***
It became increasingly difficult to breathe and I stayed kneeling on the floor trying to regain control.
“Natalie, breathe,” Jason whispered in my ear. He was crouching over me, rubbing my back with small, steady motions.
“Who the fuck are you?” I heard Dom ask and then he was leaning over the other side of me. My breathing hitched and everything started to sound very far away, replaced by a roaring in my head. I felt really hot right before the floor rushed up to meet me.
I woke to a harsh medicinal scent, like concentrated cough drops, and opened my eyes to see Callie stepping back holding a blue container of Vick’s Vapor Rub. I was lying on the loveseat in her office and Jason stood behind Callie, his arms crossed as he stared at me. My stomach was slightly queasy and I slowly sat up, inhaling through my nose, the nasal passages wonderfully clear and the oxygen having its desired effects on my body.
“What the hell happened?” I asked, rubbing my temples to sooth the throbbing. That’s when I noticed my knees were trickling blood. Bits of glass stuck to the skin. I reached down and started pulling the pieces out, placing them in my free hand.
“Here,” Callie handed me a damp dish towel and an empty glass. I dropped the shards into the glass and began cleaning up my knees. “You had a panic attack and it was a pretty bad one.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” My cheeks flared in embarrassment.
“Don’t be sorry, I used to get panic attacks right after Frank died. They can sneak up on you. Now, I want to know, who are those guys that triggered it?”
Shit, Grant and Dominic weren’t a hallucination. “Where are they?”
“Right outside the door and it was all I could do to keep them from barging in here. I wanted to make sure you were alright. Jason said all the color bled from your face the moment you saw these guys.”
Jason had moved from behind Callie, but his arms were still crossed. “One guy claims he’s your brother and the other says he’s your boyfriend?”
“Ex-boyfriend and yes, Grant is my brother.” I sighed and sat back against the cushion, the weight of my past crushing down on me.
“That’s a hell of a reaction to seeing your brother,” Jason said, drilling me with his bright eyes.
“I was very surprised to see him and Dominic. I had no idea they were coming and well…it’s complicated.”
“It’s them you’ve been hiding from isn’t it?” Jason stood taller and his hands balled into fists. “Will they hurt you?”
“No! They won’t hurt me and yes, I basically ran away from my old life, but you already know that.”
“Jason, I need you to go back to your bar. Nat’s fine and you can hash this out later,” Callie said before turning back to me. “Nat, I hate to do this since you seem to be in the middle of a personal crisis, but I need to get home and you’re the only server on tonight.”
As if the night couldn’t get any worse, poor Callie was late getting home to her kids and it was my fault. “I’ll be okay, Callie. Can I have a few minutes alone in here to talk to my brother? I won’t be long, promise.”
She gave me a once over and shrugged her shoulders. “Fine, five minutes, that’s it.” She turned to leave, grabbing Jason by his elbow and taking him with her. Like the changing of the guard, as soon as they left, Grant and Dom filed into the office.
The first thing I noticed was that they both looked like shit. Dom’s hair stuck up all over, I imagined from his nervous habit of running his fingers through it, and he had dark shadows under his eyes. Grant’s eyes were bloodshot and his clothes were wrinkled, definitely not his usual put together self. They both had at least two days’ worth of stubble growth, with Dom's bordering on a beard. The second thing I noticed was how my heart accelerated when I saw Dominic and not out of panic, but excitement to be in the same room with him again. My mouth was dry and I cleared my throat to say something, but didn’t know how to begin. “Hi, how are you?” wasn’t going to cut it.
Grant beat me to it. “Nat, what the hell were you thinking?” I refused to be chastised and opened my mouth to defend myself, but he held up his hand to silence me. “If we were able to find you, chances are other people will too, if they haven’t already. Is that what you want – to be unprotected and most likely killed?”
“I can’t get into this with you now because I need to get back to work. You can hang out at the bar or go back to Chelsea’s apartment and wait for me there. I assume you already know where that is?” Both Grant and Dom nodded. “On second thought, you’re better off waiting for me here. Chelsea will shit her pants if you show up at her door.”
