06 All Bark And No Bite

by Jana Leigh

  “What is that?” Junior said and shifted nervously.

  “Well, it is a composite of information I have gathered about my family. I mean, I needed to know exactly what was going on here. So,” Lily said and paused when the waitress stopped and asked what they wanted to drink. Lily smiled at her and relaxed, ordered coffee and a muffin, while the men ordered a huge breakfast. Junior and Sam looked at them with disgust as they acted as if everything was normal.

  “The first thing I want you to look at is this, apparently, Junior, a trail was left when you killed our father. I have all the documentation that shows you hired a sniper to take out daddy when you were visiting that day,” Lily said happily. “It was a brilliant plan really, the only thing is, Junior, it looks like you were the only one involved in this. I thought to myself, why the hell would he leave such a blatant trail. I mean, if I picked it up, the Feds surely could have picked it up if they looked hard enough.”

  Junior sat back looking panicked and looked at his brother with a dumbfounded look. “What is she talking about, Sam?”

  “Shut up, she doesn’t know anything,” Sam whispered.

  “Sure I do, big brother, see right here, the transfer from Junior’s account into the snipers account the day that daddy was killed,” Lily said happily.

  Sam swore under his breath. He thought he had hidden it well enough that no one would find it until he was long gone. How had this airhead figured it out? She had to have had help. Looking at the two men sitting next to her he tried to sum them up. However, both of their faces held granite looks that were impossible to read.

  Junior leaned forward and looked at the papers. His face actually turned white, Lily wanted to laugh at the poor idiot who had no clue that his brother set him up to take the fall.

  “Anyway, moving on. I also discovered that the company is surprisingly broke. I mean, how is that possible since daddy had everything invested so well? I see we still get income from the investments, but the deposits go right out when they come in. Can either of you explain this?” Lily asked innocently.

  Junior looked at the papers and his face gained color again. He was seeing that his loving brother was actually taking more than his share with each deposit. But considering he had twenty to thirty million on his own that he stole, it didn’t matter right now. “I have no idea what you are talking about. We have to pay our people and expenses. I know our father’s investments looked good on paper but in reality, we have been scraping by for a long time. The Feds froze a lot of the old man’s accounts and seized that money. What we are making right now is a drop in the bucket to what we were. Sam and I have been struggling to keep the company afloat. I guess now we don’t have to worry about that.”

  Lily sighed, pulled the papers back, and then pulled out the Swiss bank accounts that Alex found and this morning transferred the money back into the company fund. Lily called the bank and took the brothers off the account. So as of right now she has over a hundred million dollars in the company account and they had one dollar left in each account.

  “Well,” Lily huffed and rolled her eyes, “I really didn’t know what to do so I did the only thing I could, I had to pull our money back out of all those accounts and put them in a new account that I only have access to.”

  Sam gritted his teeth and glared at Lily. If he could kill her right now, he would. All his plans, all his money, gone in a blink of an eye and outsmarted by a stupid little girl.

  Junior grumbled and looked at Lily. “You can’t do that.

  Lily laughed and waved a hand at him as the waitress poured her more coffee and set the muffin down in front of her. She thanked the waitress with a big grin and then looked back at her brother when she left. “I can, and I did,” she said firmly and then smiled. “Let’s eat,”

  There was silence while Lily and her men ate, she bent her head, smiled, and then had to hold in her feeling of desperation to get the hell out of here. She knew she pissed off Sam, and if Alex was right, she had just upset a hornet’s nest. She felt both of her men put a hand on her thigh and squeeze. She felt their strength and relaxed a little. They knew what she needed—it was amazing. Lily closed her eyes and then looked back up with her mask in place and smiled at Sam and Junior.

  “So I would bet you are wondering what we are going to do now?” She laughed.

  Junior frowned, looked at her, then glared and nodded curtly. Sam did the same and they sat tense, as if they would explode any moment.

  “Okay, here is the deal. I am the Queen Bitch now, and you are going to have to follow what I say if you want to be involved in this company. Our father had a dream and I, for one, am intent on making it happen. He wanted to be the largest source of illegal drugs in the US, as well as gambling and protection. I admit, I don’t know much about the illegal stuff, but I do know about business. And you two have bled our father’s business dry. I will not allow it. So, we can either work together or you are welcome to go on your merry way. Father left you some money in the Will, which I will pay to you. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to give me a decision. Until then, the office is closed for business.” Lily smiled and stood. “It was lovely talking to you and I hope we can work together.”

  Bear and Trent stood and surrounded her, making her feel safe as she walked out of the café and held her head high as she walked across the street to the office building. Lily could feel the stress bubbling up. She needed to get into the building and out of sight from her brothers.

  Bear was worried about Lily. As they walked through the doors of the building, her steps seemed to falter when she saw there were workers still waiting for an answer about why they weren’t allowed up to their floor.

  Raising her head, she walked by while Bear followed her, and Trent went to help the security get the people out of the building. They were bringing the Feds in through the loading dock opening so they would be concealed but still, they would have access to the entire building, they didn’t want anyone wandering around if the Feds were in the building.

