by Lana Cameo
Anton got up and paced. What should he do now? Call her? He had to call her. He had to at least know for sure. But she wanted nothing to do with him. Maybe this was the reason why. Maybe his comment about not being ready to be a father had scared her away. He couldn’t blame her. When he looked back on their time together, nothing about him or his lifestyle screamed steady, reliable husband and father. Quite the opposite. She knew he was a charmer. And she didn’t want that in a father for her daughter, apparently.
The anger rose in his chest. How dare she keep this from him? How dare she keep his child from him? He could have been there for her. He could have been there for every moment of his daughter’s life. If only he’d known he had a daughter.
As he paced, the paper sitting on the table caught his eye. Or rather, the headline did. It read, “Two Dead in Apparent Murder.” There were two photos—one of each victim. Sergio and Benito Lopez. Brothers. He recognized the names and the faces. They were the two men his grandfather had ordered to be killed a few days ago. Right before he’d seen Hannah walk into the restaurant. He’d been so distracted by her, that he hadn’t thought too much about the pending hit.
Now he looked at their faces. What was worse was the photos of their family. Losing two men from one family had been devastating, the paper claimed. In the photo, the wives of the brothers clung to each other as they sobbed. A small group of kids stood around them, looking dazed and teary eyed.
He flipped the paper over. He couldn’t stand thinking about that now. Seeing the devastated faces of the family of the men his family killed. It may have been business, but these lives were permanently altered, their kids permanently messed up.
Maybe he’d never get to the point his grandfather had reached where lives didn’t matter that much. It was nothing for Grandfather to order a hit and kill a few men who did him wrong. Anton didn’t want to be that heartless. He didn’t want to carelessly ruin whole families. It shouldn’t have to be this way.
In his disgust, he grabbed the paper and stormed out the door.
Chapter 8
Anton walked out of his house and got into the waiting limo. “Hello Grandfather.”
“Anty, Anty. Good to see you.” He put a hand on Anton’s shoulder and squeezed.
“What’s this meeting about?” Anton clicked his seatbelt into place and glanced at the bodyguard sitting a few seats away.
Anton’s grandfather often met with him for various reasons, or they had meetings with a few of the DeCalvo Shipping employees, but this was different. He’d said it was a special, very important meeting. No one else was in the limo aside from the bodyguard his grandfather never left home without. After the night Anton had, he was not in the mood to deal with his grandfather.
“I want you to understand something,” Grandfather said, looking Anton directly in the eye. “The time is coming when the business will be yours to run. I’m getting old. I want to retire. Leave the tough decisions to you. You’re ready. Almost. There are some things you still to learn.”
“Okay…” Anton had been learning the ins and outs of the business for years. Besides knowing all the details of what each department did, he didn’t think there was much he didn’t know. “Do you want me to spend more time with accounting, learning how to cover things up in the books?”
“No, no, nothing like that. You know enough of that.”
“What then?”
“You need to learn how to be tough. Like me. Ruthless in your decisions. Making the hard calls when no one else will. Acting first, acting faster, thinking faster. This is what you have to learn.”
“Right. Like how to kill men with families and not care at all?” Anton tossed the paper at his grandfather. “Doesn’t it bother you to know what you did to those men and their wives? They have kids. They’re brothers. Or were. Now the family is missing two sons. You’ve ruined their lives.”
His grandfather’s eyes turned to steel. “Stop the car.”
The car pulled over and came to a stop. Anton’s heart raced. He had to remember that his grandfather was cold and tough. He might kill his grandson without much hesitation if that’s what he thought needed to be done.
Grandfather looked at this bodyguard. “Give us a minute.”
That was a bad sign. But Anton was right. Those men’s families had been ruined. And it was their fault.
The bodyguard exited and stood beside the limo’s door with his arms crossed. He was probably used to this sort of thing.
Anton didn’t shy away now. He met his grandfather’s gaze with an equally hard stare.
“You listen to me now.” His grandfather grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his face close enough to be sprinkled with spit as his grandfather spoke. “Do you have any idea what those men did to me? To our business? To our family?”
“I would guess they screwed you over somehow. Stole something? Cheated you?”
“These men killed our own. What about their families, huh? Did Benito and Sergio think about the impact on my family—on our family—when they killed my poor Christopher?”
“Who?”
Grandfather tugged harder on his collar. “A man you should aspire to be like. Someone as cold and hard as it takes. You gotta be ruthless to survive this business.”
“Except Christopher didn’t manage to survive, did he?”
Grandfather’s other hand came up slapped Anton hard across the cheek. “You think it’s cute to disrespect the dead?”
Anton swallowed and ignored the sting in his cheek. “You don’t respect my father.”
“This isn’t about him. Those men killed a member of our family. They killed him to cover up another crime in which they were accused of assaulting two of our men on the job. They are dangerous men, and they were killed to protect our family. To protect you, the ungrateful brat you are. If you don’t wise up and stop being weak, you’ll end up dead.”
