by Sophia Gray
“Why are you stalking me again, Samuel?”
“You know how it is, Janessa. I just can’t get my mind off you.”
“I doubt that seriously.”
“You shouldn’t, but I know a lost cause when I see one, burned bridges and all that.”
“Okay. Right. Now, why are you here?”
“I need to get a message to D. Plans have changed. Moved up.”
“What do you mean, moved up?”
“The DEA has decided to arrest Suarez for your father’s murder tomorrow, well, actually, for several murders that we’ve been able to pin on him since receiving the original video. We now have iron clad evidence linking him to all the crimes, not just the video. Conviction is a given unless something goes heinously awry.”
“Okay. What does that have to do with D and the other problem?”
“Suarez is a sleaze ball of the highest regard. When he sees he is going down for the murders, he is going to sing like a canary. He’ll rat out everyone he knows to save his own skin.”
“I still don’t follow.”
“The moment he gets arrested, those guys will put their plans into motion and take D down. With him dead, Roberto can pin everything on him and walk away without damaging anyone else in the crew. He’ll be able to cut a deal without really bringing any pain to the club, and the club will take care of him while he is behind bars.”
“But no one else had anything to do with my father’s murders.”
“Wrong. They were all in on it together. Suarez might have done the clean-up, but the same crew intent upon taking down D was behind it all. They made loans to people and doctored the facts to make it look like complete payouts, as you already know. It was their way of stealing from him in a manner that would take a while for him to figure out. They would have probably gotten away with it if they had just stuck to that, but they got greedy and began skimming from other places that were more visible. That was when D began seeing red flags and checking into things.”
“I don’t understand why they killed my father. He paid the money back and they pocketed it. Seems like killing him would have been another red flag.”
“Maybe to the authorities that have been monitoring them, but not to D. He would have never even had a reason to question the payouts if not for you. Until you told him what happened with your father, there was no reason for him to look. Those would have looked like normal transactions on the books.”
“Then why?”
“Nothing more than paranoia, Janessa. Someone got afraid that your father would come back for more money, that he might come directly to D, and that would have raised a red flag. Not only would he have realized that something was afoot, but he would have had a witness to tell him which member made a previous loan to him. They killed your father and any others they made loans to after the money was paid back. Just cleaning up loose ends in preparation for making their final move.”
“So, my father was a liability to them.”
“Unfortunately, that is all it boils down to.”
“You want to keep D alive because you need to eliminate Suarez’s easy get-out-of-a-life-sentence card.”
“That is part of it. The other part is that I genuinely do feel I owe him something. When you bury yourself as deeply as I did in the Black Aces, the lines get a little blurred, Janessa. I don’t think I have to explain that to you, do I?”
“No, you don’t.”
“So, let’s just say that I owe him for a few things and that somewhere along the line I developed a certain kinship with him.”
“I understand.”
“Then help him, Janessa. No matter how you feel about him at this point, he needs to know everything, and I think you might just be the only one he can truly hear it from. They are going to take down Roberto tomorrow at four p.m. The ball is in your court.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Samuel nodded and then walked away, disappearing into the shadows once again. I wondered what all of this would mean for him if it was found out that he had leaked information to me in order to save D. Breaking my momentary trance as I watched his large frame recede into the nothingness of the parking garage, I climbed into my car and headed home.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I sat at my table and contemplated the events of the past weeks. How had I gotten so heavily involved in all of this? All I had ever wanted was for the man who killed my father to be brought to justice. Now, I was on the verge of that happening but it seemed that politics would overwhelm fairness. All of this had seemed so simple. Get in, get what I needed to prove D killed my father and get out. Except it wasn’t that easy at all.
I should let it go, let Roberto be arrested and the chips fall where they may. What happened to Damian was not my fault. It was not my place to come to his rescue. I don’t even know how I could. This was so much more than I had anticipated. I realized, once again, just how far out of my league I was. I also couldn’t deny the fact that I was in love with D, more in love with him than I had ever been with anyone in my life.
I debated what to do all the way up until bedtime, then lay restlessly in the dark to consider it some more. Nothing came to me. I simply didn’t know what to do. A part of me wished that Samuel hadn’t told me anything about all of this. Why had he burdened me with something he knew I was incapable of stopping? I agonized until I was exhausted and fell asleep somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. When I awoke, I knew what I had to do.
