Untraceable (38 page)

He turned quickly, wiping his eyes,
evidently not wanting Jonathan to see him becoming emotional. “So
tell me,” he said firming his composure, “how my beautiful
daughter, whom I have stayed away from so you wouldn’t be tainted
by the mafia, fell in love with the worst mob soldier out there?! I
can’t believe he got to you before I did!”

”
What do you
mean?”

Anger washed over him and he rose and
began to pace, one hand on his hip, and his other fisted against
his chin and lips. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe
everything he was about to say. “When the news broke about Nadia
and they were saying you were a runaway, I knew something was
wrong. Hits are kept in the strictest of confidence, but I shook up
enough people and discovered that, of all people, my own daughter
had a million dollar contract on her head. I couldn’t believe
it!

“
I sent Giovanni to New
Orleans to kill Gavarreen, but you two were gone. I spread out
several men to find you, but he had you well hidden—until one of my
men heard that Sharon Norton Moretti was looking to hire someone to
take out the Southern best. He met with her to get the down
payment, but more important to find out what she knew about your
location—that was the day you were shot.

“
When I heard the story
the cops were spreading about how Gavarreen tried to save your life
when they arrived, I realized the two of you were in love; I
decided to spare him—God, what a mess! He blows away his capo, I
save his ass and now this—I should have killed him!” he
growled.

“
No!
Dad, please don’t hurt him; I love him!”
It was immediately obvious that me calling him ‘dad’ was a
complete surprise, but I didn’t know what else to say—Mr. Caprizio,
Leonard, Lee C., or Lee all felt wrong. For the first time in my
life, I had someone who truly was my dad, and it felt natural and
wonderful to utter that word.

He dropped back beside me on the couch
and pulled me in again for a long embrace.

“
I’ve waited nineteen
years to hear that word,” he whispered. “But, I don’t know what I’m
going to do about him. He’s kill the Boss of someone else’s
Family—who happened to be an old friend of mine, and he killed his
own Boss. He’s breaking too many rules for me to
ignore.”

“
Whatever he’s done,” I
said, wiping my nose and snuffling back a tear, “he must have felt
he didn’t have a choice.”

His hardened expression stayed that
way for a moment longer, but then it softened, “I can’t believe
you’re really here.” He turned to Jonathan, “Did you have much
trouble? I almost sent a couple more guys when we lost phone
contact, but then I heard the plane was on its way
back.”

Jonathan gave a slow smile, “Leese is
a very clever woman—she almost blew my head off.”

“
I was aiming for the
window,” I defended

My dad arched an eyebrow at
me.

“
Micah taught me how to
shoot.”

That didn’t seem to set
too well. “Give him another chance. He
is
a good person and he’s…” I paused
as I reached for his hand, pulling his palm against my stomach,
“He’s your grandson’s father.”

His touch was gentle, but his face
stayed hard. “I can’t promise you his safety, but,” he added when
he sensed my panic, “I’ll give him a chance to explain before I
decide.”

That was when I understood the
magnitude of my father’s control. Whatever he decided, it would be
irreversible and swift. I had a lot of convincing to do before he
met Micah—and unless I wanted that meeting to happen soon, I
couldn’t tell Micah where I was. But there was someone I could
tell. Someone who I knew had been broken hearted since this whole
nightmare began—Mom. “Can I use a phone?”

Neither man moved.

“
I just want to call Mom,”
I added.

My dad smiled slightly, “I can’t wait
to see her in person.”

The look on his face
caused my heart to flutter. Oh no! That was an ‘I still think she’s
hot and available,’ kind of look. David. This was so
not
good. “She’s
engaged,” I said very softly.

“
Since when?” he said with
clear annoyance, “And to whom? I hated that last son-of-a-bitch she
married!! I should have killed him too and then you both would have
been safe.” He took a cleansing breath, “So who’s the lucky guy?
What does he do?”

“
She really loves
him.”

“
Great,” came his
disingenuous response, “what’s his name?”

“
Their getting married in
December.”

“
Is there something about
this guy you
don’t
want to tell me? I’m really not used to someone avoiding my
questions—matter-of-fact, no one
ever
dodges my questions. What is
his name?”

“
D-David,” I answered with
a swallow.

“
That wasn’t so hard, was
it? So what does this ‘David’ do for a living? An accountant or a
florist perhaps?” he said with a chuckle. “As long as it’s not
David Gavarreen, we’re good,” he said laughing at his own remark.
He stopped laughing when he saw my expression. “It’s
not
David Gavarreen…
Shit! It is David Gavarreen, isn’t it?!” His face dropped down into
his palms and then he raked his fingers back through his hair.
“She’s not marrying him!”

“
Wait a minute. You have
no right…” That was when I realized no one ever spoke to him this
way. I decided to continue and find out exactly what kind of person
my father was. Could he accept what I was about to say? “You made
your choice and stepped out of our lives. David treats her like
she’s the most important thing in his world.”

“
Well he should!” he
barked at me.

“
He loves her enough to
stay,” I added.

Ouch!

I could tell the remark
stung.

He shook his head, “Loving someone
enough to leave is harder.”

“
Whether you disapprove or
not, David Gavarreen is going to be her ‘happily ever after.’ Don’t
do something to ruin it. She’s had enough misery with Robert—and
you.”

His face was still hard, his jaw
muscle pulled taut, and his temple vein protruding, “We’ll see.” He
handed me his cell phone. “I’ll be in the other room when you’re
done.” He motioned to Jonathan to follow him and I was left
alone.

