As soon as Tobias parks the car in front of the house, I jump out and head straight for my Uncle's office. I vaguely hear Tobias yell out for me, but I need to talk to my Uncle; this can't wait.
Can it really be Enzo?
Is he really this infamous and lethal assassin from Italy?
I burst into my Uncle's office. "I need to talk to you, Uncle! Alone, please." I pant out. Tony, JP, and Joey all look back at me worriedly. Tears are burning my eyes at the recent revelation.
My Uncle stands and dismisses the men out of the room, but Tony turns to him, "Capo..."
"Tony, take John Paul and Joey out with you. Wait for me out front." My Uncle orders. JP starts coming towards me, as I head for my Uncle, hugging him while I cry, thinking of my sweet childhood best friend.
"Go, JP." My Uncle orders.
I hear the door shut, and my Uncle walks us over to one of the couches in his office and sits us down on it.
"What is it, cara mia?" He rubs my hair soothingly.
"I know who he is—the man from the library, Furia," I say in between my crying.
"We know it's Furia, Charmaine." Uncle Timo says gently, and I shake my head at his not understanding what I mean.
"No, I know who he is. He knows my real name, Uncle. He only calls me Stella." My Uncle straightens at the mention of my real name. "Who is he, then?"
"He's my old neighbor. His dad is Frank Romano; Pops told me a few years ago that he worked for you. But his son, he was my best friend until the day his dad took him, and they left, his name is Lorenzo." I cry into my Uncle's chest, thinking of the last time I saw him.
"Frank's boy? Are you sure?" He looks at me contemplatively. "I suppose he could have several aliases," he mutters to himself.
"It has to be him; no one else knows my real name and what I looked like before the change. Other than Tony, Tobias, JP, and you, of course. Well, I mean other than my school mates, too, but Enzo and I were always together." I'm starting to have doubts now, but those eyes, those are definitely Enzo's.
"I don't know what happened to him, Uncle. How did he become who he is? An assassin?" I stare unfocused at a wall in his office, wondering what his life has been like since he left.
"I'll see what I can find out. I know he's spent a lot of time in Italy, but I'll look into it. What has he told you?" My Uncle leans back to look at me.
"He told me he was trying to find out why he was contracted to hurt you and me, he said he doesn't usually ask questions on jobs, but when he found out who I was, he wanted to know. He also said he thinks you have a mole working for you, but he doesn't know who.
And then he said the Cardinale guy is working with someone else to bring you down. And Uncle, that day at the library, Enzo wasn't trying to kill me, he was sent to send a message, to scare you, but he didn't expect me to fight back.
He apologized for hurting me, he didn't recognize me with my hair color, and I don't go by Stella. Don't you see? At the restaurant, he stopped the other guy from killing me, too."
"If he's telling the truth, then he's putting himself in danger and at risk for double-crossing those who hired him." My Uncle tells me.
" I have to help him, Uncle." I stand and pull my phone out, but he stops me.
"We can't do much right now. I need to make sure he's who you say he is. Did he say anything about the benefit?"
I nod my head. "He told me not to go because he said something is supposed to happen, and if I do go, he told me to stay in crowded areas and not be alone, but I told him you were taking extra safety precautions."
My Uncle runs a hand through his hair and sighs deeply. "Stella..."
I look over at him, not used to hearing him use my real name, but he shakes his head, realizing his mistake, "Sorry, Charmaine...Maybe you should stay home tomorrow."
"No, I'm going. Even if I don't go with JP, seeing as I don't like him much at the moment. Annalisa was going with her parents, so I'll tag along with her. And Enzo said he'd be there to look out for me; then you can see for yourself that he's honest."
He stands and pulls me up into a hug. "I'm sorry for not listening to you earlier. But you do realize I have to tell the men, especially those in the security detail."
"But what about what he said about having a mole?"
Uncle Timo looks at me for a moment. "For now, I'll just let Tobias know, with being head of security, it's best if he knows out of everyone." He assures me. "We'll do our day trip another day, yes?"
I nod in response, "I'm sorry for my disrespect earlier, too, Uncle."
He smiles kindly as he cups my face before he hugs me and kisses my head. "I've got to run to a meeting. Oh, I had a dress ordered for you. It will arrive tomorrow." He winks back at me before leaving me alone in his office.
Later that night, I decide to text Enzo.
Me: *Sorry, you had to leave in such a hurry today. But we'll talk more tomorrow?*
E: * I'd rather you didn't go, but since I can see there's no changing your mind, then yes, we'll talk there.*
I include a happy face and the thumbs-up emoji. Enzo responds with an annoyed emoji face, which makes me laugh.
<><><><>
I wake up gasping; my room is dark. I haven't had that dreamlike flashback of when Enzo left in a while. I take deep breaths to calm my racing heart and roll over to check my phone.
2:20 a.m.
I shake my head, running my hands through my hair, and I close my eyes taking deep breaths hoping to settle back into sleep.
But I sit up alarmed when my door swings open, and I gasp when I see a shadow of a person stumbling in, followed by cursing and a loud thud on the floor.
It freaks me out enough to pull one of my guns out of my nightstand. "Who's there?" I shout, my heart beating out of my chest.
I fumble for the switch on the lamp with my other hand and blink my eyes, trying to adjust to the light.
I climb out of bed and walk over to the other side of my bed and see JP on the ground.
His dress shirt is unbuttoned and hanging off one shoulder. His legs are tangled in his pants that are around his ankles.
He groans when he looks over at me. "Don't shoot... officer...don-shoot," He slurs.
