Page 25 of Echo
The door opened behind me. Mark asked. “Who are you talking to?”
“My dad,” I answered, and the door shut without another word.
“I thought you were going alone.”His voice grew deeper. A tone he used to warn unruly patrons in his bar. No one fucked with that voice.
My pride wanted me to hide the truth, but if shit went sideways, someone needed to know the truth. “I did.”
“Do you need me?”One word and an entire army of bikers would be in my yard by the time the sun came up the next day.
“I’ll handle it.”
“Why isn’t it already?”he asked.“I taught you better than that.”
“Just need to find a work around.” I kept my answer vague so I wouldn’t alarm Mark if he was eavesdropping. “This isn’t your kind of customer. This is more delicate.”
“I’m sure the big wig lawyer has connections and friends in high places. Yours are covered in bloody trenches, don’t get so obsessed with your pride that you forget that.”Dad grunted.“Don’t let that pride you inherited from me get you killed.”
That pride had me running into isolation instead of the bosom of my connections. “I coulda used that advice a few weeks ago.”
“If you end up dead or in jail, I’ll tan your hide. You hear me?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I love you, Pumpkin.”
“I love you too.” No matter how things went. I needed him to know that. Even though we had our problems, I never stopped loving him. I hung up and dialed another number I knew by heart.
“What?”a gruff, annoyed voice said on the other line with a thick familiar Italian accent.
“I need help.”
“Name it,”my ex-husband, Aurelio, answered.
“I need you to see if the Miami courts granted guardianship of me to a Marcus Nolan, due to non compos mentis, and if it was, I need it to go away,” I whispered.
“Done. Do you need someone to do the wet work and a clean-up crew?”
My eyes roved over the woods. I was sure there were plenty of ways to deal with problems out here. “No. But I need to make sure there aren’t any contingencies that would implement me.”
“You left me for a big shot lawyer, eh?”
I heard weight pressing on the door from the other side. Mark was definitely listening now. “No.”
“I’m teasing, baby. I know why you left.”Aurelio chuckled.“This guy is on my list.”
Aurelio was a flawed individual. We were both passionate people who fought with every bit of fire inside of us, and sometimes we took things too far. We fought and loved hard, and even then we managed to not hurt each other like Mark did. Sad part was that Aurelio ran the Miami chapter of the mafia, and was one of the worst men I’d ever met.
Even now, I could call him and ask for help and he would drop everything to help me.
“I shouldn’t have…” I stopped when I heard Mark shuffling behind the door.
If I’d never left him, I’d probably be throwing dishes across the house, because Aurelio did something thoughtless. Then a few hours later he’d show up with my favorite dinner and flowers in hand, and fuck me into the counter, until I forgot how much of an idiot he was.
I ended up here because I recognized how toxic we were and wanted to be better.
I cleared my throat. “I should have grabbed some fucking pistachio ice cream, man. The closest store is a whole tank of gas away.”
“Bad lie. You only keep that in your freezer as a comfort. If he doesn’t know you hate pistachio ice cream, then he’s trash.”Aurelio clicked his tongue in disapproval.“You were supposed to find a better man than me. Not worse.”
