Dante's Redemption

by Jaime Whitley

  “No, I don’t. But we need to figure this out. Ava, you need to call your mother and ask her if this is true.”

  “And say what? Hey mom, by any chance did you make bad choices and sleep with a fucking mobster and have an ‘oops’ baby with him? Sure, let me get right on that.”

  “Ava, you need to figure this out.” Joe’s voice pulls her attention from me. “If he finds out who you are, that could be very bad for you, for Dante, for all of us.” Joe leans against the wall beside her.

  Grabbing my keys from my pocket, she gets up and walks over to the front door, Ava’s hand is on turning the knob.

  “Where are you going?” Getting up and walking over to her, I place my hand on her arm to stop her.

  “I’m going to see my mother. If this is true and he is my father I want to hear it from her in person not over the phone.” Jilting her arm from mine, she opens the door and walks out. Looking at Joe, he nods his head and I run out the door. As she starts my car, I jump in the passenger seat.

  “What are you doing, Dante?” Agitation is coming from her voice as she stares at me. “No you’re not. I need to do this alone. Get out.” Nodding her head to the door.

  “No. You’re going to need me, you just don’t know it right now. Besides, did you ever think I might want to meet my future mother-in-law?” Smirking at her to try to ease the tension in the car, she shakes her head and slams her foot on the gas.

  As we are driving to her mother’s house, I find myself, for the first time in my life, using that imaginary break. Ava is a scary driver when she’s angry and I feel like we should be on a racetrack, not the highway. The constant weaving in and out between cars is starting to make me a little car sick. Approaching our exit, a driver on his cellphone, not paying attention, swerves into our lane and nearly side swipes us. Grabbing the ‘oh shit’ handle, my leg keeps pushing down on that brake that isn’t there. Ava manages to safely move the car out the way and honks the horn, cursing, and flipping the guy off yelling at him to get off his cell phone.

  “We’re almost there.” Ava pulls into a subdivision of houses that are all made of brick. After pulling into the driveway, I hop out of the car and drop to my knees and kiss the ground.

  “Thank you, Jesus, we made it alive!” I joke, trying it put a smile on her face. Getting up and walking around the car to where she is standing, “My baby is okay.” She smiles as I’m reaching my arm out and bypass her to pat the car.

  “You asshole.” Smacking my arm, I laugh and pull her into my chest.

  “I knew that one would work.” Kissing the tip of her nose. “Come on, let’s go inside and get all this figured out. The sooner we’re done, the sooner I can ravage this beautiful body.” Nuzzling on her neck, she giggles.

  “Ava, honey? Is that you?” We break apart to see who I assume to be her mother standing in the doorway. “Oh my goodness. Thomas, honey, come look who’s here.” Yelling with excitement she walks down the driveway to meet us.

  Whispering into Ava’s ear, I grab a hold of her hand and squeeze it. “You got this Pop Tart.”

  “My favorite daughter. I’m so happy to see you. I didn’t know you were coming over.” Wrapping her in a hug, Ava chuckles.

  “Mom, I’m your only daughter.” Pulling away she smacks her shoulder.

  “And that’s why you will always be my favorite.” Looking at me. “Who is this dashing young fellow?”

  “I’m Dante.” Holding my hand out to her. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Valerie. But you can just call me Val.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Val.” I shake her hand.

  Two other people come walking outside, who I assume are her brother and father. Her brother doesn’t look much like Ava or Val, but more like his father. Ava, on the other hand, is a spitting image of her mother. We all say our hellos and make introductions before heading into the house. Conner grabs the keys from the hook by the door.

  “Ava, I have to run. My band is playing at a local coffee shop today.”

  “Still trying to be the next John Mayer, huh?”

  “Hey, what can I say? That dude gets a lot of ass.” Val smacks the back of Conner’s head.

  “Conner Joseph! You better not be out there acting like that man! I raised you better than that.”

  He kisses his mother’s cheek and winks at Ava, “Gotta run.” Fleeing out the door, Ava laughs while waving her brother off.