“Maggie, I just can’t come in today. I think I’ve picked up some sort of bug.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Janessa. Just get some rest and take care of yourself. Is there anything I need to take care of on your desk while you’re out?”
“No. I don’t think so. Everything is pretty much caught up, and there’s nothing there that will hurt from missing a day on it. I’ll catch up when I come back in.”
“Sounds good. Take care of yourself, and we’ll see you on Monday.”
It was a widely accepted truth in most offices that people who called in sick on a Friday or a Monday, perhaps even both, weren’t really ill. They were usually plotting a long weekend or recovering from one. In my case, I anticipated a very long weekend. It might very well be the longest of my adult life.
I showered and got dressed, trying to hash out the rest of my plans in my head. I couldn’t wait too long or I might be too late, but if I put things into action too early, then I risked him thinking too much instead of just reacting. I had to deal with D on a level he would understand, put him on the offensive so that he wasn’t caught unaware. Even though he knew about those who wanted to do him harm, he had no idea that the hour of reckoning, so to speak, was so close at hand.
I paced and packed, getting my things in order so that I could leave quickly once I was done. There was only one way to make sure that Suarez got the justice he deserved and make sure D was safe, and I intended to see this thing through to the end. I had been strong enough, stubborn enough, to risk my life going undercover to take down D. I had to be the same now to take down the man who was actually responsible. My hands were trembling as I picked up the phone.
“This is Janessa. I need to talk to you, alone.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you that on the phone. I need to see you in person. Can you meet me?”
“I suppose. When?”
“Thirty minutes in the abandoned gazebo by Constance Park.”
“I’ll be there.”
I hung up the phone and let out a deep breath. I was shaking all over, but I wasn’t about to falter. This was too important. I hurried out to my car and drove to the old park on the opposite side of town. Very few people came here anymore because it had gotten so run down, so there was little chance of being seen. He was waiting for me as I got out of the car, watching me as I walked toward him.
“You look very different these days.”
“I’m feeling a bit more like myself.”
“It’s a good lo
ok. I approve. Now, what are we here for, Janessa?”
“I know who killed my father,” I told him.
“How did you manage that?”
“It doesn’t matter. I know who it was and I know the others who were involved. I can give you all their names but you have to take out Roberto Suarez, and it has to be done before four this afternoon.”
“And why would I just take your word for it?”
“Because you know you can. You know me well enough to know that I am not lying to you and that I want my father’s killer dead.”
“Why before four?”
“It doesn’t matter. I need for you to do this and I need for you not to tell D until after it is done.”
“You know I can’t take out one of D’s guys just because some bird he used to shag told me to do it.”
“If I tell you the whole story, will you do it then?”
“It depends on what the whole story entails.”
I told him everything. He stood there, nodding and grimacing as I listed off names that both he and D had trusted.
“I don’t care what you do with the others. I will leave them up to you and D once Roberto is out of the way, but I want him punished for what he did to my father. Perhaps he was only doing as he was told, but he was the one who did it. I can’t let him use D as leverage to get himself and the others off the hook. He needs to be out of the picture.”
“And you can live with knowing you had a man killed?”
“Yes.”
He studied my face, deciding if he believed my conviction. My voice hadn’t waivered and I didn’t think I would lose a moment of sleep over my actions. If the DEA was willing to let D die at the hands of the rebels who opposed him and let them get by with it, punish them for minor crimes just to get D out of their way, then why should I worry about a piece of human garbage like Roberto Suarez?
“Okay, Janessa. I’ll take it from here. You need to go home and put all this nonsense behind you. You don’t belong in this world that D and I live in. Find a way to move past all this.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.”
“I doubt that very seriously,” he scoffed, turning to leave.
Walking back to my car, I made another phone call, just in case Simon decided he wasn’t going to do as I asked. I held my breath as I waited for it to stop ringing on the other end.
“What do you want, Janessa?”
“I’m in trouble. I need your help.”
“What do you mean you are in trouble?”
“I’m scared. I’ve come up to Stratford and there is a man following me. Everywhere I go, he is behind me. I’m frightened to get back in my car or go back out into an open area.”
“Where are you, Janessa?”
“Right now, I’m in a coffee shop with a little library. It was the only place I could think of nearby that I could just sit for a while with a lot of people around and wouldn’t look out of place.”
“Just stay where you are, Janessa. I’m on my way. Do not leave that shop.”
“Thank you, D,” I replied, trying to sound frightened but relieved. It wasn’t that difficult, as I was actually a bit of both.
