“So this Kramer killed him?”
“Not himself. Kramer doesn’t do his own dirty work. He has a son named Caine. The last time I talked to Greg, he had a meeting with him. I told him to call me before he went…he didn’t. I think he knew it was a set-up and he didn’t want to risk my life. I’ll ask myself the rest of my days what might have happened if I’d gone with him. I may have been able to save him…”
“So this Caine killed him?”
Tommy looked around again like a paranoid schizophrenic. He looked like he was on drugs himself, he was so jumpy. “All I know for sure is that Greg never came out of that meeting alive. I firmly believe that he was murdered…by Caine Kramer or one of them in the family.”
“Shit! I got a text from him a couple of days before I found out he died. It said he had something hidden in his apartment. You’re right. He knew…Damn him for going in there knowing that!”
Paige felt the tears sting her eyes again. Greg was too brave and noble for his own good. She knew he didn’t overdose but the word ‘murdered’ cut her like a knife. The anger suddenly turned from a slow burn into a raging inferno in her chest. “Thank you, Tommy…for everything,” she said.
“I wish I could have saved him.”
Paige hugged him and said, “Me too, but you know my brother, if he’d made up his mind to do something, no one could have changed it.” Tommy nodded.
Paige squeezed his hand and started to head back over to where Jackson was. But he was gone. She looked around but didn’t see them anywhere, so she went back over to where Tommy stood. He was talking to another officer so she waited until they were done. Tommy’s paranoia had rubbed off on her a bit. She took his arm and led him away from everyone else, to a little path that ran through the cemetery. As they walked she asked him, “Tommy, did you tell the chief yet what you just told me about Greg being murdered?”
“No.”
“Why not? They’re thinking my brother was a junkie. Even though they gave him a hero’s funeral, I’d rather they knew the truth. Besides, I want the people who did this to pay for it.”
“You don’t understand, Paige. These guys are responsible for countless murders in the city every year…sometimes on a weekly basis. They don’t leave evidence, they don’t leave trails. These guys are not thugs…they’re not gang-bangers…they have more money than God and that money can buy anything.”
“So you’re telling me they’ll never be charged with my brother’s murder? They just get away with it?”
“That and a lot more; Paige, the Kramer’s and the Paine’s use their money as well as intimidation to control everything in the city. There are more cops on their payroll than there are criminals. I have a pretty good suspicion that the chief is one of them. Every time a cop gets close to having enough to put one of these guys away…they end up like Greg.”
“What about you then, you were his partner.”
“I’ve already put in for a leave of absence. I told them I needed it because of the trauma of losing my partner and best friend. That’s part of it of course…but the main reason is that I need to get out of here before I’m next. Greg and I uncovered a lot of evidence that could go a long way towards bringing down both of these empires. But I don’t know who to take it to and if I take it to the wrong guy…someone on the payroll, I end up dead.”
Paige was in shock. She couldn’t believe what Tommy was telling her. The NYPD was on her stepfather’s payroll? She wasn’t surprised about anything she heard about her stepfather, but the fucking NYPD? She knew Jackson was a drug lord, ever since she was a teenager and Greg found out what he really did for a living. At first, because he was so good to her and Paige really liked him, she’d tried to romanticize the whole thing in her head. He was bringing the drugs in, but he didn’t make people buy them and use them. Greg filled her in then on other things he’d found out. At fourteen years old, he’d already had detective skills that he must have been born with. He told her that Jackson Paine might not make people buy and use the drugs, but he encouraged it, strongly. He had his large distribution groups at the top that worked all the way down to putting people on the streets near schools and parks and had them give the stuff away to kids…the younger the better. Once the kid was hooked, they would sell their grandmother to get a taste. He also told her that their stepfather had no qualms about killing anyone who got in his way and that included their families. Over time, with each new thing Greg told her about Jackson, she grew to hate him as much as Greg did. They both grew to resent their mother who for whatever reason refused to believe Jackson was the bad guy.
“Tommy, before you take off, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Sure, if I can.”
“I need you to get me a new I.D.”
Tommy looked suspicious and said, “Why would you need new I.D Paige?”
“I’m going to New York. I’m going to find out who killed my brother and make sure the son of a bitch pays for what he has done.”
“No Paige. No fucking way.”
“I’m going to do it with or without your help.”
“I don’t think you have any idea what you’re getting into here.”
“Look at where we are, Tommy! I’m at my brother’s fucking funeral! These people killed my brother and they are not going to get away with it.” Her voice was pressured and she felt on the verge of tears again…this time from frustration. She took a deep breath and said, “Now, you can help me or not, it’s up to you. If I don’t hear from you by tomorrow, I’ll start figuring out how to do this myself. I think you know I’m capable of that.” Paige took another shaky breath and turned to head towards the car her mother was waiting in.
“Paige.”
She turned back towards Tommy and he said, “Don’t do anything stupid. I’m in town for a couple more days. I’ll come by tomorrow around noon.”