  Lily pushed the button up to the floor where Junior’s office was, she knew it was going to be useless, they had to find out where the hell Sam kept his shit. She needed somewhere to actually decompress. Just being in the same room with those two idiots stressed her out beyond compare. They creeped her out, she knew both of them were killers, and all she wanted to do was scream at them and tell them to go to hell.

  When they finally reached Junior’s office, she pushed through the door and looked around. The place stunk of cigars, maybe this wasn’t the place she should be hanging out, the smell reminded her too much of those assholes.

  Bear wrapped his arms around her and said, “Everyone is going to be in the conference room down the hall in a few minutes, why don’t you go to the bathroom, get yourself cleaned up, I will wait out in the hall.”

  Lily closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time in what seemed forever, although it was only a few hours since she had been in the shower with her amazing men, making love and having fun.

  “I love you,” she whispered and Bear tightened his arms around her.

  “Everything is going to be fine, we can work this out together,” Bear said. “You are my life, I love you more than I ever thought possible. Trent and I are so lucky to have found you.”

  Lily blinked her eyes before she started weeping like a baby, turned, and kissed Bear sweetly and then went into the bathroom. She had no idea what she did in this life to deserve these two men, but she was totally not going to argue.

  She looked into the mirror, shit, she looked like she had been ridden hard and put up wet. Picking up her purse, she promptly began to fix her make-up like Calli and Jazz taught her. When she was done she looked better, at least she had more color in her cheeks. “You can do this,” Lily said to herself in the mirror, rolled her eyes, then took a deep breath and walked out the door.

  “Everyone is in the conference room,” Bear said.

  When she walked into the room, Calli, Bailey,
Jazz, Ginny, and Phoebe were standing waiting for her. They turned all at once and crossed their arms and looked at her like they were pissed. Lily wanted to laugh out loud because they were all wearing black outfits, and being various different sizes, they looked like Charlie’s Angels times two.

  “Bitch, I know you have an explanation for us,” Calli said and snapped her fingers.

  “Yep, I was trying to protect you and find the baby,” Lily said firmly and the girls smiled at her.

  “Well, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but damn, next time, at least let us know. Your guys were freaking assholes all morning,” Jazz grumbled, came, and hugged her. The rest of them followed suit and soon they were laughing and crying together.

  “They are horrible men,” Lily said.

  “Oh, I know,” Phoebe said and shivered. “Sam was the one who had fun getting ready to torture me.”

  “I know he wants to kill me, you can see it every time he looks at me. I swear if we hadn’t been in a crowded place he would have tried when I showed him the bank accounts.” Lily confessed.

  “Ya, and they checked them before you even walked out of the door, Sam even went so far as to try to call the bank. I put a note in there that he was a criminal and under indictment in the US for money laundering. They refused his call,” Rex said smugly from the table where he was set up with a computer.

  “Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Trent said as he walked in. “All clear, the Feds are in the building.”

  They all laughed and sat down to wait. Until they found Sam’s computer, they were dead in the water. Mr. Riley walked in wearing a blue jacket with FBI Investigator written on the back in yellow. He was wearing black cargo pants with all the pockets and a bulletproof vest. Lily wanted to laugh out loud, they were seriously in the middle of an FBI sting.

  “Did you find his computer?” Lily asked urgently.

  “It was wiped,” Mr. Riley said and Alex laughed.

  “Excuse me, sir, but nothing is ever completely gone in the cyber world, can you show me to where his computer is?” Alex asked.

  “On the fifth floor,” Mr. Riley said skeptically.

  “I will show him,” Lily said. She knew where it was, it was on the one floor she hadn’t actually been allowed to stop on when she entered the building. Now she wanted to see it.

  Bear stood and Trent nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Lily smiled, and the four of them walked out of the door. By the time they made it to the fifth floor Lily was already wound tight. She could feel her muscles in her shoulders tensing. This was it, this was where she was going to find her sister—the poor baby.

  The floor was full of agents wandering from room to room. They read the wall signs and found Sam’s office. There were a few FBI agents already in there searching for documents in the safe, the bookcases, and file cabinet. The computer sat silent with a flashing red screen.

  Alex went right to the computer and began typing. Lily sat in a chair silently and watched the young man. He was going to be a lady killer when he got older, she thought. He was handsome, Bailey and her men were going to have their hands full with this one.

  Chapter Five

  Three days, for three days the group went back and forth to the building, trying to find the information they needed. The Feds were having just as much trouble, because all the computers were apparently all locked with a master code that they couldn’t break. Alex was helping them, he proved to the FBI that he would be able to assist their IT guys; however, that took about six hours of argument, in which Lily began to get impatient. The women were taken back to the hotel to eat and relax while they tried to find the files about the small baby. Lily couldn’t tell them why she felt such an urgency to find the small child. Just that she did.

  She wondered briefly if the men would have a problem adopting the baby girl. Lily felt in her bones that this was right. She looked around the living room where her best friends were all doing different things. Calli and Ginny were talking on the phone to the guys and getting an update, Jazz and Phoebe were rubbing Bailey’s swollen feet. Her belly was beautifully rounded, filled with the next generation.

  Lily felt the vibration of her phone in her pocket. She pulled it out and answered the unknown phone number. “Hello?”