Anton hadn’t known what the men did. He had to admit that if they’d already attacked two of the family and killed another, there was no way they could be allowed to live. He should have asked before he made assumptions. His grandfather had done the right thing for the family.
Finally, Grandfather released his grip on Anton’s collar. “You can either toughen up on your own, or I’ll force you to get tough. If I were you, I’d figure out how to accomplish it on my own.”
The bodyguard was allowed back in and they continued on their drive, stopping by several docks before heading to the office.
Alone in his office, Anton couldn’t keep his mind quiet. He was still dealing with the Hannah and Melody situation from last night and this morning, and now this. How could he prove that he had what it takes to run the family business? He could imagine what things his grandfather would do if he was forced to toughen Anton up. It wouldn’t be gentle or kind, that much he was sure of.
But he couldn’t help wishing things were different. What if he had a nice, normal job like banker or lawyer? Why couldn’t he be the CEO of a real, legal company? Could it even be considered real success if his money came by illegal and sometimes unethical means? What good was any of it if he couldn’t have a life?
When he pictured Hannah and Melody, he saw them happy and having fun in their apartment. They probably baked cookies together and watched wholesome family movies. What would it be like to be part of that? To be just a man coming home from work to his wife and child. To get up and put in his time in the office, not having to decide whether someone’s actions deserved death or just a good beating. Not having to become skilled at lying and hiding things on paper. Not having to worry about the FBI or the police coming after him.
Shipping was a legitimate enough business. They did plenty of legal work. Mostly, it was used to cover the illegal work, and, of course, there was more money in shipping smuggled items than there was in shipping new cell phones. But if they cut out the illegal stuff, they could expand the legal stuff. They had all the connections made already. It wouldn’t take much to tur
n a nice profit through only legal means.
Anton had managed to work himself into such a frenzy, that he went to his grandfather’s office.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said this morning,” Anton explained. “I have an idea.”
Grandfather laced his fingers and sat back in his chair behind his desk. “I’m all ears.”
“We could do this differently. If you look at last year’s numbers, you’ll see that we do a lot of legal business. I think, in time, we could slowly cut out the illegal contracts and move into a completely legal sector. I don’t think it would mean much money lost, but we would save a lot if we didn’t have to pay for bodyguards and hits and things like that.”
“You want to go legal? Buddy up to the FBI?”
“No, not that. But legal, yes.”
His grandfather burst into laughter. “And here I thought you had a real idea for once. I should have known not to expect much from you. Go make yourself useful.” He spun his chair so he faced away.
“Grandfather, please. We don’t have to resort to all this killing just for a few dollars. It’s not worth it.”
His grandfather spun his chair back. “That sounds a lot like what your father said. And look how he ended up. Poor and dead. But at least he was legal about it.” He shook his head. “He was a fool and you’re a bigger fool if you think you can follow in his footsteps. Forget what I said this morning. You’re nowhere near ready to take over running things.”
“I am. I’m just trying to make changes that will benefit everyone.”
“No one benefits from crime going unchecked on the streets. You think I’m a careless killer? I take out those who kill. Those who harm others. I keep the streets safe when the authorities don’t have a clue what’s going on. I think you need to make a serious decision here, Anton.”
Anton gulped at the use of his full first name.
“You’re either in all the way or you’re out. What’s it going to be?”
“I’m in. I’ve always been in. But I—”
“Then there’s nothing else to discuss. I want you to go down to the west dock and talk to a guy by the name of Pete Burns. He has some business for us. I want you to be the one making these connections from now on.”
Anton stood. “Yes sir. I’ll go right now.”
He walked out of the office and took a car down to the dock. Hannah didn’t want him anyway. He couldn’t afford to spend time daydreaming of her and some life that was impossible to have. He had work to do.
Chapter 9
Hannah clicked “send” and watched the email leave her work inbox. She had just finished answering a question a coworker had about a project she was working on. And there had been a lot of nice compliments in the email from her coworker. She felt like she was finally getting a handle on this job, and things had certainly improved since her first day.
Another of her coworkers had helped her with the train schedule and Hannah discovered that by taking two trains instead of one, she could get to work and home about fifteen minutes faster. Changing trains hadn’t been nearly the hassle she anticipated and the extra half hour a day was desperately needed.
Just that morning, Lauren had called her in to discuss a client and had mentioned how well Hannah was doing. “Even better than expected,” were Lauren’s exact words. Hannah had beamed. This being her first serious job, she wasn’t sure how life in an office setting would go. So far, things were going better than she could have hoped for.
Hannah punched out and picked up her purse. Finally lunchtime. Today she was going to try the new sandwich shop everyone had been raving over. She walked the three blocks to the shop and joined the long line.
While she waited, she sent a text to Melody. “How’s lunch?”
“Boring.” Then, “Can we get pizza for dinner?”
