Hi everyone, I just want to say thank you to all of my readers for your support through this story. It is coming up on it's last chapters. I still haven't decided yet how many it will be. I hope you all are continuing to enjoy the journey of Taylor and Santo. When I first started writing about Taylor I knew she would be a strong woman but I surprised myself with writing about Santo. The more I got into his character the more I wanted to reveal and build on his personality. I wanted him to be a strong man but complex and flawed. I hope I've achieved that. I wanted Nathan to be hated and I see that mark was reached by the comments about him.
I have another story that I've started. The first couple of chapters are posted. I hope if you really like Tiptoe Kisses, you'll stick around and read Destiny is Served.
http://www.wattpad.com/story/17513354-destiny-is-served
I like to think I've gotten better as a writer and I'm learning more each week. I hope I've gotten better at not putting comma's everywhere as I tend to do when I'm thinking and writing but enough rambling. Chapter 38 is ahead. Enjoy.
Chapter 38
Santo checks the time after he finishes his call with Kyle and he’s late. He rushes through the hotel lobby to meet Alina in her suite when he recognizes a man getting off one of the elevators. Ducking behind a decorative pillar he looks at the man’s hand for confirmation of who he thinks he is. As expected the man’s knuckles are tattooed with the symbols he remembers seeing on them when he and his pinkie ringed partner robbed La Croix’s the night Taylor got stuck in the elevator. As the man walks ahead of him Santo can see the back of his neck also has a tattoo which confirms it’s definitely the other thief.
While Santo is trying to decide whether to follow the man another elevator door opens and Alina steps off the elevator. The man is walking ahead of her, he takes a seat in the lobby area as Alina walks past him without acknowledging his presence going to the front desk. Santo is unable to leave his hiding spot. The man is sitting out in an open area, he will see Santo if he comes any closer. He can see that Alina is writing something on a card and she hands it back to the hotel representative.
The man stands up, he waits while Alina walks toward the hotel exit. She looks behind her when she reaches the door and the man nods his head in her direction then starts walking. They know each other Santo realizes as he walks out from his hiding spot to follow them. Both have left the hotel and Santo rushes to catch up to see where they are going.
When he gets out on the street he looks both ways. Alina is walking ahead of the man by a couple of feet. The man looks nervous, he keeps one hand in his jacket pocket as he follows behind her. Santo suspects his hand is on the holstered gun he remembers seeing him wear during the robbery and he quickens his pace now concerned.
Alina makes a sudden turn off the main street disappearing into an alleyway. The man is looking around nervously, he must have missed where she went because now Santo also doesn’t see her. He watches as the man wonders nervously into the alleyway. Santo runs across the street to catch up with him. Just as Santo makes it to the other side of the street shots ring out and Santo ducks near some steps along with several other people hearing the shots. When the shooting ends, someone screams and Santo runs toward the screaming.
A small crowd of people have gathered, Santo anxiously pushes his way through to see who was shot. The man with the tattoos is lying on the cold pavement with a bullet hole through the side of his head and one in his blood spattered chest near his heart. He lays spread eagle with one leg slightly curved revealing something wrapped around his ankle. It looks like an ankle monitor but Santo isn’t so sure. He manages to get closer to the dead man as more people mill around his lifeless body. Santo squats down at the man’s feet to take a closer look at him and his eyes roam to look at his ankle. The man is wearing an ankle wallet and there’s definitely something inside of it.
Leaning over the man he slips the wallet off of him while another man claiming to be a doctor checks for a pulse. Sirens can be heard in the background. Santo hears a police officer’s voice behind him asking people to back up and move away from the victim.
Santo stands up palming the wallet in his hand then slips it into his jacket pocket as he fades into the crowd of people being told to move away. He makes sure there’s no one following him as he walks back in the direction he came. Just as he is about to cross the street he recognizes the woman getting into the back seat of a new black Jaguar XJR a few feet away and he ducks into a doorway not wanting her to see him. The vehicle passes him but not before he gets a good look inside. It’s Alina and Clayton Simon they are kissing in the backseat of the car being driven by another man he doesn’t recognize.
Santo pulls out his cell phone to call Kyle then puts it back in his pocket. He takes off running back to the hotel. When he gets there he notices the same Jaguar sitting outside the hotel but only the driver is inside it. Alina and Clayton Simon stand on the sidewalk as a valet loads a suitcase into the trunk of the car. He waits until they drive off before walking across the street to go inside.