Dominic squatted down in front of me and I was forced to look at his face. My heart betrayed me and I felt myself go soft when his eyes met mine. “We will wait for you and we will talk about everything – tonight.” He leaned over and lightly kissed the cuts on my knees before standing. He held out his hand and I instinctively grabbed on to it. He pulled me up to my feet. A wave of dizziness threatened to send me back on my ass, but he sensed it and put an arm around my waist, steadying me. I sucked in a breath as a bolt of longing ripped through my body.
“Are you alright?” he asked and I nodded, stepping away to create some distance between us because I was acutely aware of how my body reacted to being so close to his.
Grant held the door open and we all stepped out into the hallway outside of Callie’s office. To the right of us I heard the standard kitchen racket of sizzling food and cooks yelling out orders. As we moved to the left, towards the bar, those sounds faded and were swallowed up by live music and loud drunks.
I led Grant and Dominic into the main area and spied my tray at the end of the bar. Jason initially smiled when he saw me walk in, but that quickly vanished when he saw Grant and Dom behind me.
“Hey Jason, this is my brother Grant and this is Dominic.” Jason reached across the bar to shake and when he shook hands with Dominic, didn’t let go right away. They studied each other and I noticed their hands were turning an alarming combination of red and white as if they were asserting all of their maleness through their grips in a true test of dominance. Oh Jesus Christ, really? I didn’t have time for this and for once, was grateful I had to go back to work.
“Grant, please make sure they don’t kill each other,” I pleaded before heading into the crowd, holding the tray up in front of my chest like a shield.
Work was a wonderful distraction. After a few initial glances in Dom and Grant’s direction, I realized the threat of a fight with Jason was over and I was able to focus on taking food and drink orders. When I went by the bar to get the drinks, I avoided where they sat and favored Collin’s side of the bar.
“So, what’s with all the drama?” Collin asked when I first went up to him.
“More than I can explain in a few minutes.”
“I see the way that guy with the dark hair is looking at you and Jason’s my bro, is he going to get burned?”
“I hope not,” I answered, looking across the bar at Dom and sure enough he was watching me. Shaking my head I turned my attention back to Collin. “I really like Jason.”
“But?”
Shit, Collin was perceptive. He knew there was a “but”. While I liked Jason, I didn’t love him. No matter how hard I tried to deny it, I still loved Dominic. Having him in the same vicinity only reinforced this fact. “Collin, I can’t talk about this now, the people at table eight are thirsty.” I looked pointedly at the pint glass underneath one of the taps that was overflowing.
“Fuck!” He quickly turned off the flow of beer and wiped the glass off with a towel before setting it on my tray. “Guess I’m out of the running for you anyway, huh?” He winked and I laughed before leaving for table eight.
I set down coasters on the wood table before setting three full pint glasses down. “Do you guys want the check now or want to start a tab?” I asked.
One of the guys, who looked vaguely familiar, handed me a fifty dollar bill. “Just keep
checking on us.” I smiled and stuck the money in my apron before moving onto my other customers. Fifteen minutes later I circled back to table eight and they ordered another round. When I returned, the guy had a twenty dollar bill in his hand. He really looked familiar and it was bothering me. “Have we met before?” I asked.
“Yeah, well, not officially. I work at Vettucci’s; you were in the other night.”
“Oh, right! Good memory.” I remembered now, he was our server during dinner. “Got the night off, huh?”
“Yep, came in to checkout this band. They’re not bad.”
“They are good – kind of a Black Keys sound. Can I get you guys anything else?”
“No, we’re good Natalie. I’ll see you again soon.” He winked at me before turning his attention back to the stage. “Oh and keep the change.”
I thanked him and walked away. Only when I got through the crowd to pick up an order of wings at the kitchen window did I realize how creepy his words were. He seemed pretty confident about seeing me again soon. You’re just being paranoid, I muttered under my breath, but no matter how hard I tried to convince myself of this, a sense of unease refused to leave. Once I dropped an order wings off I hurried over to where Dom and Grant were sitting at the bar. They each had a signature dirty martini in front of them.
