Thrill Me, page 26
It’s the Fontaines, but knowing how Dad was, or rather is, I can imagine him wanting to stay and ride it out. I remember when two of my cousins from Calabria were found out talking to the feds we had threats on us. That was when Mom started acting withdrawn around Dad. That was when the arguments started and it was clear she wanted out.
“She was supposed to leave,” Mary says and presses her thin lips together.
“What kind of evidence did the files contain?” I ask. It’s time to pick it all apart.
“Destruction my girl,” Mary answers. “Your mother had seriously incriminating evidence against Congressman Patterson that would lock him away in prison for many, many years.”
My mouth drops. “What?”
“Yes. At the time Congressman Patterson was the Cook County treasurer but considered one of the wealthiest men in America. A man who had various connections and worked with a number of different people. The files are evidence of rigging votes and links to international sex trade and drug trafficking. Which is where the Fontaines come in. That’s what they do and how they’ve been able to carry on doing what they do and stay in so much power. It’s because Congressman Patterson is in charge.”
My heart just about stops in my chest as I look at them both. They’re being serious. I’m trying to take it all in and I wish like hell Salvatore had been allowed to come in with me because the shock is taking me whole. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together though, they sure as fuck are.
Even I know how much of a mystery it’s been to figure out what links the Fontaines have in the government. This is it. Congressman Patterson.
“Oh God…” I wince.
“She and William were going to expose him for his crimes. They were seeing each other and planned to be together. I… know this is hard for you to hear because of your father, but that was the plan. It just didn’t happen that way.”
Adrian signs and Mary stops talking. She looks to him then to me.
“He wants me to tell you that he thinks the Fontaines have some sort of spy because of the way things played out. It wasn’t normal and there were so many loose ends and questions. There was no way your mother would have died if there wasn’t someone like that around. He thinks too that she happened on the files by accident.”
“I figured she must have gotten them at the office,” I fill in. “The office where she worked with William.”
Adrian shakes his head.
“She didn’t get them from the office. She came to William when she already had possession of them,” Mary answers.
I narrow my eyes. That doesn’t make any sense at all.
“Did she say where she might have got them?” I ask.
Adrian closes his eyes and once again shakes his head.
He signs to Mary.
“Adrian met with William and your mother. His job existed solely to keep secrets safe. That’s what he did. No one is supposed to know his name because he never went by his real name in public circles. So anyone who knew it wasn’t going to be anyone good. Except you.” She stops and draws in a breath. “It was me who heard that you were looking for Adrian. I mentioned you to him and we knew you couldn’t have wanted trouble but you must have stumbled over some truth.”
“Yes. That’s what happened. I don’t understand any of this. It’s all so bizarre. I don’t get where my mother would have found the files.”
“He was never told that. She handed the files over to him. He was supposed to wait for William to contact him.”
William wouldn’t have contacted him because he didn’t know that Adrian had the files. He never got mom’s message.
She pauses for a few seconds and brings her hands together. “Adrian found out William was killed so he hid the files. He was on his way to Washington when his car was run off the road. The Fontaines came for him. They knew his name. The picture was clearly something she wanted to give William herself and never got the chance to.”
“All my mom’s stuff got taken to my grandmother’s house. Everything. My Dad couldn’t bear to have her things around. The grief took him down for years.”
She nods understanding. “The Fontaines thought Adrian had the files on him so they tried to kill him and get them back. They burned him and I managed to get to him with a rescue team before they could do worse. I’m ex-navy so I had my contacts. We’ve been in hiding ever since. Hiding here.”
God… this is surreal. “I’m so sorry this happened... now the Fontaines think I have the files.”
She smiles and Adrian looks at her.
“Well, you do, or you will,” she answers and he pulls a key from his pocket.
He signs to Mary.
“Your mother told him you were the only person who would know what this opened. Not that she wanted to involve you. I think it was more a matter of speech,” Mary says and hands me the key.
When I take it and look over the sleek black metal and the Celtic swirl on the top for my family crest, memories flood my mind and hope fills my heart in abundance when I realize I know where the files are.
The key is for the Dream House at my grandfather’s farm. That’s where the files are. It’s true I would be the only person to know where this key opened because Mom took me there every chance she got.
“I know where they are,” I breathe.
“Good,” Mary smiles. “The files are in the floorboard hatch.”
“Thank you so much,” I tell them both.
“Is there a password for the case? I was told there was one.”
“There’s no password. It was just something Adrian told the Fontaines to confuse them. The case should open with no problem.” Mary nods, but the seriousness comes back into her eyes. “Mimi, I don’t have to tell you that the Fontaines mustn’t get their hands on them. We’re only handing them to you because we know you and the files will be in safe hands. Gibbs assured us of this. I will caution you though to be careful.”
“Yes, of course.” I only have to look at Adrian to know I have to be careful.
