Young Love in Old Chicago

  Chapter Eleven

  A couple of hours later, Mason and I walked through the dark streets toward my house. One of his hands held mine and the other was jammed into his pocket. Every time I looked over at him, I found him watching me, the smile that was already there becoming wider when our eyes met. Even as we passed under the shadows, his eyes seemed to reflect the silvery moonlight. My gloves were tucked away inside my purse, so I was able to keep running my thumb against my ring, reminding myself that it was there. It was far too late for me to just be getting home, but since my parents thought I was at Emmaline’s for the night, I wasn’t worried about it.

  It was at the corner of Emmaline’s street and mine that I noticed the black and white car parked in front of my house, and Hayden’s father’s car parked in front of it, a little further up the street. “You have to leave now, Mason,” I said, trying to hide the panic I felt.

  “What?”

  “The police are at my house with Hayden.” Mason looked down the street at my house as I stared past him and shook my head. “I can’t believe he would do this, going to my father with the police.” I looked back at Mason, knowing he was the one who was really in trouble. “You have to leave.”

  “I can’t leave you to deal with this alone.”

  “The police won’t be there for me. I can’t let you go to jail.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong. Why would I go to jail?”

  “They’re there for some reason. Maybe Hayden reported you as a mobster or said you attacked him or made something up. Either way, I can’t let you walk into my house and take that risk. I need you to be free.”

  “No. I won’t—”

  I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him, more passionately than before. I felt his fingers press against my back as he pulled me closer, nearly lifting me off the ground. He didn’t loosen his grasp when I pulled my mouth away from his. “You have to go, Mason,” I said. Nothing was more important to me than making sure he was safe.

  “No. I should have been there Tuesday night to protect you. I’m not leaving you this time.” His words were so sweet. I couldn’t say how much it meant to me to know he was willing to risk going to jail to try and protect me.

  “I’ll come see you tomorrow if I’m not locked up in my room.”

  “Alexandra, no.”

  “Please, Mason, please go.” Who knew how long it would be until someone in my house walked outside and saw us there together.

  He stared at me for a long time, and then finally let go as he leaned down to kiss me, slowly and gently. Even though our lips were the only thing that met, I felt myself quiver with pleasure. His fingertips brushed over my sides, beginning at the top and moving down very carefully. Then he turned away and walked quickly into the shadows of the trees.

  Turning back toward my house, I took my gloves out of my purse and pulled them on. Aside from Mason being jailed, the only thing that could’ve made the night worse was having my ring stripped away from me.

  Taking a deep breath and doing my best to slow my racing heart, I took the first step that would take me home to whatever terrible fate awaited me, wondering just how much Hayden had told them. Even after what he said at the dance, it never even occurred to me that he might go to my father like this, especially not with the police.

  The night felt so much colder without Mason beside me.

  I stopped on my porch to take a deep breath…in, out…then I opened the front door and went to the living room. My mother sat beside my father and Katy on one couch, crying quietly into her handkerchief, while Hayden and a thick, graying police officer sat on the other. Hayden held my cold stare as my eyes locked on him. He had one black eye, but his nose looked fine.

  “Alexandra, I presume,” the policeman said as he stood up to shake my hand.

  “Yes sir.” My voice was nearly inaudible.

  “I’m Officer Cox. Is Mr. Mason Algoth here with you?”

  “What do you want with Mason?” it took all my courage to ask.

  “He assaulted this young man here, who would like to press charges. So I’m afraid I have to place Mr. Algoth under arrest.”

  Even though I knew it was coming, it felt like someone had poured boiling water into my chest, which slowly spread to my arms and face as I glared at Hayden.

  “He’s not here, and Mason didn’t attack Hayden. He was only defending me against him.”

  “What do you mean?” my mother asked.

  “Hayden was trying to force me to go with him. He grabbed my arm and tried to drag me to his car.”

  “So I could take you home,” Hayden said. “Mason could be dangerous. I was trying to protect you.”

