Double Blind (16 page)

I can’t just let her date him without warning her, but the last thing I want is to show up at her dorm.

Forget about how it looks. Could you live with yourself if anything happened to her?

“Vince, it’s not your problem,” he raises his hands. “Fuck that twat.”

My hands twitch and blazing heat scorches my face. “Shut the fuck up about her.”

* * *

“Open up!”

I hammer the door to her dorm, trying to be quiet so I don’t alert the RA on her floor. Then I decide I don’t give a fuck.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

My fist rattles against the door again and again.

A girl’s voice growls behind the door as she struggles with the lock. “Hold on.
Jesus
.”

Adriana’s tall roommate wrenches open the door, her snarling face calming down the moment she recognizes me. “Oh, it’s you. Hi.”

“Where is she?”

Maria blinks through her shock. “Um, she’s not here, sorry. S—she’s at a bar, actually. I was going to meet her, but maybe you can go instead.”

At a bar. Perfect.

“She’s at The Dead Poet.”

Something resonates inside me. I’ve heard of that bar, because it’s right by my fucking apartment in Upper West Side.

“I know it. It’s near my place.”

A knowing smile spreads across her mouth. “She still loves you, Vince. I am sure of it,” she says in a low voice. “She doesn’t talk about him at all. A couple times, I wondered if she was forced into it.”

I feel guilty for how hopeful that makes me feel. “Whatever. Bye Maria.”

“Good luck!”

My head is in a fog as I jog down the steps. Forced into it? Maybe he has already threatened her. I can’t untangle my thoughts because they’re all confused. There’s something going on that I’ve missed, and I know I have bigger things to worry about, but I can’t shake the feeling that she’s in trouble. She needs me.

I speed towards my apartment, thinking that I could just walk to the bar. That’s another thing—why did she choose a place so close to my apartment? I’m not a fucking egomaniac, but that must mean something. Right? Of all the bars in New York, she chose this one. A few blocks from my place, hoping she’d run into me.

Okay, that’s a stretch.

The Dead Poet is a small, dark little place. Black door, black frame, black everything. I’ve never actually been inside. It’s cramped inside, with dozens of frames with quotes. I spot her in the very back, buried in a mason jar of booze. I sweep through the throng of people quietly before she can make a scene.

When I approach her, I see how thin her arms are. Her hair hangs lifelessly. Her face is pale and gaunt, and her lips move soundlessly. She doesn’t even look up when I pull the chair out in front of her and sit down.

Adriana looks like she’s on the verge of a breakdown.

What happened to you?

My anger with her fades to the background because seeing her like this is like a vicious punch to my gut. She looks like a beaten dog.

“Ade.”

She lifts her head and finally recognizes me. The look of misery on her face momentarily cracks. It’s like a ray of sunlight hitting her face, making her glow for the first time in weeks. She smiles and then painfully buries it, turning her head away.

“W—why are you here?”

“I’m here because Maria called me. You’re off the rails.”

“I can have a drink without her
permission
,” she snaps suddenly. “Or yours.”

The sharp look in her eyes makes me want to slap her. I want to grab her neck and take her little pink mouth in mine, and then force her head over my cock.

Jesus Christ, do not get hard in this place.

“Maria says you hit the bottle everyday and that you dropped all your classes. Classes that I paid for, by the way.”

Her eyes gleam as she stares back down at the table, looking so low that my heart makes a sickening thud.

“Damn it, Maria,” she says under her breath. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here to take you back home. You’re not well without me and as far as I’m concerned, you’re still mine.”

I didn’t mean to say that.

She looks up at me with the most strangest, hopeful expression. It’s like a green light.
Go ahead, do it.

“We broke up,” she says in a flat voice.

I ignore her. “I also came to warn you about Carmine. He has a history of violence with women.”

Suddenly, her back tenses. “What? He’s never—but he’s so nice all the time. Are you sure?”

I’m glad you and that asshole are getting along so well.

“Yes, I am.” She looks like she’s on the verge of tears. “You need to be very careful when you leave him.”

“I’m not leaving him.” The corners of her mouth droop and she takes a shuddering breath.

