Trevor looked at Carly. “I was on an assignment,” he said. “I thought my target was a general. I ended up taking out a mob boss.”
Carly had the look of intense listening and intense concern on her face. “A mob boss?”
“Guy named Celletti,” Mick said. “A nasty character.”
“The hunter became the hunted within seconds of that error,” Trevor said, “and I had to improvise.”
Big Daddy was staring at him. “How close?” he asked him.
“To within an inch of my life,” Trevor said honestly.
Carly’s heart sank. But she didn’t express her terror.
“Now what we’ve got to figure out,” Mick said, “is if Celletti’s men set Trevor up, or if the agency did.” Then Mick looked at Trevor. “What information do you have that leans you one way or the other?”
Trevor was surprised by Mick’s ability to size up his dilemma. “They killed the station chief I worked with, and tried to take me out along with him.”
Another heart sank for Carly.
“My go between, Dodge, might have something to do with what happened to me. I have my men searching for him now. And then there’s the fact that an assassin was on standby.”
“Tell us now,” Mick said. “Who is he?”
“Not a he, but a she,” Trevor said. “Her name is Regina Dell.”
Mick frowned. “Reggie Dell?” he asked.
Trevor looked at him. “Yes. You know her?”
Mick nodded. “I know that bitch. She has the heart only a mother could love.”
Trevor nodded too. “And the only woman my brother has ever loved,” he said.
Mick exhaled. “We’ll begin with Celletti’s crew. I took it upon myself to set up a meeting.”
Big Daddy looked at him. “They’re in town?”
Mick frowned. “The man we need to see is in town. The head of the family. I asked him to come.”
“And he agreed?”
“They came for my niece,” Mick said. “Somebody’s got to answer for that. They don’t want to go to war with me.”
Big Daddy nodded. He understood that.
“When’s the meeting?” Trevor asked.
“Tonight. The three of us can go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Big Daddy said. “Until this crazyment is resolved, I am Carly’s personal bodyguard. Where I go, she goes. We both will stay put.”
Trevor nodded. “I appreciate that, Big Daddy,” he said.
Mick stared at his brother. He was yet to meet a man who cared more for his children than his big brother, the man who raised Mick, did.
But Big Daddy could see something more at work on Mick’s face. “And?” he asked.
“And what?” Mick asked. But Big Daddy didn’t respond.
Mick exhaled. “We need to find out everybody who has Trevor by a string.”
“You mean in the government?”
“Exactly what I mean,” Mick said. “This is some Black Ops shit. We have to know who the players are.”
“And once we find out?” Big Daddy asked.
Mick looked at Trevor.
“We terminate them,” Trevor said without blinking. “One by one. It’s time I cut that string. For Carly’s sake.”
Carly knew what they had to do, but that didn’t make it any less unnerving.
But Big Daddy was staring at Mick. “And?” he asked Mick.
“This shit feels major,” Mick said. “This shit feels as if it can go in crazy directions and fuck all of us up. We’re going to need backup. Some major heavy-hitters.”
“If you’re talking heavy-hitters, you must be talking about the Gabrinis,” Big Daddy said.
“There’s nobody else I trust with the level of power we’ll need,” Mick responded. “We’re talking about government involvement. The Celletti crime family involvement. And they came for one of our own, too? They came for Carly? Reno, Sal, and Tommy are the only backup I want.”
“Don’t forget Trevor,” Carly said.
Big Daddy smiled. He used to wonder about the true feelings those two had for each other. But no more.
“I haven’t forgotten about him,” Mick said. “But he has one foot in the government. I don’t trust the government.”
Trevor smiled. “You shouldn’t,” he said, and they all managed, despite it all, to laugh.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The head of the Celletti crime family was a big man they called Big Lou. He sat on one side of the table inside the diner, a diner closed to the public during this meeting, and Mick and Trevor sat on the opposite side. Trevor didn’t mince words.
“Who ordered the hit in San Diego on your boss?” he asked.
