My Fiancé’s Bodyguard by Ivy Wild

I'd gottena notification the moment that Madelyn had plugged the device in. I was almost tempted to call her, but I told myself I needed to cool it on the whole contacting her bit. As much as I enjoyed hearing her voice, exposing both her and myself to danger just so I could listen to it was foolish beyond belief.

I seriously needed to keep my wits about me. And, they were actively trying to flee the country.

I had a notification set on my phone when the listening device was active. It recorded everything to an encrypted hard drive, but sometimes it was worth tuning in to the live feed if I was just in my apartment.

For the majority of the day, the device had been silent. A few innocuous business calls here and there that seemed legitimate was really all that had gone on. But, this conversation started off completely different.

"Sit down." It was clearly Henry Dimes and he was speaking in a tone that I hadn't yet heard come from him.

"Father, I--"

That was Madelyn's voice. I sat up in my bed and put my feet on the floor instantly as I pressed the headphones closer into my ear.

"I don't want to hear it," Henry replied back. "I want the real reason you were in my office last night. You might have been able to fool Scarlett because she doesn't have a brain cell to her pretty little head, but you're not going to pull one over on me."

There was silence between the pair for a moment before finally, Madelyn spoke.

"I wanted the find my marriage contract with Johnny," she said. "I know the both of you. I'm sure you negotiated something and put it all down in writing, and I want to see it."

I had to hand it to Madelyn. She may have claimed she was nervous, but she'd just come up with an excuse that was believable and accounted for her snooping around her father's office.

There was a bit of noise that sounded like the clattering of a plate. "Don't be ridiculous, Madelyn, there's no marriage contract."

I didn't need to hear her huff to know she’d made one. "If you don't have a contract with Johnny, for whatever it is you think he promised you, for my hand in marriage, then you're dumber than Scarlett."

The plate clattered again. "Watch it young lady."

"I'm not trying to give you problems, father. But, I am saying, if you think Johnny is the sort of man to follow through on things, then you have more trust in people than I do."

"Johnny and I have been working together for years, Madelyn."

Now that was interesting. And useful information.

"He's only just started coming to the house," she replied, clearly trying to use the opportunity to get more information.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that he and I haven't been meeting and doing business since you were young. It's only recently that he accepted the invitation to come here."

I had no doubt that his desire to go to the Dimes Estate was directly correlated with Madelyn's availability in the marriage department and his more recent separation from one of his wives.

"Well, I don't care if you've been in business for years. I still think it's silly not to have something in writing for what he promised you."

"And just what do you think he promised me, Madelyn?"

I could almost picture her throwing up her hands. "I don't know! But I know you, and I know why Scarlett is married to Mark and I know why I'm suddenly engaged to Johnny. It's because it was worthwhile for you."

"You're more astute than I gave you credit for," Henry said in an amused voice.

"Don't flatter yourself, father. You've never given me any credit at all," Madelyn bit back.

"I think we're done here," Henry said.

"If there's a contract drawn up, I want to see it. Don't think that I'll magically be able to persuade him to uphold his end of the bargain when I become his wife, father. You and I both know I'm never going to have that sort of sway over a man like him."

There was a bit of silence before Henry spoke. "You never know, my dear. He seems to have taken a liking to you. Besides, our arrangement is not something that could ever be reduced to writing."

"Why is that?"

"Some things are best left undocumented," her father responded. "Besides, think critically. What would I do if he didn't uphold his end of the bargain? Bring him to court and have a judge look at our business deal? And see that it was all in exchange for," he paused before saying, "you," in a rather dismissive tone. "We'd be hauled off to jail only after being laughed out of the courtroom."

Thatwas incriminating if I had ever heard it.

"Just what the heck did you agree to, father?" Madelyn replied slowly.

"Go to bed, Madelyn. I'll overlook this trespass of yours only because I understand your reasoning. But, if I see you snooping around my office again, I will not be so kind."

I could hear her stand. "Your threats are rather empty, father," she said. "Considering who you've attached me to."

I waited on the line for several more minutes, but other than the sound of pacing and some drawers being pulled out, there was nothing further. I pulled the headphones out of my ears and tried to process what I had just heard. But, after only a few minutes, the red flip phone only one other person had the number to, began to buzz next to me.

"Yeah?" I said as I answered the call.

"I need to talk to you," Madelyn's voice came back in a hushed whisper. She must have figured that I hadn't heard the conversation.

