by LK Collins
I ring the bell and the door buzzes open. As soon as I enter, I freeze. One of Reid’s men is standing there and catches me off guard. He is so big that he almost fills the small entryway. I acknowledge him with a head nod and then look through the small glass window where a young hip girl is working behind.
“Medical or recreational?” she asks.
“I’m with R-11 Security, here to install your security system.”
The guy in the corner pays attention to me when I say R-11 and the girl asks for my badge, which I flash to her.
I kinda feel bad for Reid – he thinks he’s getting a good deal charging $15K a month to have security here, when little does he know we are taking $55K.
She opens the door, and I enter the completely renovated establishment. There are black leather couches everywhere, an ATM machine, glass cases, and shelves filled with more weed than I’ve ever seen. This place is crazy inside. They spent a lot of money in here making it pretty sweet, which you couldn’t tell from the old exterior outside that just has a light-up sign that flashes Medical+. This is why the security means so much to these places.
I follow her to a back room, where she opens the door and says, “This is Lincoln; he’s our owner.” Then leaves us.
“Hey, Lincoln,” I say, shaking his hand, and set the equipment bag on one of his chairs. “I’m Aubrey with R-11.”
“Have a seat. I’m glad you’re here. What do you need from me?”
“Not much. I just need to know where you want the motions and cameras.”
He exhales and leans back in his chair, then asks. “Where are most places putting them?”
“Uh, cameras at the entryways, front and back doors,” I lie just going off what Micah and I talked about. “And motions where you store your product at night and in your grow room, if you have one here.”
“Let me show you around then.”
I’ve planned for the first install to take me a half an hour. With everything being wireless, it should be easy, and that’ll set the pace for the rest of the day. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I leave pissed off that the cameras wouldn’t sync to the server, so I could get them signed on and the paranoid owner was looking at me all strange. So finally I called Tomas, which I should have done after the first five minutes of struggling. He remotely tapped into my laptop and showed me just what I was doing wrong.
Checking the schedule, I make the short trip to the next place, working as fast and hard as I can to make up for lost time. My phone rings, interrupting the install, and I look to see Micah calling. Fuck, I forgot to call him.
I hit ignore, so I can finish this job, but he calls again. I answer it as I’m screwing into the wall because I don’t have the time to stop. “Hey.”
“You didn’t call me when you left Gro-ganic,” he says pissed off.
“I’m sorry, I was running behind and spaced it. I’m just trying to make up time, babe.”
“Nat, I can’t stress the importance of you staying in contact with me.”
I stop screwing, standing on the ladder and whisper into the phone, “What’s the big fucking deal?”
“What’s the big deal?” he says out of breath and angry as fuck. “The big deal is the next stop on your list just got hit by the cartel, and if you don’t stay in touch with me, you could walk into a fucking shitstorm!.”
I get off the ladder and find the restroom. “What the fuck happened? I thought Reid’s men were supposed to stop this.”
“And they did, but it doesn’t change the fact that one of the guys was shot. I can’t have you in a bad situation. So you can either do what the fuck I’ve asked, or I’m pulling the plug and I’ll ask Moretti for more time.”
“No, Micah, you know he wants us to fail. He’ll kill us. Why do you think he wants twenty million when all we took was five?”
“So you will call me before and after every job. I’ll only need thirty seconds of your time.”
“Okay,” I agree. “I love you, Micah.”
“I love you, baby.”
“Who is she?” C.J. asks me, showing me a picture of Nat and I kissing outside of my house.
I can’t help but smirk at him. He’s always been such a pain in my ass, but probably only one of the people that I trust besides Nat and Tomas.
“You know, I could take your mom to court for invasion of privacy.”
“Fine, take her. But you’ve gotta tell me first who this girl is. You don’t kiss whores like this in public. You and I know that.”
“I told you, she’s just someone I’m fucking, bro.”
“And you let her drive your Denali?”
I look up from the file in front of me. This motherfucker is relentless. He knows how possessive I am of my cars.
“Well?”
I get up and close the door, thankful that he hasn’t asked me about Tomas or Samantha. I guess his mom didn’t see them with us. “Come on, man, what are you hiding?” he asks.
“Nothing,” I respond trying to figure out how to handle this. Weighing my options, I guess eventually I’m going to have to be honest. Because a) I’ll end up dead, b) I’ll skip town with Nat, or c) I’ll stay here and live a life with her, all of which entail him knowing who she is, that is if we survive. And if I’m dead…fuck it.
“She’s my girlfriend,” I tell him, sitting in a chair next to my couch and watch his utterly confused expression. I can’t help but crack up at him.
“You fucking with me, man?”
“No, I’m not,” I tell him as serious as I can. He looks so shocked.
“I don’t get why you didn’t tell me about her.”
“For the same reason that you didn’t tell me you fucked Portia. When you really like someone, you don’t want to fuck it up.”
“How did you know about that?” he asks.
“I’m usually the first to arrive and the last to leave, and when those girls forget I’m here, they get all fucking chatty.”
“And your girl is why you haven’t been working your normal hours.”