Big Lou smiled. “Who said a hit was ordered?”
“I said,” Trevor said, “since I was the one who unwittingly carried it out. Now who was the asshole who ordered it?”
“You talk in big, flowery words,” Lou said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Lanceno was hit. And when he was hit we should have killed your ass. But we didn’t. We didn’t because Mick Sinatra, a man we respect, made it clear that a hit on you was a hit on him.”
Trevor was surprised that Mick would put himself out like that. He knew he was going to talk to the Celletti family. He had no idea he was going to put them on notice. “That was the only reason?” Trevor asked Lou.
“We also didn’t retaliate,” Lou said, “because Lanceno, wonderful man though he was, got what was coming to him.” He looked Trevor in the eyes. “It worked itself out.”
“Did you know it was going to work itself out?” Mick asked.
Lou smiled. “No. That’s the beauty of it. We had nothing to do with what went down in California. No idea. It wasn’t our people who went after Reese.”
“There was a turf war,” Trevor said.
“Yeah, there was,” Lou said. “And you settled it for us. You have a powerful enemy,” he added, and then smiled. “But it ain’t us.”
Trevor exhaled. And looked at Mick. Mick was staring at Lou. “You know who,” he said as if it were a fact. “Who?”
“I say he should begin his search at the agency.”
Trevor looked at him. “The agency? What do you know about the agency?”
“I know that’s where you should begin.”
“Who made the call to hit Celletti?” Trevor asked him point blank.
“There are rumors,” Lou said. “I have my contacts.”
“I’m sure you do. And who are your contacts saying made the call?”
Lou stared at Trevor. “The Hammer,” he said. “Who else?”
Trevor’s heart almost stopped beating.
“Hammer Reese?” Mick asked.
Lou nodded, staring at Trevor. “Yeah. That equal opportunity asshole.”
Carly and Big Daddy sat on the balcony outside of the master bedroom and watched the traffic on the bridge, well beyond the safe house, across the Boston Harbor. Carly was reclined in a lounger. Big Daddy sat in a chair beside her with his legs crossed and a glass of wine in his hand. They were on the backside of Mick’s property, and although the bridge in their foreground was the point of view, the guards walking across the property wasn’t far from view. They were too close, in Carly’s view, because it constantly reminded her of just how drastically her life had changed.
After graduating from college, she moved to California and made a name for herself. But she missed her family so much that she decided to move to Boston, back to the east coast, where she also made a name for herself. But then tragedy struck and she moved back to Jericho, her father’s hometown in Maine. But she decided to take a chance on love and moved back to Boston to work for Trevor once again, and to be with Trevor. She didn’t regret the move. She would rather be with him than problem-free without him. She was in it for better or for worse. But these last few days had definitely proven to be the worse.
After several minutes of quietness, Big Daddy, sensing her anguish, looked at her. “Thi
s is going to be the life, Carly,” he said. “You need to fully grasp that.”
Carly, snuggled in her jersey, glanced at her father, and then looked back out into the raging sea. “I can handle it, Daddy,” she said.
“What makes you so sure?” he asked her.
“Trevor,” she said. “If he didn’t think I could handle it, he wouldn’t be with me. He wouldn’t do that to me.” She looked at her father. “Please don’t worry. I can handle it.”
But Big Daddy continued to stare at her. “And what about those days when you can’t handle it, Carly? Or don’t want to handle it?”
Carly didn’t stutter. “Trevor will hold me up,” she said with such confidence that Big Daddy was inclined to believe it too.
“What are you two talking about?”
They heard Trevor’s voice and looked behind them. He was standing at the balcony door, with his hands in his pockets.
“Trevor!” Carly jumped up and ran to him. He pushed away from the doorjamb and wrapped her in his arms. Trevor lived for moments like this. “You’re back and in one piece,” she said.
“Did you doubt I wouldn’t be back in one piece?” he asked her as she looked up into his face.
“Doubt you?” she asked. “Never.”
