by Rumer Raines
FRANK
After talking to Ma last night, I know what I should do. It’s the only way to keep Lola safe and alive. Oliver didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea, but I know he’ll follow my wishes. He was right about one thing and I know Alex will not be happy about any of this. He will have to deal with it because I am in charge and this is what I want. Lola is what I want and I can’t let anything happen to her. Is this the option I would have chosen at this point? Hell no, I could have waited, not that it wouldn’t have happened eventually.
I lock the door once Oliver leaves and turn off the lights and head to the bedroom. Lola is sleep when I enter the room and I almost feel bad that she is still handcuffed. She looks so uncomfortable that I want to take them off her. I shake my head and dismiss the idea. If I uncuff her the minute I turn my back she will bolt and I can’t let her out of my sight right now. If she didn’t shoot me, she’ll head straight home to Brandon and I have a hit on him. I won’t call off the hit on him. I will protect Lola, but I don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to that guy. I just hope that she will forgive me once she finds out I had him killed. I catch myself staring at her and decide to get some sleep. I could sleep in my guest room, but fuck it. This is my bed and as far as I am concerned I am sleeping with my woman. Once I have my clothes off I slip under the covers with Lola.
The next morning I wake up to someone banging on my front door. I throw on my pants and practically run towards the door so they don’t wake up Lola. I yank the door open and it’s a pissed off, Alex.
“What the fuck are you thinking, Frank!” He practically shouts as he pushes himself inside.
I look over at the clock on my desk and rub my head looking at Alex, who is now pacing in my living room. “Alex do you know its five o’clock in the fucking morning?”
“Yes, I know what time it is. It was either wait until morning or come over last night after talking to Oliver.”
“Was there a meeting I wasn’t invited to?” I walk over and sit on my couch.
“I think I’m the one not invited to the fucking meetings, Frank. You know that little bitch Lola has been trying to take over our family business and you call off the hit? We should have put a bullet in her head the minute you found out who she is.”
I stand up and walk in over to Alex to stop his pacing so he’ll pay attention to what I tell him.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you, Alex. The person who is responsible will be taken care of. Lola has nothing to do with any of this. Leave her out of it.”
“Leave her out of it, Frank? They were working together, Frank!” Alex practically yells.
“She has nothing to do with it, Alex.”
Alex starts to smirk and stares into my eyes. “Let’s prove it, Frank.”
“We don’t need to prove it, I am telling you.”
“I want to talk to her Frank. I stopped by her place first, but there was no answer. Hell, no one can seem to find her. “
“Why are you even looking for her Alex? I called off the fucking hit. You don’t need to talk to her. Your focus should be on Brandon.”
“We took care of Brandon. It’s amazing what someone will tell you when they’re in pain and begging for their life. That is why I want to talk to Lola. I want her to prove to me that she should live.”
“She doesn’t have to prove anything to you. I don’t know where she is Alex. It’s early and I would like to get back to bed so get the fuck out.”
Alex turns to leave and as he grabs the doorknob, he hears “Frank!” as Lola shouts from my bedroom.
Fuck! I didn’t put the gag back into her mouth. Alex turns around and starts to walk towards my bedroom.
“You don’t know where she is, Frank?” He continues to the bedroom and I grab my gun out of my desk drawer. Alex gets to the hallway and I grab his arm and put the gun to his head.
“Alex, I said get the fuck out.”
“Would you actually kill me for this bitch, Frank?”
“I don’t want to kill you Alex. If you walk into that room you have made it obvious that someone will die. It will be you or her and at this moment, you’re the one I have asked to leave.”
“Frankie, she is the fucking enemy. Her family wants us out. Her family wants you, me, Ma, and Alexis all gone, so they can take over Chicago. Are you really putting her before all of us?”
“Don’t fucking bring Ma and Alexis into this. I have talked to Ma and I already know what I should do. You need to leave now and don’t tell anyone that Lola is here.”
