I find myself struggling against the primal reaction inside me at the sight of another man mentally undressing my girlfriend. With a deep breath, I get my emotions back in check and train my gaze on Lily, finally catching her glance as she sees me on her way to check on another table. She speaks with the young couple for a moment before making her way over to me with the widest smile on her face.
“Dante Martes. My favorite patron,” she comments as she leans her elbow on the counter on the end of the bar next to me.
“Lily Alistair. My favorite waitress,” I reply with a smug grin, knowing that in these past six months she has become much more to me than just my preferred waitress.
“I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.” She sighs deeply and glances around the room. “I’ll get your drink, but I won’t have much time to stick around. My other adoring patrons need me.”
I nod over my shoulder at the table she was serving earlier. “One of your patrons is being a little too adoring with you over there. Baldy was eyeing you up a little more than I’d like.”
Lily looks over in that direction as she sneaks behind the counter of the bar. “Mitch? He’s one of my regulars, and that behavior is pretty regular for him, too.”
If Lily’s trying to make me feel better about this guy, she’s not succeeding. One of these days I’ll persuade her to ditch this job. I don’t know how much longer I can stand to have her work in a place where she’s gawked at by strange men on a daily basis.
“I don’t like it,” I admit as she pops the top from my Sam Adams and sets the bottle down on the counter in front of me.
Lily’s hand finds the side of my face as she considers me thoughtfully. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s fine. I can handle these guys.”
I shake my head with playful defeat, knowing this is a battle I’m not going to win. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop being the overprotective boyfriend, just for tonight.”
With a couple light slaps to my cheek and a satisfied grin, Lily lets go of me. “Good boy. Now enjoy your beer and try not to laugh at me waiting on half the population of this state for the rest of my shift.”
As Lily steps out from behind the bar and walks past me, I have to will my body not to reach out to pull her against my chest. I just keep remembering that at the end of the day Lily and I will go home together and sleep in the same bed. Regardless of anything else, this woman is mine.
I try to focus on my beer to not constantly look over my shoulder for Lily, but she’s a distraction my eyes and mind desperately want to pursue. Leaning my elbow forward on the bar, I bow my head and close my eyes, pleased to find that I can pick out Lily’s cheerful voice from the strange soundtrack of conversation and noise that fills the tavern. I smile, wondering if this is what Lily secretly listens to when she’s fishing for stories to pursue for the paper. All together the conversations are just white noise, but if I listen closely enough, I can actually gain context about what’s being discussed in individual exchanges.
My few minutes of fun at eavesdropping are cut short when I hear something that instantly puts me on alert. It’s the briefest sound of Lily crying out, “Hey!”
I instantly turn in my seat to find Lily at that guy Mitch’s table again, except she isn’t standing next to it taking plates away or serving them drinks. She’s sitting in Mitch’s lap trapped by his large hands around her waist.
Before I even know what I’m doing, my body is reacting. I’m out of my seat and pressing forward to their table, rage pumping inside me with each step. Lily’s eyes widen as she sees me approach. She struggles to push against Mitch to escape his grasp, but he continues to hold her there.
With one swift movement, I forcibly remove Mitch’s right hand from Lily’s side and punch him hard across the face, sending his head flying sideways at the same time Lily scrambles away from his lap. My fist finds his face again and again until his chair is tipped over to the floor and I’m on top of him. His nose and lip are bleeding and he’s crying out in pain by the time I feel hands grabbing at my shoulders to pull me away, but all I want is to make him bleed more.
My heart is beating so rapidly from the fury fueling my actions that I can’t hear anything around me and hardly feel a thing when my head is pushed down roughly to the surface of a table. A firm grip holds me there, and it’s only then that I realize someone is pulling my hands behind my back. Cool metal encloses itself around my wrists, the clinking sound it makes instantly bringing me back to reality.
A reality I’ve tried to avoid since the moment I was born. The worst possible reality I could find myself in.
I just possibly made the worst mistake of my life.
“What are you doing?” I croak out with a glance behind me to the man holding me to the table. He’s dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt with a brown leather jacket. He sure as hell doesn’t look like a police officer.
The man ignores my question completely, calling out to someone across the room, “Yes, call the police. I’ll hold him until they get here.”
“You don’t need to call the police,” Lily implores from somewhere nearby. I can’t see her from my position, but I can hear the shock and nervousness in her voice. “He’s my boyfriend. Mitch was getting handsy and he was just protecting me.”
“It doesn’t matter, miss. Your boyfriend just assaulted a man. I have to let them take him in.”
“Jesus,” Lily breathes out as I feel the vibrations of quick steps in my cheek pressed against the wooden table. Lily’s face suddenly appears in front of me as she leans down to my eye level. “Dante, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
I shake my head, what little I can. “Not your fault. I fucked up.” I take a deep breath and swallow the painful lump forming in my throat. “I just fucked it all up.”