He smiled. “Yeah, right.” She grinned. And then they kissed a long, enduring kiss.
Big Daddy stood up. “Where’s my baby brother?” he asked with a smile of his own.
Trevor laughed. “Mick the Tick will probably want to challenge a man to a duel who would have the nerve to call him his baby anything.”
Big Daddy laughed. “That’s exactly why I call him that.” Then, as he walked toward the balcony door where Trevor and Carly were standing, his look turned serious again. “What did they say?”
“It wasn’t them,” Trevor said.
“You believe them?”
“Mick does. And since he’s the one who knows them, and they have nothing but respect for him, I would say yes. I believe them.”
Big Daddy patted Trevor’s broad shoulder. “Well, at least we know who it isn’t. Now we need to know who it is.”
Trevor nodded, and Big Daddy left.
But Carly continued to study Trevor’s face. So much so that he noticed it. “What?” he asked.
“You know more. What is it?”
A stormy look appeared in his violet eyes. He continued to hold Carly, but she could tell his grip was loosening.
“What is it?” she asked him again.
“Big Lou, he’s the head of the Celletti family now, claims my brother gave the order to set me up.”
Carly frowned. “Your brother?”
“That would explain Reggie Dell’s involvement. She’s a lot of things, a lot of nasty things, but she’s his woman. He’s the only human being she’ll obey.”
“But why would he want to kill his own brother? Does he hate you?”
Trevor shook his head. “No. The only person he loves more than me is Reggie Dell. If he was willing to sacrifice me, it had to be for Reggie.” Then Trevor frowned. “But I still don’t believe it. The only reason I stayed alive in my younger agency days, was because he wouldn’t let them kill me.”
“Who’s them, Trevor?”
“Faceless, nameless government officials. Officials of the highest order.”
“But surely not higher than your brother?” Carly asked.
He lifted Carly into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist. “I don’t know who they are,” he said, as he carried her to the lounger, “so I can’t say.” He sat down, with her sitting Indian-style and facing him, on his lap.
“Did you talk to him?”
“I phoned him. Told him I need to see him. He lives in Montreal, but was in Boston the day of your attack. That’s how I found out that you were the target.”
“Did he set up a meeting?” Carly asked. “Is he still in Boston?”
“I don’t know where he is. He owns clubs throughout the U.S. and Canada, called JazzLight, and that’s where he was yesterday. At his club here in Boston. Mick and I checked today. He’s no longer there, and his employees don’t know when he’ll return. Which isn’t unusual for a man who doesn’t live in this country.”
“But when you phoned him what did he say? Did he set up a meeting?”
Trevor shook his head. “No. And all he said was that he’ll be in touch. And he will be. He keeps his words.”
Carly was deeply distressed. “But what does this mean, Trevor? If what Celletti’s man said was true, what are you going to do? Declare war on your own brother?”
She had hoped he would dismiss such a question out of hand. But he didn’t. He just sat there, holding her on his lap. Then he pulled her to his bosom and rubbed her soft, bone-thin back.
“Yes,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Big Daddy sat at the table on the back patio and watched Trevor organize his men on the property. Mick came out from inside the house and sat at the table with him. Both men watched Trevor.
“What do you think about our Mr. Reese?” Big Daddy asked.
“He’s a fighter,” Mick said. “He’s tough. Strong.”
“A mobster, in other words,” Big Daddy said. “Never thought Carly would get involved with a mobster.”
“She’s a Sinatra,” Mick said with a wry smile. Then he exhaled. “I wouldn’t call him a mobster,” he added. “Trevor Reese is more of a thug.”
Big Daddy smiled. “That’s supposed to make me feel better? What’s the difference?”
“A thug would just as soon kill you than deal with you,” Mick said. “A mobster will take you out if it makes sense. A mobster is more of a big picture type.”
“I see.” Big Daddy nodded. “So you’re a mobster and he’s a thug.”
“No, I’m a thug too,” Mick said, and Big Daddy stared at him.