"JP, you scared the crap out of me. Do you realize I could have shot you?" I put my gun on the bed and help him up, grunting with the effort it takes to sit him on the bed, and that's when I get a strong whiff of alcohol on him and scrunch my nose.
"Are you drunk?"
JP laughs, shaking his head. He's in worse shape than that night I found him in the kitchen. When I finally have him seated on the bed, he leans forward and starts nuzzling my chest, with which he's at eye level with as I stand in front of him.
"JP, stop it. You're drunk. I thought you were working or in a meeting; but, you were out, getting drunk?" I push him off of me, and he falls back on the bed.
"C'mon, prince-princess, finish what started...this morning?" He slurs.
I ignore him and pick up my gun next to him, and put it back in the drawer of my nightstand. The last thing we need is a loaded weapon around him. I walk back over to him. "So what, no meeting?" I stand in front of him, my arms folded over my chest.
He has a hard time sitting up to look at me." Was in meeting...they wanted to...drinks...said no... said I whipped...come home to you..." He smiles at me; only he's looking to the side, smiling as if I'm standing there.
I clear my throat, and he turns his head, surprised to see me in front of him, and smiles again.
"Baby." He whines before he grabs me and starts kissing me sloppily; I can taste the bitter alcohol flavor in his mouth, and then his lips move to my neck and chest.
I pry his hands off me, and he falls forward off of the bed.
I attempt to reach for him, but gravity pulls him quicker than I can react, and he hits the floor face first, with a loud thump, passing out.
He's going to feel that in the morning, for sure.
I'm so angry at him that I seriously consider just leaving him there, however, the rational part of me gives in, and I sigh as I move to pick him up. But then his phone vibrates on the floor from where it fell when he first stumbled in. I walk over to pick it up, and my heart stops when I see the message sent to him.
*It was good to see you tonight, JP. We should do it again, soon.* Followed by three winking-blowing kiss emojis.
The message is from Victoria.
My eyes blur with tears as I continue to look at the message, hoping that it isn't real if I reread it enough.
How could he do this to me? How could he be with her?
I look down at him, and my hand hurts from the grip I have on his phone. I have a strong urge to take it and smash it over his head.
I groan in anger and drop his phone next to his head. I turn away from him and grab the blanket I have at the end of my bed and walk out, slamming the door behind me.
I head to my dad's old room, locking the door behind me. It takes me a while to fall asleep because of how angry, hurt and disappointed I am at JP, but then as I settle down, my thoughts go to my dad.
There's a faint smell of his cologne on the sheets, and I start crying quietly. I miss him so much and wish he was here with me. Eventually, sleep catches up to me, and I fall into a restless slumber.
In the morning, I wake up to shouting and loud yells coming from the hallway. I look at the alarm clock on the nightstand and see it's 10:30 a.m.
I slept in and still feel tired from waking up several times throughout the night.
There's a lot of running, slamming of doors, and loud talking going on outside. What's happening?
I get out of the bed and straighten out the covers on the bed. With the sun shining in, I take a look around the room. I've only been in here a couple of times since my dad's death. I look at the pictures on his nightstand and see a family photo of us; me, mom, and dad smiling at the camera. So happy.
I walk over to look at the ones on his dresser, and there's one of me on my sixth birthday, my front teeth missing, and I'm grinning ear to ear standing above my birthday cake. I smile back at the younger version of myself.
I grab the blanket I brought in with me and wrap it around as I open the door. I hear shouting again as several voices throw out different questions.
"Where could she have gone?"
"Did you try calling her? What about Annalisa?"
"Are you two still fighting?"
"What the hell happened?"
"Has anyone checked the surveillance?"
"I don't know where the hell she is! I can't call her because I don't have her new fucking number, and she left her phone on the nightstand anyway!"
That sounds like JP; I sigh as I step out further and look down the hall. My Uncle, Tony, Tobias, Joey are all at the end of the hall looking at JP.
They all look over at me, causing JP to turn as well, and I see the relief on his face when he sees me. I step out further, out of my dad's room, closing the door behind me, and start walking back towards my room without saying anything, and shut the door behind me.
My bed is still messed up from last night with JP's shirt on the floor. As I go to my bathroom to shower, I hear my bedroom door open. "Charmaine! Why did you leave last night?" JP yells at me.
I scoff, "You mean this morning, John Paul." I walk to my closet and dresser to grab a pair of clean clothes.
"Now is really not the time for your smart-ass wit, Char." JP states groaning as he rubs his temples.
I head for the bathroom to shower, but turn to answer his question. "You stumbled in here close to 2:30 in the morning, falling over yourself, with your pants around your ankles. I nearly shot you, not knowing it was you.
Then you had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to finish what we started yesterday morning. You began to kiss me, as if I'd like my first time to be with you, while you were so drunk, you wouldn't remember it the next day." I walk into the bathroom and set my clean clothes down.
I walk back out to stop him from coming in, putting my hand on his chest as he was making his way in, "But you want to know what the best part of all this was?" I shove him slightly as I look at him, and his eyes are bloodshot from being hungover.
"The best part of all of this is I thought you were out "working" when in fact, you were out, having a good time with Victoria." I watch as he pales. "I guess I should thank you. You gave me a glimpse of what this is going to be like." I gesture between us.
"I might not have relationship experience, but your version of love is not what I want. And when you say you're "working" when you're not, yeah, I don't want any part of that." I feel the tears building, but I will them to stay.
"It's your life, JP, but I will not be second in someone's life or be your pathetic girlfriend while you have a side piece. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave so I can shower and get ready for the day. I wasted the morning, sleeping in and reliving a night you don't even remember." I slam the bathroom door behind me.
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