Code Word

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “Don’t you think all of this is overkill?” she asked when Jay didn’t respond.

  “It’s research,” Jay said without looking up. His plain blue T-shirt had smudges of dirt on one sleeve, and she could see the slight bulge at the back of his waistband that she recognized as a holstered handgun. Except for the gun, he looked like someone she might have seen walking along the beach, one of those guys who started his days with a surfboard in hand, one eye always on the waves.

  She skimmed through the background report on her uncle and shook her head. “I already told you about the family.”

  “Yes, but I want to know what they’ve been up to since you left Chicago. Did your uncle express any concerns when you talked to him at your father’s trial?”

  “Just that he wanted us to come home to Chicago.” Carina shrugged. “I said no, and that was the end of it.”

  Jay looked up at her, and Carina didn’t know what to think of the understanding she saw in his eyes. “Other than Marciano and Lou, it’s been over ten years since you’ve had any contact with your family or any of their associates. Is that right?”

  Carina nodded.

  “So Nick would have only been a teenager back then.”

  “He might have been a teenager, but he was already involved in the business.” Carina motioned toward the stack of papers. “Does he have a criminal record yet?”

  “Yet? You say that like it’s inevitable.”

  “It is.” Carina let out a sigh. “My mother took me and my sisters away from Chicago to protect us from that life, but I was old enough to know what was going on. And I already knew where Nick was headed.”

  “Well, he hasn’t ever been convicted, but he has been arrested a couple of times.”

  “If he’s managed to stay out of jail for the past ten years, that pretty much proves that I’m right about him being close to my uncle,” Carina told him.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “The family protects those close to them. Orders are given through several layers of management to make sure that if anyone gets arrested, they won’t be able to tie anything to the people at the top. At least that’s what my father did to make sure nothing could be traced back to him,” Carina said. “Besides, when Nick first showed up, he said my father had sent him. Only an insider would have any contact with my dad.”

  “You know, we might want to consider talking to your father. He might have some answers for you.”

  Carina’s eyes met his, darkening as she spoke. “He killed my mother.”

  “Why did he kill your mother?” Jay asked without hesitation.

  His bluntness surprised her. Slowly, she shook her head. Hadn’t she asked herself that same question a million times? Hadn’t she wondered if she had come home sooner if things might have turned out differently? “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Did you ever speak to him about it?”

  Again, she shook her head. “Why would I? He never denied it.” She felt the tears welling up and blinked them back. “Besides, I saw him.”

  Jay’s eyebrows lifted, surprise and sympathy evident on his face. “You saw him kill your mother?”

  She let out a ragged breath, not wanting to relive the memory but unable to stop it from forming. She shook her head again. “I was too late.”

  “I know it must be hard to talk about, but can you tell me what happened? I think it might be important.” He reached out and put a hand on hers, an offer of comfort that seemed foreign to her.

  Carina stared down at their hands, Jay’s tanned and long-fingered, hers narrow, almost delicate. “My sisters and I had borrowed my mom’s car and gone out together.” She shook her head at the triviality, the idea that they had been eating pizza and laughing together, not a care in the world just moments before their mother’s life had ended. “When we came home, I saw two SUVs outside my house.”

  Jay shifted in the seat beside her to face her, but he didn’t speak.

  “I knew something was wrong. I’m not sure how, but I knew it.” She pushed out of her chair and crossed to the window. A gentle breeze rustled the palm tree leaves in the backyard and sent ripples through the water in the swimming pools. “I drove past my house and pulled over a few houses away. Then I had my sisters go to a friend’s, and I doubled back to my house. I was in the garage when I heard the gunshots.”

  She didn’t try to fight the tears now. “I made it to the door, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn the knob. I was afraid of what I was going to find on the other side, and I was just as afraid of who I might find inside. It wasn’t until I heard the police sirens that I forced myself to go into the house.”

  “What did you find?” Jay asked gently. He was standing behind her now, and she forced herself to turn to face him.

  “My father was sitting in the middle of the kitchen, holding my mother’s head in his lap as though she had fainted.” Carina’s jaw clenched, and she swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “But she hadn’t fainted. She had been shot through the heart. The gun was lying right beside them.”

  “Carina, I’m so sorry.” Jay slid his hands around her waist and pulled her against him. She stepped into the embrace automatically, unable to remember the last time someone had held her close, the last time she had allowed anyone the opportunity.

  They stood there in silence for a moment. Then Jay stepped back and stared down at her. “Who else was at your house besides your father?”

  “I don’t know.” Her shoulders lifted restlessly. “I saw a guy standing guard at the front door when I drove by the house, but there wasn’t any sign of him when I went inside.”

  Jay’s eyes sharpened. “What about the two vehicles you saw? Were they still there when the cops arrived?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Talk me through it. After you went inside, what happened? Did your father say anything? Did you hear the police question him at all?”

