AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER1
Nicolette
The timid, light knock pulls me from a restless sleep. I’m usually a heavy sleeper. I’ve slept through a gun going off before. But if I’m not in a deep sleep, the slightest noise wakes me up. No one in this house is timid except Harriet, our long-suffering housekeeper.
“Come in, Harriet,” I mutter as I roll over and bury my face in my pillow. I’m so freaking tired. Anxiety over tonight kept me from sleeping until what feels like only a few hours ago.
A gentle hand runs up and down my back. It’s how she used to coax me awake when I was younger. “Are you all right? It’s almost noon. You said last night you had the appointment with Lydia in an hour. I brought your breakfast up, but your father is home. Manuel Rodriguez is due to arrive soon. Your father thinks you’re at school already.”
Shit. “Harriet! Why didn’t you wake me up?”
Harriet huffs. Okay, I deserve that. Poor Harriet has been our housekeeper since I was eight years old. I’m not the best in the first hour after I wake up, whether I woke up on my own or not. But if someone wakes me up, I might be a bear—the reason for the gentle stroking to get me moving.
“If he knows I’m home when the big scary man comes…” I shiver. “Why is it a big deal if I’m here whenhecomes?” I’m curious about the deadly enforcer of the Rodriguez cartel. Fat Tony, an older, scary man himself, made the sign of the cross any time the man’s name was spoken. It’s also a little weird every time they said his full name like it was his first name.
My father is a capo in the Outfit. It’s the Italian mafia but separate in the way Chicago is run within Chicago. Whereas other cities might have their own heads within the city, but they all answered to the families out of New York. His father, a man dead long before I was born, was the first Angelo in the Outfit. He left my father with money and power.
It didn’t mean my father didn’t earn his place with bullets and blood, too much of it done in front of me without regard for the fact I was a child. Over the years, he’s left the dirtier deeds to his soldiers, and some he hired out. He had never cared whether I was here or not when they came to the house. What was so different about Manuel Rodriguez?
From the inside of my walk-in closet, she calls out. “It’s not for us to know why. We simply do what your father says.”
I roll my eyes at the answer she’s given me since I was a child. Off the bed, I go into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Showering in the morning requires more brain power than I can manage in the first hour of the day. I also can’t sleep without showering off the day. By the time I’m done, my bed is made and my usual breakfast is uncovered and ready at my desk.
“Do you need anything before I go back downstairs?”
I shake my head. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, dear. As soon as they leave, I’ll shoot you a text,” Harriet promises as she leaves.
Sighing, I check the time. Am I going to be able to make the appointment with Lydia? I’m debating if I should send her a text now to warn her or not. Yet I’m also worried if I do and it’s nothing, I’m bothering her.
Lydia Holt is the most amazing personal stylist slash shopper in Chicago—especially for fat chicks like me. People think there are no stylish clothes for fat women in the big department stores carrying Prada and Chanel. The clothes are there, they’re just the tiniest fraction in existence. Lydia gets them all in one place for you, so you don’t spend hours shopping for them.
Lydia has a waiting list three months deep, and she only works with people who don’t piss her off. She agreed to get me in today because she already had a client for the day and would be in the store without another appointment after. Being late could piss her off. She is a total sweetheart, but she also doesn’t take shit from anyone.
Anxiety shoots through me. The same anxiety that wouldn’t let me sleep deep. I want tonight to be perfect. There isn’t a need for a new dress, but Iwantone. Tonight is the night. I’m going to finally doit.
Yes, that it. Sex. I’m a freaking virgin at what feels like the ancient age of twenty-two. Josh, my boyfriend for the last five months, has been so patient with me. Even though our first date was almost seven months ago.
Josh wanted to go slow. It was a relief since I did too. We weren’t supposed to be dating because I met him at the company where I did an internship during my last year of college. He’s in the IT department, and I was a lowly assistant of an assistant. If people at work found out, he could get into trouble.
When my internship ended, they asked me to stay permanently. At first, I was so excited. The ability to see Josh every day—we still weren’t dating yet—had me saying yes immediately. I had no idea the company received a review to have interns select them, and once I wasn’t an intern anymore, the gloves were off. I’ve grown to hate it there. If Josh didn’t work there, I wouldn’t either.
Breakfast done. I give in and call Lydia.
“Hello?” She answers a few rings in.
“Lydia, it’s Nicolette. I’m super stressing if I’m going to be there on time. My dad…” I sigh. Lydia is in the fuzzy world of civilians who are aware my father is not a legitimate owner of high-end nail salons in the city. We still don’t talk about those things, ever.
“He’s home, and he’s not supposed to be.” I’m not even going into the Manuel Rodriguez thing. Or that my father thought I was at school even though I graduated a few weeks ago. He hadn’t gone to my graduation—only Harriet had gone. Even my mom hadn’t been excited for me. School was never supposed to be anything more than something to keep me busy until I got married.
“Say no more, girly. Get here when you get here. If I go home, I’m not coming back out. It won’t bother me in the slightest. I’ll be having a little nappy nap in the changing room.” She giggles. I’m giggling too. I love Lydia. “I love this baby, but I’m so ready for him to get here already. So, I wouldn’t mind an extra sit down. Okay, the client I’m working with needs me. I have to go.”
“Thank you. You’re the best.”
“I know. See you soon.” I’m laughing as she hangs up.
Not the first time I wish I could be Lydia Holt. Beautiful, smart, confident enough to sayI knowwhen someone compliments me. The smile fades when I realize it isn’t a new dress I want for tonight, it’s Lydia’s amazing advice and refusal to bullshit anyone. I’m lucky she’s been dressing me for the last five years.