I must have looked spooked because they instantly had their guards up and Dom reached for my hand. “Nat, what is it?”
“I’m probably being silly and paranoid, but my gut is telling me something isn’t right.”
“About what?” Grant asked, leaning closer.
“There’s a table of three guys and one of the guys looked familiar. Turns out he’s a server at a restaurant Chelsea and I went to recently. Anyway, he just, I don’t know. He said he’ll see me again soon and I don’t think he was being flirty.” Now that I said it out loud, I sounded ridiculous. For all I knew, they guy could have been interested and I was reading too much into it.
“What restaurant?” Dom asked.
“Vetucci’s.”
Dominic and Grant exchanged a look. Small beads of sweat broke out on Grant’s upper lip. “Which table?”
Without being too obvious, I discreetly pointed to table eight. First Grant spun around on his stool to take a look and then Dominic. He swore under his breath and tightened his grip on my hand. “You’re instincts are good, Nat. Vetucci’s is owned by the Bianchi family. They control the Los Angeles area. I suspect those are some of Bianchi’s men.”
“Oh shit.” My heart rate accelerated and my breathing began to sound more like the pants of an overheated dog.
Dom pulled me against him so he supported my body weight. “Nat, what’s wrong?”
“She’s having another panic attack,” Jason said and minutes later he was next to me, rubbing the small of my back, helping to get my breathing under control.
“Does this happen often?” Grant asked and Jason answered for me, giving Grant a hard stare.
“Yeah, actually, whenever anything reminds her of Philly she starts to freak out.”
Grant’s eyebrows came together in a frown and he looked over my head at Dom. I was more alert now and breathing evenly so I noticed that they silently communicated something.
“Jason, Natalie might be in danger and we can’t take her back to Chelsea’s apartment. Do you know a safe place where she can stay for a few days?” Grant asked. I started to shake my head in protest, not wanting Jason to get involved, but I might as well have been invisible with the testosterone army surrounding me.
“In danger? What the hell is going on?”
“We can’t explain it here, but we need your help. Do you know of a place?”
Jason chewed on the corner of his bottom lip for a few seconds before his eyes lit up. “Yeah, my dad has a house in Malibu. He’s not using it right now and I have the keys.”
Grant visibly relaxed and clapped a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Thanks, man, we owe you. Can we head over there tonight?”
“Yeah, but I need to know what the hell is going on.”
Grant’s mouth formed a straight line as he exchanged another silent communication with Dominic and then he nodded.
“Nat!” Collin called from across the bar. “The natives are getting restless.” He gestured toward a few tables where patrons sat with empty glasses in front of them.
“Shit, I need to get back to work!” I broke away from Dominic’s hold and quickly caught up with orders. I did a cursory refill at table eight without further conversation. I could feel the men watching me as I walked away and literally felt like a moving target.
Chapter 18
After work, unable to deal with either Jason or Dominic, I climbed into Grant’s rental and we drove to Chelsea’s apartment. Jason and Dominic’s vehicles fell in behind us like a mini convoy.
We were on the road, not even three minutes, before Grant started in. “Nat, I know why you left Philly, but did you seriously think it would be so easily left behind?”
I turned away from staring out the window and regarded his profile, which was illuminated from the dashboard lighting. Even in the dim glow I could see the bags under his eyes.
“Things have been going well here, but it’s not like I’ve forgotten everything, Grant. The man I killed still haunts my dreams, what happened to Brittany haunts me. These memories will forever be a part of me.”
“Does Chelsea know what happened?”
I hesitated before confessing that I told Chelsea everything. He clenched the steering wheel tightly with both hands and I saw his jaw bulge as he absorbed my revelation. “And this Jason guy?”
“He has no idea. I haven’t told him anything. He just thinks I had a bad break up.”