“Yup, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone. Not even Vincent.”
“Of course, man,” he responds, still seeming a little surprised. “Can I ask you something?” he says.
“Sure.”
“Is she the one?”
“Yeah, for me it feels that way. We used to date a long time ago and just got back together; no one has ever compared.” He nods his head and I say to him, “You’ll know eventually, ya nosy bitch.”
I watch him leave my office with a grin on his face and walk right to Portia. He was asking for his own knowledge. It hasn’t been a secret that C.J. has wanted her since the day she stepped foot in here.
Nat calls me on the way to her next stop; they’ve been busting their asses with these installs and I am so grateful. “I’m heading to the Rockwell Wellness Center – are we clear there, baby?”
I look at my emails to make sure Reid hasn’t sent me anything before giving her the go ahead. “You’re clear, baby. Be safe.”
“I will. How’s the case?”
“It’s coming along. Hey, I wanted to tell you that I just told C.J. about you.”
“Why?” she shrieks.
“I couldn’t keep lying to him. It was making him more suspicious, and we don’t need that. He’ll keep quiet.”
“Are you sure you can trust him?”
“Yeah, I mean, I trust him as much as I can trust anyone. He’s not you, and you’re the only person I can really trust.”
I get off the phone with Nat, and it gets me to thinking. Maybe I can’t trust C.J., and right now I don’t need him opening his mouth and causing any more suspicions from Vincent. They do talk like girls. If he starts to dig into things, he’ll sniff out the fact that we are stealing ten million dollars. To ensure that doesn’t happen, I need to keep C.J. close until all the dust settles, And I know just how. I’m gonna take him up on his offer to help with the Ignacio case. It’s looming over my head, and consid
ering this is the second go around, I could use him in the courtroom. He’s ruthless and might just be my ticket to a victory.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” I address the courtroom in the opening comments of the Ignacio retrial. “My client, Alec Ignacio, is not guilty of the charges that have been brought against him and I fully expect at the end of all of this, he will be proven not guilty. The evidence, along with the testimonies, will show you that Mr. Ignacio couldn’t have killed George Sandman. I believe the new evidence from both the prosecution and defense will prove my client is innocent, as he simply couldn’t have accomplished these crimes when he was out of state at the time. Alec and George were best friends, business partners, and the godfathers of each other’s children. When you have that level of trust and respect, you don’t do what my client is accused of. Thank you, your Honor.”
“Thank you, Mr. Brown. Can the state please call their first witness?”
The D.A. proceeds, and I know after one minute of watching them question their first witness on the stand that having C.J. here is smart. The last case took nine weeks. So even if we can get this one done in half the time, Nat and I should be long gone and on our way to Michelle by then. But I don’t see things taking that long this time. Alec admitted to me that he was embezzling money from the business and got a high gambling with it. At the time of George’s murder, Alec was in Vegas for the weekend, and the casino footage puts him there. Alec understands to save his life he’s going to have to plead guilty to those lesser charges, as well as racketeering and obstruction of justice, but he won’t get charged with murder.
But once that evidence is brought to light, even with the discovery of the prosecution’s new evidence, he’ll get a clean-cut deal and hopefully little to no jail time.
“Have you thought about asking the court to enter the evidence now?” C.J. whispers to me.
I shrug my shoulders, not really thinking about it. It’s probably the right move, but I can’t keep my mind here for more than a minute at a time. My mind is on Natalene and finishing this mission.
“Have you looked at the account lately?” I ask Micah.
“I did yesterday; we were a little over fourteen million. Did the wire for the Denali come in yet?”
I scroll though the history; there have been so many deposits that it’s hard to keep it all straight. “Yeah, it’s there. When are they picking it up?”
“Tomorrow,” he says.
“And the BMW?”
“I thought I told you, it’s a lease. It’ll fuck Liam, not me,” he says and flops on the bed next to me with a grin on his face.
I simper at him as he puts his hand on the mouse and takes control. “Why did so much come in?” he asks.
“Because Tomas is a genius and sent invoices to everyone, remember?”
I vaguely remember him mentioning it, but with so much going on lately I can barely tell the difference between what’s reality half of the time. “Most people want the security so badly, that they are paying before we install the equipment.”
“Anything from Rockwell yet?” he asks.
I do a search on the page, but don’t see anything. “No, is that Tony?”
“Yeah, and we’ve installed in half of his stores. He’s going to need to come up with over half a million dollars to us, and I’ve seen him with the money he makes – he’s not responsible.”
“Why don’t we take the cameras out we have installed?”
“We don’t have the time, baby. Plus, any money we can get at this point is worth the risk of waiting.”
I roll over and look at the stark ceiling while Micah types away on the computer.
“Micah?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he responds, leaning over and kissing my arm.
“How do you know at the end of all this, when we pay the money, that Moretti isn’t going to kill us anyway?”
“I have a plan, but I’d rather not talk about it.”
I stare at the ceiling thinking about what it could be. It’s not good if he doesn’t want to talk to me about it. “Micah, you have to let me in on what the fuck you plan on doing.” I turn towards him. His face is finally clear. The marks that Moretti’s men left on him are all gone now.
