Page 10 of Because I Need You
3
ISABEL
As it turned out, my alleged husband, had a house in Lincoln Park. A beautiful one, too. Unfortunately, according to the housekeeper, he wasn’t home. She’d been kind enough to direct me to his office, though, and now I was back in downtown Chicago, staring at a building. I walked around, found a little park tucked in between two buildings, and decided to sit there for a moment. I hadn’t even called Will to tell him about any of this. I wouldn’t even know where to start or what to say. “Hey, I just found out my father, whom you shared multiple meals with, was maybe in the mob or something”? or should I have started with, “Apparently, I’m rich”? God, this was bad. Bad, bad. I just…I couldn’t wrap my head around any of it. I kept going back to drugs. Maybe he was a drug dealer, right? But my father was Italian, through and through. His parents were immigrants from Sicily, and that made me think of organized crime, because I wasn’t an idiot. Also, I’d Googled, not that it’d helped much.
I did find a photograph of a time my father had been arrested when he was a teenager, though. Arrested. My father! The man who preached about staying on the right side of the law. He’d been arrested for stealing and let go quickly, but still. That wasn’t the right side of the law. It had to be mafia related, right? How did that even work? Wasn’t there a hierarchy or something? Were they going to kill me now that I knew who he was? It wasn’t like I knew what he did. What did the mob do these days anyway? It wasn’t the 1940’s and we weren’t in The Godfather. I lived in New York. I’d know if Italians were still running around killing each other. People were killing each other, all right, but it didn’t seem very organized from where I stood.
I took a deep breath and marched over to the building, taking the elevator up to the twelfth floor before I lost my nerves. I channeled all of the strength I’d channeled when I walked into school, because I didn’t care what anyone said, a room full of middle schoolers was worse than the mob. I knocked on the door, three times, just in case. Then, I walked inside and felt stupid for knocking at all. I hadn’t expected to find an actual…business. There was a secretary sitting in front of a fancy glass that read Valley of Kings. I walked up to the man at the desk, who was smiling brightly.
“I need to speak to Giovanni Masseria, please.”
“Was he expecting you?” he asked, frowning.
“No.”
“Mr. Masseria left for New York an hour ago.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.” He offered a sympathetic smile.
“Do you know where in New York I can find him?”
“Try one of his nightclubs. Maybe Devil’s Lair? Or his restaurant, Masseria’s.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t keep tabs on him. Nobody really can.” His eyes laughed as he said that last part and I didn’t really like it.
I swallowed, thanked him, and left. I guess I was going back home after all.
“There she is.” Will smiled wide as I strode into his office. He was so handsome, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a boyish smile. He was like that in high school, too, but he’d been too popular back then for me to stand a chance. He’d always been kind, though. Always. He stood and rounded his desk to give me a tight hug and kiss. “How’d it go?” he asked.
“It went.” I sighed. I still hadn’t told him about my father’s secrets. I didn’t know if I wanted to. I pulled away slightly. “How’d it go at the fundraiser?”
“It got postponed.”
“No way. Why?”
“My father thought it was best if we moved it to Saturday afternoon. More people.”
“Oh.” I nodded. His father had a good read on the pulse of the city when it came to politicians and donors. And criminals. As a judge, he dealt with all of them.
“But the good news is, you get to come with me.” He tapped my chin. I smiled for his benefit. I hated these events more than I hated grading papers on a Saturday night.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it.” I reached up and kissed him softly.
“Wait, you didn’t tell me, how’d the thing with the lawyer go? Did your father leave you a grand estate in Europe?”
“More like a beat-up truck and a three bed-room in Chicago.” I laughed softly. I didn’t know why I didn’t just tell him the truth. I should have. Will would’ve understood it, I knew that, but I just couldn’t.
“I’ll call you when I leave.” He winked as I walked out of his office.
I was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. Yet, my body wouldn’t let me rest and my mind was running a mile a minute. It was the only reason I’d talked Luke and Noah and their girlfriends to accompany me to the club, which, of course, earned me a lot of looks and questions that I didn’t want to answer. I’d used grief as my excuse, and they’d readily agreed. The five of us were on our way to Devil’s Lair, and only one of us knew the true purpose of the outing. Getting in was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. Once inside, though, I didn’t know what to do. I’d been to nice nightclubs. This wasn’t just nice, though. This was extravagant. It was mostly black, but everything that accented it was gold and looked expensive, which was saying something when you were dating someone like William Hamilton, who lived the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Will wasn’t flashy, though. This was one step past flashy. After a few songs, I told my friends I’d be right back. I’d sort of filled Luke and Noah in on my meeting with the owner of the club, but I’d left out any details beyond that I needed to give him something from my father. They didn’t question me, probably because I usually told them everything, and they had no reason to think I’d be lying about this. I felt a little bad about that, but until I knew what and who I was dealing with, I didn’t want to involve anyone else.
