Organized Crime: Unorganized

Chapter 11

The team sat around the conference table after a long night at work.
"I know it's been a long night, and everyone wants to get home but, we need to debrief. Grace found someone who will be our spy. Kate will work her way through collecting any information that she can" James told them.
"At the moment she's invisible, just another working girl in the crowd meaning that she's in the perfect position to listen" Grace told them.
"What do we do now?" Lorenzo asked.
"We wait" James told them "We go back over all of the crime scenes, and we reinterview everyone we apprehended looking for everything we can find, no matter how useless it seems" James told them "But, for now, let's go home and get some sleep" James ordered, sending everyone out of the room except for Grace.
"Coming to ask for another kiss?" Grace joked.
"No, no I'm not" James smiled at her joke "I was actually coming to apologize again for what happened in the car"
"I'm the one that grabbed you and forced myself onto you. You have nothing to apologize for, I should be apologizing to you for putting you in an awkward situation"
"How about we both concede and just buy each other a drink instead" he suggested.
"That sounds great" Grace sighed contentedly "Name the place"
"How about mine? We can order pizza or takeout and I've got some pretty good booze" he suggested.
"That sounds perfect" Grace smiled.

James handed Grace a glass of Irish whiskey before he sat on the couch next to her.
"You and your wife seem happy there" Grace pointed towards the pictures on the mantle before she took a swig of her drink.
"She was amazing, always laughing, always full of so much joy. She was an amazing woman and I loved her" James told her before he took a swig of his own drink.
"Loved. Loved is past tense" Grace commented.
"She's dead. I'll always love her, but she's gone, and she's been gone a while now. Love doesn't just stop but the pain dulls over time"
"You think you're ready to move on? That can be a big step especially is you're not completely ready to take it" Grace reminded him.
"It's going to be tough, I know that, finding love after losing the love of your life is going to be hard but, I like to believe that there's someone out there who will fix me and make me whole again" he said hopefully.
"In my experience it's better to rely on yourself rather than others" Grace said before she downed the rest of her drink.
"In my experience, it's better to go through life and bear your soul even if you get hurt because getting to know someone, getting to love them, it's always worth it" James encouraged with a smile before he downed the remainder of his drink "Another?"
"Another" Grace agreed with a smile.

Lorenzo walked up the steps of his mother's home, knowing that she and his grandmother were waiting for him inside with excited anticipation.
"Hola abuela" Lorenzo smiled at his ever-aging grandmother.
"Hola mi hijo" his grandmother smiled brightly at him from her rocking chair.
"Hey baby" His mother smiled as she crossed the room to hug him tightly.
"How is she today?" Lorenzo asked, motioning towards his grandmother.
"She's slipping. She's bad today, she doesn't recognise me" His mother admitted sadly. As long as he could remember Lorenzo had been raised by his mother and grandmother, they were the only family that he knew, and he didn't want to lose either of them.
"Hola hermosa, como estas hoy?" Lorenzo asked his grandmother with a wide toothy smirk.
"No soy tan bueno. ¿Quién eres? ¿Dónde estoy?" she replied, her face falling as she lost her place in the world for the 25th time that day.
"Soy tu nieto y tu hogar" Lorenzo assured her with another smile, taking her hand in his seemingly calming her for now until eventually, certainly, she would lose her place once again and be in an unfamiliar house, surrounded by unfamiliar people who only seemed to have love for her, love that she should but couldn't seem to remember.

Lilly sat next to Sadie and Oliver in her apartment as they made colourful bracelets of varying lengths and complex designs.
"What do you think about Grace?" Sadie asked.
"She seems nice" Oliver told her.
"I think she has secrets but she's good at her job, why?" Lilly asked as she threaded another bead onto the necklace she was making.
"I like her, but I want to know what she's hiding" Sadie admitted as she threaded a black bead onto the bracelet that she was making.
"You want to look into her?" Oliver asked, seeing a bright and mischievous grin appear through her black lipstick. Sadie moved to grab her laptop out of her bag before she opened it on the table and got to work.
"Grace Cameron, born June 23rd, age 30, Mother Rosaline Cameron-"
"Her mother's a diplomat" Lilly commented cutting off Sadie's reading out loud.
"How do you know that?" Sadie asked earning a glare "Right, of course. Sometimes I forget that you're a genius" Sadie shrugged lightly before she turned back to her reading "BA in criminal justice, sociology degree from Yale, trained sniper, identifying marks: two, awarded the medal of honour, medal of valour, FBI shield of bravery, FBI medal for meritorious achievement" Sadie read out.
"What did she do to get those?" Oliver wondered out loud.
"It doesn't say. It just says that she worked as a profiler on a desk job studying criminals and their behavior" Sadie told her.
"Maybe we should just ask her" Lilly suggested.
"We can't just ask her; she'll think that were invading her life" Sadie told her, very matter of factly.
"We are, aren't we, by looking her up?" Lilly suggested.
"Yes, but this way she won't know that we are" Sadie told her, very matter of factly.
"I'll never understand people" Lilly sighed deeply before she went back to making her necklace.
"This is why I prefer working with the dead" Oliver sighed before he went back to making his bracelet.