“Thank you, Tommy.”
“Yeah…sure, if you turn up dead we’ll see if you’re still thanking me.
Chapter Five
Damien Paine stood towards the back of the crowd of mourners with his father and his brother and let his mind wonder about things as the service progressed. He hadn’t seen Crystal yet. He often looked at the one photo his father still had of her in his office and tried to see similarities between her and his mother. They were polar opposites in the looks department. Where Crystal was petite with dark hair, Damien’s mother had been tall with light brown hair. Her eyes were blue where Crystals were hazel…but Damien knew his father well enough by now to know that as attractive as both women were, his father hadn’t picked either of them for their looks. He had been looking for a wife, not a lover. Jackson Paine had different standards for the women in his life. Damien had come to figure out that his father was of the mind that there were two types of women…those you marry and those you pay for sex. He so firmly believed that he was unable to understand why Crystal objected to him satisfying his needs with another woman. He definitely wasn’t going to apologize for it. Damien got the impression that his father actually thought that someday Crystal would realize her mistake and come crawling back. She never did.
Damien and Alex’s mother hadn’t left him because of infidelity, or at least she never mentioned it. She’d left him because at the age of twenty-nine when his father died, Jackson took the helm of the family business. Damien’s mother told him she refused to live that life and raise her son’s that way. The boys were both toddlers at the time. She told her sons when they were much older that Jackson told her she could leave and leave his sons with him. Instead, she pretended that she would stay in New York…setting herself and the boys up in an apartment near Jackson’s home. She waited patiently for the divorce to become final and then she withdrew the money she’d saved since the first day she realized what her husband’s family business really was, she took the boys to California and never looked back. Jackson told Damien he looked for them but never found them.
Damien didn�
��t believe that. Jackson never failed at anything. Damien liked to believe that Jackson hadn’t wanted to take the boys from their mother. He didn’t have many good qualities, but his father truly loved his family.
Although Jackson did tell them about Crystal, neither he nor his brother Alex knew anything about a step-brother and sister. It was the day before the funeral when his father called him to the house and told him they would be flying out to Jersey that evening.
“What are we going to Jersey for?”
“Crystal’s son is dead. Tomorrow is his funeral.”
Damien cocked an eyebrow and said, “Crystal had a son?”
“Yes and so you’re prepared there will be a lot of cops there. He was with the N.Y.P.D. a vice cop.”
“Ten years I’ve been here Dad. Why have you never mentioned that Crystal had a son?”
He shrugged. “It never came up,” he said.
“Did you still have contact with him?”
“I looked over him as well as I could. Obviously it wasn’t easy considering the career path he chose.”
“Why?”
Jackson gave him a hard look. He didn’t like being questioned…He knew how far to push his father and he was smart enough to know where to stop as well. Jackson wasn’t annoyed with him enough to worry Damien…yet.
“They were my stepchildren for five years. You know how I am about family.”
“They? She has more than one?”
“Yes, she has a daughter as well. Paige. She should be about twenty-five now. Last I heard she was in medical school at Princeton. She’s an incredibly smart girl.”
“Can I ask why you’ve never mentioned her…or her brother…what was his name?”
“Greg. It’s hard for me to talk about them. Crystal and I didn’t part on great terms and the children were disappointed in me as well. They didn’t care to continue a relationship with me. It hurts. Greg was never a fan of mine from the start. He rejected every olive branch I tried to hold out to him. His father was a cop…so I think he had a cop mentality from birth. In my defense however, he hated me before he ever found out what I did for a living. I suppose it was the age. At fourteen, you don’t want anyone trying to replace your father, especially when your father was your whole world. Maybe I tried too hard.”
“What about the girl. Did she accept you?”
He nodded and said, “At first. Paige and I had an excellent relationship until her brother discovered the “family business.” He brainwashed her against me and to this day I think it had something to do with Crystal leaving me as well.”
“Besides the fact you had a twenty-two year old blonde sucking your dick when she walked in?”
He gave Damien a warning look and said, “Watch your mouth. Go, you don’t have much time before the plane leaves. I’ll expect you at the airport in an hour.”
So now here he stood, dressed in a black suit in the middle of May. His father was on his right and his brother Alex on his left. They were standing amidst a bunch of people they didn’t know to pay their respects to a man he and Alex had only just heard of. He was bemoaning his luck when he saw her….
He recognized Crystal right away from the photo he’d seen. She looked a few years older, but otherwise just the same. She was still petite but curvy and she had shoulder length dark hair and amazingly smooth skin for a forty-five year old woman. But Crystal wasn’t what kept his attention. It was the woman that she clung to. He had to assume this was Paige. His father hadn’t mentioned that she was drop-dead gorgeous. But of course he and Crystal had been divorced since Paige was in her early teens. He didn’t know if Jackson had seen her since then or not. She was definitely all grown up now.