I dialed the house phone in Florida.
It rang several times and then went to voicemail. I called her cell
phone with the same result. I guessed, if it even showed, that she
wouldn’t recognize the number I was calling from, so it was
possible that she didn’t answer by choice. I decided to leave a
message telling her that I would try back in fifteen
minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, there still
wasn’t any answer.

I walked around the corner from the
living area into what appeared to be a den. The men were leaned
forward and speaking in quiet voices, their faces
serious.

“
Does your number appear
when you call someone or is it blocked? I wanted to leave Mom your
number, but it’s not stored in the phone anywhere.”

“
My phone number never
appears,” he stated. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down
and handed it to me.

I went back out to the couch and
called a third time and left his number. Within minutes, the phone
was ringing. I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered it
anyway.

“
Leese? Is it really you?”
she cried out. “Baby, where are you? Are you okay? What’s going
on?”

“
Mom,” I managed to get
out. My vocal cords were quivering, but then I broke down into sobs
and couldn’t continue. I was trying to compose, but I couldn’t. The
baby had begun to kick against me, evidently a little of my tearful
joy over hearing her voice spread to him.

I felt someone removing the phone from
my hand. I looked up to see Dad nodding for me to let
go.

“
Let me,” he said, putting
the phone to his ear, “Nadia?” He paused. “Nadia?” he repeated to
the silence. “Leese is safe. She’s with me. It’s Lee, sweetheart,”
he said in response to what I couldn’t hear. “No, this isn’t a
joke. It really is me. Nadia… Nadia, please don’t start crying. I
want you to come to New York. I’ll arrange a flight for you and
your little girl.” He listened for a moment.

His expression was difficult to read
until I heard his response, then I knew it was a mix of anger and
jealousy.

“
No, don’t tell him! Is he
there? Good, then he doesn’t need to know. Tell me where you’re at.
Nova Scotia? Yes, it really is me. Here she is again.”

I was finally composed as I took the
phone. She kept saying she needed to call David and tell him, but I
was certain that was a bad idea. First, no one wanted to deal with
my father, and second, David would go crazy if he knew she was
meeting the man who swept her off her feet when she was seventeen.
She eventually agreed that she and Kimmy would fly to New
York.

CHAPTER twenty-nine

When the news broke that Micah had
murdered Botachelli, no one in his Family could believe it. And,
even more unbelievable was Rizzo’s announcement that their Family
would be meeting with Sharon Moretti in a possible
merger.

David requested a private meeting with
Rizzo, but it was denied. His parents and his sister were in a
state of shock as David told them not to give up hope. He assured
them Micah couldn’t have done what everyone said. His brother
wasn’t that freaking crazy; what good would it do to get Leese back
only to lose his life for his crimes?

What could he do? Micah had inflicted
more damage than he could repair this time and, once again, Micah
was giving him the silent treatment.

He was mentally exhausted by the time
he reached his home on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. He had
recently put his house on the market because it didn’t fit his
lifestyle anymore. This place had been the same as his life: wild.
He was within walking distance of some of the finest French
cuisine, and he did frequent the restaurants, but his favorite
haunts on this street had been the bars and strip clubs; those were
the places he frequented nightly—when he wasn’t on a job. He’d had
his regular prostitute’s for company when he was high rolling or
getting drunk. But now the craziness that had been his persona no
longer interested him; he found something so much better, and he
couldn’t wait to be her husband.

He went up to his bedroom and tossed
his keys onto the nightstand and then flopped, back first, onto the
bed. He was too tired to think about Micah’s errors. All he wanted
was to call Nadia and hear her voice. He wanted to listen to her
tell him how much she loved him and how she couldn’t wait for him
to be with her.

And then there was Kimmy. She had
recently started calling him daddy; he would have never believed
that a word could make his heart swell so hard that it felt as if
it could literally burst. He never thought he’d ever be anyone’s
‘daddy,’ but now he was. He’d never even considered
children—ever—until he fell for Nadia. Did he truly want children?
God, yes. He wouldn’t tell her his feelings because he knew it
would upset her, but after being around Micah and Leese, and
watching Leese’s body expand to hold the incredible miracle of life
inside of her, he wanted to share that same experience with
Nadia—but they couldn’t.

Silently he thought about it every
time he took her into his arms and buried himself inside of her. He
wanted to create a life with the woman who showed him there was
more to be experienced in this world than Bourbon Street and
blowing people away.

All the problems in the world vanished
and he found himself smiling as he dialed her number. When she
answered, he immediately sensed something was wrong. Being a hitman
all his life, David noticed all the things that most would not:
Nadia tentatively uttering his name, fear in her voice, and the
sounds in the background being different from what he expected. A
cold spike gouged into his gut and caused him to sit up quickly on
the edge of the bed. “Nadia, where are you? What’s
wrong?”

“
David, I know you’re
going to be angry, but…”

He didn’t realize until that very
second that he didn’t like the word, ‘but.’

“
Kimmy and I are flying to
New York.”

“
What?! No, no, Nadia!
What the hell is going on?! Why are you going to New
York?!”

“
Le—Leese called me.
She’s—”

“
Nadia, I told you not to
bring your old cell phone!”

“
I didn’t, David. I—I’ve
just been checking my voicemails and—”

“
No, baby, no,” he pled.
“Don’t try going to her. Get a hotel room when you land and I’ll be
there as fast as—”

“
David, this isn’t a
commercial flight,” she stated and then paused.

The pause was enough to let him know
something worse was about to be shared.

“
Leese is with Jonathan
and—and her dad. This is a private flight, and he’ll be waiting for
me when we land.”