Chapter 26—Maria

Luc pressed an ice pack to my head.

The damn ice hurt almost as much as the blow that gave me the bruise.

“Keep it there,” he instructed.

I did, despite the pain. Glancing up at him I noted the concern on his face.

He’d brought me back up to Dante’s office where he sat me down. Once again, he was waiting with me like a babysitter.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Could ask you the same thing,” he threw back.

“I’m working.”

“Dante allows you to work in his bar?” He tilted his head to the side.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m working, and … thanks.”

Thanks again. Always more thanks.

“Your welcome. Maria you were supposed to stay at the house. Fuck, you know the situation. Why would you go down to check the stock by yourself?”

I winced, unable to answer and defend myself in any light, because he was right. I was an idiot.

“I wasn’t thinking.” I sighed.

He crouched down in front of me and gazed into my eyes.

“This is some serious shit, Maria. You have to be more careful.”

“I should leave.” That was clear as day. I had to leave Chicago immediately. They found me, who knew what would happen now? It had just been the one that I saw the other night. Tonight there was a whole host of Franco’s men.

The other night was to check things out. Tonight they had absolutely meant business.

“Leave and do what exactly? Run, run with your son and no one to protect you?”

“I don’t want to put anyone in danger here.” A tear ran down my cheek and I wiped it away not wanting him to see me cry.

He took my hands. “Maria, we are danger. You know that it’s what we do. You’re in the best place possible and the safest place you can be. None of us are going to let anything happen to you or your son.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me doll. It was a given that we’d do this.”

“He won’t stop until he finds me. He won’t. I hoped that maybe he’d just give up or look somewhere else. I never told him I was from Chicago. I always lied about that and told him I was from Ohio.”

“Ohio?” There was a smile in his eyes. “That’s where you picked?”

“It was just far, from here. Maybe in the back of my mind I never wanted him to know how horrible my past was, but I also probably didn’t want him to know just in case I had to come back.”

I never realized why at the time when I was telling Franco about Ohio, but now I could see my brain must have gone into defense mode.

The door opened and Dante came in followed by Gio and Alex. They had blood all over them.

Luc got up to get some cleaning stuff.

Dante was completely covered and all I could do was stare.

“You take care of it?” Luc asked him.

The look on Dante’s face told me it wasn’t all taken care of.

“One got away. One fucking got away. They came through the sewer up into the cellar. I tried to follow him, but I was too late. He must have taken one of the secret tunnels.”

Oh God. If one got away then he’d go report back to Franco.

“I’m gonna go search the streets,” Alex stated, wiping his face.

“I’ll back you up.” Gio offered.

“Luc can you take Maria home, I need to get out there.” Dante offered glancing at me.

Luc shook his head. “Nah, you take her home and cool off. I’ll be going with the guys.”

“I need to be out there looking for that bastard.”

“D’Angelo fucking listen to me. You need to take her home. She needs you right now. She needs you.”

Luc was right. I did need Dante.

He must have taken two steps to me before I flew out of that chair and into his arms.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised, keeping me close to him. Holding me close to his heart. “I won’t let anything happen to you or Flynn, you hear me?”

He lifted my face and cupped my cheeks.

I nodded believing him. I knew he wouldn’t. I just wished I could make the same promise to him.

I knew these guys were the best at what they did.

Still Franco was on a whole other level, so much like the Antonellas Above everyone.

***

“You sure you’re up to this? I can do it and you can catch up with Ma.” Dante asked.

We’d been with his mother for about an hour. It was enough catching up when you were eager and antsy. Mostly after last night, I’d had to put on a brave face. A face I’d plastered with a lot of concealer to hide my bruises.

“No, I want to come with you. I want to look and see what we can find … if there’s anything to find.” I nodded.

He pulled me close for a quick kiss.

I knew when he was worried and this wasn’t the best of things we could be doing either. I knew why he asked if I wanted to basically pass on the task of looking through Christina’s stuff. It was the same reason why his mother had excused herself to go looking for some important documents she had to find.

It was all very emotional—all of it. After last night I felt weak. Mostly I wanted to take Flynn and hide away in a cave somewhere.

“If at any point you don’t feel like you can handle it, I’ll understand if you walk away.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere Dante.”

Another gentle kiss was planted on my forehead.

Flynn was with the guys. I wanted him to come with us, but he insisted on staying and watching some show on the Cartoon Network. There was a marathon going on.

Thinking that it would give me a good break, Dante encouraged me to come out for the day and basically spend it with him.

He took my hand leading me up the stairs and into the bedroom where I’d had very fond memories.

I was so happy to have had Christina to share my childhood with.

We walked in and my heart broke when my gaze landed on the little dolls in the corner on top of the toy box we’d played in. I never had any dolls so Christina shared hers with me.

The memories propelled me to them, straight to the two little dolls who sat together drinking tea in the same position us two little girls had left them in. The dolls, one with blonde hair and the other with black hair—they were us.

