Shadow Keeper

by Feehan, Christine

  “She doesn’t belong to you.”

  “The hell she doesn’t.”

  “Giovanni.” Someone had to be the voice of reason. “He knows you were just being sweet to me for my brother’s sake.”

  Giovanni’s dark eyes swept over her, and she pressed her lips together very tightly. He wasn’t going to hear the voice of reason. He was angry. More than angry. Giovanni in this mood was actually a little terrifying. She had never seen this side of him.

  Tom moved, trying to circle around to the side of Giovanni, and her heart plunged. He would weigh in on Corlege’s side. Both men were MMA champions. She knew Giovanni could take one of them, but both coming at him at the same time?

  “You have no right to be in here. It’s an employee lounge and it says so right on the door. Get the fuck out.” Giovanni’s glide to the side of the room with the least furniture was almost imperceptible. It took him closer to James but put distance between Tom and him. At least she didn’t have to worry that he wasn’t aware of Tom as an added threat.

  “What do you plan to do? Call security so you can hide behind them the way you always do? I suppose that makes you feel like a big man, to call your security force to deal with real men who fight their own fights.”

  “James,” Sasha cautioned, hoping that concentrating on the enemy might get better results. “You don’t want to get banned from the club.” It was totally the wrong thing to say, and as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew she had just amped up the trash-talking. Taking a breath, she moved her feet to the floor. If Giovanni was going to have to fight James, he wasn’t going to be fighting Tom at the same time.

  “Right, because that would be the chickenshit thing he would do,” James taunted.

  “Do you think I need security guards to wipe up the floor with your ass?”

  Sasha looked up at the camera, silently begging one of his brothers to come help. She knew they had to be watching. She wanted to scream at them to get in there. For all they knew, one of the two men had a gun with him. She didn’t know which of the two was guilty of framing Aaron, but she was sure one of them had. Whichever it was, he was bound to be willing to kill Giovanni.

  James rolled his shoulders. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tom echo his movements. Giovanni was perfectly still, but he looked casual, like a lazy tiger regarding two cubs challenging him for territory—or a woman.

  “This is silly. James, Tom, you have to go back upstairs before everyone does something they can’t take back.” She tried again.

  “Baby, you go on upstairs,” Giovanni prodded. “Get back to work.”

  That wasn’t happening. She wasn’t leaving him alone with a possible madman—one already proven willing to use bombs, fire and bullets to get his way. Giovanni was ruining their entire plan—or he had another one she just didn’t know about.

  James launched himself at Giovanni with a series of kicks. Giovanni blocked every one of them, his fist slamming down again and again on James’s legs as the MMA fighter tried using his famous forward snap kick and equally lethal roundhouse kick to drive his opponent toward Tom. Giovanni didn’t give ground at all. He stood, loose-limbed, his feet under his shoulders, elbows tucked in until he lashed out with a block. He was strong, and when he hit, it was as if he was dropping a hammer down. James was limping a little as he backed off.

  “Holy shit, you really do hit that hard. I thought the first time you clocked me it was me being drunk thinking you hit like that.”

  It was obvious to Sasha that James was trying to keep Giovanni’s attention centered on him so Tom could move in. Tom hurled himself into the air, both feet driving at Giovanni from the side. Simultaneously, James did the same. Giovanni didn’t move. Sasha did. She threw her high heel right at Tom’s face. She’d spent her entire life on a ranch, and when she needed to hit something, she did it. The high heel slammed into his face hard, throwing him off-balance because he saw the missile coming at him at the last minute and tried to deflect it.

  She shouldn’t have worried. Giovanni blocked both men’s attacks, again striking hard with a closed fist, slamming it on exposed thighs to give them a dead leg. Tom dropped out of the air to hit the ground on his butt. James staggered back. Tom kept moving, this time going for Sasha, sweeping her legs out from under her. She hit the floor hard. Tom was on her in a second, punching toward her face.

