by Box Set
After some time relaxing, bobbing in the water on their backs, he pulled her to him and moved vertical. She followed suit, her legs kicking to help her remain upright. “I think you’re pretty awesome,” he said, his voice husky. The moon left a streak of light across his hair and face. Her heart fluttered, a soft whisper of a shiver that emanated out through her body. He stroked her chin with light fingertips, his touch continuing up her jawline to the back of her neck. His face moved closer, slowly, smoothly. She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted to feel his lips on hers. And he didn’t disappoint. He kissed her with experienced lips that made her heart whip hard against her ribs and heat sweep up her neck. The waves moved them slowly toward shore and all at once, he had her in his arms, his feet having found the sandy bottom. Their wet bodies molded into each other’s, and she melted into his soft, slow kisses.
14
A voice called to them over the wind. Kate and Jace ignored it, but it persisted and grew louder. It was calling Jace’s name. Kate snuggled her head in the crook of his neck as he turned and called out, “What is it, Tim?”
“The paparazzi got wind of your early arrival. They’re at the front of the hotel getting ready to start scouring the area for you.”
“Crap!” Jace said.
“We need to get you into the hotel now.”
Jace looked down at her, and she looked up. “Want to come up to my room?” For the first time since she’d been with him, a shiver rushed through her.
She knew what that meant and while she loved being with him, making out with him, she wasn’t ready for that. “I better not.” It seemed like more of an explanation would only make it harder to leave him. Excuses could always be worked around.
“Are you sure? We can just hang out.” It was too dark to see the expression in his eyes, and she was glad. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to refuse him.
“Nah. My friends will freak if I don’t show up soon.”
He nodded, and they walked out of the water and onto dry beach. “See you tomorrow?”
For some reason, this caught her off guard. Kate wanted to see him again, but how could that possibly be arranged? “Sure.”
He let go of her and ran up the beach. She watched him go. Realization struck her and her eyes fell to her feet, the water lapping over them. He’d only said that to be nice. He had no way of finding her. No way of contacting her. She sighed, determined not to let anything ruin the evening. She’d had fun and that had to be enough. She looked up and Jace stood there, phone in hand. A smile tickled at her lips as he held the phone out to her. She took it and added her name and number before handing it back. “You know, you’ll have to call me, because I’m phone-less right now.” Fear rushed through her. What if he never called? She shivered. He put his arm around her.
“You don’t have to worry about that. Tonight was incredible.” He leaned in and put a light kiss on her lips, warming them again. “Come on. I don’t want you out here alone.” They picked up her little bag with pepper spray and keycard, and he put his towel around her shoulders. She snuggled into it and took his hand. They left the beach and walked through the hotel kitchen and took a service elevator up to her floor. “I’m sorry about this. It’s like I don’t have my own life anymore. It’s awful,” Jace said.
So he did hate his TV life. “I can only imagine.”
The guy who found them stood in the corner of the elevator, like a fly on the wall, and it felt weird to have a personal discussion in front of him. The door opened. “This is you, I guess.”
“Yep. Number 804.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to come up?” He kept his eyes fixed on her. “It’s still early. We could sit in the hot tub and warm up. We could grab a bite to eat.”
She put a hand on his arm and interrupted him. “See you tomorrow. The proverbial ball is in your court.” She walked out, taking a quick look back as the elevator doors closed. She skipped to her room and inserted the key, expecting to find everyone back, excited to tell Ellie about what happened, but the space was dark. She flipped on the lights and found her phone. As she typed the words about Jace, she wondered if Ellie would believe her. She had no proof after all. She snorted. This wasn’t something to tell over text. She needed to tell Ellie in person. She erased what she’d written and then wrote, I have news. Wake me up if I’m asleep when you get here.
Will do. Still no one, but we’re hopeful. You could join us. Smiley face.
No thanks. I’m so tired.
The next morning, Kate snuggled into her pillow, but then remembered and sat up. She pushed on Ellie, but she didn’t even move. She was practically dead. Kate would wake her after she showered. She was going to reveal herself to her dad today. A surge of excitement brought a deep smile to her lips. A note with her name on it was taped to the mirror. She yanked it off and glanced back at Ellie on the bed.
We didn’t get in until three. Six isn’t going to work today. Go do your stuff and meet back up with me at noon. She had drawn several hearts across the bottom of the paper and underneath wrote, P.S. They never came.
Great. Kate was on her own. She should have known she wouldn’t be able to count on Ellie. Not when the chance of running into a star was on the table. She bit the side of her lip. She could do this. She’d have to channel Ellie, but she could. Taking a deep breath, she jumped into the shower and after getting out, took great care in her choice of what to wear.
She met a cab in front of the hotel and asked him to drive to the Marconi Bagelry. She hoped both her dad and brother would be there. She had another sibling. She hoped he’d like her. She put the number of the cab company into her phone so that she could call them when she needed a ride back to the hotel. She stood on the sidewalk, her legs feeling a bit like jello. After a few seconds of internal persuasion, she walked in and ordered a bagel. She could take it slow. She didn’t need to storm in there asking for her father. She looked around for Duran, but didn’t see him. He had said he worked at the other bagel shop, Bellini’s. She longed for something familiar, but there was nothing.