“Frank, I want out of these handcuffs!” Lola screams again from the bedroom.
Alex turns his head even with my gun still pointed at it and looks at me.
“You have her handcuffed in the bedroom?” He looks between me and the bedroom door.
“Yes, because she is as easy to deal with as you are.” Alex lifts his hands letting me know that he will back off and heads towards the front door.
“Her father will notice that Brandon is missing, Frank. Once he does, he will send people to look for her. The smart thing to do is to get rid of her too. You might want to start thinking with the right head. I promise you I will kill her before I let him touch any of us.” Alex leaves slamming my door.
LOLA
Frank comes storming into the room and I can tell he is pissed off. He pushes me onto the bed and sits on me, putting the gag back into my mouth. He has me pinned between his legs, but I can tell he is being careful not to put his weight on me.
“You are going to listen very carefully to me, Lola. Just nod your fucking head to let me know you’re listening.” I nod my head and stare into Frank’s eyes. I have a bad feeling that I won’t like anything he is about to say.
“Brandon is dead. He came to Chicago in this little hostile takeover attempt that you father sent him to start and now he is fucking dead. My family wants you dead too. They wanted a hit put on you and I gave my permission to do it.” Lola’s eyes start to water and I can tell she is about to break at any moment.
“I realized after the hit was placed on you, that I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you. I don’t want them or anyone else to hurt you. So I called it off. This might surprise you, but Alex didn’t think that was a good idea. He wants your body wherever they ditched Brandon’s. I have a plan to keep you safe and to hopefully stop this takeover shit. If you stop fighting me, we can make it happen. I want to take this gag out of your fucking mouth Lola, but I want you to stop with the fucking yelling. Can I take it out?” Lola nods her head. I wipe away the tears and pull the gag out of her mouth.
“Can you please take the cuffs off?” I look at the cuffs and back to Lola. I don’t know if I trust her that much yet. “I promise. I won’t do anything. My arms are really hurting, Frank. If I have to trust you, you need to trust me too.” Shit, she pulled the trust card out. I will need to trust Lola. If I don’t, none of this shit will work.
I leave the bedroom to get the key to the cuffs. When I come back Lola is sitting up. I reach above her and unlock the cuffs. Lola’s arms practically fall to her side and she starts to rub them.
“How are you planning on keeping me safe, Frank?” Lola looks up at me and I sit down next to her and look into her eyes.
“I am going to knock you up then marry you.”
LOLA
I think I blacked out for a few seconds. I remember Frank telling me he put a hit on me, but called it off. I remember him taking the cuffs off and I remember asking him how he was going to keep me safe. Somehow between me asking that question and staring into his eyes something happened. I totally checked out of the conversation. I notice that Frank is carefully watching me and I turn towards him asking him to repeat how he will protect me. “Lola, I am going to knock you up and marry you. I can’t promise it will be in that order, but that’s what needs to happen.” I am still staring at him and he appears to be sober and more importantly, he looks serious.
“I don’t understand what the hell you're talki
ng about, Frank.” He stands up and puts his hands on my shoulders.
“It’s the only option. I don’t want to kill you. I don’t want my family to kill you, and I sure as hell don’t want your family to kill my family.”
“Frank.” I shake my head in total disbelief.
“Lola, it is the only way. I talked to my mother and she said it would be the only way.”
“You talked to your mother? I can promise you if I talked to my father he would think it’s a very bad idea,” I advise him wryly.
Frank removes his hands from my shoulders and sits on the edge of the bed.
“You are in danger, Lola. I have told my family that you are off limits, but they still want you dead. They see no purpose in me letting you live. I can’t just turn you loose and let you head back to New York. Your father wants to take over Chicago, so he’ll keep trying. The only way that will happen is if my family is killed. The only way to keep my family safe is if you became a member. Of course, my family wouldn’t be too happy about that either. Both families will have to deal with it if you were pregnant. My family will not hurt you because you’d be carrying the future and your father would have to accept it because his grandchild would eventually run the territory that he wants.”
