Double Blind (4 page)

“Hey.” He wraps an arm around my waist and gives me a quick peck on my cheek.

“There’s our angry young man!” Maria gives him a half amused, half exasperated look.

He does look angry. Last night, he came home and didn’t speak a word to me. I know better than to ask questions, but still. I can’t help but wonder if I did something wrong. Then he notices me watching him and his eyebrows lift slightly.

“I’m not angry, just busy.” He straightens his suit. “Where is this broad?”

I elbow Vince’s ribs, but it’s too late.

“I’m right here!” A cheerful voice with a heavy, Jersey accent emerges from behind the counter. The woman belonging to the voice is dressed in a leopard print, skintight one-suit. She wears large, golden hoops for earrings and her face looks like she dived headfirst into a makeup bag.

“Holy shit,” Vince mutters under his breath.

She extends a claw-like hand to Maria, who takes it immediately. “We’re so happy you could fit us in for today. I’ve heard so much about the bakery.”

“Of course! Are you the lucky bride?”

“No, I’m the maid of honor,” Maria blushes slightly as she looks at me.

She gestures to me with very long, fake fingernails. “Hello, how are you? I’m Danielle.”

“Adriana,” I say quickly, taking her hand lightly.

Vince extends his hand. “Vincent. Nice to meet you.”

Danielle clasps her hands together. “Oh, you two are so cute. You must be so excited!”

We’re slightly at a loss for words.

“Yeah—uh, we are.”

Maria’s eyes bulge at me and her fingers whiten on the clipboard.

“—and I’m really grateful that you fitted us in last minute.”

“No problem, no problem. Well, come in. We have a lot of different flavors for you to try. This is so exciting!”

She seems more excited by this than I am. Honestly, this is probably the part of wedding preparations that I looked forward to the most. Who doesn’t like eating a bunch of free cake? The only one who doesn’t look happy to be here is Vince, who sits down around the table with a long sigh, like it’s a waste of his time.

Geez. What’s wrong with him?

The table is already set up with at least two dozen small slices of cake. Some of the cake slices are red, some look like chocolate, others are white. I salivate as Danielle places glasses of water and a fork in front of us. I grab mine eagerly.

“All right, so we have a lot of flavors here and I really want you to try everything. The white cakes will have different flavors than the chocolate, and the same goes for the red-velvet. We have a chocolate salted caramel, chocolate strawberry, champagne strawberry, lemon flavored cake with a lemon buttercream, lavender…”

And she goes on and on until I feel like my brain might combust. She points at each slice as she names the flavor, and I have to inwardly applaud her for her amazing memorization skills.

I stab my fork into a random chocolate one and taste it. An explosion of rich chocolate and slightly salted caramel melts over my tongue. It’s delicious.

“Vince, you gotta try this one.”

I take it with my fingers and bring it to his mouth. Vince looks forbidding, but I press the cake against his lips and he takes a bite. He chews and swallows, his shoulders lifting up slightly in a shrug.

“Yeah, it’s good.”

Disappointed, I turn back towards the cakes. Maria shoves three of them towards me. “Try them, Ade. I’m thinking since you want lavender bridesmaid dresses, it’ll look fabulous in your wedding photos. It’ll complete your theme.” She gestures towards the white cake with the light purple filling.

“
Maddon
, it doesn’t all need to match for Christ’s sake.”

Maria shoots Vince a glare as I try the cakes. They’re much lighter than the chocolate ones, and also very delicious. I can’t decide. There are too many choices, and I’m starting to get full.

“I like that one,” Vince says with a mouthful of cake, pointing towards a white one with bits of strawberry.

“Ah, the champagne and strawberry cake.” Danielle sweeps over to his side. “You’ve got to try more, though.”

“I don’t need to try any more. I want this one.” He sets down his fork and shoves the piece towards me.

I pop it in my mouth and immediately taste the champagne soaking the cake. The strawberries add a wonderful light taste to the richness of the alcohol. “I like it, too. We’ll do this one.”

Danielle looks flustered. “But honey, you haven’t tried all of them yet. You should really—”

Vince’s face darkens and I know he’s a few seconds from yelling at her, so I cut him off.