  “My dad looked up at me and said, ‘She’s gone. I can’t believe she’s really gone.’” Carina ran her fingers through her hair as she struggled against her emotions. “He looked lost, confused. Then the police came in, and he didn’t say anything at all. One of the cops checked my mom for a pulse. The other pulled my dad away from her and handcuffed him.”

  “What did the room look like? Did it look like anyone had been fighting, stuff thrown around?”

  She shook her head. “Why are you asking me about all of this? I was at the trial. My father never denied killing my mother.”

  “Did he ever confess?”

  “What?”

  “You said he never denied the accusation that he killed your mother,” Jay said, his eyes focused on hers. “Did he ever admit that he did it?”

  Carina thought back to the long days of her father’s trial, the days of testimony by various witnesses, including the police officers. She shook her head. “No. He never confessed. He didn’t testify at his trial, and the police said he wouldn’t answer any of their questions.”

  “Then it is possible that someone else killed your mother and he took the blame.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I don’t know, but I think it’s worth asking the question. Where is your father now? Which prison?”

  “Last I heard, he was still in Florence. It’s about forty-five minutes outside of Colorado Springs.”

  “Are you up for a trip?”

  Carina stared at him like he’d just invited her for a joyride in a space shuttle. “You aren’t serious.”

  “Sure I am.” Jay motioned to the papers spread out on the table. “We can look at these reports all day, but I’ll bet fifteen minutes with your father will tell us what’s really going on, especially if he’s the one who sent Nick.”

  “Even if I wanted to go visit my father, I couldn’t possibly do that, not right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “For one thing, I can’t leave Bianca here by herself, especially with Nick around. Not only that, but she wouldn�
�t want to miss school and practice.”

  “She could always stay with my parents.”

  “I couldn’t ask Pete to watch out for her.” She shook her head. “Besides, I can’t afford to throw money away on an airline ticket just so I can talk to my dad for fifteen minutes to see if maybe he didn’t really murder my mother.”

  “I can take care of the travel arrangements.” Jay shrugged absently. “I have a ton of frequent-flyer miles I never have the chance to use.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier for me to just talk to Nick?” Carina asked warily.

  “Do you think he would tell you anything you don’t already know?”

  “Probably not.”

  “What about Lou?” Jay asked.

  “What about him?”

  “Do you think he can tell you what happened?”

  Carina considered for a minute. “I’m not sure if he knows what really happened or not. He tries so hard to protect me from what my family is really like that he almost never talks about our life in Chicago.”

  Jay stared at her a moment before he asked, “Did you come to Miami right after your mom died?”

  She shook her head. “No. We went to Phoenix first. Lou helped us find a place there that had a guest house for him to live in, and he took care of the sale of our old house in Colorado.”

  “How long ago did you leave Phoenix?”

  “About five months ago, not long after my father was convicted.”

  “Why did you move?”

  “A lot of reasons.” Carina shrugged. “Bianca had heard about your dad and wanted to train with him. Lou wanted us to make a fresh start after the trial. As soon as I found a new job, we moved.”

  “What came first?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Who was the first person to suggest that you move here?”

  Carina thought for a minute. “Lou did. Or at least, he’s the one who wanted us to move. He didn’t seem to really care where, as long as it wasn’t back to Chicago or Denver.”

  “We need to talk to him,” Jay said with conviction. “I think he knows more than he’s telling you, and I have a feeling he might even know what really happened between your mom and dad.”

  “He should be home. Did you want to go now?”

  Jay shook his head. “I’d rather wait until tonight. I’ll have my dad come over after he finishes with his evening practice, and then I’ll go over and talk to him.”

  “Look, I know you’re a Navy SEAL and all, but it would probably be a lot safer if I was the one to go talk to him. If Nick sees you around there, it’s very likely you’ll end up with a bullet in you.”

  “I don’t want you anywhere near your apartment right now,” Jay said as though he were oblivious to the potential consequences of another run-in with Nick.

  “Jay, I’m not exaggerating. If Nick or his friends see you again, they will try to kill you. Even if they realize you aren’t who they were looking for, they’ll shoot you simply because you got in their way.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Jay told her lightheartedly. “I’m pretty good at hiding in the shadows.”

  22

  He had to tell her. Lou knew the time had come that Carina needed to know the truth, but he didn’t know how he could possibly find the words. How could he explain his part in what had happened to her?

  All day he had watched out the window, hoping she wouldn’t come home yet. Nick had driven by twice already today. At least, he had been by twice that Lou had managed to see him. Nick had changed cars each time, and Lou couldn’t be sure how many men had come with him. He had also noticed a second driver who had appeared with alarming regularity. Now that it was dark out, he could only guess at who was driving by each time he saw a new set of headlights.

  Nick and his boys were being persistent. He would give them that. Unfortunately, he doubted they were going to give up until they got what they came for. Nick thought that taking the girls back to Chicago was the best way to protect them, but Lou knew better. No one understood Alex better than he did. And only three people were still alive who knew the identity of the man really running the Outfit. Four if you counted Carina, but she had no idea what she had seen. She also didn’t know everything her father had done to protect her.

