****
Tatiana looked up at Alexi after unlocking the door of her apartment. She captured her hand. “Come in for a drink?”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s been a nice evening, and I don’t want to ruin it with sex.”
Tatiana snorted. “Is this about what I said this morning? I was upset.”
“And you’ll be upset tonight if I don’t stay, but I’m going to work.” Alexi brought their hands up and kissed Tatiana’s knuckles.
“I notice you didn’t say to the club,” she said. “So, I’m assuming you aren’t going back to watch Nina’s show.”
Alexi shook her head in the negative. “No. Can I call you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be disappointed if you don’t.”
Alexi leaned toward her and brushed a kiss to her lips. “Goodnight, Tia. Sleep tight.”
“You, too.” Alexi released her hand, and she stepped inside to the ringing of her phone. She went to pick the cordless up from the coffee table.
“Hello?”
“Honey. I’m glad you’re home,” Melissa said quietly, and a hint of fear washed over Tatiana.
“Why? What’s up?” She put a hand on her stomach.
“Your brother was killed tonight at his office,” she said. “The police have no idea who or why right now.”
“Oh, my goddess,” she whispered. She and her brother had drifted apart years ago. His womanizing and sometimes abusive behavior toward women left a bad taste in her mouth.
“I just wanted you to know. I’ll—I need to go.”
Tatiana collapsed on the couch and sat there staring at the wall for a long time, tears of anger and frustration sliding down her face. She’d thought there would be time to mend things with him or come to terms with the man he was.
But now she never would.
Chapter Fifteen
Alexi arrived at the club and went straight to her office with Corri at her side. Corri had tailed her on her date and dined in the club a few tables away.
When they reached her office, Zoe was outside in the reception area with an over-golden male. His dark suit was clearly off the rack, and his shoes could use a bit of polish. His brown hair was just combed.
He got up at the same moment Zoe did and moved into her path quickly, as if afraid she’d vanish in thin air.
“Agent?” Alexi asked. Most agents looked the part in cheap suits, but a very few spent money on something nicer.
“I’m SA Malone,” he said. “I’m here to talk to you about Agent Naomi Marks.”
“Who?” Alexi asked.
He stuck his hand in his pocket, and Alexi saw Zoe going for her gun and shook her head slightly. The man produced a phone and brought up a file. He thrust it at her.
“You might know her as Naomi Wymark.”
“Right,” she said as she studied the photo of the dead girl. “What can I do for you though?”
“Naomi’s parents received her body this morning. You flew her to them apparently.”
“Is that a crime?” Alexi asked, slipping a hand in to her slacks pocket.
“It is if she was killed at your club and by you,” he said.
“I didn’t kill the agent,” Alexi replied. “In fact, I’ve only met her a few times. She was working my club, but she’d recently quit.”
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me the truth,” he said and walked a few steps away from her and swept his gaze around the area. Then, he studied Corri before shooting a look at Zoe.
His eyes came to rest on her again, and Alexi held his stare. He was searching for a weakness.
“What truth are you looking for?” Alexi asked.
“Killing a Federal agent is a far weightier crime than running a sex club,” he said softly. “Once we start digging into your clubs there’s no telling what we might start looking for. Drug deals, trafficking.”
“Then, you better get out your magnifying glass,” Alexi advised coolly. “Now, if you don’t mind, Zoe will show you out.”
“I’ll get a warrant for your club.”
“You’ll have to do that,” she said.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
“I’ll be here,” she replied.
He gave her a scathing look and started to turn away but stopped. “You’re hanging out with Charles Rayne’s granddaughter. Is that a mafia marriage in the making?”
Alexi laughed. “Leave it to a Fed to make a leap from dating to marriage,” she drawled. “Later, agent.” Alexi breezed past him going into her office with Corri on her heels. “Zoe, take care of that.”
“Some people,” Corri said.
“Yeah. Rayne and Naomi have caused me more trouble than I wanted right now,” she muttered. “I should have buried that cow in a hole and called it good. But oh no. I had to think about her family.”
Corri snorted. “Being nice can be a hazard.”
Alexi moved behind her desk, frowning deeply at the mess she suddenly found herself in. “Corri, did you get those items delivered for me?”
“Each one,” she answered with a nod.
Alexi started to speak again and a rap on her door stopped her. Cara was already gone for the day, so it had to be Zoe. “Come in.”
Zoe stepped in. “I showed him out your entrance.”
“Thanks. Was your evening productive?” Alexi asked Zoe.
“I found out Breakers is making a move to claim the city with Rayne as their head man here,” Zoe responded. “There’s a rumor that Rayne’s right-hand will be a lawyer by the name of Beals. There are a couple of hits coming down, too.”
“Who ordered them?” Alexi asked curiously.
“One, there’s no name yet, but the speculation is another crew that wants this town,” Zoe told her. “The other is a Breakers hit.”
“On who? When?”
“One is on Rayne, and the other is on a Beals. No name yet.”
“It won’t be the lawyer,” Alexi said. “It’ll have to be Beals’s other son. Why do they want him dead?”