I move over to the edge of the bed to sit next to him. I can’t believe that he makes a little sense. “What if I get pregnant and my father still kills you? The baby would still be considered the future.”
“You think your father would kill his only grandchild’s father?” I look at him and consider the question.
“I guess that would be tough to live with.” I shake my head and Frank chuckles and put his hand on my knee.
“I think we have both been put into a difficult situation, Lola. We were born into the mafia.”
“Are you willing to bring a child into the situation, too, Frank?” He looks at me and shrugs his shoulders.
“I want kids. I am not going deny myself kids so they don’t have to deal with my family. Can you?” I shake my head because I do someday want kids. I don’t know if I want one nine months from now.
“I have strong feelings for you, Lola. Strong enough that I jumped into this shit before I really wanted to. If we don’t do this, I don’t know how long I will be able to protect you. I will try like hell and could possibly keep you handcuffed to the bed a little longer, but thanks to your earlier yelling Alex knows I have you here.”
“Can I think about it, Frank?”
“I can give you an hour.”
I look at him and once again I can tell he is dead serious. “One hour?” I raise my eyebrows looking at him
“Yes. One hour and then we have a baby to make,” He says as he walks out of the bedroom.
FRANK
I leave Lola alone in the bedroom to think about her decision. I don’t know if it was smart of me or not considering I didn’t even handcuff and gag her. I grab a beer and go to sit on the couch and think about how this will all play out if she agrees to this. Ma assured me this was the best approach to keep Lola safe and to keep the family safer. Our marriage would be like a mafia merger. Her father would get his hooks into Chicago without taking it over because we would still be in charge. Yet Lola would be the fucking mafia queen and would be able to handle some of his business here. Of course, I would still be in charge so it would come through me. Not to mention if I did ever have to kill her father, Lola would never be able to testify against her husband. I hope that it never comes to me killing him though. I would never be able to face my own kid if I killed their grandfather.
I lie down on the couch thinking about everything and soon fall asleep. I wake up to pounding on my front door and jump up looking back to the bedroom. I don’t know whether I should first answer the door or make sure Lola didn’t leave while I was asleep. The pounding on the door gets louder so I go to answer it. Oliver comes barging in before I open it completely.
“Is she still here, Frank?”
“I think so, what’s going on? Oliver tilts his head and rolls his eyes.
“You think she is? This just gets better and better. I had one of our guys go through Brandon’s phone Frank. He found several interesting messages from a Marcus Mancini. The area code is from Chicago, so I don’t think Lola was working alone. This Marcus was feeding a lot of information about you and Lola to Brandon.”
“Shit.” I start rubbing my eyes and look up to Oliver when I notice he has stopped talking
“Do you know who this Marcus Mancini is?” Oliver asks.
“Yes. He is this little bastard that works the station. I never liked him; I guess I now know why.”
“Did you notice anything strange between him and Lola? If he was feeding information to Brandon, I am sure she knew he was on her father’s payroll.”
I drop to my couch and start rubbing on my beard. I don’t know what to do with this information. I have so much shit on my plate the last thing I need is something else.
“Do you want me to handle him?” Oliver asks and I look up at him and shake my head.
“No. I will take care of him.” Oliver nods his head and walks towards the door. He turns back to look at me and tilts his head.
“You still thinking about knocking her ass up and marrying her?” I look up and notice he is smirking.
“Yes, I am.” Oliver chuckles and opens the door.
“Frank, I will always look out for your best interests. However, I won’t be forced into marrying any bitch for the family.” Oliver walks out and closes the door.
