chapter Twenty-Two
Paying Attention
Lorenzo
When I woke this morning, Victoria wasn’t beside me. I was still groggy and started to panic. When I fully woke, I heard the shower running in the bathroom and relaxed.
I got out of bed to get her a shirt to put on, while I washed her clothes she came in. I heard the shower cut off, while I was in the closet. I wondered if my mother put enough towels in the bathroom yesterday.
I came out of the closet to find Victoria in a towel sitting on the bed, staring at her cell phone. I walked over and handed her one of my dress shirts. She looked up and smiled, taking the shirt.
I could see the tears welling in her eyes, but she turned so I wouldn’t see them fall. I reached for her chin, pulling her face back towards me. I kissed away the tears that had escaped. I decided maybe she needed a moment to herself, so I let her face go and headed for the bathroom.
I took a long shower to clear my head. I needed to get my properties straight. First, I wanted to get her to eat something. She’d left the fruit untouched.
Next, I wanted to know what was really going on with her and her family. Then, there was the matter of her wanting to run away. I couldn’t let that happen.
If she didn’t want to go home or even stay here with me. I know that there’s another unit available here in my building. I would secure it for her. She wouldn’t have to worry about anything, I would take care of her.
I would even get her another car if she needed, so she didn’t have to overuse the Maserati. I could tell she loved her car, I watched the way she treated it. Sometimes she would drive one of Maria’s cars just to give it a break.
The last thing on my agenda was finding out where we were taking our relationship. Though it was heavy on my mind, it would have to wait. The other things were more important. I wasn’t going to be selfish. I would do this right, this time.
Once I had my list in order, I finished up my shower and toweled off. I grabbed the robe from off the door, putting it on. When I entered the room, Victoria was talking softly on the phone. I didn’t want to interrupt, so I just made my way to the closet and closed myself in, while I got dressed.
This gave me a few more minutes to think of what to say to get this started. I wanted to avoid making her upset. A light tap came at the closet door, as I pulled my shirt on and began closing the buttons. I was fully clothed at this point.
“Come in,” I called.
Victoria opened the door and walked into the large walk in closet. Victoria stood close to the door, watching me, as I finished buttoning my shirt. She looked tired, but still beautiful.
The shirt I’d given her was a little tight across the chest, I could tell she wasn’t able to button all the buttons. I laughed in my head, as slim as she is, my shirt was still too small to wrap around her shapely curves.
I walked to stand by her, placing my hands on her waist. She stared up at me, her face said she was thinking about too many things at one time. I could tell she needed to let something out. I was happy to be all ears for her, whatever she needed.
Victoria reached up on her toes and pressed her lips to mine. Her lips caressed mine with thought and passion. This was unlike any of our others. It was more mature, more caring.
She placed her hands in mine and locked our fingers together. I felt her whole body relax, as if our kiss made everything better. I took our locked hands and placed them at the small of her back to lift her up closer to me.
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but it felt amazing. I could feel that connection we’ve always had open up and bloom into something stronger. This was lust, it was a kiss of love, understanding, and promise.
I didn’t want to let her go. We only broke apart, when her phone rang. I released her, as she ran from the closet to answer it. When she saw the number her face twisted, causing her to throw the phone back down on the bed, plopping down next to it.
I walked over, going to sit next to her, but my phone rang. I moved to the other side of the bed and picked it up. Venny’s name light up the screen. That must have been who was on Victoria’s phone. I answered in case it was an emergency.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Kid, is my daughter still with you?” Venny asked with a combination of concern, frustration, and sleep deprivation in his voice.
“Yes, Sir, I was just about to make her breakfast.”
“She won’t answer my calls. Is she okay?” A father’s concern was written all over his question.
“I’m not sure yet, but better than last night.” I tried to answer without upsetting Victoria, who was still sitting in the room with me.
“I wanted to thank you for the text. I was worried about her. She lost Sal driving the way she does. I guess spending all that time on the race track doesn’t help,” he tried to laugh.
“Guess not. It’s no problem.”
“You bring her home safe when she’s ready kid. I’m trusting you with her life.” I didn’t like the change in his voice as he spoke. I could tell something more was going on.
“Her life, is my life, Venny. I don’t have one, without the other.”
“I’m counting on that, Kid. She doesn’t understand I’m trying to protect her,” he paused and sighed. “This isn’t what she thinks. This has more to do with the families than I’m telling her.”
