Adriana looks like she’s on the verge of a breakdown.
What happened to you?
My anger with her fades to the background because seeing her like this is like a vicious punch to my gut. She looks like a beaten dog.
“Ade.”
She lifts her head and finally recognizes me. The look of misery on her face momentarily cracks. It’s like a ray of sunlight hitting her face, making her glow for the first time in weeks. She smiles and then painfully buries it, turning her head away.
“W—why are you here?”
“I’m here because Maria called me. You’re off the rails.”
“I can have a drink without her permission,” she snaps suddenly. “Or yours.”
The sharp look in her eyes makes me want to slap her. I want to grab her neck and take her little pink mouth in mine, and then force her head over my cock.
Jesus Christ, do not get hard in this place.
“Maria says you hit the bottle everyday and that you dropped all your classes. Classes that I paid for, by the way.”
Her eyes gleam as she stares back down at the table, looking so low that my heart makes a sickening thud.
“Damn it, Maria,” she says under her breath. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to take you back home. You’re not well without me and as far as I’m concerned, you’re still mine.”
I didn’t mean to say that.
She looks up at me with the most strangest, hopeful expression. It’s like a green light. Go ahead, do it.
“We broke up,” she says in a flat voice.
I ignore her. “I also came to warn you about Carmine. He has a history of violence with women.”
Suddenly, her back tenses. “What? He’s never—but he’s so nice all the time. Are you sure?”
I’m glad you and that asshole are getting along so well.
“Yes, I am.” She looks like she’s on the verge of tears. “You need to be very careful when you leave him.”
“I’m not leaving him.” The corners of her mouth droop and she takes a shuddering breath.
What? “I’m sorry, did you not hear me? He beat a girl to death, if you want to know the details.”
Adriana flinches horribly and then shakes her head. She looks defeated. “I heard you fine. It doesn’t make any difference.”
Doesn’t make any difference?
“What the fuck is going on? I tell you that the man you’re dating has issues with women, and you don’t blink an eye?”
Now I understand why Maria was convinced there was nothing going on between her and Carmine. She looks like she suffered years of misery.
She lifts up her glass to her trembling lips, but I grab her wrist. She gives me a venomous look when I dig my thumbs into her wrist, forcing her to put it down. I drag the drink towards myself so that she can’t grab it again.
Adriana is like a shell. My hand lifts to her face to wipe the hair away from her eyes, which are like dark pools, shimmering with tears.
“We broke up, Vince.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” I say in a bored voice. “I can tell by looking at you that you want me. Let’s go home.”
“No.”
I wait it out as she squirms in her seat, tortured but unable to pull herself away from me. Years of experience with worming information out of people makes me realize that she’s on the verge of telling me something I’m not supposed to know.
Adriana’s small face pulls away from my hand, even more tears streaking down her face.
A sharp pain pieces my chest. This is torture for me. Torture.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I want no part in watching you destroy yourself.” I gesture towards the drink in front of her. “This shit isn’t going to make your problems go away.”
I get up to leave and the chair scrapes the floor as I push it back.
“No, don’t go!”
She lunges at me and takes my hand, sobbing on it. Huge wracking sobs shake from her chest as she cries all over me. It’s so loud that the other patrons glance at us nervously. My chest tightens horribly, and I can’t help but feel it’s all my fault.
Shit.
I move closer to her and stoop down, taking her thin shoulders in my hands. “Adriana, let’s go to my apartment. We can talk there,” I say in a low voice.
Her eyes grow round like saucers. “No, I can’t!”
I am going to smash something.
“I can’t do this. You’re fucking some other guy and you keep playing with me like I’m your goddamn toy. I’m sorry, but I need to move on.”
Suddenly the tears subside enough for her face to burn a deep, angry red. “Everything I’m doing is for you, you piece of shit!”
“What?”
What does that mean? How—?
Her face suddenly blushes and she looks horrified at her mistake.