Damien was not surprised that he found her attractive, but he was surprised at how drawn he felt to her. Once his eyes found her it was like they were glued there and would require a great deal of effort to pull them away. He was thankful for his sunglasses. He was able to let his eyes roam her body freely. She had dark hair that fell to her waist in long, loose waves. It fell against the swell of her chest like thick chocolate. He knew it was an inappropriate thought for a funeral, but he wanted to rake his fingers through it while he stared into those really big hazel eyes. Her eyes actually looked more green than brown against her smooth, light olive skin, and they were framed with long, thick lashes. Damien felt like a pervert for lusting after the grieving sister of the man who was being eulogized, but he was powerless to stop. He tried not to stare at her full lips and that sexy little mole that sat just above the top one, but the effort was futile.
His gaze lingered on her cleavage. The dress she wore accentuated her perfect form. The flowing black fabric ended just below her knees, exposing her toned and muscular thighs. He caught himself picturing what she would look like sans the dress. She had curves that went on for days and the waves in her hair weren’t the only things he would like to get his hands on. He felt his pants growing tighter in front and he decided he needed to change his train of thought. He tried to picture what it would have been like growing up with his father. That took care of it.
After the service was over, he watched as Paige came towards them. He felt a strange and unfamiliar tightness in his stomach. Something about this girl was magnetic. Damien loved beautiful women and he’d had plenty of them…but none of them ever affected him this way. She was about halfway to them when a big white guy reached out with his meaty palm and took hold of her arm. Damien actually took a step forward. It was insanity at its finest, he thought. Even women he slept with didn’t elicit that kind of emotion from him.
“Let’s go,” his father told him.
Damien wanted to protest. He wanted to tell his father they had to wait and find out what Paige was coming to say. He didn’t say any of that however. What he did was what he always did…he followed his father. It was the life that he and his brother entered into ten years earlier when their mother died and they went to live in New York with their father. It was something Alex had wanted to do for a long time, not Damien. He would have preferred to just stay in California and lead a normal life. But out of respect for his mother who lived in terror of them becoming anything like Jackson Paine, Alex stayed along with Damien. Once she had passed neither of them had a choice and their father, uncles and aunt gave them no choice but to follow the family. When they first got to New York, Jackson had welcomed them with open arms. He showered them both with gifts and his affection. They both wondered what it was about him that their mother feared so much…that realization came later on, and by that time, it was too late.
Chapter Six
“Paige, Tommy is here.”
Paige heard Crystal call to her from the living room. She didn’t want her mother to know what was taking place between her and Tommy. She’d told her mother that she just needed to get away for the summer. Between the long school year and burying her brother who was also her best friend, she was exhausted. Since it was mostly true, Crystal bought it. Paige told her that she’d be staying with a friend she met in medical school in California.
“Can you ask him to come on back, Mom?”
A minute later, Tommy appeared in the doorway. Paige was packing. “Hi. Did you get them?”
Tommy had an envelope in his hand which she assumed was what she wanted. He looked reluctant to give it to her however and he said, “Are you sure that you want to do this?”
“I don’t want to. I have to.”
“I’m scared to death for you, Paige. You’re not a cop. Do you understand that the smallest slip and these guys will see it? They’re looking for it. They are the most paranoid sons of bitches you’ll ever meet.”
“I know this won’t be easy, Tommy. But like I told you before, I have to do this. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try to get justice for my brother. I’m not a cop, but I’m smart and I grew up pretty much a latch-key kid with Greg while Mom worked. I’m not soft and coddled.”
“I
know you’re smart…it’s the only thing that’s going to help me sleep at night.” He threw the envelope on the bed.
Paige picked it up and looked inside. There was a driver’s license with her picture on it. It was a New York state license and the name on it said, Paige Gauthier. There was a social security card and a credit card. There was also a resume to which Tommy had added references they used in their undercover endeavors and a contact that she could trust if ever need be. Lastly, there was a dossier on both Jackson Paine and the Kramer’s.
She looked at Tommy. “These are great. Thank you.”
He grimaced. “I hope I won’t regret this. There’s some other stuff in there as well. I know that Greg filled you in on your stepfather’s business…but I wanted to make sure that he hadn’t sugar coated it for you. That’s what the dossier is about.”
Paige pulled it out and read it. It read, “Jackson Paine…extremely intelligent, manipulative, aggressive...” Those were all things Paige already knew. She would also have to add charming to the list, considering how he had both her mother and her charmed all of those years ago. It also listed his stats: he’s currently single and 49 years old. He has two brothers, Kevin 48 and Brad 45, and one sister, Sylvie 39 who are all employed in the “family” business in one capacity or another.
What she didn’t know was that the “family business” was something he was born into. When he was a teen he began working for his father who was “the boss” at that time. His father passed away when Jackson was 29 years old and that was when he took over the helm. He’s been involved in organized crime for over thirty years and there was no one in New York in their business that would dare cross him…and live to tell about it. Paige looked at Tommy.
ASA: BLACK SKULLS MC Page 17