Siobhan allowed herself to relax just a little as she stood in the doorway of her home. After a few seconds, Quinton handed her the phone.
“Here you go…” Quinton said, surrendering his device to Siobhan and taking a few steps backwards. He wanted her to feel confident that there was no threat to her.
“Hello?” she spoke softly.
“Mom?”
“Yes, it’s me, Rush.”
“Are you okay? You sound different.”
“I’m okay. I was just a little confused about who was at my door,” she said, hand-signaling for Quinton to come inside, then ushering him to a seat in her living room.
“Well, I sent Quinton there to get you. I want to do this quickly.”
“But—”
“Mom, you’re not safe there. I know about what happened. The police were here last night.”
A few seconds passed before Siobhan burst into tears. It didn’t matter to her that she had a stranger sitting in her living room. In that moment, it was just her and Rush and she felt free. The guilt and the turmoil were releasing from her soul in a way that made her feel lighter on the inside.
“I’m so sorry, Rush. I’ve bought more trouble than not to your life. This will just work to complicate things in a way that—”
“No, it won’t complicate anything. And I’m not judging you, Mom. I can’t even begin to know what you’re feeling. But I know having a daughter of my own, regardless of how new she is to my life, protecting her is at the top of my list.”
“But authorities won’t see it that way, son. It’s been years. I didn’t react when it mattered most. I reacted almost three decades later. I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life. But I already knew that the possibility existed,” she said, sitting on the larger sofa near where Quinton sat. “When I heard about Michaela, it brought everything back to the surface for me,” she sniffled. “I couldn’t stop myself, Rush. I did some questionable things that I’m not proud of to get close to your father’s dealings.”
“It’s fine, mom. We can talk about all that later. But for now, I need you to be where I can make sure you’re okay.”
“But coming to you is right where—”
“I’m going to move you. You’ll be fine. I’m working on a few things. Don’t worry about anything. I just want you out of there.”
Siobhan looked over at Quinton, and then spoke into the phone in a lowered voice. “There’s someone who knows, Rush. And he was here. He’s a person who knows me by Gia. He worked for your father, and—”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t want to involve any more people, Rush. I just wanted you to know that somebody else knows so that you don’t waste your time getting involved when it’ll all be over soon anyway.”
“Who is it, Mom?”
“His name is Kenneth.”
“Okay,” Rush stated calmly. “And so now you know that since someone else knows, it’s all the more reason you need to leave. Don’t worry about packing anything. I’m going to have your place emptied and cleaned. Just get dressed and grab a bag of the things you must have. Leave the rest to me. Quinton is gonna make sure everything is set, okay?”
After a moment of pause, Siobhan finally surrendered. “Okay.”
When she handed the phone back to Quinton, Siobhan scurried up the stairs to grab a few things, throw on some clothes, and to fix her hair.
“I’m ready, Quinton,” she announced, when she came back into the room.
~*~*~
Half an hour later when Quinton and Siobhan arrived at the hangar with the driver, he escorted her onboard the plane, and proceeded to walk back to the car and out of earshot where he placed another call to Rush.
“Hey, what’s up, Q? Is something wrong?”
“Look, I heard your moms say that somebody else knew about what happened and that the person had been there.”
“Yeah,” Rush confirmed. “I know who he is.”
“That’s good because he may need a visit.”
“I was already gonna have a talk with him,” Rush confessed.
“Yeah, but I’m thinking a different kind of talk.”
“And you think that why? You think it’s a blackmail situation? I’m already on that.”
“No. It’s more than that, man. I think that something might’ve happened.”
“Happened like what?!” Rush said, in a state of panic.
“It’s a gut feeling. When I got to your mom’s, she didn’t look too good. She was disheveled, nervous, and kinda out of it.”
“Maybe it was because a stranger showed up to her door, Q…? I’m just sayin’.”
“Ha, ha. No, I mean, I don’t know her outside of meeting her today, but you know I’m a good study on people. She cleaned up nicely, but at first sight, she wasn’t so right, and neither were her surroundings.”
On the other end of the line, Rush remained quiet. Not a peep came from him, and Quinton already knew what that meant, so he ended the conversation with: “We’re on the way back now. See you soon.”
“Okay. Thanks, Q.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
San Francisco Police Department
Tuesday afternoon
Silas paced back and forth in the conference room. He and Morgan were awaiting their sergeant to come in for an emergency meeting he had called out of the blue.
“You’re making my head spin, youngster. You need to have a seat because all that nervous energy isn’t gonna speed things up. Just because they told us to be here at two, didn’t mean that’s when they’d show up. I’d say you need to plant it,” Morgan expressed.
“Well, this shit has me all kinds of pissed, Rick. I’m busting my ass trying to close this case and get a damn suspect, and now it seems like something’s up. I’ve put too much time and energy into this—”
“You’ve put too much time and energy?”
“Come on, Rick, you know what I mean,” Silas responded, in frustration. “This shit is turning into somewhat of a cold case right before our eyes.”
“Yeah…”
“Man,” Silas said, shooting a look at his partner. “You didn’t have to comply.”
