Page 10 of Don't Let Go

“I’ll let you know, okay? It’s a sweet invite though.” I kissed his lips, trying to ease the tension building between us.

“Yeah, fine.” He wrinkled his forehead in frustration like I was an annoying child. “Do you want to chill after the game tomorrow night?”

By chill, he meant putting on sleazy music in his bedroom as he felt me up.

I swallowed the lump creeping up my throat. “Umm… sure.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. My answer wasn’t to his liking. “Alright. I’ll see ya later.”

I returned to my friends and put my arms on the table, resting my head upon them.

“He used to be so nice,” Maria said, eating another fry.

Gabs patted my hand. “Hang in there. Once we graduate, maybe he’ll wander off and no longer be your problem.”

If only, but the Carbone family loved the idea of Paolo and me together, especially the crime boss. It was horrifying to think of.

Chloe’s eyebrows drew together in concern, but she didn’t say a word. She understood what it meant to be in bed with a Carbone. She warned me, but I didn’t listen. I should’ve known it was foolish and dangerous. Maria and Gabs didn’t understand how powerful the Carbone family was—how they controlled everything around us like a giant chessboard.

After dropping my sisters off at home, I stopped by a house in Carefree to help my mamma with a job. I parked my car two blocks from the house on my phone’s map and walked the rest of the way. Mamma never liked to draw more attention than needed to her assignments.

I walked up the stone walkway and found the front door unlocked. As I entered, I saw my mamma with a mop in hand.She wiped her brow and motioned for the door. “Close that and lock it,” she ordered.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, closing the door. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light.

“Grab a mop and finish the kitchen, per favore.”

“Okay.” I walked to her cleaning station by a marble archway to put booties on my shoes and slip on a pair of elbow-length gloves.

“How was school?” Mamma asked as she stared at the floor to examine her work.

I grabbed the extra mop, squeezing the extra water with the device on the bucket. “It was good. We’re learning about the core of the Earth. It’s interesting. I never thought about how the planet worked before.” I eyed a jade statue of a cat on the kitchen counter sitting on some paper towels. Perhaps it was the murder weapon. I cast my gaze to the floor. I shouldn’t be nosy.

Mamma nodded as she wiped her brow again. “Can you throw me a sponge? I don’t think the mop gets the cracks clean enough. Blood is stubborn.”

I leaned my mop against the fridge and located a sponge on her cleaning cart. “What happened here?” I said without thinking while handing her the sponge. I inspected the tile as well, then made the poor decision to look at the ceiling, also seeing blood splatter there. “Never mind. I don’t wanna know.”

Mamma patted my yellow-gloved hand with hers before taking the sponge. “Fiore mio, remember never ask questions. That’s how you end up like this.” She sniffed, wiping her nose on her shirt sleeve. “You never get used to the chemical burn in your nose.”

“I can open a window or prop open the back door.”

She glanced at the blood and brain matter on the ceiling. “Sì, per favore fallo.”

We worked silently for the next hour. I drew the short straw and climbed the ladder to scrap the pink matter off the ceiling and wipe it until nothing was left.

“Time for the blacklight,” Mamma announced as she grabbed the blacklight flashlight. “Turn off the lights and close all the curtains tightly.”

I rushed around the house until we were cast into darkness. She switched on the flashlight, looking for any traces of blood.

Nothing showed up anywhere. It was magically all clean. There were no signs of a deep clean, like bleach spots. After the strong chemical smell faded, there would be no evidence whatsoever of a crime occurring in this house. Not even the best CSI team could find a speck of blood or piece of hair here.

Mamma grabbed the jade cat statue from the kitchen and placed it back on the bookshelf in the living room. She looked around one last time, wiping her hands on her pants before packing up her cleaning cart. Her cleaning supplies broke down into two black cases. With a garbage bag in hand and a pair of mops, we were ready to go.

“Since we worked so hard this evening, why don’t we order a pizza for dinner? You know everyone will starve if neither of us cooks,” she laughed. Mamma was tough on us kids, but she was also soft. I think too soft sometimes on the others.

“Sounds good to me.” I grabbed the two black cases. “Are we walking out of here together?”

She looked at her watch. “We can. I’ll give you a ride to your car.”

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