Marked for Murder

by Colleen Helme

  “Oh… right. I’ll make sure he understands.”

  “Thanks.” He kissed me lightly on the lips before opening the door. We said our goodbyes, and I hurried toward the elevators.

  After making it back to Thrasher Development, I found it hard to believe that I’d just been there a few hours ago.

  Jackie greeted me warmly. “Shelby! I heard about the shooting. How are you doing?”

  “Oh, I’m good.”

  “It’s a good thing you were there. Do you know why that woman did it?” It always fascinated her to know what motivated someone to take such drastic measures. “They were saying she called the newspaper editor a murderer.”

  “Yeah, I think she blamed him for her husband’s death. But, more than that, I think she has mental issues.”

  “Oh… well, I guess that makes sense. I’m sure all the details will be in the paper tomorrow. Maybe they’ll even have a picture of you.” Since I was the hero of the day, she thought it was a done deal.

  “Yeah, I guess they probably will.” Why did that make me so nervous? I’d been in the paper before, so it shouldn’t bother me too much. I mean, after a day or two, no one would even remember my name, right?

  “Joe’s in his office. You can go on back.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  I knocked before opening Uncle Joey’s door. He sat behind his desk, but stood when I entered. “Shelby. Come on in and sit down.” He moved to the small cabinet against the wall and motioned toward a crystal decanter of amber liquid. “You’ve had quite a day. Would you like something to drink?”

  “Uh… no, but thanks.”

  With a nod, he opened the bottom of the cabinet and pulled out a diet soda. “Then how about this?”

  “Yes!”

  He smiled at my enthusiasm and filled two glasses with ice, setting one in front of me and the other on his side of the desk. To my surprise, he pulled out two cans of soda and handed me one, keeping the other for himself.

  “I didn’t know you drank diet soda,” I said, popping open my can and pouring it into the glass. Just hearing those tiny sizzling bubbles sent a wave of relief through me. I guess that made me a true diet-soda junkie.

  Uncle Joey poured his with a sardonic twist of his lips. “I never liked the stuff much, but ever since you’ve been around, I’ve developed a taste for it.” He held his glass up in a silent toast. I did the same, and we both took a few swallows.

  “Thanks.” For the first time today, I relaxed. It felt good to sit in this office drinking a diet soda with Uncle Joey. I used to dread coming here, but today, it felt like a safe place. When did everything change?

  “Tell me what’s going on with Chris.”

  “Well, I was at the precinct checking on a client. Chris sent his junior attorney over to help her, and I picked up that he’d set something in motion with the prosecuting attorney’s office. I feel bad because this isn’t the first I’ve known about it. A few weeks ago, I picked up something like this, but I never got the chance to follow through. Now it looks like I waited too long.”

  “What do you mean? What happened before?”

  I explained that I’d been working on a case with the police, and Chris had sent the same attorney over to help out. “I think the prosecuting attorney has something on the junior attorney, and he’s coercing him to spy on Chris. But, until today, it was just an idea. Now it sounds like the junior attorney turned over some real information that could get Chris arrested.”

  “And it’s about me?” he asked.

  Our gazes met. “Yeah. I think so.”

  “And the prosecuting attorney is James Strickland.”

  It wasn’t really a question, but I nodded anyway. “Yeah. He never liked Chris, but now that Chris is your attorney, he likes him even less. He’s setting Chris up, but I don’t know how.”

  “And Chris knows all about it?”

  “Yes,” I agreed, letting out a sigh. “I would have questioned the junior attorney while I was there, but he never made it back to the office.” I picked up Uncle Joey’s concern and quickly continued. “But… as soon as he shows up, Chris will let me know, and we’ll find out exactly what he’s done. Then we’ll know what to do.”

