“I jacked it in and got to spend the last six months with her and each day she did her best to make them special for me. For me, that’s what still undoes me, even when she was being eaten alive by fuckin’ cancer, she was excited I was back and she wanted it to be a special time for us. Ross and I never spoke about things until after she’d gone. I didn’t go back to the service, I couldn’t. I blamed them for the time I’d missed having with my family. It wasn’t right though, I was the reason, because I just kept taking the assignments.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Not for you to be sorry for and remember,” he said pointing, changing the subject.” If you’re being pursued on this route, only change it up when it’s safe. Twist and turn quick when you can, but never back track. It’s got to be absolutely vital to your survival to justify back tracking.”
“Alright. So… Ross doesn’t have a girlfriend then.”
“Not that I would know, but I don’t believe he has, he saw the lonely life his mom had and swore he’d never put someone through it. I always figured that until he found someone worth making the jump for, he’d just keep on going.”
“Oh,” I was hoping I was playing down the assumption and excitement that was showing on my face.
“Giving up the job, before he found that would mean he had nothing and I guess it’s better to have something rather than nothing.”
“I don’t even know where he lives.”
“A man can sleep anywhere, a bed just sits in a house, a room or a hotel, but to live somewhere you need to find a home and I don’t believe my boy has that. He’s a sure thing thinker and by that I mean, when he goes all in, he’s really all in. Me, I sold our family home and bought the junkyard, a rash decision but I needed the change. Ross, well, he’ll settle down somewhere soon and I have a feeling you’ll know where that is before I do.”
Hope and longing was surging and taking root inside me. Sam was convinced that Ross wanted to be with me and I was crossing my fingers that he was right. “Thank you for sharing all that with me, I imagine your wife was a wonderful woman. She sounds like a fantastic mom.”
“That she was.” It was a final statement that signaled the end of the Wilkes family sharing time and history lesson. “I like this route, it’s a great option, covered and fairly direct. You need to make sure you don’t get cornered though. If things start to go against you, use obstacles if you can find them and slow the bad guys down. If your escape route is blocked, make for crowds. Only the desperate will do something stupid in a public place or crowd.”
“Got it,” I replied confidently.
Sam stopped and I knew what was coming was serious, “Mouse, listen to me. Don’t ever underestimate how emotions can affect you. Being chased by someone when you’re in a car is intense, but being chased on foot, hunted like prey, is terrifying. Blood curdling, heart thumpingly terrifying. Keep your wits about you. Maintaining sense and composure, that’s the key to survival.”
“I understand. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for taking me in.” It was important that he knew what he’d done for me. “When I found you I was coming to the end of my sanity. I didn’t know how I was going to see this through and the thought of carrying on was feeling like my own death sentence. Teaching me all this, just the simple act of taking back a little bit of control has made all the difference. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you.”
“You already are. My boy cares about you, seeing him realize there is something other than the job he’s focused on, is how you’re repaying me. Knowing that my boy gets a glimpse of what could be is enough for me. It may work out, it may not, but I’ll know he had his chance.”
Sam’s words were beginning to affect me, I’d never seen my father paternally care for his son’s, it was expected that there was some kind of love between them. Any hugging or manly back slaps were done out of showmanship and pride that he was being seen to raise the next generation of Acerbi mobster. I began to wonder whether my brother’s missed that gentle, loving support from their dad. It was odds on that the cold mannerisms they’d become accustomed to would be passed onto their children too. Learned behavior is the saddest of all human traits and I pitied them because of it, especially Guiseppe.
“Sam, even if this kills me and running turns out to be the biggest mistake of my life, I wake up every day and send a prayer of thanks to God that I stopped outside your junkyard gates.” He stopped and smiled at me and in what I assumed was some father/daughter gesture of affection, he leaned forward and kissed me on the top of my head. His cell phone began to ring in the pocket of his coveralls.
“Yeah,” he said as he put it to his ear. I saw him stiffen before I felt it beside me. “And what did this stranger look like?”
Then it was my turn to freeze.
“And he was looking for Ross? OK, text me the plate number. Thanks Chuck.” Sam could sense I was a brief second away from losing all sense of collected reasoning, “Calm down they were looking for Ross. It could be anyone. He’s had a mysterious and colorful life, could be an old friend from the army. I’ll admit I don’t like the coincidence but Chuck watched whoever it was drive back out of town.”
“Who is Chuck?”
“Gas station. Other end of town. He’s a friend and I asked him to give me a heads up to any random newcomers in town.”
“Did he say what he looked like?”
“No, but I’m gonna suggest we head back anyway. We’ll do some recon from the forest edge and if the coast is clear you go into the house and stay put. We’ll warn Ross and get him to run the plates on the car.”
I turned and started walking without answering, I was completely convinced that this was about me and not Ross. When we got to the forest edge I did what we’d agreed and waited at the edge of the tree line for over twenty minutes. My brain was in a cycling frenzy with certainty that I’d been discovered when Sam returned with the all clear. There was no one lying in wait at the house.
