Lacey Luzzi Box Set

by Gina LaManna

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I mean, it was a half-used bottle of shampoo, but I thought it was just fabulous. We only used tiny little shampoo bottles that my mother got from the maids at bigger hotels.”

  Anthony rolled onto his side and cupped my face, his touch soft on my cheek. “Your mother sounds like an amazing woman.”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I couldn’t manage a response. I nodded instead.

  He pulled me close to him, his arm tucked around my back, my body nestled into his, and for the first time in a while, I felt safe. The worries left me, and I was happy to just be. Here. Now.

  Anthony’s fingers slid into my hair, curling until he gripped my locks firmly, and pulled my face away from his shoulder. A wet spot stained his shirt.

  “You’ll be okay,” he said. “You’ll be okay.”

  My lip quivered, but I held back any more tears, and gave a more convincing nod. His eyes bore into mine, no longer bedroom eyes – this time, there was something different. A longing. An understanding. He leaned towards me, his lips reaching for mine, and I pressed myself closer to him.

  However, just before our lips touched – just before he kissed me – an explosion tore the roof apart. The boom was loud, and my eardrums felt as if they’d shattered. Shingles were ripped from the opposite corner of the roof, a huge chunk missing.

  My ears rang, and my body was tossed from Anthony’s firm grasp back onto the hard rooftop. He yelled something and tried to drag me away, but I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t move. Flames shot out of the windows from floors below us, judging by the heat stretching its fingers upwards, slithering around our ankles as if trying to pull us into a fiery hell.

  I looked to Anthony and saw his mouth moving, but still couldn’t make out the words.

  “Come,” he said, grabbing my hand. I could read that much from his lips.

  I struggled to my feet, following him, aware I hadn’t let go of the wine bottle. Anthony gestured for me to drop it, but I vaguely shook my head and continued running after him.

  Anthony helped me onto the fire escape and we made it down two floors to where fire burped from the windows, the temperature too hot for us to continue.

  “Where do we go?” I yelled at him. “Anthony?”

  He looked around, his expression determined. He shielded me with his body from the window, but that protection would only last for a few more minutes and then we’d both be burned alive.

  “Let me run up and check if there’s another route,” Anthony said.

  I could barely hear him, but I nodded anyway. However, the crunch of cement on bricks indicated that we wouldn’t be running up anywhere. The building was losing serious height, and would begin crumbling on us if we didn’t act soon.

  “The pool,” I said. “We have to jump.”

  Anthony looked grim. We were high up, but it wasn’t an impossible leap.

  “Yes,” he said. “I was afraid it would come to that.”

  “How do we do this?” I asked, suddenly unsure about my master plan.

  He looked into my eyes. “Together.”

  Extending a hand towards me, he gave the briefest of smiles. I reached out and clamped his hand tight in mine. As he was gearing up to jump, I reached over and poked his shoulder. “P.S. In case we don’t make it, I...I like you.”

  “We’ll make it,” Anthony said. “But even so – I like you, too.”

  I turned to face the pool, but Anthony reached over and grabbed me with a firm hand behind my head, tipping my face towards his and pressing his lips to mine. The kiss was short and fiery, in more than one way.

  “Jump!” he yelled.

  Together, hand in hand, we leapt from the fire escape and plummeted towards the pool I’d always wanted to own, hoping it would be worth the money.

  Chapter 12

  THE POOL WAS DEFINITELY a good investment. I spluttered and coughed as I broke through the surface of the water, but I was alive. Next to me, his hand still locked in mine, was Anthony.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “Except that I have a sinking feeling that the explosion came from the second floor.”

  Anthony shielded his eyes and looked at the apartment complex.

  “Sinking? Do you see what I did there?” I attempted a smile, though I didn’t feel very funny. I looked around me at the swampy pool, and my stomach roiled. I wished that this Family business would be less hazardous to my health for once.

  “Do you have any idea who would want to explode your apartment this time?”

  “This time?” I asked. “Good question. There’s a few on my list...Mister Kim is at the top of it.”