I stiffened and took a pause. I didn’t want to know anymore, not one thing Victoria didn’t or couldn’t know. Our families were used to keeping the wives out of it, but I couldn’t do that with Victoria.
She was different from the other wives. At least, she would be when she became one. I was sure of that, even Venny knew this. That’s why he told her so much about the truth of the arrangement.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t want to know any more than she does at this point, if you don’t mind.”
“Hmm, yes, I understand yous two have your own way. Well, thank you anyway. I’ll check in again.”
I hung up the phone and tried not to think about what he was going to say. I knew my father had tightened security at the house. He talked to me about having someone here with me for a while, but I refused.
As these thoughts started to surface, I thought about the glock Uncle Mike placed under my bed and the other in my closet. Something was happening that I had tried not to think about, but Victoria had brought it here with her. I refocused myself on my agenda. I needed to get her to eat.
Before I could turn to go to the other side of the bed, Victoria was at my side, sitting on her knees on the bed. I hadn’t noticed her come over here, while I was on the phone. She sat, eyeing me curiously. I knew she heard my end of the conversation, so I was sure she had questions, but they would have to wait.
“Victoria, you need to eat something. Let’s go to the kitchen, I’ll fix you something,” I told her.
I was starving myself. Victoria looked as if she was going to protest, but she thought better of it. We went to the kitchen and I raided the refrigerator for the breakfast food my mother had stocked. I found some eggs, sausage, and a bag of bagels. I grabbed some cheese to make cheese eggs and closed the door.
I had everything in frying pans in no time. My mother had sent me to cooking classes a few times. She’d say that no son of hers would starve behind a lazy or angry wife.
Victoria sat on one of the stools at the bar countertop, watching me as I worked. She had her face in her hands with her elbows on the counter, looking the way Lucie does when you teach her something new. Victoria even had an amused smile on her lips. I chuckled at the face she made, when I put the eggs on the plates.
“Wow, I’m impressed. You made it seem like you didn’t know how to cook,” she said.
“I said, I do well enough, not that I couldn’t,” I corrected.
She laughed, bringing a smile to my lips. Victoria seemed much better this morning. I placed the rest of the food the plates. Walking over to the dinette table I placed the plates down.
Victoria came to sit down next to the plate closet to her. I watched as she said grace over it and dug in. Her face lit up as she chewed.
“Wow, Lorenzo, this is really good,” she chimed.
“Thanks. I’ll make you more if that doesn’t fill you up.”
“I think this will do. Can I ask you something?” I knew the questions were coming soon. I could see it in her face.
“Sure, shoot,” I told her.
“What was my father telling you that you didn’t want to know?”
I rolled my eyes, I should’ve known she would start there. “Okay, I’ll tell you, but first I want to know what has been going on with your family. That’ll help me understand what he was going to say, to tell you what you want to know,” I explained.
I watched her process that and nod. “My mother is in the hospital. That much I know, but I’m not allowed to go. Maria tells me as much as she can, but my father refuses to tell me anything. Since she has been in the hospital, Toni has been staying with Uncle Frankie. But two days ago he came to stay with us.
“Uncle Sal, Uncle Terry, Uncle Frankie, Uncle Louie, and some more of the guys that work for my father have been at the house around the clock for a few weeks.
“I’m not supposed to go anywhere but to your house and I noticed that someone follows me whenever I do. Uncle Sal was tailing me last night, but I lost him,” she began to explain.
I snorted. Her father was right about her driving. She spent way too much time on the track and Chris wasn’t helping. He would race with her on days she would talk to him. Some days, she would walk right pass him and ignore he even spoke. He was used to it and took what he could get.
“I had no idea about my mother at first. They were keeping it from me, but when Toni showed up, they had to tell me. They knew he would. I didn’t know what to do last night, I was scared.
“Did you know there is a shooting range in my house? On the side, we never go to. My father and Uncle Frankie had a big fight because my father didn’t want me down there, but Uncle Frankie said I needed to learn to protect myself.
“He thinks you leaving wasn’t the best idea. He said it looks bad. That’s one of the reasons I want to leave. I feel like my family is being hurt somehow because of me.” Her eyes became sad and she started to push food around her plate no longer eating.
This was deeper than I thought. I was so busy soaking, I hadn’t thought about what was going on around me. Victoria and I were scheduled to marry sooner than most arrangements. I never thought about it when they moved our introduction and engagement up a year.