  Uncle Joey nodded, but he was thinking I’d been careful not to mention the attorney’s name. Chris must have told me to keep quiet about it. But if he was going to help Chris, he needed to know. “I think we both know I can be of more use to Chris if you tell me this person’s name.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right, but Chris was worried that your involvement might backfire.” Oops. I hoped I hadn’t just insulted Uncle Joey by telling him the truth, but he’d plied me with a diet soda, so it wasn’t my fault.

  “I see.” Uncle Joey tamped down his initial anger at my misplaced allegiance and let out a breath. Didn’t I know by now that he was good at what he did? I could trust him to be discreet, and he wasn’t about to kill the guy before he knew more.

  Yikes! No matter what Ethan had done, I didn’t want him dead. “How about this,” I began. “If he doesn’t show up at Chris’s office by the end of the day, I’ll tell you his name so you can find him for us. How does that sound?”

  “Sure,” he agreed. He checked his watch. It was nearly five o’clock. “How late is he usually there?”

  “You’re right, he should have come back by now. Let me call Chris one more time just to make sure.” I quickly put the call through. Chris picked up right away. “Hi honey. Did Ethan ever make it back?”

  “No.”

  “Did Elisa talk to him?”

  “No. He didn’t answer his phone, and he hasn’t come back. I guess I could stop by his apartment on the way home and see if he’s there.”

  “Uh… why don’t you let me do that? I can go over there right now. What’s his address?”

  “Shelby—”

  “Just give me the address. We need to take care of this now.”

  “Fine. Just a minute while I look it up.” He came back with Ethan’s address and phone number, which I wrote on a pad of paper from Uncle Joey’s desk.

  “Are you at Thrasher?” At my affirmative answer, Chris continued. “Okay, but go alone. I don’t want Ethan to freak out. He’s harmless, so if he’s there, you’ll be fine.”

  “Uh… sure. Okay. I’ll call you.” We disconnected, and I caught Uncle Joey’s frown. I held up the paper. “Chris gave me his phone number and address, so I’m good to go.” I stood, sending Uncle Joey a smile. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Sit down. You’re not going alone,” Uncle Joey ordered. “I don’t care what Chris said. People who are in a bind tend to do stupid things, and I’m not willing to risk your safety.” He picked up his phone and put a call through to Ramos. “I need you in my office,” he said, then hung up.

  “But we don’t want to scare him off.”

  Uncle Joey clasped his hands together on top of his desk. With a shake of his head, he said, “Sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do.”

  I could understand that, but what if Ethan was the informant? Wouldn’t that just confirm his suspicions? I picked up that Uncle Joey had ways to make people cooperate that were a lot worse than anything the prosecuting attorney could do, so I shouldn’t worry.

  I swallowed. I guess he had a point. For some reason, I’d forgotten just who Uncle Joey was.

  Ramos pushed the door open. Seeing me, he stopped. What had I gotten into now? “What’s up?”

  “I need you to accompany Shelby to visit one of Chris’s junior attorneys. She’ll brief you on the way. Just make sure you don’t leave without the information Shelby needs.”

  “Got it.” He glanced at me with sympathy, but behind that was the steely resolve to get the job done, no matter what it took.

  Between the two of them, I was outnumbered, so I grabbed the rest of my soda and chugged it down. Finished, I set the glass on Uncle Joey’s desk, resisting the urge to wipe my mouth on my sleeve, and gave him a nod.


  As much as I didn’t want to admit it, somewhere deep inside I was grateful that Uncle Joey cared enough to send Ramos with me. How crazy was that? Of course, if I were honest, it was hard to object to having Ramos at my side for any reason. I knew that made me a bad wife, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from going with him.

  I followed Ramos to the elevator, easily picking up his unwavering conviction that I was a trouble-magnet. That was the only thing that explained it. No one else he knew ever got into as much trouble as me, and that was saying something.

  “Hey, it’s not my fault… this time anyway.”

  His lips creased into a small smile since he enjoyed giving me a hard time, but today had to be one for the records.