“Danielle, thank you so much for all the choices, but we’ll take this one.”

Looking slightly appalled, she shrugs and gives a small sigh. “Well, okay. If you’re sure.” She then reaches towards the counter to take a sheet of paper. “Now, we’ll have to talk about the design of the cake.”

Maria leans forward, “Adriana hasn’t decided what kind of fondant she would like.”

“Oh, would you like to try some samples?”

“Sure.”

Danielle whisks away to the back to get samples and I take the opportunity to lean closer to Vince, who looks vaguely annoyed.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, I just have a lot on my mind.” He forces a smile and rubs my back, but as soon as he thinks I’m looking away, his face falls with discontent.

“Vince, you only get married once. If you didn’t want to come here, you could have just said so.”

He looks at me sharply. “I do want to be here.”

Then what’s the problem?

His face strains as he fights to keep whatever it is inside him.

“Well, here we are!”

Danielle returns with a plate of pieces of white and cream colored frosting. I hold one in my hand. It shines under the light.

“That one is regular fondant.”

My first thought is that it’s very gummy and sugary. Vince makes a face and I grab for the less shiny, but sticky fondant.

“That one’s marzipan.”

 The sweet, nutty flavor of almonds explodes over my mouth. It reminds me of those Almond Joy chocolate bars.

“I like that one.”

* * *

The door swings open and slams shut so hard that I can feel the vibrations through my feet. We’re finally back from the cake tasting, and Vince seems to be in a shitty mood. I wait for him to walk closer, to give me a beaming smile as his arm wraps around my waist. My skin tingles in anticipation, and then I get a closer look at him. The look on his face makes the blood drain from my limbs.

Vince walks past me without a smile or a hint of happiness in his eyes.

He gets like this sometimes, but I never know why. Since everything that happened, we agreed that the less I know, the better. I don’t particularly want to know everything that he does, anyway.

It still doesn’t stop me from wondering.

Vince takes off his leather shoes and hurls them down the hallway. Then he rips off his jacket and throws it on the floor as if it did him personal harm.

“
Fuck
.” His lips mouth the word several more times as he paces back and forth, his dark eyes flashing.

Okay. That’s a bit more dramatic than usual.

Then he walks to the freezer, pulls out the bottle of vodka he thinks I don’t know about, and two glasses from the cupboard. He pours two glasses.

His face steams with rage. The olive-skinned face that I know so well is clenched together. I can see him barely holding it in, probably for my sake. His black, fiery gaze meets mine for a moment and I look away, heart beating fast. He grabs both glasses, pounds one after the other, and then he sinks his face into his hands.

Jesus.

Nerves flutter in my stomach as I stand up and walk towards the completely still Vince. I’m almost afraid to touch him, as though he’ll jump violently or snap at me. My hand lifts to his dark hair and I tremulously lower it until the fine strands tickle my palm.

He doesn’t move.

I let it fall down his trim neck, to the slightly wavy bristles, and across his shoulder. I seize his shoulder muscle and I dig in hard with my thumb, trying to loosen him up. He finally responds, letting his hands drop and turning into my body. Still seated, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer, and his head rests on my chest. My skin tingles when I feel his fingers lightly stroking the exposed skin on my lower back, but it’s not sexual.

For once, Vince seems vulnerable. Scared.

Holy shit.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, hating how reedy my voice sounds.

“I haven’t been telling you the truth.”

I pull myself away from him, starting to feel a sharp, prickling sensation over my skin. He can’t even look at me.

“I need to ask you to do something,” he says finally. “Something that I promised I would never ask you to do again.”

My mind runs, heart beating frantically. I think of gunfire smashing through the thick panes of glass at the restaurant, the loud cracks shattering the air, and blood. Thick pools of dark red.

“
What?
”

“They want you to work for them. As a dealer in a casino.”

Is that all? My heart still thuds like I’m running a marathon. “Who?”

Vince lifts his head and begs me with his eyes. “The Rizzo family.”

The Rizzo family. The thugs who murdered my father and made my life hell. Heat flushes my face and I step away from Vince.

