Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Garrison

Three days after the argument with Alex, I ran down a familiar path. I'd started the run an hour earlier than usual and my breath fogged in the frosty morning air. What little sun peeked over the horizon was mostly blocked by the trunks of the surrounding trees. The time could barely be called dawn when I stopped and sat on a park bench along the side of the trail.

Moments later, familiar uneven footsteps approached. Caden struggled over the gravel path. With his one good arm, he held the cane that kept him upright, while he tried to balance a container of coffee cups with his other arm in a sling.

"Why the hell did you want to meet out here?" Caden collapsed onto the bench, tossing his cane aside and shoving the coffee at me. "It's too damn early to walk all the way out here. Makes me feel like an old man hobbling around like this. Fuck, I'm not even forty yet. So, what's up? You better have a good reason for asking me to meet you here."

I hadn't asked Caden to bring coffee, but I appreciated it nonetheless. We divided up the cups, then both of us simultaneously leaned back against the bench with a groan.

Minutes passed, each of us taking sips of our drinks in silence before I started the conversation.

"You knew."

Caden didn't bother to respond, just gave an inquisitive hum around the paper rim of his cup and waited for me to continue.

"You knew that club was owned by the Italian mafia when you took me there to interview for a job. And based on your reaction when you saw him, you knew exactly who Alex Mariano was. Why didn't you tell me?"

It was cold enough that the steam from our coffee didn't last long. The drink had already cooled enough for Caden to chug the rest of his.

"To be honest, I thought you already knew. It wasn't until you accepted the job as his bodyguard that I realized you didn't, but what could I do about it then?"

"You could have warned me before even taking me to the club. Even if you assumed I would recognize the Mariano name, I couldn't have known who owned the club."

"Well..." Caden reached for his drink, only to remember at the last moment that it was empty. Instead, he fidgeted with the sling supporting his arm. "You needed the money, and the bouncer job was legit. Even if the Mariano family owns it, the place still needs to function as an actual club. So, you wouldn't need to get involved with anything illegal."

Half of my coffee still sat in the cup, but I set it aside anyway. "Then why did you pass on Alex's message to me?"

The look Caden gave me made me feel like my intelligence had suddenly been cut in half.

"I work for the club, so it was easiest for them to get in contact with you through me. And when the Mariano family personally asks you to do something, you don't tell them no . Not if you want to keep breathing." He grabbed my half full cup and downed it as well. "Bleh. Why don't you use sugar?" The newly empty cup joined his original cup in the trashcan next to the bench. "Look, Garrison, you're asking a lot of questions, but I don't think any of this is what you actually want to know. So why don't you ask your real question? It's too early for these kinds of games."

Caden's choice of words prickled under my skin. They were too close to the accusations I'd directed at Alex.

I wasn't playing games. I just didn't know how to ask what I wanted without it sounding like an insult.

"You work for that club, which means you work for the Italian mafia. So, I just want to know... how?"

The wind blew, bringing with it the first hints of daytime warmth, yet Caden's demeanor turned icy. "What kind of work do I do for them? Mostly, I'm just a courier. Don't need four working limbs to drive a vehicle, and my handicap license means I can park pretty much anywhere and no one will ask questions. So long as I don't get too curious about what I'm transporting, it's fine."

I wasn't sure if I should feel relieved or frustrated. It was good to know that Caden wasn't involved in anything too violent, but it didn't answer my question.

"No, I mean... how did you get your head around working for the mafia in the first place. You were a soldier. You worked for the military. How did you go from protecting people to hurting them?"

Caden jumped to his feet, nearly falling over when his bad leg refused to support his weight. "Hey, I don't hurt anyone. I just drive a truck."

He fumbled for a moment as he retrieved his cane from the ground, but he didn't leave. Instead, he stood with his back to the bench, staring off into the shadow of the trees.

"Ask yourself this, Garrison. Did we ever really protect people? We didn't serve together, but we were in similar units. If your service was anything like mine, then you probably had to hurt a lot of people and do a lot of things that would horrify the average civilian."

The scars on my back ached, and my knee jerked as old pains flared up again.

Caden turned back to face me, shuffling over the gravel to avoid losing his balance again. "It did bother me when I first accepted the job, but I realized that the mafia wasn't asking me to do anything that the military didn't demand. Less even. I'm not required to kill anyone now."

We'd been sitting around long enough for the sun to finally stretch its rays above the trees. Sunlight chased away the dew clinging to the grass and provided a promise of warmth.

I shook my head. "It can't be that easy."

"It's not easy," Caden agreed. "But neither was being a soldier. Think about it. What's really the difference between working for the military and working for the mafia? We end up doing the same thing, either way. If we kill someone, then they're dead. It doesn't matter who authorized us to pull the trigger. Dead is still dead. Violence is still violence. The only difference I can see between our old masters and our new ones is that our old masters had the authority to declare our crimes legal. Our new masters don't."

I had specifically chosen this bench because it was nowhere near the playground at the front of the park. Yet, at that moment I swore I could hear the sounds of children screaming in my ears. I wanted to cover my head and block out the noise, but it wouldn't help. The park was silent. There was no hiding from the horror-filled contents of my own mind.

