Devon wasn’t responsible for his death. She did have a DUI outstanding, but it could disappear if she knew the right people. No one was looking for her. No one official anyway. The drug dealer caught my interest. He sounded small-time, but it had been a few years, and small fish sometimes became bigger fish. I would check him out.
I knew she would hate me more if she knew I wasn’t telling her she wasn’t a wanted woman. That was simply too much freedom for her to have. She needed the threat that I would toss her ass to the cops if I didn’t finish her first. I also knew she would eventually realise that she had told me that she was a rat.
When she was twenty-one and downtrodden, I understood she would have thought it was her only option to talk to the cops. Now she was hardened and more street-smart. The penny would drop that not only had she told me she was a rat, but she knew the police would want someone like me in their custody more than a nobody like her. Fuck, you could put her on Oprah or some other daytime show, and she would be America’s fucking sweetheart by the end of the episode. Especially when she realised her saint Merle was dead. That’s why she hadn’t come looking for her girl. Merle O’Malley died of a sudden massive heart attack three months after Devon ran from the hospital. I didn’t know Devon well, obviously, but even I knew she was going to take that guilt on as her own.
As I parked the car, I realised she really was one of the unluckiest fucking women I had ever come across. I shook my head in disgust at the thought I was feeling sorry for her. I still felt she withheld something from me. The two years between Nevada and Denver still had too many gaps. There was more story there. What shit had she gotten involved in when she was in Phoenix?
She was a fool if she thought I wouldn’t find out.
I walked into the kitchens, looking for Levi. I didn’t really like him. I had been forced to be pleasant to him when I was Kat’s bodyguard, but only so Kat would shut the fuck up about how misunderstood he was. She had a boner for the chef and he her, but the fact she was married to his friend kept him in line at least. What Kat didn’t know about Levi was that he fucked his female staff regularly. He called them tasting events. Katalina Vialli was not a woman who shared. If she learned that her coveted chef was eating his latest dessert out of some server’s pussy, Kat would murder the entire staff before burning the bistro to the ground.
I was confident Aiden wouldn’t know about Levi’s extra staff meetings. It was my job to know this shit, not Aiden’s, which is why he would take Devon here, somewhere where he had a relationship with the employer and he knew I would exert some control over it. It was still a dick thing for him to do, but even being a prick, he had played within the parameters that he knew I would allow.
Devon liked the job. It was a shit job, but she wanted to be here. So to let her come back, I needed to remind the chef she wasn’t on his menu. Not particularly because I cared who she let fuck her, but because sex caused people to be loose with their tongues. The fewer people Devon trusted, the easier it would be for me.
I found Levi in the kitchen, berating some poor bastard over poorly poached salmon. He saw me during his tirade, and I slipped out the back to have a smoke. As I lit up, I realised she hadn’t asked me about her homeless counterpart. I knew she wasn’t indifferent as much as she was terrified that I was going to confirm that he was dead.
She also changed her name, I mused. That took money and connections. Where did she get the knowledge and contact to do that? It made sense that the cost left her broke. Desperation. It always made smart people stupid, and stupid people ended up dead.
“Why are you here?” Levi asked me as he stepped out and closed the door, leaving it slightly open so he could get back in. “Is she okay?” he asked as he walked over to me.
“She’s fine.” I assessed him critically. “That’s why I’m here. She comes back tomorrow. You keep her tied to the sink. You keep your dick, your tongue and any other fucking part of your body out of her.” Levi’s head snapped back in shock at my words, and he looked hurriedly over his shoulder. “What?” I mocked him. “You think your dessert girls don’t talk?” I snorted in contempt.
“Fuck you,” he bit out as he watched me finish my smoke.
“Not my type,” I retorted as I flicked my smoke across the alley. “You hear me clearly?” I asked as I met his look.
“Didn’t think she was your type,” Levi commented dryly. “Thought you preferred them red-blooded Italian.”
