Chapter 21—Maria

10 years ago …

Calm and cool…

Calm and cool…

I could do this. I could definitely do this. I could walk into this party and act like I was invited. Anything for my best friend who’d suddenly decided to take it upon herself to go crazy.

Would have been nice if she’d gone the other kind of crazy and did something like sell everything and move to Vegas, or get a tattoo on her face, or get a fucking nipple piercing.

Any of those things could have been fine and manageable. Better than what she was doing now.

Dating a host of men that looked like trouble. My God, did they ever look like trouble.

In my quest to find out who Mr. Mystery Man was I’d sunken to a new low. The other night I’d followed her to a party at a fancy penthouse in the city. She’d gone there with one guy who’d looked like a capo from one of the crime families and when she got there she linked up with another guy who looked even more like the rough stuff. She’d linked up with him and started kissing him.

Men with deep pockets. I always told her to go for guys like that but damn those two looked like trouble on a different level.

Two years had passed and she’d never told me who this mystery man was. Never said anything. We lived together and she kept the man a secret. I thought it was one of those guys and that it was an on and off thing from the way she’d behaved.

It was off for a long time and she’d dated other people. Guys she introduced me to. That was how I kind of knew that she wasn’t all that serious about them, or there was something she definitely wanted to hide in respect to Mr. Mystery Man.

I thought maybe she’d moved on until two months ago when she started acting strange again. I decided she must have had some reason to hide him from me. Keeping a secret from me, of all the people in the world. I’d decided that maybe he was married.

So, I snooped even more and saw a text from a private number. It said Crowthorne Society Friday at eight. Dress up.

Just the first part of that message had my stomach twisted in knots Crowthorne as in Antonella’s Crowthorne. Even I knew that.

Me a simple barmaid/waitress.

Me a nobody. In my twenty-one years I’d come to know a hell of a lot and I knew my limits when it came to certain guys. I knew there were the bad boys, who of course were criminals, but that didn’t mean they were bad people.

Then there were the other kind.

I wanted to be with a guy who could spoil me, treat me right, and give me a good life, but I wasn’t about to jump into hell and knock boots with real demons.

I’d heard the Antonella’s were an assassin family. Want someone dead and they were your people. I didn’t mean any old person either.

I was talking about notable people. People like public figures and important people national and international. Not the regular hits you may hear of being organized among the other crime families.

The Antonellas didn’t associate with everyone else. The Manellos were right alongside them in badness, even in my eyes. They’d married into the Antonella family forming some alliance. I didn’t know how many people knew that, but I did. I figured they kept it hush, hush just in case the day came and they had to break the alliance.

That would make sense to show their power, but in terms of who had the most power in the hierarchy it was absolutely the Antonellas.

Raphael Rossi may think he owned Chicago, but that was because they allowed him to.

Give a dog the bone he’s after and keep him quiet. That way you can get on to other things. The real things you want to do. To me it was obvious that the Antonellas had power on a national level with ties in the government. That was substantially more than controlling one city in Illinois. Popular and powerful as Chicago was, it really was small fry when it came to the comparison on a scale.

I may be a nobody and some could look down on me as a barmaid or whatever, but I heard things. I heard things through the grapevine and in the underground.

Give a man a drink and you could get him talking. Wave a pair of tits in his face and that guy was all yours especially if you knew how to play the game right.

I knew about Crowthorne and knew to stay the fuck away.

This craziness of me sneaking into this event was … a death wish. A death wish and a risk on my life to make sure my one and only friend was safe.

Dante … fucking hell, he would kill both of us if he knew we were here.

Well … me at least, because I couldn’t find Christina.

The place was packed with all manner of wealthy people. This was some kind of fundraiser event it seemed. I didn’t know what for though and I didn’t care to find out either.

She was supposed to be here at eight. It was eight-thirty now. I’d gone home early from work. Got dressed and was hoping this was going to be the sort of thing where I’d follow her in her car or something. But that never happened. So, I came here and rolled in with the crowd, thanking God for my good looks, because I had to flirt my way in here.

