by Anna Widzisz
“Sì. Get in,” he demanded, approaching the girl.
“But I didn’t even change. I'm all sweaty and tired.”
“Rosalia packed some clothes. Do as I ask you while I'm still nice, Lynette,” he growled, his rough voice making her shiver. The fact that he’d called her by her name was worrying. He was upset, and Selvaggio was only adding oil to the fire.
Seeing this, the girl got into the car without any further questions, waiting for Jason, who still needed to exchange a few words with one of the men watching her, then sat in the driver's seat and took off, with a loud tire screech.
After twenty minutes, they stopped in front of a tall, glazed skyscraper. They parked in an underground parking lot and took the elevator to the fifteenth floor, still not exchanging a word. Jason seemed to be thinking about something all the time and Lynette didn’t want to annoy him. Every minute he was checking his phone.
Leaving the elevator, they came to the end of the corridor on the highest floor. Jason pulled the keys out of his pocket and opened the front door, letting the girl pass through the doorway. It was a sizable apartment. The walls were light gray and the floor dark brown. The interior had been decorated in a modern style. All black furniture, which perfectly contrasted with the white touches on the shelves. But the flat itself looked completely soulless. No pictures, no scattered clothes. Even the TV remote control was located on the decoder as if it had never been used before.
Stepping inside, there was a spacious living room overlooking the beautifully illuminated Seattle which immediately caught her attention. Going to the left, the kitchen was combined with a lounge, a kitchen island the only thing separating them. Further, there was a dressing room filled with clothes. Black and white garments hanged neatly. It didn’t take Lynette long to figure out that the place belonged to Jason. He seemed like the type to live in such a penthouse, and the way things were arranged proved it even more. He was barely there; mostly out in the field working, so it only seemed right that the apartment would look like this.
Noticing Jason’s absence, she followed through the corridor, entering the only room to which the door was ajar. It was a bedroom. The walls and floor were the same color as the rest. In the middle of the room was a huge bed, and it had her backpack laying on top; apparently, the only thing in this apartment that was out of place. On both sides, there were small nightstands. The TV hung on the wall in front of the bed. Not far away was a bookcase, filled with mostly detective stories that looked a bit worn out and old. Everything beautifully harmonized together, although Lynette was fairly sure that Carnovale hadn’t dealt with the decor himself.
“You will sleep here today,” Jason murmured opening the door just outside the bedroom. “Here’s the bathroom. In the cupboard under the window, you have clean towels. Make yourself at home.”
Lynette smiled gently at him, took her backpack and went to the toilet. She took a quick shower, changing into comfortable clothes. Jason’s annoyed could be heard from the distance. He talked quite loudly to someone over the phone, and as soon as he saw the girl in the doorway, he hung up, throwing the cell phone on the glass table. His eyes went from anger to calm almost too quickly.
“You can talk. I don’t mind,” she replied, seeing that he’d ended the conversation because of her.
“He was getting on my nerves anyway. People can’t fucking do anything properly. It’s like I’m their fucking father who has to spell it out to them and correct their mistakes one by one,” he growled, sitting down on the couch with Lynette following him. She tucked her legs under her chin, waiting for the man to say something more. “The police got interested in your father. And you were officially considered a suspect in David’s murder case,” he added.
A gasp escaped her lips. “How? Do they have any evidence? I didn’t even know him or talked to him!” she cried, rising to her feet.
Saying that she was feeling badly would be an understatement. She was furious and resentful. She didn’t understand why someone could have found her guilty so easily.
“But your father did business with his uncle. He was sending shipments to us. From Colombia first to Sicily, then Seattle. The police found some papers that suggested it. Thankfully it didn’t say that those cargos were drugs because Severo would be in jail right now. However, one of the people was so careless that he forgot to review every document related to Famiglia’s interests. And because of your father’s connection you can be guilty by default. They don’t have hard enough evidence to arrest you, but I’m sure they're looking for it now.”
“What does the fact that padre did business with David’s uncle have to do with all of this?”
“Sco, his uncle, Aggeo Binenti, is dead,” he explained, entering the kitchen. He sat on one of the bar chairs.
“In conclusion, the police suspects me of the murder of a boy with whom I didn’t have even the slightest contact because padre killed his uncle? And I have to go down for it?”
“Sco, calm down. Nobody will go down for anything. First of all, you're still underage, so they will not put you in jail, and besides, your father is already doing everything in his power to prevent it.”
”Jason, you know very well that as a Capo’s daughter I can be easily tried as an adult for a murder. Any judge will sign on this.”
Lynette snorted knowing how hard mafia life was nowadays. People got caught, blamed, set up all the time. It wasn’t easy to keep such a big secret like the Famiglia without slipping up. Most of the gangsters are already serving their time. Severo might have many contacts in judiciary branch and politics, but sometimes it’s not enough. So to say that he is taking care of the case is far from making her calm.
“Why am I here? Isn’t it against the rules for us to be alone? Especially since I’m engaged now,” she fired, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I took you here in the case that, by some miracle, the police would like to intrude with the order to search or arrest. Although that shouldn’t happen. It was your father’s order and not my decision to take you here. Even after all the drama, Severo trusts me with you. I don’t give a shit about the engagement. It’s not like Falcone would be able to take you in himself. Even your father has some limits.”