What?
“I’m sorry, did you not hear me? He beat a girl to death, if you want to know the details.”

Adriana flinches horribly and then shakes her head. She looks defeated. “I heard you fine. It doesn’t make any difference.”

Doesn’t make any difference?

“What the fuck is going on? I tell you that the man you’re dating has issues with women, and you don’t blink an eye?”

Now I understand why Maria was convinced there was nothing going on between her and Carmine. She looks like she suffered years of misery.

She lifts up her glass to her trembling lips, but I grab her wrist. She gives me a venomous look when I dig my thumbs into her wrist, forcing her to put it down. I drag the drink towards myself so that she can’t grab it again.

Adriana is like a shell. My hand lifts to her face to wipe the hair away from her eyes, which are like dark pools, shimmering with tears.

“We broke up, Vince.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that,” I say in a bored voice. “I can tell by looking at you that you want me. Let’s go home.”

“No.”

I wait it out as she squirms in her seat, tortured but unable to pull herself away from me. Years of experience with worming information out of people makes me realize that she’s on the verge of telling me something I’m not supposed to know.

Adriana’s small face pulls away from my hand, even more tears streaking down her face.

A sharp pain pieces my chest. This is torture for me. Torture.

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I want no part in watching you destroy yourself.” I gesture towards the drink in front of her. “This shit isn’t going to make your problems go away.”

I get up to leave and the chair scrapes the floor as I push it back.

“No, don’t go!”

She lunges at me and takes my hand, sobbing on it. Huge wracking sobs shake from her chest as she cries all over me. It’s so loud that the other patrons glance at us nervously. My chest tightens horribly, and I can’t help but feel it’s all my fault.

Shit.

I move closer to her and stoop down, taking her thin shoulders in my hands. “Adriana, let’s go to my apartment. We can talk there,” I say in a low voice.

Her eyes grow round like saucers. “No, I can’t!”

I am going to smash something.

“I can’t do this. You’re fucking some other guy and you keep playing with me like I’m your goddamn toy. I’m sorry, but I need to move on.”

Suddenly the tears subside enough for her face to burn a deep, angry red. “Everything I’m doing is for you, you piece of shit!”

“What?”

What does that mean? How—?

Her face suddenly blushes and she looks horrified at her mistake.

Jack’s words suddenly echo in my head: “Jesus Christ, you are so fucking stupid!”

A sudden, nauseating thought drops in my head.
A couple times I wondered if she was forced into it.
What if she was?

She buries her face in her hands and yanks on her hair. Adriana looks quite deranged. “Oh, God.”

“Ade, is someone forcing you to be with Carmine?” My trembling hands seek out her head, but she stands up and slaps cash on the table.

She gets in my face, her lips trembling. “If you ever cared about me at all, you won’t interfere. You will not tell anyone.”

I’m right. I’m so stunned that I almost let her walk around me. I side step in front of her, and she gives me a pleading look.

“You’re coming with me to my apartment, and you’re going to tell me everything.”

I feel scared, as if something I’ve been avoiding is about to corner me. My hand closes over her wrist and then I drag her towards the exit before she can say a word.

“Vince!” She tries twisting her arm out of my hand. “Let me go, or I’ll scream!”

I whirl her around so that her arms are against my chest, resisting against me feebly.

“Go ahead,” I grin as her pupils shrink into small circles. “I’ll knock you out if I have to, but you’re coming with me.”

“You don’t understand! I can’t be seen with you!”

Who the fuck told her she had to be with Carmine? Jack?

Heat rises in my face and my teeth clench together. All this time, he knew.

He knew and never said a fucking word to me. The strange things he said about Adriana prove it. But why?

Maybe the fear in her eyes isn’t paranoia. Maybe it’s real.

“Who is doing this to you?”

She pulls away from me, still struggling. Her eyes are blinded with tears. “Let me go, Vince.
Please
.”

“No.”

She won’t tell me? Fine, I’ll drag it out of her. I steer her towards my apartment building. The streets are thankfully devoid of people. Her eyes dart around as if searching for something. Someone. Then she stops moving and her arm shakes in my grasp.

