Page 94 of Choices

Iturn the corner into Vitale's neighborhood and slow my plain-clothes cruiser and peer out the passenger side window. I'm not sure what I expect to see from the road, but the scene of chaos is not what I'm expecting.

I'm just praying I get to Vitale's house before Rico. I'm praying I'm not about to find a dead house wife and mafia kingpin.

Guards and help are running around, shouting at each other, with no real semblance of order or organization.

It isn't until I pass the house a bit, that I notice a woman shuffling stiffly down the sidewalk. She's in a mid-length red dress, but her hair seems wrong. As I get closer, though, I notice the dress is really a sweatshirt and is only red in the front, and the woman’s face and chest are red too. She's walking like she's in a trance, eyes wide but unseeing.

Fuck.

It's Hannah, and she's covered in blood – her face, her hair, the whole front of her sweatshirt. She's in shock. I park my cop car as close to her as I can and jump out quickly.

"Hannah! Hannah! Are you alright? Are you hurt??"

I frantically dial Rico back.

She jumps back when I touch her shoulder, her eyes wide, but they're slow to focus on me. Slowly, the light comes back to them.

"It's in my mouth." She says, pointing lamely to her red-stained teeth.

Fuck!

"Okay, okay, I got you." I take off my uniform jacket and cover her with it to not arouse as much interest if someone were to see her.

Fuck.

I open the back of the car, and gently usher her into it. Before rounding the back and retrieving a bottle of water from my trunk.

Finally, Rico answers. "Johnson." He growls.

"Boss, I've got her..." I look at the back of her matted head in the back seat. "Boss, I've got her but it's not good."

“Where are you?! I’m coming.”

“No, I’m bringing her to you.”

“Don’t fuck with me Johnson! Where are you?”

“Rico,” I plead quietly. We have known each other since elementary school. Normally I would always show him the respect he deserves, but I was asking this as a friend, not an informant. “She shouldn’t be seen in public. And I can't take her to a hospital. I think she’s alright, she’s just in shock.”

It works. Rico pauses for a beat before saying “Bring her to me now.”

"Boss?" I interrupt.

"You're at the farm?"

He grunts that he can be.

"The kids can't see her like this. I'll bring her in the back entrance, but you make sure those kids are far away. Understand?"

He grunts before hanging up.

I open the back door again before giving Hannah the water bottle. She stares at it as if she's never seen one before. I open the cap for her.

"Take a sip and swish it inyour mouth before spitting it out, okay? Do that three times."

She looks up at me, looking small and child-like, and nothing like the woman who handed the Fed his ass. My heart breaks for her.

But, she does as I say before giving me a fake, toothy grin so I can inspect them.

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