All of this brought my thoughts back to the guns stashed around my apartment. There were two more pieces in the front of the apartment and one in the kitchen. I never paid this any mind. It was normal in my house. I had my first shooting lesson at nine, but now this all had meaning.
I could feel my face burning. My food was suddenly making me sick. ‘Uncle Frankie said I needed to learn to protect myself. He thinks you leaving wasn’t the best idea. He said it looks bad.’
What the hell was really going on? To think of it, my father seemed to want to get me away. I even heard him talking about sending Lucie to a school aboard for awhile. All the pieces were starting to fit. Our lives were in danger. Victoria had taken a big risk just coming here.
I stood up from the table and headed for the bedroom. Victoria moved to follow me, but I put a hand up and cautioned her to stay. I went in my room and closed the door.
I retrieved my cell phone and called my father. When he didn’t answer, I did the next best thing. I called Venny. The phone rang once and he answered.
“Hey, kid, is everything okay?” he answered anxiously.
“No! I know everything she knows, now I need to know what she doesn’t. Why am I about to kill for her, and who am I about to kill?” I hissed into the phone.
I heard silence on the other end, followed by the sound of being put on speaker. “Son, this is your father, so you have made the decision then? You accept.”
“If it means her life, yes. I’ll do what I must. I will do what the family asks. I accept what this means.” I have no choice, Victoria is in danger. I don’t care about the rest, she’s most important to me.
“Good, meet us at the winery and she should come with you. We don’t know if someone followed her last night.” My father spoke in a rushed manner. I tried to listen and think. “Make sure you’re protected. Uncle Mike left a gift for you. Use it on your car, it’s in the front closet. You’ll understand when you see it.”
“Okay, we’re on our way.”
I hung up the phone, heading out to the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of water and stood over the sink, staring into nothing. I felt Victoria walk up behind me and wrap her arms around me.
“Lorenzo, I want to know what’s going on. What did I say? What does it mean?” Worry took over her voice. “Please, I’m scared. Should I have come here? Did I put you in danger?”
I turned around to face her. I could see the fear written across her face. I drew her tightly into my arms and kissed her forehead.
“No, you did the right thing. You haven’t put me in anymore danger than I was putting myself in. I just wasn’t paying attention. We need to go meet with our fathers, you’ll understand everything then.”
“Lorenzo, is this about us, about what they want us to do?” Tears filled her eyes, just igniting the rage that was brewing.
I tensed at her question. That was exactly what this was about. There’s more to this marriage. Things were different this time.
It was as if they were waiting for me to make the decision I’d just made. Like the family needed me to agree. This had never been the case from what I was told. It was as if Victoria and I had a choice, but the choice was going to hurt someone either way. I smoothed her hair and whispered into it.
“Yes. We need to move. I was going to wash your things, but you should just put them on. We don’t have time, we need to go,” I rushed as I released her.
I went to the front closet to find what my father meant by Uncle Mike’s gift. As I found what I was looking for, urgency washed over me. It was clear the gift he left me was a boom detector. Things were very serious. I grabbed two pistols from the stash, Uncle Mike had left in the same closet.
Victoria appeared as I removed them from the closet. I tried to rush and put them away before she got scared, but she was more than comfortable seeing the guns. I could tell by the way she stood there, this was not her first time seeing one.
She watched as I tucked one in the back of my pants, under my shirt and the other in the front of my waist.
“Did they tell you that that’s necessary?” she asked vacantly.
“Yes, to make sure you’re safe,” I replied. “Do they make you nervous?”
“No, Uncle Frankie won the fight.” She shrugged. “He takes me down to the range twice a day. I have one like that one.” She pointed to the glock at my back.
“What do you mean, you have one?” I asked becoming agitated.
“I mean, Uncle Frankie gave me one.”
“Do you have everything you need, we need to leave?” I asked. I didn’t want to hear another fucking word about her with a gun.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
We made our way to the garage in the basement of my building. I kept her close to my side. I used the device to check the car twice, and then I checked it again myself.
Once I was pleased, we jumped in. We needed to get going. My cell buzzed with text messages from everyone.
Chris wanted to know if it was cool for him to come over. My mom wanted to know if I was finished unpacking and if I’d heard from Victoria. Venny and my father were checking to see if we were safely on the road.
I had Victoria answer them all, so I could focus on driving. I needed to make sure we weren’t being followed. Once we were out of the city, I felt a little more relaxed. I held Victoria’s hand to make her feel safe.
I would figure this shit out and make her safe. That I promised. I would handle things from here.