26. Oh, to use a phone again
TWENTY-SIX
OH, TO USE A PHONE AGAIN
TROY
A week later, I get internet. The best thing about having a phone with access to internet now?
SOCIAL MEDIA!
Naturally, I spend the entire week gorging on social media like I used to when I was in high school. Which, to be fair, wasn’t that far in the past, but after what I’ve lived through, it feels like an eternity ago.
Browsing in ghost mode means I’ve caught up with my friends and pretty much everyone I’ve ever known. My best friend, Amy, dropped out of college when she found out Jackson knocked her up. He’s denying he’s the daddy, which is such crap, but I imagine he’s doing it for two reasons. One, because his parents would take him out of their will for knocking up a Lannister girl, and two, because he’s riding on a quarterback scholarship, which might get compromised if the school, along with his parents, found out he’s a dad.
Thing is, it’ll get worse for him if the college people find out he first denied he’s a dad even if he changes his mind later. When you face the public, you are no longer allowed to make mistakes. Social sites can be vicious beasts.
Amy stopped posting dramatic content yesterday, so I’m losing interest in social media (thank God), and another week goes by without me visiting social channels, not even to check Denver’s band page.
The band’s called Hazed, and it’s such a cool name befitting of the kind of music he makes. It’s alternative, and original in the way it sounds that I’m surprised he’s so well commercialized. He must have a great marketing manager who understands how to sell Denver’s magical voice.
Hearing him sing the words I wrote on the notepads my parents place randomly everywhere in the house makes me painfully homesick. Listening to how he changed up the words to express his longing, say how much he misses me, leaves me with tears in my eyes, and when I attend my therapy sessions with Dr. Gruber, that’s all I talk about. Denver, Levi, and my parents.
After crying to Dr. Gruber, I always feel better and more upbeat for the people I’m sharing my life with now. Like Val, who took me shopping in the local boutiques and for lunch right after. That lasted for about three days before Alessio intervened, asking us (ordering us) to shop online. We protested, but Alessio is an extremely difficult man, and I’m starting to see why he’s beautiful and yet still single.
While his intention to protect us is valid and admirable, he’s a little overprotective. Shark’s becoming like that too, constantly checking on me and the baby. He bought a monitor that he can put on my belly so he can listen to her inside the womb.
From what I’ve gotten to know about him and the family he’s found with Alessio and Val, they’re like my family in terms of closeness and willingness to help one another. Not having my family around has made me appreciate them more.
There’s another man they mention, though not by name, but I’ve heard enough to know he’s also unrelated and works a dangerous job, possibly in law enforcement, but I’m not sure about that. They refer to him only as he or him, which gives my imagination free rein to think he’s either a cop or a criminal.
Tonight is a beautiful, hot Italian evening, and Valerina and I have moved from lying on the sand most of the day to lounging by the pool. This past Saturday, she and I planted tall shrubs in the yard, so it’s become our private oasis. She’s on her second virgin margarita and I’m on my second virgin strawberry daiquiri when Shark walks up from the main house. He crouches by my chair, and I sit up so I can kiss him on the lips.
My mouth prickles from the facial hair he hasn’t shaved in weeks. He isn’t recognizable as the man I met on the yacht that day. Shark went from a clean-shaven hairless swimmer type of a guy to a mountain man. He’s wearing earrings and Viking-style jewelry beads in his beard.
I tug a silver bead in his beard. “What’s up?”
“My list is complete,” he says.
I gasp. “Seriously?”
Val swings her feet over the lounge chair and takes off her glasses, her blue eyes as bright as the pool water. “No way.”
“Yes way,” he confirms.
Oh my God, it’s happening. They found Falena. I want to put all this behind me. I’m trying to move on. Alessio’s showing me how to invest. It feels a little bit like I’m in school, but I can’t complain. It’s one of the skills I need to turn my dirty (now clean) millions into ongoing wealth for my baby.
“What now?” I ask.
“Now I hunt.”
Why does this sound so sexy? “You’re leaving?”
“Mmhm.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
I plant my feet on the ground, almost knocking Shark off balance. He stands just as I do, Valerina joining us. “Tonight?” I repeat. “It seems so sudden. Is this how such hunts normally go?”
“Yes and no. My job is unpredictable. I stay flexible to allow the target to make his moves, and I move with him. Unless I’m hunting a target I need to move toward a specific location, then I control their movements, and it becomes more predictable. This target is meeting your brother tomorrow, and I need to be there to ensure he’s taken down during the meeting.”
“My brother?” My heart’s beating a mile a minute.
“Sit down.” Shark helps me sit. I’m swollen all over and have gained at least three pounds in the past two weeks, and my belly is large compared to my frame. Hence Shark’s always helping me with balance and getting up and sitting down. Once I’m seated, he crouches in front of me again. Val remains standing.
“Falena and Fis have been conning various people for a while now. Falena provided the clients and ideas, while Fis executed the logistics. In your case, they used a woman from your college who leaked some of your lyrics to a man she believed was a talent scout. This scout gave one song to Falena, who pitched it to a music executive. A real one in this case. Falena figured out this song was worthy of the executive’s notice, so he flew you in and pitched several songs to a few other executives. Believe it or not, bidding wars ensued. Falena likes auctions. Illegal ones, because it stains people, and he uses it to blackmail them into silence.”
The night Falena sold the song they were bidding on the hardest was the same night the scout claimed the lyrics were his and that Falena has no right to them. The scout showed the executives the journal with written songs to prove his claim.”