“No word yet,” Zoe told her. “Orders are fresh. I’m keeping my ear to the ground.”
“Maybe he’s a problem,” Corri said thoughtfully. “The Feds could have targeted him.”
“Or Five by Five just wants to send a message considering what happened weeks ago with their leaders being killed and a couple of shipments being stolen,” Zoe replied. “Feds were supposed to have seized them, but they only got a third of what was out there.”
“Any word on who took it?”
Given that she was a minor player in the underworld, Alexi knew Zoe was keeping her eye on many things that might affect them. That was what made her so valuable to her.
“Breakers from all indications. Also, I got a call from Justin Felix tonight,” Zoe told her. “He wants to meet with you about Trevor’s murder.”
She laughed. “Does he now?”
“Want me to set that up?” Zoe asked, giving her an amused look.
“Sure. Better to get it over with, but I guess that tells me that Rayne’s important to him if he’s looking into this.”
“He might be looking for you to cut him in on the action,” Corri said. “He could be expanding from drugs to women.”
“I didn’t hear anything about that, but I’ll check it out,” Zoe said as she pulled her cell phone from her pants pocket. “I also haven’t found out anything concrete, but Naomi did have a boyfriend.”
“Dealer?” Alexi asked.
“He was working for Charles Rayne and occasionally dealt with Trevor,” Zoe told her. “He’s dead, so I can’t go hunt him down and find out what’s up.”
Alexi frowned. “How long has he been dead?”
“Two days before the girl,” Zoe told her. “She might have seen something or have something the boyfriend asked her to hold for him.”
“Naomi could have something on Trevor,” Corri commented. “That’s the only reason killing her made sense.”
Alexi sighed. “She had som
ething on me, too,” she said. “I want you guys to be more diligent in ensuring no Feds or cops get in my clubs.”
“I’ll talk to HR,” Zoe assured her.
“I’m available from nine to eleven, Zoe.” Alexi told Zoe. “I need some privacy.” She pulled her cell from its holster attached to her belt and both women exited the room, leaving her alone.
Alexi stopped herself mid-dial of Tatiana’s number, furrowing her brow.
What am I going to say to her?
Did it even matter? She just wanted to hear Tia’s voice, and that bothered her. No one woman had had that kind of hold on her, ever.
Still, she finished dialing and waited two rings and then a third. She was about to end the call when Tatiana came on the line.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” Alexi said quietly. “Sounds like you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”
“My brother was killed. I’m just sitting here thinking about him.”
“Do you want me to come over?” Alexi asked. “I don’t mind.”
“No.” She sniffed. “I just need to be alone for now. I’ll be with my family tomorrow.”
“Okay. My condolences,” Alexi said.
The sadness in Tia’s voice cut her to the bone, but business was business. If someone hadn’t already killed Trevor, she’d be doing it right after the Feds talked to him because he would have implicated her.
“Was it a car-jacking or something?” Alexi asked.
“Actually, he was killed in his office. The police don’t have any leads. They don’t even know why he would have been killed.”
“I’m sure they’ll do their job,” Alexi said. “They’ll catch the person who did this.”
“I hope so. We weren’t that close, but I loved him, you know.”
“Why weren’t you close?” She leaned back in her chair. The office didn’t have a window, which she hated, but it was a safety feature.
She ran a thriving business with exclusive clientele for her hetero and lesbian businesses. She bought alcohol from a cut-rate dealer who smuggled it in along with some Cuban cigars. That didn’t make her a target for anyone, but she always knew it might cause a problem if some cartel decided she was taking some of their action.
Five by Five had dealt in children. The other cartel that had run the city had dealt in petty prostitution rackets and didn’t bother her. She had no idea what Breakers would do, if anything, in this area.
Oh, there was the gambling she indulged in in her small casino at Frolic and her other club Private Dancer in a nearby city.
“I—we just grew apart,” she said. “I heard some things about him that changed the way I saw him.”
“Things like what?” Alexi asked curiously. “I’m sure it was just some petty differences of opinion.”
Tatiana was silent for a few heartbeats before speaking again. “We were just three years apart,” she said. “In high school a girl accused him of rape but dropped the charges. A lot of kids said it was because she just wanted money.”
“Your family paid her off?”
“My grandfather. He paid off two others when my brother was in college. At his first job, a paralegal accused him of sexual harassment and rape. The company just paid her off.”
Sounded like he raped about one girl a year on average.
“Your brother was never punished?”
“Not that I know of,” she said. “My grandfather said it was just boys being boys and loose girls changing their minds just to get paid.”
“What did your parents think?”
“My mother was upset. She asked my brother if it was true and told him she wouldn’t back him.”
“What did he say?”
“He denied it, but she told him if it happened again, she wouldn’t stand by him. She’d make sure he got what was coming to him. My grandfather was furious, and my dad just said he needed to get his head on straight and not bring any disgrace on the family.”
“Do you think he might have done it again? This could be a case of some woman blowing his brains out because he raped her,” Alexi commented.