“Those files are the only thing that can destroy their empire, and Congressman Patterson.”
“I understand.”
“What will you do with them?” she asks worry filling her face.
“Finish the plan,” I answer. “I plan to stop the Fontaines in their tracks once and for all. Destroy them for what they’ve done. Destroy them for killing my mother.”
They killed her. I don’t care that I don’t have a specific name of who did it. She was killed for these files, that makes them all guilty. This is a personal war for me.
“Please be careful,” Mary cautions. “Be careful with your life. You’re basically going after senior government officials and the mobsters who do their dirty work.”
I nod. “I know.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Mimi
By night fall Salvatore and I were back at the Giordano manor with the case containing the files.
Everyone’s in the meeting room now making plans.
I’m in Salvatore’s old bedroom sitting by the window going over everything in my mind.
I got to see the files for myself. There was evidence galore and names. Printouts from emails with detailed conversations taking place. There were several foolscap folders with names that looked like patient files. Each folder had contracts signed by people I knew to be government officials and the Fontaine brothers. All of them. Marc, Lawrence, Sergio and Joey. Everything looked like files a secretary would keep. It was all so weird.
Definitely what I’d class as destruction in a box.
There’s still questions lingering in the air, however, and I’m sitting here trying to figure out how Mom could have gotten her hands on those types of files if she didn’t get them at her office.
Where did she get them?
The door opens and Salvatore comes in. I shuffle around, taking my feet off the window bay.
“You okay?” he asks, walking over to me. He sits next to me and I nod.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s not over yet though so I’m kind of neither here nor there.”
“I know what you mean. I’m the same.”
“I… still don’t know what happened to her really. Parts of it don’t make sense. How did she come by it?” I draw in a breath.
“We’ll figure it out,” he promises. “It feels like the past and present are colliding. The truth will come out soon.”
I believe it will too. It already is.
Salvatore holds my hand and gives me a gentle squeeze.
“What’s going to happen now?” I ask.
“We’re taking it to the top. It’s enough to wipe them out. I imagine if they think you have the files they must be shitting themselves with worry,” he says then an uneasy look comes into his eyes. “Mimi… the truth of the past is feeling like the current situation. Everything that’s happening and what Adrian mentioned about someone spying feels like what’s happening now.”
“Is that what’s happening?” I gasp. A spy? It makes sense. It fits. It explains the weirdness.
His brows pinch. “Baby, that’s all I can and should tell you. You’re in too deep in this shit. Way more than I like. I just think you deserve some context to what’s happening.”
“Thanks for thinking that, and I get it, there’s stuff you can’t tell me. Do you think it’s the same person though?” It might be odd if it was but it’s the Fontaines so that’s the common denominator.
“I don’t know what to think any more.” He sighs. “Mimi, I’m going to ask you not to say anything to your father until this is all over. It’s too dangerous to involve him. I worry what he might do if he should learn the truth.”
I’m already nodding before he can finish talking. “I won’t say anything. Dad would go mad. It would kill him to know what happened to my mother.” I could just imagine how distraught Dad would be and he’d probably go off on some rampage to take down the Fontaines. The only problem with that is it will get him killed.
“Just keep minimal contact with him.”
“I’ve sent him a message to let him know I’m safe. I told him I was with Gina.” I lied because knowing I’m here will make him worry.
“Good.”
We stare at each other as silence enters the space between us. He touches my face and I give him a small smile.
“I miss The Dark Odyssey, Salvatore. I miss the way you just forget the shit once you step through the doors,” I tell him, releasing a heavy breath.
“Yeah, I miss it too baby,” he agrees.
I look him over and want so badly to push everything aside. It’s all been too much.
“Salvatore, can we just have normal for the rest of the night? Go to your place and have normal. Us. Me and you normal.” I give him a smile.
“Normal. Yeah… I think we can do that,” he answers standing up.
He puts out his hand to me. I take it and we leave.
I’m always amazed at how this man can take me out of reality. Even when the worst is happening.
The minute we stepped into his apartment it felt like we just stepped back in time.
Like we slipped on a glove and became the two people we were weeks ago.
I wasn’t surprised when he picked me up and took me straight to bed.
We went straight to bed where we stayed all night devouring each other. I couldn’t remember when I fell asleep. I just remember closing my eyes for what I thought was a few seconds then when I opened them again, bright sunlight was beaming down on me.
I turn my head to the side and I see him.
Salvatore is sitting by the window in his boxers, smoking a cigar , looking like my dream guy. I just take a moment to look at him and savor what I see.
He looks to me when I sit up and slinks the cigar to the side of his mouth.
I slide off the bed and wrap the sheet around me.
When I walk over to him, he pulls me into his lap and puts the cigarette out.
“Good morning,” I say, smiling at him.