A flash of sunlight glinting off metal broke me away from my memories. I dived off the bench and knocked Caden aside. We both skidded over the gravel, but I was immediately on my feet. A knife stuck out of the bench, right where I had been sitting.

One of the stitches on my arm popped open. A drop of blood ran over my skin, but I barely noticed as I followed the knife's trajectory back to the person who had thrown it.

"Impressive." A short, curvy woman with an even shorter haircut stepped out from the shadow of a tree. "Alex said you were good. Seems he was right."

Without looking away from the woman, I helped Caden clamber back to his feet.

"Who are you?"

The woman came to a stop well outside my reach. She looked relaxed, but she was obviously still wary of him.

"I'm Ghita Mariano. Alex's cousin."

The name was familiar. Alex had mentioned his cousin a few times, but I couldn't remember much about the woman. I certainly couldn't think of a reason for her to be there now.

"Did Alex send you? I told him, I need some time to think. I'll contact him when I'm ready to talk."

Right before his eyes, Ghita's confidence seemed to deflate. "So, he's not with you?"

"What? No. Why would he be with me? I specifically asked for time away from him."

She pressed her hands against her mouth like she was praying. "I thought... or at least I hoped that he'd just left to fix things with you. If not, then..."

She squeezed her eyes shut, but a few tears snuck free.

After pulling the knife from the bench and returning it to her, I guided Ghita to take a seat. "Deep breaths. Just like that. Now, tell me what's going on."

She wiped her eyes, smudging mascara across her lower lids. "Alex is missing. I was hoping he'd just left, but now I think he was taken."

The sound of her words, so absolute in their meaning, shot fear through my heart. My whole body seemed to go numb, and my vision tunneled. At that moment, my whole world consisted only of the woman sitting on the bench.

I grabbed her shoulders and barely stopped myself from shaking her. "What happened? Who took him? I thought he was staying with his mother."

Before Ghita could answer, Caden pulled me away from the bench. "What are you doing? I thought you didn't want to get involved with the Mariano family anymore."

I nearly shoved Caden away, until I remembered at the last moment to curb my strength. Instead, I merely patted the man's shoulder.

"I said I wasn't sure. I haven't made any decisions yet. But none of that matters right now if Alex is missing."

Taking a deep breath, I sat beside Ghita on the bench and stretched out my aching leg.

"Tell me everything that happened."

She gave as clear an explanation as she could while also holding back tears. From interrogating the surviving assassins, to their suspicions about the Bianchi family. She even described Alex getting drunk and how she helped him into bed.

"When I went to check on him later, the room was empty. No one could find him anywhere. It's like he just… vanished."

With a grunt of effort, Caden sat on Ghita's other side. He didn't seem happy to be there. Rather, he had the air of one resigned to their fate. "And you're sure he didn't leave on his own?"

"That's what Aunt Serafina and Valente are saying. He's been visibly upset since his father's death, and they think the pressure of taking over the family got to him. But, I've known Alex my whole life. He wouldn't just leave. And... I keep thinking about something he said right before he disappeared. He was super drunk when I helped him to his room. It didn't seem strange then, but he insisted that he only drank one bottle of wine. That's enough to get him tipsy, but not enough to leave him stumbling around like he was."

It didn't take much for me to pick up what she was implying.

"You think he was drugged."

"Maybe. I don't know." From a purse draped over her shoulder, she pulled out an empty wine bottle. It was sealed in a Ziplock bag like a prop on a detective show. "Hopefully, this will give us some answers."

I took it from her and studied the bottle without opening the bag. Nothing looked out of place, but drug residue wouldn't be visible to the naked eye.

"Have you told your family about this?"

"No." Ghita snatched the bottle back and hid it in her purse. "If someone was able to abduct Alex right from his own bedroom without getting caught, that means they're able to walk around the house without being noticed. One of our own men turned out to be an assassin at the aquarium. We thought they were the only traitor, but if there are more, then I don't know who to trust. That's why I came to you."

"Me?" I looked up in surprise. "Why me?"

She shrugged. "Because Alex trusted you. Besides, you're too inexperienced with all this to be a traitor. From what Alex said, you didn't even know he was mafia until a few days ago. So, will you help me find him?"

It should have been a hard decision.

Alex had just inherited the title of Mafia Boss .

Alex had lied to me.

Alex probably never wanted to see me again after our fight on the bridge.

Yet, from the moment I heard Alex was in trouble, I could only give one answer.

"Yeah. All right. I'll help you."

Surprisingly, it was Caden who reacted first. Leaning heavily on his cane, he stood from the bench and stretched his good arm over his head until his back popped.

"Well, come on. If we're gonna find your boyfriend, we'll need to start by getting that bottle tested. I know someone who can help."

I scowled and stared at Caden in confusion. "Boyfriend? Who said anything about..."

Caden cut me off before I could finish. "Oh, please, you aren't subtle. Constantly referring to him as Alex . Freaking out the moment you hear he's in trouble. It wasn't hard to figure out."

Ghita giggled and followed Caden down the gravel path. "Doesn't take any bullshit, does he? I like him. Come on, Garrison. Let's go save my idiot cousin so the two of you can kiss and make up."