Page 27 of Luca

“You’re up early,” I say, walking to the coffeepot to grab myself a cup.

“I need you to take me to the police station.” She leans against the counter and brings her coffee cup to her lips, taking a long sip.

“Turning yourself in?”

She sets the cup on the counter and cocks her head, her eyes narrowing at me as I lean against the counter opposite her. “That’s pretty fucking tasteless considering we just watched my father be arrested last night, Luca. I want to visit him.”

She’s right. It was tasteless, but I have no sympathy for the man sitting in jail. Not when my parents are buried six feet under at his command. Looking at the pictures at my apartment this morning has all the anger I felt when I came to Boston boiling too close to the surface. It’s not Giada’s fault, but I’m finding it difficult to look at her and not see the sins of her father. Fair? No. Honest? Yes.

“I doubt they’ll let him have visitors other than his lawyers yet.”

“I’m going down there, Luca. With or without you.”

I have a feeling this falls under the purview of my keeping Giada out of trouble. She’s liable to march in there and make demands, possibly landing herself in a cell next to her old man for throwing a temper tantrum if she doesn’t get her way.

I let out a frustrated breath and take several healthy swigs of my coffee before setting the cup in the sink. “Fine. Let’s go.”

When we pull up to the station, where we’ve been told by her father’s lawyer he is being held, Giada’s jaw clenches as she looks at the front of the building.

“You alright?”

“Carlo thinks he’s in charge. Did he tell you that? Now that my father is in jail, he thinks he can run my life. Thinks he can make decisions that affect me without caring one way or another how I feel about it. That I don’t need to know anything about what’s going on with my own family.”

“So, what? You’re here to get it from the horse’s mouth? Do you think your father is going to let you go and live however the hell you want just because he isn’t around? Giada, you’re smarter than that.”

A humorless huff of laughter escapes her lips. “Not according to Carlo.” She releases a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. I just want someone to tell me what the hell is happening.”

Giada is desperate for answers, but if she thinks she’s going to find any here, she’s dead wrong. Francesco Cataldi has never felt the need to explain anything to anyone, certainly not his daughter.

“Okay, let’s go,” I say and exit the car before rounding the hood and opening her door for her.

Giada walks into the police station and to the front desk with her head held high. “I’m here to see Francesco Cataldi,” she tells the male officer manning the front window.

He looks her up and down, a bored expression covering his face. “And you are?”

“His daughter.”

He looks something up on his computer. “No visitors allowed,” he tells her.

“May I speak to your superior please?”

The annoyed officer tilts his head to the side and gives her a hard look. “He ain’t gonna tell you anything different. No visitors,” he reiterates more firmly than the first time he denied her.

Giada lays her hands on the counter and leans closer to the glass partition separating her and the officer. “Excuse me, Officer White, but until your supervisor comes out and tells me I’m being denied access to my father, I’ll be waiting right over there.” She points a slim finger at the chairs in the lobby. ”And I won’t move from there until I get an answer.”

The bored officer rolls his eyes then looks back at his computer. “Suit yourself. Have fun wasting your time.” He doesn’t look at her again for a few moments and she rightfully takes it as the dismissal it’s intended to be.

Giada walks to the plastic chair and sits, crossing her legs with her hands folded on her lap, sitting tall as though she wasn’t just told to get the hell out.

I have a seat next to her, but she doesn’t acknowledge me, instead staring at the wall opposite us.

“Do you really want to sit here all day? I don’t think he’s going to budge.” I realize trying to reason with the woman is futile, but the last thing I want to do is be stuck in a fucking police station all day.

“If you have other plans, then by all means, don’t let me stop you.”

“You’re a real peach this morning,” I mumble, leaning back in the chair.

“Excuse the hell out of me, Luca. I’m so sorry if my attitude isn’t to your liking after my father was arrested, and I’m being told my life is now in the hands of my asshole brother.”

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