“Yes, the morning is definitely good. Look at the woman I’m waking up to. I’m one lucky bastard.” He chuckles.
“I’m lucky too.”
“Did you enjoy your night of normal Miss Cipriani?”
I smile at him. “I think I enjoyed it a little too much. Do you think we have too much sex?” I’m joking. There’s no such thing. I’m just trying to hang on to the lightness of the mood.
He frowns. “Babygirl, you’re asking me the owner of a sex club if we have too much sex? Also you work in the said sex club.”
“What if we become addicted and that’s all we ever do?” I giggle.
He laughs and I savor the sound.
“Jesus, you trying to tell me something Mimi?”
“I don’t know… I’m just thinking,” I state playfully.
“When your restaurant takes off and every soul in Chicago goes to eat there, you’re going to be busy. You won’t have time for The Dark Odyssey.”
I already thought about that. “I’m not leaving the club Salvatore. It’s a part of me. I’ll be there like normal once… well once we get back to normal.”
“Yeah? You like working for me and mine that much in a taboo as fuck joint?”
“I think I do.”
“Maybe it’s me… maybe it’s me I’m thinking about. I don’t exactly have a normal to go back to. We’ll get Fontaine with evidence and I will still be a danger to you.” He gets that look again. The one I won’t forget from the other day, when he broke up with me. He starts to say something and I shake my head.
“No…” I breathe.
He takes my hand and kisses it. “Mimi, I have to face reality here.”
“Salvatore don’t you dare take me away from this normal. Don’t…” I shake my head again. “Don’t do it. I’m not ready to leave yet. All I want is for you to take me back to bed and make love to me.”
I close my fingers over his and hold on to him. He holds my gaze like he’s staring deep into my soul.
“Make love…” he says barely above a whisper.
I didn’t even realize that was what I said to him until he repeated it. The words just fell naturally from my lips.
He searches my eyes. Something sensual sparks his as he studies my face.
“Yes,” I answer. The words didn’t come by accident. It was no slip of the tongue where I said something I shouldn’t have said. The words came because my heart was speaking to him. “Make love to me.”
Just like that day when everything changed between us, it happens again. It’s something about the energy that ripples between us. Wild and reckless. Magnetized to draw us both in.
He slips his hand behind my head and his lips crush against mine as he kisses me hard.
The kiss steals my breath away at the same time as it steals my mind.
It does exactly what I want it to and so does he.
Just as I requested he picks me up and carries me back to bed.
He shrugs out of his boxers unleashing the massive length of his cock, perfectly erect, ready to take me and make me his.
I don’t get the chance to admire his body the way I did last night. He gets on the bed and his lips return to mine again.
Body to body and skin to skin we mold against each other.
His hard body on top of mine, pressing me against the cool silk sheets. As his cock sears into me my body welcomes him like we were always meant to do this.
My body welcomes him and that change in the atmosphere is prevalent and sure. No question about it, something more has changed between us. Something else.
We went from being friends, to lovers, then we became these people.
Owned.
That’s what I think it is.
It’s a different sensation to just belonging. It’s possession of the heart, body, mind and soul, of everything I am. I feel it all as he makes love to me.
The wild crackle of passion sings through my body, dancing in my veins. Flowing through my being on a luxuriating wave of something I never want to be without.
I never want to be without him.
That’s the answer.
For me that’s the answer to all of it.
We get lost in the raw rhythm that takes us. He pumps into me driving me relentlessly higher to the peak of ultimate pleasure and I hold on to him.
He speeds up, his ruthless cock demanding more, everything I have, taking everything I have and I give it freely. As he fucks me with possession, I give myself to him and look him directly in his eyes, so he knows he owns me.
He knows it.
He sees it and I know he feels it.
His pumps speed up and he gives me more, and more, and I see, know and feel it too as he gives himself to me.
I feel that more than the warmth that floods me when he comes. I arch my back into him and cry out from the blistering heat that races over my skin. It’s electrifying and mind numbing.
I tighten my grip on him and he holds me.
It feels like falling and flying all at once, but him holding me steadies me.
He presses his forehead to mine and we breathe sharing the same electrified air that pulses around us.
“Yes…” I say in answer to a question, displaced in time.
His eyes search mine. “What Babygirl? What are you saying yes to?”
“That first morning when we woke up and you told me you wanted me to be yours.” It’s like I found myself. It’s like I just became that person I used to be and part of me has healed. The part of me who wants love with him so now I’m telling him the answer I should have given. “The answer is yes. It should have been yes. Then when you asked me if I trusted you my answer should have been yes. Then… when you came to me with the restaurant… I should have said you don’t need to do that. My answer was always yes, because I’ve always loved you, Salvatore.”
“I love you too Maria Cipriani, my babygirl.”
I don’t even get the chance to savor the feel of his words. The phone rings on the nightstand.