  Since he was right about that, I couldn’t argue and just kept my mouth shut. After we stepped into the elevator, he said, “So tell me what’s going on.”

  “Okay, here’s the deal. Ethan is Chris’s junior attorney at the law firm. The prosecuting attorney has something on Ethan, and today at the precinct, I picked up that Ethan put something in motion to get Chris in trouble with the law. Before I could determine exactly what it was, Ethan took off. He didn’t show up at Chris’s office, so that’s why we’re headed to his apartment. I need to know what he’s done.”

  “And it involves Manetto?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Ramos nodded, easily picking up the prosecuting attorney’s plan to get Chris to turn on Uncle Joey to save his own skin from some trumped-up charges.

  The elevator doors opened. “Want to take the bike?”

  “You know it.” I couldn’t help the big grin that creased my lips. Since it might be the only good part of my day, how could I pass it up? Riding on a Harley behind Ramos was definitely my guilty pleasure. “Hang on while I get my leather jacket. It’s in my car.”

  Ramos nodded, smiling at my enthusiasm. Had I left my jacket in my car on purpose? Just in case I needed it for a ride?

  I sent him a smile over my shoulder. How did he know? At my car, I took off my black, dress jacket and exchanged it for the sleek, leather, motorcycle jacket, wishing I’d been wearing this at the newspaper office when they took my photo, since it totally rocked.

  Ramos opened the trunk of his car and took out a couple of helmets. After taking Ethan’s address, he handed me the smaller helmet. Until now I’d just assumed he always carried an extra helmet in his trunk, but today I picked up that he’d bought it just for me.

  How had I missed that? Of course, he’d given me the motorcycle jacket a few months ago, so I should have known. Still, my heart gave a grateful thump that he’d done that for me.

  Soon, I sat behind Ramos, holding on tight while we roared out of the parking garage and onto the street. We headed away from the downtown area toward a hub of apartment buildings on the west side of the city. The apartment building Ethan lived in was older and a little run-down.

  After parking the bike on the side of the road, we entered the building and took the elevator to the fifth floor. I glanced at Ramos, taking in his dangerous, hitman vibe, and swallowed. “Uh… why don’t you let me do the talking?”

  He grunted, thinking that was fine to begin with, but if I really wanted to help my husband, I’d let Ramos do his job. I nodded. How could I argue with that?

  We stepped out of the elevator and traversed the hall to Ethan’s door. I rang the bell and knocked. We waited but could hear nothing from inside the apartment.

  Ramos pulled a small pouch from his pocket with his lock-picking tools. My eyes widened. “Wait… you can’t do that. What if he’s in there?”

  “Isn’t that why we’re here?” He didn’t wait for me to comment, and bent quickly to his task. I swallowed and glanced up and down the hallway, hoping no one would catch us. The lock clicked, and Ramos opened the door. At least he wore leather gloves.

  He glanced at me, thinking I should be careful about what I touched, and I nodded my agreement. We quickly entered the apartment and shut the door behind us.

  The living room area held a couch and coffee table with a large-screen television on one end that connected to a small kitchen. It had that lived-in feeling, with a few dishes scattered here and there, along with a laundry basket of clothes waiting to be folded, but no Ethan.

  “Hello,” I said, not wanting to scare Ethan to death. “Anybody home?” Silence prevailed, so I glanced at Ramos. “Guess he’s not here. What now?”

  “We take a look around. I’ll take the bedroom, you take the kitchen.”

  “What are we looking for?”

  “Check for notes or lists, anything that will tell us more about his activities or where he would go.”

  “Okay.”

  Ramos padded down the short hallway to the bedroom, and I turned to the kitchen nook. A flush of guilt swept over to me to invade Ethan’s privacy, but I pushed it away and examined the counter. Finding a stack of mail, I carefully looked through it.

  With nothing out of the ordinary, I continued glancing through the other items on the counter-top and, using a tissue, opened a few drawers. I glanced at the fridge, noting a couple of business cards stuck on the outside with magnets.

