Long Shot: A Brewed Moon Novella

by J. Margot Critch

  “Speaking of things she’d be keeping an eye on, what about Juliana’s new business partner?” Joe asked him.

  “Her business partner? Oh, he’s a great guy, really a good fit.”

  Joe was about to respond when he saw Mitch soundlessly gesturing Steve to join him.

  Steve’s mouth formed a quick O when he saw the tiny electronic device, as Mitch watched the realization dawn on his teammates’ faces.

  “What did you guys do last night?” Mitch asked, waving his hand for his teammates to continue the conversation, so that anyone listening through the device would not be suspicious.

  Steve took out his phone and opened an app he’d created for scanning for electronic devices. He waved his phone over the painting and the phone vibrated in his hand, signalling that they were, indeed, looking at a recording device.

  “What do I do every night?” Peter asked him, not taking his eyes from Mitch and Steve’s actions. “Erica got home from the studio last night. She had a new routine she wanted to show me,” he finished with a wink, and Mitch wasn’t certain if he was bragging for anyone listening to a device, or that he just liked talking about his sexy fiancée.

  Mitch chuckled for the benefit of the recorder. His brother and the burlesque dancer. Mitch would have never believed that his brother would settle down like he had, and become accustomed to domestic bliss. But that wasn’t on his mind at the moment. As he looked down at the device lodged on the frame, he wondered how long it had been there, what had been recorded.

  Steve spoke up casually, while still checking the room. “Man, I don’t understand how you’re okay with her dancing naked on a stage like that,” he responded.

  “She’s not naked on stage,” Peter insisted. “Most of the time she has some clothing on,” he finished with a laugh. “Honestly, I don’t love it, all these other guys seeing her. But I know that she loves it, and that at the end of the night, she’s coming home to me. And fuck man, watching her dance is the hottest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s a little more information about your sex life than I needed,” Mitch muttered.

  “You’re the one who went to a sex club undercover and ended up fucking a woman who is now your girlfriend,” Peter countered.

  “Hey!” Mitch raised his hand at his brother. He didn’t need whoever had planted the device to know what had transpired between him and Juliana while he was working undercover that night at Leather & Lace. His mind briefly flashed to the image of Juliana that night, and every other subsequent night he’d spent with her, and his body reacted, but he had to push it away when he saw Steve investigating the corner of the room. He raised his arm, signalling that he’d found something of interest.

  Mitch hurried over to where he stood next to Mitch’s desk, as Steve’s cell phone vibrated as he passed it over the right side of the desk. Mitch opened his drawer and quietly removed it from its tracks. He shined a penlight inside the cavity and saw a second transistor. He looked around at his team and replaced the drawer, again leaving the bug where it was. He stepped back from his desk, and returned to the painting.

  “Well, no sense wasting any more time. I guess we’ll just have to live with this new teammate. Do you guys want to go get a coffee? I’ll text Elle to meet us at the café, and we can introduce her to the streets.” He pointed to the door, and the four of them left without another word.

  Chapter 5

  “Three grape martinis,” Erica held three fingers up for the bartender giving him their drink order. It was their weekly girls’ night out, when Juliana, Erica and Azura got together, drank martinis and talked about their lives – jobs, television shows, men.

  Juliana shook her head. “Not for me,” she said quickly, earning confused looks from Erica and Azura. She turned to the bartender. “I’ll just have a ginger ale.”

  “A ginger ale?” Azura asked.

  “Yeah, I’m not feeling well,” she offered. “I’ve been kind of off all day.”

  Azura shrugged and took out her wallet to pay for the round. “Two grape martinis and a ginger ale, I guess.”

  They took their drinks and sat at a nearby table. Erica took a sip of her drink. “Are you okay, Jules?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” she nodded. “I’m a bit queasy.”

  “We can leave if you want. Reschedule for another night.”

