“Where’s the councilman?” I asked.
Sadie’s head lolled to the left at the sound of my voice, but her eyes stayed closed.
“Who knows? I’m not his keeper all the time, just at the fun times.”
“His wife didn’t seem to be too bothered that you were sleeping with him,” I pointed out.
“That’s because she knows he’s going to leave her for me. That can’t make any woman feel good.”
“That’s the oldest trick in the book.” I laughed, trying to keep her talking.
We needed more information out of her. Were these vague promises coming from Harner if she completed these tasks for him? Was Harner in on the murder and kidnapping?
“You don’t actually believe he’s going to leave his wife for you, do you? Men say that to keep you coming back.” I smiled, and her hands began shaking.
“You don’t know Rick like I do.”
“For which I’m grateful.” I narrowed my eyes on Carmella. “So tell me, does Rick know you were bankrolling his niece and her boyfriend up in Rochester with his campaign funds and arranging for their murders or is that just business as usual?”
My brothers raised their pistols in her direction when it became apparent what she was holding in her hand, a Ruger LC9.
“I'm sure you know the answer to that.” She gave a coy smile.
Zack had freed Sadie from the beam, but he knew better than to try to move her with Carmella armed and insanely babbling. Sadie’s eyes were still closed and her breathing shallow as she leaned against Zack for support. I wanted to get her out of here alive.
“Did Harner promise to leave his wife for you if you took care of his dirty laundry?”
“You mean Missy?” She smiled wider, snapping her back to what made her proud. “Oh, no. He had no idea I took care of the problem.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that.
“He didn’t know you kidnapped her?”
“No. I think he was secretly relieved that she was out of the picture though. I mean, the man didn’t even cancel one luncheon while she was missing.” She took another step forward and her gaze fell to Sadie. “What an uncle.”
“Doesn’t that make you nervous about marrying him? Seems rather coldhearted.”
She shrugged. “His career couldn’t keep taking these hits. I’d built him to this point. I managed his career these last two years and got him to where he is.”
“But his wife has built it up for the last twenty.”
“Please. All that woman knows how to do is drink her way to the next charity function.”
I spotted Luke coming in behind Carmella.
That meant that SWAT was near.
There was no way out for her.
“So now what?” I asked.
She growled something inaudible and Zack covered Sadie’s body with his own.
“Do you realize none of this would have happened if your girlfriend had kept her nose out of my business? If Missy had just been lumped in with others, I never would have needed to take a hostage, and the whole thing with his niece would have blown over.”
“So this is our fault?”
“Absolutely, and I’m finally going to make you pay.” She raised her pistol in Sadie’s direction.
Footsteps thundered loudly around us as the police swarmed the building, shouting commands.
A shot was fired, and my gaze flew to Sadie as two more shots rang out. Sadie was fine, but Zack took a hit in his shoulder.
Carmella was on the ground with SWAT surrounding her. They didn’t shoot to kill.
As madness descended on the building, medics brought in several stretchers and Luke walked over to me.
“For once, I’m glad we let them take care of it.” He looked around the building and smiled.
“Me too. It’s nice not to be the one always pulling the trigger.”
“I’m telling you, being a good guy really has its perks.”
I smacked my brother-in-law’s back and shook my head.
“So you’re a good guy?”
“Hey, I work in the private security business protecting A-list stars.”
“Whatever you say, bud.” I grinned at Luke. “I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?”
My brother-in-law tipped his head and whispered. “Well, it doesn’t help when the word mafia is attached to your name.”
“Truer words.” I shook my head as we made our way over to Zack and Sadie.
Zack had brushed off his gunshot wound even though the medics were insisting on taking him to the hospital. He seemed more preoccupied with Sadie, helping to move her onto the stretcher and combing her hair away from her face.
“You’re safe now,” he whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open before closing, and he squeezed her hand before the medics wheeled her out.
“Sadie,” Elena moaned tearfully.
I spun around to see Elena nearly collapsing near the stretcher at the sight of her sister.
“She’s severely dehydrated. We need to get a drip running,” the medics told Elena.
I could see she wasn’t moving and quickly made my way over to her, trying to comfort her the best I could.
“You saved her,” she whimpered, burying her face into my shoulder.
“No, Elena. You saved her. You knew where to send us.”
“I realized she'd been following me, finding out every detail about my life. She figured out why this place has meaning for me and wanted to torment me more. Scare me off.” Her eyes blinked and connected with mine. “I’m so sorry about so many things.”
“Now’s not the time.” I brushed the tears away from her cheeks as Zack walked by.
“Who shot him?” Elena whispered.
“Carmella. He was shielding your sister.”
“Well, that won’t hurt Sadie’s feelings any. He’s pretty good-looking.”
“Should I be worried?” I teased.
Sadness flitted through her gaze. She had no idea I already knew what was on the tip of her tongue.