Carly came out shortly thereafter, and made her way to the patio table too. “It’s hot out here.”
“You forget your manners,” Big Daddy said as she sat beside him. “We’re from Maine. We never curse good weather.”
Carly laughed. “Sorry,” she said.
Trevor looked toward the patio and saw that Carly was outside too. He left his men and began walking toward her.
“Here he comes,” Big Daddy said. “He acts like he can’t get enough of you, Car.”
“I think it’s more that he blames himself for what almost happened at that gas station,” Carly responded. “It’s not his fault, but that’s how he’s built.”
Big Daddy smiled. “He’s a Ford truck? Built to last?”
Carly nodded. “I would say so, yes,” she said. Then she looked at Mick. “Has his brother called to set up a meeting yet?”
Mick shook his head. “Nope. Not yet.”
Carly leaned her head back, and waved down her long hair.
But when Trevor made it onto the patio, he told Carly to wait there and headed into the house. Carly looked at the two men. “Wait for what?”
Big Daddy shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea.”
By the time Trevor came back outside, he had a plate of food in his hand.
“What’s that?” Carly asked him.
“The staff said you didn’t eat last night, and you ate nothing today.”
“Eat?” Carly shook her head. “I can’t eat a thing, Trevor.”
But Trevor wasn’t trying to hear that. He sat the plate in front of her. “Eat it, Carly.”
“But I’m not hungry.”
“I don’t care. You have to eat. Especially now in this stressful situation. Eat.”
Carly looked at her father, as if he could get Trevor to understand where she was coming from. But Big Daddy turned it back on her. “You told me Trevor takes care of you. He’s taking care of you. What are you looking at me for?”
Mick laughed. Carly smiled. “Not fair, Dad,” she said.
“Life isn’t fair,” he said. “Get used to it.”
And Carly
ate.
While she ate, Trevor sat at the table too. “Still no word from my brother,” he said. “And Dodge is still out of sight.”
“Stop worrying so much,” Big Daddy said. “It’ll all come together.”
“I just want Carly to be able to go back to her life. She didn’t sign up for this.”
“Yes, I did,” Carly said as she ate. “I knew what I was getting myself into.”
Every man at that table doubted if she truly knew, but they admired her willingness to stay on the battlefield. Although every man at that table wished to God she didn’t have to be anywhere near it.
But after several more minutes of little or no talking, Mick’s cell phone buzzed. He looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was his front gate security. He pressed the Speaker. “Yes?”
“Mrs. Sinatra is here, sir.”
Mick frowned. “Which Sinatra?” he asked.
“Jenay.” Her voice came over the intercom. Jenay was Big Daddy’s wife. “It’s me. Open this damn gate!”
“Open the gate,” Mick ordered with a smile as Big Daddy jumped up, shocked. Carly jumped up too, and began running around front. Trevor ran after her.
“You knew she was coming?” Big Daddy asked as Mick rose too and began walking steadily with his brother around the side of the house toward the front.
“She phoned me,” Mick said. “She knew you would say no.”
Big Daddy was perturbed. “But you took it upon yourself to say yes to my wife?”
Mick wouldn’t deny it. “Yes.”
“May I ask why you would do something like that without consulting me?”
Mick looked at his brother. “We’re all men here. A girl needs her mother,” he said.
But Big Daddy was still angry. The idea of his wife caught up in this craziness, too, irked the hell out of him. “I’ll deal with you later,” he said to his younger brother in no uncertain terms, and then walked faster toward the front.
By the time he and Mick made it around front, Jenay Sinatra’s bright white Maybach Mercedes S600, an expensive car her husband had recently purchased for her, had driven through the gate and was now stopped near the steps. Trevor held Carly’s hand as they waited for her to step out. But as soon as the car door opened, and Charles Sinatra’s wife stepped out, Carly broke away from Trevor’s grasp and ran into her mother’s arms. It was then did Carly break down and cry.
Trevor Reese: His Secret Love Page 14