  “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry, I’ve had enough of Mitch breathing down my neck about it. He’s sent me about a dozen texts today, checking in on me, asking how I was feeling. He is such a control freak sometimes.”

  “Just like his brother,” Erica added. “They’ve both got that protector’s instinct. It can be overbearing at times.”

  “And not to mention the fact that Mitch is all bent out of shape about me working with Declan.”

  “Is that the Irish guy?” Erica asked carefully. “The one from the party the other night?”

  “Yeah, Declan O’Connell. He’s the one who put up the money, investing in the café so I could get it back up and running. And Mitch-”

  “Wait, O’Connell?” Erica asked, interrupting Juliana’s rant. She’d turned pale as Juliana spoke.

  “Yeah,” Juliana answered. The look on her friend’s face worried her, and now suddenly Mitch’s words came back to her. “Why?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?” Azura asked.

  “O’Connell was the name of the men who kidnapped me. Last year.”

  “What? Was it Declan?”

  “No, not Declan. It was Dylan, and his brother Colin.”

  Juliana covered her mouth with her hand, in shock. She knew what Erica had gone through the previous year, but she hadn’t been privy to any of details. Neither Erica, nor the men on Mitch’s team had been particularly forthcoming. “Oh my God. Colin is his uncle. I guess that means that Dylan is his father. Mitch was right,” she said. “He warned me that Declan was a criminal. I’m sorry. I had no idea his family had done something so heinous.”

  “I know there was no way you could have known. We weren’t exactly forthcoming with the details, but if you’re doing business with him, then I can’t be around him.” Juliana could see her friend’s hands shaking as she spoke. “And I just want you to be careful. The O’Connells are dangerous, and I know first-hand what they’re capable of.”

  “I will be. I’m so sorry that happened to you” Juliana sat back in her chair. Mitch had been right. But Declan had told her that he wasn’t dirty, and that his interest in the café was legitimate. The tension and stress of the new revelation made her stomach twist unpleasantly. She took a sip of ginger ale, but it did nothing to settle it. Quickly, Juliana pushed back from the table and ran for the bathroom, praying that she would get there in time. She rounded a corner, barely avoiding a waitress carrying a tray of drinks, and pushed through the bathroom door and into one of the stalls and kneeled in front of the toilet, just making it before her stomach emptied again. Erica and Azura were quick on her heels.

  Juliana stood, her knees wobbly, and Azura pressed a wet paper to her forehead to cool her. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Jules, what’s going on?” Erica asked her. She gasped quickly. “Oh, my God! Are you pregnant?”

  “That’s your answer for everything. No,” Juliana answered immediately. But she stopped and thought about it. “No,” she said more softly, less convinced. She tried to count backwards, and remember when she’d last had her period. “It’s not possible. At least I don’t think so.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m on the pill, I take it regularly. I never miss it.”

  “It’s not one hundred percent effective,” Erica offered. “Do you and Mitch use anything else?”

  Juliana wracked her brain. She almost answered with an automatic yes, that they used condoms. But that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes they were caught up in the moment, and because they knew that they were both clean and healthy, they didn’t bother with a condom. It was reckless, b
ut Mitch just brought out that side of her sometimes.

  When she didn’t respond, Erica prodded her. “Jules, maybe we should go. Stop by the pharmacy and pick up a test?”

  “Or six,” Azura suggested. “Gotta be sure, right?”

  Juliana, Erica and Azura crowded into Juliana’s small bathroom as they waited for the digital counter on her cell phone to tick down the seconds to zero. They’d put the test in the linen cupboard, out of sight, out of mind, until the buzzer of the alarm sounded. Juliana stood frozen as she looked at the closed door of the closet.

  “Want me to check it?” Azura asked.

  Shaking herself from her trance, she took a deep breath. “No, I’ve got it,” she said, opening the door and reaching for it. She took another deep, calming breath and finally looked at it. The plus sign on the display screen told her that she was indeed pregnant.