The long, shiny glass case full of bagels looked unnaturally clean. She could hear the clanging of metal dishes being washed somewhere behind the wall from which T-shirts, baseball caps, and a big Marconi Bagels sign hung, along with the painted phrase, Take everything you can from life. You deserve it, with a signature line of Andre Marconi under it. She narrowed her eyes. Her mantra had always been Give everything in life, for therein lies joy. Would she find she and her father were complete opposites?
Cold air filled the room, and she shivered and tinkered with the locket around her neck. A long hall led to the right of the sales counter. This was it. It should be an amazing moment, so why did her stomach ache? Perhaps it had to do with the priest’s warning. Someone had wanted her dead, and someone had saved her. She still wasn’t 100 percent sure it was Andre’s signature at the bottom of that paper. Could be too short. She watched the man she believed to be her father walk out of a back room and go even further into the back of the shop. She only saw his profile, but that mixed with the memory of seeing him at the church gave her a pretty good idea of what he looked like. He wasn’t as bulky as she’d originally thought. It was obvious from the way his suit fit perfectly to his body that he was buff, though. And he was tall. His hair was cropped short around his ears, but longer on top. He had a perfectly shaped, very short beard. She watched him walk with a sure gait and a stiff bearing. She couldn’t wait to talk to him, hear his voice.
Had he come from his office? She tried to swallow a chunk of bagel, but it stuck in her throat. She coughed a few times before taking a swig of her water to help wash it down. A prickling sensation ran over her scalp. She knew if she didn’t go for it now, she’d just feel sicker and sicker. She’d walk over to his office and sit in a chair and wait for him to come back. Then she’d lay it on the line. His eyes would fill with tears, and he’d grab her up in a hug and want her to move here with him. She focused on that possibility
and stood, walked stiff as a soldier to the room. Sure enough, it was an office.
She sat in the first chair she came to and, after letting out a deep breath, she perused the room. The room was bare except for a few pictures on the desk. She reached out and looked at one. It was a picture of Andre Marconi when he was much younger. His face, while stern looking, had a kindness about it. He wore no beard. Next to him sat a beautiful raven-haired woman with expressive eyes. In her arms was a baby. Kate’s mouth pinched. This baby’s hair was blond and stood up in feathery tufts all over. She squinted and looked more closely. Kate had dark brown hair. She took the locket from around her neck and opened it, comparing the woman and the baby in the picture with the photos on the desk. The woman was not the same. The baby was not the same. She clutched the locket tight. Another dead end.
“Can I help you?” A man’s voice asked. She turned abruptly almost dropping the picture as she turned, but saving it at the last second.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, setting the picture back to right on the desk. “Your family?” she choked out.
“Yes.” Pain crossed his face. “Did we have an appointment?”
She swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. She had no idea what to say. Her eyes lit on an application on his desk. “Actually, I heard you were hiring and wanted to meet you and get an application.” She stood up and put out her hand to shake his as an acquaintance, and not her father.
He nodded. “That shows a lot of gumption. I like gumption, but I’m only hiring managers right now. You look a bit too young to have three years’ experience in the food industry.”
She couldn’t deny that his nose and cheekbones did resemble hers. But that baby was not her. “Oh, too bad. I think I would have liked it here.” She pushed away the disappointment bubbling through her.
“You could leave your name, and I’ll contact you when we’re hiring again.” The lines of wrinkles on his forehead told her he had a lot of things to stress about. She would not be one of them.
“That would be great,” she lied.
He moved behind his desk, pulled out a pad of paper, and handed it to her. She caught a whiff of his cologne. Earthy and yet spicy. She started to write her real name, but she thought better of it and put down a fake one with a fake number. He took it and read off her name. “Well, Gabby Fontana, I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you.” Molten lava bubbled in her gut, and she thought she might be sick, but she reminded herself that she only needed to hold on for a few more minutes. She rushed out of the store and once around a street corner, she bent over and repeatedly gasped for air. Andre Marconi was not her father, and she had almost exposed herself to him. What if he was one of the men the priest was talking about, and that she was supposed to avoid? Perhaps the death of his wife and child had hardened him. She stood and caught her breath, leaning against the wall of the building. Varying emotions filled her. On the one hand, she was relieved that she didn’t expose herself and her thoughts to this man who could have been a very bad man. On the other, she felt a deepening despair that he wasn’t her father. She wrapped her arms around her middle, heat pricking at her eyes. She yanked her journal out and violently scratched out the words that gave hope Andre was her dad. She growled and then threw the notebook into the trashcan only a few feet from her. She put her face in her hands and quietly cried out before rushing back to the trashcan and pulling the journal back out and clutching it to her chest.
