by Ali Vali
“Stop bullshitting me and tell me you haven’t thought about it. Someone like Caterina Terzo needs to be put in her place, and if you’re the man who does it, you get to walk out and brag about it.”
It took a moment, but the guy shook his head again.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You’d rather die than fuck this loser?”
The guy shook his head and blinked rapidly.
Yankee guessed dying from fucking Caterina or from Francesco finding out what he’d done were one and the same. “I’m going to untie you, and if you make any move other than what I’m asking, you’re going to join those cops in a closed casket funeral. Understand?” he asked as he cut one leg loose.
The way the guy resisted when he tried to roll him over onto Caterina made Yankee believe he really did fear Francesco more than him. The idiot stopped struggling when he jammed his gun to the back of his neck. Finding Caterina with this guy’s dick in her was the last piece of the tableau that Benito wanted the police to find, but there was only so much he was willing to do for a job. He wasn’t going to sit there and try and shove the damn thing in.
Whatever reaction Francesco Terzo was going to have didn’t seem like something Benito was worried about. That wasn’t his problem, and he shoved the dildo in the guy’s ass none too gently.
The move made the guy buck a few times as if trying to dislodge it before he slumped bonelessly onto Caterina. His weight made her open her eyes and say fuck once, before Yankee forced a pill down her throat and slammed his hand over her mouth and nose. The thrashing and gulping that followed made Yankee confident she’d swallowed it, so he sat on the bed and waited.
Caterina Terzo died with her eyes open and her bodyguard on top of her, making it look like they’d been fucking, and that was close enough. It was the revenge London’s grandfather had wanted for her and had gotten permission to mete out. Benito’s guarantee of New York’s okay was the only way he’d accepted the job. He wasn’t an idiot, and he wasn’t about to get caught in the crosshairs of the warring mob families.
“Hello, sir,” Yankee said, packing away all the ropes and cuffs he used. “It’s done.”
“The way I wanted?” Benito asked.
“Exactly that way, sir. Give me twenty minutes and you can have someone call it in. Terzo paid for the loss of your blood with her own.”
* * *
“I’m telling you,” Alex said as Robert got undressed. They’d had a few late nights trying to keep the police out of their business, and trying to keep the media from reporting from the front of the casino. All the attention had Caterina Terzo on Robert’s ass and he was getting damned tired of it.
“Alex, I’m not interested in talking about it again.” He folded his pants and placed them on the chair in his room. “I’ll tell you what I’ve said to Caterina a million times. The only thing we can do is wait it out. If we try to shut down the cooperation we’ve shown, the cops will only ramp up the pressure.”
“Why do they keep coming back?” Alex, at least, seemed more relaxed now that he was in his underwear.
He pointed at Alex’s pants and lay down. “Because we had to kill those two idiots Jasper hired, and our contractors were even bigger idiots by killing those kids. At least the other guy got rid of the bodies, but he accepted the money, so they’re dead. No one’s stupid enough to collect the fee if the job’s not done.” He put his hands behind his head when Alex got naked and took his time putting his hands in his boxers. “The kids are what’s going to force us to be patient.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Robert exhaled when Alex finally shut up and sucked the head of his dick in. His phone ringing wasn’t anything he wanted to deal with, but it wasn’t the time to let anything slide.
“What?” He was glad Alex didn’t stop.
“Mr. Wallace, it’s Rick.”
“Who?” He put his hand on Alex’s head to get him to slow down.
“Rick, I work security at Bellagio. You told me to call you if I saw or heard anything strange. Remember that?”
“Yeah,” he said, stopping Alex since this guy seldom called. The last time was when Victor had been found, and he’d paid him five grand for that information. “You have something for me?”
“The police just called for us to check out the villa next to where they found Madison, and I just left there. Once the cops showed up they threw everyone out.”
Robert sat up and pushed Alex aside. “What did you find?”
