Page 78 of From My Past
I watched her get ready as I sat on the bed facing the open bathroom door. I just watched as she moved around the space, putting on powders and creams, concealer and mascara, all while humming softly.
“If you’re going to stare, at least talk to me.” She says with a snarky smile in the mirror.
“What would you like to talk about?” I lean forward with my elbows on my knees and bite my lip and raise an eyebrow.
“Not about that!” She laughs at me. Seeing her so happy makes me feel invincible, like nothing can touch me.
“Damn. I tried.” I lean back on my hands.
“I would like to know what you and Trent decided to do about the Italian situation. I may or may not have checked out a small bit while you two were talking.”
“I know, I could tell. It’s okay, it’s overwhelming.” I said, standing up and walking over to the door frame, leaning my shoulder against it. “As of right now, the last message I got from Trent, he was invited to a “fundraising” event that they’ve organized very last minute. Garzino Senior has invited some very shady parties. Gangs we don’t associate with because of their particular ‘tastes’. But Trent and Bryan both think that they could be making the first drop of cargo within that party. They’re gathering more information.”
“You’re really making it out to be that you guys in the Irish mafia are better than the rest, but…” She said with a smirk, rolling her eyes slightly.
“I’m not trying to. We are just as terrible, as awful. The shit I’ve had to do because of orders from the top… We are the things of nightmares, baby. That’s what family you’re attaching your cart to. The Irish Mafia rules with the iron fist and Kellan isn’t one to give second chances. We all know to do what he says or die and that’s just something that happens in my life.” I don’t want to go into detail with her about all the shit I have to do. The murders, the torture, the lying and stealing and manipulating. I don’t want to have to explain that I literally had to learn how to extract organs and flay open a man’s chest all while he was still alive in order to gain information. Some things you just can’t come back from.
“But, like I’ve said before, there are just some lines we don’t cross. Some unspoken rules that we adhere to and demand the rest follow. Human trafficking is one of them.”
“So, what is the plan, then? You guys already started a war.” She states while fluffing her long hair and twisting to the side to see how it looked from a different angle.
“Yes, we did, but now we need to go from defensive to offensive.” I cross my arms. “We are trying to figure out a way to get into the fundraiser without being detected. One of our soldiers has started interrogation on one of theirs. We just need to wait now.”
“Interrogation?” She turns and looks at me. “What kind of interrogation? Obviously not the kind that’s shown on cop shows.”
I chuckle. “No, baby. Definitely not that kind. Our interrogations have more…blood.”
“Have you interrogated someone before?”
“Yes.” I answer honestly. Even if I don’t want to scare her, I won’t lie to her.
“And they’ve been…bloody.”
“Yes.”
She purses her lips and her eyes look off to the side.
“Does that bother you?” I ask, looking down at my hands.
Talia takes a deep breath and I look at her. Her eyebrows are pulled together, but when she looks into my eyes, it’s like a decision was made.
“No. No, it doesn’t.” With those words, I lean in, taking her face in my hands and kiss her. “Although, it probably should.”
“Good.” I quickly kiss her again before letting her go to let get finish getting ready. As I’m turning to leave the bathroom, she grabs me by the hand.
“Do you think… it might be easier if a woman got the information from a low-level officer?” She asked, timidly.
“What?”
“What if instead of waiting for someone to beat the information out of them about when and where, what if I was to show up at the event and flirt with some of the lower-level guys?” She offered with a shrug.
“Absolutely not.” The words were out of my mouth before I fully understood what she was saying.
“Kieron, think about it.” She said strongly, setting the brush she was holding down. “I don’t look like I did when I was with Luca. He never took me anywhere with his underlings or whatever, if I do my hair up or wear a wig and go heavy on the makeup, no one would recognize me. I doubt Luca himself would. Plus, Trent and Bryan said that they’ve recruited a bunch of new people since I’ve been gone, they wouldn’t know what I looked like or who I was to Luca. Not only that,” She said, her voice getting higher and more excited as she kept explaining what she’d thinking. Unfortunately, each sentence she spoke caused my blood pressure to spike and my jaw to clench. “It’s perfect, no one would suspectmeinfiltrating the Italians.”
I shook my head, doing everything I could from screaming out how crazy it was and how I wouldn’t ever let her do anything so stupid and reckless. But I needed to take a breath and think it through.
“I don’t like it. Not at all.” I tell her through clenched teeth, walking out of the room.