My name of course wasn’t on the list. The way I was dressed however screamed that I should be. What helped was I saw a guy I knew from the bar in town.

Always drunk, Porter Canning always did what I wanted when he saw me. He owned the football stadium and Luc always had me around as a distraction when they were playing poker or some game.

Porter got me in and I had to make up some excuse of needing the ladies room to get off his arm. The man was drunk so all he did was nod.

Now here I was looking for Christina.

Where the hell is she?

I was starting to get antsy, because the same way Porter knew me, the other guys would know me too as Luc’s girl.

Well … within reason I suppose. I wasn’t actually his. Unlabeled that was me, but I’d be an idiot to turn a man like that away just because he wouldn’t put a label on us.

I stopped by a pillar on the second floor hall and looked around. This would be a good spot to see her. I could see everyone dressed in their finest from here.

I scanned the area below where all the waiters were, all walking around with food platters and drink trays.

I straightened up when I saw that creepy guy from Christina’s office. Long pointed nose and lanky with a side parting that made him look off. I couldn’t remember his name, but I just knew he was weird. He always gave me this overtly sexual look when I went to visit Christina. I think he had something to do with listing the campaigns they did with government officials.

I was surprised to see him here. He would definitely be a person to avoid.

I was looking at him so much that I foolishly didn’t see Christina behind him. My heart leapt, then squeezed. He was leading her away toward the basement.

I snapped into action and moved, weaving my way through the crowd.

Ahead the creepy guy and Christina turned down a corridor.

I had to hang back to give them a chance to go without alerting them that I was following close behind.

Once I saw where they turned, I moved and continued in stealth in the direction they went.

Once I turned down that second corridor it got a little easier to follow, but scary.

There was no one around and it was very clear that the party was upstairs.

This area looked like the dungeons in one of those old films.

They went deeper and further into a storage space where they stopped.

God, my heart wasn’t beating. I was so scared. I was so fucking scared and I knew I should have probably alerted someone to where I was, and what I was doing.

No, not just someone …

Dante. I should have told him. Truthfully I was avoiding him, because every time I saw him he gave me that look. A look that was filled with hurt, because I was with Luc.

On that night two years ago when he asked me out I should have just gone. If I had I wouldn’t feel so bad now. I wouldn’t find it hard to look at him, and I as sure as fuck would have involved him in this crazy plan of mine. As in it would have been more likely that he would be here. Not me.

Christina at the Crowthorne was enough to make the man jump on that bike of his and haul her ass home.

I kept close to the shadows and tiptoed in my heels over to a shelved area that had some empty boxes. I found a good hiding spot, just near them. It was a little cupboard with one of those sliding doors.

Tucked away amongst some large storage boxes and reams of metal wire.

I got on my knees and crawled over, into the cupboard. As I did, I could hear them talking and I shuffled so I could see.

“Must you wait and watch?” Christina asked the guy who smiled.

Him with a straight face was creepy enough. Him smiling was definitely a no.

His smile was perfect for a horror film. He had yellow, crooked teeth on show, his pointed nose looking just a little more pointy and his bulbous eyes were even larger.

“I do what I’m told. Doesn’t hurt to catch a glimpse of what I can’t have.” He taunted.

That man was creepy as fuck at work, I didn’t know why Christina would want to associate with him outside of the office. It was actually beyond me. But, it did seem like he’d led her here. Like he was some kind of escort and they both looked like they were waiting for something to happen.

Or maybe for someone to come.

Footsteps sounded in the opposite direction. Christina’s face brightened and she rushed up to a tall blonde man throwing her arms around him and kissing him.

I was shocked to shit to see who he was.

Fucking hell. It was Elliot Granger.

Elliot Granger, as in the assistant States Attorney Elliot Granger and son of Charles Granger, governor of Illinois.

Elliot Granger as in the man who was married to Sheila Granger, who did a lot of work with Help the Homeless. The place Christina worked. They had four kids.

Christina, what the fuck are you doing?

