AWAKENING (21 page)

S
he
swat
his hand
and giggled, “Me
.
”

He tweaked the nose again and she
slapped his arm. She was going to be a fighter. “Hey,
nina
that hurts.” He teased feigning pain.

“No mas
Alfonzo,
cut it out with her. She’s a girl, not a boy
, don’t teach her to fight
!” Anita scolded.

“Aye,
Anita
you fuss too much.”

Anita sat a plate of food in front him and he ate, talking in between to his children.
His eyes were on Selange’s ass as she bent
over
to
retrieve
an item
from the fridge. Sal caught him staring, “My friends say
mom’
s hot. They wish their mommies were hot.”

Alfonzo gulped his coffee, “Um…that’s what little boys talk about today?”

“No, not all the time.
We play video games and soccer.”

The doorbell rang. Anita rushed to it, wiping her hands on her apron.
The
bodyguard
arrived
to escort Sal to school.

“Be good.”

“Here Sal, don’t forget your lunch,” Selange said handing the boy his lunch case.

“Bye mom, bye
dad
!” The boy exclaimed taking the bag then hurrying to the door, snatching his backpack from the floor along the way.
The door clicked shut and Alfonzo finished his eggs.

“Not eating?” He asked Selange when she circled the table and headed for the stairs.

“I’m going to change, I’ll eat something later.”

“Um.”

Then it was Allie, Anita and him.

“The twins are sleeping?”

“
Si
,
eat
, bathe, sleep. The other one cry then
sleep
.”

Alfonzo chuckled, “Yeah, I heard.”

The woman began cleaning the table, frowning at Allie for not finishing her food. Allie put her head down
.

“
Hija
, what’s wrong?” Alfonzo leaned
over to ask the pouty girl.

Allie
whined, “I’m
tired
.”

“She
wake
up looking for her mommy
tres
times. I bet
she
very sleepy.” Anita said over her shoulder as she marched away with dishes.
Clucking like an old hen.

“Pay her no mind
hija
,” he said to his daughter, before drinking the lingering remnants of coffee. He
pushed back from the table
, “Come on baby girl,
papi
taking you to bed.”

When he picked her up, short arms hugged his neck and her unruly curls feathered his chin. He squeezed her tight, thinking how much he missed breakfasts with the family and their bed-time rituals. He missed being with them on the regular
and wondered if the source of the child’s neediness was because she missed it, too.

He
carried upstairs
, placed her
in
bed with the pretty purple and pink ponies then rubbed her back. Allie
put fists to her eyes, rolled them around then
stuffed her face in the pillow in search of the sandman. Shortly she
found him.

Alfonzo straightened his spine,
dug his hands in his pockets and
frowned. The affair fractured his marriage, but the divorce completely shattered his family. He hadn’t thought, had he? Alberti once said, “Don’t make decisions out of anger.”

Anger wasn’t the only motivation to do what he did, protection was the other –but what
good did that do? Selange was still being investigated.

Damn!

Yes, he could see his wife needed him here. The children were growing, their needs
became
more demanding and at this rate she’d never get a break.

Selange passed the room
almost on cue, spotted him there
then backtracked, “Is
everything
okay
, why is Allie in bed
?”

She was in the room checking Allie’s forehead for a fever
.

“She went
to a
party last night.”
Alfonzo joked.

“No, for real, what’s wrong?”

“She’s tired. Apparently she got up looking for you.”

“Oh.”

He saw the guilt again, “Eh, she’ll be fine after a nap.”

“I guess so.”

“Come
here,”
Alfonzo
said
. When she came he e
mbraced her
, “it’s going to be okay
, we’ll get through this and be a family again, feel me?”

H
er head
pressed to his neck,
“Go
sh, I can’t wait.”

Alfonzo requested
strength from a higher power to leave
them now.
He’d been gone
long enough
.
“
Before I leave, l
et me show you something.”

They wound up in the
master bedroom with the door
closed. He
pushed aside the mattress, got a pair of scissors from the bathroom and worked the
top edge of the platform
loose from
its
wood frame
. He gripped
one
end,
f
lipped
it
over
and pointed to the contents inside
.
Selange
looked
down and couldn’t believe her eyes.
Inside the base of the bed were stacks on stacks of hundreds. It filled the entire
inside of their custom-ordered super-king size bed.

Alfonzo
winked,
“
When I gave you the house I bet you didn’t realize you
were
sleeping on stacks, did you?”

