Retaliatory Justice (The Talionic Files #1)

by Tawa M. Witko

  “Was she giving you the third degree?” he asks with a small chuckle.

  “She loves you very much.”

  “I know. They are good to me,” he kisses me lightly again before draping his arm over my shoulder. “Now, fair warning. Their chef is good but not nearly as good as you.”

  I laugh. “I think you are biased, but thank you.”

  He kisses my temple and then leads me into a formal dining room. It is quite lovely with a large table that seats eight. Valentino pulls my chair out and then sits next to me. The dinner is a brilliantly prepared roasted quail with cranberry-orange-pecan stuffing along with seared summer squash. But what’s even better than the meal is the conversation happening at the table. We all laugh and joke as Kailee regales us with stories of some of the crazy things she and Valentino did as kids. I can just imagine the two of them sneaking around and spying on people. I also can’t help noticing Lynelle trying not to tear up at the jovial nature in the room. As I sit with him, hearing his laughter, and seeing the bright smile on his face, I am able to see a glimpse of the person he was before his parents died and hope that someday he will be that way again.

  “That’s an interesting pendant,” Lynelle says, bringing me out of my thoughts.

  “Thank you,” I reply, squeezing Valentino’s hand underneath the table.

  “It looks Egyptian, is it?” she continues.

  Why is it that everyone else seems to know what this dang thing is but I don’t? I finally nod at her. “Yes, it is.”

  She turns to Joseph, lovingly. “Oh, Joseph, sweetheart, do you remember Cairo?”

  “Of course, darling, how could I forget,” he answers with a smile.

  She turns to me. “We went about five years ago. We had been once before but I wanted to get him out of the house. I had noticed him researching Egypt so I thought why not visit again.”

  I smile. “I would love to see it one day.”

  “Oh, it’s beautiful. But he,” she motions her head in Joseph’s direction, smiling before turning back to me, “was obsessed with, oh what was it,” she turns to Joseph who chuckles lightly.

  “You are exaggerating, my love.”

  “Hardly,” she replies with a laugh. “The Eye of Horus, that’s what it was. He was obsessed with it, made the tour guides tell him everything about it, legends, facts, you name it, he wanted to know.”

  I, Valentino, and Clayton all stop what we’re doing, frozen. The energy in the room shifts suddenly, and as I look at Joseph, he is staring at Valentino, who in turn is staring at him. What’s going on? What does it mean that his godfather was looking into this Eye of Horus thing? Is he involved somehow?

  “Why did you want to know about the Eye of Horus?” Valentino asks, and I’m not sure if he is angry or concerned.

  “Dominique, may I see the pendant?” Joseph asks, still watching Valentino.

  “Ummm, sure,” I say, removing the necklace and handing it to him.

  As I set the necklace in his hand, he turns it over. His features blanch immediately and now I’m really concerned. I grab Valentino’s hand, squeezing it tightly as we watch Joseph. His breathing escalates as his thumb passes over the outline sketched on the pendant. He looks like he’s just seen a ghost.

  “Joseph!” Valentino calls to him and Joseph looks up. “Have you seen a pendant like that before?” Valentino asks in a somewhat shaky voice.

  Joseph swallows and nods his head, looking back down at the piece of jewelry in his hands.

  “Where?” Valentino asks hesitantly.

  Joseph looks up again and this time his eyes are moist. “With your father’s things.”

  27 Digging up the Past

  Valentino Masterson

  August 4th

  I feel my heart drop. Did he just say that my father had one of these pendants? How is he involved with all of this? My first thought is he’s dirty and my eyes sting with the very idea. No, no, no, no… there is no way he was dirty. He had been trying to arrest Carmine and his brother for years. I close my eyes, trying to focus, and then remember what Joseph said the night Tony attacked me. He had said that my dad had found something he wanted the guys to talk about. Was this pendant it?

  Dominique squeezes my hand, tugging on it until I look at her. She has this worried expression on her face. I glance around the room and everyone is watching me warily. Standing quickly, I drop Dominique’s hand and stare at Joseph, boring a hole into him. More secrets he should have told me about.