“Yeah, well I kinda agree. I know you don’t want to hear that,” he shrugged. “But it’s what it is.”
“I’m convinced there’s big money being pushed around behind the scenes,” Silas suggested.
“Well that, and the fact that the evidence was never really that strong. Not to mention that we don’t even know if that’s a real person of interest that we’ve been tossing in people’s faces. You’ve been throwing this woman’s name around all willy nilly, and I told you not to do that when rich folks are involved. You have to stack behind the scenes first, and then come out swinging. The surveillance was semi-clear, and how many exotic beauties are running around San Francisco and the surrounding areas that might’ve had it in for Cambridge?”
“See, now you’re backtracking on me, Rick. You were onboard at first.”
“No, not really. I said that it was possible…never stated for certain. I’ve been trying to tell you since the inception. We really have no way of knowing anything unless someone were to straight up tell us. A lot of resources have been wasted on this one, when what it boils down to is had the hospital been doing their job with having his room guarded, we wouldn’t be here. And speaking of being here…I can’t believe you came to this meeting without any supporting documentation. You better go and get that folder. You know when they get here, they’re gonna wanna go over details.”
“Shit,” Silas spat. “I’ll be right back. They had me all shaken with this impromptu meeting.”
The moment that Silas was off and running, Morgan shot off a text message from his private cell, then quickly tucked the device back into his pocket and awaited the arrival of whatever key players would be showing up. Ten minutes later, Silas reentered the room looking very much angered and flustered. Several seconds after that, their sergeant, a James Patterson lookalike, entered
huffing and puffing.
“Good you’re both here. What’s the latest that you have on any suspects in the Cambridge murder?”
The Detectives traded looks with one another, neither rushing to be the first to speak. Silas ran his hand across his short crop, and released the final in a series of deep sighs. He knew that after he said what he had to say that the family business might just be where he landed. He loved law enforcement, but at the moment he knew that law enforcement didn’t love him. He was fucked.
“Well, sir…” he started, looking across the table. He had hoped to gain a little bit of support from his partner, but judging by Rick’s silence, he knew that wasn’t going to be happening any time soon.
“Well, sir, what?” the sergeant charged. “I have a meeting with the COP directly after this. Give me something.”
Shit, Chief of Police. Fuck.
“The evidence is gone, serg.”
“Those words didn’t just come out of your fucking mouth, Winters!”
“I’m afraid they did, sir. I have nothing. Evidence room has nothing. I ran around this entire building in search of everything. Nothing was as it was supposed to be. Even the log work is gone. Everything is gone. And everything that I’d confiscated were originals from the hospital and Premier.”
After basically assassinating his career, Silas sunk into his seat in defeat. All he could do was shake his head while embracing the place of disbelief he currently resided in. He had no words.
The Sergeant slowly rose from his seat and gave the look of death to both men, then proceeded toward the door. As he was about to walk out, he turned to address them both: “Morgan, be glad that you’re months from retirement because you’d be out on your ass in a New York second. Winters you won’t take too big of a hit because you’re sitting on millions anyway. You’re both done.”
Silas quickly, almost desperately shot from his seat, causing his chair to create a thumping sound against the floor. It was hard enough that the sergeant turned back in his direction, his brow furrowed, and his lips tight.
“What is it, Winters?”
“Sir…” Silas began, taking a few steps forward. “The family is counting on—”
“I’ll gladly notify the family of your fuck up. No evidence, no case, no closure. Do you need me to write it on the fucking white board over there?!” he pointed angrily. “You have to live with that. But you won’t have a chance to ever disgrace my unit again. In case you didn’t hear me the first time…you’re done.”
Rick Morgan sat silently. He hadn’t said a word the entire time. He wasn’t the least bit worried about anything. In fact, with the large payout he had just received, he didn’t even need to wait those months out if he didn’t want to. But because of the tight wad that he was, he decided that he would just for the benefit package. He smiled on the inside watching the panic in Silas’ eyes.
“You don’t even seem like you’re affected by any of this shit, Rick. What gives?”
Morgan hunched his shoulders nonchalantly. “Affected for what? I learned long ago that it’s senseless to fight when there’s nothing to fight about.”
“Psshh. I knew long ago that they paired me with the wrong son of a bitch,” Silas remarked through tightly clenched teeth as he paced the floor. “I have one more wild card,” he suddenly remembered. Kenneth Joseph. He contacted me late last week saying he might have information I could use. Gonna go reach out to him.”
“Sounds a little stupid to me, Silas.”
“Stupid? How?”
“Is that rhetorical?”
“Fuck no, it’s not rhetorical!” Silas spat, in an angry whisper. “I really need to know why the hell you think it’s stupid. You might as well say it. You say everything else!”
“Okay, I’ll entertain you,” Morgan said, rising from his seat, and then pushing his chair in against the large table. “You said this man contacted you last week…yet you’re just reaching back out to him.”
“Because by all accounts I had everything that I needed to close this thing. And when his message said might, it was too vague for me to drop all else and go running to call him back.”