No …

This was why. This was him, Elliot had to be Mr. Mystery Man. He was the only candidate that truly fit the category of someone to keep secret.

Much more so than the other two guys I’d seen her with.

Put simply, she wouldn’t tell me about him because of all the reasons it would shock the shit out of me.

God in Heaven. She’d been seeing him, and was still kissing him while that creeper watched and smiled, looking like he was loving the sight of watching.

It was like he got off on it in a similar way to a man watching porn.

What the fuck was going on?

The couple broke out of the passionate kiss and Elliot stepped back.

“I can’t stay,” he said.

“What? No, you said we’d have tonight.” Christina looked utterly disappointed.

“Later, I’ll send for you later. Something important has just come up.”

“I’m not important? Elliot she knows, Sheila knows. I’m sure she does. You should tell her. Someone needs to tell her.”

His face when she said that contorted and his eyes blazed. It was like watching someone just switch from being normal to angry, and in seconds too. He grabbed her arm and squeezed hard.

“Like fuck, I will tell her when the time is right. Don’t presume to tell me how I should break up with my wife.”

“I can’t keep doing this. I can’t do this again. We just got back together. You said it would be different this time. You said, you wanted to be with me. It’s wrong not to tell her.”

He chuckled, sounding like the man of power he was. People knew the Granger family were one of those old names that carried money. Money and power. Lots of power.

I knew when the two were combined it was never usually a good thing. Too much of either was never, ever a good thing.

He grabbed her the way he had and she just took it. No man would be crazy enough to grab me like that and think he could hurt me. I would never allow it.

Never. I just couldn’t imagine being with someone who could have such dominance over me.

Someone who could look at me like they knew it too. The way Elliot was looking at Christina, and she looked back at him like she was more afraid to lose him than the fact that he might hit her.

It pained me to my soul to see this happening to my friend.

“Don’t piss me off Christina, you won’t like it. I’ll send for you later.” He released her arm practically shoving her.

Creepy man was right there waiting to usher her back in the direction they’d come.

They left and Elliot stayed.

Great. He was here and I couldn’t leave. I could have tried to make some kind of escape, but my heart was beating so fast now I didn’t know if I could pull it off without being seen.

He looked like he was waiting for someone else to come by.

Two minutes later they did.

I covered my mouth and tried to hold in a gasp, as I stared on in complete disbelief.

I didn’t know how many more shocks I could take in this night. But who I saw next was a man who was supposedly off grid. A man who I knew by picture and definitely never on a personal level.

Barabbas Antonella, don of the Antonella family strolled up with three guys. Two were holding up the one in the middle who had his hands bound and mouth gagged.

I never watched the news when I was younger. Never did until a year ago when Luc practically called me stupid, because I wasn’t aware of some stock price change, as if that was the sort of thing everyone knew.

I’d started watching the news in the evening when I got home from work.

That was the only reason how I knew who was whom on a wider level. Elliot Granger was a man I knew of from local news and various other community events. I knew he was also in the run for States Attorney which I had no doubt he’d get, because his father was the fucking governor.

The guy who was bound and gagged, was a guy I’d seen on the news.

His name was Todd Parker. He was the district attorney and was currently prosecuting a murder case that had been highly televised. Brian Matterson was an ex-football player with a lot of influence. He was charged for shooting his wife and her lover after finding them having an affair. He claimed he didn’t do it. I was so engrossed with the trial that I made sure I didn’t miss any footage. For me it was close to watching the OJ Simpson trial, because it was a similar sort of case and had a lot of media attention.

The difference was Brian was sent to prison. It looked like things were going well for him and he might have been acquitted and then suddenly things went left.

What were Barabbas Antonella, Todd Parker, and Elliot Granger doing all here together?

Fuck, I really should have gotten Dante tonight.

Elliot smiled when he saw them all coming.

“Wonderful, finally something I can smile about. Fucking wonderful,” Elliot said spreading his arms wide like he owned the world.

“What do you want me to do with him, boss?” Barabbas asked.