  “I need my father’s case files. I know you have them.”

  He sighs. “I don’t have all of them.”

  “Bring me what you have.” My words are cold and harsh even to my ears.

  He nods and stands. I then turn to Clayton. “Call the guys. I want them here NOW!”

  He nods and pulls out his phone, stepping out of the room. “Yeah, Zach, get over here, we got something.” He steps all the way out of the room and I kneel in front of Dominique, taking her hands in mine. “The sooner I figure this out, the sooner you are safe.”

  “Do what you have to do.” She says with a sigh and then glances at the necklace Joseph handed back to her, frowning. “I wish Phillipe had never given this to me.”

  I reach my fingers under her chin and make her look at me. “If he hadn’t, you would probably be dead, and that’s something I’m not comfortable with.”

  She nods and kisses me before giving me a sweet albeit tipsy smile. “I’ll just stay up here and eat dessert.”

  I grin, thankful for the moment of levity. I kiss her gently. “I’ll have my dessert later.”

  “Jeff and Zach are on their way,” Clayton states, stepping back into the room.

  “Okay,” I reply, pulling away from Dominique.

  “Most of his files, I believe, are stored at the precinct. These are the ones he had at your old house,” Joseph states, entering the dining room with two boxes. “Clayton, there are two more, can you help me get them?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Clayton answers, following him out of the room.

  I turn back to Dominique. “Kailee and Lynelle will keep you company, all right?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she says, swinging my hand playfully. Yep, she has had too much wine. “I have dessert and wine. Who could ask for anything more,” she says crinkling her nose and then leans in close to me. “Except maybe wine and dessert,” she breathes hotly against my ear, “on you.”

  I close my eyes and feel her giggle slightly. This woman is gonna drive me crazy, but maybe that’s what I need because suddenly the heaviness I felt just a minute ago is slowly being lifted away. She makes me feel free in a way I haven’t been in a long time.

  I kiss her lobe and tug on it before whispering in her ear, “I think I can help you with that.”

  She turns to me and cups my cheek before kissing me tenderly. I don’t think I have ever shown any intimate interactions with anyone in front of my family. Before my parents died, I was always so focused on school and the work that I didn’t have time to have nurturing relationships, and then after they died, I had no desire to have one. Dominique makes me rethink everything.

  “Where do you want ‘em?” Clayton asks.

  I smile at Dominique and then step away from her, walking over to Joseph and Clayton.

  “Let’s take them downstairs,” I suggest as Clayton carries two boxes while I grab another.

  Joseph is looking at the ground and I take a deep breath, feeling bad for the way I treated him just a little bit ago. “Are you coming?”

  His head shoots up. “What?”

  “Are you coming? We need to work on this together, don’t you think?” I say, setting the box down and reaching my hand out.

  He smiles that completely joyous smile of his and nods as he grasps my hand and pulls me into a hug. When I glance back to the table, Lynelle is crying. She knows how much being a detective meant to him and I would imagine that he misses it a great deal. He retired shortly after my dad died. He said he couldn
’t do it anymore. Dad had been his partner for twenty years and his friend even longer. The thought of doing the job without him was something he couldn’t fathom. Being that Lynelle came from wealth, he had the luxury of cashing in his chips. I don’t know if my dad would have wanted him to do that, but it’s what happened.

  “Come on, let’s see if we can figure out what my dad wanted everyone to mull over,” I say.

  Joseph nods and grabs the last box. The three of us head down the stairs and into the Blue Sanctum, placing the four boxes on the covered pool table. If I know my dad, each box will contain all the information he had on a particular case. How he was able to keep these here, I’ll never know, and, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I want to know the particulars. I notice one of the boxes is marked CS. I swallow thickly as I move my shaking hand to touch it. My breathing picks up as my mind floods with memories of my father, of becoming an officer, of spending nights watching him mull over cases.