A shadowy, male figure walks towards us. The streetlight illuminates the face I’ve been seeing in my dreams these last couple weeks, haunting me. Gloating at me.

“Carmine, thank God!”

Adriana’s strangled voice yells for him, and once again I feel a stab of betrayal. What is she
doing
?

The fucking bastard looks calm and collected. He even has the nerve to smile at me. His windowless, empty eyes stare at me.

Adriana tries to jerk out of my grasp, but I keep her against my chest. Every instinct inside me screams to keep her away from him. Not because she’s mine, but because he’s dangerous.

“Fancy seeing you here. Both of you.” His voice rumbles as he glances towards Adriana.

I want to kill him so badly. I visualize myself reaching into my jacket pocket to grab my piece, to see his body jerk back when I pull the trigger. But I can’t kill him here.

“It’s not my fault. He dragged me from the bar. My roommate t—told him where I was.”

The fucking lies. I let go of her roughly and she runs into Carmine’s arms, who runs his hands anxiously over her face. “It’s all right, hon.” A smile twitches on his face. “You’re safe.”

Adriana basically told me that she was not with Carmine out of her own will. She was crying, shaking, and miserable. Now, she looks completely different. She looks at him like how she used to look at me, and it’s like all the air left my lungs. She lurks behind him, fear suddenly blossoming on her face as she looks over Carmine’s shoulder, directly in my eyes. She mouths something:
Don
’
t.

“I had a feeling she might be here when she wasn’t returning my calls, and I was right. I can see that you don’t give a damn about what she wants, but maybe you’ll care if I put a fucking bullet in your head. Stay the fuck away from my girl
.
”

“She’s not—” My voice stops when I see Adriana violently shaking her head. I need to at least find out what’s going on before I do anything. I’m so fucking confused, I want to scream.

My stomach turns as I realize that the whole break-up might have been a farce. Something to keep me away from both of them.

I shrug at Carmine, gritting my teeth when I see Adriana wrap her arm around his. Then I turn my back on him, even though everything inside me fights against it.

Besides, I have work to do.

I need to find Jack.

I’m going to find him and kill him.

* * *

There’s a garroting wire I always keep in my trunk. Perfect for this kind of thing. Usually when wiseguys whack each other, it’s silent. Friendly, even. They never know it’s coming. Your friends will be around you, smiling and laughing, and suddenly you’ll feel a punch in your chest and then you’re bleeding on the floor, looking down a nozzle. Bam. Dead.

Whacking a boss is no joke, though. The other families could exact revenge on me. Or another captain. I’ll need to leave town for a long time. Probably indefinitely. I’ll take Adriana with me.

I’m not exactly in the best state of mind to think about plans.

I just need to sneak up on that sick fuck and strangle him until he stops kicking. There is the problem of his wife being in the house, but I’ll deal with that when I get there.

He fucked me over. Whatever deal he has with Carmine cost me the love of my life. He made her suffer.

And for that he’s going to die.

My car screams down the highway to Long Island. I’m going so fast that I realize I might die on the way to kill Jack, so I slow down.

Why did she get forced into this? And why won’t she let me help her?

I think of them together, of the things she must be doing with Carmine until I feel so sick with anger. I pound on the steering wheel and scream my head off. Part of me wants to wheel around and drive straight towards Carmine and run him over, but I can’t kill him while Adriana’s there. The car explodes with a long string of the most vile insults I can think of and before I know it, I’m almost at Jack Vittorio’s house. The boss of the family. My father figure.

Some father you were.

I rip open the glove compartment and quickly pull on the black leather gloves. I’m parked a safe distance from the house, so I get out and open the trunk. I slip the garroting wire inside my jacket, the silencer, even a blackjack, and all the tools I need to kill. Because I’m determined to see him dead.

There’s the slightly problematic thing that I want to ask him why. I want to hear him defend himself. If I kill him, I’ll never get that.

Creeping through backyards of neighbors, I vault over the fence into his yard and I see him standing on his back porch, smoking a cigar. Fucking perfect. I’m hiding behind the trees. All I have to do is keep moving from shadow to shadow, and sneak up behind him, or wait until he turns around. And then I’ll have him. Or I can just shoot him now.