The Mancini Saga (Book #1) I.O.U.

by April M. Reign

  Giovanni stared at Carlo. The other three brothers watched to see what was going to happen. Finally, Giovanni reached out to shake Carlo’s hand and then pulled him in for a hug. “Lighten up Carlo, it’s been three months since we’ve seen each other, can you show your brother some love?”

  Carlo snickered as he play-slapped Giovanni in the face. “Here,” he tossed him back the cell phone.

  Giovanni resembled his other brothers. His hair was a lighter brown than the rest, but the same hazel-brown eyes. He had trouble with his temper while in high school. The judge gave him two choices, serve jail time, or enlist in the military. Giovanni quickly chose the Marines.

  “So, where did you meet her, Carlo?” Emilio asked.

  “I was working a homicide case, and I’ve been following a lead. I went to her apartment to ask her questions, and we’ve been seeing each other ever since.”

  “That’s great, I’m happy for you. I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time.” Emilio and his brothers agreed.

  “What about you guys? What’s new?” he asked.

  “Antonio got the part in the Broadway play he tried out for,” Angelo proudly boasted about his brother.

  "What? You weren’t going to tell me, man?” Carlo asked Antonio.

  “Of course, I was going to tell you, but big mouth here,” he glanced over at Angelo, “has such a boring life, he has to give out other people’s good news.”

  “Shut up. My life is not boring. I’m almost done with this semester of school and Janna is finishing up nursing school,” he hesitated, “I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

  Everyone stared at Angelo, almost speechless. Carlo thought it was entirely too soon for Janna and Angelo to get married. Before he met Mia, he may have told him that. It was different now. Carlo knew what it felt like to want someone so badly that marriage must be the next step.

  “Congratulations. Do you mind if I say a few things?” Carlo asked.

  They all laughed. “Come on, Carlo, you wouldn’t be you if you just sat there and smiled. We know we’re going to get your lecture when we tell you something,” Giovanni said, turning to Emilio and giving him a high-five.

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Even so, you all keep coming to me for advice.”

  “Well, we didn’t say your advice was bad, we just know we’re going to get it whether we ask for it or not,” Giovanni chuckled.

  Carlo directed his attention back to Angelo. “Make sure you’re ready for marriage. Then ask her father first and don’t ever look at divorce as a way out. That would be dishonorable to you, her, and us.”

  “I know Carlo. Trust me, I’ve thought about everything. We want to start building our lives together, and we can’t until we’re married.”

  “Just do me one favor, Angelo: plan to have the wedding after you graduate from college. Will you do that for me?”

  He nodded, “I can do that.”

  “Hey, losers, are we done with all this love stuff? Can we talk about blowing up shit?” Giovanni asked.

  “Oh, hey, Carlo, I have a game coming up next weekend. Think you can make it?” Emilio asked.

  “If I’m not working, you can count on me.”

  Emilio smiled. “I'm inviting the rest of you, too, if you want to go.”

  They all started heckling him for not inviting them from the beginning.

  Mia felt warmth throughout the home. She forgot how much she missed family life until Carlo’s family surrounded her. A small island bar sat in the middle of the kitchen where all four women stood while they prepared the meal. Fresh Italian bread, baking in the oven, sent an aroma through the house and out to the streets.

  Aldabella worked on the eggplant for the Pasta con Pesto. She sliced the eggplant, preparing them to be sautéed. Janna worked with the fresh garlic, basil leaves, tomatoes and almonds and Mia was in charge of the pasta; making sure to cook it al dente while Isabelle watched the loaves of bread and prepared the lemon-zest pizzelles for dessert.

  Isabelle did not say much while she concentrated on making the perfect dinner for her family. However, the rest of the girls were full of gossip, mostly because of their interest in the new woman in Carlo’s life.

  “So, how did you and my brother meet?” Aldabella asked, with a protective tone.

  “He came to my door, following a lead in a case.”

  “Doesn’t he work homicide?” Bella asked.

  “Yes, he does.”

  “Then why would you be a lead in a homicide case?” she questioned, rudely.

  “Bella, stop it,” Janna scolded, then smiled over at Mia.

  “No, it’s okay, Janna. I can understand that Bella would be concerned about her older brother.” Mia looked at Bella. “I’m glad that you love him that much to make sure that he dates a good woman. I wish my little brother were here to take care of me like that. But to answer your question, the girl who died only asked me to help her find a job. I only met her once. She had my name and number in her pocket when she died and Carlo was just doing his job: investigating.”

  Bella nodded, finding that answer acceptable. “You have a younger brother? What’s his name?” she asked.

  “Kyle, he’s seventeen years old.”

  “Does he live around here?”

  “No, I wish. He lives in Connecticut,” Mia said.

  “Bella, stop it, you’re talking too much,” Isabelle spouted to her daughter.

  Bella looked over at Janna and Mia. “My mama thinks I’m taking too much. Well, am I?” she asked.