“Well, you’re gonna hate to hear this coming from me. But you sound like a rookie. You passed up on a lead that’s now a week old. That’s what’s stupid. At this point, it’ll all be for nothing. Did you not hear what serg said to you? You’re done. Go run to your money, fill up on some liquor, get a pretty little thing to lie on top of…and take a long-needed vacation.”
“Not going down without a last ditch effort. That might be your thing; but it certainly isn’t mine. I’ll take my chances on what Joseph has to say.”
Poor schmuck, Moran thought. He wasn’t used to being told no. “You’re no longer a fucking cop!” That was what Morgan wanted to yell to Silas’ dumb, entitled ass. But whatever. It wasn’t worth his energy. Just as it wasn’t worth his energy telling Silas that a conversation with Kenneth Joseph would never come to fruition.
Rick walked past his now ex-partner on his way out of the conference room, and offered a thin smile. “Well, I wish you the best of luck, Silas. Because not only will you be in a shit hole unreachable by your family’s funds, you’ll probably end up in a pair of silver bracelets for going against command that you no longer belong to. So, yeah…good luck with that,” he concluded, making his exit.
When everyone had left the room, Silas walked to close the door, took a seat in the chair that he had abandoned a short while earlier, and quietly accepted defeat.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Lake Tahoe
Cabin of Kenneth Joseph
“Now, where were we?”
One week ago Kenneth Joseph had decided that it was high time that he took a much-needed break, and headed off to his luxury cabin located in Lake Tahoe. He had been through some things lately and wanted badly to regroup and then reenter society a recharged man. His top client of the past ten years had been murdered, and that weighted heavily on Kenneth’s mind. Lance Cambridge had been a man that he’d held in high regard. Having Lance’s death on his hands had begun to take a toll because there were parts of the tragedy that Kenneth felt responsible for. Specifically, giving firsthand information about the way his client moved around in his every day dealings. He had told when he used security and when he did not. Yes, he faulted himself. He might not have felt responsible had it not been for the fact that the person whom he had given that information to was a woman Kenneth was convinced he had fallen in love with. He’d wanted to marry her and had left all other women behind to become the one-woman man that he felt she deserved.
Kenneth had it all planned out. He would propose to her, she’d say yes and then they’d take an exotic trip to Paris to celebrate their honeymoon and then return to the United States and decide as a couple where they would settle. He’d been leaning toward going to Calabasas or Malibu, or even Palm Springs. All he wanted to do was retire at the young age of thirty-nine and enjoy his millions alongside the woman he loved. There he would move on with the next phase of his life, possibly buying a few restaurants and more real estate. But all of it was bright ideas that would never come to fruition because he found himself on the other end of a gun barrel that he knew he wouldn’t escape from.
“Wow, so you do have it in you, huh?” Kenneth remarked, swiping the blood dripping from the right side of his mouth.
Kenneth’s left eye was split above the brow, the lid was swollen and on its way to closing. He’d gotten in a few punches of his own, but none connected like the ones he had been on the receiving end of. Under ordinary circumstances, he might’ve been able to say something like: You should see the other guy. But in this situation, the other guy was the one unleashing the ass whipping. Kenneth couldn’t recall a time throughout his entire career in security being the loser on the receiving end of a fight. Today he was. He staggered trying to maintain his balance. He didn’t want to fall on the floor in his effort to stand. He needed to see this through. Why not fight unti
l the end? Give it all you got. I’m going out with a bang, he thought. Maybe even literally.
“And here your father thought you were a pussy,” he spat, through impaired speech, courtesy of his fractured jaw. “…you’re more like him than we both thought. Shit, than everybody thought.”
“You don’t know shit about me, so you can shut up with that bullshit and all your fake ass father-son comparisons. I’m not interested. What am I am interested in is you putting your hands on my mother. That’s all I’m interested in. That, and that only.”
“Oh, the inner mama’s boy emerges. How cute is that? I should’ve snuffed her when I had the chance. My bad. I figured I’d just hang her true identity over her head for a bit and have imported pussy anytime I wan—”
Before he could get out his final sentence, Rush torpedoed his left fist into his opponent’s stomach with enormous force, sending him backwards onto his expensive sofa.
“Uhhh! Ahhh!” he groaned in pain. “I had no idea she’d been in contact with her demon spawn,” he slurred. “You really are more like Lance Cambridge than you know. You got your henchman here with a pistol pointed at me, and I assume I’m not making it outta here. You know how many situations I’ve been in just like this with your old man? Like father, like son,” he goaded. “Whether you like it or not.”
“You fucked with my family. That’s why you’re here. He didn’t give a fuck about family, so I’m sure the situations were completely different.”
Rush leaned into Kenneth’s face as close as he could. “How does it feel being helpless? That’s what you did to my mother when you raped her, right?” he asked before slamming his fist into his face.
“Ohhh! Fuuck!” Kenneth hollered.
“I would never rape a woman in my life. It’s not rape when it’s between people who love each other,” Kenneth stated. “She wanted it. She just didn’t realize that she wanted it because she saw that I was angry. But it worked out in the end. So, you see, what we did was make love, Rush. Whether that’s what you wanna hear or not.”
Rapture 2: a BWWM, Alpha Male Romance Page 20