  Then again, she knew a whole lot more about the family business than Lou had given her credit for.

  He had thought he had been protecting her when he had intercepted the package from her father a few days ago, only a few short days before Nick had shown up. When Carina had shown him the note, he had contacted the courier who had delivered the package. After he found out Lou had taken possession of the package, the courier had admitted that Giovanni had instructed him to plant the message.

  While the message might have been meant for Carina, Lou knew now that it had also contained a message intended for him. Giovanni was telling him that Carina needed to understand the truth. He knew now that he should have confided in Carina when the package had first arrived, but he had hoped Nick and his friends wouldn’t be able to find her, that he could protect her from the past she came from a little while longer.

  He understood that if Carina discovered the small fortune her grandfather had left her, she and her sisters would never have to worry about money again. He also understood that her inheritance came with a price: the truth about who was really running the Outfit as well as all of the danger that would come with that knowledge. He wished he had been able to hide the contents of the package better than he had, but at least he was sure it was safe for now. Carina’s friend Jay had helped take care of that, even if he didn’t know it.

  The sound of metal scraping against metal broke through the silence. Lou’s good hand immediately wrapped around the semiautomatic pistol on the table beside him, and he struggled to stand and turn.

  A floorboard creaked in the bedroom. Lou took aim, expecting to see Nick or one of his boys emerge from the short hallway off of the living room.

  A voice sounded before he saw the intruder. “Don’t shoot. It’s Jay Wellman. I just want to talk to you.”

  Jay wisely waited a moment for Lou to absorb his words before emerging from the hall, his hands cautiously held out to his side.

  “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you.”

  “Sorry for coming in the back, but I didn’t want to be seen at your front door. You still have eyes on your place.”

  Lou nodded. “I had a feeling that was the case. I’ve already seen Nick a couple of times.” He set his weapon back on the table and slowly lowered himself into his chair. “Might as well come sit down and tell me why you’re here. Are the girls okay?”

  “They’re fine.” Jay nodded and moved into the sparsely furnished room. He sat down on the worn sofa and seemed to gather his thoughts.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “I need to know why Nick and his friends are here.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You have an idea,” Jay persisted. He hesitated and then added, “Look, I know we just met, but you can trust me. You know you can or you never would have let me take Carina out of your sight.”

  “What is she to you?”

  Jay’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “People don’t just turn their lives upside down for a stranger without a motive.”

  “I do,” Jay said without hesitation. “I’m in the military. That’s my job.”

  “Watching over the girls isn’t some military mission.”

  “No, you’re right,” Jay agreed. “But they’re friends of my father’s so they’re my friends too.”

  Lou stared at the younger man, impressed that he didn’t flinch as he sized him up. Jay obviously believed his involvement was really simply part of who he was and a result of the career he had chosen, but Lou suspected there was more to it than that.

  He considered for a long moment. Everything in him, everything he had learned in his seventy-three years of living, told him not to trust anyone, not to
ever reveal the secrets of the past. But these secrets were no longer safe with him, and he knew it. Lou wasn’t sure if it was the earnestness in Jay’s face that made him willing to talk, or perhaps it was the knowledge that this young man had already risked his life once to protect Carina.

  A sigh escaped him, and he forced himself to take a tentative step toward trusting Jay. “Nick thinks he’s here to protect Carina, but I’m pretty sure he was really sent to bring her back to Chicago for leverage.”

  Jay leaned forward, concern lighting his eyes. “What kind of leverage?”

  “Leverage against her father. Maybe against her uncle.”

  Jay stared at him, looking as though he too were going through some internal debate about how much information he was willing to share. “Giovanni Perelli didn’t really kill his wife, did he?”

  Surprise lit Lou’s face. This man who had only appeared in their lives a few short days ago had already seen through the lies and had grasped at least a small shred of the truth from that horrible day. Slowly, Lou shook his head, the weight of the truth still pressing heavily upon him.

  “What really happened? Why did he let himself get convicted for something he didn’t do? And why didn’t he tell his daughters the truth?”

  “Donna was killed as a demonstration, a reminder of who was really in charge of the Outfit.”

  Jay looked at him skeptically. “I thought Carina’s grandfather was the top man before he died.”

  “No.” Lou’s eyes met Jay’s and held. “He was forced to step down three years ago when he started having health issues. Alzheimer’s. That’s when Carina’s father became number two.”

  “Who was number one?”

  “I don’t know his full name, but I knew him as Alex. He was pretty good at keeping a thick barrier between himself and the rest of the organization. Unfortunately, I’m one of the few who knows him personally.” Lou flexed his fingers on his good hand. “Giovanni and the top man had a falling out on how things should be run, and Marciano made a comment that maybe they should let the FBI know that one of their own wasn’t just on the mob’s payroll but was also the man writing the checks.”