  “Excuse me,” I say absently and dash into the bathroom.

  The memories continue to flow. I can hear my father so clearly, his words of encouragement and hope, his determination and his pride in the type of cop I was. My heart feels like it’s going to explode and shatter as I squeeze my eyes shut even tighter, trying desperately to ward off the onslaught of tears. They open quickly at the sound of footsteps and I immediately grab the gun from my ankle holster.

  “Valentino, the guys are here,” Clayton says from behind the closed doors. I can hear the concern in his voice.

  “Yeah, okay, give me a second,” I stutter, holstering my weapon.

  I stand up and look at my reflection, seeing that my cheeks are wet from tears I didn’t realize I was shedding. I throw some water on my face, trying to get a grip. Ever since being assigned this case, my thoughts are all over the place. Memories of my family come constantly. The unusual thing about it though, is that since my involvement with Dominique, I have been thinking about more fun times with them and not just the bad. I snatch the hand towel from the rack and dry my face.

  “Get it together, Masterson. You are close now, closer than you’ve ever been,” I say to my reflection.

  I step out into the room, no worse for the wear. Jeff and Zach are both dressed casually and visiting with Clayton and Joseph.

  “My father knew about this Eye of Horus. I’m not sure what it means, but we need to go through these files to see if there are any connections to the Sicignano family or this Mubarak family. I can’t fathom my father being on the take, but if he was, I want to know,” I say quick and to the point.

  Joseph is looking to the ground, not saying anything, just breathing in deeply. “What does your gut say, Joseph?” I ask pointedly.

  He looks up and crosses his arms. “Val would never do anything to disgrace the badge. Like I said before, the day he died, he told me to get the guys together, that he had something he wanted us to talk about. He never said what it was.”

  “Did you go through his files?” I ask.

  He nods. “I did, but there were no links that I could see but that was six years ago. You have found out more in the last month then Val did in ten years.”

  I breathe in deeply and look at the guys. “Everyone takes a box,” I turn to Joseph, “You’re with me.” He nods and I turn back to the team. “Look for anything that links to the Sicignano family, the Mubarak family, the Komarovski family, or Beauchamp. There’s a link here. I know it.”

  Everyone snatches a box up and goes to their ‘spot’, Clayton at the poker table, Zach at the bar, Jeff at the pool table, and me and Joseph in the living room. I glance at the area near our Sicignano wall that houses a single chair and small table. It’s where Michelle would always sit. I guess I can understand why. Tony’s 8x10 is pinned there. It was her motivation. I can almost see her there, concentrating hard. She wanted to find Tony as much as us, just for different reasons. I wish I knew what happened to her. After I left the debriefing that felt more like an interrogation, I didn’t see her again. When I checked in with Anderson and asked about her, he had simply said she was ‘gone’. With the FBI, that could mean a lot of things, undercover somewhere else, witness protection, or simply she quit. I’ll never know. The bureau will erase all her information just like they did with De la Fosse.

  “I never meant to keep anything from you,” Joseph says, bringing me out of my thoughts.

  “I think you did, but,” I glance at his distraught face, “I understand why you did.”

  He nods and starts laying things out on the coffee table. He then reaches in his pocket and retrieves a small evidence bag. He pulls out a necklace which is badly charred but you can still make out the design on it. He hands it to me and I hold it up, examining it. It’s identical to Dominique’s.

  “Was this in a case file?”

  “No, it was in your dad’s safe.”

  I look at him. “Was there any mention where it was from?”

  He shakes his head. “Not at all. When I found it, I was concerned. I didn’t know what to think,” he says, looking down.

  “You thought he was dirty?”

  His brows furrow. “He had case files in his home and evidence in his lock box. It didn’t look good.”

  “Why didn’t you turn it in?”