“How could you ask me that?”

He looks miserable. “Believe me, if I had a choice, you would never see them again.”

“What kind of trouble are you in?” My voice rises sharply, bouncing off the ceilings. “I thought you said that everything was fine!”

He lied.

Vince’s mouth presses into a firm line. “It’s not. It was never fine. We almost all fucking died weeks ago, remember? That’s not going to go away because you or I want it to.”

“So you decided to
lie
to me?” I rip my hand out of his grasp as hot anger bubbles in my chest.

He stands from the stool. “I wanted to keep you the fuck out of it. That’s why I lied. I did everything I could so that I could protect you and I tried fighting against it, but I have no control over Tony. He’s determined to punish me, and this is how he’s doing it. You’re a small piece in this whole thing, but you’re the piece they want. They want you to work until you pay off your father’s debts. They won’t take my money.”

“I can’t
fucking
believe this!” I return the angry look on his face. “Why should I be responsible for my dad’s debts? I haven’t done enough supporting my mother half my life? Why do we have to do this?”

“Because if we don’t, they will kill us all.”

I stumble back from the gravity of his words. I’m overwhelmed, I’m angry—

“Jack is desperate for a truce,” he sighs. “Tony came up with these terms and wouldn’t compromise. I don’t really have a choice. They still don’t know about those two guys who showed up at your mother’s house.”

Only Vincent’s hands running up my arms make me feel like my body is still capable of warmth. His fingers run over my arms lightly before they curl around my biceps. I can already feel my anger with him melting away.

He’s right.

“I don’t know—”

“It won’t be that bad.”

He leans in slightly and kisses my forehead. The heat of his lips makes my breath quicken, and then he does it again and I shudder.

“It’s in a casino. It’ll be completely safe, unlike the bullshit we had at my card games.”

Like anywhere is safe. “A mob-owned casino,” I remind him. “Might as well hold a billboard to the FBI.”

“It’s not owned by—oh, fuck.” His eyes widen suddenly and his hands tighten on my arms. I feel fear transferring from the bruising grip of his fingers to my heart like an electrical impulse.

“No one knows that the FBI is tailing you. Not Jack or anyone else. If they knew—if they found out—
fuck
.”

Jesus.

The same bastards who killed my father will kill me. I can see it written all over his face.

“Oh my God. I’m going to be sick.”

Turning away from him, I slip off the stool and head straight for the door. Violent images and sounds churn through my head. I gulp down air. Everything’s smaller. Dizzy. I need to get out.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

His raised voice follows me as I stumble down the hallway, but for once he doesn’t follow. I grab my coat from the closet and slam the door on my way out.

When I’m downstairs and breathing in the crisp air of the Upper West Side, I feel a little better. I need to get away from all the madness, just for a little bit. Vince will understand.

Heaviness fills my chest as I walk down the quiet streets. Why am I such a coward? Why can’t I just deal with it like he does? I know I’m not perfect, but he loves me. I never get to show him how much I love him, too.

I’m not as strong as he is.

“Adriana.”

My scream slices through the night as a man stares at me through a car window. A black car rolled up beside me without me even noticing. The man raises his eyebrow as I clutch my chest, which feels like it might explode.

“You scared the
shit
—”

“Sorry—”

“—out of me.”

He smiles apologetically and shrugs. Who the hell is he?

“I’m Jamie. The boss would like a word with you, if you don’t mind.”

“Jack?”

The passenger window on the Mercedes rolls down and I see Jack’s venerable face staring at me impassively. “I just want to talk. It’s about Vince.”

Another painful thud against my ribs makes my voice crack. “What?”

“Come inside, please.” This is not an invitation I can refuse.

Even though I don’t trust this asshole, for once I’m eager to hear what he has to say. Does he have some way out of it? Something that will fix it all?

Trembling, I reach for the door handle and open it, stepping inside as Jack moves into the car.

Once I close the door, I shudder in the dark interior.

“Go,” he says to the driver.

My hands flail out as it suddenly moves forward. “You didn’t say we were going anywhere!”