Secret Pleasure (17 page)

He’d even arranged for her to stay at his parent’s place in Rome, which was a few blocks from her new job. She smiled and almost laughed. She had a new job! She knew she couldn’t stay at the Cardone’s apartment and spent the next day on the phone. By the end of the day, she had found three apartments to check out the next day.

Dante wanted to go with her, for safety, but she finally persuaded him to stay home since it would probably entail a lot of walking and he wasn’t up to it yet. He’d checked her rental car before he allowed her to drive away and when everything looked fine, he’d kissed her right in front of his aunt who had stood on the back porch watching them.

Airlea signed a lease on the second apartment she looked at and went by her new job and talked to her boss. Her first day was Monday, but she wanted to stop by and drop off the paperwork he’d asked her for. He walked her around the complex and she got to see the state of the art therapy facility. There were almost a dozen kids in the large room, each one working in different areas with other therapists.

She couldn’t wait to get back to what she loved to do. Her hands actually itched. Her mother arranged for all her belongings to be moved and they were going to be delivered to her new apartment the next day. Everything was moving very fast and she couldn’t help but feel excited. This was the new start that she’d needed. Leaving all the bad behind her, she could only see good things for her future.

That night, Dante visited her room again. She’d locked her door, but he’d used a key he had to get in. She’d woken to him kissing her softly. She hadn’t even heard him enter the room. She could tell he had mixed feelings about her leaving, but with everything up in the air with his aunt, she knew he felt better with her not being in harm’s way.

The next day she met her mother at her new apartment. An hour later the truck arrived with all her furniture. It took only half an hour for the men to unload her possessions and the rest of the evening for her and her mother to unpack everything.

Her mother spent the night on the couch that night. She enjoyed having her around. It had been almost two months since she’d last seen her. She took after her mother in every way. And not just in looks; her mother was an emergency room nurse and was as independent as she was.

They ate breakfast out on her new patio and enjoyed watching people hustle by on the streets. They talked about the Cardone’s and Airlea avoided talking about Dante. She could tell her mother was curious and knew something was up, but she didn’t pressure her.

“Did I ever tell you that Damiano Cardone and I were engaged?”

Airlea almost chocked on her tea. “No!”

“Yes, well, our families knew each other and it was a somewhat arranged relationship.” Her mother looked out over her balcony. “Well, I met Kathleen when she’d come to Rome a few years earlier and we had stayed in contact. My parents had arranged a meeting with Damiano, but I was madly in love with your father at the time. On the day that I was set to meet Damiano, Kathleen called me and told me she was in town. So I set them up so I could run off to be with your father. I didn’t know Kathleen was still married until after Dante was born. Life is funny, the choices you make can affect everything. Like you always say, everything is connected for a reason.”

Airlea was so shocked, she didn’t know what to say. She just looked across the table at her mother and tried to imagine the small twist of fate that had caused so many things to happen. Because of her mother, Kathleen had fallen for Damiano and cheated on her husband. But if she hadn’t, Dante and Katie wouldn’t have been born.

Her mother left before noon to head back home. It was nice having her live only two hours away again.

Airlea spent the rest of the day unpacking and moving furniture around until everything looked just right. She kept playing her mother’s conversation over and over.

That night she lay in her new apartment, in her very own bed, and felt relieved. She had done it. She had proven to herself that she could take care of herself after the huge blow of losing her job. Tomorrow she would start a new job, doing what she loved. She was very happy, but still something was missing. She frowned and closed her eyes, telling herself that she didn’t miss the warmth of Dante’s arms around her.

I
t took almost three months for things to come to a head. His aunt was not only sneaky, she was downright scary. Dante had worked with Ethan ever since that first night when he had met him.

Since the day after Airlea left, he’d borrowed the truck and had driven into town for his physical therapy appointments, not telling anyone that he met Ethan afterwords and worked with him. They went through all his father’s personal and business papers: the financial paperwork, the employee records, everything. There had to be a paper trail somewhere of what his aunt had done. Or was doing.

At first Dante had questioned Ethan’s tactics.

“Trust me, if your aunt paid anyone to do anything, there will be a trail.”

Still, part of Dante’s mind refused to believe that she was behind all this. He’d seen the mechanic’s report from Airlea’s car. Someone had used a pocket knife to cut both the main brake and her emergency brake lines. He couldn’t deny that someone had wanted her brakes to fail. Plus there was the whole Gino incident. The more he thought about what had happened, the more he questioned everything.

He kept his home life as normal as possible, not letting on that anything was wrong. He didn’t even talk to his father about it.

He’d stopped by several times and seen Airlea at her new job since her facility was just down the street from where his was. He enjoyed seeing her in her scrubs working with the small children. He’d even taken the time out to talk to a few older boys who had been in a car accident. One of them had a metal bar around his lower leg, much like Dante’s.

He had just gotten his bar and pins removed less than a week ago. It took some getting used to. He’d felt safer with the damn thing on. Now he felt exposed and worried about bumping his leg.

After his x-ray, the doctor said everything had healed up nicely. He would be keeping the four screws in his leg, but the ones in his shoulder would most likely need to be removed later on, since they might end up giving him problems.