  Her mind raced, not able to focus on any one thought. “Oh wow,” she whispered as her friends gathered around her, forming a supportive circle. She was grateful for their presence.

  “Do you want to take another test?”

  “No,” she told her. “That’s enough. I’ll have to check with a doctor, I guess. But now that I think about it, pregnancy explains everything.”

  They walked out to her living room, and Juliana flopped down on her couch.

  Pregnant.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I don’t know. Shocked, maybe. I’m kind of stunned, numb. I don’t know how to process any of this.” Her friends stayed silent, letting her work through her emotions. “And you know me, I’m such a control freak, you know I plan things down to a T. I don’t do anything unless I’m one hundred percent prepared. But this... I know I won’t be able to manage much once the baby comes. God, the baby.” Even the words made her hands shake. “I’m just getting the café back up and running, and Mitch and I haven’t even been together for long. What am I going to do?”

  Erica and Azura both reached out to hold her hand. “You’re going to make the best decision for yourself, and we’ll be here for you, no matter what.”

  “Thank you, both of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you guys. I appreciate all you do. But I think I want to be alone. I need to think.”

  Chapter 6

  Steve and Joe returned to Mitch’s kitchen, joining him and Peter at the table. They had just swept through each of their apartments and vehicles, checking for bugs and cameras, ending up at Mitch’s.

  “So, we have to assume that it’s no longer business as usual in the war room,” Mitch pronounced putting an opened beer bottle in front of each of the men.

  “You got that right,” Peter agreed.

  “Now that we know the room is clear, let’s talk this out. Who bugged us?”

  “The timing sure is convenient,” Steve offered. “What with our new team member and all.”

  “And what do we make of her?” Joe asked.

  Mitch shrugged. “I asked around about her, checked some places, and got the scoop on the teams she’s trained, and the consensus is that she’s a good cop. You can’t fault her for that. But I don’t know if she’s too good. I don’t want her to find out about any of our side deals, especially with the Irish.”

  “She won’t,” Steve vowed.

  Mitch drank a mouthful of beer. “At least if she’s sticking close to us, we’ll be able to keep an eye on her as well. See if she’s snooping into our business. We’ll know if she’s sneaking around.”

  Mitch was surprised by a quick, almost jaunty, knock on the door. He stood to answer it. Thinking that it might be Juliana home early from her girls’ night. He opened the door without checking the peephole. He was more than surprised to see Declan O’Connell standing at the threshold.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

  “I can’t just stop in and visit a friend?”

  “We’re not friends.”

  “Oh, right,” he said with a nod, not losing his smile. “Well, a guy can’t drop in on the boyfriend of his business partner.”

  “Juliana isn’t here.”

  “I’m glad, because I don’t think she needs to hear what I have to say. But I think you should.”

  Mitch hesitated before stepping out of the way to let Declan walk inside. Mitch led him into the kitchen where he took a seat at the table. Mitch took another beer from the fridge and put it down in front of him.

  “Team’s all here,” Declan muttered.

  “So, what are you doing here?” Mitch asked him.

  “I’ve moved into my father’s home, since his untimely demise,” he slanted his eyes at Peter, who’d been the man who killed the elder O’Connell. “I’ve been going through some of his paperwork. It seemed that he was making some payments to men in your department.”

  “Seeing as how we busted two cops who were under the thumb of the Russians,” Peter retorted, “it’s not a surprise that they were also on the take for your family.”

  Mitch recalled hearing similar information from Declan’s uncle Colin when he’d visited him in prison. “Yeah, Mike Roberts and Don Smith were arrested and charged with murder, among other things. We both know that. Do you have something new for us?”

  “Well, it seemed that my father’s reach went a bit higher than that. There were records of payments to your Captain, Rick Lewis.”

  This piqued Mitch’s interest. “Are you sure? What proof do you have? I don’t believe that your father or Lewis would be stupid enough to leave a written paper trail.”

