by J. Sterling
“Yeah,” Nick said. “There is.”
He shined the light into the makeshift hole as he reached into it, his arm almost all the way in to his shoulder. When he pulled it back out, he held three dust-covered cloth bags.
“Hold on, there’s something else back there.” He handed us the bags and shoved his arm back in the hole again.
Frank and I dropped the old bags on top of the desk and focused our attention back on Nick. His entire arm was inside that hole as he struggled to reach whatever it was that only he could see, his body wiggling and stretching. When he pulled back out, he had a faded piece of paper in his grasp.
We huddled close, struggling to all read it at the same time.
“It’s a deed,” Nick said, his brow furrowed as Frank asked to see it.
“It’s the deed to this land.” Frank sounded shocked as my confusion kicked into full gear.
“But that man had the deed,” I said, remembering that I’d clearly seen the word deed on the paper he showed me, but refused to let me touch. “Unless it wasn’t the deed for here. Or even a real deed at all.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t. The mob doesn’t usually play by the rules,” Grant said. “They’d lie, manipulate, and murder to get what they want.”
“So we have the deed to the land then?” I asked again, stunned. “And that guy doesn’t.”
“We have it. But I bet he wants whatever’s in these bags.” Nick gestured toward them, then grabbed the plate and secured it in the back of the safe again.
Frank reached for one of the old twine ties around one sack and gave it a tug. The fabric was brittle with age, and flakes of it dropped off as it practically fell apart in his hands.
“Go slow,” the rest of us cried out.
Frank glared at us. “I’m not an idiot.”
Opening the bag, he spread the top part wide so we could see inside. I peered in, finding exactly what I’d expected to see inside—stacks of cash money and mounds of jewelry. I had no idea how much money was there. The bills were old and looked almost fake, unlike any dollars I’d ever seen.
“We’ve got to call the police,” Nick said, wiping his dusty hands on his jeans and leaving dirty handprints on them.
“What are you guys doing back here?” Jess, Claudia, and our mother stood in the office doorway, staring at us curiously. “We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“And that’s my cue,” Grant said as he moved to leave the room. “I’ll go make that phone call.” He moved past the women and closed the door behind him.
“What’s going on?” Mom asked.
They knew we were keeping something from them, so we asked them to sit down while we explained everything. Our mom and Claudia took the office chairs while Jess perched on the edge of the desk, their eyes widening as our story unfolded.
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell us,” Claudia said when we’d finished. She narrowed her eyes on the three of us, and then her disappointed gaze landed squarely on Frank.
“And we could have helped,” Mom added. “Your father and I can always help.”
When Frank shrugged, looking uncomfortable, I stepped in. “That’s just it, Mom. You couldn’t help. Not with this. We called our lawyer, and he’s been working on it, but there’s only so much he could do. We could barely even talk about it with each other, let alone anyone else.”
Frank spread his hands wide. “We never want to let you down, and we didn’t know what was going to happen. Until we knew for sure, we just kept it between us three.”
Even as he said the words, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. There was no reason good enough to keep something this big from the people we loved.
“You can’t do that,” Jess said, clearly irritated. “You don’t get to pick and choose what to tell us and what to leave us out of.”
“Yeah. We’re your teammates, right? Your partners?” Claudia asked, her eyes piercing Frank’s, making me thankful that Sofia had already gone home for the night. “Then you share everything with us. Even the hard stuff.”
“Especially the hard stuff,” Jess added, her voice firm. “We have a right to know what’s going on.”
“When was this deadline?” Mom asked.
I swallowed hard. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” the three of them practically shouted in unison. They jumped up from their seats, becoming more riled up by the second.
“I can’t believe you kept this from us.” Claudia paced angrily back and forth in the small space. “I’m so mad at you! And you.” She shot me a look that made me want to crawl into the safe and hide. “Sofia is going to kill you.”
“I’m aware,” I managed to say.
“You just proposed to me, you jackass!” Jess stepped toward Nick and poked him in the chest. “This isn’t what we do. We don’t keep things from each other.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, babe. It won’t happen again,” he said sincerely, and she poked him again, still pissed.
The three of us tucked our proverbial tails between our legs and apologized. After we all promised to never keep something like that from them again, their anger seemed to fade.
A knock on the office door interrupted us, and Grant poked his head in. “The police are here.”
“Already?” I asked.
“Must be a slow night.” He held the door open, revealing two cops standing in the hallway.
The office was too small to hold everyone, so Frank asked the ladies to step outside with Grant as we ushered the cops in and closed the door behind us. The three of us explained to the policemen what we knew and answered all their questions while one of them took notes, writing down everything we said.
It took less than twenty minutes for them to hear our story, then walk out of the bar with the three bags of valuables and the original deed.
But not before we copied it first. I tried to get them to let us keep the original, but they said it had to be entered into evidence. I made five photocopies of the deed, just in case I lost the first four.
“What? I’m a little paranoid. Sue me,” I said when Nick gave me shit as I copied it more than once.
