AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 14
For the first time since they met and married, Dante walked out on Harley. She stared at the closed door. TJ, taking Dante’s advice, kept a watchful eye on her, even while she sponged off the blood from her body in the hallway bathroom with the door open. Harley turned her head slightly to get a good look at him—size him up a bit. He looked young to be an agent but she was recruited at a young age also. With his broad chest, height and muscles, she’d need to outwit him instead of overpower him.
“Relax,” TJ said taking a seat on a barstool, submachine gun still pointed at her while a well-paid maid busied herself cleaning the bedroom. Harley could hear the woman praying to God in Spanish and didn’t blame her. The boys trashed the place.
Dante and his team went downtown with Julio to get Hannah out of jail. The judges arrived around seven and the prisoners were brought out around seven-thirty for arraignment. Harley twisted her hands nervously together. She wouldn’t be able to sit still until she had Hannah in her arms.
She loved Hannah like a daughter, but even though she gave birth to her, she did not have the right to claim her. Hannah belonged to Anthony and Felicia. He raised her. He stood in and took care of things when Harley had been a stupid naïve fifteen year old, too big for her own britches. How foolish she’d been to believe Julio’s feelings for her were genuine. They planned to get married; he told her he’d marry her and then his family stepped in, proving how foolish she’d been.
The Torres family wanted nothing to do with the Tomasello’s. They blamed Harley for seducing their prized son and trying to trap him. What kid wanted to be trapped at fifteen? And now Julio waltzed back into her life? This was exactly why she hated coming to this city. It was filled with nothing but sorrow and heartbreak.
She read the betrayal in Dante’s dark eyes. The look of utter disappointment resonated in her brain. How many times had she seen that same disenchantment in her family’s eyes? What must Dante think?
Harley dug her nails into the palms of her hand as she stared at the door. Why bother thinking about him? So what if Julio’s bombshell news hit harder than if he’d been kicked in the teeth. He was the reason she was being called off her case. She needed to talk to Mak, but Dante’s men frisked her, confiscated her weapons and took her phone, trapping her here with the baby face agent. Not having her weapons did not make her powerless. She still had twenty-five other ways to hurt a man. Right now, what she needed to do was figure out how and pray Tai got her beacon.
“Harley, relax,” TJ said again, this time motioning with the gun for her to sit on the couch.
Feathers scattered as she dragged her feet. The empty thigh holster stretched and accommodated her flesh as she sat. Fatigue tried to settle in but Harley stifled the threatening yawn. She focused on the sound of the vacuum in the next room as it filled the suite with static noise. Her body begged for more sleep but she refused on account Dante demanded her to do so. Fuck him. He acted like an overgrown child, mad because he found out someone else played with his toy.
Dante stirred up holy hell around here. The glass table bore cracked dents in the shape of his meaty fists. Holes poked through the walls. She’d swear the men used the floor as a wrestling mat. All the furniture was pushed back against the wall. One of the men mentioned having to subdue Dante. Why though? Did he care that much about her? The agent named Elliott told her Dante did not take the news too well when he learned she’d been killed. Oh, ye of little faith, she thought with a sly smile.
“Lucky you for getting to babysit me.”
“I wouldn’t call this babysitting,” said TJ stretching to his six-foot plus height. Was it a recruitment requirement for these guys or something? TJ wore a black vest similar to the one she’d seen Dante in. With his arms exposed, she saw the eagle tattoo on his bicep as he pointed his weapon at her. “You’re a grown ass woman.”
“So I can leave?”
“Hell no,” TJ gave her a charming grin. “I’m not saying I am totally scared of Dante, but he’d have my ass served on a platter if I let you leave. We’re all here for the same purpose.”
“What do you think the reason is?” Harley asked slowly.
“First, we all want to make sure your daughter’s safe.”
Damn it! This was why she never wanted this to come out. It was ancient history. Damn Julio Torres. She hated more than anything having to confess to him what happened to her but with his connections to the city, she’d been desperate last night.
“Niece,” she channeled Sister Cordelia’s harsh tone when speaking to him. The Nun had to have reconsidered her career choice after teaching First Communion Classes to Harley and her other seven-year-old friends. Every time Harley thought of the penguins her knuckles ached from being rapped with a ruler. Half the time the blame lay with Chet Rossi and his brothers. Bitterness rolled off her tongue. Trouble seemed to follow the Rossi family line. “Hannah is my niece. Try not to make the same mistake when she gets here.”
Now she was more annoyed than ever. She really needed to get Hannah out of there as soon as possible before anyone let out the family secret.
“I get it,” TJ nodded. The room grew awkwardly silent for a moment. The fading in and out sound of the vacuum once again filled the room. Harley winced and sat back in the couch where she’d slept. Slept? More like passed out. She could sleep later, once Hannah was safe.
“I have a daughter out there,” TJ confessed.
“Just, ‘out there’?” Harley mocked.
TJ gave his shoulders a casual shrug. Did he even shave? His youthfulness deceived her but his story about disappointing his teenage mom by not breaking the cycle aged him. “Me and my high school girlfriend got pregnant at seventeen. We thought about keeping her but decided to put her up for adoption.”
“How old is she now?”
“She should be ten. We picked out the parents for her, an older couple who got together and married after they had their careers and all. You know, too late for them to have kids.”
A mental kinship developed between Harley and the unknown baby-TJ. She did receive a lot of attention from her older parents. They did not have to worry about bills like they did when her siblings were born. Jenny always taunted her, calling her spoiled. Maybe a little bit, Harley thought to herself. She always felt a certain type of entitlement, at least until she got pregnant.
She understood the pain of giving a child up for adoption but unlike TJ’s situation, Harley chose Hannah’s parents. Julio wanted Harley to have an abortion, which she refused. He decided they’d marry until his mother and father stepped in. His
parents offered to send her away to a group home to take care of her and find a good home for her child. Her parents actually considered the banishment until Harley learned the adoption would be closed and she’d have no chance of ever seeing her baby turn eighteen.
Harley offered a friendly smile to her new friend. The icy hatred she had, had not lessened and a twinge of anticipated guilt crept down her spine. She was going to have to disappear on him. Last night she was desperate and delirious.