“We’ll see. What was for lunch?”
“I got a peanut butter and jelly because it was some kind of meat thing. Looked nasty.”
Hannah chuckled. Good thing the school always had sandwiches. Melody might never eat if she were forced to consume the school’s hot lunches every day.
“I’m about to order a sandwich of my own. Enjoy the rest of your day!”
Melody sent back a smiley face.
Hannah placed her order and sat at a small table to eat. She kept her phone nearby in case Melody sent another text. It had been a difficult choice to get her a phone. Nine was still pretty young for that sort of thing, but with Hannah’s new job, Melody was spending more time at the neighbor’s and Hannah wanted to be able to stay in contact more easily.
A call came in that wasn’t Melody. It was Anton. She stared at the name. Her insides tingled just thinking of their last encounter. But she had told him she couldn’t have a relationship and she meant it. She ignored the call and took another bite of her sandwich.
She waited, wondering if he would leave a message. Instead, he called again.
She didn’t want to keep ignoring him if he was going to keep calling. She swallowed and gathered her courage then picked up the phone. “Hello Anton.”
“Hannah. I know you said you didn’t want to see me again, but I need to talk to you.”
“I don’t think—”
“We’ll meet in public. That way you can be sure I won’t try anything. This isn’t about sex.”
Her face flushed at the mention of the word and her thoughts of Anton during their date. She was somewhat disappointed about meeting in public, actually. She had little reason to meet with him unless there might be another quick hook up. She could go for another of those. If only they didn’t have such a history that kept them from making this a casual thing.
“I could meet you after work later this week.”
“It has to be today. This is too important to wait.”
“I’m working today,” she said. “I’m on my lunch break.”
“Are you in the building?”
“No, I’m at the new sandwich shop down the street.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“But I only—”
He hung up before she could explain that she didn’t have much time left. She had to get back to her desk, and with all the good work she’d been doing, she didn’t want to mess up now by returning late from lunch.
She finished her sandwich quickly. It had been pretty good, as everyone claimed. She could see making this a regular lunch stop. But for now, she threw her trash away and hurried from the shop.
Outside, she looked up and down the sidewalk. Would he just pull up in his limo right there on the street?
As she stood, watching for him, a black car with heavily tinted windows pulled up. The window rolled down and Anton smiled at her. “Get in.”
He opened the door and she slid in. Where had he been that he had gotten to her in less than five minutes? Had he already been heading toward her work when he called her?
“I tried to tell you,” she said as he closed the door and they drove off, “I have to be back to work in ten minutes. And I can’t be late. This is a new job.”
“Okay. I’ll make it fast.”
“Also, you said it would be in public.” She raised one eyebrow and gave him a playful smile. She didn’t mind being alone with him in another car.
He smirked as the car turned and stopped. “We are.”
He opened the door and helped her out. They stood in the small park down the street from her work building. She’d heard about some of the ladies going for runs together in the evening in this park, but she’d never been here.
“Please, sit with me.” Anton sat on a park bench and looked at her hopefully.
She sat beside him. “I’m all ears.”
Chapter 10
Hannah kept Anton’s gaze as he took her hand and looked deeply into her eyes. What could this possibly be about?
“Our night together was amazing,” he said.
She nodded in agreement. She hadn’t had a night like that in years.
“I know I’m not the man you need me to be.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but he stopped her.
“Hannah, my life has not been easy. I grew up poor and hated it. You know that. I always wanted to find a way out of that life. A way to make something of myself and do better. When my parents died, I thought my whole life was over. I had to move and leave you, live with some old man I’d never even met. It seemed like the worst possible scenario. But my grandfather wasn’t as bad as I thought. He taught me so much and trusted me with a lot. I moved up in the family business and now I’m going to be taking over soon. My dream. CEO of a successful company. My biggest dream comes true. And I make more money than I ever thought I would.”
“You’ve come a long way and made quite a life for yourself.”
“But it’s not the life I want,” he said. “I can’t tell you every detail about it, but I think you know that I’ve always been a little…”
“Dangerous?” It had been his reputation in high school and still was, according to the papers. There wasn’t much to find about him online, but everything tied to his name involved investigations and suspicions of murder or other crime. He had gotten himself into trouble plenty when they were teens, too. He must’ve found a way to make that profitable in his adult years.
“Uhh, yeah, I guess you could say that,” he continued. “It’s just that, I might not always be the most upstanding guy around.”
“You were and still are, the hottest bad boy around.”
He gave her a half smile. “Thanks. But this is the point. I haven’t always done things I can be proud of. I haven’t felt good, really good, about life or myself since the day I left you all those years ago. You were always on my mind over those years, but I didn’t realize until I saw you again just how much of an impact you had on me. You were my first love, Hannah. You were the woman who made me want to be a man. You were the reason I wanted to work so hard. So I could give you a nice life, the life you deserved. I wanted to become the man you needed in your life.”