“Red-blooded? Or do you mean redheaded?” I smirked as I saw his expression close down. “That one has more claws than you can cope with, trust me.” I walked past him, down the alley. “Watch Devon, I want reports. She gets too friendly with anyone, tell me.”
“Why is she here? I don’t want trouble,” he called after me.
“You’re so deep in shit you can no longer smell it,” I reprimanded him. “Wise the fuck up. You already have them owning you. Pay attention before they realise there’s nothing else you have they can take.”
“And you care?” Levi asked curtly, causing me to turn around. “Yeah, right.” He stared at the wall, failing to hide his forlorn expression at his harsh reality.
I considered him for a moment. I didn’t like him, but he wasn’t necessarily a bad guy, and in all honesty, I didn’t like anyone. My judgment of Levi wouldn’t make him lose sleep. The amount of money he owed to the Vialli family would, another reason he needed to keep his distance from Kat.
“You making your payments?”
“What’s it to do with you?” he snapped and sighed loudly when I said nothing. “Yes.”
“Interest?”
“They said I didn’t have to pay interest the first three years.”
I couldn’t stop the grimace as I sighed internally. “Tell me you’re paying it anyway.”
“No. Should I be?”
“Fuck me.” I rubbed my forehead. “Yes. I thought you were friends with Aiden?” I snapped.
“If I spoke about this with Aiden, he would think I was asking for his money.”
What kind of fucked up thinking was that? Maybe he deserved to be ripped off. “Pay the interest, if they haven’t told you the percentage, it’s a minimum of twenty percent.” I ignored his popping eyeballs. “Pay it. Now. You have, what, less than a year left?”
“Yeah.”
“Then they will take your bistro, they will run their money through it, and you’ll be so fucking dirty through association, Feds will eat regularly in the booth you used to reserve for regular customers.” I glanced at my watch. “Start paying, talk to Aiden, fuck, talk to Malcolm if you have to, get your finances sorted. You’re going to need it.”
“And you?” Levi asked me hesitantly. “Will you tell them?”
“Fuck all to do with me. I’m just the guy they send when you fuck up on your repayment plan.” I held his stare as he reeled at my honesty. “Be smarter,” I advised.
“I can put her in front of house,” he offered.
“I said be smarter.” Shaking my head, I left him as I headed back to my car. I sat for a moment before I made the call. “It’s me. Can you speak?” I listened and agreed I would meet in an hour as I headed to Cherry Creek Street Park. The park was closed, but as I knew a way in—I knew a back way into most places—it didn’t deter me.
As I walked around the reservoir, I kept my eye open for the bird watchers, the actual twitchers as well as the other twitchers the park sometimes attracted. It was a cooler night, and I thought about the lightweight jacket Devon had bought herself for the cooler months as I stood with my back to the reservoir beside a bench.
“Hey.”
I watched Les walk down the path and take up the bench space beside me. He always gave me a fair warning that he was approaching. He didn’t announce himself the first time, and I had my gun pressed to the back of his head before I asked who the fuck he was to sneak up on me. Now he always made sure to let me know he was heading towards me.
“He suspect you’re here?” I asked
as I sat beside him.
“Nah, Wayne’s there. Boss is in his office, hashing out a new deal with Asia or somewhere else where it’s the crack ass of dawn,” Les told me with a careless shrug.
“What did you do with the homeless guy?”
“Killed him.”
If I hadn’t been looking, I would have missed his glance to the left as he spoke. A tell. “Will I ask again?”
“Fuck, Raphe, the guy’s a war hero.” Les rubbed his hand over his close-shaven hair. “When I sobered him up, he’s not a bad guy.”
“You put him in the halfway house.”
“You already know? Why even bother asking?” Les snorted.
“I don’t like people who lie to me.”
“You don’t like fucking people, period.” Les gave a rueful laugh.
“He ask for her?”
“Yeah, twice,” Les confessed.