  “I swear. I don’t know where I went wrong with that boy.” Placing her hand on her hip, she shakes her head.

  “Mom, there’s nothing wrong with him. He could be doing a lot worse things.”

  “I guess you’re right. Come, let’s sit.” Walking into the living room, we sit on the couches as Thomas comes out with a pitcher and glasses. “Would anyone like some sweet tea?”

  “That would be great.” I was always told if someone offers you something in his or her home, you take it. If you don’t like it you pretend to. Val pours four glasses handing me mine first. As I’m drinking the tea, the sweet taste runs down the back of my throat leaving me wanting more. Taking another sip, I place the glass down. “I must say, this is the best sweet tea I’ve ever had.”

  “Why thank you. I’m surprised you never had it. Ava loves this tea and has been bugging me to teach her how it’s made, so I did.” Looking to Ava, I raise an eyebrow at her for holding out on me.

  “What? You never mentioned you liked sweet tea.”

  “Well, I’m sure you didn’t come here for the tea, so what does bring you by, honey?” Ava’s mom asks sitting, crossing her legs as she takes a sip of her drink.

  “I need to know about my real father.” Val starts choking on her drink and Thomas pats her back a few times.

  “I’m okay, thank you.” Placing her hand on her chest. “Why do you all of a sudden need to know who he is? I thought you were happy not knowing.” She’s wringing her hands together, avoiding eye contact. I have a feeling this is just as uncomfortable for her as it is for Ava.

  “Val, sweetie. It doesn’t matter why she wants to know now. She’s asking and you need to tell her. She has a right to know.” Thomas’s words are soft as he places his hands over hers to stop the wringing.

  “You’re her father, Thomas. You raised her and I don’t want her replacing all the hard work you’ve done for us for someone she doesn’t know.” Val’s voice sounds defeated.

  “Mom.” She looks up to Ava. “No one could ever replace Thomas, you know that.” Thomas smiles at Ava. “I need to know because I ran into a problem with work. I need to know if what this said problem is true.”

  “Problem at work?” Val’s tone is uncertain. “You log and file reports for the FBI. What could that possibly have to do with your father?” Oh shit. I’m sure if Ava lied about what she does, it’s for good reason.

  Biting the bottom of her lip, she rubs the back of her neck. “Yeah…about that. Mom, don’t freak out.”

  “Why would I freak out?”

  “I may have fibbed just a teeny tiny part of what I do there.” Pinching her fingers together. “You see, right now I’m working an undercover assignment as an arms dealer.”

  “You’re what?! No, absolutely not.” Pacing around the floor, Val has one hand on her head and on her hip. “You promised, when you went to school that you would not take any dangerous position.”

  “Honey, did you really think she put in all that effort to file papers?” Ava smiles at Thomas while Val shoots daggers at him. Holding up his hands, “What? I’m just being honest. Ava has always been about the action. Do you really mean to tell me all this time that you didn’t think she was lying about her job for one minute?” Tilting his head, he looks to her.

  “No!” Throwing her hands up she walks back to the couch and slumps down into it, placing her head into her palms.

  Getting up, Ava moves to where her mother is sitting on the couch and kneels down next to her. “Mom, I need to know if Sal Onorato is my father.”
/>   Snapping her head up. “How did you know that?” Ava’s eyes shut as the truth comes out.

  “Shit. Listen mom, you can’t repeat this to anyone. No one can know, not even Conner. I was assigned as his personal arms dealer. He suspects there’s a leak in his organization and he demanded DNA tests. Our people are working on changing it, but I had to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. I need to know how this happened.”

  A flush creeps across her cheeks as her body freezes in place. “I can’t tell you that. I couldn’t bear to hear what you would think of me after I told you.”

  Placing her hand on her mother’s. “Mom, I assure you. Nothing you say can change how I feel about you or affect the thought of the person I know you are. Please?” She pleads with her mom.