  “My father was a fastidious man and kept his more sensitive information in Gaelic. That’s where I found his detailed notes outlining his connections to the police force and city hall. I would guess he kept the ledgers as an insurance policy, in case the shit hit the fan.”

  The revelation was clearly excited the team, but Mitch’s tone revealed his skepticism. “Why exactly are you telling us this?”

  “I figured it was information you could use. A gesture of goodwill, since you clearly don’t trust me around your fair lady.”

  Mitch crossed his arms, clearly waiting for evidence of some ulterior motive to arise. Declan ignored him, and carried on. “And when I found this information, I thought it would be safe with you. We’ve all been so open about our business affairs that I figured you should know.”

  Another knock on the door surprised Mitch, and he again stood from the table to answer it. “Who could that be?” he wondered aloud. “A member of the Russian mob come to tell me where their stash houses are?”

  Declan smirked into the mouth of his beer bottle before taking a drink. “What Russian mob?” he asked, alluding to his organization’s decimation of the competing Russian faction.

  Mitch opened the door, surprised again, to see Erica. He lowered his eyebrows at her. She was supposed to be at a bar, drinking martinis with Juliana and Azura. “Erica, what brings you by?”

  Erica looked at him for a moment, scrutinizing him before she spoke. “I asked Azura to give me a ride home but I forgot my keys, and I knew Peter was here, so I just got her to drop me off.” She paused for a moment when Mitch didn’t move. She lowered her voice, and leaned in for an overly-dramatic conspiratorial whisper. “Why? Am I interrupting some no-girls-allowed secret meeting?”

  Mitch rolled his eyes, and stepped aside to let her in. Erica strode towards the kitchen, but Mitch saw her stop short and freeze when she saw the men at the table.

  “What’s he doing here?”

  Mitch entered the kitchen in time to see Peter stand protectively in front of Erica. Declan also stood and extended his hand to her. “I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced, the name’s Declan.”

  Erica visibly stiffened at Declan’s Irish accent. She was clearly still dealing with the experience of her kidnapping by Declan’s father, and Mitch could see that Peter wasn’t about to let the Irishman get anywhere his fiancée. Mitch felt the tension in the kitchen, and he couldn’t help but notice ho
w worlds were colliding in front of him, fragile relationships and alliances, hanging in the balance.

  Mitch saw how Peter’s fists clenched, and he stepped decisively between Declan and Peter, gesturing from the Irishman to the door. “It’s time for you to leave.”

  “Alright, Swanson,” Declan said, before draining his beer. He looked around the table. “Gentlemen, I’ll be in touch.” Mitch walked him to the door and closed it without saying good-bye.

  He went back to the kitchen and saw that Erica was pale as she stood near Peter. “Are you okay?”

  “What was he doing here?” she asked.

  “He had some information for us.”

  “That’s the guy that Jules is working with, right? Declan O’Connell?”

  “Yeah, unfortunately.”

  She nodded. “Is he like the others?” her voice was lowered, and she looked at the floor, Peter’s arm around her tightened, and Mitch regretted putting his brother and his fiancée in such a precarious situation.

  “We don’t know for certain, but he seems like he’s trying to lead the family down a different path.”

  “Jules and I talked about it tonight. She had no idea that his father was behind what happened to me.”

  “If she did, I’m certain she wouldn’t have gone into business with him,” Mitch assured her. He knew that Juliana would never do anything to hurt her friend. But he also knew that it would be difficult for her to get out of their contract and to return the money he’d invested, especially since it was already spent on re-launching the café.

  “We’re going to take off,” Peter said, frowning, putting an arm around Erica.

  Mitch nodded and walked them to do the door. “Where’s Jules?”

  He noticed a beat of hesitation cross her face. “She’s at home. She wasn’t feeling well, so we cut the night short.”

  “Still? She was sick this morning. I should give her a call.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, you probably should.”