  I shivered, a little from fear, a little from relief, and a little from cold. Anthony pulled me close. His skin was warm, but my clothes were heavy and it was hard to stay afloat. The water froze me to my bones. I wrapped my arms around his neck without thinking and nuzzled against him. It was either that or burst into tears.

  His fingers ran up and down my spine in a soothing manner, and it was almost as if I could pretend that there wasn’t a burning building directly behind me. Except I could see the firelight dancing in the pupils of his dark eyes, which reminded me of the severity of our situation.

  “We should get out of here,” I said.

  But the last word wasn’t out of my mouth before Anthony leaned forward and kissed me again. It lasted so long, that when he finally pulled away, I took a long breath to replace all of the air in my lungs.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said. “I don’t feel like joining this party.”

  He nodded towards the front of my complex, pulling me from the pool just as the lights of fire trucks and EMTs pulled forward. We snuck around the back and hopped into his shiny black Lambo.

  “Your seats,” I said, as our sodden figures climbed into the car. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Sugar, it’s just a car.” He looked across the driver’s seat to where I was sitting beside him, reaching to squeeze my hand once before pulling away from the curb.

  I watched him concentrate on the road, and leaned back in my seat – thinking of just how easily this day could have turned into a complete disaster.

  And yet, here with Anthony, I could still find it in me to smile.

  A SHORT WHILE LATER, clad in a baggy pair of Nike sweats and an old black sweatshirt, I cuddled on the couch of my old apartment – showered, dry, and ready to ask questions. Anthony had driven me back to my former home and waited while I showered. It was lucky I still had a key to the place, since Clay wasn’t at home. Then again, Anthony never needed a key.

  He spent the majority of the time I was in the shower on the phone with his guys, who’d wormed their way into the police crime scene, and were busy gathering data.

  “Any news?” I asked, as Anthony clicked off the phone.

  “It’s looking like it came from the freezer,” he said.

  “There was an entire DQ cake left in there,” I said sadly.

  “Do you like barbequed cake?”

  “I like all kinds of cake.” I stuck my chin out defensively.

  “Did you put anything else in your freezer?”

  “Besides cake?” I paused, my eyes growing noticeably larger. “Oh, crap.”

  “What did you put in your freezer, Lace?”

  “It, uh, it was an elephant.”

  “An elephant?”

  “It was a gift! I didn’t buy it for myself.”

  Anthony spun in a slow circle. He might’ve been counting to three. Or ten. Or infinity.

  I put my hands on his shoulders and helped him spin right back around and face me. “It was from Miss Youn, at the party. Mister Kim’s guest. When she left, she gave me a gift and it was this little glass elephant.”

  “And it ended up in the freezer – why?”

  “Well, it was kind of ugly. And it was staring at me in a real mean way.”

  “This is a glass elephant you’re talk
ing about, correct?” he asked, his eyebrow inching towards his hairline.

  “Yeah.”

  Anthony put a finger to his chin. “Mm-hmm. A mean glass elephant from a stranger. It is very logical then, how it ended up in your freezer.”

  “Fine.” I maybe gave a little stomp of my foot, which was a very bad habit I was going to break in the near future. “I didn’t want to throw it away because I didn’t want to get bad juju. I figured if I put it in the freezer maybe it would accidentally shatter, or Meg might knock it over unknowingly. That way, if it wasn’t on purpose maybe the elephant spirits wouldn’t come after us.”

  “Doll, that elephant was coming after you whether you wanted it to or not. It exploded your apartment.”

  “Ugh, man. That lady was bad news, I knew it.” I shook my head.

  Lacey – 0, Weird Elephant – 1.

  Anthony nodded his head, his expression completely serious once more. “I never in my life thought I’d be caught saying this, but it was a good thing you got the extra cake and put the elephant in the freezer. It looks like the bomb exploded, but was partially subdued since a portion of it fired directly into the middle of the cake. It fizzled out instead of making the rest of the building go boom.”

