by Mary Stone
“Yep. I’m working with her father, William Hatfield, to bring down a branch of the Colombo family tree in New York.”
His eyes widened. “You mean…the Colombos…one of the five families? That Colombo family?”
“Yep.”
“Shit. How’s Kylie involved in this? Spell it out.”
“From what I can tell, Kylie’s from William Hatfield’s first marriage, when he was known as Adam Hatfield. Then he went and sloughed off Kylie and his first wife, and took up with the Colombos, setting up a nice clean front from under which they could carry out their dirty work. D & H Construction. He’s the de facto owner of the company, but it’s really all dirty, dirty business, built on racketeering, extortion, fraud, tax evasion, murder…you name it.”
Jacob leaned back and scratched his head. He knew Kylie was trouble, but he didn’t figure for quite this much. “Well, shit.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So, what can I do to help you out, Agent Carter?”
“You can loan me the manpower I need to help bring them down,” she said. “There’s rumblings up in New York that they’re on to William, and if they’re on to him, they’ll find out about his first family. I get the feeling that all of this is going to come to a head pretty soon.”
“Pretty soon?” He leaned forward. “Hell, I’ve got news for you. It’s already coming to a head right now. Kylie went up there a couple days ago and stirred up a shit storm. Someone tried to run over the mama, and then someone fired a bullet at Kylie last night.”
It was Faith’s turn to be surprised. “Did she see the perpetrator?”
He shook his head. “Kylie and Linc are traveling right now. I’m not worried about her. She’s safe with Linc. I’ve got a man watching the mother’s house right now.”
“You do?” Faith grinned. “That’s what I like about you. You’re proactive. Can you get him on the horn with me? I want to talk to him.”
He nodded and dialed the officer’s number. “Why?” he asked, handing his cell phone over to her.
“Because these guys are professionals. Trust me. I’ve seen them operate. If I were you, I’d put more than one officer on watch,” she said, listening to the phone. She ended the call and frowned. “Went right to voicemail.”
“Son of a bitch.” He lifted the radio and tried to get Joe’s attention that way. Again, no answer. Then he called for any available cars in the area to get over there. As he put down the transmitter, he rose to his feet. “You think they’re in danger.”
It wasn’t a question.
She was on her feet too. “When the mob starts to move, they move fast.”
“All right. Let’s go,” he said, holstering his gun and putting on his hat. “I’ll drive.”
27
As the plane taxied toward the gate, Kylie already had her phone out, checking for messages. The last she heard was that Jacob was putting an officer in front of her mother’s house, but she was still nervous about the whole thing. She’d seen how frightened her father had been, and it hadn’t helped that the guy in the seat across the aisle from her had been watching The Godfather on his laptop.
She had a message from her mother, but it didn’t make any sense. In it, someone was talking, but she couldn’t hear it. It was just like her mother to have her phone on speaker and not be close enough to the receiver. Sighing, she turned to Linc. “Any news?”
He’d been listening to his voicemail messages. He brought the phone down from his ear and said, “The last message I got from Jacob was about a half hour ago. He said the situation was stable.”
Stable or not, she didn’t feel like she’d be able to rest until she talked to her mother. She rang her mother on both her cell and her landline, but they both went right to voicemail.
“She’s probably sleeping,” Linc noted, observing the wrinkle of worry over the bridge of her nose.
That was a good assumption, since her mother usually called it a night at around nine, and here it was, nearly ten. But ever since Kylie had found out that she was sharing the sofa in the living room with her “gentleman friend,” she’d wondered what else that might lead to. After all, her mother had transformed into a giggly teenager around the good doctor. What else about her would change? Would her mother invite him to stay? Make out with him for hours? Invite him to spend the night?
Why did the thought of her mother having a sex life suddenly make her feel sicker than the possibility of a mobster lurking outside?
She needed to get herself some perspective.