“We’re pretty sure you can have this back.” One of the cops held up the deed once I was done with it. “Just give us twenty-four hours to process it. Then you can file a request to get it back.”
“Will you find out where the money and jewelry came from?” Frank asked.
The cop shrugged. “We’ll do our best, but no guarantees. Anything we find out that we can share, we’ll let you know.”
“Sounds good.” Frank gave them each a firm handshake and moved to see them out.
Alone with Nick, I turned to face him, the weight on my shoulders I hadn’t even realized I was carrying suddenly lifted. Inhaling deeply for what felt like the first time in weeks, I felt so light. I wanted to jump around and high-five everyone in the bar.
“I guess we get to make more memories here after all?” The smile on my face wasn’t going away anytime soon.
“Hell yes, we are! I’m so relieved, Ryan,” Nick said, and I pulled him into a brotherly hug.
“Me too. Me fucking too.”
“And I’m engaged!” He gave me a shit-eating grin.
“That you are, little brother.”
“I’m going to go find my fiancée and make sure she doesn’t want to kill me.” He gave me a sly nod and moved toward the door. “You gonna call Sofia and fill her in?”
“I probably should, huh?” It wasn’t really a question.
“I’d tell her before one of the girls does.”
He was right, but I waved him off. “Go. Enjoy being engaged. I’ve got this handled.”
Mob Heists
Ryan
The next day, the three of us waited all afternoon for the guy who threatened our livelihood to walk through the door. We knew he could arrive at any moment, and that moment couldn’t come soon enough.
My stomach twisted in anticipation and dread. Even though I k
new we held all the cards, I had no idea what a man like that was capable of. I couldn’t imagine him simply accepting the news. No, a guy with ties to the mob would most likely refuse to walk away emptyhanded.
“Did you tell Sofia everything?” Frank asked in a hushed tone as we continued to stare at the door.
“Yeah, I told her last night.”
“Was she mad?”
“She was mad.” I nodded, thinking about how hurt she’d been that I’d kept something so big from her. “She said all the same things that Jess and Claudia did. I swear, it’s like girls have some kind of book they read out of. Then she reamed me for making her feel like she wasn’t important enough to confide in.”
Frank and Nick both opened their mouths, but before they could say exactly what I had been thinking, I held up a hand.
“I know, I know. It’s the exact opposite, and I tried to explain that to her, but she said after everything we went through and how we both almost died, we didn’t get that luxury. We don’t get to keep secrets and leave each other in the dark. She made me feel about yea big.” I closed my finger and my thumb together until they were almost touching.
“They have a way of doing that, don’t they?” Frank asked. “Claudia chewed my ass.”
“I guess we had it coming.” Nick dropped his chin into his hand like he was tired of waiting. “Speaking of, is this jackass ever gonna show up?”
The second the words left Nick’s mouth, sunlight poured in through the front doors, followed quickly by the absence of it. The door slammed shut but no one walked through it, and the sound of thumps and shouting replaced the quiet.
My brothers and I hopped over the bar top and sprinted toward the door, unaware of what was happening on the other side of it. I tried to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Something’s blocking it,” I exclaimed. “Help.”
Frank and Nick both put their shoulders against the door, readying to push, but hard pounding came from the other side.
“Stop!” called a voice from outside the door. “It’s the police. Stop pushing.”
We did as they asked and exchanged glances, dying for answers we didn’t have.
“The police must have been waiting for him,” Frank said.
“Maybe they know where the money came from?” Nick wondered out loud.
“Maybe they know who he is?” I added.
We moved away from the door and told the agitated customers who had gathered behind us that everything was fine. Pasting on big smiles, we offered everyone a drink on the house, which made them forget the entire ordeal. Free drinks tended to make people happy.
The door opened and the two police officers from last night walked in. Nick and Frank ushered them over to a quiet area of the bar while I finished making and serving the free drinks we’d promised our patrons.
Once I was free, I joined my brothers. “Fill me in,” I said, wiping my hands on my towel.
One of the cops looked directly at me. “I was just telling your brothers that a member of the Luchessini mob family had been skimming off the top of his heists for years, back in the forties. Taking a little here and there and never getting caught. He got cocky. The only reason we have a record of any of this is because the items found in your safe were from just one heist, instead of smaller amounts from a bunch of them. You follow?” he asked me.
“Yeah, I follow.”
“So this theft was so large that it ended up screwing the family he stole from for years. And it’s how he got caught and eventually whacked by whoever he worked for. He wouldn’t give up the location of the money and jewels, and they’ve been looking. All this time.”
“It’s been over seventy years, and they’re still looking?” I asked, unable to believe it.
The cop nodded. “The story has been passed down through the generations. And each time someone new in the family hears the story, they start doing research and asking questions. Each one of them adds to the previous person’s notes. It’s extremely convoluted.”
“So the guy outside . . .” Frank gestured toward the door. “Is he part of that family?”