  “Oh, my gosh...” I paused, considering the ramifications of Anthony’s words. “My whole building probably would’ve been flattened if the whole thing had gone off.” I pointed my finger at him. “I don’t ever wanna hear another word from now on when I stop for seconds at DQ. Tonight, cake saved our lives.”

  Anthony crossed his arms, but before he could speak the door burst open and Clay shot into the apartment.

  “What are you doing here?” Clay asked, pulling up fast. “I saw the Lambo out front, and I thought...are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m just fine,” I said. “Sorry to be back so soon. It’s just that my apartment is kind of smoldering.”

  Clay cast a suspicious glance at Anthony, who nodded in agreement.

  “Do you mind if I stay here for tonight?” I asked Clay. “I am so tired, and I just want to sleep. I’ll deal with all of this in the morning. There’s nothing more I can do right now.”

  I stood up and started moving towards the bedroom I’d evacuated just yesterday.

  “Lacey, wait!” Clay called.

  I spluttered and stopped cold as water rained down from hidden sprinklers on the ceiling, showering me just outside my bedroom door. “Clay!”

  My cousin looked sheepish as I reentered the living room. I was soaked...for the second time today.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t expect you home for another day or two.”

  I wiped water out of my eyes and shook it off myself as I stepped through the kitchen to grab a towel. I felt like I’d never stop mopping water out of my eyes.

  “Sorry,” Clay winced at my sopping figure. “Working on different techniques to slow people down, in case they’re trying to get to the good stuff.”

  I paused for a moment as I attempted to towel dry my body with a dishrag. However, I couldn’t muster up my typical annoyance factor. Actually, I couldn’t help but to break out in a huge grin. “I don’t even mind, Clay! I missed this. I’m so happy to be home.”

  Clay opened his eyes wide at Anthony, as if to say, I got lucky on this one!

  I waltzed over to my favorite cousin and threw my arms around him. He was so surprised, he didn’t even bother to comment on the wetness of the embrace. Or the fact that we did embrace. We weren’t exactly a lovey dovey family.

  I headed towards my room one more time. “You don’t mind if I move back, right? I know I’ve barely been out a day, but I’m just thrilled to—”

  I stopped as I flung the door to my room open, speechless.

  “Lace, just give me a minute to clear this out.” Clay walked up behind me.

  “A minute?” I asked. “I’ve hardly been gone at all! How did you manage this?”

  Before me lay a wasteland of computers, electronics, gadgets, and other trinkets. Some of them seemed to be working, based upon the whirring noises and squeaks, and the occasional yodel escaping from the pile of contraptions. There was not a single square inch of space not covered in electronic gear.

  “Where did this come from?” I turned to him.

  “I went a little nuts, okay?” he said. “I ordered a few things on Amazon. You know, we had a deal.”

  “We did,” I said. “But I’m not an idiot. Amazon doesn’t ship that fast. You pre-ordered, Clay? You were excited for me to move out!”

  He looked totally sheepish now. “I didn’t...I wasn’t looking forward to you leaving, I was just being practical.”

  “So, can I stay on the couch ‘til I find a new place?” I asked. My heart was a little sad since I’d been so quickly replaced by miles of plastic and metal.

  “Lace,” Clay’s expression was pained. “I want you to live here, I really do. I thought you wanted to leave. The room is yours. Deal is off.”

  I looked back at it. “It’s fine. It’ll take forever to move it. I don’t have to stay.”

  “The room is yours, if you’ll have it,” Clay repeated. “Get your buddies to move it out. They’ll be happy for the job.”

  “Do you mean it?” I think maybe my eyes sparkled a little bit as I turned to him. “Honestly?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s good to have you back.”

  “Oh Clay, thank you.” I shut the door and moved back to the living room. “Now can you please make that dang sprinkler stop dripping before we flood our apartment?”

  My phone rang as Clay fiddled with the toaster, which I’d assumed only cooked bread. Now, I had my doubts.

  Anthony surveyed my dripping figure as we stood together in the living room. “You’re staying here?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I shrugged. “I wasn’t ready to move out, I guess.”

