45. ANTONIO
The next morning…
Early the next morning, I wake up to the sound of Scarlet vomiting.
Instantly, I rush to the bathroom to find her again leaning over the toilet.
I wet a washcloth and hurry to her side.
Holding her hair out of her way with one hand, I dab the cloth over her face with the other.
She tries to wave me away. "I don't want you to see me like this. "
"Too bad, because I'm here for it. For you," I warn.
When she’s sure she's done, I hand her a glass of cool water and sternly tell her, "That's it. I'm calling the Doc, and he'll have a look at you."
She looks alarmed. "That's not necessary, I'm fine?—"
I don't let her finish. "This is not up for discussion." Pulling out my phone, I dial Doctor Brown. I watch the wheels in her head turning, arousing my suspicions.
While we wait, Scarlet keeps trying to assure me that she only has a stomach bug and is fine. She doesn’t need a doctor.
"Is there something you aren't telling me?" I finally challenge her.
She averts her eyes, looking guilty as sin.
My alarm bells ring. I'm an excellent judge of character, it comes with the job, and I also know Scarlet.
I'm positive she's not trying to deceive me.
It's more like… she's trying to keep a secret.
We have just discussed no more secrets, so that pisses me off, but before I can say anything, Doc Brown arrives, giving her the reprieve she needs.
"Good morning, how's the killing business?" The daredevil asks mischievously.
"I think my kill rate is lower than yours, quack." I counter.
He laughs. Scarlet looks like a deer in the headlights.
"I'm fine," she tries again.
"She's been throwing up a lot lately," I contradict.
"Hmm, might be a side effect from all the pills and shock," Doc mumbles. He takes her temperature, blood pressure, and all the nonsense doctors like to do. He palpates her stomach, asking if it hurts or makes her sick, and she says no.
Sick? Vomiting?
Her pills….
I remember grabbing her pills…
A few days late… actually a week or more…
I like where my mind is taking me.
Now her guilty expression makes sense to me, too. If she suspects she might be pregnant and is trying to keep it from me… why would she do that?
Because she wants to be sure !
I feel an idiotic grin spread over my face and turn my head. I'm not going to take the joy from her of telling me, but I need to be sure.
As soon as Doc is done with his examination, including drawing blood, I corner him outside, away from Scarlet's attention.
"I want you to do a pregnancy test," I demand.
He arches one of his grey, bushy eyebrows. "I appreciate you trying to help me do my job, Toni, but I've already plan?—"
I stare him down, "And you will tell no one, including her. You will call me the minute you know. Understood?"
He pushes his glasses up his nose, where a small indent is left from where they dug into his flesh. Irritation emanates from every one of his pores. "I might not be a professional doctor anymore, but I still have certain principles, and I won't?—"
"Cut the crap." I glare him down.
"Fine, yes, alright." He nods.
"Good." I pat him on the shoulder. "Good man."
He gives an irritated huff before he collects his composure and walks down the hallway to the stairs. I grin. Not even the cantankerous Doc can dim my mood now. I'm going to be a father. I feel the truth of it in my bones.
A few hours later, I call Igio and Vito into my office. "I've got the list," I wave my phone in the air. "Sending it to you now."
Both of their phones ding simultaneously as my text arrives.
They open it and stare at the names of the four jurors Don Carlos has in his pocket.
"How do we get to them?" Igio asks, making me rethink my decision to elevate his status. I don't need people without initiative or thinking skills on my team.
"They're in a hotel. Get into the heads of the cleaning staff, the cooks, anybody who might be able to get word to them." Vito glares at Igio. It was his idea to promote him.
"What word is that? You said you're not gonna kill innocent people." Igio wants to know. Yeah, he's definitely not going to cut it.
"Move their fucking families to safety, their cats, their dogs, whatever. Let them know I will protect them as long as they play ball. Also, find out what each one needs the most, credit cards paid off, a job, a fucking doctor for their cat. I. Want. To. Know." I spell it out for him.
"Yes, boss," he nods. I glare at Vito, who throws an apologetic look at me. If Gigi is clouding his judgment, this charade of a hidden relationship needs to end now.
"Good, get to work." I kick them out of the office.
We don't have much time to set this in motion.
Private shit needs to be dealt with later.
The defense will call their last witnesses today, and depending on how that goes, the lawyers will deliver their closing statements tomorrow or the day after.