Boss?

My mouth fell open and I blinked several times, trying to process what I was hearing.

Seeing Barabbas was a rare sight for a girl like me.

I had more chances of seeing a leprechaun.

What was even more strange was hearing Barabbas call Elliot boss. Granted he did do it in a sort of exaggerated way, but I didn’t figure a man like him to joke around.

“Kill him,” Elliot ordered. “Fucking kill his ass for messing with the case.”

Oh my God … the case.

Tears streamed down Todd’s cheeks and he started squirming around trying to break free of the hold the men had on him.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to teach him a lesson first?” Barabbas chuckled.

“Yes, I did didn’t I.” Elliot sighed then pulled out his gun and pointed it at Todd. “Todd Parker, all you had to do was one simple thing and you couldn’t do it. The hair sample, you should have really gotten rid of it. Now there’s nothing I can do for Brian. Guess what, jokes on you though. Tonight you get your punishment. I’m taking your wife. I’ll cut her pretty little face off after I fuck her, then I’ll kill her. And there won’t be a damn thing you’ll do about it. You know why?”

Click-clack. That sound, it echoed through the room and through my body.

“You’ll be dead.” Elliot roared, then BANG!

He fired the shot straight through Todd’s head and blood splattered everywhere.

All over Elliot’s face, all over the men carrying Todd and on Barabbas.

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I had to clamp down hard on my mouth to stop from screaming, screaming, and screaming.

I’d just seen a man get killed. Shot. Shot just like that … as if he meant nothing.

I couldn’t stop shaking and trembling. Quivering in my soul. I squeezed my eyes shut willing the nightmare to go away, but knowing it was all still there unfolding before me.

What had I just seen?

God, what had I just seen?

What the hell had I just seen?

Elliot’s laughter rumbled through the room.

“Clean up the mess.” Elliot said to the men. Then he turned to Barabbas. “We have things to discuss. I hope you brought the documents.”

“In the car, it’s going to take a while. So, you better put your lady friend on hold,” Barabbas said.

“Already taken care of. She won’t be around until later, so I have time.”

Christina. They were talking about her.

Jesus Christ. Why had she gotten herself involved with people like this?

It was my fault.

This was all my doing. I’d ruined a sweet girl like her who had a family that cared about her. I had pushed her to this shit.

And … Dante. I couldn’t tell him what I’d seen. It was too dangerous. No one would be able to protect him. Even the hardest guys we knew couldn’t protect him if it came down to it and he got on the wrong side of Elliot, and Barabbas.

I couldn’t tell Dante. I’d have to find some way of telling him Christina needed to be tamed without saying too much.

The two left and damn it I had to wait until the men cleaned up the place and took away Todd’s mangled body.

I had to wait.

I must have waited for hours in that little cupboard too scared to come out, too scared to move. It was the worry of staying past the time the function ended that made me move, because I’d have a whole other set of worries to think about and lose my cover of the crowd.

I managed to get up and move, sneaking past everything then blending in when I got upstairs to everyone else.

All these people and no one knew what had happened just downstairs.

Nobody knew, just me—alone.

***

I got home and curled up in my bed.

I didn’t know how long I stayed there, but I didn’t sleep. Morning came and still no Christina. I got up and went out to the kitchen to make some coffee.

Lunch came and no Christina.

Dinner passed too, no Christina and she wasn’t answering her phone.

I didn’t know what to do.

Would she be okay?

The man she was seeing had just killed Todd Parker. How could I think my best friend was okay with a man like that?

A murderer. A killer.

I’d always heard Luc say no mindless killing. Men like him only killed to protect themselves and the ones they loved. That was the difference with the Antonellas and Manellos. It was a really big difference.

Christina, where are you?

The doorbell rang and I ran to it thinking that Christina must have forgotten her keys.

I opened the door to see Luc standing there.

“Doll, what the hell happened to you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He stated looking me over.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. The tears came rolling down my cheeks and I couldn’t stop them from falling.

“Fuck, what happened?” he asked.