  Anthony nodded. “I need to check on a few things. Don’t leave.”

  “Don’t leave?” I asked. “Fine. I’m just going to bed now.”

  “Don’t leave until you hear from me – and that includes tomorrow and the next day. Do you understand?”

  “But what if I have things to do?” I asked.

  “Call me,” he said.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “Not maybe,” Anthony said. “If you maybe me again, I just might have to lock you up until this mess is over.”

  “Don’t you dare, or I’ll...” I searched for a threat. “I’ll stick my Dilly Bar somewhere you won’t even need to digest it.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I’m working on my insults, okay? I can’t help that I’m a nice person,” I scowled. “I’ll stay here. Don’t worry.”

  “I always worry when you’re involved.” Anthony leaned forward and kissed the top of my head before whisking out of the room and leaving me to wonder if that was an insult or a compliment. Either way, I was comatose on the couch before he’d had time to reach the door of his shiny black Lambo.

  Chapter 13

  WHEN I WOKE UP A FEW hours later, I found myself wedged uncomfortably between the couch cushions, listening to the soft murmur of voices coming from the kitchen. Daylight streamed through the windows, and I realized it might be more than a few hours later.

  Standing, I straightened my purple soccer shorts, from where they’d ridden up to my belly button, and pulled down my gigantic yellow sweatshirt. I’d forgotten to remove them from the dirty laundry basket before moving to my new apartment – which turned out to be quite a blessing in disguise. A quick whirl in the washing machine and I could shed my wet clothes and dive into dry, comfortable ones.

  Feeling comfy, cozy, and optimistic about the day, I headed into the kitchen only to stop in my tracks as I turned the corner and saw Anthony and Clay speaking in low tones – Clay with a computer in front of him. They glanced up and stopped talking the moment I appeared.

  Anthony smirked in my direction, and I looked in the toaster to see what he was laughing at. E
eek! My hair. It wasn’t even a rat’s nest. It was more like a herd of rats had thrown a frat party and forgot to clean up – strands were everywhere. I pushed my locks into a pony, fastening it with the elastic hair tie I kept around my wrist.

  “Good morning,” they said in unison.

  “Good morning,” I said. “What brings the party to our kitchen?”

  Anthony’s expression sobered quickly. “Kim Cho. They found his remains last night.”

  “Oh, crap.” I sat down heavily at the table, forgetting about my morning ritual of sugar bomb coffees.

  “Yep. I need you to go to Carlos’s Estate. Now,” Anthony said. “For protection.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not hiding.”

  “Miss Youn is a dangerous woman. Until we know more about her, I’d prefer to know you’re safe at home base. Otherwise, you’re an easy target.”

  “Hmm. I don’t think so,” I said, smoothing my hair back and trying to look dignified.

  Anthony blew out whatever air he’d been holding inside.

  My hands were a bit shaky. Dead? The case had never been a joke to me, but now that bodies were piling up, identifying this hierarchy was getting to be a matter of life and death. I looked at Anthony.

  “Who was the bomb intended for?” A sudden thought popped into my head. “Maybe it was meant for Mister Kim all along. Which means I’m safe.”

  “It was in your apartment,” Anthony said. “Though it could have been intended for both of you. Either way, it won’t take long for her to find out you survived. And if you were one of the intended targets, I doubt it will take her long to come after you again.”

  I let myself debate the option of heading straight to Carlos’s home – turning the car around and hiding in the fortress. No, Lacey, I told myself. That’s not what Anthony or Carlos or any of the men in the Family would do. And that’s what they expected me to do. I had to be smart; I had to be careful, but I didn’t have to give up.

  Plus, I didn’t want to endanger the Estate. That’d be the most logical place for me to hunker down, and it would be a huge bummer if the place got blown up because of me. Sure, it was the most well-protected property in the country, rival to the Pentagon, but flukes happened. And the rate of fluke incidences and bad things going wrong around me were historically much higher than the statistical average.