  The first blow hit the floor as she rolled. The second hit the back of her shoulder. He never got a third shot in. Giovanni stomped him hard, kicked him in the ribs and flipped him over with a third and fourth kick before James could get near him.

  James got in one shot as Giovanni was turning toward him, but then it was over, Giovanni moving with blurring speed, hands and feet pounding until both men lay on the floor bleeding. Sasha dragged herself back to the chair and threw herself into it.

  “What is wrong with you, woman?” Giovanni demanded.

  “I was helping. They weren’t fighting fair.”

  “Neither were you,” Tom groused. “What the fuck did you hit me with? A tank?” He spat blood.

  “It was a shoe, you moron,” Sasha said. “I think you broke my shoulder.”

  Giovanni’s hands were there, gently moving over her, checking for damage. “What the hell was this about, James? You knew Aaron trained with me. You can’t take him. If I can beat the shit out of him, it would stand to reason that you can’t take me.” He indicated Tom with his chin. “Did you tell Tom about Aaron sparring with me?”

  “Aaron couldn’t quit bragging about it,” Tom said, spitting more blood. He pressed his hand to his mouth and glared at Sasha. “That was always his trouble. He talked so much trash, he didn’t know when to quit.”

  “Big fuckin’ deal, sparring with a Ferraro,” James added. “Never did a day’s work in your life. Walk around all badass carrying a gun and looking dangerous? You think that’s going to impress us? Not likely. Aaron was an idiot.”

  “He got all the women,” Sasha said. “I thought he was so hot when he was in that ring.”

  Giovanni glared at her. She fluttered her lashes at him.

  “He got shit,” Tom said. “Women were all over us.”

  “He told me you competed for women,” Sasha said, “and he always won. I have to admit, I can see why. He just walked up the stairs and you could see all that power. He bragged he took every woman from you.”

  James swore. “Fuckin’ liar. I won my share of the bets.”

  “I did, too,” Tom said. “Aaron ran his mouth but he lied all the time to make himself look good. The bet on you was fifty thousand dollars. He needed the money, so he had to get Ferraro out of the way.” His gaze shifted just for a moment to James.

  “You bet fifty thousand dollars that you could date me?”

  James climbed slowly to his feet. “We don’t date, we fuck ’em and then drop ’em. That’s the bet.”

  She nodded. “I see. He shared that picture of me with both of you, didn’t he? And you all three made the bet.”

  “Of course he did. To give us an incentive to work harder.” James laughed. “Then Ferraro snapped you up and killed the plan. All along, it was just a ruse.”

  “What do you mean?” Tom asked.

  “She wasn’t really engaged to him. It was so he could help her straighten things out at Hendrick Center.”

  Tom scowled. “You’ve got to be kidding. The brain-dead patients.” He stood up and staggered to the door.

  Sasha started to protest, furious that Tom would talk about the patients at the Center that way, but Giovanni put a hand on her arm and shook his head. They watched the door close after them, and then she glared at her fiancé.

  “Why didn’t you let me tell them off?” Fury made her voice tremble, but it was at the two fighters, not Giovanni.

  “We were already skating on thin ice, baby.” He caught her chin and examined her face for bruises.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “When you told him we weren’t rea
lly engaged, you never mentioned the Center’s name. You said your brother had a traumatic brain injury. Anyone who didn’t have a family member or friend in the facility wouldn’t know about the facility. And Tom wasn’t present for the conversation. He referred to the patients as ‘brain-dead.’ It’s both of them. Together.”

  Stefano and Taviano entered the room, both obviously overhearing the last thing Giovanni said. They’d been watching and listening from the control room.

  Stefano indicated the door that led between the lounge and the hall where the two men had disappeared. “That’s why their alibis checked out. When one was doing something, the other was seen. Once we went back and looked at anyone who would benefit from Aaron being out of the way, we concentrated on both Corlege and Mariland. Mariland is a firebug. He has a sealed record of starting multiple fires as a child. He went into the Army. They didn’t look at his sealed records, because they couldn’t. He also is very good at explosives.”