He felt steadier. He was walking with his full weight on his leg and he focused as hard as he could to not walk with a limp. He never did use the cane for walking. It had taken all of his patience to build up the muscles in that leg again. It still looked skinnier than the other one, but everyone assured him it was just in his mind. He had enjoyed being able to work out, doing his full regimen again. It felt good to be able to build himself up again.

He had even enrolled in school for the spring. He figured it would take until then to get everything in order. When he told his father he was going back to school, his father had told him how proud he was.

His mother had smiled and just patted his shoulder and said, “The college is just down the street from the children’s hospital, isn’t it?”

He’d laughed. He had asked both his parents not to tell his aunt what his plans were. Hopefully, his mother could keep her mouth shut until he figured everything out. They were sitting down for dinner one night when Rosa came into the room, looking scattered.

“Rosa? What’s the matter?” his mother had asked.

“It’s Airlea. That girl that worked here.”

Dante almost dropped his fork. A million images flashed through his mind. He’d stepped back, thinking she would be safe if he stopped showing interest in her, but the truth was he’d put his heart on hold, waiting until he could go be with her. Now he thought about what he would do if she was taken away.

“What about her?” His mother almost stood out of her chair.

“She’s – she’s been arrested. It’s on the news. They found all kinds of drugs in her apartment. They say she’d been stealing them.”

His eyes flashed to his aunt’s face and he watched in horror as she smiled a smile he’d never seen before. One he didn’t even recognize.

“That is just bull.” His mother stood all the way up and started walking towards the door.

“Mother?” Dante caught up with her. “Where are you going?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious? I’m going to go bail her out. Someone obviously set her up. There is no way that sweet young girl had anything do to with stealing drugs.”

“Mom!” Dante pulled her to a stop. “We’ll go together.”

Airlea tried not to cry. Everything was ruined. She didn’t know how those drugs got into her apartment, but she knew this time was different. They weren’t found in her backpack and it wasn’t just a few bottles. This time there were cases of high-dose drugs, the kind she’d only read about in school. Her mind had shut down when the police had shown up at her work. When they had slapped the handcuffs on her in front of the children and her co-workers, she had wanted to die.

When they had reached the police station, there had been reporters there and they had flashed pictures of her being led into the station. Someone had tipped them off, maybe the hospital. Why they cared about her was a mystery, but they had snapped the pictures like she was a movie star. Light bulbs flashed quickly and she was almost blinded by the light. Then the police had finally told her what they had arrested her for, and her heart had sunk.

She had been fingerprinted, photographed, and searched, all of which had been beyond embarrassing. She didn’t say a word except to answer simple questions. When they allowed her to make a phone call, she’d called her mother and told her what was happening. Her mother assured her she would be there as quickly as possible to post bail and they would work everything out.

She sat in the small room, her head resting against the cold brick wall, and cried.

Finally, Dante’s aunt had made a mistake. Ethan watched the man leave Airlea’s apartment and smiled while snapping the shutter on his camera. They had waited three months for this opportunity and he was almost done with this job. He quickly put his car in gear and followed the young man, knowing he would get the answers he needed from him easy enough.

He already had a few more jobs lined up, ones that he would charge for. This was family, and you didn’t charge family. He watched the man get into the car and drive away.

Now he just needed to sit back and let things unfold so he could make everything right.

Dante smiled when he saw Airlea walk out of the double doors with her head hanging. His mother and father stood beside him. He watched as she looked up and realized it was them standing there. Her eyes found his first and he thought he saw fear and shame. He walked to her without the use of a crutch or cane and saw her smile slightly at his progress.

“Why are you here?” she asked, trying not to look at him.

“Airlea, we know you’re innocent. We’ve come to bail you out. Beside, our mothers have talked and since your mom is still a good hour away, we told her we’d take you back to the house and meet her there.”

“Dante, I can’t drag your family into this.”

“Nonsense.” His mother stepped forward and put a protective arm around her. “What kind of person would I be if I let an innocent girl rot in a cell for something she obviously didn’t do?”

“Thank you, Mrs. Cardone.”

“Kathleen.” His mother insisted.

Airlea smiled a little and nodded her head, “Kathleen.”

The car trip back to the house was a quiet one. Airlea sat with her back straight and looked out the side window. His mother chatted away about her recent trip to Portland to see Ric and Roberta. He was grateful his mother was someone who could hold a conversation with herself and fill the silence in the car.

When they arrived, he noticed several police cars and watched Airlea tense.

“Don’t worry. They aren’t for you,” he whispered. He’d received a text from Ethan and knew the final scene was about to unfold.

“What’s this all about?” His father pulled into the driveway.

“Have we been robbed? Oh, I do hope nothing has happened to Florentina or Rosa.” His mother and father rushed from the car.

“I’m sorry.” Airlea sat in the car, not making a move to get out. “I’m not sure how he did it, but I think Angelo framed me again. I don’t know how he got into my apartment.”

“Airlea,” he waited until she looked up at him. “It wasn’t Angelo. It was my aunt. That’s why they’re here.” They both watched as two female officers led his aunt from the house in handcuffs. His father stood there looking shocked, and his mother frantically tried to calm Rosa down as she cried into her apron.

They both watched as his aunt’s eyes zeroed in on their car and when she saw Airlea sitting next to Dante, her eyes narrowed.

“Why does she hate me?”