Lily presses her lips to my forehead and holds them there, and by the time she pulls away, her cheeks are stained with tears. I don’t want to see her cry. I don’t want what could potentially be my last memory of her to be of her face filled with sadness and pain.
“I need to see you smile,” I whisper. “Please smile for me, Lily.”
Her lips turn upward at my request, but the sorrow in her expression remains. She reaches for my face at the same moment I’m ripped by my cuffed hands away from the table, her skin coming within millimeters of mine by not actually touching me.
Just like I came so close to achieving true happiness and contentment and a life with Lily only to see it snatched away.
I’m pushed roughly toward the front door, my feet having difficulty finding their footing with all the adrenaline pulsing through my veins. Someone opens the door for me as the man who cuffed me keeps a tight grip on my shoulder and directs me outside.
The man frisks me and empties my pockets, removing my wallet, keys, and cell phone. I try to remain calm as I remember that I’ve never tested my ID with the authorities before. My parents’ attorney friend did his best to get me the most authentic forged papers he could, but the reality is we have no idea how good or bad his resource was.
I guess I’m about to find out.
“Dante Martes,” the man says as he sifts through my wallet and finds my ID. “You picked a bad day to pick a fight in a bar, my friend.”
I remain completely silent as I take in the last remnants of daylight fading into the darkness around me. My body and mind feel numb. It’s almost like I’m similarly fading away into the night. Though the sun will rise again tomorrow, the light in my life may be extinguished for good.
I’m gratefully pulled from those thoughts as I hear a struggle behind me coming from inside the tavern.
“Let go of me!” Lily screams as the front door flies open. Lily bursts into uncontrollable tears as she runs to me, throwing her arms around my neck and holding on to me as if we’ll never see each other again.
Except that we may never see each other again. This could be it.
I fight back my own tears as she grips on to me, desperately wishing my hands we
re free so I could embrace her back and give her the comfort she needs. Instead I nuzzle my head against hers and whisper comforting words in her ear, wishing I could believe them. “I’ll be fine. Please don’t worry about me. Go home and relax, and I’ll be back there with you before you know it.”
In the movement over my shoulder, I can feel Lily shaking her head at my suggestion. “I got you into this mess. If it wasn’t for me and this stupid job, this never–”
“Lily,” I implore her, taking two deep breaths to try to calm both her and myself down. “Don’t say that. This isn’t your fault. This is all me. I’ll handle it.”
Lily pulls back from me with a sob just as I hear the beginnings of a siren echoing from somewhere nearby. She searches my face desperately for a moment before kissing me softly on the lips.
“I love you,” she whispers as blue flashing lights approach from the road and illuminate her face.
The constriction in my throat makes it seem impossible to speak, but I somehow manage to find a way. “I love you forever.”
“Forever,” she repeats with a soft but brilliant smile.
Exactly the way I want to remember her.
22
With each fingerprint they take, I feel my freedom slipping further away. Despite the calm exterior I’m putting forth as they process me at the police station, I’m absolutely terrified inside. I’ve landed myself right in the middle of the fucking lion’s den, completely vulnerable with the potential for my false identity to be exposed for what it is, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
What’s done is done. I made a stupid mistake, and in the end it may cost me everything.
The more I think about it as I stand here while officers take my picture and fill out my paperwork, the more I realize how much I truly failed. After spending my entire life hiding from the world as nothing but a shadow amidst the darkness or a whisper against the wind, it took just one moment of weakness to throw it all away. I became complacent with my new lifestyle. I conveniently forgot to give the proper attention to the rules that have kept my family safe for so long. While I was off having the time of my life, I became careless.
But at least I got to experience life. Lily showed me happiness and love and vitality unlike I ever could have dreamed just a few short years ago. I wouldn’t change the last three months with Lily for anything. All I can do is hold on to hope that I’ll get through this so I can spend more months and years and maybe even a lifetime with her.
I will hold on to hope, because that is the Marini family way.
“Mr. Martes, you get one phone call while we finish processing your paperwork, then we’ll take you to a holding cell.”
I take a seat and nod in response to the woman in uniform behind the desk in front of me as she turns a black office phone around so I can access it. It’s awkward trying to pick up the handset with my hands cuffed together in front of me, but I manage to get it on my shoulder and dial the number of the only person I feel like I can handle talking to right now.
“Dante?” Robert answers worriedly after two rings. I can tell in the tone of his voice that he knows something’s wrong. It’s unusual for me to call him out of the blue like this.
“I need your help,” I respond flatly, getting right to the point as I have no idea how long they’ll let me stay on the phone. “I’m at the police station in town. I need–”
“Jesus Christ. What happened? Who’s with you?” He sounds on the verge of panicking, and internally I hate myself for bringing this kind of stress and worry back into Robert’s life after he’s already been through so much for me and my family.
“I’m alone. I screwed up.” My voice chokes slightly by the last word, and I have to take a deep breath to bring myself back to center.
“What are the charges?”