“I’ve been thinking about that, and I’m going to ask my grandfather. I know my mother will.”
“I’m sorry you have to go through this,” Alexi said, and she did mean it. However, it sounded like Trevor had gotten what he was due.
“Me—someone’s at my door.”
“Don’t put the phone down until you check who it is,” Alexi told her.
“Okay, but I’m sure it’s no one.”
Alexi drummed her fingers on her desk while she waited. Rayne could have any number of enemies with a grandson like Trevor, and any of them could be gunning for Tia just to get at him.
“It is my mother,” she said with a frown. “She looks pissed. Can I call you back?”
“Please do, angel,” she said. Alexi ended the call and sat back in her chair with a frown.
What could Felix possibly want to talk to her about?
Old Trevor probably told grandpa what she’d said so they wanted to warn her off—a rap on the door cut off her thought.
****
“Mom, what are you doing here so late?” Tatiana asked, stepping back to let her mother in.
“I can’t believe your grandfather or your brother,” she snapped. “That pathetic little bastard. I warned him not to do anything stupid or he’d get what was coming to him.”
“Mom?”
“I know I shouldn’t have, but he’s my son. I couldn’t allow your grandfather to keep bailing him out and making me look like a fool. I support the rape crisis center, and every time that little ass hurt a woman that made me look like a liar.”
“What did you do?” she asked, a chill running down her spine. “What did Trevor do?”
Melissa let out a low growl. “I warned that bastard. Of course, if Charles found out I’d interfered with his favorite grandson’s life, he’d be pissed, but I don’t care. He was my son, not Charles’s.”
The cold invaded her, and Tatiana rubbed her arms. The fury in her mother’s face was palpable.
“Mom, talk to me,” she said, reaching out to put a hand on her mother’s. In one hand was a couple of brown envelopes, and Melissa waved them.
“This is unspeakable, and Charles is going to get what’s coming to him, too, if he doesn’t put himself in check.”
“Tell me what he did.”
Chapter Sixteen
Melissa thrust the envelopes at her. “See for yourself.”
Tatiana took them to the coffee table and dropped one on it before opening the other. She poured the contents out, and her eyes widened.
“Oh, my goddess,” she whispered. She went through the pictures.
“I think that girl might even be dead,” Melissa said.
“Where did you get these, Mom?” she asked as she finished going through them.
“They were left in my car,” she exclaimed, rage in her tone.
By the time she got to the last picture it was clear that the girl was dead.
She opened the second envelope and went through it. There were pictures inside along with a note.
Is this the kind of son you can be proud of?
Beneath that was information on the girl.
“I called the number,” Melissa told her.
“What did you find out?”
“The girl died in the hospital last month. She’d gone on a date with Trevor on Friday just like that note said. Your grandfather was whispering about something with Trevor at the house the day after it happened. Trevor said it was an accident.”
“Have you talked to grandfather yet about this?”
“I will tomorrow. He was out with your grandmother.”
Tatiana pushed out a rough sigh and sat down. Maybe she’d been exaggerating when she’d thought she had the perfect life. She certainly hadn’t had the perfect brother.
“If he’d been held accountable from the very first time, he’d be still alive now, but men who
do things like this don’t change.” Melissa sat down next to Tatiana. “We gave him everything, and I tried to teach him to respect women.”
“It’s not your fault, Mom,” Tatiana said consolingly as she wrapped an arm around her mother’s shoulders.
“I know it’s not,” she muttered. “I insisted that he go to counseling, get to the root of his issues, but I think it’s all the time he spent around your grandfather. He made him think our money entitled him to have whatever he wanted.”
“Mom—”
“I was so furious when I saw this that I used magic to make sure your grandfather couldn’t bail him out this time. He needed to pay for this.”
“I guess he has.” Tatiana wasn’t sure how she felt about her mother’s possible part in her brother’s death, but she couldn’t understand how her mother must feel.
She’d done something that had allowed her own son to be harmed. That was something her mother would have to live with for the rest of her life.
****
The next morning, Alexi arrived at the meeting place just before nine with Corri walking a few steps behind her. Her jaguar was alert, taking in all the scents and sounds around her. The animal made out Felix’s two men hanging out in the parking lot in jeans looking like boys out for a casual breakfast and the one just two tables away in Mercy’s diner.
She didn’t bother to hide the fact Corri was with her but told her to wait at the counter.
Felix didn’t bother standing when she approached his table, but he did put down the cup he was sipping coffee from to give her a nod.
“Alexi,” he said coolly, his brown eyes holding a hint of mockery. “The woman who thinks she’s a man.”
“What do you want?” she asked after taking the chair across from him, noticing he hadn’t chosen a window seat.
“Straight answers,” he said as he motioned a waitress over. “Coffee for my guest.”
The busty waitress nodded. “I’ll get the pot.”
“Will you bring that in a fresh cup, please? I don’t know how long this one has been here.” She didn’t really have issue with the cup, just the fact it was in the enemy’s presence.
The blonde waitress frowned in confusion. “No problem.” She scurried away.
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