“The same kind of shit we saw when Madison died, but this time it was Caterina Terzo and some guy named Leon Santiago. It was the same thing, right down to Caterina and the guy dying while they were fucking. That’s what they told me.”
“Caterina Terzo’s dead?” he asked, which made Alex sit up as well. “You sure it’s her?”
“I didn’t get to take any pictures, but I’m telling you, it’s her. She doesn’t come over here often, but I’ve seen her.”
“Rick, come by the office tomorrow and I’ll have something for you. Remember that there’s always going to be a payday if you keep calling.” He hung up and smiled. “Can you believe it?” he asked Alex. “The bitch is dead, and she was offed the same way Victor bit it.”
“Who do you think had the balls to do that?” Alex said, standing up and pouring him a drink. “Francesco is going to be insane until he finds out who.”
“This is nothing but good for us. If Francesco and Lucan spend their time looking for her killer, it takes their eye off us.” He enjoyed the burn of the whiskey. “Shit, if this had come sooner, we could’ve saved ourselves the contracts we had to take out. Caterina would never have found out.”
“Not really, lover. There’s no way you could’ve left those women out there knowing what they did.”
“No sense in worrying about it since we’ll be rolling in cash before Terzo and his partners figure it out.” Now was the time to get in touch with his new contacts and finish their business. “It’s time to start celebrating.”
“Not yet,” Alex said, going back to what he’d been doing, “but soon.”
Chapter Eighteen
Reed silently went through Dean Jasper’s home office and collected a box full of files she was taking with her to show Brinley. Jasper was a weasel, but it appeared he was smart enough to have backups of everything he’d ever done for Wallace. From his notes, Wallace was indeed a cleaner for Francesco Terzo, but she’d need Brinley to interpret the numbers. Dean had been nice enough to outline Wallace’s business with the Terzos, which, as it turned out, wasn’t an exclusive arrangement.
“I doubt old Francesco knows that, though,” she said as she slipped the cover on the box. Wallace was branching out and going to work for the cartels directly, and he’d risked Terzo’s anger to get his hands where the real money was, by cutting the old man out and taking a bigger cut from the cartels.
Jasper was sleeping naked on satin sheets and she wanted to laugh at the pathetic sight of the porn magazines scattered on the bed next to him. His toupee sitting like roadkill on his nightstand must’ve been a huge turn-on to any woman stupid enough to find herself here. Reed twitched her top lip since the moustache she’d put on was a little itchy, but all she wanted Dean to remember was some kind of biker dude attacking him.
She slapped him and pressed the big hunting knife she’d brought with her right under his balls. The cold bite of the metal made Jasper go from confusion to total stillness. “You move and I’m going to cut this little thing off and choke you with it. You get me?” she asked in a gravelly voice.
“Yes,” Jasper said in such a high-pitched voice it made it sound like she’d already cut his balls off. “Take whatever you want.”
“I already did, dumbass, but I’m not done.” She rolled him over and positioned the tip of the knife at the bottom of the scrotum. “You and I are going to have a talk, and honesty really is the best policy now. Lying will come with huge penalties.”
“What do you want?”
“You work at the Moroccan, right?” She pressed the knife down hard enough to break the skin, and the move seemed to break Jasper as well.
“Yeah, I do, but I don’t have a lot of money here,” Jasper said, trying to press his groin into the mattress to get away from her.
“Your boss already paid me a lot of money to kill some bitch and her kid, so I don’t need no money.” She smiled at the way he sucked in a lungful of air. “Now I’m here, and I think you’re smart enough to know why.”
“Robert knows I’d never talk,” Jasper said and his pitch went up even more. “Call him. You don’t have to do this. I know I didn’t agree with what happened to Naomi and Brinley, but I’m not stupid enough to talk.”
“That motherfucker killed two kids, and now he’s cleaning up,” she said, glad that Jasper was making this a lot easier than she expected. “You’re a loose end, and I’m going to dump you next to Brinley Myers and her little bastard.”