  “I’m glad you’re talking with me,” Mia replied.

  Bella smiled at her mother. “See, Mama, they’re fine with me.”

  “So, what do you do for a living?” Janna asked Mia.

  “I’m a waitress at a restaurant. I haven’t decided what I want to do for the rest of my life. So for now, this job is paying the bills.”

  After an hour, dinner was ready, and the men were eager to eat. They did not have a table long enough to accommodate everyone in the house, so each person found a place in the living room and sat down with a plate full of pasta, fresh baked bread and a glass of wine. Carlo led the family in a toast.

  Carlo sat next to Mia, having missed her terribly while he was outside with his brothers. He did not want to appear clingy, so he let her visit with the women while his brothers kept him company.

  “So Mia, did Carlo tell you about the time he got arrested?” Antonio asked while shoveling pasta in his mouth.

  “Antonio!” Carlo warned, hoping he would keep his mouth shut.

  “No, no, we have to tell her this one. It’s funny as hell. Oh, sorry, Mama, that slipped out.” Giovanni said when his mother shook her fork at his foul mouth.

  “Okay, so, we decided to go shopping for a gift for our father. Carlo had just bought his first car from some questionable people in our neighborhood. When we were almost at the store, the police pulled us over. They pulled out their guns and told us to get out of the car.”

  “Oh, wow, are you serious?” Mia said to Antonio while Carlo adjusted uncomfortably in his seat.

  “Yep, apparently, the guys who sold the car to Carlo had also stolen it. They arrested Carlo and took Angelo and me home. After they researched the details of Carlo’s story, they called our father to get him at the police station.”

  Mia started laughing. “Wow, that must have been scary for you,” she said, smiling up at Carlo. Mia had taken a seat on a couch cushion on the floor next to the couch where Carlo sat. She leaned her right side against his leg while she ate her dinner.

  Carlo was sulking, but knew his brothers would do this to him. “It was, but now I’m on the other side of the law and put punks like you in jail,” he glared at Antonio. They all laughed.

  “Speaking of Papa, have you found anything?” Angelo asked Carlo.

  “No, not yet,” he said taking another bite of pasta and then a quick drink of wine. When Isabelle noticed Carlo’s wine glass was empty, she went to pour him another glass.r />
  “No, Mama, I have to work tonight. We’re going to leave after dessert.”

  “Okay, well eat, eat,” she said to the group. Everyone was talking and laughing, and Mia heard three more stories about Carlo that she was sure he would never tell her. One included a time when he was five, and he insisted on wearing his mother’s high-heeled shoes. Mia laughed so hard, her side was hurting.

  Before they left, Antonio called Carlo and Mia to another room for privacy.

  “My opening night is tomorrow. If you don’t have to work, I would love it if you and Mia could make it. There are enough tickets for three more guests, but I don’t have enough to give to everyone. So, I would like it if you could make it, Carlo.”

  He glanced at Mia. She nodded that she could go. “Yes, we’ll be there. I’m proud of you,” Carlo said, hugging his brother.

  While they were saying goodbye, Carlo got a call on his cell phone. He stepped outside to take it privately. When he walked back inside the house, Mia heard him say something to Antonio.

  “That was Frankie. They may have found it. I need to go and look at it, see if it’s Dad’s.”

  Mia’s head turned—she stared at Carlo. He seemed nervous. Did he say “Dad’s”? She knew that his father was long dead. She wondered what his father had lost that may have turned up. On the drive back to her apartment, Carlo did not talk. His mind was preoccupied with the phone call he received minutes earlier. Mia had to know what he told his brother.

  “I heard you tell your brother that someone found something. What was it?” she asked.

  “Not now, Mia, please, I will tell you later, right now, I need to get down to the precinct,” he said. He did not notice when her text message notification went off.

  She pulled out her phone and read a message from Miesha. We have an emergency rescue attempt in three hours. Call me for details. Like Carlo and his mind on something urgent, her mind started to focus on the rescue.

  Chapter Nine

  Miesha stood by the trunk of her car, getting ready to give her team the details. Dean and Marco wore camouflaged, black attire to help them blend in with the night. Miesha opened up a notebook with information about the case, and began giving her team details of the mission.

  “Unfortunately, we have a rescue attempt three blocks from here. This means that a young girl, in our own backyard, needs us.”

  The dark evening against the city lights rendered an ominous glow. The stars had disappeared behind a barrage of storm-laden clouds. Mia could not stop thinking about Carlo and her evening with his family. Now, she felt a gut-deep feeling that she should have stayed home this evening when Carlo dropped her off. Something felt wrong.

  Miesha flipped through her notes before she started giving details to their group of four. “The parents of a fifteen-year-old girl, Julia Myers, sought us out for help. Julia ran away from home with her boyfriend three months ago.”

