Hot Set

by Ivy Blake

  I jumped over the wall, my heart racing in my chest and I rushed towards her. I didn’t give a fuck about the house anymore, or who was watching us or the guards. All I could think about was getting closer to this girl to speak with her.

  “Hi,” I said, walking up to her. She hadn’t seen me coming and now she twisted in her swing and looked at me, with wide dark eyes. She didn’t react the way I thought she would. She didn’t scream or call for help, instead she just looked at me curiously.

  I crouched down in front of her, my eyes flitting over her. I couldn’t control the smiles that were erupting on my face. She was my daughter. I could feel it in my bones.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, in my accented English, hoping that she would understand me.

  “Sofia,” she replied. The sound of her voice was like music to my ears. I wanted to reach out and hug her tightly to myself. This was my daughter! Isabella’s daughter, too. There was no mistaking it.

  “Hello, Sofia…” I began to say and then I heard the click of a gun safety behind me.

  “Step away from her or I’ll fucking shoot!” It was Isabella’s voice and slowly, I raised my arms up in the air.

  “Mama!” Sofia squealed now.

  “Go into the house, baby. Now, run! Listen to Mama!” I could hear her saying. I watched Sofia wriggle off the swing and run away.

  “Isabella…it’s me,” I said, hoping that she had just not recognized me.

  “Turn around slowly. If you make a move, I’ll shoot. I swear!” Isabella hissed. I could hear the quiver in her voice.

  I turned, holding my breath. I had waited for three years to see her, and these were not the circumstances I was hoping for.

  I saw Isabella now. She was clutching the gun tightly in her hand and it was pointed straight at my chest. Her hands were shaking and she was only a few feet away from me. In her eyes, I could see her conviction. She would shoot me if she had to. She was a lioness protecting her cub.

  “Isabella…what are you doing?” I asked her, in a deep whisper.

  “Shut up!” she screeched and I looked up at the house. There wasn’t a stir inside. Sofia was there, standing behind the French doors, looking out at us. I could see the fear in her eyes.

  “You’re scaring Sofia, put the gun down,” I said, looking at Isabella again.

  “Don’t you dare say her name!” she screeched again, keeping the gun pointed at me.

  ***

  It had been three years, Isabella was twenty nine now and even though she looked a little different, she was still the same. She had cut her hair; it was much shorter now, just beneath her shoulders, and she looked tired. That spark in her green eyes, which I had fallen in love with, was much dimmer now.

  “Put down the gun, Isabella, I’m not going to hurt Sofia. Why would I? She’s my daughter,” I tried reasoning with her.

  Slowly, she lowered her gun, but it remained in her hand, cocked and ready to be shot. She stepped away from me, peering into my eyes.

  “Why are you here, Leo? What do you want?” she asked, and I could hear the quiver in her voice.

  “We have a daughter?” I said, looking over at Sofia.

  “Don’t look at her. Answer my question or I’ll call for my father!” she shouted and I looked back at her. I wanted her to know how happy I was to see her, how relieved I was that she was okay. How joyful I was that we had a child together. Finally, it felt like the past three years hadn’t entirely gone to waste. But I could see that Marco had turned her against me. I had two days with her while he had three years to turn her mind.

  “I’m here for you,” I replied and took a step towards her, but she moved away from me and lifted the gun up in her hand again.

  “Stand back. Stay away from me!” she shouted.

  “Isabella…I’m here now. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We can go, we can take Sofia and go,” I said, but she was already shaking her head.

  “How many times do you think I’m going to fall for this act? You think you can do it again? Use me against Papa?” she hissed, narrowing her deep green eyes at me.

  “He’s been lying to you, Isabella. Whatever he’s told you about me has been a lie. He knew the house was going to be attacked that morning. He’d already gathered the men and he called for me, because he knew I would have done anything to protect you and him!” I explained.

  Isabella’s lips were trembling, her eyes pooling with tears. She shook her head wildly.

  “You’re lying to me. Papa would not do that to us. He is a rough man, he has his beliefs, but he wouldn’t trap you and he wouldn’t trap me!” she shrieked. She was pointing the gun at me again and I kept my distance from her.

  Inside, Sofia was still standing at the glass, staring at us. This was not how she should have gotten to know her father.

  “Isabella…that man had been doing things behind my back I had no idea about. We should sit down and talk. Let me explain everything to you. I can tell you in detail what happened that day,” I growled.

  “I don’t want to talk. I don’t want you messing with my head again. You need to leave, now. I don’t want to have to shoot you. Not in front of Sofia,” her voice was shaky and weak now. I knew that I could have battled the gun out of her hands if I wanted to, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to scare her even more by overpowering her.

  “I tried to come to you that day, but your father wouldn’t let me. He used his goons to keep me back and sent me into battle. He thought I would die there in the house,” I explained. Isabella shook her head, tears gushing down her cheeks now.

  “You’re lying. You’re lying!” she kept repeating.

  “Why would I come back here for you, Isabella? I’ve been spending the last three years searching for you,” I tried.

  “I don’t know what you want, but I want you gone from my life. I don’t want Sofia to see you or know you. You betrayed us, you used me! You…used me because you knew…you knew I was falling for you!” she cried and the gun dropped from her hand.