He doesn’t have anywhere private he can go to so he checks into another room. Once inside the room he pulls out the ankle wallet from his jacket and opens it up as he sits on the edge of the bed. There’s a black IPOD Touch inside and Santo starts looking through the messages on it and checking emails. The dead man’s name was Emilio Bolero and from what Santo can piece together on the messages and emails, Mr. Bolero must have just checked in and thought he was meeting Alina here to arrange a hit on Santo. Why was Bolero killed in the alleyway Santo wonders, that must have been Bolero’s suitcase they were putting in back of the Jaguar.
Santo checks the time remembering he was supposed to meet Alina in her hotel suite more than an hour ago. He didn’t but she hasn’t bothered to call him to see where he’s at. Holding his head in his hands he breathes a heavy sigh of relief. She was setting him up to meet her here. This man was supposed to kill him. Santo opens the IPOD back up and starts going through the reminders and notes on it finding much more than he anticipated. “Oh Alina, so sloppy my dear, so sloppy. I don’t think your boyfriend knows what you left behind.” He says out loud as he is reading through the reminders saved on the IPOD.
Located in the reminders of the nano are names, dates and time frames with coded instructions. It’s a hit list and all the men on the list are dead except him and the three names below his. On the Notes App he reads through pages and pages of information. He clicks one more page before deciding to close it up and he see’s what he had hoped to get from Alina.
He sifts through the list of client’s recognizing some of the names on it and surprised by a few. One of the client’s name on the list disturbs him. He and his men rescued the man’s drug addicted daughter a few years ago from her drug kingpin boyfriend in Brazil. Santo knows her father will be arrested when he turns this list over and he can only hope it doesn’t send her spiraling back into the drug world.
Santo tries to call Kyle again and it goes to his voicemail so he leaves him a message. He tries to call Wilton, then Julian and both are unavailable it goes straight to voicemail. He doesn’t want to but finally he tries to reach his father and gets the same message. Where the hell is everybody he wonders as he puts the nano in his jacket pocket then gets up from the bed to leave the room.
He rides down the elevator to the hotel lobby. The elevator doors open and the lobby is full of police officers and detectives. Unsure of what’s going on Santo makes his way to the front desk to ask. The young woman at the front desk looks scared until he lightly touches her arm getting her attention then she starts grinning in his face.
“Excuse me, could you tell me what happened.” He keeps his voice calm, but his nerves are on edge.
“Ahm….I’m really not supposed to say sir but you have nothing to be concerned about. The hotel is safe and we have taken every precaution to make sure it stays that way. Is there anything else I can help you with?” The young woman tries to maintain her tearful smile.
Santo turns on the charm leaning on the desk. “Yes, you can tell me if you have any messages for Mr. Donati. I was supposed to have a meeting here today and the person hasn’t shown up so I was just wondering, you know if any of this had something to do with that?”
“Ah-huh, okayyyy Mr. Donati. Why don’t I check to see if there are any messages for you?” The representative sniffles while checking her computer.
Santo looks at the police officers standing in a corner talking to one of the valet people and a hotel receptionist. One of the maids comes to the reception desk to ask the young woman assisting Santo if she is alright. Santo ease drops on their conversation as he waits. He over hears that a man was found dead in one of the suites on the top floor. His name was Mr. Donaldson and he was shot with a silencer as he was opening his door. The representative tells the maid she doesn’t remember seeing him and the maid tries to describe him to her. Santo listens and it sounds like someone describing himself. The maid tells her which suite he was in and Santo tries not to choke. The man was in the suite next to Alina and now he knows for sure this was a setup.
The maid leaves when her boss calls her and the representative returns her attention to Santo. “Mr. Donati I do have a message for you sir. Here you go.” The representative is only able to manage a half-smile and Santo understands. He takes the message from her then walks away from the main lobby area to read it.
“Santo, please wait for me darling. I have some business to attend to. Order us room service and be ready for me. I’ll see you within the hour. Alina”
Santo balls the message up in his fist while trying not to growl out loud. He feels like he's going to combust he’s so angry. The bitch was setting him up for a hit and the dumb bastard got the room number wrong killing some other poor man.
Santo marches out of the hotel and walks down the street. He tries to calm himself down as he starts thinking about everything he and Alina talked about the last few days. She tried to get him to sleep with her several times and each time he couldn’t do it. She must have figured out what he was doing but apparently couldn’t bring herself to be the one to kill him so she thinks she got her tattooed accomplice to do it for her then she killed the fool. Alina needs to be taken down, she’s been getting men to do anything for her far too long.
Santo walks into the parking garage where he parked his car. When he gets to it he leans on the hood for a few seconds then bangs his fists. He knowingly has to include himself as one of Alina’s fools. He still doesn’t know if he can salvage his relationship with Taylor and he knows his relationship with Alina has a lot to do with that.