I didn’t touch them and I was glad Dante’s mom hadn’t either. I wanted them to remain exactly like that. Shrined away in this room, a symbol of the friendship I had.

Dante came up to me and glanced down at them.

“You guys played with those dolls forever.” He stated.

“Yeah. I never had any toys. Not even a teddy bear. Vera wouldn’t buy me that kind of stuff. Nothing. I never even really knew what toys were, because she just kept me locked away in the house. Christina shared her toys with me and I think we were probably on the last month of being twelve when we just sort of stopped.”

“Sort of?” Dante smirked.

“We loved dressing the dolls in different clothes. Fantabulous ball gowns no one we knew would be wearing to all sorts of grand balls and events.”

Both dolls wore dresses the type that were period wear dresses, but looked more like ballgowns.

“I get it.”

“Let’s do this Dante. I shouldn’t think back too much. It makes me relive the past and I wished I could have done more. You’re her brother and you did what you could, but I was the person she confided in. Though I think something about me made her stop doing that.” I shook my head feeling ashamed. If I wasn’t right then I would have known who the killer was already. I wouldn’t have to think about it at all. She had dirt on someone.

Elliot didn’t strike me as the kind of person who would allow dirt on him to just slip like that and be exposed. So then maybe it wasn’t him. I didn’t know though. I really didn’t know and she had this whole secret relationship that she had never told me about.

“Maria, I’ve learned that sometimes people have secrets and it doesn’t matter who they have around them to confide in. It doesn’t change anything. They never tell the person what they were going through. I think that’s what happened here.” He nodded and gave me a little smile. “Let’s do this and go home.”

We started with the plastic boxes that were stacked in the corner. Everything had been placed in them. Just placed to one side to keep the place neat and not looking like some storage facility.

One box after another we went through and found a lot of unrelated items. Random stuff here and there like trinkets, books, gadgets, and gismos.

Just stuff.

It was night fall by the time we finished looking through it all. We had found nothing. Dante looked frustrated and pissed off.

His mother came down to the sitting room when we were gathering our things to go. There were a few notebooks and diaries Dante thought he would take for looking through later.

Gina smiled when she saw us. She was carrying a medium sized box I remembered Christina calling her treasure box. It did actually look like it was exactly that too, except it was pink. She’d had that in our room back at my old place.

“I just remembered this. I’d taken it first.” She said. “I think she’d want you to have this Maria. It’s got all her keepsakes. Concert tickets and anything she felt was valuable.”

She handed me the box.

“Thank you.” I told her, surprised that the box was kind of heavy. “I’ll take it home and go through it.” It would probably be the last thing to look through. \

“Did you find anything?” She asked Dante looking hopeful.

He shook his head. “Nothing that jumped out to me. I got her diaries. Maybe there’s something there.”

Gina nodded. “Let me know okay.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna go.”

“Can I see you back here on Sunday with this little boy I keep hearing about?” She smiled. She’d always been nice to me too.

I nodded returning the smile. “Yes, it would be great to catch up properly.”

It would be great to get to Sunday in one piece first, both emotionally and physically.

***

I went through the treasure box and found nothing that stood out to me. Just lots more diaries that I planned to go through after lunch because Flynn was in one of his tantrum moods. He’d wanted me to take him outside to play with his ball. I was hoping I’d find a reference to other men Christina had been seeing. There were at least twenty diaries in the box so I had my work cut out for the day if I wanted to get through them all.

I took Flynn out to the park across from the house. Donny and Saul were in my line of sight watching us kick the ball around. Lois was somewhere else. All around us were men, seen, and unseen.

It was perhaps the safest I could feel, but nothing felt safer than when I was with Dante. He was at work though.

Business.

Out here I realized that Franco could have his people watching. They wouldn’t have to do anything. Just keep watch, wait, and report back.

Flynn kicked the ball over to me and his little face brightened when I managed to stop it with my foot and kick it back.

“Yay, mama it’s like we’re playing in a real game.” He jumped up and down laughing. He kicked the ball again and my mediocre skills couldn’t stop it. Dante was right, the kid had a good leg on him.

I was thinking of signing him up for soccer at the community center. He’d love playing on a team.

I went to run after the ball, but a man who was jogging by caught it. He picked it up and came over to us.

It wasn’t until he got close that my heart slammed in my chest when I realized who he was.

Elliot Granger!

Elliot Granger walking up to me wearing jogging pants and a loose fitted t-shirt spinning the ball on his finger like you would a basketball.

Elliot Granger just happened to be running in the same park opposite Dante’s house?

Oh my God.

God. I grabbed Flynn.

“Your ball?” he asked looking at Flynn and then me.

Flynn moved out of my grasp and moved to get the ball.

Breathe …

Stay calm …

I couldn’t let him see that I knew something. Especially when he looked at me like he was trying to figure me out.