“I know,” she said, her lips twisting as she checked her phone display again. “But I should really just go and check on her. I couldn’t make out a word in the message she left me.”
He lifted his phone to his ear. “I’m checking in with Jacob.” He met her gaze. “Eh. It went right to his voicemail too. I’m sure everything’s fine.”
“Still…” she said, peeking over the seat. The plane had stopped taxiing. People were standing in the aisle, grabbing their luggage from the overhead compartments. The doors to the plane had opened and the fastened seatbelt sign had dinged off. Why was nobody moving?
She was three seconds from shouting for people to move when Linc held out a hand. “Relax. We’ll go check on her. Don’t get worked up.”
Kylie smiled and put a hand over his. If she didn’t have him, she’d probably have gone insane by now.
It took another ten minutes to disembark, and then a few more minutes to get to his truck, which they’d parked in the long-term lot. Luckily, they’d just brought carry-ons, so they didn’t have to wait for luggage. By ten-fifteen, they were cruising away from the airport, headed for her mother’s home.
The street Kylie grew up on was considered urban, so it could be busy at times, but it was usually quiet. When they pulled up the tree-lined street, they saw the cop car, parked at the curb. As they pulled past it, Kylie rolled down the passenger’s side window and squinted to look inside. “There’s no one in there,” she muttered, swiveling her head to look up at the little row home. “You think he’s inside the house, with her?”
“It’s possible,” Linc said, moving ahead to parallel park as Kylie took inventory of the house. The lights were off, except for a dim glow in the living room. That wasn’t unusual. Sometimes her mother fell asleep watching television. If she had, then it made sense why she wouldn’t answer the phone, since it was in the kitchen, and not always easy to hear.
But then, where was the police officer?
A tendril of fear snaked its way up her spine. Something was off.
Before Linc could even throw the car into park, Kylie opened the door and jumped out onto the curb. She started to run across the street, but Linc held her back. “Careful,” he said. “Let me check it out first.”
“If she’s in trouble, every minute counts,” she said, trying to rip her arm away from him, but he held her firm.
“If she’s in trouble, barreling in there without thinking will only get you more trouble,” he growled at her as they made it to the stairs. “Stay here.”
Well, he was right. As usual. She was being rash again and going off half-cocked. As usual. Glowering, she crossed her arms and watched as he climbed the stairs and peeked into the window. “Do you see anything?” she whispered.
He shook his head, opened the front screen door slowly and silently, and tried the knob. He turned back to her. “It’s locked.”
That made sense. She reached into her bag and held up her keyring. “I have the spare.”
He motioned to her to toss it to him, but she climbed the steps and placed it in his palm.
“If you go in there, I’m going with you,” she whispered.
“Fine.” He twisted the key in the lock and pushed open the door.
They walked into the mostly dark home, and Kylie ran an eye over the living room, bathed in a blue light from the television. The couch was empty, her mother’s favorite afghan lying in a rumpled mess on the cushions. No sign of her mother.
&n
bsp; “Maybe she went up to bed and forgot to turn off the television,” Kylie whispered.
“Uh. Kylie,” Linc started. He pointed upstairs. “Listen.”
She did and was mortified to hear muffled noises, like the creaking of a mattress.
Oh, my god. Her worst fears were about to be realized. Her mother and Jerry were getting it on. On their first date, no less. Her mother was going to get a lecture.
She blushed furiously, wondering whether they should just back out and call it a night, when she froze as her eyes fell on the television.
Everything seemed normal, except the television was tuned to a sports channel.
Her mother never watched sports. And she might have liked Jerry, but Kylie didn’t think her mother could like anyone enough to withstand watching sports with them. She detested them so much that Kylie had always been sure that her father must have been a sports nut, and she’d decided to hate them out of pure spite.
Then her eyes trailed to something on the floor. It was the photograph of her with her mother and father. The one that her mom had stuck to the freezer door. What was it doing over here?
She opened her mouth to say something to Linc, when out of the corner of her eye, something flashed.