  “Sis?” Alex whispered into the phone.

  “Whose phone is this and why are you whispering?” Lily demanded and the other women in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at Lily. Jazz and Ginny rushed to her side, leaning in as if to listen to what Alex was saying.

  “One of the Feds, he left it here. Hey, I found something, but listen. I don’t want to tell the guys. They are hatching up some plan to take down Junior and Sam. I opened up the computer finally, they were focused on the illegal shit. I found the search Sam was doing for the baby and me. He knew where I was, he sent someone after me,” Alex whispered and Lily felt a chill and looked up at Jazz, whose eyes narrowed.

  “Don’t worry about that, you are safe and we are going to keep you safe, little brother,” Lily whispered. “Where are Bear and Trent?”

  “They are in a meeting trying to sort out everything the Digrossi’s had their hands in. It is bad, Lily, they were in deeper than any of us knew. The trails of bodies are bad enough, but we are talking political corruption, and it goes way up. The Feds are trying to figure out how they are gonna take all of those people down, some of them have a pretty long reach,” Alex whispered.

  Jazz grabbed the phone and put it on speaker. “Are any of the guys with you?”

  “No, the Feds gave me a babysitter,” Alex said.

  “What have you found out?” Jazz asked.

  “Sam found the baby’s mom. Her name was Michelle Kirby, she was a waitress at the café across the street of the office,” Alex said, and Lily gasped and looked at Jazz with a horrified expression.

  “What?” Alex whispered. “Do you need more info?”

  “No, we know her, what happened?” Lily whispered.

  “How do you know her?” Calli asked.

  “She was our best friend in grade school, she lived down the street from us, how in the hell did she get involved with Senior?” Jazz demanded.

  “I don’t know that, all I can see was that Senior had her to his house several times while Junior and Sam were having him watched. Then it says she turned up pregnant after Senior was put in jail, and visited him once. Had the baby, and then the trail went cold. I found an article about a Michelle Kirby who was killed in a drive-by shooting, nothing is mentioned of her having a child or any surviving relatives,” Alex said.

  “We have to find out where she left the baby,” Lily said firmly.

  “Hang on, let me look into another database where Sam was doing research,” Alex said and they heard his fingers typing on the keyboard.

  Jazz looked at Lily and whispered, “We will find her.”

  “I know, I just can’t believe how fucked up this family is. I mean, they have touched every part of our lives in an attempt to fuck us up. They are just crazy. Sam and Junior need to be put away forever or we will never be safe,” Lily said, feeling a little depressed.

  Every time they discovered something new, it always led back to one of them. In some way or another, it made Lily feel guilty that because they were on the Digrossi’s radar they had been led to people from their past, how would she ever feel safe again talking to people. It seemed as if any friend she made was in danger just from association.

  “The baby was placed with a distant family member. They have moved about five times in the last six months, so I would guess they know they are being sought after. But someone with the last name of Kirby applied for electric in Harlem, I am requesting the address, it will take a few minutes,” Alex whispered. “It looks like someone else just looked in the file also, about three hours ago.”

  “We have to hurry,” Lily said and gathered her shoes.

  “Wait, Calli and I will go with. Bailey, Ginny, and Phoe
be stay here. If the guys come back, tell them where we are,” Jazz said brusquely, and went into to her room and returned with a gun.

  “Shit,” Calli said and went to her room and brought out one also.

  “Where the hell are you getting the guns?” Lily asked. She had thought about buying one, but Bear and Trent told her no.

  “Hey, what the men don’t know won’t hurt them.” Jazz shrugged and Calli laughed.

  “Alex, can you try to get ahold of the guys and let them know what’s going on?” Lily asked into the phone.

  “Yeah, hang on, I will walk down and see if I can interrupt them,” Alex said and they heard a rustle.

  Bailey looked up and smiled. “Girls, I don’t have to tell you to keep in touch, and you are gonna be in trouble when the guys find out.”

  Ginny looked at them. “Go get ‘em!”

  The women laughed and walked to the door. The three went out and smiled at the guards who were in the hallway. “We have to get something for Bailey, she’s having a craving.”

  One of the guys nodded and followed them as they went to the elevator. They all got on and Lily looked at Jazz and nodded her head. When the door opened and Calli stepped out of the elevator, Jazz turned and pushed the guard back while Lily pushed the buttons on the elevator of every floor going back up. They jumped off just as the doors closed and the guard got to his feet yelling at them.

  “We have about a minute before we are gonna be surrounded by the security,” Calli said and walked briskly to the entrance of the hotel and looked both ways, pulled Jazz and Lily quickly to her and jumped in a cab that had just opened. They watched in the back window and several of the security men came running out of the building. Shit, my ass is gonna be in trouble, Lily thought.

  She couldn’t worry about that now, she had to find the child and keep her safe. Picking back up her phone, she spoke into the receiver, “Alex, are you still there?”

  She hit the speaker button so everyone could listen. There was a rustling noise, and they heard Alex asking someone to speak to one of the guys. The man replied, “They are on a conference call with the Director of the Agency, it will be a few. Just sit and relax.”