“Aggravated assault,” I explain, quickly adding, “The guy had his grabby hands all over Lily. How the hell was I supposed to react?”
He sighs heavily. “What’s bail set at?”
“I don’t know.” At his mention of bail, my first thought is getting out of this police station on bail and making a run for it. I could be states away before they realize my identity is a fraud.
Rustling sounds and clinking keys fill the line. “I’m on my way to you now. I’ll see what I can do when I get there.”
“Don’t tell them yet, please,” I quickly interject, hoping he’ll understand who I’m talking about as I have no intention of bringing my parents into this even by mentioning them over the phone call. “I don’t want them to worry.”
“I won’t say a word. We’ll get this figured out. Hang in there.”
“Thank you,” I breathe out in relief, and the call disconnects.
I hang up the phone and sit back in the chair as the woman types vigorously at her computer, looking between the LCD monitor and the paperwork on her desk. My foot taps anxiously against the floor as I wait the few extra minutes for her to finish what she’s doing before she takes me to a holding cell deeper inside the building.
The moment the lock of the barred door clicks shut, a sickening feeling washes over me at the realization of where I am. I know the whole story of the harrowing circumstances that brought my parents together. As I stand here in this tiny room surrounded by concrete walls and barred doors, it’s impossible not to wonder if this suffocating space is similar to the cell my mom was kept in when she was kidnapped and held for ransom. It was a room like this where my parents first spent time together and began to fall in love.
It was also a place where they were physically and mentally tortured by a madman.
I take a seat on the small cot attached to the wall and lean forward with my head in my hands, trying desperately to control my emotions and not become overwhelmed at the thoughts racing through my head about my family’s past and what lies ahead for my future.
Regardless of the possible outcomes for me, I can’t let my mistakes destroy the rest of my family’s lives. My parents deserve to be happy and safe after everything they’ve been through just to survive and be together, let alone for all they’ve done to raise me. My grandparents sacrificed everything to keep my family safe, being uncooperative in every aspect of the authorities’ investigation and not giving a single detail about us that could feed into the subsequent worldwide social media campaign to save an innocent baby from his criminal parents.
A life of solitude has been a small price for me to pay compared to the sacrifices of my parents and grandparents. If this is my turn to pay a steeper price, so be it, but I will not let my family suffer more because of something I’ve done. I refuse to let them carry that burden.
I’m ripped from my thoughts at the sound of jingling keys approaching from down the hallway. A young male officer inserts the key in the lock to my cell and opens the door, motioning for me to exit. “You’re free to go.”
The breath is momentarily stolen from my chest at the man’s words. Free to go. I owe Robert big for this. It can’t have been more than an hour since I called him and he’s already paid my bail and secured my freedom.
I try to hide the utter elation I feel inside as I follow the officer down the hallway and back toward the main entrance of the building. An officer inside a glass security booth buzzes us through a locked door that opens into the reception area. I look around for Robert, but my eyes find someone completely unexpected instead.
“Lily?”
Her face blossoms into a smile the moment she glances up at me. She’s immediately out of her chair and bolting toward me. “Dante!” She crashes against my chest and presses her lips to mine in a desperate kiss.
I pull her into my arms, confused about why she’s here but immensely grateful for her presence nonetheless. “What are you doing here?”
She pulls back from me with a satisfied grin on her face. “I got you out.”
“You paid my bail? Lily, I–”
“I didn’t pay a dime. I talked to Mitch and convinced him to drop th
e charges against you.”
I stare at her, utterly speechless. My brain and mouth seem to have forgotten how to formulate words.
“Thank you,” I finally manage to say even though those two words do nothing to tell her how truly grateful I am for what she’s just done for me. She just saved me more than she really knows.
“Sir, we have your belongings here,” the escorting officer interjects as he motions me to a nearby window at the security booth. I take my keys, wallet, and phone out of the clear plastic bag on the counter and tuck them away in my pockets as he signs the piece of paper also sitting on the counter. “You just need to sign here, and then you can leave.”
I take the pen and sign my name. With a nod to the officer, I quickly turn around and walk away toward the door.
Toward my second chance at freedom.
The moment I step outside into the darkness, it feels like I can breathe again for the first time in hours. I feel different being out here now. The experiences of this evening have changed my perspective, and I can no longer look at the outside world the same way. I don’t know if I can continue down this path I’ve been so content to walk these past few months.
Today has been a wakeup call. Freedom is not something to be careless with. It should be cherished and protected, because to lose it would be to lose everything, and that’s not a life worth living.
“The next time you decide to get in a bar fight, try not to do it when there’s an off-duty cop around,” Lily jokes as she slips her hand into mine, immediately pulling me from my thoughts.
I barely manage a smile at her playful scolding of me as I stop and look around the parking lot. Lily’s little red car is nearby, but Robert’s green SUV is nowhere in sight. Did he already stop at the station and go to my parents’ house to get the bail money?
Beyond Resistance (The Ransom Series) Page 16
