"Riley you look beautiful, love. Stop worrying." Finn reassures me from the bathroom door way.
At least I look pretty in the lace dress. I think as I look myself over in the mirror again. I don't feel it though. I feel anxious.
"Easy for you to say." I frown looking at him.
"Today is a day to celebrate. After Mass we will head to the restaurant and then people will come congratulate us give us gifts. We will eat food and then come back here to sleep until our flight tomorrow." He smiles at me.
"Okay we can do this." I say walking out of the bathroom.
"Ashley and Logan are in the hall waiting on us." He says leading me to the hall way.
"You look cute!" Ashley and I both say to each other at the same time, which causes us to start giggling.
"It's finally happened they are now one mind." Logan shakes his head as we walk to the elevator.
"Are you ready for this?" She asks smoothing out her light pink dress.
"An hour of Mass and then another three hours of smiling. Yep we can do this" I smile as we walk off the elevator towards the black suburban that is waiting outside the hotel for us.
Mass is long but thankfully Finn's mom is in too much of a hurry to get to the wedding shower to stay and talk to everyone.
We follow Finn's parents to their restaurant. People are already starting to arrive. The parking lot starts to fill up pretty quick as we are ushered inside. The whole restaurant is closed from our shower.
We are seated at a table and mimosas are served with fresh fruit along with a variety of different baked goods. The four of us fill little plates and start to pick at the food. We are starving. The drinking last night did not help.
"Riley this is my cousin Ally and Ally this is Riley." Finn begins the process of many introductions. Each friend and family members greet us and Finn continues the introduction process. I have no idea who anyone is. I won't be able to remember everyone's name but in do my best to try and repeat every name after Finn says it. I smile, I hug and laugh with each guest. Just when we would sit down his mom would bring another group of relatives for us to greet.
"There's my favorite couple." Christopher smiles walking up with Brooke.
"Christopher." I smile hugging him.
"How is it going?" Brooke gives me a sympathetic look.
"Overwhelming." I admit. "Ours was too. At least you will have some familiar faces at the wedding. You may not remember their names, but you will remember their faces." She laughs.
"God I love you." I smile hugging her again. "You are going to make me cry Riley." She sighs as she pulls away. "What are your plans after this?" I ask both her and Christopher.
" We are on the 8 p.m. flight back to Chicago. Christopher is on duty tomorrow and I miss the girls." She smiles. " I bet! I miss those two little bugs. We don't leave until tomorrow morning." I shrug.
"So this is what it is like to be a part of a big family?" Ashley says as she looks around. " Yep." Brooke and I both nod. " Just think maybe next year we will be doing this for you and Logan." I grin.
"Shh don't give him ideas." She laughs looking around to make sure Logan isn't around.
"Crap! She found me." Ashley says slapping on a fake smile as Logan's mom approaches.
"Ashley! I have been looking all over for you. Come with me there are some people you must meet." She says pulling her away.
Brooke and I laugh as Ashley looks back at us mouthing help at us.
"She was afraid she wouldn't like her." I sigh.
"Logan um you may want to rescue your girlfriend." I nod towards Ashley and his mom.
"Fuck. I swear she will be planning our wedding by the time we are done here." He mumbles walking towards them.
"He seems happy."I wrinkle my nose at Brooke. " This is going to be a long day." She sighs grabbing a mimosa. " Good idea." I smile grabbing one for myself.
Three painfully boring hours later we make our escape grabbing Ashley and Logan on our way out.
"Holy shit!" Ashley groans as we start to head back to the hotel. "Longest day ever!" I groan with her."And I am starving. Every time I would go to eat someone else would come up and I swear the waiters would take my plate from me. I almost tackled the tall lanky guy." I frown. " We can order some food when we get back to the hotel, love." Finn smiles as I lay my head on his shoulder.
" Come on babe." Logan turns to Ashley helping her out of the Suburban.
The four of us walk slowly to through the hotel lobby making our way to the elevators.
"We are just going to order food and sleep." Logan tells Finn as we get off the elevator. "Us too. Just text if you want to do something later on." Finn says leading me to our hotel room.
" I am changing." I tell him as soon as we walk into the room. " Me too." He smiles taking his tie off.
" I am also refusing to wear a bra for the remainder of the day. Just thought you should know." I say grabbing a pair of cotton shorts and a loose t-shirt.
" I am more than okay with that." He grins unbuttoning his shirt. " Ah so much better." I smile hanging my dress back up.
I collapse on the couch watching Finn grab his clothes and walk into the bathroom. As soon as I hear the shower turn on I fight the urge to join him. Actually maybe fight is not the right word I consider it before laying my head back down on the couch. Who knew saying hello to people could be so exhausting.
"Riley, what do you want to eat?" Finn is front of my face as I open my eyes. " Um shit did I fall asleep?" I ask sitting up. " Yes, now what do you want to eat?" He laughs handing me the room service menu.
"Chicken soup and half a turkey sandwich please." I smile sitting up. "Got it." He smiles picking up the hotel phone.
"I'll get it." I say when we hear a knock at the door. "It's probably Logan and Ash anyways."I say walking towards the door.
" Frankie? Didn't you get enough of us last night?" I smile welcoming him into the room.
"Sorry, I don't want to bother you guys. I uh just need to talk to Finn." He says looking around the room holding onto a large envelope. He nods at Finn and Finn holds up a finger as to say one minute.
"Lunch will be here in fifteen minutes." He tells me hanging up the phone.
"Frankie what's going on?" Finn asks eyeing the envelope. " Uh I wanted to show you something." He says looking at me. "We agreed no more secrets." He frowns at Frankie. "Fair enough. We know nothing leaves this room." He says taking a seat on the chair by the couch where Finn and I are now sitting.