Jack’s words suddenly echo in my head: “Jesus Christ, you are so fucking stupid!”
A sudden, nauseating thought drops in my head. A couple times I wondered if she was forced into it. What if she was?
She buries her face in her hands and yanks on her hair. Adriana looks quite deranged. “Oh, God.”
“Ade, is someone forcing you to be with Carmine?” My trembling hands seek out her head, but she stands up and slaps cash on the table.
She gets in my face, her lips trembling. “If you ever cared about me at all, you won’t interfere. You will not tell anyone.”
I’m right. I’m so stunned that I almost let her walk around me. I side step in front of her, and she gives me a pleading look.
“You’re coming with me to my apartment, and you’re going to tell me everything.”
I feel scared, as if something I’ve been avoiding is about to corner me. My hand closes over her wrist and then I drag her towards the exit before she can say a word.
“Vince!” She tries twisting her arm out of my hand. “Let me go, or I’ll scream!”
I whirl her around so that her arms are against my chest, resisting against me feebly.
“Go ahead,” I grin as her pupils shrink into small circles. “I’ll knock you out if I have to, but you’re coming with me.”
“You don’t understand! I can’t be seen with you!”
Who the fuck told her she had to be with Carmine? Jack?
Heat rises in my face and my teeth clench together. All this time, he knew.
He knew and never said a fucking word to me. The strange things he said about Adriana prove it. But why?
Maybe the fear in her eyes isn’t paranoia. Maybe it’s real.
“Who is doing this to you?”
She pulls away from me, still struggling. Her eyes are blinded with tears. “Let me go, Vince. Please.”
“No.”
She won’t tell me? Fine, I’ll drag it out of her. I steer her towards my apartment building. The streets are thankfully devoid of people. Her eyes dart around as if searching for something. Someone. Then she stops moving and her arm shakes in my grasp.
A shadowy, male figure walks towards us. The streetlight illuminates the face I’ve been seeing in my dreams these last couple weeks, haunting me. Gloating at me.
“Carmine, thank God!”
Adriana’s strangled voice yells for him, and once again I feel a stab of betrayal. What is she doing?
The fucking bastard looks calm and collected. He even has the nerve to smile at me. His windowless, empty eyes stare at me.
Adriana tries to jerk out of my grasp, but I keep her against my chest. Every instinct inside me screams to keep her away from him. Not because she’s mine, but because he’s dangerous.
“Fancy seeing you here. Both of you.” His voice rumbles as he glances towards Adriana.
I want to kill him so badly. I visualize myself reaching into my jacket pocket to grab my piece, to see his body jerk back when I pull the trigger. But I can’t kill him here.
“It’s not my fault. He dragged me from the bar
. My roommate t—told him where I was.”
The fucking lies. I let go of her roughly and she runs into Carmine’s arms, who runs his hands anxiously over her face. “It’s all right, hon.” A smile twitches on his face. “You’re safe.”
Adriana basically told me that she was not with Carmine out of her own will. She was crying, shaking, and miserable. Now, she looks completely different. She looks at him like how she used to look at me, and it’s like all the air left my lungs. She lurks behind him, fear suddenly blossoming on her face as she looks over Carmine’s shoulder, directly in my eyes. She mouths something: Don’t.
“I had a feeling she might be here when she wasn’t returning my calls, and I was right. I can see that you don’t give a damn about what she wants, but maybe you’ll care if I put a fucking bullet in your head. Stay the fuck away from my girl.”
“She’s not—” My voice stops when I see Adriana violently shaking her head. I need to at least find out what’s going on before I do anything. I’m so fucking confused, I want to scream.
My stomach turns as I realize that the whole break-up might have been a farce. Something to keep me away from both of them.
I shrug at Carmine, gritting my teeth when I see Adriana wrap her arm around his. Then I turn my back on him, even though everything inside me fights against it.
Besides, I have work to do.
I need to find Jack.
I’m going to find him and kill him.
