I said. “I’ll be back in a little bit, you stay here alright?” She opened her eyes slightly and nodded. Her head hit the pillow again and she was out like a light. I chuckled slightly as I got up to get dressed.
I threw on jeans and t-shirt and headed out to the station. On the drive there, I ran through all the possible scenarios in my head. If Ronald turned against the Dellucci’s I w
ould need an alibi from someone that I wasn’t there last night, the problem was, I didn’t have one. I would have to just say that I was home alone, which was a shaky alibi, but it was all I had at the moment.
I walked into the station, and everyone was buzzing around the precinct. I hadn’t seen this place this busy since I started. O’Malley spotted me from across the squad room and called out to me.
“Harrison, my office. Now!”
A few detectives around me finally noticed I was there, but they quickly went back to what they were doing. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed several men in suits speaking with the detectives, and I wondered if they had busted some white-collar crime while I was suspended. I shrugged my shoulders and made my way to O’Malley’s office.
I walked in and he quickly shut the door. He walked over to his desk, and pulled out a cigar.
“Sit!” He commanded and I quickly sat down across from him. He silently cut the end of his cigar and pulled out his lighter.
“Ronald quit,” O’Malley said bluntly. He lit the cigar and puffed on it letting a cloud of smoke surround him, and he looked at me. “Do you know anything about that?”
“No, I had no idea,” I said.
O’Malley glared at me, trying to assess if I was telling the truth. Luckily from my training, I had become amazing at lying when I needed to. And since this was all to protect Carina, I would lie through my teeth for her. I held his stare and finally he sighed.
“He got some offer in New York he couldn’t turn down,” he said. “Your job is still here if you want it.”
I bit back a smile. “What about the Dellucci case?”
O’Malley let out a long sigh. “I’m sure you saw the fuckers in the suits when you walked in.” I nodded.
“We received an interesting call this morning. Right after Ronald gave me his two weeks. Seems as though the Dellucci family are FBI informants.”
“What?” I asked slightly taken back.
“Yeah. Turns out the family has been informing the FBI for quite some time on the different large-scale mafia families that they deal with. And the FBI got wind of our investigation into them, and decided to shut it down.”
Fuck. Tony really does have some powerful friends.
“What’s with the suits outside?” I asked
“They are collecting all the information that we gathered. We have been completely taken off the case, and we are in no way allowed to investigate the Dellucci family any more. They made some deal, where they have complete immunity for their information.”
I ran my hand through my short hair. I would have to somehow thank Tony for this later.
“What did you need to see me for then?” I asked.
O’Malley took another puff of his cigar. “There is still more crime in this fucking city,” he said. “So, like I said, your job is here for you still, if you want it.”
Silence permeated around us. I honestly had no idea what to say. I had loved my job as an undercover detective, but could I do that now with Carina in my life? Her family just got me out of hot water by getting the investigation on them pulled. How was I supposed to continue my job?
I cleared my throat, breaking the silence. “You know, O’Malley? As much as I would love to, my heart is just not in it anymore.”
O’Malley put down his cigar and stared at me. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m sick of the undercover lifestyle, and putting my life constantly on the line.”
“Are you saying you want a desk job now?” O’Malley asked.
“No…I was thinking more of sergeant.”
EPILOUGE - Carina
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Harrison had transitioned into a sergeant a month after he informed my family about the set up. We started to see each other regularly, since his job was now more 9-5 and I couldn’t have been happier. He dealt mainly with the sex crimes unit, which thankfully my family had no part in.
Both of us kept our distance from my father’s business, but he still somehow managed to get along with him, and attended a few occasional family dinners. With his pay bump to sergeant, he purchased a home in a middle-class neighborhood and finally got rid of his city apartment, though he did use his phone to play city noises while he slept. He had a three-bedroom house that was perfect. It was a place that I could imagine raising a family in.
I walked through the door after work, since most evenings I found myself there.
“Harrison?” I called out to him, but nothing but silence flooded back into my ears. I closed the door behind me and placed my duffle bag on the floor.
“Harrison? Babe? Where are you at?”
I walked slowly through the house, checking each room carefully. It looked just like the home he was given during his undercover work in Chicago. It was still completely bare. I knew that it would take a woman’s touch to spice it up a little bit. I slowly opened closet doors, thinking he was going to jump out and try to scare me. After each door I opened, there was nothing but emptiness on the other side.
“Harrison? Alright, enough of the games. Where are you at?”
I made my way to the end of the house and opened the back-patio door. The water in the swimming pool on the deck sparkled under the bright sunlight. I smiled, imagining the times we spent with each other inside that very water. After a few moments went by, I closed the door and continued through the house. When I got back to the front room, Harrison was kneeled before me. Startled, I jumped backwards.
“Jesus Christ, Harrison! Why didn’t you answer me when I called you? And why are you–”
Just then, my attention was redirected to the black box he held inside of his hand. As soon as he propped it open, the large, princess cut diamond sparkled like glitter. I put my hand over my heart. My breathing picked up. My heart felt as though it was going to leap out of my throat.
“From the very first day I met you, I knew you were special. I wasn’t looking for love. I wasn’t even looking for someone to be with, but when you came along, you changed all of that. From that day, I knew that I didn’t want to spend my life without you. When I sacrificed my career for you, I knew that what I had for you was more than just a feeling. It was something concrete. Something I didn’t want to live without. Carina, I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I met you and now, I know it is real and I don’t want to spend another day without you. Baby, I want to spend forever with you and I hope ‘ever’ never comes. Will you marry me?”
I answered him with eyes full of tears, nodding my head before I charged him and knocked him backwards onto the ground. I held him tight as I embraced him on the floor. Mrs. Harrison Nash. No other name in the world had a better ring to it.
THE END
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