Page 25 of Hidden Ties

“Oh, please, Valerie. You’ve had it out for me since then, and you know it. I’ll never forget seeing your beady little eyes snooping through my window that first night.” With each word, he stepped closer and closer to her.

“My eyes are not beady!” she gasped even louder, in greater offense. Taking her bat, she lifted it, pointing the end right at his chest. “I only started snooping whenwhat I thought was your girlfriend, by the way,came home because I thought she waswayout of your league.” She had let the bat fall to his chest, forcing him back to the corner of the elevator. “I didn’t have it out for you till you showed up two weeks later with a different girl. That’s when I started to hate you.”

Sal only looked at her like she was crazier than she already was. “Andwhydid that make you hate me, exactly?”

She began hitting the buttons that he had hit when they’d first entered. “Because only the worst kind of cheater would get a house just to bang a different chick every other weekend. I bet you live on the rich part of town. huh? What? You got a wife andpossibly a kid? Or just a long-term girlfriend whose little heart you can’t seem to break?”

She fucking thinks what?

Pinching the bridge of his nose for dear life while the elevator restarted its ascent, he was afraid he might hurt a woman for the first time in his life if he let go. All this time, Valerie hated him because she thought he was a cheater?

“Christ, Valerie,” was all he could manage to say before he finally got a hold of himself. The woman even had the audacity to point out she had memorized the code that would continue their trip to the top uninterrupted.

His jaw flexed over and over again until the elevator came to its stop and the doors swung open. He stayed in place, letting her go first, deciding to finally speak only as she passed him.

“I’m not a cheater.”

“Yeah, sure, buddy,” she sarcastically agreed with a pat to his back before she disappeared off the elevator.

Looking heavenward, he spoke to the Big Man upstairs, hoping to bypass a confession in his near future.

I’m going to kill her if You don’t.

ELEVEN

THE BOOGIEMAN AND HIS SLY MINION

“Come in, Ms. Monroe.”

Chills coated her body from just his voice alone, still sight unseen. She had been given the pleasure of never having seen the man claimed as the Boogieman in her life, even though she had worked across the street from him for six months. Now, only a door separated them, and she was called upon by name.

Having only “heard” of him was probably what scared her the most. She hoped putting a face to the name might humanize him, make him less frightening.

It was like the final boss fight in a video game; you feared getting to the end of the story and not being ready to battle them, but it turned out, most of the time, they looked ridiculous, and you had nothing to fear after all. However, that wasn’t the case when Sal revealed what was behind the door.

It was a large office with tall windows showcasing the beauty of Kansas City from this vantage point. An oversized wooden desk sat in the room, and behind it sat an impending man with eyes that complemented the city lights down below. With one look, he gave you a good reason to fear him. He sent any goose bumps she had into a frozen frost, so much so that Sal had topush her forward and into his office with a firm hand on her back, and then she was finally in the presence of the Boogieman and his sly minion.

“Hello, Ms. Monroe,” the Caruso boss greeted her coldly, only further giving her a reason to fear him.

The worst part about him, though? It was his looks. Devilishly handsome. As a woman, it made you want to reach out and touch him to see if he was real, but your instincts fought every ounce of that, knowing who he truly was. He was frightening and beautiful at the same time, making him hold up to the name of being the most dangerous man in all of Kansas City.

His blue-green eyes that were simply terrifying traveled down to the object in her hands. “Is there a reason you’re carrying a bat through my Casino Hotel?”

Nervously grasping it in both hands, she didn’t know how to tell him it was because she knew exactly who he was and the kind of establishment she was coming into.

“I see.” Lucca nodded, seeing the hidden answer. “Please, sit.”

It was hard not to obey what sounded like an order from him, so she slowly took one of the two chairs in front of his desk before he continued.

“You are aware of who I am, then?”

Valerie nodded, both of them knowing it wasn’t just his surname he was insinuating.

“Well, it was either very brave of you to bring in a weapon … or stupid.”

Unfortunately, she agreed, and hearing the wordbravefinally made her enough so to speak.

“I suppose so.”