Lynette got that. Jason’s place was the last one where someone would think of coming in search of her. And she was safe with him. Something that was certainly not true in Noah’s presence. This situation was temporary, seeing as, truthfully speaking, if anyone was able to settle this matter, it was Lynette’s father. Nothing happened in this city without his consent or knowledge. But somehow it had probably escaped his notice that it was not just the police who were investigating the Famiglia. The FBI was privy to all this and they were probably the ones pulling the strings. Lynette knew it well but struggled to say anything.
At some point, she heard her phone ringing. She turned around, noticing it on one of the armchairs, not remembering leaving it here.
“The cellphone is ringing again. Get it because it’s starting to be annoying,” Jason declared, then walked into the bathroom.
A "D" was displayed on the screen, as Lynette had put down Drew’s number under this name so that it wouldn’t be a problem if someone saw her calls or messages. She looked around, making sure Carnovale was still in the toilet and picked up, reminding herself that she had arranged a meeting with Ryder.
“Hi, I’m sorry, but something came up and I completely forgot about today. Next time, alright?”
“No problem, but what,” Drew began, yet, Selvaggio didn’t let him finish and hung up, hearing the bathroom door opening.
She turned off her cell phone completely and put it back on the table, turning towards Carnovale who’d returned to the lounge in just his black sweatpants.
“Everything all right? Who was calling at this hour?” he asked.
“A mistake.” She shrugged, feeling the uncomfortable knot in her stomach that appeared every time she lied to the man.
“If you say
so.” He nodded, sitting on the couch with the remote in his hand. “Do you want to watch a movie?”
“Maybe next time. I’m exhausted so I'd rather just go to sleep if you don’t mind.”
Jason regarded her. “Sure. In the guest room, you have everything prepared. Sleep tight,” he replied. Lynette bent down stretching her arms towards him. He hugged her, kissing her on the top of her head. “And one more thing, Sco. Tomorrow I will take you to do some self-defense training. You won’t be going to school, so we will have time for it.”
She nodded and then went into the bedroom, closing the door behind her and going to bed, trying to at least get some sleep.
§ § §
Unbinding the bandages from her hands, she sniffed loudly. Her breath was uneven and her hair, in spite of being tied in a ponytail, came out on every possible side, slightly obscuring her face.
From eight o'clock in the morning, she’d been with Jason in the gym which was located in his apartment building. However, no one was there apart from them, because, as Carnovale had said, they all went to work and school in the morning. Only in the afternoon did a lot of people start to appear there. Therefore, when Jason had nothing to do in the morning, he came here.
She stared at the man hitting the punching bag with such force that it appeared as if, after two hours, he hadn’t lost any enthusiasm. He seemed focused on his goal, but she knew him well enough to come to the conclusion that it was only a disguise, and he was deep in thought, not paying much attention to his movements. He had been distracted since yesterday evening, and she knew why. He kept thinking about David's murder and the investigation, though he didn't want to let it be seen. He only repeated that the whole situation was not as serious as it looked, but with the way he was acting the reassurance wasn’t making Lynette feel better.
The man was teaching her self-defense, which at first went terrible, but with time she fell into the rhythm and the strikes came out better, just as dodges. Jason even praised her for catching up so fast.
“Have you rested?” he asked, lifting his eyes from the bag.
Lynette nodded, setting aside a bottle of water and rising from the ground, stepping onto the mattress and coming closer to him.
“Remember that if you fight an opponent, you will have a bigger problem with a man than a woman. But you are fast, so use it to your advantage and move from one place to another every second. That way the attacker won’t have the chance to rethink his next move. It will take him off guard,” he said.
He stood in front of the girl and grabbed her by the forearm.
“If someone, somehow holds one hand up, it's possible that he wants to hit you. Use this to dodge, turn around with your back to them and hit them with your elbow in the ribs. Try it.”
The girl noticed Jason raising his hand as she bent down at the same time, freeing herself from his grip. She clenched her fist, turned her back and threw her elbow backward, but collided with Jason’s hard chest. He didn’t even react. She only felt his muscles tense.
She moved away immediately.
“You must aim well. It's best if you hit the ribs. Again.”
They repeated this exercise several times. The effect was the same. After some time, she couldn’t even break free of his grasp. She lacked strength after such a long training session.
“Can we work it out another time? I’ve had enough,” she moaned, rubbing her sweaty face with her hand.
Jason smiled at her, shaking his head.
“I doubt you will tell this to someone who attacks you. Think that you might as well be running away from someone before you have to fight. Or it could even happen after playing tennis. Anything. You will be tired, but you have to defend yourself. You need adrenaline,” he pressed.
“If someone attacks me for real, I will have plenty of adrenaline. Then I can prove myself.”
“Not if you don’t know how. So now, I will seriously try to hurt you. Any movement you won’t resist will be another one that I will use against you.” Lynette laughed at the words. She was convinced that he wouldn’t be able to hurt her but she nodded, focusing on her opponent.
