AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
EMILIA
It’s not easy shaking off the sense of leaving my life behind as I turn a slow circle in the center of my living room. I want to be sure I take everything I need before we go. After all, I don’t know if or when I’ll ever return now that I’m moving in with my boyfriend.
That’s an understatement. If only life were so simple. My boyfriend happens to be part of a notorious mafia family who, until recently, I was determined to shut down and put behind bars permanently. I’m moving in with Luca because I love him but also to satisfy his father’s demand that he be able to watch over me. Until I resigned from my position in the NYPD today, I was the enemy.
In the eyes of at least one family member, I still am.
“You about ready to go?” My partner, or rather my ex-partner as of this morning, steps out of the bathroom and has the nerve to scoff when he sets eyes on my indecisive state. “Come on. It’s not like you’ll never come back here.”
I hate him for being able to see into my head so easily. I hate him for many things. For lying to me and taking money from the Santoro family while making it look like he was doing his job to end their grip on the city. For standing back and saying nothing in my defense when that same family decided whether or not to kill me after I fell in love with the younger son. I didn’t mean to do it. I would never have predicted it would be possible. If there’s one thing I’ve learned these past few weeks, it’s how impossible it is to predict just about anything in life.
He made me feel small and useless when we were working together, which I now understand was his way of keeping the family safe. Though it’s a family I’m now part of, I can’t forgive him for lying to me. I don’t know that I will ever be able to get past it.
I swallow back the bile rising in my throat at his casual attitude. “You should know they’re going to keep a close eye on me. You’ve been involved with the Santoros longer than I have.”
He lifts a shoulder in his usual thoughtless way, studying the trio of small boxes I packed. “This is going to look suspicious. If the neighbors see, they’ll want to know why you’re leaving. You’re supposed to be living here, remember?”
As if I could forget. I can’t let anybody know I’m living with Luca or have anything personal to do with him. “Everybody keeps to themselves here except for Mrs. Henderson, who lives next door, and I can always make up something if she sees us.”
She’s hardly the first thing on my mind when I’m barely an hour beyond my resignation from the force. There I was, a twenty-four-year-old detective, ready to take on the world. If not the world, at least the mob.
Now, I’m moving in with them. I can’t wrap my head around it.
He picks up the biggest box full of books and framed photos of my parents and extended family. Even if I don’t put them out around the little house I’m sharing with Luca on his family property, at least I’ll have them with me. I can always look through them if I’m feeling a little lonely.
It isn’t that I’m anything less than thrilled at the idea of starting a life with Luca Santoro. That doesn’t make me naïve or blind to reality. There will be times when he’s busy with family business, especially with this war looming over us. I’ll end up on my own, and I will want every opportunity to comfort myself and remember who I am.
“I guess we’d better get going.” It will be easier the sooner we’re finished. I’ve already spent more than enough time with Craig today, going in for a follow-up interview after we first outlined the story that Rocco Santoro put together with Craig’s help. A way of explaining why I went missing and why I’m now injured. My right arm is still weak, but it’s only been a week since I was shot.
With that in mind, I let Craig take the box to his car and wait for him to return to take the other two. “Cheer up,” he urges with a crooked grin as I turn around to take one more look at my apartment before going into the hall and locking the door. “You get to be with your true love now. Isn’t that all that matters?”
“Considering you’re the one who swears you only take bribes from Rocco to support your family a little better, you’re awfully sarcastic about love.” His little flinch gives me a surge of satisfaction as I follow him down the stairs.
“You went and fell in love with a killer. That’s an entirely different level.” He eyes me, smirking, as he stands back to hold the door open so I can step onto the sidewalk and into a bitterly cold morning. “Maybe keep that in mind the next time you want to pull a superior attitude, kid.”
This day can’t be over quickly enough.
He notices the way my gaze shifts around both before and after we’re in the car. “Relax,” he tells me with a snide chuckle as we pull away. “Unlike you, I know how to keep a low profile. There’s nobody following us.”
Frustration leaves me gritting my teeth. “Do you think they’ll want me to come back in for another interview?” I ask. Otherwise, I’d have to tell him exactly what I think of his sarcasm.
“When there’s a full-blown war about to explode between the city’s most powerful mafia families? Trust me when I tell you the department’s resources are better spent elsewhere. You were a kid who got kidnapped and shot before I could get you out of there. You were doing too good a job of tracking the Vitalis and their crimes.”
“Detective,” I mutter.
“Pardon?”
“You called me kid. Again. I was a detective before I resigned.” I blink hard, forcing back the tears threatening to well in my eyes.
I worked so hard.
I was so proud.
Now I have Luca, and the thought of him alone is enough to soothe me. It’s like a warm blanket draped around my shoulders, wrapping me in a sense of comfort. He loves me. If it hadn’t been for him, I would’ve been run over and killed. I would have been murdered either by the Vitalis or his own family, all because I came too close. Granted, that was the result of my eagerness and determination to make my mark. I don’t think I can be blamed for it, but I can admit now that I might have been foolish to think I could single-handedly take down a powerful family with connections all over the city and beyond.
What difference did I believe I could make?