  Looking to Thomas, he nods at her with a warm smile. “Okay. I was young and when you’re young you always find yourself doing something stupid, it’s inevitable. Anyway, I went to a bar with a couple of friends and had way too much to drink. I saw this handsome man and had the liquid courage to sit next to him and start talking him up. He looked so familiar, but I was too drunk to figure out how I knew him. Well, one thing led to another and his sweet talk charmed me into the bedroom. The next day, when I woke up and realized who this man was, I panicked and bailed it out of there. When I found out I was pregnant with you, I moved here, hoping never to run into him again. I feared if he remembered me and found out I was pregnant, he would try and take you from me and I wasn’t going to have my daughter raised in that lifestyle.” The room falls silent and I can’t even begin to imagine what’s running through Ava’s head right now.

  Getting up, Ava places her hand over her stomach as her face turns pale. “I think I’m going to be sick.” Placing her hand over her mouth, she takes off to the bathroom. Ava’s mom breaks down in tears as Thomas cradles her in his arms.

  “She hates me.” She mumbles into Thomas’s chest.

  “I’m sure she doesn’t hate you.” Feeling the need to protect Val, I try to make her feel better about Ava’s job. “I’ve seen Ava in action and I can tell you she’s one of the best I’ve had the pleasures of working with. If anyone can get this job done right it’s her.”

  “You work with her?” She says through her sniffles.

  “Again, no one can know this. I’ve been assigned as their personal drug supplier.”

  “Oh that’s just great! Guns and drugs, how are you able to handle this so well?” Looking to Thomas, he laughs. Wiping her eyes, she places her hands on her lap. “She does hate me. The truth literally made her sick.”

  Hearing the toilet flush, I’m concerned about Ava and want to check on her. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.” Getting up, I head down the hallway that Ava ran down earlier. The sound of water flowing from the sink behind a closed door tells me which one the bathroom is. Resting my ear against the door and not hearing anything, I bring my knuckles up and tap on it. “Ava? You okay in there?” The water shuts off and the door opens. Her arm reaches out, grabs my shirt, and pulls me into the bathroom. She closes the door and rests her back against it with a damp wash cloth in her hand. Her face is still lacking color and she’s taking deep breaths, making me more concerned for her by the minute. “Pop Tart, you’re starting to freak me out and your mom is out there thinking you hate her. Can you please talk to me?”

  “My mom thinks I hate her? Why?” She brings the wet washcloth to her face patting it all over.

  “Well, her exact words were, ‘the truth made her sick, she hates me.’” Grabbing the washcloth from her, I turn around and run it under cold water, wringing it out before giving it back to her. “What is going on with you? You don’t look to hot right now. Do you need me to take you to a doctor?”

  “No, I’ve already seen one. Remember earlier when I told you I had something to tell you?” I nod. “Well, I wasn’t feeling that great and couldn’t stop throwing up. I went to the doctor, thinking it was a stomach bug, hoping he could give me something. Turns out, it wasn’t a stomach bug.”

  “Well then what was it?”

  “I’m pregnant.” Her words fall deaf on my ears and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be the one throwing up now.

  “You’re pregnant. As in there’s a baby in there?” Placing my hand in her belly.

  “Your baby.” Placing both her hands over mine, we sit in silence as I stare at her stomach.

  A thousand things are running through my head right now. Will I be a good father, will I be enough for my kid? Is her mom going to kill me since she doesn’t even know we’re engaged?

  The biggest thing that scares me the most that pops into my head. “You can’t work anymore.” I blurt out without thinking.

  “Excuse me? I’m pregnant, not broken.” Doing a once over in the mirror, she turns for the door. “We need to get back out there. I don’t want my mom thinking I hate her.”

  After talking with her mom and breaking the news about our engagement, we left shortly after. Her parents were extremely excited for us, but Ava and I were far from good right now. We were just acting, waiting until we could get out of there.

  The whole car ride home was spent arguing. I make the mistake of demanding Ava to find a way out of her assignment, knowing better that she doesn’t like to be told what to do.

  Her face was filled with contempt. “I’ve worked too damn hard to get where I am now and it will all be over in a couple weeks. Once it was over and the takedown happens then I will take a step back, but until then you need to back the fuck off.”