The sound of hysterical screaming broke through the air. We both turned to watch them handcuff Carmella to the stretcher before wheeling her out of our warehouse.
Elena looked around the building that was already starting to clear out for the investigators.
“I can’t believe you called in all of this,” she whispered. “I would have thought you would have taken care of it in your own way.”
“I think that for a woman like Carmella, prison will be far worse than death.”
“Probably.” She drew in a breath. “Listen, I need to talk to you.”
I looked around the warehouse. “Not here.”
“Outside then.”
I nodded, dreading where she was about to lead me.
Even though the parking lot behind us was crawling with police, this area was quiet and remote. Only the sound of the water lapping against the rocks below could be heard.
We stood in silence for a minute or so until she turned to look at me.
“I haven’t been honest with you.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
She looked out toward the water, the breeze catching her blonde hair before she turned to face me.
“That night I met you in the bar, I was tipped off that you’d be there. It wasn’t a coincidence.”
“Why?” I asked simply.
She drew a breath and looked down at the gravelly pavement around us.
“My cousin was murdered.” Her gaze stayed down. “His killer was never brought to justice.”
“Who was your cousin, Elena?”
I already knew the answer.
“Joey.” Her eyes came back to mine, and tears balanced on her lashes. “You killed my cousin and you were never brought to justice. I wanted that for him the only way I knew how.”
“Your weapon is your pen.” I nodded.
“I’d planned on infiltrating your lives and writing an exposé. It was the only way I could ma
ke things better.”
I saw the pain in her eyes as she spoke about her cousin, pain I’d caused, and I knew that whenever she looked at me, she’d see Joey. No matter how much I wanted her, I needed to make her happy. She needed to be free of me and from all the burdens of my world. Writing about crime was one thing, but living in a world where you’re confronted with these choices was another thing entirely.
I looked into her eyes and my heart broke. The one woman I was on the verge of loving, I was about to send away.
Who was I kidding? I already loved her, which was why I knew I had to do this.
“I don’t understand how you could do something like that to him.” She wiped away a tear and kept her gaze on mine. “He was a sweet kid. Innocent.”
I’d wondered about this conversation for such a long time, and the decision to end it only just came to me. I knew the only way to make her understand that it was over, to truly make her believe that I couldn’t possibly love her because of this betrayal, was to be as cold to her as she’d seen me be with others, and it killed me. I wanted nothing more than to be with her, but she deserved better.
“Oh, baby doll. I didn’t murder anyone who didn’t deserve to be taken out of this world. And that included your cousin, Joey.”
She gasped at my admission and turned to face the water.
“How could you say that after everything I just told you?”
“Because it’s true.” I came up behind her and rested my hand on her shoulder. She froze from my touch and I knew I was doing the right thing. “I could tell you who your cousin truly was, or you could leave here with the memories you have now, completely untarnished and close to your heart.”
“I want to know what you think warranted my cousin’s death.” She turned to face me, and I knew this would be the last time I would ever see Elena.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Elena
The hatred spinning inside me was unbearable. How did I let this man trick me into believing his kind of justice was the good kind?
Even when I looked into his eyes now, it looked like I was seeing a different person, a man who no longer cared whether he ever saw me again.
“Tell me why you pulled that trigger,” I repeated, my blood boiling. “He was nothing more than a floral delivery driver.”
His lip curled slightly.
“If only that were true.” He scratched his chin and shook his head.
I knew he wouldn’t take this information well, but I guess I didn’t expect to see this kind of response. I owed my sister’s life to this man, a debt I’d never be able to repay. He gave my family my sister back, but he also took away my cousin.
“Sure,” he began. “He delivered flowers and just about anything else you could sniff, snort, inhale, or shoot.”
“Joey wasn’t a drug dealer.”
“Indeed, he was, but that’s not what got him killed.”
I took in a breath, not realizing it was shaky. I saw a dart of sorrow splash through Jaxson’s gaze, but it vanished instantly.
Or was it in my head?
“Your cousin, Joey, began casing people’s homes while delivering flowers. Weeks and months later, he would come back to those homes and commit armed burglary. One night, things didn’t go as planned, and he murdered an entire family of four.”
“That’s not true. He wasn’t capable of that.” My entire body trembled as his words continued to loop through my mind. “There’s no way Joey did that.”
“The Joey you knew wasn’t the Joey I knew.”
“How could you be sure?” I shook my head, unwilling to believe the horror he was relaying.
“Your cousin had a habit of videotaping his exploits.”
My heart dropped. Joey always loved to record everything. Everything. I knew of a relationship he’d had that had blown up because she found out he’d taped her while they had sex.
“What?” Jaxson’s voice remained lifeless. “Did I strike a chord?”
“He always recorded everything since we were kids.”
“Not the smartest move.”
“No, it’s not,” I agreed, unable to look at Jaxson any longer.
“I have the video, but I’d advise against seeing it.”