I gasp. “No way.”
“Yes way,” Shark says. “It gets better.”
Don’t I know it. Cringe.
“The scout ends up selling all the songs at a crazy price. And get this.”
“What?” Val and I ask at the same time.
“He splits the money with Falena.”
My mouth makes an O because I’m speechless. “The scout…” I clear my throat. “Do you have a picture of him?”
“Of course.” Shark frowns and grabs his phone, then shows me an image of a guy who flirted with me, made sure I was drinking all night, and then used me and stole my journal.
“This guy was in on it with Falena from the start?” They played me so well, I almost felt bad for Falena when I got pregnant.
Shark nods. “Yeah.”
“That’s the baby’s biological father.”
Shark rears back and puts the phone away. “The pregnancy wasn’t part of the grand plan.”
“Falena seemed afraid,” I say. “When I told him I was pregnant, he was afraid.”
“That might be because the scout was found dead with your journal. This is where it gets interesting.”
“Like it wasn’t until now?” Val asks. “Oh, don’t stop. Go on, go on.”
Shark continues, “The scout’s death and your journal prompt the call to the US embassy. At this point Falena is in real trouble so he calls in all kinds of favors with local police so that your disappearance is pinned on the scout because by then, people were looking for you big-time. The investigation died down again, the case was going cold, your family thought you were dead. Then I find you. Falena calls Fis’s phone, and Fis doesn’t answer. Now, Falena is angry, wants revenge, thinks you’ve somehow cursed him, and since he can’t get you, he calls Denver.”
“Denver? Why Denver?”
“Denver signed a deal that can deliver the millions that can cover Falena’s debt. Besides, Denver has something Falena covets: singing talent. But what Falena doesn’t know is that Fis was a person of interest to the intelligence community. Remember what I found in the engine room?”
I nod.
“Because of interest in Fis’s dealings that had nothing to do with you, an asset who had been working Falena for a while fed him ideas. One of the ideas was to arrange a meeting with your brother, take Denver’s money, and disappear.”
I interrupt. “An asset?”
Val answers. “An asset is someone providing intelligence to the CIA agent.”
“Oh wow. The CIA knows I’m missing?”
“They know a lot of things.” Shark glances at Val, who nods and leaves us.
Shark continues. “The reason I was on the yacht that day was because a few months ago, Fis used our marina to restock his supplies. Whenever a known criminal makes a stopover and an international intelligence agency finds out about it, the place is marked and investigated. Alessio didn’t appreciate the inquiry. One thing led to another, and they pressured Alessio into fixing their problem. In exchange, they would remove the flag they placed on the island. Alessio made a list of men on the yacht, and I executed the list, ticked it off like Santa Claus, one by one. Nobody knew you were onboard that yacht, not even me.”
“My hiding game is superior to your seeking game.”
Shark chuckles. “Yeah, and you monetized it when you took Fis’s money.”
We joke about the most messed-up of things. “What did he want from Denver?”
“He said he wanted money in exchange for proof of life.”
“But he doesn’t have proof of life.”
“Remember those cameras in Fis’s bedroom?”
I ball my fists. “They were watching those, and he wants to show them to my brother. That sick motherfucker.” I take a moment to process all this. “Where…” I swallow. “Where is Denver meeting that man?”
“In Venice,” Shark says. “He manages a hotel there. That’s how he gains access to lavish rooms and how he makes arrangements with the staff and…everyone. People suspect nothing. He’s been doing it for years in many cities across Europe. You’re not the first victim.”
“Now I’m angry. I want justice for all the victims.”
Shark purses his lips. “Well now, I wouldn’t call what I do justice, but Lucifer will know what to do with Falena once I’m done with the man here.”
“That’s justice.”
Shark shrugs. “Whatever you want to call it is fine by me.”
“Venice is only a few hours from here,” I say suggestively. I don’t know what I’m hoping for since Shark and Alessio explained the need for secrecy and why I can’t see my family ever again. Yet, my feelings don’t care about their (or my) logic.
“I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is a resounding no.”
“Maybe I could?—”
“No way,” Shark says in a tone that slams the door on the conversation.
“But you said Denver is paying for proof of life. Videos of me won’t be enough. How is Falena going to deliver the proof, which is me, if I’m not there?”
“He won’t.”
“Wha…? I don’t understand.”
“Falena will kill Denver as soon as the transfer of funds is completed.”
Both hands fly to my mouth. “Oh my God. No. No, I can’t. I must go to the hotel, then. You know which one, right? Obviously.”
Shark shakes his head. “You are not going anywhere near danger ever again.” He pauses and adds, “Unless the danger is me. You can come directly on me. All over me.”
“Shark, I’m being serious.”
“Me too. You’re staying with Alessio and Val.”
“I can’t let this man hurt my brother. My mom will die if something happens to Denver. He’s the light in her eye, you know.” I start crying again.
Shark envelops me in a hug, which is awkward because my belly is in the way so we hug sideways. “Nothing will happen to your brother. It’s why I’m going tonight. To intercept.”
“You can’t guarantee nothing will happen to him.”
“I can. Well, unless he’s clumsy like you and trips over his own feet and falls out the hotel room balcony to his death.”
I chuckle. “You have the best dark-humor lines.”
“I’m happy to entertain. Have we reached an agreement about my mission now?”
I look up. “No.”
He pecks my lips. “Are we good?”
I pout, tears clouding my vision. Yes, we’re good. Shark and I have always been good. It’s the world that’s bad.