Bella reached up to slap Alex, Alex didn't see it coming because she did it on Alex's left side and made contact with her face. Alex felt the sting in her left cheek and turned back and glared at Bella.
"You wanna get it on?" Alex growled.
Alex saw Lester raise an eyebrow.
"You little piece of shit." Bella reared back her hand again.
Alex had moved her head so she had more of Bella in view and saw what she did. Alex stepped into a back stance. She blocked the slap and wrapped her arm around Bella's and grabbed the blouse Bella had on. Alex brought her right fist up and connected with Bella's face as she drove her knee into Bella's gut. Bella went limp as the air rushed out of her lungs and Alex dropped her to the floor and Alex stepped back into defensive tiger stance.
"Don't start shit you can't finish." Alex growled out.
Bella looked at Alex with a grin on her face. Alex didn't see the gun until Bella had it out and pointing at her. Alex's heart was racing as she looked at the barrel of the gun. She heard a click, Alex's head snapped up in Lester's direction.
"Bella put the gun away." Lester said calmly.
"Who is this kid?" Bella asked him.
"Put the gun away. You shoot her and Carlos will be all over your ass along with a few more people." Lester said.
The door to the break room opened and Alex looked over to see Jose walk back in free of Rodriguez. He looked around the room. "What's going on?" Jose asked.
Alex looked back at Bella on the floor the revolver still aimed at her head. Her heart pounded in her chest. She looked at Bella's brown eyes, there wasn't much to see. Alex didn't like her, she couldn't put her finger on it, but Bella wasn't someone she wanted to get to know. She felt that getting to know this woman would be like rolling around in a field full of poison ivy and the rash would spread to areas that she didn't want exposed.
"What makes her so special?" Bella asked, not lowering the gun.
Jose moved and stood in front of Alex. "She's my client. Now quit being the little bitch you can be and put the gun away."
Alex couldn't see what she was doing, but she heard the latch of a safety being clicked back into place. She looked around Jose and saw Lester putting his gun back into the small of his back. Alex saw Bella and she was now getting off the floor.
"Your client? Since when did you start lowering your standards Jose?" Bella asked.
"I've never lowered my standards. Now quit being a bitch. I told you going to Italy was a wrong move for you. What did you do? Buy into all that bullshit they blew up your ass." Jose said.
"It wasn't a wrong move. Do you think I'm fool enough to fall for their bullshit?" Bella asked after she sat down and started picking at the salad before her. "I don't have to justify anything to you Jose."
"You've changed Bella." Lester said as he started walking over to Alex.
Alex moved out from behind Jose. Alex watched as Bella looked up at Lester. "What did you expect Lester? I lived over there for five years with Enrico Shiropolli. Why do you think I wanted to come home?"
Alex's eyes narrowed as she looked at Bella, she knew who Enrico was. She had heard Shiropolli talk about his father several times. Talked about the woman his father had been seeing. What was her name? Could this been who Shiropolli was talking about that stayed with Enrico? G, it started with a G. Gia, no that wasn't it. Giada.
"Giada?" Alex questioned.
Bella's head snapped as she glared at Alex. "Che cosa la scopata? Chi vi ha ditto quel nome?" (What the fuck? Who told you that name?)
Alex took in a slow breath, her Italian wasn't that great. She understood what Bella asked, but she wasn't sure how to form the words in Italian. "Il figlio del Enrico mi ha detto. Nuova femmina suo del padre detto stava provando a sostituire la sua madre." (Enrico's son told me. Said his father's new bitch was trying to take the place of his mother.) Alex said as she had hesitated through parts of it.
Bella stood placing both hands on the table leaning over it. "Voi poco shithead. Non conosco che cosa il victor vi ha detto, ma avete bisogno della conservazione che la vostra bocca ha chiuso circa me, o la chiuderò permanente." (You little shithead. I don't know what Victor told you, but you need keep your mouth shut about me, or I'll shut it permanently.)
Alex flexed her hands into fists. Jose stepped in front of Alex. "Lester, take Alex out of here. Bella, you need to watch who you are threatening."
Alex went with Lester, but not until she sent Bella an Italian hand gesture she knew Bella would understand. She felt Lester's hand on the back of her neck and moved away from him so he wasn't touching her.
"So you speak Italian?" Lester asked.
"A little. It wasn't hard to pick it up when Lacy was arguing back and forth with Michael. That was what Michael spoke most of the time when he was around." Alex said.
"Are you still hungry?" Lester asked.
"No, I lost my appetite, being threatened kind of does that to a person." Alex said.
POV Change
Stephanie looked over toward the door and saw her mother and grandmother standing in the doorway.
"I'm setting extra plates." Ellen yelled out.
"We're going to have to stay and eat aren't we?" Ranger asked.
"Yes. At least there will be desert." Stephanie said.
"You better hurry, the ham will be too tough to eat, and I need to go to the viewing." Grandma shouted.
Stephanie groaned. She opened the door and had one foot out as she looked back at Ranger. "It can't be that bad, besides, you'll be fed."
Ranger opened his door, "I'll be defiling my body."
Stephanie got out and shut the door. "But at least you'll be more human."
Ranger came around the car and put his arm over Stephanie's shoulder. They headed up the walkway. "I'm all human Babe."
Stephanie walked inside, she didn't see where Grandma had gotten off to. She heard a slight yelp and spun around. Ranger had his hands on his ass.
"I'll have to tell Betty that I was right and she was wrong, his ass is as hard as two bricks." Grandma said.
"Mother!" Ellen shouted.
"Jesus H. Christ!" Frank could be heard from the living room.