I stood in silence, trying to navigate everything he’d told me. Jaxson had never lied to me before. He might have withheld information, but he’d never lied.
I finally brought my gaze up to his.
“I believe you.”
Relief spread through his gaze, but he quickly pushed it away.
“It looks like they’re headed to the hospital with your sister.” Jax pointed behind me and I turned around to look.
“I need to go to the hospital.”
“I know.”
I turned around and didn’t look back. I couldn’t look back.
Every emotion I’d had in the last twenty-four hours was scratching at the surface, begging to flow out. There were so many times I’d let myself believe that I’d lost my sister, only to promise myself that she was still alive and that I’d get to see her again.
I’d let myself fall under Jaxson’s spell and I’d let myself be vulnerable during a time I needed comfort more than I ever knew.
And he was there to provide it.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and smile and cry simultaneously. Nothing made sense, but one thing was for sure. Jaxson wanted nothing to do with me.
My sister’s ambulance pulled away as I found a medic who told me where they were headed with her.
I jogged to the car I’d borrowed from Jaxson and decided one more time wouldn’t hurt. I needed to see my sister, this was the only car I had keys for, and it was how I got here anyway.
The hospital they took her to was less than fifteen minutes away, and I quickly found a parking spot and ran into the emergency room. Several police officers were congregating in the waiting room while I went up to the admissions desk to explain who I was.
“We’ll let you see her as soon as she’s stabilized.”
“But—”
“It won’t be long. Please, have a seat.” I marched over to the waiting area and found a seat by the window.
I pulled out my phone to see several texts from my mother. Jaxson’s mom was driving them here. She wanted to make sure I was okay.
My chest tightened at the thought of having to deal with Jaxson’s mother at the moment. I’d barely been able to cling to the idea that my sister was actually alive and my cousin wasn’t half the man I thought he was. I didn’t need any lectures . . . or worse.
I stared mindlessly at the television showing some home and garden channel as I waited impatiently for them to allow me to see my sister. The police officers who had been standing in the waiting room were called back, and I wondered if it was to see my sister. Did that mean she was awake?
As I stood to go to the admissions desk, my mom and dad stepped through the automatic doors with Mrs. Volkov right behind. I avoided any eye contact with her, which didn’t seem to faze her as she took a seat in the waiting room, leaving my parents and me to embrace.
“I can’t believe she’s alive,” my mom cried into my shoulder. “We owe so much to the Volkovs.”
“We owe them everything,” I whispered.
My mother took a step back, dabbing her eyes as my father held her tight.
“Have you seen her yet?” she asked.
“I only saw her briefly when they were taking her to the ambulance. They said she was dehydrated, but since I got here, I haven’t been able to see her.”
My mom nodded knowingly and marched up to the desk I’d been turned away from.
They gave her the same spiel, but my mom didn’t seem deterred.
“They’ve got five minutes or I’m just going back there.” She made her way over to Mrs. Volkov, leaving my dad and me standing near the door.
“Sometimes, the people we love will disappoint us,” my father said quietly.
My eyes moved to his, and
I tilted my head in confusion.
“Excuse me?”
“When you put someone on a pedestal, they’re bound to fall off. Don’t you think?” My dad’s voice was soft and concerned. “But you can’t blame the world and you can’t blame yourself. You also can’t blame others for doing what they thought was right.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Joey. I’m talking about Joey.”
“You knew?”
“Your mother and I both knew he’d gotten into some trouble, and we were aware how he died and what led up to his death.”
I glanced at my mom. “And you never told me?”
“We didn’t want to ruin the good memories you held onto so tightly.” My father looked around the hospital waiting room. “Apparently, we were wrong in that decision.”
I felt utterly alone.
“The world is rarely made up of good people and bad people. Sometimes, good people do bad things, and sometimes, bad people do good things just to throw us off.”
“I just can’t believe my Joey would do what Jaxson said he did.”
“Honey, my guess is that Jaxson gave you the watered-down version. In fact, I know he did because he called me to tell me what he told you.”
I let out a sigh.
“Don’t blame Jaxson in all of this.”
My father’s words surprised me.
I shook my head. “I think I hurt him more than—”
“He knew. He knew for quite some time.”
“Then why didn’t he say something?”
“He likes you.”
My mother bolted from her seat and grinned at me. “Okay, time’s up.”
I held in a chuckle as I watched my mom walk up to the admission lady, who told her the same thing she apparently tells everyone, every time.
The sliding door opened behind me, and I saw Jaxson and his brothers filing into the hospital just as I heard a commotion in the other direction as my mom barged through the emergency room doors to find her daughter.
I guess the apple didn’t fall from the tree. I halfway expected to see security or police escorting her back through the doors, but it seemed as if the doors swallowed her up.
My father rubbed my shoulders and let out a long breath. “I suppose I should go in after her.”
Jaxson: A Romantic Suspense (V Mafia Series Book 3) Page 20