  I stepped towards her, in the hopes that now maybe I would be able to pull her into my arms but Isabella gasped and looked up at me with fear in her eyes. I hated the fact that she was scared of me. Three years ago, she had told me I made her feel safe, that I was the only one she trusted.

  Now, I just needed to win back her trust again.

  “Okay, I’m going to go, but I’m not going away,” I said and slipped out a piece of paper from the pocket of my jeans. I dropped it on the grass; I didn’t want to get close to her or touch her in this state.

  “That has my phone number on it. I won’t try and get in touch with you again, but Isabella…think about everything I’m saying and you can reach me on that number. We can meet on your terms and discuss everything. If you’ll just let me explain…” I said.

  She said nothing, just stared at me with tears pouring down her cheeks. She watched me as I turned and walked back to the brick wall and jumped over it.

  I turned to look at her when I was on the street, but she was already running back into the house. She slid the door shut and locked it and through the glass I could see her lifting Sofia in her arms and then yanking the curtains closed.

  I didn’t know what I was going to do. There was nothing left to do. All I had was more time to kill and wait for her to see the truth.

  Chapter 12

  Isabella

  I had Sofia in my arms while I paced around our house. I didn’t want to let her go. I could sense that she knew something was up. She kept asking me who the man outside was, and I kept telling her it was nobody. It ached me to lie to her, to deny her father from her, but I didn’t know what to do.

  Seeing Leo again had made me feel weak. In the past three years, since that morning we left Naples, I didn’t think I would ever see him again. I had accepted the fact that Sofia was going to be my only connection to him.

  Now, after I saw him again, it felt like nothing had changed. I was still weak in the knees for him, I s
till felt that same rush of emotions for him. Three years had done nothing to make me want him any less.

  I kept staring at the piece of paper with the phone number on it. I had placed it down on the kitchen table and now my eyes were glued to it.

  When I saw him in the garden, talking to Sofia, I had panicked. Nothing was more important to me than my daughter, and I would have done anything to protect her—even from her own father. But now, when he was gone and I was alone in the house again, I wanted to hear his voice. I wished I had fallen into his arms instead of pointing a gun at him.

  But how could I trust him? Did I trust Papa?

  I had tried to trust Papa over the years that we had been living together in this house, but I would have been lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I had always felt like a prisoner here. There was nothing I wanted more than being a family again. I wanted to give Sofia the experience of a happy family, but Papa treated me like I was his prized possession. My entire life was dictated by him; where I went, who I went with, what Sofia ate for breakfast…everything!

  I had tried to convince myself that he was acting this way because he was protective of us, because he loved us. But now, the more I remembered the look in Leo’s eyes, when I recalled his words about how Papa had tricked me; I couldn’t help but think that my father was just a vicious man.

  “Baby, sit down here, and don’t go anywhere. Okay? Mama will be back in a minute,” I said to Sofia and I sat her down on the couch in the living room.

  I rushed back to the kitchen and picked up the landline phone. Papa had banned cellphones, so I didn’t have a personal number. I dialed the number on the piece of paper and heard the call go through. My hands were trembling and I was keeping a lookout for any sign of Papa’s car coming into the driveway.

  “Is that you, Isabella?” were Leo’s first words.

  I wanted to cry out with relief when I heard his voice. He had no idea how happy I was to hear him speak, how happy I was to see him again. I couldn’t trust him yet, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t have feelings for him.

  “What did you want to tell me about Papa?” I asked him, gulping down my excitement. Before anything else, I first needed to figure out if he was telling the truth. Before I made any rash decisions, I needed to know once and for all, who was the liar—Papa or Leo.

  “Isabella…we have so much to talk about. I don’t want to discuss everything over the phone right now. Where and when can we meet?” Leo asked.

  “I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to put Sofia’s life at risk before I can trust you again,” I said in a low whispering voice. I was holding the phone close to my mouth.

  I heard Leo sigh before he spoke again.

  “You’re not going to like this and you probably won’t believe me. Isabella, your father was involved in human trafficking in Naples. I didn’t know about it when I worked for him, I only uncovered it after he was gone,” Leo said.

  I gasped, and the phone fell out of my hand. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach, knocking my wind out. It took me a few moments to recover before I could pick up the phone again.

  “Isabella…are you there? Isabella?” Leo was shouting into the phone.

  “No! That is not possible. Papa is many things, but not that!” I shrieked, forgetting all about keeping my voice down for Sofia’s sake.

  “I know this isn’t easy to hear, but trust me, I have no reason to come find you in New York and then lie to you,” Leo continued.

  I could feel my neck burning up, I was feverish and felt faint as I clutched the phone to my ears. I was refusing to believe what he was saying. It couldn’t be true!

  “He maintained records. I found them. I have proof, Isabella. You should go check his office, go through his records here. I’m sure you’ll find something that will point you in the right direction. That will make you believe me. A man like him, who has made so much money from that business, is not going to stop now,” Leo said.

  “I won’t believe a word of what you say until I’ve seen this proof!” I snapped.

