The Kingpin

•15•

Amelia

  Amelia wakes up to the fan whirring overhead. She buries herself deeper into the covers as a result and tries to ignore the pounding in her head.

She rolls over expecting to find Rafael sleeping soundly on his back, hands resting over his stomach but instead, his side of the bed is empty. The covers had been tucked neatly back into their place as if he'd never been there.

But he had been there; that was the thing. They had fallen asleep together with their legs tangled underneath an unnecessarily expensive blanket.

Shoving the blanket down with a few mumbled curses, she swings her legs over the side of the bed to stand. She snatches his discarded shirt from the chair in the corner and buttons it as she walks downstairs.

  Hushed voices float up the stairwell and cause Amelia to freeze in place. She feels like she's intruding somehow and her heart third against her chest as a tell-tale.

  "I don't give a fuck! I expected my shipment two days ago and it hasn't arrived yet."

  "I know, sir but-"

  "I can't sell guns I don't have, Emmi. Fix it."

  Silence falls between the two men for a moment before Emmi speaks again. "Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"

"Talk to Gio today. He was supposed to have gotten the cook to make another batch to send our way. Pre-packaged and labeled."

"Got it. I'll get it taken care of."

"All of it, Emmanuel. All of it."

Amelia turns around and begins to head back upstairs as quietly as possible. She knows she's caught when he takes the steps two at a time to wrap his arms around her from behind.

He is a stair below her but tall enough for his breath to fan against her ear as he speaks. "Goodmorning, baby. Did you need something?"

Unable to gauge his emotions, especially when turned away from him, she panics. "No, I uh, was going to come down but heard you talking to Emmi and-"

  He turns her around with his hands on her hips and says, "You aren't stuck upstairs. You can come down regardless of who I'm speaking to."

"Yeah, okay. That sounds cool." She tried to make her words sound convincing but knew he wasn't going to believe her.

Rafael easily moved a hand to her wrist and pulled for her to come down with him.

"C'mon. He happened to bring some breakfast food with him when he showed up and you should eat something."

She obliged and allowed him to lead her into the kitchen. She sat on a barstool positioned by the island and watched as he moved about to plate the food for her.

"Danielle should be bringing Kalani back again soon since it's been a few days. That okay?"

"It's fine." She shrugs before taking the plate of stacked pancakes from him. The thought of even trying to finish them all made her nauseous and he seemed to notice.

"I just gave you what was there. Only eat what you want, kid."

  She quietly ate little by little as he flipped through a notebook. A question had been gnawing at her since she overheard his conversation with Emmi.

  Finally, she couldn't think about it any longer and just had to ask.

  "You sell guns?"