LOLA
I feel someone staring at me. I wake up and turning my head I notice Frank is sitting in a chair across from the bed. He is just looking at me with his legs crossed. I sit up and stretch still feeling the stiffness in my arms from those damn handcuffs. I look over at the clock and it’s morning. I slept all night which means he gave me a lot longer than one hour to decide on his proposal if you can even call it that. I don’t know what my options are. He will have his family kill me or I can marry him. I think he has killed Brandon and by now my father has to know that we are both missing. There are probably mafia henchmen on their way to Chicago to look for me. Although, I doubt they will come to Frank’s house to search for me. I look back over at Frank and he is still sitting there watching me.
“Good morning,” I say, deciding to start the conversation to test the waters with him.
“Good morning, Lola.” He answered me and his voice is calm. I have a feeling this might be the calm before the storm.
“Did you have a good night? “
Frank chuckles and uncrosses his leg. He looks so fucking sexy. His shirt is half unbuttoned and his pants aren’t buttoned. He has a short beard and could really use a little shave.
“How long have you known Marcus Mancini?” Frank asks as he sits up in the chair.
“Marcus Mancini? Why are you asking me about him?” Frank doesn’t answer and I have a feeling he isn’t going to.
“I met him when I started at the station. Why, Frank?”
“We went through Brandon’s phone. There were several calls and messages between Brandon and Marcus. Some of the text messages even mentioned us.”
My stomach sinks and I know where this conversation is leading. Marcus isn’t on my father’s payroll.
“You have to be mistaken. I was the only one...” I stop mid-sentence not wanting to finish the statement.
“Spying on me for New York, Lola? Is that even what it’s called? Spying?” Frank stands up and starts to walk out of the bedroom then stops.
“I have one question. Did your father ask you to fuck me to get information? Or did you do that on your own?”
I am hurt by that question, but I do understand it. Frank wants to know if anything we had was real or if it was all a game. I have played men for the family business. I would always get enough information from them so my father could take over their businesses. What I did with Frank wasn’t all about the business.
“My father isn’t
happy with me, Frank. He will never forgive me for having the feelings that I do for you. So to answer your question, no he didn’t.” I jump out of bed and grab Frank’s hands before he can leave the bedroom.
“Do you know why Brandon was here?” I ask as he turns to look at me. “He came because my father thought I was screwing up. I should have been out of Chicago months ago. He didn’t feel that I was sticking to business and getting the information out of you that I should have been getting. He was right, Frank. I tried and tried, but the more time I spent with you, the harder I fell for you. I didn’t want you to be involved in the mob. I wanted you to be the Detective Deluca that I met at the gym. Hell, I even was hoping it was Alex in charge. I just didn’t want it to be you. When Brandon showed up, he had all these plans to question you and determine if you were in charge. I couldn’t let him near you so I took medical leave. I thought if I took myself out of the equation, it would be harder for him to get to you.” Frank shakes my hands off and turns away from me.
“I have something I need to do, Lola. Can I trust you enough to leave the handcuffs off?”
“You’re leaving me alone? Is that safe? Will Alex come over and make me disappear while you’re gone?” I ask in a joking voice, but I am dead serious.
Frank looks over my head as if considering the question. “You’ll be safe. I’ll have Oliver check in on you.”
“Oliver? Doesn’t he hate me as much as Alex does? “I ask.
“You’ll be safe Lola. Oliver wouldn’t hurt you without me asking him to.” I swallow hard and Frank smirks.
“What about the handcuffs, Lola? .Do we need them?”
“No. I won’t leave.”
FRANK
I call Oliver and ask if he can come over to watch Lola. I don’t think Alex would do anything stupid, but I wouldn’t put it past him. I jump in the shower while waiting for Oliver to arrive. I keep going over everything Lola said when I questioned her. The funny thing is I believe her. I just don’t think she could have pretended the entire time we have been together. I could feel her heart was in the relationship. I also know that I am not stupid enough to fall for her if it was all fake. Let’s take Marcus Mancini as the prime example. I never liked that bastard. I now know my first impression of him was accurate. There was a good reason I didn’t like him.