  Of course that didn’t stop me, we were two of a kind, two stubborn asses, “God forbid something went wrong you could get shot and lose the baby or even worse, your life.”

  “Nothing has changed, Dante. God!” She turns to look out the window crossing her arms over her chest.

  “The fuck it hasn’t! You are my family now and it’s my job to protect you and our baby.”

  She just continued to look out the window not saying a word, every so often she would wipe a stray tear. Realizing we weren’t going to see eye to eye on this one, I mentally decided to agree to disagree and not ruin the joy of us being parents.

  The other day was exhausting. Not just finding out I was going to be a father, but fighting with Ava about her continuing to work out in the field was never-ending. At one point I wish I actually hadn’t opened my mouth about it at all and just celebrated the fact that I was going to be a father.

  After receiving the silent treatment from Ava for most of the evening, I tried to make it up to her by making her dinner. I’m not sure if she was overly emotional from the visit with her mom, combined with the pregnancy hormones, but when I brought it into the room, she got insulted. She said just because she’s pregnant it doesn’t mean she’s hungry. Feeling defeated, I sat the plate in front of her and left the room with my tail tucked.

  Deciding it was best to leave her be, I did the one thing I never wanted to do, I grabbed my things and headed back to my place. I’m so out of my element with this whole pregnancy thing, I’m almost positive I’m going to fuck it up one hundred times before I get it right. Later that night, I was awakened from my sleep by a warm body sliding into my bed with her arm sliding down my back. I instantly knew the smell of the skin touching my body and knew my little vixen was home where she belonged. After apologizing for being a crazy pregnant woman, she more than made it up to me.

  The next morning, I was enjoying having Ava’s naked body wrapped around me. I was watching her sleep peacefully when Sal had called and wanted to meet with me to put together a bigger order. He said that he was going to need to hang low for a while with everything going on and wanted to make sure he had enough inventory to last. I knew immediately that this was going to be our only shot at taking him down before he decides to go underground for a while. Sliding out of bed, leaving Ava alone, I got ready and took a deep breath before going to the meeting.

  Like always, we met at Michael’s restaurant and to my surprise, the only people t
here were Sal, Angelo, Michael and myself. Michael was in the kitchen getting prepared for the day’s business and the rest of us were in the dining room. Sal nearly tripled his order and had informed me that there will be a bunch of his guys there to move the shipments and he will be overseeing it all. It’s perfect. The more people there, the more that get arrested. As soon as I left I called Riggs so we can set everything up. He told me he would be in touch and get started on everything.

  It’s been a few days, today is the big day and I’m pumped with adrenaline to watch all this go down. Riggs insisted that I wear a vest, but I didn’t want to risk it being noticeable, so I didn’t. Ava threw a fit when she realized I didn’t have it on and then cried before I left, telling me I better come home. I swear those hormones are going to be the death of me.

  Waiting down by the old railroad tracks, I wait for everyone to show up. I got here early so I can make sure that all the eyes we have out here aren’t seen. I’m ready to get this over with so I can go back to living my normal life and start getting everything ready for the baby. I will also be relieved when Ava no longer has to risk her safety with these assholes anymore.

  It’s a nice day out and the sound of birds chirping is calming my suddenly frantic nerves. Everything needs to be perfect and this needs to go down with no errors. By the sound of the way things are set up, it should be easy. Looking at my watch, I see it’s a little past three thirty. Our meet time was three forty-five so they should be here any minute. A couple town cars drive onto the gravel and sit idle. I’m not sure why no one is getting out of the car, so I just stand and wait. A few minutes later, one of the doors to the town car opens, and I see Angelo stepping out.

  Something doesn’t feel right and I have an odd feeling in my gut telling me to call off everyone as Angelo approaches closer. I try to communicate through the com they gave me but it doesn’t seem to be working. By the time he reaches me, it’s too late. Riggs’ men are moving in and surrounding all the vehicles. Angelo and I put our hands up as instructed and wait while the officers search the cars. All the men sound off ‘clear’ and Riggs comes walking over to where Angelo and I stand.