Overflow: The Carpino Series (6 page)

“Tony told us about your basement, that sucks,” Paige says
offhandedly, who obviously isn’t a homeowner, otherwise she would describe my
basement flooding as the catastrophe that it is.  

I ignore them all and turn to walk out of the room calling,
“Chloe, get the movie!”

“I’m Giselle!” she yells back as I make it to the fridge for
another beer.  I get to the sofa and my Pop is stretched out on one end with
his feet up on the coffee table with a glass of red wine in his hand.

“Do you mind if we put in a movie, Pop?” I ask.

“Anything, Gabby,” he replies, giving me a small smile. 
Kicking off my flip flops, I settle in the other corner of the sofa with my
beer and tuck my feet under me.  Chloe puts the movie in and snuggles in front
of me.  I take a swig of my beer and settle in.  I don’t even make it through
the animated part of the movie to ogle Patrick Dempsey’s hair. 

I am out like a light. 

"Gabby," I hear my name being called softly while
something equally as soft whispers across my face.  I'm so tired, I just
want to sleep.   "Gabby, sugar, wake up," I hear again. 
The word ‘sugar’ clicks in my brain and my eyes pop open.  My head is on a
pillow, I'm covered with a soft blanket and Jude's melty eyes are super close looking
right into mine.  I feel his hand pushing my hair away from my face and he
whispers, "Draft is done, babe, time to take you home." 

I push up on one arm quickly, putting myself even closer to
Jude since he doesn't move back one little inch.  "I fell asleep,"
was all I had to say. 

"Yeah, it's late, let’s get going," he returns.  I
start to move and realize Mia is snuggled up in the crook of my lap.  I
give her a nudge and she jumps down.  Getting up, I see my cousins
carrying sleeping kids out the door one at a time.  Jude sees me looking
at the train of sleeping kids and turns back to me saying with a grin, "Do
I need to carry you?"

"No, I think I can walk," I respond, with a bit of
a glare.

"Here's your purse, Gabby," Lizzie says, bringing
me my things.  "Your bowl and platter are clean by the door."

"Thanks Aunt Lizzie, and thanks for dinner," I
return.  I take my purse as Jude is offering his own gratitude and handshakes
for the evening.  I make my way through my family giving my own goodbyes and as
we are moving toward the door when my phone rings in my purse.  Still in a daze
from my late evening nap, I slide my thumb across the screen without checking
the Caller ID and answer, “Hello?”

“This is Protection One, I’m calling for Gabrielle Carpino,”
the attendant on the other end says.

“This is Gabrielle Carpino,” I answer. 

“Ma’am, the alarm at your home has been triggered.  What is
your password on the account?”

“Meredith,” I answer again. “What’s going on?”  My end of
the conversation has garnered attention from all of those around me and the
room has gone from sleepy to alert in point five seconds.

“Gabby, who is that?” Jude asks at the same time Tony asks,
“What’s going on?”

“Ma’am, one of your back doors has tripped the alarm.  Are
you at home?” the attendant asks.

Waving my hand in front of me for my audience to be quiet so
I can concentrate on my call, I say, “No, I’m not home.  Did you contact the
police?” 

Now the room has gone from alert to wired and I find my
phone plucked out of my hand.  “Hey!” I yell.

“This is Jude Ortiz, a friend of Miss Carpino’s.  What’s
going on?” he says.

“I could have told you what’s going on, Jude, if you would
have waited two seconds!” I say as he puts a hand up, palm to me.  This must be
the universal male hand communication for ‘be quiet’ as opposed to my feminine
one of waving my hand around.  This makes me cross my arms across my chest in
silent protest of him confiscating my phone. 

“Good.  Thanks.  We’ll be there in ten minutes.  Yes, we
will wait for the police to give us the all clear to enter the house.  I’m in a
silver Ford F150,” he says, finishing
my
call!  He turns to inform me,
“Your alarm went off and it came from one of your back doors on the deck.  The
police are in route and will need to clear the house before we can go in.”

“I think I could have handled that phone call, you know!” I
say, and if it wasn’t so immature I think I’d stomp my foot!

“Gabby, you don’t know what you’re dealing with, there are
things I need to talk to you about regarding Trevor Harper.  Things I had
planned to tell you about earlier, but because of what happened at your house,
it wasn’t the time,” I look at him confused.  He then lays it out for me
saying, “You’ve been mentioned on the wiretap on my case and not in a good
way.  You’re receiving attention by being at Harper’s during the raid
yesterday, attention from some really bad people.  We need to arrange extra
precautions for you until we find him and put him behind bars.” 