“Just don’t go anywhere. I’m on my way.”
I ended the call and got in my car, heading back to my house to wait. I could only hope that all went as planned. Roberto Suarez would get what he deserved, D would be safe for the moment, at least long enough for Simon to give him the rest of the names to deal with. I tried to focus on other things, but I couldn’t think of anything else.
As the remaining few hours passed, I felt like my skin was on fire, pricked with hot pins and needles. It was almost four and I had heard nothing. It would have taken D a good three hours to get to Stratford and then he’d spend a bit of time trying to find me in the library. By the time he realized I wasn’t there, everything should be over with Roberto Antonio and the DEA would have no one to arrest.
I turned on the television and switched it to the local news, anxious to hear anything that might pop up. Even though I was sure it would be covered up by the DEA, there was bound to at least be an initial report of a homicide. Four o’clock came and went with no news and I began to get even more concerned. I hadn’t heard from Simon or D. I expected that Simon would at least let me know it was done and that D would be calling when he wasn’t able to locate me, but there was nothing.
“What did you hope to accomplish by sending me on that wild goose chase, Janessa?”
I whirled around at the sound of his voice, bewildered. Questions flooding my brain faster than I could process them.
“How did you get in? How did you even know where I live?”
“Please, Janessa. Give me a bit of credit.”
“You can’t be here, D. You can’t be here until I know everything is done.”
“You mean until the hit you had put out on Roberto Suarez is complete?”
“Simon told you.”
“No. Simon is on his way out of the country. The DEA was waiting for him at Roberto Suarez’s apartment. He barely got away. He wanted to pay you a visit before he left, but I told him I would take care of things here.”
My blood froze in my veins. It hadn’t occurred to me that Samuel might have been setting D up in telling me what he did. I wondered how much of it, if any, were even true. And now, could D really believe that I had been in on their little plot? Could he really believe I would have tried to help the DEA set him up? The answer came to me in a cold icy blast. Of course he could. Wasn’t that precisely what I had come to the Rockefeller Casino to do?
“D, I didn’t know. The DEA lied to me. They told me I had to get word to you that you were in danger.”
“And you fucking believed them, Janessa? You expect me to believe that?”
I was shaking. I knew that the monster D claimed to be was standing right in front of me. Perhaps I could not see if before, but it was surfacing rapidly. He was going to kill me. The DEA had played me very well, counting on my affection for him to bring him down. They had assumed I would deliver the message to him and he would take Roberto down himself, giving them a confirmed murder rap to pin on him and hopefully, putting him under their thumb.
“It’s the truth, D. Samuel filled my head full of lies.”
“Samuel?”
“Yes, Samuel. Jack Knife. He’s alive. He’s DEA.”
“And you fucking knew this?”
“No. No. Not until recently, after I was already back here, away from you and the casino. I had to go to the DEA for a final interview and I found out then.”
“So, you still talked to the DEA after I let you leave. Simon told me you were a liability, but I wouldn’t listen.”
“I am not a liability. I gave them nothing. I gave them nothing but information on the guys who were trying to hurt you.”
“You gave them everything, then, Janessa. You gave them leverage. You let them see that you were protecting me, that you had a weak spot and that they could exploit it. Sit down.”
I did as he said, sitting in the kitchen chair that he was pointing to and looking at him tearfully. I tried to hold back my fear, my pain, but it leaked down my cheeks without any real shame of its own.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“You don’t get to ask any questions right now, Janessa. All the questions will come from me and you will answer them fully and honestly. Leave nothing out. Understand?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice barely audibly.
“What?”
“Yes.”
“Better. Start from the beginning and tell me everything. Let’s start with Samuel.”
I told him everything I knew, from start to finish, trying not to babble or leave anything out. Lying to him now or leaving anything out could well mean the difference in life and death for me. So far, he hadn’t hurt me, at least not in any physical way, but if he saw that I was being dishonest, that could change. I could only tell him what I could and hope for the best. When I was
done, he sat down in the chair opposite me and put his head in his hands for a moment before looking back up at me. He looked haunted.
“Come on. We’re packing a bag for you.”
“A bag? For what?”
“Just do what I tell you to, Janessa,” he growled, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward my bedroom where he stood watching while I threw a few changes of clothes and some necessities into an overnight bag. He picked up my phone and handed it to me.
“Call your neighbor, the one who tended your house while you were gone, and tell her you are going out of town for a few days.”