Jason repeated exactly the same grip, but it was a bit stronger than the previous one. Before he could do anything more, the girl leaned back, jerking her arm to get out. Nothing changed. He turned her so that she was with her back to him and put his hand around her neck, surprising her. It wasn’t a gentle, innocent pressure as he was actually using some of his strength. Certainly not giving his all, because then he could snap her neck without a problem.
“Fight,” he ordered into her ear.
The teenager swung her leg and threw it back landing a kick on his thigh. It loosened his grip. She banged her elbow sideways, bending down when she felt the strength to move away from the man.
“What was that, Jason?” she cried, fury almost palpable.
She didn’t expect such behavior. She was convinced that he’d been bluffing, saying that he would try to really disable her. Never had Lynette imagined that Jason would actually fight her.
“You needed motivation and frankly it wasn’t that bad. You still need to practice as the kick was wrongly aimed. The thigh is hard so only an element of surprise gave you that advantage. But the hit to the side was good. It could always be stronger, but it wasn’t bad.”
“Next time you want to raise my adrenaline level, bring my father here. I will gladly show what I can do,” she hissed, holding her forearm. She felt a bruise forming, but it was the last thing on her mind right then. Agreeing to this training, she’d assumed that it wasn’t going to be easy.
“We're going to refresh and go to one more place,” he said, pulling off his sweatshirt, revealing a perfectly sculpted chest and stomach. Then he rubbed his face with it and slid it over his shoulder. He might have looked tired, but Lynette was sure that it wasn’t anywhere near to what she was feeling. However, overall, she liked feeling that she had some strength in herself, or at least that she would gain it with each training session. Being a woman in the mafia didn’t mean that she had to stay weak and count on men to protect her. She might want to have a man, but she was certainly never going to need one.
Soon after, they were in Jason's car, leaving Seattle to travel to Lakewood. In less than an hour, they were on the outskirts of the city with nothing more but trees and dirt roads all around. Other than that, there was an isolated, large-sized warehouse built out of dark-gray metal. Besides the large sliding doors, no windows were noticeable. The whole thing looked like one of the normal, mafia-owned properties. In such places, they usually stored various shipments or weapons.
“What are we doing here?” Lynette asked looking at the building with curiosity and slight anxiety.
“I will teach you how to use a weapon,” he answered dispassionately.
He didn’t intend for her to ever use the skills that she was taking on, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially taking into account recent events.
Lynette smiled slightly at him and nodded her head, as she’d been expecting that. He pushed open the door, the metal giving way without difficulty and sliding away from them. It was completely dark inside, that was why the man immediately turned on the light, surprising the girl with what she saw. Under one of the walls stood a huge metal rack with lockable doors, and behind them were various types of weapons on display. From simple knives to knuckle-dusters, and all kinds of pistols and machine guns, which were very often used in the mafia circles. Nearby was a punching bag, on which bandages for boxing were hanging down. To the opposite side, there was a small table with one chair. A bulletproof vest and a black sweatshirt were slung over the back of the chair. On the opposite side from the entrance, the whole wall was covered with something in the form of a black mattress, and in the middle, there was a shooting range.
She stepped closer, noticing that Jason had recently had to fire shots because there were holes in the paper-target. They were all in the middle or millimeters from it.
“Do you like it?”
“Did you arrange everything yourself?” she asked, getting a nod. “Why haven’t you ever told me about this place?”
“Because it was only in the summer that I did something with this place. Earlier, I kept my cars here, but I found that I was wasting a bit of space to use it simply as a garage,” he explained.
Of the cars he had, Lynette was aware. Each Made Man in the Famiglia had at least two unregistered cars in case they would have to skip town immediately. Especially when the police were involved. It would give them a little bit of time to hide, if necessary. This was Jason’s place to hide the cars.
He went to the arsenal, pulling out several guns. His attentive look slid to the girl and after a moment he grabbed one of the pistols, put the shells in and took a place, a suitable distance from the target.
“This is a Beretta M9,” he started at what Lynette raised her eyebrow, silencing him.
“I know my weapons perfectly well, Jason. I’m not that clueless.” She laughed, taking the gun away from him. She reached for the earmuffs to suppress the sound that would come out when she fired the shot and put it on her ears.
“Then tell me something about this one,” he challenged.
“Beretta M9 is a self-contained pistol. It comes from Italy, although they produce it in the States. Caliber with a diameter of 9 millimeters. The magazine is a double-row, exchangeable for fifteen rounds,” she said easily.
Despite not using a weapon, she knew a thing or two. After sixteen years, it was only fair to see and hear things about guns. As she’d been younger, it had made her curious to learn even more. Searching for the information online wasn’t hard and something she’d liked doing.
“I will not even ask how you know all this.” He chuckled. “In this case, I'll just show you how to shoot,” he continued, stepping closer to her.
He stood behind her, supporting her hands with his. He lifted them up, trying to stabilize them, telling her at the same time what to pay attention to while shooting in order to avoid hurting herself. A moment later, he walked away a few steps, giving Lynette space to practice.