Yes.  This is what he said.  Right in front of all my
uncles, aunts and most of my adult cousins.  The only thing I could do was
stand here looking up at him with my mouth open. 

I have no words. 

“Raid?!?” my Uncle Gino belts out.

“Gabby what is he talking about?” my Aunt Tia asks.

“What’s going on?” my Uncle Tony asks directly to Jude. 
Similar questions continue to be shot around the room at Jude and me.

Speechless.

I’m speechless. 

I’ve been mentioned on wiretaps and not in a good way.   I
mean, I doubt there’s a good way for anyone to be mentioned on a wiretap,
right?  And what does that mean?  I have to take extra precautions?  What does
that
mean?  And Jude planned to tell me earlier, but because of what happened at my
house and having to tell him about my parents, he didn’t?  I don’t know if I
think that’s sweet or if I should be pissed he didn’t tell me I was mentioned
on a wiretap and not in a good way!  

I don’t know what to do, so I look straight to Tony.  My
eyes get big and I try to telepathically ask him for advice.  Obviously not
picking up on my silent SOS request for help, all he says is, “Did you really
think you could keep this from everyone?”

“You knew about this?” Aunt Lizzie raises her voice,
actually yelling at her Golden Boy and all eyes go to Tony.

Tony sighs and says, “Yes.  Gabby called me yesterday for
representation while they were questioning her.  I went, there was minimal
questioning before they realized Gabby has nothing to do with their case. Jude
is the case agent.”

Uncle Tony starts in, speaking directly to his son, “I
cannot believe you didn’t tell us about this.  This could be dangerous for
Gabby.”  He turns to me and demands, “And what do you think you were doing
getting yourself tangled in the middle of a Federal raid?  What were they
looking for?”

“Are you kidding me?  I was finishing Megan’s laundry room! 
I was there on business. 
Décor
business, not any other kind of business!
For heaven’s sake!  I was delivering a client gift, the project just finished
up!” I defend myself. 

Jude, having enough, says, “We need to get to Gabby’s.  The
police will be waiting, can we catch up on all this later?”

“I’ll follow you,” says Tony.  All of my uncles concur and
they all prepare to make a late night visit to my house.

I take my bowl and platter, thrust them at Jude, scoop up my
sleepy dog and march out the door.  Finding it unbelievable that I have yet
another drama to attend to, I hear Jude beep the locks on his truck as I
approach the passenger door.  His long legs must really work double time
because he catches up to me and while balancing my stuff under one arm, he
grabs me saying, “Gabby, wait.”

“What?” I fling around and start ranting.  “I have the
police, waiting, remember?  And apparently I have precautions to take,
precautions that my security system isn’t good enough for since my house was
still broken into!”

“Gabby, settle down,” he says in his low raspy voice. 
“We’ll figure this out, talk to the police, but I promise I’ll make it safe for
you.  Okay?” 

I am so tired and it’s even more exhausting to think about
what I have ahead of me for the rest of what will be a long night.  “Jude, can
we just go?  I need to know what’s going on at my house.  Please.”

He looks at me for a beat and then says, “Yeah Gabby, let’s
go.”  We both climb in his truck and Jude leads the caravan of Gabby Caretakers
to my next drama.

*****

“Ma’am, you’re lucky you weren’t home.  What with you being
on the far west side of town so close to the county line, there isn’t much
crime out here.  Took us fourteen minutes to get the closest squad here from the
time your alarm company dispatched us.  Lot can happen in fourteen minutes
ma’am.  Yep, you were lucky tonight,” the officer says, telling me in
depressing detail that I’d basically be screwed if I had been home.  This news
was not making me feel better, to say the least.

When we got to my house, there were four cop cars, another
pulling up and my house was lit up like it was honing the mother ship.  Since
we got here, we have been told that one of the back doors that lead from the
master bedroom (my bedroom!) to the deck had the glass broken out of it and is
what tripped my alarm.  My house has been cleared by the police, no other
damage was found and nothing was taken that we could tell.  My usually spacious
master bedroom seems super tiny with all the police officers, Jude, Tony and my
uncles standing around assessing the damage, not to mention, what possibly
could have happened if I had been here.  Trying to put thoughts of what could
have been out of my mind, I help a couple of my uncles find some plywood and
tools in my garage to patch up the door for the night.  When we walk back into
my room I see Jude in deep discussion with the police officers.  My uncles get
started on the patch job and Jude looks up and moves to me. 