“Wait—just wait,” Jasper said, and she could hear the snot draining out of his nose once his tears started. “You don’t have to do this. Really, call Robert and let me talk to him.”
“He was right,” she said and pressed down harder. “You really are a dumb motherfucker. The deal’s been made, asshole, and you’re dead.”
“You kill me, and everything I know will come out,” he said, crying louder than Brinley when she’d pointed her gun at her. “You do this and he’s going down, so make sure he knows that.”
“You got something on Wallace?” She let up on the pressure as if rethinking killing him. Jasper’s self-preservation was strong enough to get her somewhere. “You think it’s worth more than fifty grand?”
“Way more than that,” Jasper said, sounding euphoric. “Let me go, and I’ll give you a copy.”
She pressed down again, making him yelp. “What are these worth to you?” The knife sliced in a little more and Jasper stopped breathing. “You think these are worth more than a copy?”
“Okay, I’ll give you the originals. The stupid bastard insisted I keep them here and only the two of us know the combination. We keep updated versions of the files we give Francesco Terzo every week to prove we aren’t ripping him off. I’ll be goddamned if I let Wallace end up with them.” The bed shook a little when Jasper slapped it with his open palms in apparent anger.
“I’m curious,” she said leaning into him, which pushed on the knife. “Why kill those women? I don’t usually off little kids, but a quarter mill was too good to pass on. He’s getting you for a bargain.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jasper said loudly.
“Focus, scumbag. What put a kid in my crosshairs?”
“Wallace wanted an audit. He told me to do it, but I didn’t have time.” He started talking and told her what he knew in a torrent of words and sobs. “The women saw the real numbers and compared them to the fake ones, and no one asked them to do that. They could have figured out what was really going on. Robert got nervous and ordered them killed. He couldn’t afford them talking to anyone.”
She sat up again, not believing a mother and her young daughter had died because this asshole was too lazy to do the job Little Bobby ordered him to do. “Why’d you give them access if they were going to get killed for it?” A truthful answer wasn’t something she expected, but people surprised her every so often, especially when their balls were bleeding.
“I couldn’t finish in time, so I had to chance it. Neither one of them had access to the entire picture. Really no one at the casino has that but me, but they accessed the information without asking me first. You got to believe me that I never thought Robert would kill them.”
“Come on, and think before you get really stupid. Get me what I want.”
He walked to his kitchen and opened the pantry. The trapdoor hidden behind a load of cans would’ve taken her a while to find, but Jasper turned the dial on the safe behind it and swung the door open. He reached in and was howling on the floor seconds later, when he’d reached for the gun on top of the large briefcase. She’d driven her knife into the top of the hand he’d braced on the wall before he could draw the weapon.
“I was wrong about you, asshole.” She watched him press his wounded hand between his legs, smearing blood all over the floor. “Those balls really aren’t that important to you, and I would’ve bet my fee they were.”
“Please—I was just afraid. I don’t want to die for doing my job.”
“Shut up before I kill you for being such a dumb bastard.” She moved behind him and placed the knife against his throat. He wasn’t willing to die for doing his job, but he was willing to put Brinley and Finn in the crosshairs because Brinley was doing hers. “What was that audit really for?”
“What do you mean?” Jasper spoke softly as if not wanting to startle her into slicing his throat open.
“Did I stutter? What was the audit really for?” She quickly moved the knife from his throat to his chest and sliced across his nipple. “I’m not an idiot, and there’s no way that story of yours is the whole truth. I need the whole thing, or I swear I’ll kill you.”
“Please don’t hurt me anymore.” The sound of the knife slapping against his wound was instantly drowned out by Jasper screaming.
“Then start talking.”
To her amazement, he did. “Robert wanted the pre-audit for two reasons. He wanted to buy time with Terzo, and to prove to the cartels the amount he could handle.” He kept talking like he was in a confessional and was praying for absolution.