  “Then go look for it. Please, Isabella, I’m begging you to go look for it. I just want to take you away from all that,” Leo continued and I banged the phone down. I didn’t want to hear another word. I couldn’t control the rage and sadness that was coursing through my body.

  Why did he have to come here?

  “Mama? What’s wrong?” Sofia appeared at the kitchen door and I rushed to her. When I picked her up in my arms, I knew that I had to uncover the truth for my daughter’s sake.

  Chapter 13

  Leo

  The Italian convenience store where Gino and I were operating out of was in Brighton Beach and after speaking to Isabella on the phone, I went there to talk to him.

  Gino had contacts in New York, which was the only reason that this operation had been successful for now. The store was owned by one of his cousins, which meant that we had full rein over it.

  Gino was waiting for me in the storage room in the back when I got there. I saw that he had already set up a makeshift office for us with telephone lines and desks and chairs. We also had a handful of associates working for us, mostly as informants who Gino was paying. Neither of us really knew our way around New York yet.

  “What happened?” Gino asked when I walked into the room. He quickly sent the other three men out who he had been talking with.

  “I saw her, spoke to her, after Marco left the house,” I said, sitting down on a chair.

  “No incidents?” he asked and I looked at him, trying to think about where to even begin.

  “Nobody died, if that’s what you’re asking,” I told him and Gino grinned. After I was silent for some time, he raised an eyebrow and stared at me hard.

  “But something else happened?” he asked and I nodded.

  “Isabella wasn’t alone; there was a girl with her. A three-year-old girl named Sofia,” I said. Gino was silent, staring at me with a shocked expression on his face. He needed a couple of moments to digest this information. Just like I had.

  “Your kid?” he asked and I nodded again.

  “She named her Sofia?” he added and then he sighed. “That was her mother’s name,” he said.

  Gino and I had never spoken about Isabella’s mother before. I knew the story, and he knew I knew the story—which was that his father had kidnapped Marco’s wife and killed her. Soon after that, Marco executed him. I never raised the subject with Gino because I didn’t blame him for Isabella’s mother’s death. Those were his father’s actions, not his…just like Isabella’s father’s actions did not reflect on her.

  “She looks like Isabella and she looks like me too,” I changed the subject and ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck! Three years and I didn’t have a clue that I’m a father to a beautiful little girl!” I growled.

  Gino was staring at me and he spoke some time later.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” he asked.

  “Do what?”

  “Go ahead with the mission. I mean, go after Marco. You have a kid now, you have a responsibility to that child to stay alive. You need to stay focused,” Gino explained.

  I clenched my jaw and nodded.

  “I am not going to be a part of that child’s life unless I can take Marco out. Isabella and Sofia and I will never be a family as long as Marco is in the picture. Besides, I won’t be able to rest till he has paid for what he’s done to us and Naples and those people he was trafficking,” I replied in a deep guttural growl and Gino nodded his head.

  “Good, because I have some new information,” he said. He walked over to where I was sitting and stood over me.

  “There’s a guy called Adam Wright, he’s some kind of lawyer, working with Marco, no doubt getting paid a lot of dough to keep the business under cover,” Gino continued.

  “Marco has a lawyer working for him now?” I asked, looking confused.

  “He’s become more careful with this operation. He’s not in Naples
anymore,” Gino said, grinning sourly.

  “So, what about this Adam Wright guy? Why is he important?” I asked.

  “Because he knows everything. It might be easier to get to him, rather than Marco. He has guards following him around too, but Marco is living in a fortress; it’s going to be harder to get to him,” Gino explained.

  I nodded my head. It was making sense.

  “Good, that’s great news. Let’s go get this guy!” I exclaimed, jumping out of my chair.

  “Guards, remember? He’s not as well guarded as Marco, but they still outnumber us,” Gino stopped me.

  “So, what’s the plan then? How do we get to him?”

  “You’re going to hate hearing this…but, Isabella,” Gino said and looked at me apologetically.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him.

  “Our sources tell me that he has…the hots for her. We can use her as bait, if she’s willing. She has never shown any interest in him, according to my sources, but he’ll fall like a fly in a trap if she leads him on,” Gino’s eyes grew wide and he looked enthusiastic. He was already picturing Marco going down.

  I breathed in deeply. The thought of Isabella with another man, even if it was fake, made my blood boil. I didn’t want to imagine it. I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching her.

  I stormed to the door. I needed some fresh air.

  “Leo, think about it. This could be our way in,” Gino called after me, but I didn’t reply to him. I marched out of the room and then right out of the door. I felt like I was going to explode. I didn’t know who this Adam Wright bastard was, but I was ready to punch him to death.

  Besides, Isabella wasn’t on our side yet. She didn’t even want to see me, or let me see our daughter. This plan would just have to wait, and until then, I was hoping that Gino would be able to come up with a different one.

  Chapter 14

  Isabella

  Papa did not allow the use of the internet in the house and he didn’t allow me to have a cellphone or any means of contact with most of the outside world. In the past three years that we’d been here in America, he had instilled fear in me. He’d convinced me that we needed to stay detached from the outside world because our lives were still in danger, and any small slip-up could cause his enemies to find us.