A Turn Of Events
Christopher
“I don’t know.” I said, stress filled my tone. “I wish I knew. Did she contact you, Marie?”
She shook her head. “No. She told me she was here; but when I didn’t hear from her, I became concerned.
I sighed. “We need to find her. We should go back and check the boat house rentals. Maybe she went back home.”
Marie nodded, placing a hand at the back of my shoulder. “We’ll find her, but you need to stay calm.”
I shook my head. “I wish it were that easy, Marie.”
“Did something happen between you two?”
I sighed. “It’s a long story, we shouldn’t talk about it here.”
She nodded, eyeing me carefully before she guided me down the docks. We left the Golden Gate. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her how bad this was, though I had a feeling she felt the immense tension in the air.
Walking into the Castillo Yacht Club, we were on our way to check the rentals when Luci stepped out in front of us, stopping us in our path. She wore a black and white plaid dress suit, with a red scarf wrapped around her neck. Her skin appeared more pale than normal with dark makeup around her eyes, and the red lipstick covering her lips.
“I need to talk to both of you, now.” She was direct and stern as she turned us around. “Don’t ask questions, just walk.”
Eyeing Marie out of the corner of my eye, she gave me a wide eyed glance. I knew that this was a turn of events that occurred in the last forty-eight hours; and Luciana confirmed this when she walked ahead of us, leading the way through the Black Diamond arches. Landing at the back of the docks, there were six large yachts anchored in a line up. The first time I was back here, I was blindfolded and couldn’t take in the detail. While we waited for Luciana to punch a code in, I noticed the dock connected to the back of turquoise buildings and breathed a silent shaky breath in through my nose. None of this felt right; but when the door opened, Marie wrapped her arm around mine and dragged me in with her and kept me close as we followed Luciana through one code secured door after the next. This place had some serious lockdown devices.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Something doesn’t feel right.” She matched my tone of voice.
“That’s because it’s not…”
Luciana turned around stopping us in our tracks. “Enough with the whispers.” She reached what looked like a control room, rows of leather office chairs in stadium seating with tables sitting in front sat in front of us with one large screen and many screens surrounding the main, covering the length of the forty foot wall. “Christopher, care to tell me where Lorelai is?”
I sighed. “I-I’m not certain. We broke up about four days ago.” I said, looking down.
“What happened?” She asked, her tone still stern.
Fear struck me that if I didn’t tell her, she would hurt me or throw me to the wolves.
I sighed. “Everything we say stays in this room, right?”
“Sure.” She smirked. “Spill it, Montgomery.”
“Lorelai was pregnant, she had a miscarriage; and I firmly believe after Armani’s death, and the incident with your father, that losing the baby was the last string that broke the camel’s back.”
Luci inhaled a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. After a moment, she looked at me and then Marie. “Okay. I have some news, and it’s not good.”
I clenched my teeth. “Okay. What is it about?”
“My brother’s murder.” She walked across the bottom floor. “I suggest you have a seat.”
Marie dragged me with her up the steps to the third row of chairs and we both sat in the dead center waiting for Luciana to continue.
“It all started when my father went out of town and put Santino in charge. In my opinion, that was mistake number one. I tried to tell my mother that it was a mistake; but as usual, what my father says goes.” She paused. “Anyway, I went along with Armani and Santino to the Golden Gate Yacht Club because we had a few fees to collect; and while we were there, we ran into trouble. Emanuele Moretti, the son and immediate second string to the Moretti Syndicate and his band of brothers approached us, trying to tell us to remove ourselves from their territory. Armani made sure to let them know they weren’t crossing into our territories, that it was their family that moved into our territory and Santino backed him up. Well, Emanuele didn’t like what they had to say, shoved past Santino and let us know they weren’t going anywhere. Armani and Santino got fired up, and Santino instigated and insisted that Armani step up and put them in their place. He guided him through a blackout, meaning Armani single handedly hacked and wiped out their entire system. During the blackout, Santino sent Armani in, freed their hostages, dislodged the security bugs and the day before my father returned, Armani came up missing.”
Marie grasped my hand in hers and when I looked over to her, tears streamed down her cheeks. I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb, covering my lips with my pointer finger and the edge of my thumb, staring off. The realization that all of this happened in the vicinity that Lorelai and I were stashing away in hit hard. I felt Marie’s eyes on me, she felt the tension hit just as hard. Here I was trying to protect her, and her brother’s imminent death could have occurred mere feet from where we stayed, another secret I would have no choice but to keep from the love of my life. The bottom line was that it was for her protection. I would continue protecting her at all costs.
Silence filled the room for a few minutes before a door opened and a soft tap of shoes crossed the floor. The elbow planted into my leg slipped and I nearly hit my head on the table as Armani Castillo Sr. came into view. “Is this true, Luciana?”
Fuck. He heard the entire story.
Luciana crossed her arms, the hard facial expressions falling. “Yes, Father.”
He looked up to see Marie and I sitting in the chairs. “What the hell are they doing in here, Luciana? You know they aren’t supposed to be in here.”
Marie stood up and walked down to face Luciana and Armani. “Lorelai is missing.”
“She’s what?” Armani spat.
“She’s missing, Uncle. Cakes and Pies is nowhere in the vicinity.”
Silence resumed as each of us stared off in a different direction. I looked up so I could see them in my peripheral vision. The entire atmosphere in the vault became very cold and dark, and I questioned the impossible. Could the man that saw me as his very enemy overcome his stubborn mantra to rescue the daughter that chose me after he told her no? Could he get past the fact that I had protected her? Or would he point the blame on me?