  “No—you—weren’t!” My own fierce voice surprised me. “You’re just jealous because I chose to love him instead of you.”

  “Alexandra!” my father roared.

  Hayden looked like someone had just struck him. He closed his eyes and leaned over slightly.

  “It still sounds to me like an assault. He did issue the first hit,” Officer Cox said.

  “The only hit, actually,” Hayden added, recovering from what my words had done to him.

  “Only because you missed when you tried to kick him.”

  “What’s gotten into you, Alexandra, speaking this way?” my mother asked.

  “This isn’t right, Mother. Mason is a good man, and I love him, and—”

  “That’s enough,” my father said, rising to his feet. “You will tell Officer Cox where he can find Mason, and then go to your room. And if I ever hear of you seeing that boy again, it’ll be straight off to your grandparent’s house in Missouri with you.”

  “What?” my mother and Hayden asked at the same time. I could only stare, openmouthed. “Don’t send our little girl away, Ted,” my mother pleaded.

  “She’s not a little girl anymore, Lillian. She’s a defiant young woman, seeing a mobster behind our backs.”

  “He’s not in the mob!” I said.

  “You will hold your tongue.”

  “Just try and calm down,” Officer Cox said to me. “Now, tell me where I can find Mr. Algoth.”

  “But he hasn’t done anything wrong. If he hadn’t been there, Hayden would have dragged me all the way to his car and forced me into it.”

  “You mean to say Mr. West here would have kidnapped you.”

  “If that’s what you want to call it.”

  “How can you say that?” Hayden asked me.

  “Look at what you’ve done. Mason lost his job and now everyone thinks he’s part of the mob, so now everyone thinks I’m seeing one of them. And you’re at my house with a police officer. Emmaline’s not speaking to me and I’ll probably be shipped off to Missouri. You ruined my life.” I felt hot tears stinging my eyes.

  “I…I…”

  “Let’s stay on track here,” Officer Cox said. “Mr. West wants to press charges against Mr. Algoth. I’ll go down to the dancehall and talk to anyone who might’ve seen something and I’ll take down their account of what happened. But right now, I’d really like to speak with Mr. Algoth, so if you could just tell me where I might find him…”

  It didn’t matter what he said. I knew Mason would be treated unfairly because of who his father was. Even the accounts given by any witnesses would be given unfairly. “I don’t know where he is.”

  “You tell Officer Cox where Mason lives right now,” my father said, taking a step closer to me.

  I was extremely grateful that I had always been careful not to mention going to Mason’s house. It made the split second decision I had to make a lot easier. “I don’t know where he lives.”

  “Don’t you dare lie to me, young lady. You will tell us where he lives right now.”

  “I visit him at work or he comes to see me after school. I’ve never been to his house.”

  “You—”

  “That’s all right now, Mr. Roomer,” the police officer said. “Just as long as your daughter here understands that withholding
information from the law is a punishable crime.” He looked at me questioningly.

  I felt my body become tense as I nodded. Nothing he said could get me to tell him anything. I gave one of Mason’s secrets away already and I was not going to make that mistake again.

  “I think Mr. Algoth’s workplace might be a good place to go looking for him. I’ll drop by tomorrow.”

  “He doesn’t work there anymore, remember?” Hayden said.

  “Yes, but his boss will probably know where he lives. Where is it that he worked?” Officer Cox asked me.

  “Swatches Auto Repair.” I knew Benny wouldn’t have any idea where Mason lived.

  “Now you go to your room, and your mother will bring you breakfast in the morning,” my father said to me.

  “Fine.” I didn’t care. Being all alone in my room was all I really wanted right then, anyway.

  “May I have a word with her before I go?” I heard Hayden ask my father as I climbed the stairs.

  “Yes, of course, Hayden.”

  I didn’t wait for him. Instead, I hurried to my room and shut the door behind me before I pulled off my gloves and traced the perfectly cut, rectangular diamond on my ring with my finger.