I was desperate for Sam to make the call to Ross in front of me, I wanted as much information as he did but it was clear he wasn’t going to do it in front of me. “I think I’ll take a soak in the tub, try for a bit of forced relaxation.”
“Good idea Mouse, I’ll put the stove on for some fodder.”
I nodded and let him get busy before I left the room, going upstairs and starting the faucet on the bath tub. I waited five minutes and used one of my recently acquired new skills, creeping about. I snuck back down the stairs assuming he’d be keen to make the call as soon as he thought I was out of the way.
It didn’t take long. “Son, a new visitor appeared in town, came lookin’ for you. Chuck gave me the heads up. You OK?” He went quiet, listening and intervening during appropriate times in the conversation. “License plate number IZYZ452. Get back to me.”
My brain started to spin and pulse with activity, I missed any remaining conversation and stopped listening as Sam was telling Ross that he thought the whole thing had spooked me out.
I missed it because my brain had worked its magic, I knew that car. I’d seen it many times both written down in the ledgers and parked outside of our family home.
It was my brother, Valentino’s car.
They’d found me.
Chapter Twenty Three
*****
Ross
“There’s a faster way to identify that plate dad, go and ask Cara if she recognizes it.”
“Are you nuts? You’ll scare the shit out of her,” he barked back at me. My dad had become protective of his mouse.
“Lyin’ or hidin’ shit is not an option. Her head doesn’t work like ours.”
“I know that!” he snapped again. His frustration was getting the better of him, he was worried.
“No I mean it. It intensifies shit. It twists and turns stuff until she can’t cope because it won’t shut down. If she’s involved in figurin’ this out it might stop that happenin’. I need to know she’s OK so go find her and ask her.
”
“Alright,” he mumbled back at me and I could hear his work boots clomping out of the kitchen, into the hallway and then up the stairs. “What the…” I heard him say.
“What the fuck what? Dad, what the fuck’s wrong?” I lashed out.
“The tub is overflowing, she told me she was takin’ a bath.”
I didn’t like the sound of this, I wasn’t with her and relying on someone else to tell me she was OK was killing me.
Fuck! When did I become so attached. “Find her dad. Now. Room first and then check the storage locker in the main garage, if the money is gone, she’s runnin’.”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Do not hang up!” I barked at him. “If you find her I want to talk to her.”
I’d not yet made it to Hawkstown, I’d decided to stake out the strip club a little while longer. I thought understanding the clientele would educate me better and confirm the honey trap operation. Guiseppe Acerbi came and went enough to validate that it was a main office base for him. I also wanted to make sure that Raven was still in one piece.
What the hell was it about me and damsels in distress? It’s not as if every case I’d worked didn’t have some kind of female involvement. For some reason though, I was unable to keep my carefully constructed wall up and keeping that wall in place was a big part of keeping me focused and alive.
I heard my dad open the back door, the tell tale hinge squeak gave it away. It was a noise that was loud enough to be heard whilst you were sleeping during the night and for that reason alone my dad had never oiled the nuisance away. “Money’s gone. Just checking the trailer.”
“Fuck! This is bullshit, it’s me they’ve found not her.”
“Mouse darlin’, what’s going on? Why are you out here cryin’?” I heard him say gently.
“Give her the phone dad.” I knew he’d done this when I heard her sniveling down the line. “Baby listen, can you tell me what’s goin’ on? I need you to try and calm down for me.”
“I… I… heard,” she sniffed, “I heard it. The… plate…d… details.”
“That’s good. I was hopin’ you’d be a faster database check than my contacts at the DMV.”
“It’s… it’s Valentino’s. He’s found me, he’s found me! I won’t let him take me back,” she wailed down the phone.
“OK baby, OK. I really need you to relax just a bit and pay attention. I don’t think it’s you they’ve found, I think it’s me. I’ve stumbled into one of their operations and I think they’re lookin’ into me as a possible mark.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know beautiful, I know. Fuck, I’m done with this being apart shit and I can’t concentrate ‘cus I’m stressin’ that you might run or might kill my old man if you manage to convince him to spar with you. I know that mind of yours is workin’ overtime wonderin’ what I’m up to. Remember that name and address I gave you? I want you and dad to head over there and I’ll meet you there. I’ll carry on checkin’ in via dad’s cell, but I promise you, I’ll explain everythin’ when we’re together. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes Ross, I’m… sorry. I’m a failure. All your training and faith in me and I was going to run again,” she started to cry as she was finished her sentence and it felt like I was having my fucking heart pulled from my chest. I wasn’t good with words and I knew if I was with her I could love her, hold and comfort her, until she felt better.
“Ssh, ssh, you haven’t failed anyone. You followed your instincts and survival is exactly that, makin’ decisions based on information available and that’s all you did. I’d rather you listen to your gut and run than stay and fight, especially when I’m not there to fight with you.”
“Alright. I…” she stopped talking.
“What is it? No secrets, tell me.”
“I… I miss you so much,” she whispered and fuck if that didn’t just fill me up with joy inside.
“I miss you too, but the sooner you get on the road, the sooner we’ll be together. Can you put dad back on?”
“Yes.”
“So, I’m road trippin’ then?” he said astutely.