“
No idea.” S
he picked up one of
the
bundles
of cash
and sighed,
“
whew
, it’s a relief
to know you
’re
looking out
.”

“I’m always looking out for my family.”
Alfonzo
pat her ass,
kissed the top of her h
ead
and asked,
“
Feel better about the money situation, babe?”

The woman he loved gazed at him with such tenderness
his eyes
hurt
under the intensity of the emotion he saw in them. W
hen she said, “What I feel better about is having my man back
,”
Alfonzo
nodded, “I don’t think I ever really left.”

CHAPTER
EL
EVEN

The press conference started
twenty minutes late. The reporters jockeyed for position, cameras, microphones and questions at the ready for Senator Liebowitz.
Ye
i
heard
reporters
discussing the Senator’s connection to organized crime, a newsworthy scandal of epic proportions considering the magnitude of the alleged crimes and the multiple players involved. The Speaker of the House of Ethics, a Congressman, Federal Judges, and even Wall Street executives rumored to have participated in many of these
crimes. It was a huge story, an embarrassment to law enforcement and the United States government.

The question spiraling among the inquisitive reporters was
how was the
indictment of businessman billionaire Alfonzo Diaz
linked to it all? There was speculation he helped fund many of the political campaigns with illegal contributions under bogus companies and those who boldly opined, he was the new face of organized crime cloaked in legitimacy.

Ye
i
listened to these whispered conversations as she tested her camera and waited patiently outside the federal courthouse for the Senator to appear. There was movement from the tinted glass doors, followed by a bull rush to the stairs by reporters as the Senator emerged surrounded by court officers, her press secretary and others from her legal team.

The questions were fired like cannons before she reached the first step.

“Senator Liebowitz, is it true you
tipped off mob figures to raids scheduled by law enforcement?”

“Senator, did you take bribes to secure government contracts with companies with alleged affiliations
to
organized crime?”

“Senator…Senator…
have
you ever met privately with Alfonzo Diaz?”

Senator Liebowitz ran a finger through her stylish bob, as cameras flashed and answered their questions with a curt, “These allegations are false, made by a desperate man facing murder charges.”

“But Senator isn’t it true
your daughter wa
s a former college roommate of
an alleged crime boss?”

The Senator did
n’t
skip a beat, “In college, as most of you know, we come in contact with different people
. If
that’s the basis of this investigation it certainly appears I
’m
being targeted through vicarious association.”

The questions continued coming and the middle-age woman in the smart blue suit seemed prepared for them all.
Ye
i
smirked,
the Senator’s
lawyer hadn’t said a word. Senator Liebowitz
held her
ground
with the media
sharks
.

Ye
i
raised her camera. The viewfinder box framed the
Senator’s face
and she adjusted t
he zoom lens
. She
could see the woman
’s
pores, even the deep wrinkles at the corner of her eyes.
A perfect close
-up.

She tapped the button and the camera
made a soft whizzing noise
.
The Senator clutched her throat then fell backward into one of the court officers.
Shock and a brief silence came after. Once the surprise wore off there were shrieks of fear. Blood
poured
from the Senator’s neck and
pandemonium ensued. People began running
,
ducking
and seeking shelter from an unseen gunman.
Ye
i
stayed with the panicked crowd then
separate
d from the herd
at the first opportunity
. The artificial blonde in nondescript clothing then faded from view.

                                 
*
***

Nico
concentrated
and
twirled the pencil in his mouth with his teeth
as he
star
ed at the
blue-print. He could get in through the service
entrance;
maybe
use the
rear
stairwell to the third floor, but no
t a good idea
.
There were c
ameras. They were certain to have eyes there, too. He considered another possibility then scratched that as well, it’d been done and the feds guarding Gregorio would expect it.

He snapped the pencil with his teeth and flopped back on the
firm mattress in frustration. Shit!

He needed a diversion of some kind, something not obvious. Crap! This is when he wished Vincent were here. Twin heads were definitely more creative than one. He spit the broken pencil out his mouth and thought of something else. Thinking too hard, he told himself, keep it simple. He shut his eyes and saw his
boys;
they were in high school, the hardest place to be when you’re a teenager. The peer pressure, drinking, smoking and girls. He worried about
Aaron;
he was the high-strung one and
had
a quick temper.
Darren
possessed
maturity beyond his years. He was a level-headed kid and studious. He’d do fine but Aaron, he needed his dad around to keep th
e
attitude in check.