* * *
There’s a garroting wire I always keep in my trunk. Perfect for this kind of thing. Usually when wiseguys whack each other, it’s silent. Friendly, even. They never know it’s coming. Your friends will be around you, smiling and laughing, and suddenly you’ll feel a punch in your chest and then you’re bleeding on the floor, looking down a nozzle. Bam. Dead.
Whacking a boss is no joke, though. The other families could exact revenge on me. Or another captain. I’ll need to leave town for a long time. Probably indefinitely. I’ll take Adriana with me.
I’m not exactly in the best state of mind to think about plans.
I just need to sneak up on that sick fuck and strangle him until he stops kicking. There is the problem of his wife being in the house, but I’ll deal with that when I get there.
He fucked me over. Whatever deal he has with Carmine cost me the love of my life. He made her suffer.
And for that he’s going to die.
My car screams down the highway to Long Island. I’m going so fast that I realize I might die on the way to kill Jack, so I slow down.
Why did she get forced into this? And why won’t she let me help her?
I think of them together, of the things she must be doing with Carmine until I feel so sick with anger. I pound on the steering wheel and scream my head off. Part of me wants to wheel around and drive straight towards Carmine and run him over, but I can’t kill him while Adriana’s there. The car explodes with a long string of the most vile insults I can think of and before I know it, I’m almost at Jack Vittorio’s house. The boss of the family. My father figure.
Some father you were.
I rip open the glove compartment and quickly pull on the black leather gloves. I’m parked a safe distance from the house, so I get out and open the trunk. I slip the garroting wire inside my jacket, the silencer, even a blackjack, and all the tools I need to kill. Because I’m determined to see him dead.
There’s the slightly problematic thing that I want to ask him why. I want to hear him defend himself. If I kill him, I’ll never get that.
Creeping through backyards of neighbors, I vault over the fence into his yard and I see him standing on his back porch, smoking a cigar. Fucking perfect. I’m hiding behind the trees. All I have to do is keep moving from shadow to shadow, and sneak up behind him, or wait until he turns around. And then I’ll have him. Or I can just shoot him now.
Some of the fire leaves me. How could Jack do this to me?
My jacket buzzes and I curse under my breath, opening it to read whatever the fuck someone’s texting me.
Come home. We need to talk. - Ade
I read it several times until the white burns my eyeballs. Come home now? My lips touch the screen.
Jack stares into the darkness, almost as if he can sense me there. He digs the cigar in the heel of his shoe, the red light snuffing him out. Then his back turns towards me. He walks towards the sliding glass door, and opens it.
Then he’s inside.
I sit there, stewing. I inhale the scent of the trees and think about her message, imploring me to wait.
Fine, Adriana. I’ll wait.
One day won’t make much of a difference for me.
For Jack? It might just be his last night alive.
ADRIANA
What the hell am I going to do?
I pace in the darkness of my dorm. I finally got rid of Carmine after giving him an excuse that I didn’t feel well, and then he dropped me to my dorm. Maria’s out with her boyfriend, so I have a few, precious hours of blessed silence and solitude.
When I think about my problems a few months ago, I want to laugh. A few months ago, all I had were a few debts, a crazy mother, school, and a dead dad. Compared to this, it was child’s play. I have threats hanging over my neck, making me so ill that I can barely move. On the way to the casino the other day, I had to stop to vomit in a trashcan.
My gaze flashes towards the mini-fridge where I know there’s more liquid poison to drown it all out. And it makes it worse, but I can’t stop.
Even if it’s destroying me.
I stoop down to my knees. Powerless, I open the door and grab the cool bottle of vodka. I grab the coffee mug and pour. Then I wince and down it.
It slips harmlessly down my throat. Water. Maria must have dumped it all.
Shrouded in darkness, I almost trip over the abandoned mathematics books from all my classes and my heart sinks. Maria lets me squat in the dorm, even though I’m technically not supposed to be here.