“Oh my gosh, you’re Governor Granger.” I could be a good actress at the best of times. In my state of nerves it helped to think more on my feet.

He smiled. “Yes, that is me.”

“Oh my goodness wow. I’m sorry I get star struck.” I lied, really I felt like throwing up.

He put out his hand to shake mine and I almost made the mistake of hesitating, as in my head was the replay of him shooting Todd Parker.

“It’s always good to meet a supporter.” He nodded and held my gaze.

I wasn’t stupid, but I’d play. I absolutely would fucking play. “I’m a big fan. I definitely voted for you. Thank you for all that you do for the community.”

Either he bought my story and the whole act threw him off or he didn’t and he was playing too.

“No problem and thank you. It’s a good community, how long have you been here?”

Here we go. On to the questions.

“Oh I just moved back. Been away for a while. I missed my family and thought it was time to come back. Especially for my boy.”

He looked around and I hoped like hell the guys were holding off.

They were, thank God. I forgot how well trained they were.

“Family matters. Well, it was nice meeting you. Enjoy your day.” He gave us both a curt nod and left, running back over to where he’d come from.

My heart was beating so fast—so damn fast. I picked Flynn up and rushed across the park with him.

“Everything okay Maria?” Donny asked.

Lois joined us. “Was that who I think it was?”

“Governor Granger taking a run in these parts of town?” Saul answered with raised brows.

“Guys can you watch Flynn for me? I need to check something out in the house.”

“Of course,” Saul took Flynn from me. “Buddy do you want to continue the Flintstones marathon?”

Flynn nodded.

As soon as we got in the house I ran up to the bedroom where I’d taken the treasure box.

My mind was in a state of absolute shit, because I knew now what I never wanted to accept.

It was him.

“He did it.” I said to no one, but myself. “He fucking did it.”

I was sure it was him, and he was here today checking the place out. It wasn’t a coincidence.

Why else would he come here?

This was Cicero, a good suburban neighborhood, but men like him wouldn’t just be seen in these parts. They hung out in the more wealthier areas like Forest Glen.

It was too random. Too coincidental.

Whatever Dante and the guys were doing must have triggered his presence.

Seeing him today fucking gave me my twenty percent of surety. More than twenty.

I grabbed that box, not entirely sure what I was looking for.

I took the first diary and put it back as it was from 1990. Christina and I were still playing with dolls during that time. I looked through the other diaries and realized the years were all random.

Of course, maybe these held events that she treasured or maybe her secrets.

One was from 2000. I was getting closer.

2008. Yes.

My skin heated at the entry from 1 Jan 2008:

Dear Diary, I think I’ve gone crazy. I’m seeing a married man and not just any old married man. I’ll just refer to him as E.G.

I used to frown on anything like this. Cheating and being the other woman. I just couldn’t help myself. Today was the fourth time I’d slept with him, his wife was out of town.

I feel so ashamed, but yet so alive.

I could never tell anyone. They wouldn’t understand.

God there was more. More about E. G.—Elliot Granger.

Nothing about anyone else. The entries ended, but there wasn’t anything there I could class as dirt other than the fact that they were having an affair.

I got to the last diary, but my fingernails tapped against the bottom of the chest and it sounded hollow.

Hollow, maybe like there was another compartment hidden underneath.

I moved everything aside and saw there was something more to the bottom. Oh God there really was. There was a little latch that slid across the wooden base. I moved it and it popped open.

My breath hitched in my lungs as I opened the section and saw all manner of things. Memory sticks and printed pictures of screen shots. I picked up one of them and it was a screen shot of a folder on a computer that was labelled Death census 1700. There was another called Votes for 2008 election.

I took the memory stick and rushed over to the laptop to see what was on it.

On the screen before me was files labelled The Evidence Locker. I clicked on the file and when it opened I saw full well what it was.

There was a spreadsheet with names. Guys I’d recognized from my time watching the news as men who should have gone to prison for life, for murder or rape or some dangerous crime. Next to the names were listings of evidence and where they’d been placed. It looked to me like a record system of all the dirt that was stored on people. When I clicked on the link it took me to documents all signed by Elliot Granger.

I must have gotten to the tenth before I stopped and clicked back in on the file.

Wait there was another folder. I clicked on that and what I saw was even worse.

It was a folder full of emails. Emails that looked like plans to assassinate various people including the president. The emails went back and forth between someone with a Russian name I couldn’t pronounce.

This was it.

I had finally found the answer.

The dirt.

So here’s how I thought the story went.

Christina was pregnant, the baby was Elliot’s. She had told him and he didn’t want to have anything to do with her. So … in her rage she got all this stuff together. I didn’t know how she got it, but she had. She got it and must have threatened him.

So he killed her.

He killed her …

I broke down, completely broke down.

Dante …

I’d have to tell him.