"I heard everything. Now's too dangerous. Tonight," I said to her before hanging up the phone abruptly.

She was right, we did need to talk. In one evening, she'd been able to do what I'd failed to do for five whole years. This girl was truly something else and fuck, if I didn't love it.

A knockat my door had me stuffing the burner phone back inside of the bed and pushing myself onto my feet. I made my way over to the door, hoping it would be the Grim Reaper, come to take me away from this place. But instead, it was something far worse. Scarlett was on the other side of the door and as soon as I opened it a crack, she pushed her way into my room.

"So, what did father want to talk to you about?" she asked in a tone that made it far too obvious she hoped she had gotten me in trouble.

"Oh, nothing much," I said, crossing my arms over my chest as she splayed herself out on my bed. "Just a few things to plan for my wedding." As I watched her childish behavior, there was a large part of me that wondered how on earth she could possibly be sleeping with a man. She just seemed immature beyond all reason.

"Oh, is that all?" she asked, turning over and propping herself up on her elbows.

"What is it you want, Scarlett?" I asked her, closing the door behind me and sitting down at the little writing-table by the bed.

"Can't a younger sister want to connect with her older sister?"

"Ah, yes. In the same way that a daughter was worried about her father, is that right?"

She shook her head and gave me a look. "Don't be mad at me, Mad," she said, purposefully using the old nickname kids had used to tease me growing up. Apparently, I'd always had an attitude. "I was just trying to do what was right."

"Your commitment to your code of ethics astounds me, Scarlett, truly."

She rolled her eyes at me. "I don't know what that's supposed to mean."

My father may have been mean when he said what he said, but he had a point. Scarlett was more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

"If that's all," I said, nodding to the door. "I'm rather tired."

"Of course that's not all," she said back with far too much energy.

"Oh, yippee," I replied in a flat tone.

"So, you have to marry that gross old guy, Johnny Maldonado, huh?" she asked, making a face before wriggling her body in disgust. "I can't imagine letting someone like that touch me."

"Speaking of that, you and Mark seem fairly distant. I guess kids aren't in your future?" I asked her.

She gave me a look full of venom. "He's very busy with work."

I nodded my head slowly. "Oh, yes, I'm sure. Generally speaking, men's interest in having sex diminishes as their schedule gets busier."

"Exactly," she said, falling right into line with my mockery. It was a shame, because I wasn't really sure if it counted as making fun of someone when they didn't realize the joke was on them.

"Doesn't this Johnny guy already have like eight kids?"

"Four," I replied.

"Gross."

"It is what it is, Scarlett," I replied back.

"I'm so glad I don't have to marry someone as bad as him."

"What do you mean, 'bad?'" I asked her, wondering if, by chance, she might have picked up any information from Mark on Johnny. The chances were slim, but they were still worth a little extra effort. I figured another minute with her would only shave off another year of my life on the back end. Might be worth it.

"Oh, I don't know much," she replied, "but what I do know isn't good."

Internally I sighed and reminded myself that I was doing this for the good of Max, his friend and my mother. Then, I shifted my features and climbed on the bed, with my mask firmly in place.

"Oh my gosh, you just have to tell me! Father won't tell me anything and I really want to know," I huffed, matching her tone.

She seemed to respond to my shift in attitude because she perked up. "Well, sometimes Mark makes phone calls at home and I like to listen if I can. I just want to be a part of his life and I think that maybe if I can understand his job better, it will make him happy."

My sister was a lot of things, but as she said those words to me, I realized that she was living a pretty sad existence. It was obvious that Mark had no respect for her, and she might not be the smartest, but she was aware of it. In fact, from what she said, it seemed to bother her.

It was then that I realized that all of her nonsense was just a plea for attention, even if it was at my expense. It was rather sad, really.

I put my hand on hers. "That's really amazing that you do that. I hope he appreciates it."

She shrugged. "I'm not really sure, but I still try. Anyways, I've heard him talk about Johnny a couple of times on the phone."

"Oh yeah?" I asked in an interested voice. "What did he say?"

"Well," she said rolling over and looking up at the ceiling. "I could only ever hear what he was saying on his end of the line. But, there were a few times where I heard him say things like 'Johnny is making my life a living nightmare with his shit,’ and 'Why does Johnny think he can do these things and get away with it? Doesn't he know these sorts of situations leave trails that everyone else has to clean up for him?'"

