Page 2 of Bulletproof Baby
It’s not lost on me either that my mother’s carrying a duffle bag at her side. My duffle bag. A duffle bag that my cousin, Frankie, bought when I told him I'd be his gym partner. That was over three years ago. Frankie goes to the gym and I don't. I never have to be honest. But my parents sitting in front of me are up to something more than trying to get me to tone up. The shiftiness of my mother's gaze has my body tingling with anticipation. I don't like the anxiety creeping into my gut.
“Whatever it is, the answer is no,” I tell them with a quirk of a smile, trying to lighten the mood. The seriousness in my father’s face reads louder than those jackhammers hammering at six in the morning.
“Saul called me.” Milo Bonetti is a man’s man in every sense of the word, but he has a weakness. The women in his life make him do things he wouldn’t normally do. It’s the reason we’re in this mess to begin with. The secrets between him and my mother are enough to keep the likes of Saul Caputo in our petty cash payouts.
I shake my head, ready to deny anything that scoundrel had to say about the way I treated him. “I gave him the envelope. What else did you want me to do? Fuck him on the desk?”
“Watch your mouth talking to your father like that,” my mother, Edith, says with disappointment.
“Lia, honey, there’s a way we can get out from under Caputo.” Dad’s voice is low because I assume the answer is something that involves me.
There are five people who know why Saul Caputo comes into the trailer at the construction site of Saint Bartholomew’s Community Center every Friday. One is dead, one is Saul, and the other three are in this trailer looking at each other at the end of a workday.
I can feel the anticipation, the weight of what they’re about to ask of me. I tell them. “I’ll be a stripper in a Bronx basement before I do anything to pay off a debt to Saul Caputo.”
“Lia.” My father’s sigh is heavy enough to sink a ship. “You’re beautiful. A lot of guys would give their dying breath to be with you, and that’s what I’m counting on.”
“What?” Confusion ripples through me.
“There’s an event tonight, baby.” My mother picks up where Dad left off. “Think of it like charity. Mr. Caputo told us about it. It could net us a hefty sum to pay him off.”
“You’re both here, so spit it out. What do you need me to do?” I ask impatiently.
“It’s at the Belvedere Plaza,” Dad says with hope, as if the extravagant venue makes their impending request palatable.
“Okay, and?” My eyebrow raises for them to say the words out loud.
Ma speaks softly. “It’s an auction, Lia. Saul says that if you take part, he can bid on you. The winner of the auction gets to spend the weekend with you. The money collected from your bid would put a significant dent in our debt. Saul would give us the video footage he has and we wouldn’t have to pay him every week. We can operate freely again.”
“And all I have to do is give up my time.”
And my virginity.
The words play silently in my mind because I have a feeling that’s why Saul’s so into me. New York City is a haven for the beautiful and downtrodden. The don of the Caputo family can have his pick of beautiful, voluptuous women who actually want to be with him, but he wants me, a 22-year-old virgin with thunder thighs.
Dad runs his hand through his balding gray hair. “There are going to be some people at this thing worth a ton of money. There’s no doubt that any of them can outbid Saul, but you have to be there.”
“You’re betting a lot on the idea of someone willing to stand up to Saul Caputo. Isn’t this the same guy who killed someone while in police custody and got away with it? He’s untouchable. You think someone’s going to outbid him?”
Dad waves his hands to get me to stop. “Those are just rumors. We all know the price of rumors, Lia. The other people at this thing tonight will see the value you bring and outbid him.”
“Right. Swap one asshole out for another.” I shake my head.
Mom huffs out a breath. “Listen. Someone else will outbid Saul for you. If they try anything you don’t like, we can hit ’em with a lawsuit, criminal charges, you name it. Just know for anyone you do like, there’s screening and testing for everyone on file.”
“Great, so at least the person swapping spit with me will be clean…if I fucking survive,” I reply with disgust.
Mom pleads with me. “I would take your place if I could, Lia. The auction is for virgins. We need this money to get Saul off our backs. If you don’t do this, Lia, Saul’s going to take the business and your father’s going to prison. It’s a few days.”
“A few days and a piece of myself I’ll never get back. I can’t believe you two are asking me to do this.” My stomach churns from the idea of Saul being anywhere near me, let alone stuck with him for longer than a few minutes.
A far more chilling thought is my father fighting for his life in the penitentiary, while Ma would be out here trying to salvage the family business. She slides the duffel bag by her foot closer to the desk. That’s the answer to every question I have.
Our family will never get out from Saul Caputo and if my time, my virginity, is the price to pay, then so what? I do what any dutiful daughter does. Daughters throughout the centuries have done far more for much less. I do what I’ve always done. I sacrifice the vision of my future for the sake of my family and throw in my virginity for the fuck of it.
Inside the duffle bag is a pair of my favorite designer stiletto heels with a formfitting gown I buried deep in my closet. The last time this dress saw the light of day, my father threatened to murder everyone who saw me wearing it. There are a few other items to get me through the weekend, which only tells me I need to change the locks on my apartment. As I sift through it, it also tells me my life is so predictable my mother knows exactly what I need to get through the next few days.
“There’s a car waiting for you, Lia.” Dad’s eyes dart around the trailer, desperate to focus on anything but me.