“No,” the cop said with a chuckle. “Which is crazy, right? He worked with some guys that Luchessini stole from originally. He knew that there was money hidden. He said he knew Sam Jr., and Sam recently confessed to him on his deathbed about the money being in the bar somewhere, but he wouldn’t tell him where exactly.”
“That’s why he wanted to tear it down,” I said, everything finally making sense.
“So, what happens now?” Frank asked.
The other cop chimed in. “We return the money to the rightful owners. The remaining living relatives in Vegas will be getting a rather large check and enough in jewels to provide for a lifetime. You’ll be happy to know that the family needs it, and it will make a huge difference in their lives.”
I smiled. “That does make me happy, actually.” It wouldn’t be satisfying to know that the money was going to someone who already had a fortune. I would have understood, though, because it had been theirs in the first place, but there was something about it actually making a difference that felt good.
“That guy isn’t going to come after us, right?” Nick asked, frowning.
“Nah. You guys are fine. He only wanted the money, and you don’t have that anymore.”
“But he’s going to jail because of us.”
The cop shook his head. “He’s going to jail for a long list of crimes that have nothing to do with you or this place. He won’t be looking for revenge.”
Despite the cop’s certainty, it took everything in me to believe him.
After we shook hands with the policemen and signed our statements, one of them handed me a large envelope.
“The deed is in there,” the cop said. “It’s in pretty bad shape, so we put it in a protective sleeve. Make sure you file it with the county so something like this doesn’t happen again.”
I held the envelope gingerly as I extended it to Frank, who stood there with his hand out, waiting.
Frank grinned. “I’ll take it to the courthouse.”
Life Changes
Sofia
“I’m still mad at you, you know,” I said somewhat playfully as Ryan rubbed my back in bed, but I meant it.
I was still upset with him for keeping the situation with the bar from me the whole time he was going through it. I considered it my job to keep my man calm, to help carry his load, to shoulder his burdens with him. But I couldn’t do any of those things if I didn’t know he needed my help in the first place, if he didn’t share his worries with me.
“I know.” He pressed a kiss against my shoulder blade.
“Promise me you’ll never keep things from me again,” I said sternly, making him promise for what had to be the fifth time since he confessed it all to me.
He pressed another soft kiss to my back. “I promise.”
I rolled over so I could look him in the eye. “You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it,” he said solemnly.
I believed him, but I also knew it wouldn’t be the last time I asked. We women could be relentless that way.
Hope started to fuss, signaling she was awake. Right when I was about to get out of bed, Ryan stopped me.
“I’ll get her.”
He strode over to our daughter and leaned down, his chest and abs on full display as he picked her up. There was nothing sexier in the world than seeing the man you loved holding the child you’d created together. He rocked her back and forth, cradling her in his strong arms, and I melted a little at the sight. She looked so tiny next to him, like it wasn’t possible that one day she would outgrow being held like that by him.
Ryan moved carefully toward our bed, his steps slow as he attempted to crawl back in. Hope cooed and stared up at him, her little fists clenching and unclenching as she turned her head toward Ryan’s shirtless chest and tried to suckle.
“Not gonna happen, little angel.” He moved her away w
ith a laugh. “I don’t have the right equipment,” he added, handing her over to my waiting arms.
Each time I breastfed our daughter, Ryan watched like nothing had ever fascinated him more. And maybe nothing had? When you think about it, it’s truly a miracle the things our bodies are capable of.
Hope eventually fell asleep, her head pressed against my breast, and Ryan told me he’d take her so I didn’t have to get up. He scooped her carefully from my arms, her head supported just right as he laid her down gently in her bassinette.
“She still asleep?” I whispered.
“Didn’t even move an inch,” he said with a beautiful smile as I fought back a yawn. “Tired, angel?”
“Always,” I said, and it was the truth. I’d forgotten how exhausting babies were.
The bed dipped as Ryan got back in and pulled me against his chest. With my back pressed against him, I snuggled in, loving the way his arms wrapped around me and held me tight. This man’s arms were my home, a place I knew I’d always be safe, loved, and respected as long as I was in them.
About an hour later, I felt him stir, cool air hitting my body where his had just been, and it woke me momentarily. “You okay?” I asked, still mostly asleep.
“Just getting some water. You want some?”
“Huh-uh.” I couldn’t form any more words as I fell back to sleep. I didn’t even remember him coming back to bed.
• • •
The morning sun peeked in through the blinds, and I cursed myself for forgetting to close them all the way last night. When I moved, I immediately felt it . . . a foreign weight on my hand that hadn’t been there the night before.
Looking down, I felt my mouth drop open as I stared at the diamond ring on my left hand.
“What is this? Ryan? Ryan, what is this?” I shook his shoulder but he refused to budge, his eyes closed tight, his breathing relaxed. So I pushed him back and forth forcefully, doing my best to get him to wake the hell up.
“What’s wrong? Is the baby okay?” He shot up to a sitting position.
“The baby’s fine. What the hell is this?” I shoved my hand in his face, and he gave me a cocky grin.
“Looks like an engagement ring to me,” he said as he stretched his arms above his head.