The words were definitely incriminating, but more than that, it also implicated Mark in the whole scheme. Which made complete sense.

I twisted my lips and looked sad. "So, you don't know what he was doing? I'm really scared, sis," I said, giving her pleading eyes. "At least father married you off to someone like Mark. I don't think he's capable of hurting anyone. Johnny," I hesitated. "He scares me." I didn't really have to act for that last part.

My sister propped herself up and looked at me. "Mark's not as nice as he seems in person," she admitted, and I raised my eyebrows.

"I'm really sorry to hear that, Scarlett. I hope he's not hurting you."

Scarlett plopped back down to look up at the ceiling. "Not really," she said sadly without elaborating.

It was a bit of information that I tucked into the back of my mind. As much as Scarlett and I didn't get along, I think I understood her now. Being able to bring down Mark in all of this might free her from whatever was going on, as well. If anything, it gave me more motivation and courage to do what I was doing.

"Well, there was this one phone call," she started to say and I looked over at her.

"Yeah?"

"It was right after we got married. It was really late at night and I’d woken up in the middle of the night to find him gone. So, I got up to go and look for him."

I stayed quiet and listened to her relay the story.

"I found him in his office but he seemed really upset on the line. I didn't want to disturb him so I just stood there waiting for him to finish."

I tried to think back to when this would have been. Scarlett and Mark had been married for about two years now. The engagement had been announced when Scarlett was still only seventeen, but only to those in the know. As soon as she turned eighteen, they were married with all the hoopla and festivities my father's money could muster. Scarlett had just turned twenty, being two years younger than me.

"I think he was on the phone with Johnny. That's what it seemed like. I didn't know who that was at the time, but I sort of figured it out these last two years because of how much he talks about him on the phone."

It didn't surprise me that Scarlett hadn't known who Johnny was. My father kept her very sheltered, whereas my mother had done everything she could to expose me to the real world and what was going on.

"I don't remember exactly, but he said something like, 'Johnny, the feds are investigating a few of the cases. Asking questions about why I'm not pro-shooting.'"

I stopped her. "Do you mean 'prosecuting?'" I asked her.

She nodded her head. "Oh, yeah that sounds right. Like the lawyer thing, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. What else did he say?"

"He definitely seemed uncomfortable with the answer he got. Something like, 'I trust you to take care of it, but I'm going to be in real trouble if they keep asking questions that I can't answer. You gotta get it to stop or you gotta give me something to say that doesn't blow the whole thing up.'" She paused. He sort of got mad after that, saying something like, "'Johnny, you know I'm on your side in all of this, but we need to play this smart. If one of the other families decides to start working with the Feds to bring you down, we're going to feel that squeeze real fast.'"

I tried to think about what that could mean. The "Other Families?" Was he talking about rival mafia families operating in the New England area? I knew a little bit about Johnny, but it wasn't like there was a Wikipedia page on the New England crime families. Well, there might be, but I was pretty sure that information was all bullshit. Was there some sort of gang war going on that I wasn't aware of? Was Johnny's position not as secure as I thought?

"Was there anything else, sis?"

Scarlett tapped her lip a little bit in thought. "Not really. He just sort of finished up the phone call after that. Told him that he would wait for further instructions and keep him updated every time the Feds started asking questions. I went back to bed at that time, because I wasn't sure I was supposed to hear any of what he was talking about." She propped herself up and looked at me. "You're not going to tell Mark what I told you, will you?"

I met her worried glance. "Of course not! We're sisters. It means the world to me that you shared this with me, Scarlett. It at least gives me a little bit of information about Johnny."

"Why were you really in dad's office, Maddie?" Scarlett asked me, which was surprising. I really had thought she'd bought the charade about the cigarettes.

I hated lying to her but there was no way around it. "I was looking for the marriage contract. I wanted to know what was agreed on for my hand between father and Johnny."

Scarlett's eyes widened. "Do you think father had a contract with Mark for me?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Father said there was no such contract. But I don't know if I believe him."

"I do," Scarlett said, laying back down.

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"'Cause Mark never puts things about father or Johnny in writing. He's always on the phone with them, but I've never seen him so much as write their name down in his journal. He keeps everything he does during the day in his journal. Everyone he talks to. Every call he makes."

My eyes widened at that. "Mark has a journal?"

Scarlett nodded. "Yeah."