  Just as I sat down on the floor against the door, a knock came from right behind me. “Alexandra?” Hayden called out. I ignored him. What he did to Mason, and to me, was unforgivable. “Alexandra, I know you’re angry, but would you please open the door?”

  “Go away, Hayden.”

  “Look, I’m…I’m sorry.”

  His apology surprised me enough that I stood up and opened the door a crack. “I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. What you did to me may be terrible, but what you did to Mason is even worse. If word that he’s in the mob spreads all over the city, no one’s going to hire him and he’ll, he’ll…” He’ll have to leave town and start all over again.

  My eyes began to water. I couldn’t stand the thought of him leaving, but he couldn’t just stay in Chicago until he was living on the streets and starving to death. “But that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” I glared at Hayden, hating him for what he’d done.

  “That’s not what I wanted. I just saw you kissing Mason and lost all reason. Love makes you do crazy things…It could never work out between you two, anyway. It’s better that it ends now. Say what you want, but his father’s in the mob. I know it and you do too, deep down.”

  “So what if he is? What’s that got to do with Mason? I love him, and if you love me the way you say you do, then you should understand why I need to be with him and how serious what you’ve done is. Besides that, when my father sends me to Missouri—”

  “I won’t let that happen. And he said he would send you only if he ever caught you with Mason again. That’s not going to happen now that the police will be looking for him. You won’t see him again, will you?”

  I refused to agree or disagree. He just didn’t deserve my response.

  Hayden pushed his way through the door and put one hand on my back as he pulled me close to him. “If you were sent to Missouri, I would still come see you. I would stay all summer so we could have the same fun we did during summers of old. Mason couldn’t do that, because you have no history with him and no future either. What do I have to do to open your eyes?”

  He might have been my lifelong best friend, a vital part of my past and of myself even, but Mason had my heart…he was my heart. And Hayden was doing his best to destroy that. I reached up and around behind me to grab his wrist and pull it away from me as I stepped back. “I love Mason, and I will never forgive you for what you did to him. I never want to see you again.” Part of me wanted to take back the words as soon as I said them, but the other part, the prevailing part at that moment, meant it wholeheartedly.

  “Alexandra…” Hayden began to cry. He looked down at my hand as I let him go and stared in shock. “Is, is that a ring…from Mason. You’re wearing his ring?”

  “Be quiet, for goodness sake. Someone will hear you.” I slid the diamond around so that it was underneath my finger. “And don’t say a word to anyone.” With that, I pushed him out of my room and slammed the door.

  I yanked Mason’s coat off its hanger in my closet and wrapped it around me before I went to lie down on my bed. I looked at the simple band on my finger. I would have to wear it this way at home, always being careful to conceal the diamond. To my parents it would appear to be just another piece of jewelry.

  The words I’d said downstairs and then to Hayden only moments before played through my mind, making me feel even worse. I hated who I was down there. I hated lying. I hated how rude I was to everyone and what I’d said to Hayden. Even though I was so angry with him, I couldn’t live with myself if I never saw him again.

  In a lot of ways, I needed him the same way I needed Mason. Before Mason, Hayden would have been the one I trusted with my deepest secrets. He would have been the one I would have turned to for comfort when I was feeling miserable about something the way I was right then. Emmaline was my best friend too, but the years of trust built between Hayden and myself made our bond stronger than the one I had with her. I hated to think I may have shattered that trust in one night.

  Sitting up, I considered going after him, but I just couldn’t. Imagining how Mason must’ve been feeling right then was as easy as imagining the hurt I had just caused Hayden, but Mason didn’t do anything to deserve it. None of what happened that night was his fault. And my loyalty was to him now.

  I heard an engine start outside and wondered if it was Hayden or Officer Cox. Instead of getting up to look out of my window and see, I reached in my pocket and pulled out the little piece of paper I knew would be there.

  Never forget tonight, my angel. I knew I never would. It had become the best and worst night of my life, leaving me wanting to forget it as much as remember it.