She looked past Linc in time to see a figure in the shadows, leveling the barrel of a gun in their direction.
“Linc!” she screamed, grabbing him. He instinctively dove forward, his arm going around her waist and throwing her behind the couch.
Stunned, she rolled over just in time to see Linc tackling the shooter to the ground with a great, guttural “oof!”
She yelped as a gun went off with a silenced pop, taking a chunk of plaster out of the wall. “Linc!” she shouted, the sound of their scuffling barely audible over the pounding of her heart.
She had to do something.
Inching to where the two of them were fighting in the hallway, she was relieved to see Linc gaining the upper hand, wrestling the gun out of the assailant’s hands. She rushed forward, trying to help, when the gun went off again.
Pop.
The sound didn’t jive with the mist of blood that peppered the wall behind the men.
“Linc!”
Rushing forward, Kylie dropped to her knees just as the man slumped to the floor. Within seconds, he started to shake uncontrollably, a trickle of blood spilling from his mouth. His eyes were wide, like two full moons.
Linc grabbed his shirt, shaking him hard. “Who the fuck are you, you bastard? Who are you working for?”
Kylie knelt in front of him. “And what did you do with my mother?” she demanded.
The man didn’t answer. A moment later, his eyes lost focus, and his body went slack on a long exhale.
Kylie scrambled away. “Is he dead?” she asked, her heart in her throat as she remembered the noises she’d heard upstairs.
Without waiting for an answer, she raced for the staircase, taking the steps two at a time.
28
Linc fell back against the staircase, breathing hard.
The man—whoever he was—was dead. He’d shot him, protecting himself and Kylie, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch him bleed out in his arms. His hands shook as he realized they were covered in the man’s blood. He closed his eyes to stop thoughts of Syria from invading.
“Linc!” Kylie called from the second floor.
Grateful for the distraction, he jumped up and ran up the stairs, pushing open a door to a small bedroom. Rhonda and Jerry were on top of the bed, tied back-to-back, as Kylie worked furiously to loosen the gag in her mother’s mouth. Her mother’s eyes were like golf balls, and mascara ran down her cheeks. Linc rushed to help, coming to Jerry’s aid. He was knocked out, but alive.
As soon as Kylie freed the gag, Rhonda began to sob. “Kylie, thank god. I was so sure that you were dead.”
“Mom! Are you okay?” Kylie asked, crushing her mother in her arms.
“I think so,” she said, stunned, looking around. “I don’t know what happened, or who that man was. He was wearing a police uniform, and…where’s Jerry?” She twisted out of her daughter’s arms, looking wildly around. When her eyes fell on Jerry, she immediately began to panic again. “Is he dead? Please, god, no.”
Linc shook his head. He freed the rope around them and laid Jerry down flat on the bed, with his bleeding head on one of the pillows. He had bruises on his face, and a bloody gash on his forehead, which had probably knocked him out.
As he was checking him, Jerry began to stir, and his eyes flickered open. “Dr. Phillips,” Linc said, gently luring him back to consciousness. “Can you hear me?”
Jerry slowly opened his eyes more widely, then brought a hand to his forehead. “There must’ve been something in that drink,” he said groggily.
Rhonda burst into relieved laughter and wiped at her tears. “Where is that man? That police officer. He came in and wanted to use the restroom, and then he hit Jerry over the head while his back was turned.”
Kylie grabbed her mother’s hands. “It’s okay, Mom. You’re safe now. I’ll tell you everything, but I think right now we need to call the police. The real police.”
“Yeah.” Jerry sat up, rubbing his head. “Well, you sure know how to show a man a good time.”
Rhonda let out a laugh that was half humor, half sob. “It’s been very nice knowing you, Jerry. I—”
She grew quiet when Jerry kissed her.
Kylie’s eyes grew wide.
Taking her arm, Linc pulled her from the room, lifting his phone from his pocket to call for help just as a commotion sounded downstairs. Someone was calling his name. It sounded like Jacob.