He reaches in his pocket to pull out his keys. He’s got to be careful now Clayton Simon and Alina think his body is going to be found in that hotel room at least until the news media get ahold of the story. He can’t contact his parents or Taylor just yet he doesn’t want them in any danger. Just as he presses the key fob to unlock his car door he’s grabbed from behind.
******
Zoe pulls her car up in front of her own brownstone and jumps out to run up her steps. She races inside changes out of her dress into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then comes out to go next door to see Taylor. She can’t wait to talk to her best friend they haven’t had much time to talk since Taylor got back from Italy. Maybe they can cook dinner tonight and watch some movies together. They haven’t done that in a long time.
She excitedly runs up Taylor’s brownstone steps to knock on her door when it opens on its own. Thinking Taylor must have seen her coming and left the door unlocked she goes inside and calls her name as she walks toward the kitchen. She hears the door slam behind her and she quickly turns around.
She recognizes the older man staring back at her. She’s seen the picture of him and Taylor upstairs in Taylor’s home office. He’s aged, his temples are grey and he’s got a goatee mustache that’s salt and pepper. The woman standing next to him she also recognizes. She used to think this woman was so beautiful until she got to know who she is. The sneer on Alina’s face makes her so ugly to Zoe right now she’s sure the ugliness goes straight through to her heart.
“What are you doing here?” Zoe doesn’t back down.
“I take that to mean you know who we are?” Clayton speaks for them both.
“Yes, I know. What do you want? Where’s Taylor?” Zoe tries to keep the frantic out of her voice.
“We thought we would ask you the same thing. Aren’t you two supposed to be besties or some shit like that?” Alina draws.
“Yeah, some shit like that.” Zoe sarcastically responds.
“Mm, I guess since you don’t know where she is and we don’t know where she is we’ll take you and she can find out where we all are won’t she?” Alina walks toward Zoe grabbing her arm but Zoe slaps it away from her. Alina slaps Zoe across the face busting her lip.
Zoe wipes her hand over her mouth seeing blood on her fingers. She draws her fist back and punches Alina in the face knocking her to the ground. Clayton moves from his spot grabbing Zoe around the waist as Alina jumps to her feet and approaches Zoe to hit her back. Clayton swings Zoe around to the side in his arms out of Alina's reach.
“Hold it….we need her right now. You two can settle this later. Zoe squirms and kicks in Clayton Simon’s arms while glaring at Alina. Clayton shakes her. “Keep still. Your boyfriend doesn’t have to find you breathing.” He tells Zoe and she calms down. He sets her on her feet and pushes her in front of him out the door. They put her in the Jaguar and drive off.
******
Alberto, Celine and a not so feeling well Taylor arrive at their destination with the CIA agents. They are escorted down a long corridor of a building with pale grey walls and marble floors. A door buzzes and they are escorted inside. The room is oblong, it has a rectangular table and five chairs. There’s a large window in the room with closed blinds. The overhead lights are bright and blinding. Alberto and Celine help Taylor into a seat.
“Excuse me,” Celine tells the agent that escorted them to their current location. “Can we get some water for Ms. Simon she’s ill, oh….where is the bathroom she may have to go shortly?”
The agent’s facial expression doesn’t change it stays stoic. He nods his head acknowledging he heard Celine. “I will send someone in with water. Please let us know if any of you has to use the bathroom. Someone will be with you shortly.” The agent leaves the room and after the door closes Celine looks to her husband.
“Do you know anything about this?” She sternly ask him.
“Of course not Celine, I’m just as in the dark about all of this as you. If he didn’t tell you he surely wouldn’t tell me.” Alberto Donati tells his wife. As they talk Taylor lays her head on the table, her stomach is in knots and she has a headache.
Grabbing Alberto by the hand and tugging on it to get his attention Taylor looks up at the worried face of Santo’s father. “I had a feeling he was involved in something. He’s always protecting others at the expense of himself. Let’s just find out first what’s going on then between the three of us maybe we can figure this out, can we do that?” Taylor implores.
Looking at Celine then back at Taylor Alberto takes the seat next to Taylor. “I think it’s a good idea. Come Celine please sit.”
The door opens just as Celine is sitting down. Agent Marshall enters along with another man dressed in a dark suit. He’s older than agent Marshall about thirty-five to forty. He has a badge on also and Alberto stands when they enter the room.
“Good evening, ma’am, sir. I am sorry for the sterile atmosphere, we will get you into more comfortable quarters as soon as possible.” The agents sit down across from Celine on the end, Taylor in the middle and Alberto on the other end of the table.