  “Just because she ran away, that does not put her in a compromising situation,” Mia mentioned.

  “True, however, the boyfriend had been involved with a fanatic religious group that uses drugs as a hallucinogen.”

  “Maybe we should get the authorities involved on this one. It sounds dangerous,” Mia said with trepidation.

  “I told Julia’s parents the same thing but, they refuse to listen. They have been in the suspect’s home. It looks normal on the outside,” Miesha explained.

  Dean interrupted. “Do we know who the homeowners are, and do they match the name of the suspects?”

  “The owners are Dwayne and Tisha Bernstein and yes, they are also our suspects.”

  “What makes Julia’s parents think the Bernsteins have their daughter?” Mia inquired.

  “Apparently, the night before they showed up at the Bernstein’s home, Julia’s parents received a phone call from the Bernstein’s phone number. They heard a woman screaming. Then the next day, when they showed up at the Bernsteins’ home, they saw their daughter’s jacket draped over a kitchen chair.”

  “Miesha, this sounds dangerous,” Mia repeated as she paced back-and-forth. “I’m thinking we need to involve the authorities. What if something goes wrong?”

  “Let me give you the game plan. Then we can decide if we want to hand this over to the authorities instead of going through with it ourselves. You know this is voluntary, Mia.”

  Mia nodded. Dean and Marco stood with their backs against the vehicle and their arms crossed over their chest. Time was ticking away.

  “Here’s the plan. They think we are interested in their sermons on DVD. I told them it will only be me and Mia going there tonight.” Miesha looked over at the men, “You two will poke around the backyard and look for places underground where they might keep unwilling followers. If you find something foul, contact the authorities immediately.”

  Both men nodded.

  “Mia, you and I are going to look around the house, use the bathroom, admire art work, whatever it takes to see in all the rooms. We’ll need to make sure we check the basement as well. So what do you think? Are we going to do this?”

  Mia looked over at Dean and Marco, “No heroes, you guys. We don’t want any problems. We just need to find Julia, rescue her, and get her home safe tonight.”

  Dean lifted his hand to talk. “What if we find Julia, and she doesn’t want to leave?”

  “We go with protocol,” Miesha replied. "We assess the situation, decide if she’s being forced to make that decision—whether by drugs or physical force—and then we can leave and let the authorities handle it from there. And she is underage. If she is there, that looks pretty bad for them, from our perspective.”

  “Okay, let’s do this.” Mia patted Miesha on her back.

  The four of them sat quietly in the car, and mentally prepared while Miesha drove to the other side of the Bronx. She turned the car down the Bernsteins’ neighborhood, and flipped off her headlights, pulling over on the side of the street just past their home.

  Oddly, the Bernsteins had requested the meeting at night, after ten p.m.; apparently, they were going to be out of town until nine. When Miesha suggested having the meeting the next morning, Mr. Bernstein grumbled and hung up the phone. Considering a fifteen-year-old girl’s life might be at stake, everyone decided to move forward with the operation, regardless of the time.

  Miesha and Mia walked toward the front door while Dean and Marco headed for the backyard gate. The men each went to opposite sides of the house. Mia glanced around the neighborhood, but she had a hard time seeing past the darkness of the night. They silently stepped up on the porch; Mia took a couple of deep breaths.

  Miesha knocked on the front door twice before she heard stirring in the house. There were fast running thuds going up and down the stairs inside the home. The two women exchanged looks and waited patiently for someone to come to the door.

  Five long minutes later, when the door opened, a dark-haired woman stood alone in a plaid apron draped over her clothes. Her hair looked wildly messy, and her smeared eye-makeup left dark rings under her eyes, making her look like a wild raccoon. She did not smile, but remained polite when she spoke. “Hi, you must be the two women that called earlier, interested in the sermons.”

  “Yes, I’m sorry for the hour, but your husband asked us to come over after ten.” Miesha moved closer to the door.

  “I have them right here.” She cracked open the screen door and handed the DVDs to Miesha. “That will be seventy-five dollars.”

  “Oh, I was hoping we could talk to your husband about his views on religion,” Miesha mentioned.

  “This isn’t a good time. Give us a call and we'll set up another time with you.” Mrs. Bernstein’s voice and hands were shaking uncontrollably.

  As Miesha went back and forth with the woman, Mia scanned inside the home. Black, leather furniture sat in direct view of the front door. Generic paintings in gothic-style colors hung on white walls. The house seemed quiet, and uneventful.

  Mia glanced to her right
where Dean was snooping around the side of the house. She had to act fast. In a quick ploy to get inside the home, she turned her attention to Mrs. Bernstein, and abruptly asked, “Can I use your restroom, please? I really have to go.”

  The woman stared at Mia, conflicted with the decision on whether to let her in or not. Her nervous hands fidgeted while she contemplated Mia’s request. “I just don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Please, ma’am. I will be in and out quickly. You won’t even know I’m gone.”