  “And Corlege?” Giovanni asked.

  “Corlege is a very sick man. He likes to hurt women. He’s had three relationships where his partner has ended up in the hospital,” Taviano said.

  “Sheesh.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s funny that Tom is the one who hit me when Corlege probably wishes he could have.”

  “Which is why none of us wanted you here in the first place, Sasha,” Stefano said. “You could have really been hurt.”

  “You needed me to help carry out this plan. I told you I’d be all right.” She couldn’t help the smugness in her voice.

  “He got his hands on you.” Giovanni glared at her. “You let him touch your feet.”

  “I was getting information, and you burst in here like a crazy person,” she protested, feeling slightly guilty. “There wasn’t supposed to be hitting. In any case, I needed a foot massage.”

  “You want a fuckin’ foot massage, Sasha, you get it from your man, not the ones we suspect of trying to kill you.”

  “That’s my cue to leave. I have to go back to work.” She rolled her shoulder experimentally. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as it had when Tom hit her. More likely, he’d grazed her when she was rolling.

  “You aren’t going back to work. We already have another server working the second tier, and Nancy shifted to the top one. You’re going to take it easy right here and then go home with me.”

  She started to protest, looked around at the set features and then shrugged. “Fine.” She didn’t feel all that good anyway. Her shoulder did hurt, but she wasn’t about to mention that and get another lecture. “Why didn’t they just kill Aaron? They didn’t mind in the least killing me. Or Giovanni. Why the elaborate plan?”

  “Best guess,” Stefano said, “jealousy. They wanted his title and wanted Aaron to see them in the winner’s seat. Or at least James did. He seemed to be the leader between the two of them. They both wanted to win the competitions for the groupies. They probably got talking over a bottle of booze one night, sat around talking smack about Aaron and then thought up ways to actually get rid of him. The more they talked, the more elaborate the plan and the better it sounded. We’ve seen it before.”

  “We know all this, but can we get enough evidence to convict them?” Sasha asked.

  The three men looked at one another. It was Giovanni who spoke. Gently. “Baby. We just have to get Aaron off. That shouldn’t be difficult now that we know where to look.”

  “I don’t understand. The cops are going to want to arrest them.”

  “They’ll try,” Stefano agreed. “Let’s go home. My woman is waiting for me. And for all you observant shadow riders, not one of you noticed she wasn’t drinking alcohol when we came to the club dancing. I bet her that you’d notice and I lost that bet.”

  Giovanni and Taviano both looked at their brother like he’d lost his mind.

  “She used to drink Moscow mules and cosmopolitans, but for the last few months, it’s been water. Or sparkling water. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention.” Stefano gave them his mean look. “There is very little Francesca does that I don’t notice.”

  Giovanni nudged Sasha. “Pay attention, baby. I follow in Stefano’s footsteps when it comes to my woman. I notice everything.”

  She thought about giving him a smart-ass answer, but she remained silent. She really wanted to go home and soak in that fabulous tub in the master suite.

  Giovanni glanced at Stefano. “Will you be inviting our New York cousins to come for my wedding?”

  “Of course.”

  “Perfect. I can’t wait to see them. Come on, baby, let’s go home.” He knelt down to slip her heels back on her feet. His hands brushed her ankles as he did up the straps. “Who knew you were so good with a shoe?”

  “I have many talents.” She sent him a small smile.

  “One of them is not staying out of trouble when your man is fighting.”

  “In my defense,” she said, “I didn’t know he was that good.”

  Taviano choked. Stefano turned away, clearing his throat. Giovanni stood up slowly. “I’ve been keeping count of all your little indiscretions,” he warned. “I believe in punishments.”

  She laughed. “I’ll be looking forward to that.” Her smile faded and she took his hand to allow him to pull her up. “You do know it goes both ways, right?”

  Giovanni wrapped his arm around her. “Not sure what you mean, woman.”