"Right." I agree looking at him confused. "We have an idea of who Pat has been doing business with. I have some pictures and I wanted to see if you recognized anyone from before." He looks at Finn who now has a serious look on his face.
" I got it." I say when I hear another knock at the door. " Room service." I say looking through the peep hole. "Hi can you just set in on the bar? Thank you." I say handing them a small tip before showing them to the door.
When I walk back over to the couch Frankie is showing Finn pictures. When I get a look at the pictures my heart stops for a moment.
"Shit." I finally manage to say. "What's wrong, love?" Finn asks looking up from the pictures. "Tony." I say pointing to one of the pictures.
"You know who this is?" Frankie asks holding up the photo. "Yes, his name is Tony, he is a very bad person." I feel the panic start to come out in my voice. " This is Tony?" Finn looks at me and I nod sitting down.
" How do you know him?" Frankie looks suspiciously at me. I look at Finn and let out the breath that I have been holding. " It's okay, love." Finn says grabbing my hand.
"Tony is from Michigan his cousin is also known as Charming Charlie. Charlie was a loan shark for Tony. He also dabbled in some other after school activities. I worked with Charlie hustling at the pool hall and doing his books for the gambling portion. This was my freshman year at the university. Charlie ended up taking me along on one of his collection trips and I tried to jump in to to help the poor kid out who he was beating up well I am the one that ended up in the hospital. That was how I got out of it. We made a deal if I said I was in a car accident that he would stay away from me. Anyways flash forward to a few months ago Charlie came through the E.R. as a gunshot victim. Him and another kid were set up by Tony. Only Charlie walked away barely though. When I ran into Charlie he did mention something about Tony dabbling in a new area in New York. Is he the reason for Thomas?" I feel sick to my stomach as I stare at him.
"Wait Charlie is Tony's cousin and when did you see him?" Finn looks at me confused. " It's not a well known fact, but yes. I only know because I remember Charlie telling me something about it when we first met. He would tell me stories of when they were kids. I totally forgot until recently. Like I blocked some memories out." I frown. " As far as for seeing him Shay and I ran into him at the ice cream stand the day we took our final exams. He apologized and thanked me for helping save his life. It wasn't a huge deal." I shake my head as he releases my hand.
"Okay so Charlie and Tony were in business together and then he tried to kill his own cousin? You were a part of this?" Frankie tries to process the information. " Not that part of it. I worked tables at the pool hall he kept a cut of the money and he paid me to do his books, but that was like 3 years ago. I haven't had any part of that since." I stand up feeling like I am going to be sick.
I walk to the bathroom and close the door. The moment I lean over the toilet this morning mimosas and fruit exit my stomach.
"Riley, are you okay?" Finn asks from the other side of the door. " No, yes I will be out in a minute." I say in between throwing my stomach contents up. Once I feel that I am finished I rinse my mouth out and brush my teeth.
" Are you okay?" He says standing up as I walk out of the bathroom.
"Apparently mimosas and fruit aren't great on a nervous stomach." I feel my cheeks start to warm.
"Finn explained more of the situation to me. Regarding the hotel attack last October." Frankie nods his head. " So basically I fucked up ran with the wrong crowd and it still keeps biting me in the ass." I sigh sitting down next to Finn.
"No one is judging here, Riley. Honest. The shit that Finn and I use to do wasn't good either. You changed your life around, just like we are doing." Frankie offers me a slight smile.
"If Pat is with Tony that isn't good, and Pat is in way over his head. Tony shot his own cousin he would not hesitate to take someones life he has proven that. As bad as Charlie was he protected me from Tony. I was only introduced to him once and that was an accident." I shudder thinking about it.
"Frankie,he is bad and I mean in the coldest inhuman sociopath no regard for human life kind of way. He likes attention but also hides behind his lackeys."
"We think that he is running the new fights. Setting them up and getting these kids hurt. There was another kid who ended up in the hospital with brain damage after one of these fights. Pat insists he is not part of it but he continues to show up when these fights are happening." Frankie sighs putting the pictures back in the envelope.
" Well at least we have a name for the face now." He shrugs standing up. "Thanks for your help. I will keep yours and Finn's names out of it." He says as Finn walks him out.
" Riley, are you okay, love?" Finn sighs as he sits down next to me. "Thank God you stopped fighting. You would have been involved with him." I say hugging my legs.
"Riley I haven't been part of life for a while now. You gave Frankie info that could help him find Thomas's killer." He wraps his arm around me and pulls me close to him.
" I knew things were going to smooth. I knew something would fuck it all up." I say pulling away from him.
" Nothing is being fucked up. We aren't in those worlds anymore. We are in this one, the one where you and I are together. The one where that's all that matters." He pulls me back to him.
" Why didn't you tell me you had another run in with Charlie." He frowns as I lean on him.
"That's the night you were trashed and had just found out about Thomas. My run in with Charlie didn't seem so important at the time."I explain as I sit up to look at him.
"He was different that say. Sincere and humbled almost." I try to explain.
"I believe you , love. I know you are a good judge of character after all you are with me." He teases trying to lighten the mood.
" I feel sick." I groan laying my head back on the couch.
" You feel kind of warm." He frowns feeling my head.
" Do you want me to order you something from room service?" He says looking at our now cold food.
" Do you want to just do a pizza?" I suggest laying my head on his lap.
"Sounds good to me." I move so he can order the food. I grab the remote and flip through the channels until I find an old movie with Audrey Hepburn.
"It's on it's way. This time once the arrives we just don't open the door until we have had a chance to eat." He takes a seat next to me and wraps his arm around me.
"This is better." I lay my head on his shoulder.
" When we get home I want one day of just this. Me and you watching movies in bed." I look up at him and he smiles.
"Done." He leans down to kiss my head.