Chapter 22
Nico
All the cameras and mics she hid all over the basement of the community center and inside the church are transmitting. The pictures are crystal clear and the sound is so clear we can hear the wicks on the candles burning in the church hissing.
Trouble is, that’s all we can hear. All the spaces are deserted.
A part of me hoped we could just get all the evidence tonight and be done with this by tomorrow.
But that was the spoiled rich kid in me, who despite having a hateful, tyrannical father still always got more than he needed whenever he wanted.
Watching a child get molested would be even worse than seeing nothing at all.
And I might have to watch that too, before this is over.
“I think we can safely call it a night,” Alice told me at around one AM, then sent me to sleep in my own motel room.
I couldn’t. Been tossing and turning all night, tweaking worse than after a weekend bender back home.
And I haven’t touched anything stronger than alcohol in months.
No, this indignation and restlessness is all because I can’t help Alice the way she needs to be helped. The way I know she needs to be helped.
At just before seven, I give up all hope of falling asleep. And all hope of finding the patience to do this Alice’s way.
But instead of telling her that, knowing how poorly she’ll take it, I call my cousin Matteo instead. He’s the only one who can talk me off a ledge and the calmer—saner—part of me knows it.
“What is it?” he asks groggily. “What’s wrong?”
He’s not exactly an early riser and with a heavily pregnant girlfriend and a business slash crime empire to rebuild, he needs his sleep. Too bad. He’s awake now. And I’m about to make it worse.
“I might have to kill the priest after all,” I tell him and can practically see his eyes shoot wide open as he inhales sharply.
“What the hell are you talking about, Nico?” he says. “It’s too early for this shit.”
His tone is a mix of exasperation and annoyance—pretty much the standard mixture whenever we speak. Even though I am one of his top advisors. He’d just started to trust me more lately and here I am, throwing all of it away.
“I’m serious,” I say. “Alice… she’s really suffering while this guy breathes and I won’t be able to watch that for much longer. I just thought you should know what’s gonna happen. So it doesn’t come as a surprise.”
“Oh, thank you very much.”
He also doesn’t do sarcasm very well, although he is better at it than most people from the West Coast.
“So now you know.”
“This is something Alice asked you to do?” he asks.
I lean against the headboard of the bed, imagining I can feel Alice just on the other side of it, sleeping in her own bed.
“No, she didn’t ask me to do it,” I admit. “In fact, she told me not to. But she needs me to do it. Like I said, she won’t know any peace until its done and the bastard is gone.”
He sighs again, and I think I can hear the balcony door on his end sliding shut.
“You really have it bad for this Alice, don’t you?” he asks and chuckles. “Didn’t think you were the type.”
I smile too. “I didn’t either. But here we are. She won’t let me do more than kiss her, but I’d still do anything for her. Is this what love is?”
He laughs. “Yeah, it probably is.”
I was asking sarcastically, because I do know what love is, but of course he didn’t pick up on it.
“But I’ll tell you something about women for free,” he adds. “Don’t do anything they tell you not to do. There’s always hell to pay if you do. The same goes for doing some things they do ask you to do. So, I really don’t know how much this advice is worth.”
“Yeah, it’s really not worth much. In the end you just gotta do what you think is right and live with the consequences,” I say. “But you’d be fine with the priest killing part?”
He sighs again. “I already told you before you left, do what you gotta do, Nico. If you think it’s necessary… Do you need me to send you some backup?”
So much for Matteo talking me off this ledge. Not that I actually wanted him to. He needed to know about my plans and I told him.
I can hear his girlfriend Gianna asking him something in the background and he tells her he’ll be right there.
“We’re good for now,” I tell him. “I’ll call if anything changes.”
He tells me to do that then ends the call. And I have half a mind to just drive over to the church and get it done.
But Matteo’s advice wasn’t as worthless as all that.
The thing Alice and me are starting is too fragile to betray her trust just because I have no patience. Even if I’d be doing it in her own best interest. For now, I need to play this her way.
But not for very much longer.