  “I’m very good with ropes. Hog-tying is something of a specialty. Torturing is second nature.” She leaned into him, and he put his head down so her lips were against his ear. “I’m very, very good with my mouth.”

  He laughed as they walked down the hall to the private entrance and exit for the Ferraro family. Once in the parking lot, he handed her gently into the car. “Your shoulder is going to be black and blue. I wanted to beat the crap out of Tom.”

  “Um … babe? I think you did. I think both of them are going to wake up very sore tomorrow.”

  “They’ll be celebrating tonight, thinking they put one over on Aaron. You played your part beautifully, Sasha. I will say, I didn’t expect them to follow you into the break room. We had it set up to watch over you at their table, but this was so much better. Especially when they attacked me.”

  “Do you have someone watching them?”

  He nodded as he slid onto the seat beside her. “Ricco is following James, and Mariko is following Tom. If they’re together, which we hope, they’ll talk. They won’t be able to help but brag. That’s just another nail in the coffin. We’ll be able to provide that to the investigators along with everything else we’ve got on them. There’s going to be plenty of proof.”

  “And Aaron?”

  “He’ll have to stay in jail a little longer. Just until after we’re married.”

  “That long?” She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes against the stream of lights.

  “Baby, we’re getting married in two days.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at the reprimand in his voice. Of course, she knew when they were getting married. “Aren’t you a little afraid for Mariko and Ricco? If one or both get caught, I’m sure Tom or James won’t have a problem shooting them.”

  “They’ll never come out of the shadows. In any case, even if they did, they’re too well trained and far too fast. Ricco is the fastest of all of us.”

  It surprised her that Giovanni would name his brother faster, but she realized none of the Ferraro brothers ever bragged. They teased one another, but they didn’t brag out of the family circle or in it. They were arrogant, but it came from a place of complete confidence.

  “He’s really that much faster than you?” She’d just seen Giovanni in action, and if he was fast enough to take on two mixed martial arts fighters, then Ricco had to be insanely fast.

  “Yes. And he never, never gets turned around in a city.”

  “I didn’t think about that happening,” she admitted. She reached down to rub at her aching ankle. Her feet were still painful.


  Immediately, Giovanni lifted her feet into his lap and undid the tiny buckles on the thin straps. He dropped the shoes onto the floor and began to massage her feet. His fingers were strong and they moved into her sore muscles, a deep pressure, until she wanted to cry with relief.

  “That feels so good, honey,” she admitted. “I should have stopped James, but my feet hurt so bad I was shameless.”

  “You were,” he agreed, but he didn’t stop. “We’ll talk about that more when we get home.”

  “Are we going to talk about how your skanky actress with the roving tongue managed to slip through security and get into the employee lounge when we get home as well?”

  “Don’t try diversion. It won’t work. Meredith isn’t my actress, and you can handle ten actresses like her with one hand tied behind your back. If we stopped her and not the other two, it would have possibly given away the fact that we were letting them slip through on purpose.”

  She was a bit mollified that he believed she could handle Meredith so easily.

  “We’re also going to talk about how you didn’t exit the room when you were supposed to, before the fighting started. I gave you enough time, but you didn’t take it. Worse, you threw your shoe at Tom so he’d come at you. Those MMA fighters could break your jaw with one punch.”

  “I’m scrappy and fast. I had to be, working with cattle and horses.”

  He sent her a look that said he wasn’t happy with her and she was going to hear about it so she thought it prudent to change the subject. She glanced at the front seat where Enzo drove and Emilio sat on the passenger side. “You said Ricco never loses his way. How do people get turned around in the shadows?”

  “You’re moving very fast, the speed is insane. Especially narrow shadows. Some tubes are like slick rails. Everything is blurred because you’re moving so fast. The neighborhoods are unfamiliar. I know my way around Chicago, but I usually work in San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York. I’ve even worked overseas. Ricco trained in Japan. All of us trained in Europe or Asia. Sometimes, both.”