Goddamn it. I’m so completely screwed.
Is there no escaping this?
I’m sick of being his pawn. I’ve sacrificed everything and I let him control me.
Not anymore.
I have to let go of my fear and accept the possibility that I might die, and be okay with that. I chose this when I chose Vincent. This life is anything but glamorous. It’s murky and deadly.
Vince is going to do something. I know he is. I knew it when I saw the shadow in his eyes when I went to Carmine. He won’t stand for this, and he’ll be killed. He won’t see it coming.
But I do.
I can stop it.
Adrenaline sears through my veins, clearing my mind of all that foggy poison. The steps are laid out in front of me clearly. It’s so simple that I don’t know why I never thought of it before. I know exactly what to do.
My hand dives into my purse to grab my cell phone. I open it and quickly type a text message to Vince: Come home. We need to talk. - Ade
I won’t play by Tony’s fucking rules anymore. I won’t stay away from him. The monsters who destroyed my life when I was a child won’t destroy my adult one, too. No more.
It’s time to fight fire with fire.
* * *
I let myself in Vince’s apartment with the same key I was supposed to get rid of months ago. He never changed the locks. I allow a small smile to myself.
Nothing has really changed, except the place looks a bit messier. His clothes are haphazardly thrown in the laundry basket, which looks like it’s been piled up for days, and there’s a stack of dishes in the sink. He was always so meticulous about keeping everything clean.
Somehow this little derailment of his habits makes me choked up. I collapse onto the couch and my fingers graze over a discarded jacket. It still smells like him.
I’m tired as fuck and I could sleep for years. My head sways a little. I get up to keep myself awake and I wander into Vince’s study. He never used it. It was always my place to work. T
he big mahogany desk was perfect for spreading all my books to study. Sometimes, Vince would keep me company and read a book. I smile at the memory.
A jacketed arm suddenly slides around my neck and yanks me hard. I grapple with the steel arm around my throat and utter a scream as he spins me around. My back hits the wall and I stare into Vince’s livid eyes.
“Shit, it’s you.” He shoves me, suddenly angry. “I could have killed you.”
I didn’t even hear him coming. My heart’s still beating in heart attack territory, and I smooth my hands over my neck, coughing. For a moment, he looks just as scared as I feel, but then his eyes narrow.
His hand wraps around the back of my neck and squeezes. My heart thumps wildly as he forces my head to look up, and then his hot lips are on mine. His body rustles against mine, pinning me against the wall as I respond hungrily. It’s like he’s stolen every drop of energy in my blood and now there’s only a faint buzzing. My hands lift to his sides and I wrap my arms around him, squeezing so hard that he grunts.
I missed him so fucking much.
I pull his head against my mouth, my lips trembling into a moan as warmth spreads over my skin, where he’s touching me. Desire, so absent these days, flames into a raging forest fire. I haven’t touched him in weeks, and now we’re alone and he’s all mine.
He pulls back, breathing hard, his face only inches from mine. “I had to do that after watching that fucking asshole with his hands all over you.”
The grittiness in his voice makes the heat rise in my cheeks. I feel faint. Dizzy. Like the first time he kissed me. I place a palm on his chest to steady myself.
“Vince, I—”
“You have some balls coming here, you know. I could have taken care of that prick. Why did you stop me? Is this another one of your fucking games?”
“I’m not supposed to be here, but I can’t stay away from you. I can’t do it without you anymore.”
Vincent’s angry breath blows a strand out of my face. “You’re speaking in fucking riddles.”
“I’m sorry.”
His hand is still balled in my hair and his fingertips brush the base of my neck. A cruel grin spreads across his face. “You’re sorry? Oh, that’s fucking nice. I’ve just spent the last couple months looking like Joe Jerk-off to everyone I know, because the woman I was going to marry dumped me and ran into the arms of another fucking mafioso.”
Double Blind (Vittorio Crime Family #2) Page 13
