The Mafia Son

part 18

"Dominic, I wanted to talk to you about the girl you took in protection in Eden's." My father sounded calm.

"What about her?"
He had asked me to come in his office earlier and wouldn't say what it was about until now.

"You check up on her a lot, but I hope you aren't getting too attached to her." He said.

"Obviously, but why the concern?"

"I'm just warning you. What do you know about her? Her name, her age maybe? But not much more, right?"

"I know that Franco vouched for her and that so far, she hasn't brought any problems yet." I replied with some confident in my voice.

I just knew she was a good person aswell, but I didn't say so, since my father would just tell me that intuition is bullshit.

"Have you asked Franco about her yet?" He asked.

"Yes, I asked him if it was true that he send her and he confirmed."

"But did you ask why he send her?" He asked.

"No, I didn't want to seem too nosey. They both said that there was a good reason why she couldn't tell much more about herself and her situation, so I didn't go on about it too long." I replied.

"Alright, just promise me to be careful with her, she didn't come running for protection without a valid reason so don't misjudge her."

"I'll be carefull, I promise."

"Okay, that was it. Thank you." He signalled with his hand for me to leave the room.

It wasn't that late yet and I didn't have much to do that day. Maybe check up on Lola. I could bring her something nice to make her feel more welcome, I mean, being nice to her doesn't mean I'm not being carefull... she'd probably like some good food instead of the crappy shit they normaly served her. I knew there was some homemade lasagna from yesterday left in the fridge and nobody would mind if I took it.

I warmed up a plate full and put some foil over it to keep it warm. I took a knife and a fork from the cabinet and left.

When I got to her room, I knocked on the door like usual and waited until I heard confirmation from the other side.

"Come in!"

I opened the door with my empty hand and entered the room.

She smiled at me as I went and stood in my usual spot.
"What you got there?" She asked.

"It's for you, I thought you might like some better food for once, so I brought some leftover lasagna. My mom made it." I answered as I walked over to the bureau that was now more of a table and put down the lasagna.

"Thanks, that's great." She replied cheerful.

"No problem, I'll leave you to it then."

"Wait, can't you sit with me? I haven't had dinner with someone since forever. Please?" She asked.

"Yeah sure, I'll sit with you." I agreed.

She smiled pleased.

We sat on the table and I watched her eat. We talked a lot, about books, movies, music, believes.. everything! It was great, she was nice and I felt safe talking to her. Like I could let my guard down.

It was all fun until we heard someone knock on the door.
I got up from my seat as quick as I could and went to stand next to the door. Lola seemed a little sad and betrayed when I left, but I hoped that she understood.

"Yes?" I said.

The door opened, it was Tony.

"Dom, here you are, I've been looking all over for you!" He seemed exhausted, like he had ran for miles to get to me and his tone sounded serious.

"What is it?" I asked.

I felt my voice change from the nice was I was talking to Lola to my usual, more strict and straight to point.

Tony looked over to Lola.
"Can I talk to you in private?" He suggested.

"Yeah sure." I said unsure.

We walked out the door, but stayed in the back rooms, just another than Lola's.

"Start talking." I ordered.

"5 of the new guys I had to train, they got arrested." Tony said.

"What are you talking about? Just let someone go over there and tell them they're with us and to let them go!"

"Well that's the problem... we already did that when they had only 4 of our people arrested and the moment he set foot in the precinct, he got arrested aswell." Tony replied.

"Have you tried calling them yet? And do my dad and Dante know this?" I asked.

"Yes they know and they suggested the same, but our inside guys said that some corrupt new guy was taking over and ordered to arrest whoever they could that worked for the D'André family, except for yourselves... your dad suggested we go hiding somewhere until this was over." He seemed scared and jumpy. "He said that if they didn't they would get fired. Dom can I maybe stay at Eden's aswell? I don't know where else to go and hide."

"Uuhm yes, I'll get another office rea...
I'll make another room ready for you and whoever else wants to stay here! Shit, you know why this happened right? It were the Monti's, they wanted to get our guys out of the game so we wouldn't have any protection they're playing dirty like usual! Bastards!"

"Shit you're right! I'll stay with the girl until I can stay in some other room, but you have to go see your dad about that!" He said.
In reply, I nodded.

We left the room, he went back to Lola's and I went home to tell my dad. He seemed suprised, but he agreed with what I was saying. Said we should probably find common grounds with them to get this over with.

"I'll try and contact them for an appointment to talk about all of this." Dante suggested.

"Just make sure they won't pull anything if we meet. They can't have any weapons on them, neither will we and the perimeter should be guarded to make sure they don't have any back-up somewhere around the corner!" Papa replied.

Dante nodded and left to make the appointment immediately.

"Good thinking Dominic, now go get some rest, you look tired and stressed."

I was, but I couldn't just go and leave them to deal with this on their own, I wanted to be there and help wherever I could.

"I'm fine, I want to help." I went in against him.

"Dominic I don't want to get in a discussion right now, I have enough on my mind. If you don't want to sleep, help your mother with something, but just stay out of this for now, if I need your help I'll ask you. Just be there at the meeting." He sounded annoyed and angry, but I understood and got up to leave the room.

"Dom," I heard just before I reached the door, which made me turn around again. "You did good discovering this and I'm proud that you're listening to me instead of going in against me any more. Thank you, don't  worry we'll figure something out." He comforted me.

I smiled, nodded and left the room.