Britten

CHAPTER 9

Manny drove off before he even tried to call Holly. He told Holly about what he had seen and heard from Constantine and what he had done about talking with Giovanni. Holly was glad to hear that Manny was able to get on the inside. It wasn't where he needed to be but if he could get Giovanni to trust him, maybe he would trust him with other things. Firearms things.

Now Holly needed to talk to Orion. He needed to get Orion to get her to trust him enough that when they tried to get her out she would go with him. If Orion didn't work then he would move on to Alex, Scott and James.

Manny took off to where Orion was staying to brief him on Britten. He had time to kill until he had to be at Giovanni's. He had an idea on how to get Orion on the safe side of Giovanni.

Orion was getting off the phone with Holly when Manny entered his apartment. "Yes sir," he said and hung up. He shoved his phone in his pocket and looked at Manny. "So, what do we do? Holly said I need to get her to trust me, no matter how close I had to get."

"Giovanni isn't going to let you near her. The way she looks and after what happened to Diego, he'll probably try and fire you on Monday, at least that's what I would do if I was that crazy." Orion was confused, what had happened to her and Diego?

"I'm lost, what happened?" Manny rubbed the back of his neck. "She's all bruised up, I mean bad. I texted Constantine when she said someone had died because of her. I found out it was Diego. She had been. . .having sex with him without Giovanni knowing. I guess he found out." Orion took a deep breath and they both sat on the couch. "So, what do I do?"

"I have a plan but you're not going to like it." Orion gave him a raised eyebrow. "You're going to have to play gay for him. I believe that will keep you from being fired and be able to be around Britten. You're going to have to make it look good though."

Orion gave him a disgusted look. "I know, I know, get over it." Orion sighed. "So, who and how?" Manny smiled, and Orion gave him an evil look. "We'll get Ronin involved."

"Sure, bring the real gay guy in on this."

"Why are you being so right wing about all of this?"

"Gay people don't bother me. I just don't want to be kissing on a man." Manny rolled his eyes. "I know you're not used to undercover but you're going to have to do this or we lose contact with her. We need her to feel safe with one of us."

"Why me?"

Manny smiled again. "Dude, I know you like her. Why not you?" Orion looked down at the floor. "That obvious?" Manny nudged him. "Hey, I understand, she's beautiful." Orion picked his head up and looked at him. "It's more than that. She's a good person. Did you know she is a philanthropist?"

Manny nodded. "We observed her feeding the homeless and donating clothes to a battered women and children's center."

"How can someone so beautiful inside and out be caught up in all of this?"

"She doesn't have the greatest track record Orion and you know this. I do believe though that her being with Giovanni makes her see things differently now. She seems on the straight and narrow for the most part. I mean, yeah she is around all kinds of illegal shit, but if you pay attention, she's not involved in it."

"So, you don't think she's going to be curious about how I came up with this idea?"

"You said she's already seen Giovanni threaten you if you touched her. If she asks just tell her it was the first thing you came up with to keep safe, that you didn't want to get either of them in trouble or hurt."

Orion gave a nod. "Let's go find Ronin so we can set things up, pictures, all that good stuff."

"You know, she's going to ask how I got a friend to do this especially when I said I didn't really know anyone." Manny got up and nudged him. "Come on, we'll think of something."

They went to go find Ronin and luckily he was okay with the setup, although it did take a little coaxing. They went around to different places and took pictures with Orion's phone. Most of them were normal pictures of them together or hugging on each other but there was one of them kissing.

They needed convincing, very convincing. He shared some of them with Ronin in case he had to meet Giovanni. Ronin came up with the idea to tell Britten that his best friend from Ohio came to spend some time with him and that they came up with the idea. Manny said that would work then left for downtown.

It was ten to four when he arrived at the apartment building. He took a couple deep breaths then got out of his car. He went in and took the elevator up to the penthouse floor. There were two penthouse rooms. He went to their door and knocked.

He stood there for two minutes before he knocked again. Britten eventually opened the door while rubbing her arm. Manny tried not to give her a worried look because he didn't want Giovanni to see. She opened the door the rest of the way and let him in.

He entered the apartment and saw Giovanni sitting on the couch with his arms on the back and his legs crossed. Britten closed the door behind him and he looked at her. She nodded towards Giovanni, so he looked back at Giovanni and went over to him.

"So, are you sure you want to do this?" Manny gave a nod. "I can't see an all American hero like yourself wanting to do this." Manny licked his lips. "Sometimes we have to do what we have to do to pay some debts."

Giovanni got up and went over to a bookcase. "How much are you wanting to make?"

"I'm needing twenty grand by the end of the month."

"That's a lot to push in a short amount of time."

"It's not a problem." Giovanni smiled then pushed on the bookcase. He heard a click before he saw Giovanni pull the case away from the wall. It was a hidden room. He entered the room and Britten quickly went over to the room with a paper bag.

He was finally able to give her a worried look since Giovanni was not in sight. He thought how could someone be so obsessed about an image then destroy that image? Britten came out of the room with tears in her eyes.

She went over to the floor length window and looked out it. Manny wanted to go to her and hug her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. He wanted to let her know that they were trying to get her to a safe place and take down the Valentinos' so she would never have to worry about them ever again. He wanted to take the pain and sorrow out of her eyes.

Manny looked back at the bookcase right before Giovanni came out with the paper bag. He closed the case then went over to Manny. "Sixty dollars a bag, three hundred bags. How much money should you be bringing me tomorrow?"

"Eighteen thousand."

"See you tomorrow."

Manny gave a nod and headed for the door. "Oh, Javier, one more thing." Manny turned and looked at him. "You try and run or don't bring back the right amount, expect to see your death." Manny gave a nod and went for the door again.

Manny opened the door as Giovanni started yelling at Britten in Italian. He was yelling at her for not making a reservation for them to go eat. Manny gritted his teeth as he left and pulled the door closed. He was so ready to kill the bastard.

Manny took off and drove around for a while to make sure no one was following him then went to go see Holly. Holly looked in the bag then dumped all of it on the table. "That is a lot of fucking cocaine."

"That's just for today. I assume he is going to make me go back each day to get more. I told him I needed twenty grand by the end of the month."

"How much do you have to take back to him tomorrow?" Manny yawned. He hadn't slept in two days. "Eighteen grand."

"Go sleep. I'll have the money for you by the time you wake up." Holly nudged him towards one of the bedrooms and Manny gladly went.