Marco moved around the kitchen as Diane sat at the kitchen island sipping on the wine that he had poured for her.
"So, what do you think about the newbie?" Diane asked.
"She seems confident, I think she's going to be good for the team, maybe good for James too" Marco told her with raised eyebrows as he turned to face her with two plates of pasta in hand.
"Losing your soulmate can be hard. It's been a year since James lost Molly and he still hasn't gotten over it. It took me 10 years and I'm still not over it" Diane reminded him as he moved to sit next to her at the island.
"Yes, but you had me to help you through it" he smiled at her before he clinked their glasses together.
"I am thankful every day for your friendship Marco but having someone to wake up next to, having someone to cook for you-"
"What's wrong with my cooking?"
"Nothing but, having your partner cook for you is... different, romantic. Everyone needs some romance in their life. And not just those one-night and done girls you have all the time" she teased.
"I don't do that all the time" he whined slightly earning a look from her "Not anymore. Anyway, I'm looking for my soulmate, I just haven't found her yet" he shrugged eating a forkful of pasta.
"By trying every girl there is" Diane teased.
"They're women. Belle donne" he smirked mischievously.
"How about this, if you go celibate, I'll go on a date" she suggested.
"Deal" he smiled picking up his glass, waiting for her to do the same before they clicked them together.

Grace got home around midday, as soon as she entered her home Max ran to meet her excitedly.
"Hi big boy, did you miss me? Did you miss me?" Grace put on a baby voice as she stroked his fur and scratched his itches. She hung up her coat in the hall closet before she moved towards the kitchen spotting the tile on the counter that was usually attached to the wall.
"Max, what have I told you about knocking it open. These letters need to be hidden" she scolded the animal, earning a slight whine from him before he moved to lie on his dog bed. Grace took the box out of the hidden space she had made behind the tile when she had moved in just a few days ago.
"Do you want to read them?" She asked the dog who lifted his head quickly in excitement. Max followed after Grace as she headed into the living room, sitting on the couch as he joined her quickly. She thumbed through the neat packages of paper before she chose one and unfolded it.
"Dear Connor, I know that your still so young and I doubt that you remember me but I'm your mommy. I remember one night when we were in Italy there was a storm, it was so strong that it shook the windows in their frames. You snuck out of your bed and climbed into mine, your cold feet pressed against my legs as I held you in my arms until you fell back to sleep. Your big brother was scared too but he pretended that he was brave and that he wanted to protect the two of us but, I knew he was scared. I held you both in my arms until we all had fell asleep. By the morning when the storm had long passed, your father loved how close we had become in such a short time, I thought the storm was a sign. The three of us would make it through unscathed as long as we had each other. But it also showed that your father would survive it too and that scared me" Grace read out loud before she picked up a different letter.
"Dear Liam, my big boy, my love. I'm so thankful for you. I didn't know that the police were coming that day and I wish to God that I had so at least I could've had a chance to fight for you both. My heart aches, being in Rome now, most likely thousands of miles away from you, away from Connor. I hope that the two of you are together and safe and relying on each other. One day when this is all over and done with, I will come for you. You will always be my son, we may not be blood, but you are better than blood. You are my son. My sons. I promise to come for you one day and we will be together again, far away from your father where it can be just the three of us" she read out loud before she reached blindly for another random letter from the large stack.
"Dear Cor-" Grace cut herself off at the same time Max whimpered from hearing his name "I know buddy. No one will ever know about us, about him, about the boys. I don't think I'll see any of them again and that's the worst part of it" Grace admitted, scratching the top of his head before she folded each letter back into their envelopes and placed them back into its box.
"We hide these, Max and we never open them again. That life is long gone. That person is long gone. We never open them again" Grace told him before she headed back into the kitchen with the box. She pushed it back into the hidden space before she moved the tile to cover it, as if she had never even moved it in the first place.
Four souls, intertwined, never meant to meet, once on a joint path now separated by time and land.