Grant shook his head and gave out a choked laugh. “You seem to have moved on just fine. Do you know how devastated Dom was after you left?”
I was stunned into silence. Grant was sticking up for Dominic and I was the bad guy? When did this role reversal happen? Eventually curiosity won out. “It was that bad?”
“Yeah and then there was the constant worry on top of you leaving him. We had no idea where you were. All we knew was the hit on you was still active so at least we knew you were alive, but we knew that could change at any moment.”
“I’m sorry, but I thought…” I turned away so he couldn’t see the tears threatening to spill. That would explain Dom and Grant’s appearance. It looked like they hadn’t slept in days for a reason. “How did you find me?”
“Dante’s brother, Johnny, found a video of you involved in a bar fight at Dirty. It’s all over You Tube.”
“Shit. I knew a video was out there, but there were only like fifty views the last time saw it and the quality sucks. You recognized me?”
“Of course I did, but what’s important is that Johnny’s only met you once or twice and he recognized you.”
“Shit,” I sunk down further in the seat as the reality set in. Grant turned into the apartment complex and came to a stop in an empty space outside Chelsea’s building. Turning the engine off, he waited for Jason and Dominic to find spots to park. “Is Chelsea home?”
“No, she sent me a text saying she’s staying at her boyfriend’s tonight.”
“Good, that will give us time to figure out our next steps. Come on.” He opened his door and climbed out, signaling to Dominic that we’d be down in five minutes.
I led and Grant followed, looking behind him occasionally to make sure no one was sneaking up behind to whack us. I noticed he reflexively reached for his gun, but he wasn’t wearing the holster. “You’re not armed?” I whispered as I unlocked the front door.
“Nope, couldn’t take it on the plane. Dom’s not carrying either.”
“Oh.” Now his hyper-vigilance made sense. I’d grown accustomed to seeing Grant with his gun, like it was an extension of his arm, and not having it with him had to make him feel vulnerable. Feeling the urgency to be less exposed, I quickly ushered us inside the apartment and flicked
on the light in the living room. My blankets were folded and placed on the end of the futon, my pillow on top of the pile. A small dresser, more the size of a nightstand, was set against the far wall closest to the hallway. I walked over to it and started pulling out underwear, a couple of bras and some socks. I then went to Chelsea’s room and opened her closet. She had generously moved her clothes, giving me a third of the space. I grabbed some dresses and shirts off of hangers, then yanked a pair of jeans and shorts off of the shelf that was so full, it threatened to send an avalanche of clothes onto my head.
Returning to the living room, I stuffed my belongings into a pink duffle bag. After a trip to the bathroom, hair product and makeup got crammed into a side pocket. The bag bulged and was misshapen, but the zippers held.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
Grant retrieved a cell phone from the front pocket of his jeans and dialed. “Dom, we’re coming down, everything still clear?” Grant looked at me and nodded. Ending the call, he grabbed my bag and I followed him out of the apartment, locking the door behind us.
The moment we stepped onto the small landing into the night, my heart rate accelerated and I glanced nervously over the balcony at the shadows the landscape created. Anyone could be lurking, hiding in the foliage that lined the walkway leading to the parking lot. Grant’s rental car gleamed like a beacon under one of the lights, but it also illuminated our destination. Over the past few weeks I had stopped looking over my shoulder, but now the fear and anxiety came rushing back in one night. Grant was already at the bottom of the stairs, so I took a deep breath and caught up, walking beside him, taking two steps for every one of his long strides. Within seconds we reached the car and got in, Grant tossing my bag onto the backseat as he slid in behind the wheel.
Jason pulled out first and Grant followed him, with Dominic taking up the rear position. I was reminded of a scene in a movie where the important cargo is kept in the middle of a caravan for protection. Sure I was near Hollywood, but this wasn’t a movie. The invisible band around my lungs began to tighten, and I struggled to fend off another panic attack by taking slow, deep breaths and keeping my eyes on the steady red glow of Jason’s taillights.
Clean Slate (New Mafia Trilogy #2) Page 8