“Yeah, sorry. I can’t risk lettin’ her do it alone. I’ll keep in touch but you know the drill, keep her away from street cams, gas station security video feeds, the whole fuckin’ lot.”
“I do. It’ll be like takin’ a trip down memory lane. I’ll look after her son. I didn’t think earlier.” He was starting to apologize and there was no need.
“I should have warned you this could happen.”
“Would’ve been a nice heads up, but what’s done is done. See you in a few days,” he replied and hung up.
I exhaled a lungful of air. It felt stagnant as I expelled it, like I’d been holding on to it because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to calm her down and get her to come to me.
If we were to have a future of any kind, I needed to convince her that I’d do everything in my power to keep her safe. I couldn’t carry on with the fear that the moment I turned my back or we had the slightest blip or set back that she’d run. Life wasn’t drama free, but she had to find another way to react.
I made it back to the window in time to see Raven being man-handled out of an Escalade into the back door of Sunset Strip. She was the reason Cara’s brother had gone to Rockton. The most worrying thing was that he’d turned up at my old man’s place, it meant they had a Fed on payroll who would have I.D’d me as one too. I didn’t own my own place and his address was listed, buried deep in my personnel file, with my dad as my only next of kin.
All throughout my career I’d been protected, or so I thought, by obscure cover stories and legends so backed up, that there were times I forgot my own names and real identity. For them to get access to my very factual details meant that the Acerbi reach was far and wide. People I trusted to keep me safe had rolled over and given me up. I imagine the lure of bribing or having an ATF agent in the club had sent them scrambling quickly. I’d be the golden goose for those mob motherfuckers.
“FUCK!” I was beyond angry.
Trust was everything in my job. Maybe this was why I’d never come across the Acerbi’s or been put on any case involving them, they were protected. This kind of corruption was possible and more common than anyone wanted to admit, but I always swore that the day I felt unsafe, I was done.
Looks like I’m done then.
Motherfuckers.
What’s worse is that they could have found Cara by accident, what a prize that would have been for them. We were lucky this time and I knew we couldn’t chance that kind of luck too many times. This only confirmed my need to have her with me and by my side, because if she was going down, then I was going down fighting for her.
I dialed the familiar number I’d come to rely on lately more than ever. “J,” I spoke when he answered. “Cara and my old man are moving across the country to yours. One of her brothers rocked up in town.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I think they’ve found me and are lookin’ at my honey trap potential.”
“That was quick.”
“I know. They found me at my dad’s which means someone has been through my restricted personnel file at the agency.”
He knew what this meant, the danger this posed. “On it. I’ll see if I can hack in and assess who the weak link is.”
“I owe you man, I owe you a lot. Cara is headin’ to your place. I need you to be ready, I trust you’ll prep Dolly if you need to, but the others absolutely can’t know.”
“Sure. I’ll be inventive,” he chuckled, “see you when you get here.”
“Roger that,” I confirmed, reverting to army chatter and hung up.
Throwing everything in my bag, I left the room without formally checking out. If there was any chance that they had my list of legends and I had to face it, it was a strong possibility, then I didn’t need any flags being raised about my current whereabouts.
Hawkstown. Shit, that was somewhere I n
ever thought I’d visit again. Memories of what could have been, the lifestyle I’d always wanted was repeatedly shoved down my throat when I was with my friend.
Things would be different this time though, I was the one seeking help and the more complicated all of this became, the more unsure I was of just what kind of help it was I needed.
Chapter Twenty Four
Sam and I borrowed a truck from someone in town who he trusted. I knew, even though he didn’t tell me, it was because his truck was probably compromised. He kept making excuses when I asked, ‘they owe me,’ or, ‘more comfy ride and better on gas.’ Whatever, either way, I rarely left the vehicle along the route. We continued to argue about it until he came clean, it wasn’t safe for me to be wandering around in front of security equipment. Sam also apologized for trying to keep me in the dark, apparently the protective trait is a hard one to shake.
Because of the risk, he was selective about which gas station rest rooms it was safe for me to use, so much so, that I used them irrespective of whether I needed them just to be sure. I wore an old oily ball cap and sunglasses pretty much permanently and we stayed in some seriously dodgy motels along the way.
Driving under threat in the past meant I hadn’t had any opportunity to take in the scenery or surroundings but this time it wasn’t a problem. Having time to gaze out of the window also gave my brain time to whirl and gyrate, I was generally grumpy and overactive so it didn’t take long for the mumbling and fidgeting to kick in.
“Mouse… mouse, hey girl, listen up. Want me to make a stop at a library or bookstore?”
“That would be amazing if it’s not too much trouble although I guess I can’t go in and choose them myself,” I mumbled, hopeful.
“No sweetheart, ‘fraid not.” At the next town he did as he said and returned with a paper bag full of used books from a thrift store. He chosen a varied selection of mystery, science fiction, romance and to my surprise, erotica although I’m sure he didn’t realize that. “I just steered away from anything that looked too close to home, mob related, mafia stuff or crime and gangland.”
Survivor (The Soul Mates Series Book 1) Page 14