Sure enough, Jacob and Faith were there, stooping over the body of the dead man. Faith shook her head. “This is him. Their fixer.”
Before Linc could ask how Faith could possibly know something like that, Jacob looked up. “What happened? Anyone hurt?”
Linc forced himself to look at the dead man. “This guy must’ve been impersonating an officer and got inside. Tied up Kylie’s mom and her friend and roughed them up pretty bad.”
“But they’re okay?” Jacob lifted his radio and called for an ambulance. His eyes went over the dead man, who was dressed in a uniform, but it was clearly ill-fitting. Shit. “Where’s Joe?”
“Joe?”
“The officer I put on the case. Shit.” He backed out the door, then flew down the porch stairs, across the street, toward the patrol car. Linc followed him as he opened the door and reached down, popping the trunk.
Linc slowed to a stop when he saw the huddled form, the pale face of the officer. He looked like a young guy, probably no more than twenty, a rookie. He was completely still. “Dammit to hell,” Jacob said, reaching in to feel the guy’s neck. “Joe. You hear me?”
“He got a pulse?” Linc asked.
“Barely. He took a bullet to the back of his head.” He lifted his radio and called it in.
Linc turned around just as Faith joined them. “You find him?” she asked.
He tried to bar her view from the grisly sight, but Jacob said, “Let her see. She’s FBI.”
Linc did a double take. “What?”
She frowned at the body. “Surprise! I’ve been following William Hatfield for a long time. He’s been my informant, helping me by providing me with information to put the Colombo crime syndicate out of commission for good. That dead man inside is Nino Capitano, one of their fixers. He’s been wanted for a long time.”
He stared at her. So, she’d known about Kylie all along. When she’d come up to his house to see him, she hadn’t really been there for him after all. She’d been there to get more information on Kylie. “Then you know Kylie has nothing to do with it, right?”
“Oh, I know,” she said with a wink. “I know everything. I know that William got dragged into the family and has been looking for a way out. So, like they say in the mafia, I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. A reduced sentence in exchange for inside info on the Col
ombo family.”
Linc’s world tilted on end. Sure, Faith had always been interested in crime, but he’d thought she’d become a litigator, not a federal agent. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “You’re serious.”
She nodded.
He looked at Jacob. “And you knew about this?”
“Nope. Just found out about a half hour ago.”
In the distance, sirens screamed. Linc jogged back into the house. Jerry and Rhonda were up now and starting to walk down the stairs. Rhonda had stopped crying, but she still looked dazed. “How are you doing?” he asked her.
“Fine,” she said in a faraway voice, looking at the man on her floor.
“Mom,” Kylie said, rubbing her back. “Why don’t you come with us tonight?”
“Right,” Linc added. “You can stay as long as you want up at my house.”
Her eyes were still fastened on the dead body. She inhaled sharply and nodded. “I don’t know if I ever want to come back here.”
“That’s all right,” Kylie said, giving Linc a worried look. “You can stay with us as long as you want.”
“Yeah. Come on, let’s get you in the truck.” He looked at Jerry. “You going to be all right? The ambulance is here.”
Jerry nodded. “I’m fine. It was just a little smack.” He smiled past Linc, focusing on Rhonda. “I think for our next date, though, we might try doing something a little less exciting?”
She smiled, her face practically melting in admiration. “You’re on.”
Kylie linked her arm through her mother’s, escorting her to the screen door. “Let’s go.”
Linc went outside and helped the two Hatfield ladies into his truck. Kylie shivered from the passenger seat, so he turned on the ignition and pumped in a little heat. “You guys okay?”
They nodded.
He looked over as the officer was being loaded onto a stretcher, and saw Faith talking on her phone. He held up a finger to Kylie. “We’ll be out of here in a second.”
He jogged over to Faith. “So, you know more than anyone else. What the hell is going on, and more importantly, is it over?”