There’s a click of the door and another agent enters with a folder smiles at the three of them then leaves as the older agent takes the folder from the retreating agent’s hand.
“Now, I believe you have already met agent Marshall. I am Donovan Briggs, special agent in charge of this operation. Santo checked in with us early this morning but we haven’t heard from him recently. We have received confirmation that he is undercover with one of our suspects. Based on the deal he made the charges against you Ms. Simon will be dropped, however we will need a statement from you today regarding everything you know regarding the operation of Cromwell Industries, it’s owner Nathan Cromwell and any information you can provide us regarding jewel thief kingpin Clayton Simon.”
Taylor’s stomach does flip flops and she groans causing Celine and Alberto to be alarmed. Knowing the results of her test Celine is on alert.
“Agent Briggs, agent Marshall? Can you wait to take her statement? I am very concerned about the whereabouts of my son but as you can see by her parlor my future daughter-in-law is not feeling well and while I don’t want to say the reason since my son is not aware of it yet I am sure you can look at Ms. Simon and figure it out by the number of bathroom trips she makes.” Celine informs the agents and Taylor raises her head from the table to place her hand on top of Celine’s.
Celine places her other hand over Taylor’s and smiles at her. Both of the women's eyes feel with water giving each other a look of understanding. Both agents look uncomfortable.
“I’m so sorry Ms. Simon I had no idea. We were not informed that you had a condition.” Agent Briggs becomes flustered standing up immediately followed by agent Marshall. The two men whisper to each other something and agent Marshall leaves the room.
“We will move you to a more comfortable location as soon as possible. Is there anything I can get for you Ms. Simon until that time?” Agent Briggs ask Taylor.
“Yes, I need to go to the bathroom immediately agent.” Taylor stands up and the agent helps her to the door opening it for her and helping her out the room. A female agent is on the other side of the door and she guides Taylor to the ladies restroom.
Agent Briggs returns to the room to face Mr. and Mrs. Donati. Clearing his throat, he scratches his head and looks down for several minutes before speaking.
“I’m sorry about this. My wife had our first son several months ago and I understand the situation. I’m happy for you and for Santo. He and I go way back before I joined the CIA. We both joked back then that we didn’t think we were the types to settle down and now look at us.” Agent Briggs goes off topic to comment.
Celine and Alberto grip each other’s hands as the agent talks. It seems they keep finding out more and more about their son things they didn’t know and it doesn’t matter how small the tidbits of information are they drink it all in. Santo seems to have so many connections that they feel like they have missed out on so much of his life. They just want him to come back and be happy with Taylor and their grandchild growing inside of her.
Someone knocks on the door and agent Briggs excuses himself to step outside.
Agent Marshall has returned. He’s giving agent Briggs an update on what’s happened so far with Santo just as Taylor is returning from the bathroom. She sees them talking and she stays where she’s at. They don’t notice her as they talk. The younger agent tells Briggs about the body of a tattooed man found in an alleyway with reports of someone seeing a woman arguing with him just before he was found dead.
Taylor has an idea who the man was but hearing about the woman arguing with him makes her mad, it had to be Alina. She stays near the bathroom to continue to listen.
Agent Marshal is now explaining that another body was found executed at a five-star hotel. The owners are trying to keep it quiet but the local police are all over the place and now the news media is there. Agent Briggs ask if there is any word from Santo and Taylor can see him shake his head but she doesn’t understand if it’s good or bad. Agent Marshall hands Briggs a phone that has a message on it. Agent Briggs reads the message and Taylor tries to keep from running into the hall and snatching the phone away from him. She watches as the agent puts his hand on his hip and shakes his head then gives the phone back to agent Marshall. He squeezes the agent’s shoulder telling him something Taylor can’t hear.
Someone else comes out of the bathroom and the door slams. Both agents turn around to see her standing there. She walks toward them but they both give her vacant looks. She knows there’s something going on they don’t want to tell her and she’s determined to find out.
“If that message is about Santo I want to see it.” She boldly tells them.
“I’m sorry Ms. Simon we can’t do that.” Agent Briggs responds.
“Why not….you want something from me you’ve got to give me something in return. Tell me what’s going on. Is he alright….” She whimpers and a tear falls on her cheek.
The agents escort her back into the room. When Alberto and Celine see her they become upset. “What happened to her?” Alberto angrily questions.
“They got some news about Santo and they won’t tell me.” Taylor tearfully murmurs.
Celine rises from her seat and walks over to the agents. “What is it, is he alright? Just tell us if he’s alright? She pleads.
*******
Thanks for reading. Please VOTE and as always comments please. Who do you think has Santo? Why do you think they took Zoe? Who are the other three names on Bolero's hit list?