  “He was my brother,” his voice strains. “There was already talk around the precinct that Val was involved with Carmine. I knew in my heart that wasn’t true, but if I had turned all this in, his reputation would have been ruined. It wouldn’t have mattered what the truth was, every case he worked would have been called into question. I couldn’t have that. So, I took it all, stored it here, and when they asked if I knew where the missing files were, I lied. The first time in my life, I lied.” He swallows and turns his head and I can see tears in his eyes. “I don’t regret my decision, but things were different after that. I couldn’t stay,” he says shaking his head.

  “Dad was always on the up and up. The job meant everything to him. He would have never done anything illegal.”

  Joseph nods slowly. “I know,” he turns to me with a determined expression, “now let’s prove that.”

  I smile as I reach for one of the items on the table. We have all been working for a few hours, going over every minute detail of the information contained in the boxes. My father was very thorough and took meticulous notes. In fact, my eyes are going a bit blurry trying to read it all. I glance around the room and everyone has the same look, drained. Both Jeff and Clayton are rubbing their eyes and Zach is stretching.

  “Let’s go over what we have so far,” I say, stepping into the middle of the room.

  “I think I’m going cross-eyed,” Jeff complains.

  I sigh. “I know, my father’s journals are very… intense.”

  “He was always like that. I couldn’t even read his notes,” Joseph adds with a slight chuckle.

  “Let’s start with you, Clayton,” I order, looking at him.

  Just as he starts to speak, we hear the door from inside the house open. We all turn and have our hands on our weapons, until we hear the clicking of heels. Kailee! Soon, both Kailee and Dominique are descending the stairs. Both of them are carrying platters of food. When they get to the bottom, Clayton and I quickly rush to them and take the platters out of their hands. Dominique smiles shyly at me.

  “We don’t want to disturb you because we know you’re working but we thought maybe you all might be hungry.”

  I smile. “Did you cook?”

  She nods sweetly. “Kailee and Lynelle helped me.”

  I let out a guffaw and Kailee glares at me. “Kailee can’t boil water, so tell me what she made so I can avoid it,” I say laughing, that is until Dominique crosses her arms and narrows her eyes.

  “That’s not funny, Valentino.”

  I stop laughing and look at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, you’re right.”

  “I’m not the one you should be apologizing too.”

  I glance at Kailee, who is smirkin
g, finding our interaction very amusing. “I’m sorry, Kailee. Apparently your culinary prowess has been hidden… deeply,” I grin.

  She rolls her eyes and snatches something off the plate and feeds it to Clayton. Jeff, Zach and Joseph have now come over and are looking at the platters of food.

  “All right, stop hovering,” I say as I set the platter on the counter as does Clayton. Kailee walks around the counter and digs out some plates and silverware.

  “I just made some appetizers for you, umm, let’s see, this platter has mini crab cakes minus my special sauce along with shrimp remoulade and this platter, well, I thought, you know, being in Chicago, I would make some mini pizzas, and umm, these are Cajun spicy meatballs and these are shredded red pepper pork dumplings.”

  Zach and Jeff are staring at her opened mouth.

  “We’ll let you get back to work,” she says and smiles at me before turning.

  I grab her hand, stopping her. I spin her around, bringing her body flush to mine. “That was extraordinarily sweet.”

  “I cook when I’m nervous. Is it too much?” she asks.

  “It’s perfect!” I reply. “Just like you.”

  She smiles sexily and leans up to kiss me. I immediately deepen it, forgetting all together that there are other people present. I hear dramatic coughing in the background and pull away from her, resting my lips near hers.

  “I’ll try not to be too long.”

  “Take your time, Neo,” she says with a giggle.

  “All right,” I lay another peck on her lips and step away from her, watching as she turns and leaps up the stairs to catch up to Kailee.

  “These are really good,” Zach states casually and then they all break out into laughter.

  “Yeah, shut up,” I laugh and grab one of the meatballs, immediately coughing. She wasn’t kidding when she said they were spicy. I clear my throat. “I was thinking about something my father said to me before he died. He mentioned that something had come across his desk.” I glance at Joseph. “Did he say anything to you about it?”

  Joseph shakes his head and sighs. “I had been asked to help in another precinct that month so we weren’t working together.”