She peeked around the corner. People flowed in and out of the bagel shop. She decided to avoid the store all together by walking down the street behind the shop. She heard yelling down an alley right behind Marconi’s shop as she passed. Her curiosity got the better of her and she paused to listen.
“Why not?” She heard a smack. “Get up and tell me why not.” Was that Andre Marconi’s voice? Was that whimpering she was hearing? “You do what I tell you. Understand? You are a gopher. You wanted this.” The whimpering continued, and it sounded like something was being kicked or punched. Someone screamed out. “Now, get outta here, and get it done.”
She stayed where she was, frozen. A boy shot out of the alley. He couldn’t have been more than twelve. He limped and whimpered, leaving a dripping blood trail behind him. She peaked around the corner. A door with the words Marconi Bagels stood thirty yards away, straight down the alley. She could see half of the length of a man in a suit. The very suit Andre Marconi had been wearing when she talked to him. The alley made a T at the end and the edge of the brick building she hid behind also partially hid him. He was on the phone now. “I took care of it…No…he won’t do it again. He’s learned his lesson.” There was a long pause. “Well, if he didn’t, we’ll take care of him. No. Antonio’s here. Yeah. We’ll see.” Several minutes passed while Kate tried to digest what was going on.
“You ready?” Mr. Marconi’s voice again. He spoke to the man in the alley and was off the phone.
“Yeah, I got it. Rocco’s really turning out to be a great earner behind a desk. Who would’ve ever thought it would be so easy?”
“Yeah.” His voice lowered, and she had to strain to hear. “…another matter. It’s Gino’s time. He exposed the family.”
“You want me to do it?”
“I don’t care how it gets done, but I want it done tonight.”
“Consider it done, boss.”
Footsteps pounded her way. A part of her wanted to run away while the other wanted to see who Andre Marconi had been talking to. She decided to do something in the middle. She walked leisurely down the sidewalk like she didn’t have a care in the world. Antonio Marconi passed her, climbing into a car parked on the street.
There was something not right with this family for sure. Did Andre order a hit on Gino? She was suddenly glad she was not Andre’s daughter.
15
She walked quickly and could barely touch the right buttons on her phone to call the cab company, her hands were shaking so badly. The words of Father Cremashci, telling her she was in danger, seemed truer now than ever before. The cab met her a few blocks down. While driving, they passed the Marconi bagel truck. Duran leaned out of the truck service window and took money from a customer. He smiled and laughed with the man as he gave a receipt and change. A flicker of guilt for what had happened with Jace last night rushed over her. The line of customers kept growing as Kate drove past. Her heart jumped in her chest. She looked back and asked the driver to pull over. “I’ll get out here, thanks.”
The cabbie pulled over without a word. She handed him money from her dwindling pile to pay for the ride and then got out, receipt in hand. She shoved it into her pocket and made her way back to the truck. The line was still long, but no one new was getting in it. She sat on a bench and watched cars pass. She had questions for Duran.
Once the line dwindled to only a few, she got up and made her way to the line. Duran’s eyes lit on her and a grin formed on his face. She noticed a dimple in his right cheek for the first time. He winked at her and continued to help the others. A flash of heat hit her face and she looked at her shoes. He had such a strange effect on her. She thought of Jace and their kisses and a whisper of guilt filled her heart. She couldn’t allow Duran to affect her. Nothing could happen between them, and yet she felt a bond with him, one that made her feel she could trust him. She looked at her phone. It was already two and no text or call from Jace. Perhaps she was expecting too much from a celebrity. She’d only been with him for one night, but that night had been the most amazing and thrilling night ever.
Duran cleared his throat and she looked up. She’d also had a thrilling time with Duran. No one was in front of her and he held out a bagel for her to take. She smiled when she saw it was an everything bagel with a caramel schmear. She glanced behind her and sure enough, no one else had joined the queue, and the crowd had thinned considerably.
“You’re back.”
She nodded, still not sure what to say and how to say it. How did you ask someone if their
family was mafia? Instead, she said, “Your cousin’s still sick?”
“Yup. But he’ll be good to go tomorrow. You have plans?” He was moving quickly through the truck wiping things down and putting stuff away.
All her plans were in the toilet. She had no plan. She would never learn who her parents were. It was too painful to sift through everything to find them. And if they had anything to do with the mafia, she didn’t want to have anything to do with them. “You mean now?”
“Yeah. I’ve got to hurry and pack up. I’ve got to be to work in one hour.”
“Oh, sorry. I’ll go.” All her fervor had left her, replaced with doubt and fear.
“No.” He stopped and peered down at Kate. “I was asking because I thought you might want to ride in this sleek, hot truck with me. I could show you where my real job is.”
She chuckled. Maybe she was making too much out of everything. Maybe she hadn’t understood the scene in the alley. Hadn’t Giuliani put an end to the mafia? She was being irrational. She needed to talk it out with Ellie. They’d figure it out together. If Ellie ever texted her. “Okay.”
“Great!” He finished a few things in the truck and then came out to put the awning, tables, and chairs up. “What have you been up to today besides looking for me and my truck?”