“That’s a problem.” I sat back as I stared out over the reservoir.
“I told him she’s safe.” Les hesitated. “She is safe?”
“For now.”
“That’s not comforting.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Never could kill a woman,” he said quietly. “Feels wrong, don’t know why really, some of the most sadistic bastards I’ve ever met were women.”
“God’s fairer sex,” I murmured.
Les grunted. “God’s secret fucking weapon, more like.” He turned his head to look back at me. “Why’s she still alive?”
“She’s…interesting.”
“Malcolm will use her against you,” Les warned.
“It’s not like that.”
“Geez, man, she should have been dead that night. You know it as well as I do.” He shook his head again. “When you found her in that shelter, I thought that was the end of her. It’s exactly like that.”
It wasn’t supposed to be. I tilted my head back to look at the stars. “She’s never mentioned it to anyone.” I still didn’t know why.
“I figured.” Les grinned at me. “So what now?”
“She’s working at the bistro.”
Les sat up in surprise. “How the fuck?”
“Aiden.”
He gave another laugh. “Payback?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I gave a small smirk. I had scared the shit out of Aiden’s fiancé when I met her. Guess he got his revenge with his experiment. “Thinks he’s clever.”
“Thinks too much,” Les grumbled.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Louis saw her in the shelter.”
“He recognise her?”
“No, but he asked me about her. Told me Lucille had a new volunteer, that she looked familiar to him.”
“To Louis?” Les looked as surprised as I felt when Louis had told me.
I had removed Devon that night, but still, familiar hadn’t sat easy with me. “I traced her back to Nevada, she left Nevada four years ago. Changed her name. She spent two years in Phoenix. I can’t find a trace of her in Phoenix.”
Les sat quiet for a moment. “She change her name in Phoenix?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Not legally?”
“No.” I gave a mocking smirk.
“Highwaymen.” He sighed. “I’ll reach out.”
“You think she has MC connections?” I hadn’t even considered it. Why the fuck hadn’t I considered it?
“Probably not, she’s a good-looking girl. The Club would have kept hold of her, know what I mean?”
Unfortunately I did. “She isn’t a club bunny.” I considered it more. Was she? No, her attempt at seduction was clumsy, she wasn’t used to using her ass to get her way. “Has to be something else.”
“Parents?”
“Mother dead, overdose. No idea of the father.”
“You got details?”
I handed him a folded piece of paper. “I could be wrong, check with the Highwaymen first.”
Les started to laugh. “I never thought I would see the day where you were questioning yourself over a woman.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled back.
“You know you can anytime.” He winked at me, and despite myself, I shook my head in amusement as he tucked the paper away. “Give me a few days.” He stood, and I stayed sitting where I was. “The vet?”
“Lose him,” I ordered. I saw his flash of disappointment. “If he keeps asking for her, then he brings attention to her.”
“Fine.”
“Make it look legit,” I said as I stood and fixed my suit jacket.
Les’s affronted look amused me. “I’m not a fucking amateur,” he growled. “I follow through.”
“So I heard.” I clapped him on the shoulder as I walked away.
“Dick,” I heard him mutter as I headed up the path, and in the dark, I allowed myself a full smile.
Les was good at his job. He killed with a nice precision, and his scenes were always spotless, but it was his work ethic that impressed me. He asked hardly any questions, but he was always paying attention. His former employer met an unfortunate ending, unfortunate in that he had employed Les, since it was Les who killed him. He got a job with Malcolm as his bodyguard. It made sense, he was a carbon copy of Malcolm’s other bodyguard, Wayne. Les was ex-military, marine if I had to guess. He also had a history with the Devil’s Highwaymen, not affiliated—it was better—he had a family connection. His sister was married to one of the Charters’ presidents. He had connections which he rarely used, but when he did, they were to Malcolm’s advantage. Or mine.
He knew not to mention that I was looking into Devon to Malcolm. He said nothing, but he had been picking up on the tension between myself and Malcolm over her.