Stephanie gave Ranger what she hoped appeared to be an I'm sorry face. She could see he was looking at Grandma with those eyes that she had attributed to sending people to third world countries. Stephanie went and grabbed Grandma by her elbow; trying to divert Ranger from killing Grandma and making her father's dreams come true. "So who is laid out?"
"That poor Victoria Lacy Ramono. I want to see Joe's lover, he had a child with her. No wonder you broke up with him. Smart move, this one is a lot better, and he has a better package." Grandma said.
"She wasn't Joe's lover Grandma." Stephanie said as she glanced back at Ranger who had a small grin growing in the corner of his mouth.
'Better package,' Ranger mouthed to Stephanie.
'Doomsday.' Stephanie mouthed back.
"Then it's not true?" Grandma asked. "Shucks, I wanted to see her. I heard they had a closed casket. If she isn't the one Joe slept with then who is?"
"Nobody knows." Stephanie said not being entirely truthful.
"I heard it could be that girl that disappeared and was found twelve years ago. Do you think it could be her? I heard from Betty that Joe had a thing for her, and Joe had been seeing her before she came up missing. Mama and Papa Thebes done everything to try to find her. I thought Papa Thebes would sell Crystals Pizza House after Mama died. I saw him last week, he said it's all he has left now, he said it didn't feel right just selling out."
"I don't know if it was Sarah Thebes or not." Stephanie lied skillfully.
They sat down at the table and Frank took his normal seat picking up his knife and fork and looked at his plate. Stephanie made sure Grandma sat in her normal place and she sat next to Ranger.
"Well, I'm just glad you brought the better looking one to dinner again. You aren't holding out on Stephanie are you? About any children you don't know about are you?" Grandma asked Ranger.
"Mother! Come help me in the kitchen and leave Ranger alone." Ellen shouted.
POV Change
Joe pulled out a sheet of paper, he had found another piece of the birth record. It was the first page, he started reading it. Patient's name was Sarah Athena Thebes. His hands started shaking, and he started sweating even though the building was cool. Jesus Sarah! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you let me know you were pregnant? What am I going to do Sarah?
"You okay Morelli?" Tommy asked.
Joe turned and looked at him. Joe couldn't help the crack in his voice as he responded. "Yeah."
"You sure about that? What did you find?" Tommy asked.
"I know who her mother is." Joe set the paper down and then ran his hands through his hair. "Jesus I'm her father." He turned around and leaned up against the boxes.
Tommy walked over and looked at him. "I think you better sit down before you pass out. It's not that bad being a Dad. It's actually a lot of fun at times."
Joe looked at him, "You have kids?"
Tommy chuckled, "Yeah I have two. Twin girls, they're turning thirteen. You have your good days and you have your bad days. It's worth it. Don't sweat it. Alex isn't a bad kid, just don't panic. All new fathers want to panic. When you go back to get her, take a deep breath and don't show any fear. Kids can smell fear, it's like they are attuned to it, you walk in there being afraid that you aren't going to be able to do the fatherly thing and Alex will know it." Tommy gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Welcome to fatherhood."
Joe watched as he moved back to the boxes he was looking in. They only needed two more pieces to the fourteen page document now. He looked at his watch, they had been here for an hour. Tommy and Paco had found more of the birth record than he had. Joe reached up and ran his hands through his hair again thinking on what Tommy had said.
No fear! Yeah right, I'm afraid I'm gonna mess up and screw this all up. I'm in way over my head. I'm scared shitless right now, my whole world has changed. I'm personally responsible for another's well being.
Joe was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the alarm go off at the same time the sprinklers went off. Joe looked at Tommy and Paco. Joe turned and scooped up the papers to the birth record they had found.
"What the hell is going on?" Paco shouted.
"Not sure." Tommy said.
The three of them moved to the cage door that they had come through. Joe reached to open it and it wouldn't budge. He looked down at the lock and noticed a metal strip had been broken off in it. They had been on the other side of the door and hadn't heard anything. Joe looked over to Tommy.
"Do you smell that?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah I do." Joe said.
The burning smell of paper was starting to come over their way. Joe started looking around. "There has to be a way out of this cage."
Paco took off in one direction and Tommy in the other. Joe put the birth record in his shirt so he could have both hands. He looked at the lock on the cage door, he put his hand through the bars and tried to reach the bit of metal that was sticking out. God! I know I haven't been in church for awhile. I know I haven't always been the good catholic like I'm supposed to be. I need you to help me find a way out of here, it's not fair to Alex, she needs me, and I need her. I promise I'll go to church, just help me get out of here so I can get to my daughter.
POV Change
Blade watched from his vantage point across the street and on top of the roof as the flames started licking the records storage facility. His grin was spreading even more, he hadn't seen the three men come out. He had considered it a stroke of luck that he had gotten inside without them aware of him doing so. Blade didn't like the fact that he had been spotted in the Acura. He would have to leave the car, he couldn't go back to it. The police had come and the car had been towed away, that was a loss he was willing to accept. In chess you had to sacrifice pieces in order to gain the ultimate prize. So what if he was down a vehicle, he had Morelli trapped like a cornered rat. He closed his eyes as the adrenaline coursed through his veins. A great satisfaction settled over him, it wouldn't be long and he'd have Medea. He was going to find great satisfaction as he ripped her heart out of her chest.
The sirens wailed in the distance. Blade could tell by the rage of the fire that they wouldn't be able to control it. The whole place would be engulfed and they would just have to let it burn, let the mistake burn with it as well. He tried to figure out how they even found out about the other child. Blade couldn't see how he had failed at hiding who Alex really was. Now they will never know!