city. Drive to my wife’s shop and she’ll meet you and take you to her mother’s place until we get shit sorted. You remember where Bianca’s shop is?”
I nodded and thanked him profusely and got into the jeep and drove out like a bat outta hell.
It’d been a while since I’d driven and I can’t say I was all that great at it but I got out of there, quickly. I drove the opposite way that we usually came in, figuring I’d figure the rest out later and also figuring if the other guy wasn’t far, he’d come from the other way.
Ten minutes later I was kind of lost but I was pretty sure I hadn’t been followed. Fifteen minutes after that, the flip phone was ringing and it was Dario.
“Dario!” I answered.
“Tia! What’s your status?”
I spoke fast, “I got Nino to the safe house because these two guys were there with guns and Nino got one, I don’t know where the other is, he left before Nino got here and I got into Tommy’s jeep and I’m maybe about 30 minutes away from Bianca’s salon where Nino said to meet her. There was a tracker on the jeep so whoever put it there knows where the safe house is!”
“Okay, yeah, I just got off the phone with him. Change of plans,” Dario said, “Are you being followed?”
“I don’t think so. I’m on a dirt road alone. Haven’t seen a car for the whole time I’ve been driving. Where’s Tommy?”
“I’ll explain after. Get to 15 Sweet Avenue as fast as you can. Don’t put 15 Sweet into in the GPS in the jeep in case there’s a hack on the GPS. I will give you directions.”
He gave me directions and let me go.
I got a text and it said Tommy,
“Where r u?”
I pulled over and dialed his number. No answer.
I answered back, “Trying to call!?! Urgent!”
“Can’t talk live. Text me where u r.”
“I’m driving to meet Dario. Someone came to the farm!”
“Were ru meeting Dario?”
Something wasn’t right, “Where are you, Tommy? Is everything ok?”
“Im ok. Were r u goign?”
I suddenly had this sinking feeling, remembering the text that came through that was a fake about Luciana’s labor. How did I know whether or not this was Tommy? I wrote,
“I need to talk to you. I need to hear your voice.”
“I cant talk 2 u. Need u 2 tell me were u r so I cna meet u. its urgent.”
My gut told me it wasn’t him.
“What’s OUR favorite ice cream flavor?” I wrote.
“Strawbery. Were r u honey pls”
The answer came after a long time. Strawberry? Honey? All those typos? Not Tommy.
I called Dario back and told him someone was texting me from Tommy’s phone or that Tommy’s phone was cloned and he told me to just hurry to meet him. I ignored the next three texts that came from whoever was pretending to be Tommy.
I pulled up to 15 Sweet Ave and it was a small run-down looking house on a small and quiet street and all the lights were off. I parked the jeep and put the gun into my waistband under my shirt at the back. I knocked on the front door. I saw a figure move behind the curtains on the window adjacent to the door.
Finally the door opened a little and Dario pulled me in by the wrist, “We gotta move!” He walked me through the house, holding my elbow. It was a sparse run down place with no furniture and everything was in rough shape. He went down the stairs to the basement and now I knew it was Dario’s safe house. The basement apartment was totally redone, high tech, every modern convenience. No one appeared to be there but him. I used his washroom and then he grabbed a duffle bag and we went back upstairs, “Stay here!” He said and I waited by the top of the stairs and he headed toward the front of the house. He was gone only about 30 seconds, then he rushed me through the back door and there was an alley with a separate garage. Inside was a black SUV. He ushered me into it. This looked like the same SUV I’d been picked up from my grad in.