My phone was vibrating when I got back to the car. Fuck me, what now? “If you killed the Clipper, hang up.”
“I didn’t kill him.” Cam laughed down the phone. “Think I broke his foot or something.”
“His foot? What the fuck were you doing?”
“He was running away. Dude’s almost seven foot and fell over his own feet.”
“You’re a complete fuck up,” I told him, although it was slightly amusing.
“It was funny, it was all over social media.”
“What do you want?” I was hungry, I realised as I waited. If he was calling to tell me it was because he was also all over social media, I was hanging up.
“Antonio wants a meeting.”
“No.”
“He’s heading to Denver as we speak. Set up a meeting with Emilio Neroni.”
I sat up in my seat. What the fuck was that about? “And?”
“Wants you there.”
“I don’t play sides.”
“You know you have to be there,” Cam said, his voice lowered and serious.
“That fucker Nico’s trying to force my hand,” I growled down the phone in realisation.
“Looks like it.” Cam sighed. “What’re you going to do?”
“You’re in San Diego?” I asked abruptly.
“Yeah, Uncle’s refused to go.”
“Makes sense,” I said. They wouldn’t want both heads of the family in the same place for this kind of meeting.
“Heard about New York,” Cam said quietly. “That was some body count.”
“Was it?”
“You need to make a decision,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Antonio will make contact.”
I hung up. Cammy didn’t need to tell me, and I was grateful for the heads-up, but my hands were still tied. I did work for them all, they knew that. New York would have spooked them. I probably forced their hands as soon as I acted on behalf of Ray. My last name was not always a blessing.
I picked up another burner phone and dialled. “When was I going to be told?”
“They make contact?” Ray asked me with slight surprise.
“Not yet, you know better than that, cousin.” I stared out into the darkness. “New York was a test?”
“I don’t test family, Raphael.”
Fuck
ing fucker. “I knew Carlisle wasn’t that fucking stupid,” I said under my breath. “You set it up so they would show their hands?”
“Carlisle needed to go, call it a two for one.”
I absolutely hated turf wars. “What’s the play?” I asked curtly.
“Whichever one offers the most lucrative deal.”
I could hear his smirk, and I was furious I had fallen for his shit in New York. “I don’t play sides.”
“It’s time you showed your allegiance.”
“I have no allegiance. To anyone.” My finger was tapping against the steering wheel. “I told you that when I left.”
“Dangerous words, cousin.” The warning in his voice did the opposite of what he wanted. I ignored his veiled threat.
“Dangerous man, cousin.”
“You are. Tell me, how many of your friends know that the Wraith is amongst them?”
“That’s your play?” I scoffed.
“You think they wouldn’t want to know that the phantom killer for the major East Coast family has been infiltrating their ranks for years.”
They would kill me. They would have the right to.
My fingers gripped the phone tighter. “Did you think I would beg?” I asked him softly, my anger threatening to surface. “Did you think you could threaten me?”
“You’re a Lastra. Time to take your place,” Ray barked harshly down the phone before he hung up.
Fuck.
I didn’t have the time or the inclination to play turf wars. If I wanted to play games over territory, I would have been at the family table a long time ago. I didn’t. They knew this. They knew not to involve me in this kind of shit.
Stupid turf wars and greedy men wanting to try and force my hand. Nico was trying to get me to pick the Sabinos over the Neronis. Malcolm wanted to know everything. Meanwhile, the biggest fucking fish of them all wanted to send them a clear message that I was his man.
I was no one’s man. It was time they all got a fucking refresher course in exactly who I was and what kind of man they were dealing with. First, I needed to get rid of Devon. I glared at the steering wheel accusingly, as if the wheel was the source of all my problems when in reality, the only problem I had was a five seven brown-haired puzzle waiting for me in a fucking penthouse that wasn’t mine.
Beautifully Broken (The Denver Series Book 2) Page 19