He closes the laptop and asks me, “Do you remember what my dad said he wished he would have done to ensure my mom’s safety?”
…“No. No. No,” Corrado repeats over and over. His face is bright red as the phone falls slowly to the floor.
Nick, Micah, and I watch the strongest man that we know break. He stands shaking, and Nick runs to him. “What did they say?” he shouts. Begging. Pleading, for an answer.
He shakes his wide-eyed face at his son and looks at Micah, who is holding on to my hand so tightly I think my bones will snap. Micah begins to break and I know the news that we all have feared is coming true. After Micah’s mother, Michelle, went missing, none of us believed that she was dead.
But Corrado’s face says it all. “Goddammit, dad, what did they say?” Nick shouts again.
I can hear someone through the phone saying, “Hello, hello,” and I move to it, slowly grabbing it off of the floor. Involuntarily, I feel the need to help. I’d do anything for these men. Gradually, I bring it to my ear, hoping that it’s Michelle and maybe she’s leaving Corrado or something like that. Anything would be better….
“Hello,” I say into the receiver.
“Are you family, ma’am?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“We’re going to need someone to identify the body we believe is Mrs. Lomano’s. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” I say and look at Micah as I begin to break down, sobbing into the hand that now covers my mouth. He shakes his head and places his face in his hands.
“Do you have a pen?” the man on the phone asks me.
“Uh huh.”
“We’re at 786 Montgomery. Can you come now?”
“Yes,” I say again and press the end button on the phone. Corrado slides down the kitchen cabinets. Nick turns away from him and slams his fist into the wall, yelling in a fit of rage. And my Micah sits with his hands tangled in his hair, sobbing uncontrollably. Going to him, I hold him, because in a moment like this, when your worst fears come true and your heart is being ripped from your chest, there is nothing else you can do. Deep down, we’ve all known that she’s dead and that Moretti lied to us about what happened. This just solidifies things. As humans you have a way of not believing things until you are forced to.
“I should have paid for a hit on that motherfucker the day I met him,” Corrado screams in pain…
Going back to the moment we truly lost Micah’s mom, feels like yesterday. I can still see Michelle’s lifeless face as she lay there, with her life ripped away so early. She was robbed of a future, one that she deserved, one that she’ll never see, because of one person.
“I should have paid for a hit on that motherfucker,” I whisper his father’s words to Micah.
He lays his head on my chest and says. “That was my dad’s greatest mistake. It’s one that he always regretted, and it almost ended all of us. We have a second chance, and I won’t fuck this up, Nat.”
“You know if you put a hit on Moretti and tell him, it’ll just piss him off and he’ll retaliate.”
“That’s why I’m not putting a hit on Moretti. He has three sons – I’m putting a hit on all of them, and before we pay him, I’ll going to tell him. He won’t mess with their safety, even if they are grown men. It’s the only way to keep Moretti away from us. He’s responsible for killing my entire family, and so many more people, you know that. If we can get as far as paying him back, then the hits will be prepaid, even though it’ll mean raising another six hundred thousand, its worth it. It’s another step closer to our future.”
Family means more to him than anything else. He’s left us alive for ten years, so I’d consider us at the bottom of his priority list, which is where I want to stay.
“Who are you going to
get to do the hits? You know anyone from our past will alert him, and they’ll have us dead before you can finalize anything.”
“I’ve got a guy here who owes me a favor for getting him off on murder charges.”
“Of course you do.” I sigh thinking about everything finally coming together. “Can I ask you something?” I hold him tighter, loving how his body feels on top of mine.
“Mm hmm,” he responds, kissing me.
“When this is all said and done, are you going to be okay leaving Denver?”
“Baby, when this is all said and done, and I can wake up without the fear of our lives being taken, and I have you by my side, then I don’t care where we are. I’ll go wherever you want to.”
“I assume we’ll go to Michelle.”
“We will, but she might not want to leave my grandma, which I’d understand. It also might be smart for us to stay here while I make some money.”
“Won’t you sell the practice and get paid out to sign away your portion?”
“Yeah, I will. I’ll have to if we want to be with Michelle. But I’m just not sure how much or how long it will take. And I want that money to be for our future. Plus, the guys are going to be caught off guard, and it could delay things. I just really don’t even want to go there. It’s going to be hard and I’d rather wait until I have to.”
“Have you thought about what you’re going to tell them?”
“I think I’m going to be honest for the first time in my life.”
I blink a few times thinking about how him being honest would sound. “Would you tell them about me or Michelle?”
“Both,” he says. His honesty and willingness to give up on something so huge means the world to me. It shows me just how much he’d sacrifice for us.
“Did you get Prestwell’s cash deposited?”
“Yeah, everything except for the six hundred grand. You should have seen the bank employees, when I wheeled that shit in there, you know they are reporting that shit to the IRS.”
“It’s okay, baby. Aubrey will be dead soon.” She laughs at my dark comment. “I’m sorry, Moretti wants a wire, it had to go through the bank that way.”