Kinsey – present day

––––––––

“DO YOU TWO KNOW EACH other?” The Italian man named Michael demands to know.

“Yes,” Cesare retorts as his caramel eyes pierce through me.

All these men are in designer suits similar to Cesare’s. Add that to the shooting and the method of questioning, and I know exactly where I am: with the New York Syndicate. 

Cesare and Michael radiate authority, and every woman around me is shivering in terror. My surroundings seem unreal as the stench of blood and gunpowder infuses the air.

“How?” Michael barks.

“She’s my Kinsey,” Cesare explains.

So, Cesare has talked about me to Michael?

“And, Joey, how do you know her?” Michael settles his scowl on him.

“We met at a cafe a couple of days ago.”

Cesare rakes his dark, wavy hair back with an obviously frustrated swipe of his hand.

I can’t seem to tear my gaze from him, and my heart hurts to see him after so long. In his tailor-made suit that doesn’t hide his muscular physique, he’s no longer the boy I loved. And he’s grown more handsome with age. Though, with his beard and strands of longer hair that end just below his ear, he seems harsher as well. Yet he’s still as enticing as ever. I’d resigned myself to the idea of never seeing him again and am completely blindsided.

“I need to talk to Kinsey,” Cesare announces and hauls me by my upper arm to the hallway and into the first bedroom.

Slightly intoxicated, I’m finally catching up to the fact that I’m in serious trouble. 

“So, you’re fucking my captain?” Cesare hisses. 

The hostility vibrating off him is excruciatingly palpable. Nonetheless, apart from fear, I feel a rising strength. After five years, he can’t even manage a hello?

“That’s none of your business.”

He takes a menacing step closer. “It became my business when you came to this party.”

I try to get my bearings, but having him this close is wreaking havoc on my brain. His familiar ocean cologne brings back memories better left in some distant, dusty corner of my mind.

“Jesus Christ, Kins! What are you doing here?” he stresses.

“I-I...shit! I’m just friends with Joey, and he invited me to this...”—I wave my hand around—“...this massacre.”

“How did you meet Joey?”

“In a cafe. Cesare...” 

When I say his name out loud, it’s as if we finally realize that we’re really, truly standing in front of each other. Cesare edges closer, his breath fans my cheek, and my hand rests on his chest on its own volition. In reaction, he covers my palm with his, and electricity pulses from the heat of his skin.

“Kins,” he whispers in an anguished tone and braces my neck, pulling me to him.

I inhale sharply as he nuzzles me – just like he used to do. And it causes the reality of how I ache from his absence in my life to rise to the surface. My entire body is drawn to him as if time hasn’t altered our feelings.

I remember the words he said to me so many years ago: I’ll take care of you now.

But then he moves back, shaking his head and releasing my hand. Rubbing his beard incessantly, he holds my gaze. “What happened to you? You look different, not like you.”

“I am different. Five years have passed; I’ve changed.”

“I guess...”

“What’s going to happen now?” I ask.

Cesare merely studies me while he’s seemingly lost in thought. Abruptly, he orders me, “Don’t talk to anyone! Only answer questions from Michael.”

“What? Why? Are you keeping me here?” Frantically, I close the distance between us, but he retreats as if he can’t stand to be close to me.

Before he exits the room, he tells me bitterly, “Kinsey, just do as I say or...”

Cesare lets the threat linger, and I swallow. He’s fuming, although his eerily calm façade hides it, but I can see his nostrils flaring. My best choice is to comply, so I nod, unsure of his intention. There’s so much I want to say, but I can’t because the circumstances of our reunion are clouded by murder and death.

Without another word, he opens the door and beckons for me to follow him.

Back in the spacious living room, I notice fewer people. Men are already clearing out dead bodies.

Cesare barks, “Where’s Michael?!”

“He’s putting Rachel in his room,” Joey replies, sneering at me when Cesare looks away.

I simply ignore him and stand there uneasily. This is so surreal.

Michael returns and passes me, going to Cesare. They whisper back and forth.

Then Michael points to five girls and me. “You’re staying here until I’ve done a background check. If I find out any one of you is involved with the raid and my fiancée’s murder, you won’t leave this place alive!”

“You can’t just keep us here!” I protest without thinking.

Cesare throws me an icy glare, silently ordering me to zip it.

Michael insolently cocks his head and states, “Do as I say, or I’ll show you things worse than death.”

His words effectively shut me up as a shiver runs down my spine, and a man with a heavy Italian accent grabs my bicep. “Walk.”

I pull my arm back, but Cesare’s on the Italian within seconds, shoving him away from me. 

“No one touches this girl!” And he sends a damning glare around the room, finally resting it on Michael, who makes an almost imperceptible hand movement. It’s as if they’re wordlessly communicating.

“Cesare,” Joey says. “She’s my date. What are you doing?”

“Are you questioning my authority?” Cesare snarls.

A gasp comes from the other men.

“No! But...who’s she to you?”

Michael and Cesare look at each other again, and Cesare visibly changes. 

“Who’s she to me?” He gives me a sidelong glance. “I took her virginity.”

“You ass!” I retort, unable to hold it back.

And Cesare smirks, dispelling the tension among his men. Hurriedly, Cesare drags me with him, back to the room, and practically throws me onto the bed. 

“You’re staying here tonight.”

Before I get the chance to react, he slams the door closed and locks it from the outside while I bang my palms on the surface. “Cesare?!”

But he’s already gone, and I’m trapped in here. Then it dawns on me that he isn’t the Cesare that I used to know, yet he is. He was always protective of me, beyond reason, just as he’s been today, but the years have hardened him. I guess Cesare must’ve become a very high ranking member of the Syndicate.

Sitting down on the edge of the mattress, I wait while our past invades my thoughts.