“Shit.” She closed her eyes for a minute, processing as fast as she could. “Here’s what you’re going to do if you want to live.”
* * *
“Mrs. Myers,” Andrew Wamsley said as Wilma busied herself making coffee the next morning. “Please sit.”
“Jesus.” Wilma gripped the edge of the counter as tears fell slowly down her cheeks. “Don’t tell me they’re dead.”
Andrew could almost feel the pain she was in. “Sit for me and let’s talk,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. The captain had forced Corey back on him for the moment, but he’d left him behind for this visit since Corey’s social skills needed work. “We haven’t found either of them, but we might have to consider the reality they’re both gone. It’s different than how we found Naomi and her daughter, but it has to be connected to what happened. I’m going to do my best to prove it, but finding her car and the blood at the scene probably isn’t a good sign.”
“Why is this happening?” Wilma asked, sounding weak. It was as if all her hope and will had disappeared along with Brinley and Finn.
“I don’t know that yet, but I’m working to find answers. There aren’t any of those yet, but I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten about you.”
Wilma nodded. She didn’t appear to notice he was holding her hand. “She moved here because of her ex-boyfriend, but this is so much worse. Jarrell was a pain in the ass, but he never tried to hurt Brinley or Finn.”
“The world isn’t a very nice place, at least from where I see it, but you have to be strong.” His phone rang and he wanted to ignore it, but with the kind of shit blowing up around them, he couldn’t. “Sorry,” he said as he answered. “Wamsley.”
“We got another one,” Corey said, sounding like they’d hit the lottery.
“Another what?” Andrew stood and moved away from Wilma. He didn’t want her to find out they’d found her family by overhearing it on the phone.
“Another case, and you’re not going to believe it.”
“Where are you?” The pictures on the refrigerator made him smile. Brinley really was a beautiful young woman who seemed happy in each shot with her cute little boy.
“The villas at Bellagio, and I’ve sealed the scene until you get here.”
“I’m on my way, so keep everyone out.” He hung up and turned to find Wilma staring at him, wide-eyed and pale. “Don’t worry, this is about something else, but I do have to go.”
“Will y
ou let me know if you find anything?”
“You’ll be my first call, but remember what I said. You have to stay strong.”
He placed the blue light on his car and sped toward the next weird scene. At least, it was probably weird considering Corey’s reaction, but with any bit of luck, it’d provide some kind of answers to the swirling mess that seemed to involve a whole lot of powerful families. He parked close to the entrance where the villas were located, having learned his lesson from the last time when he’d had to walk the entire property.
“Jesus Christ,” he said once he’d put on booties and gloves to enter the space. “Is that Caterina Terzo?” If it was, there was a war coming, and they’d get more than their share of cases when Terzo started killing people for this. He knew Francesco well enough to know this wasn’t going to go unpunished.
“Caterina Terzo and Leon Santiago,” Corey said, holding up the guy’s wallet. “Does this scene look familiar at all?”
“Down to the dildo and, I’m guessing, fentanyl.” He walked around the room, but there wasn’t much there except for the tremendous amount of shock value. “This might have something to do with either Lucassi or Diego Moretti finding out who was texting London Emerson all those instructions. What happened to that kid gives a few people motive for revenge. The captain wanted to put off bringing Caterina in until we had enough to hold her without some attorney getting involved, but I thought that was happening today.”
“It was, but something must’ve gone wrong. The brass only sent one car so she wouldn’t get defensive, but then this shit happened.”
“It looks like someone wanted to send a message.”
“How do you want to handle this?” Corey wasn’t his usual sarcastic self, so maybe the kid had the ability to learn.
“Get Mike and his CSI team in here and tell him not to miss a surface. Let’s see if this guy can leave two perfect crime scenes.” He waited for Corey to get off the phone before pointing to the flecks of blood that appeared smeared on Caterina’s forehead. “Where’d this come from?”