What happened? Chances were if I told him he’d get involved too and he’d be in danger. So, I just told him part of the problem.

“Christina didn’t come home last night.”

“Come here,” he said pulling me in for a hug. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

He came in and sat with me holding me in his arms as I cried myself to sleep. I cried for all of the horrific things I’d seen and my worry over Christina.

I woke at the sound of glass smashing. Luc was gone and a blanket was spread over me.

It was dark outside and it felt like it was early morning like one or two o’clock.

A scream made me jump— Christina. She was in her room.

I practically ran up the stairs and burst into her room to see she’d smashed the place up.

“Christina, what happened to you?” I gasped.

She was crying and in complete distress. She looked at me and shook her head.

“Everything is fucking shit!” she cried.

“What? What happened, tell me please? Just tell me?”

She covered her mouth and cried harder. “I’m pregnant.” She winced. “I’m pregnant and he wants nothing to do with me.”

Oh God …

“Who?” Did she mean Elliot? Or one of the other men? Fuck, it could be anybody with the rate she was going. Those were just the men I’d seen. There could be someone else I didn’t know about.

“It doesn’t matter.” Her shoulders shook as she cried.

“Is it Mr. Mystery Man?” I was pretty certain the events of last night told me Elliot was more than likely Mr. Mystery Man. What I didn’t know is if she was carrying his baby.

The conversation they had made it sound like they’d recently gotten back together, but maybe they hadn’t. Getting back together could mean they’d decided to see each other officially. That didn’t mean that she hadn’t slept with him in the last few weeks.

“Christina tell me, please. It’s me. I’m your best friend. You tell me everything. I just want to know how I can help you. I’ll take care of you. We’ll raise the baby together. I’m here for you.” I just wanted her to see that she could trust me. If she would just calm down she would see that.

“He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.” She babbled on, ignoring my attempts.

“Who are you talking about?”

She shook her head again and it was like she couldn’t see me. “I’m going to destroy him. I’m going to destroy him completely. He thinks he can do this to me and get away with it. I know things. I have stuff. I have dirt on him. I’m going to destroy him!” she wailed.

She sounded like she’d just lost her mind. I’d never seen her behave this way. Not ever.

“Christina, talk to me. Who are you talking about?” Something in me was desperate to know because I didn’t think any of the men I’d seen her with would take that threat lightly, especially Elliot.

She tried to move past me, but I grabbed her arm.

“Let go of me.” She screamed.

“Christina you are acting crazy!”

She raised her hand and slapped me on my cheek so hard I fell over and bruised my arms on the floorboards.

“Fucking bitch, don’t you dare call me crazy. This would never happen to you. Beautiful, perfect Maria. All the guys liked you. They all liked you more than me, when you’re nothing but street trash. All you do is use your body for sex, you’re nothing.”

We’d known each other for so many years I’d lost count. As she spoke, I remembered when we first met. It was by the river.

We were eight years old and I liked her hair. She was crying, because she missed her father. He’d died a few months before. She was fascinated when I told her I didn’t have parents. We became friends in an instant. Then her brother came looking for her and found us.

We’d always stuck together like glue. She felt like a sister to me.

Like family.

This crazy woman couldn’t be that same person.

She just glared at me and walked away leaving me on the floor in tears.

I must have stayed that way on the floor for a good half an hour. Stunned and hurt.

Then I got myself together.

If she were someone else, I wouldn’t have seen past the shit talk. It would have been the end of our friendship with that slap.

But this was Christina, I needed to know what was going on with her and what she was going to do.

I had a bad feeling about all of this. There were too many parts that were missing from this story.

Many parts that didn’t fit either.

I had to be sure to get it right if I was going to assume that she was talking about Elliot. Was he the father? Or not. Did she tell him she was pregnant and he said he didn’t want anything to do with her, because the baby wasn’t his?

Or because it was?

Too many questions.

I needed answers, and I needed to obviously be there for my friend.

Oh Christina. I’m so sorry.

This was all my fault.