Bella Blinks Bella Breathes Bella Thinks

Everyone thinks something different about LA. That it’s a shining city where dreams and that crap come true. When you work for The Family, you know that none of that bull is true. There’s no glimmering lights and no celebrities at every corner. No matter where you walk, that grass is never greener, and there’s no sudden drop of good luck. Hell, you’re lucky if you don’t get mugged in broad daylight.1

I think about all of this and keep following Mike down the street, after just having seen several people being mugged in not only broad daylight, but blisteringly bright daylight. Mike doesn’t even so much as twitch when I decide to break the heads of the muggers. He knows I have issues with this kind of thing. That’s the problem with Mike. Sometimes he knows too damn much. Sometimes it gets him in to trouble. Sometimes I get him out of that trouble. Most times I get into trouble too.2

“Bella! Hurry it up!” I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t been moving, but I did, so all I have left to do is scurry to catch up. We turn a corner; the sun hits me right in the eye. When I raise a hand to block it, Mike turns around and grins, the coppery hair and silver eyes he prides himself on getting caught in the sunny glare. That’s another problem with Mike. Sometimes he looks too damn good to be a Mobster.3

“Sun in your eyes, Princess?” he remarks, switching back to the nickname he gave me back when we were kids. It’s all I can do not to roll my eyes.4

“Must be the light off your bad personality. It’s blinding me.” I return the comment dryly, and he feigns hurt.5

“You wound me, Princess! What side of bed did you crawl out of this morning?”6

“The side with no one in it, just the way you seem to want to keep it.” Somehow he always seems to find a way to interrupt my dates.7

“I have no idea what you mean, I happened to like Tony. He was a good man. Too bad about him ending up in the river…” This time I do roll my eyes. All Mike does is grin wider.8

“You have nice eyes, Bella.” He says, trying to catch me off guard, as always. I try to let the comment roll off me, but some of it sticks. Hopeless flirt. I brush past him, continuing the brisk Sunday morning walk. I know he’s following. His fancy Italian shoes make a ‘clok clok clok clok clok’ sound. My soft heeled boots make a ‘schoof schoof schoof’ noise.9

“You don’t need to keep an eye on me, Mike. That’s supposed to be my job, remember?” clok schoof clok schoof schoof clok.10

“I’m just making your job a whole lot easier.”11

“Sure you are.” Schoof clok clok schoof schoof. 12

Clok schoof schoof clok clok clok schoof schoof schoof clok schoof schoof clok clok.13

Up ahead there’s a beautiful theater, glistening with the mid-morning sun. Past that there’s a park with a giant stone fountain and cascades of water pouring out of the faucets. Around the corner there’s another woman getting mugged. Welcome to my city.14

Clok clok.15

Our city. 16