Chapter 4 – Italians

Charlie hung up the phone with a muttered, "Insufferable man!" And started to drag the woman's body into the empty stall at the end of the restroom. Taking her phone and license, she locked the stall and made her way out the back of the restaurant, through the kitchens to the car. Efficiently breaking into the car and jump-starting it, she sat in the driver's seat waiting for the men.

Back inside the restaurant

Nate pulled up the seat directly in front on the Italian man, "Mister Valencia, right?" Extending his hand to the man, "Nathan Ford."

The man looked cautiously at Nate's hand and then over at Eliot standing, with arms crossed, glaring at him, and quickly shook the offered hand. "Mr. Ford. How did you know my name?" Valencia questioned.

"I have ways of knowing things." Nate replied, "What I don't know is why my friends and I are being followed."

Valencia looked around the room, not anticipating a meeting with Ford, "If you're waiting for your lady friend, she's not coming out anytime soon." Eliot sneered at the man.

"What did you do to her?" Valencia asked, worried.

"She's fine. Just taking a bit of a nap." Nate told him, still with a smile on his face, "Now, start talking before Eliot here looses the little patience he's managed."

"We are simply supposed to watch." Valencia stated, with an uneasy look at Eliot, "Just monitoring your movements to make sure that don't do something stupid that would anger my employer."

Nate looked at the man, "Eliot, outside please." Eliot smirked, grabbing the man by the collar and dragging him out the front of the restaurant. Taking a left to the side alley of the restaurant, Valencia reached into his coat for his gun, but Eliot was quicker. Disarming the man, popping the clip and emptying the chamber, the hitter threw the pieces of the gun aside, and grabbed Valencia by the arm. A short, painful twist later, Eliot quickly and efficiently had the man up against the wall.

"Now, Mr. Valencia," Nate began, "I accepted the assignment. I would appreciate it if my team and I were left alone to do our work without unwanted interruptions. Get that to your supervisor." Eliot gave the man a final push into the wall before letting him go and watching as the man sank to the ground and grabbed at his bruised arm.

"Your girlfriend's in the bathroom. Might want to get her before someone else finds her there." Eliot informed the fallen man before making his way toward Nate. He didn't take his eyes off the Italian until he rounded the corner of the restaurant. Turning his attention to the street, he noticed Charlie waiting in Nate's car by the entrance of the restaurant.

Nate and Eliot got in the car and Charlie drove away. The men looked over at the reader and before they could say anything she very quietly asks, "Which one of you got my dessert?" After a few seconds of silence, "Well? You did remember my dessert didn't you?" Charlie asked again, voice laced with irritation.

"We were a bit distracted, to remember your dessert." Nate slowly told her, while Eliot simply glared in disbelief at the petite red-head in the driver's seat.

"Distracted!" She complained, turning to face Nate in the passenger seat, "I am the one who got followed into a bathroom. I am the one who had to leave a woman unconscious and sneak out of the back of the restaurant. I am the one who…" she was interrupted by Eliot yelling.

"You are the one driving without looking at the road! Nate," he said to the older man. "Make her pay attention! I ain't gonna die 'cause she isn't paying attention and crashed us into a pole." He finished with an exasperated growl.

Charlie just gave him a 'humph' and turned back to the road all the while muttering about a perfectly good dessert going to waste. A few minutes later they were back at her shop and Charlie was still angry. Without getting out of the car Charlie turned in her seat to Nate, "Will this be an everyday thing? Being followed around by Italians," she inquired of Nate. "I don't like having to incapacitate people."

"No, Charlie, it won't," Nate assured her, "We should be left alone to do our job for now."

Charlie nodded her head in acceptance and started to get out of the car. "Want to come up for coffee or something? I still have some free time if there's anything else you need to go over," she said to Nate as she made her way around the car to the awaiting men.

"Of course, I could use a drink." Nate said and started to follow her into the building.

"Wait a second there sweetheart," Eliot said, reaching out a hand to stop the retreating reader. When their skin touched, he felt that same electrical shock from earlier. They both quickly pulled away, "How did you do that," he asked her, trying to lie himself into believing he hadn't just willingly pulled away from an attractive female.

"Do what?" She asked.

Eliot had seen her reaction to his touch, earlier and now. He knew she'd felt it too. The quick intake of her breath, the slight widening of her eyes in surprise, but if she was going to ignore it, then so could he, so he settled with a more obvious question, "How'd you knock the woman out?"

She turned her face up to him, chin butting out, "I did not knock her out. That implies that I hit her. I incapacitated her and as a result she will be unconscious for the next few hours. I do not knock out people." She finished with a look of disgust at the mere implication that she would do that.

Eliot barked a laugh, "Incapacitated is just a fancy way of saying knocked out, darlin' Where'd you learn to do that?"

Charlie looked at him for another moment, turned her back to him and started to walking towards the building once more, forcing him to follow along. "I spent some time in Japan. Dated a guy who was a bit of a jerk. His brother taught me a few things."

"The brother taught you to do that?" Nate asked. He had yet to hear this story.

"Like I said, the guy I was dating was a jerk, his own brother knew it." She stated simply, like it was a known fact. As they went through the door she made a left and headed for a hallway and up the stairs to her flat. She went straight to the kitchen, while Nate went straight to the bar she had set up in the living space.

Eliot cautiously followed her into the kitchen. "What about the thing with the car," he questioned her. There were just too many things he didn't know about this woman, things he was surprised to realize he wanted to know.

Charlie thought about pretending not to know what he was talking about and simply not tell him anything else. This man who she had known less than four hours already knew more about her and her past than people she worked with everyday. And yet, there was just something about him that made her want to trust him with every secret and trick she knew.

"It's a calming technique." She told him, deciding to be honest, "Focus all your concentration on never stopping your car. You have to be alert to all the cars around you, the lights, the stop signs." As she spoke she looked into his eyes, something she'd been avoiding doing all day. "It helps that I can read what the other drivers are thinking and know all the back roads. The car never comes to a complete stop, we get here quicker, I calm down... It centers me." Charlie finished with a little shrug and opened the bottle of water she'd gotten out of the fridge.

When she locked eyes with him, Eliot found himself rooted to the spot his spot. The slow, gentle way she spoke, with just the softest hint of a sultry drawl, reminded him of time spent on his sister's porch, rocking back and forth watching the sun set, the few times he'd held his nephew in his arms. Memories he locked away and saved for the rare times when he needed some reminder of the good still left in this world. This woman with her gray eyes and a gentle tilt of her head had managed to unlock all those memories. Without even trying she impressed him, intrigued him and fascinated him to degrees that Eliot didn't want to ponder on for the sake of his sanity. Glancing away from her he walked out to the living room to see what Nate wanted to do next.