When he reaches me he takes my hand and says, “We need to
talk.”  He proceeds to pull me out of my bedroom and back into the great room
sitting me down on my sofa.  He sits down close to me and starts, “I’m sorry I
didn’t tell you earlier, Gabby.  I don’t know whether it’s Harper or others in
his organization, but they know you were there when we served the warrant and
that you know they are involved in illegal activity.  We’ve heard them talk
about this on the wiretap and they see you as a threat because of what you
know.  Tonight could have been a warning or something else altogether.”

“Something else?”

Jude (who is still holding my hand by the way) scoots even
closer, reaches up with his free hand and slides his fingers into my hair to
cup the side of my head, just like earlier.  And just like earlier, it feels so
good, I think I might melt all over again.  Then he leans his head down, using
his low and sweet raspy voice on me for the second time today, says, “Gabby,
I’ll make sure you’re not alone.  I’ll make sure you’re safe and no one’s going
to touch you.  I know I should have told you about this earlier today, but I
upset you once and the thought of doing it twice cut me to the quick.” 

Cut him to the quick?  He didn’t want to upset me twice?  I
looked into his melty eyes and wondered what in the hell is going on with my
life.  Federal raids, flooded basements, broken windows and a confusing, sexy,
but bossy, sweet federal agent.  I seriously want my boring and mundane life
back!  

Not knowing what to say, I ask, “Why are you doing all of
this for me?” 

Jude’s face got even softer.  His hand at my head gives me a
squeeze.  Seriously, just when I didn’t think that could feel any better, it
did.  He pulls me even closer to his face, all I can see are his melty eyes and
I feel his breath as he rasps, “I don’t know sugar, but I’m feeling the need to
see this through if you’ll let me.  Will you let me do that?”

I sit here, look at him for a beat and all I can think of to
say is, “Okay,” in a whisper because I really want to know what it means for
him to see it through, plus I’m lulled into a Jude induced coma again. 

At my one little word, his mouth slowly grows into a big
beautiful smile.  “Thanks,” he says.  “I don’t want you alone tonight, so I’m
stayin, I’ll sleep on the couch.” 

Um, excuse me? 

I feel my eyes go big but before I can express anything out
loud, I hear, “Door’s patched!”  This coming from Tony who, when I look up, I
see him heading for us coming out of my bedroom. 

Jude stands and announces with authority, “I’m sleeping on
her couch tonight so she won’t be by herself.  We just worked it out.  She’ll
probably have to wait until Monday to get someone to look at the door and that
glass will probably have to be special ordered.  I work closely with OPD, so
I’ll hit the office tomorrow, get a read on the latest wire transcripts and see
if anything has been said, then coordinate with the officer.  There’s already a
warrant on Harper.  If they find any of his prints on the area of the bedroom
door and deck, we’ll have additional charges on him as well.”

Tony mutters, “Sounds good to me, I’ll check back in
tomorrow, see if there’s anything she needs.”  Turning to me, he goes on, “I
wasn’t kidding Gabby.  I’d like to sleep in tomorrow.  So, if you could tone it
down for the next ten hours, it’d be appreciated.”

I pull in an audible gasp at Tony’s desire for me to ‘tone
it down’ as my Uncle Tony walks into the room and says, “You should get up and
go to church instead of sleeping in, son.”

“Ah, yeah, I’ll see about that,” Tony mutters.  He then
relays Jude’s plans for all the world to hear, “Jude’s sleeping on Gabby’s
couch so she’s good for the night.  I told her we’d touch base tomorrow.”

All my uncles walk in the room at this point and have
seemingly baptized Jude into the crazy club over Fantasy Football, because no
one sees a problem with this. 

“Thanks, Jude,” my uncles all mutter.

“Wait a second,” I start talking to the room in general with
mock enthusiasm.  “I’ll be fine.  No one’s going to break in twice in one
night, right?  And I’ll keep my gun close.  Really, I’ll be good!”

“Not gonna happen,” Jude says with finality.

“Yeah, you’re not stayin’ by yourself, Gabby,” Uncle Nic
agrees.

“Ma’am, we’re done here,” one of the police officers comes
in, as the others make their way out my front door.  “Here is my card in case
you have any more information for us.  We’ll contact you if we learn anything
new as well.” 

“Okay, thanks.”  I mean, what else was there to say?  He
talks to Jude quietly for a minute and then follows his brethren out the door. 

“Try and get some sleep, Gab,” Uncle Tony says as he gives
me a big hug and kiss on the head.  Gino, Nic and Tony follow suit.  We say our
goodbyes, Jude shuts and locks my front door, then turns and looks at me.