Following that, the jury will start deliberations.
This is going to cost me a shitload of money . I stare at my laptop. But even if it costs millions, it'll be worth it. Seeing Carlos go to jail and having him shanked inside will be as close to my revenge as I can get. Later, Edoardo will pay, too. But that is a more complicated, longer plan.
I drum my fingers on my desk.
In the meantime, I need to occupy myself before I go crazy. I open my laptop.
A headline greets me: Trial on hold after juror found stabbed to death in her bed .
That motherfucking bastard. With a roar, I stand, swiping everything off the desk. Carlos sure knows how to intimidate. The four jurors he bought will get his message. This entire trial might be called a mistrial. Fuck!
"Antonio?" Scarlet sticks her head into my office, and I try to take a deep breath, but my fury is running too hot.
"Not now, Scarlet," I warn her off.
"Now seems like you need me the most. What happened?"
My jaw clenches hard enough to make getting a word out impossible. My eyes flicker to the laptop on the ground. With a frown, she picks it up. When she reads it, her frown deepens.
"They could have killed my dad." Anger sparks in her sapphire eyes.
"Not even Carlos would have dared that," I try to soothe her.
"That rotten bastard," she cries, causing me to arch an eyebrow; this is the closest she’s come to cursing.
She paces the floor. "What are we going to do?"
I can't keep my eyes off this beautiful creature. We!
I fill her in on my plan. On where Vito and Igio are and their orders.
"Carlos must already have an inside person if they killed a juror," she muses.
"That's the only way it could have happened," I agree, watching her in fascination. I'm pretty sure she would bark at this analogy, but she's like an onion; the more layers I peel back, the more there seem to be.
"So who is it?"
Good question; I pull out my phone to call my new friend, Marcello, when I remember he was shot.
Fuck! That was a blow I hadn’t seen coming.
And just when the bastard started proving himself useful.
I'm not heartbroken over it, but I do hope he survives, cause otherwise the house Orsi is about to take a severe hit.
Not to mention that the new side business Marcello brought in, pharmaceuticals, is turning out to be extremely lucrative.
Scarlet is still pacing. Amused, I watched her. "I thought you were some kind of museum mouse or something." I stop her pacing. "I didn't know you had a criminal mind."
"Please, my dad is a judge," she waves me off, making me chuckle. "He likes to discuss his cases with me. It was his attempt to scare me off the wrong path." She rolls her eyes. "It was sure more interesting than homework." She snaps a finger. "Can you get a list of all the hotel employees?"
"Sure," I grab my laptop. "As a matter of fact, I just received a full list this morning."
She sits down by my desk, and I pull the list up for her.
"You know, you really need a better computer system."
"What do you mean? This laptop is just fine."
"Yeah, for you maybe, but for this…" she points at the list, "project, it would be handy to have two monitors."
"Noted," I pull out my phone and text Anna, my PA, to arrange to have a state-of-the-art computer system set up at my house within the hour.
Anna has worked for me for years on the legitimate side of the business.
I'm pretty sure she suspects there is more going on than she knows, but she has been loyal so far.
In the meantime, I watch Scarlet pull up a website that bears the logo of the federal justice system.
"I didn't know your skill set included hacking," I remark.
"It's not hacking when your father is a judge and you know all his passwords," she gloats.
"I stand corrected." Will she ever cease to amaze me?
"So what are you looking for? You know it'll take hours, if not days, to go through all the local justice?—"
She cuts me off, "NCIC."
"You're in NCIC?"
Yep, she's totally gloating now. And I'm hard as a rock.
"We've tried again and again to get into the National Crime Information Center." I shake my head, thinking about all the bribes I've given out over the years to get information from someone with access to it.
"You didn't try marrying a judge's daughter." She smiles up at me, and my breath stops.
"Fuck, Scarlet, I love you."
"Love you, too; now, let me concentrate." She taps away at the keys.
All my anger from earlier has evaporated. Instead, there is only a sense of peace and… yeah, love. Scarlet is the most amazing, brave, interesting, strong-willed, intelligent woman I've ever met. And she's beautiful. And mine!
"I think I fell for you from the moment I laid eyes on you," I confess.
She holds out her arms. I don't need another invitation. I pull her against me and seal our admissions with a deep kiss. One that she breaks first.
"Can we have a romantic dinner tonight to celebrate?"
I can't suppress my grin, sensing where she's going.