  One had Chris’s law firm with Ethan’s name as a junior attorney on it, and the other had James Strickland’s name and contact information. Besides those, there was a coupon for a discount at a nearby gym, but nothing else. I needed something that would tell me what Strickland had on Ethan. Maybe Ethan kept a journal?

  I hurried to the bedroom, finding Ramos searching through Ethan’s drawers. He glanced my way and shook his head. Then he froze and slowly pulled a gun from under the clothes. He looked it over, noting that it was a .38 special. It wasn’t loaded, but he found a box of bullets in the same drawer.

  After putting them back, he turned my way. “There’s nothing here.”

  “What about a journal? Did you see anything like that?” I checked the tops of the drawers, then the closet, and finally under the bed. Nothing. Now what?

  “Do you want to wait for him?” Ramos asked. I caught an image in his mind of sitting in the dark and scaring Ethan half to death when he came in. He thought that was always a good strategy to make someone talk.

  “Uh… no. He should show up at work tomorrow. I’ll just talk to him then.”

  Ramos nodded, thinking that he could always come back later if he needed to. “All right. Let’s go.”

  As we closed the door behind us, I glanced up and down the hall, hoping we wouldn’t get caught. Ramos was thinking that I should stop looking so guilty and act like I belonged. I relaxed my shoulders and let out a breath.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I’m just not used to living on the edge like… uh… you.” I glanced up at him, hoping he didn’t take that the wrong way. He raised his brow. Oops. I smiled, hoping that would pacify him, and decided to change the subject. “So… did you decide what days worked best to visit Javier?”

  Because of Ramos’s job as a hitman to a mob boss, he’d planned to stay out of his brother’s life, wanting Javier to continue to believe that Ramos had died all those years ago.

  To make up for it, Ramos had asked me to deliver a large sum of money to his brother, telling him that it was from an anonymous benefactor. That had gone smoothly, and I’d kept in touch with Javier, updating Ramos with bits of Javier’s life.

  But recent circumstances had led Ramos to have a change of heart. Tired of going it alone, he’d decided to let Javier know he was alive after all. That meant it was up to me to set it up.

  So far, I’d had trouble finding a date that worked for both of their schedules. Javier was excited to meet his mysterious benefactor, and I knew it was sure to be a shock to find out it was his long-lost brother. Still, I was excited for them, even if Ramos was having second thoughts.

  Ramos twisted his lips. The last time I’d set something up, we’d both been whisked off to Washington D.C., and he’d had to cancel. Since we’d nearly died there, and he’d basically saved my
life, he wondered if I could stay out of trouble long enough for him to leave me again.

  “Of course I can,” I said, disgruntled that he’d even think that.

  “Okay, then I think the weekend after this one will work best for me.”

  “Good. I’ll set it up.” I glanced at his strong, chiseled features. “I’m sure it will work out this time.”

  He snickered, then caught my gaze and schooled his expression. “I’m sure it will.”

  We reached his bike without spotting Ethan, and I climbed on behind Ramos. Since this was the highlight of my day, I decided to forget about everything else and enjoy the moment. Luckily, Ramos had the same idea and took the scenic route back. I couldn’t complain that he knew me so well.

  As we reached his parking space at Thrasher Development, I let out a sigh and dismounted. Handing him my helmet, I said, “Well, thanks for going with me. We might have to go back tomorrow, on the bike, but I’ll let you know.”

  His lips twisted. I hadn’t fooled him. He knew I loved riding his bike with him, and talking to Ethan was a good excuse to get what I wanted. “Sure. Anything else you need?” His velvet voice sent shivers up my spine, and my heart galloped.

  I let out a little huff. “Uh… no. I’d better get going. Tell Uncle Joey I’ll keep him informed.” At his playful grin, I shook my head and hurried to my car.

  It took me longer than usual to get home because of rush-hour traffic. I opened the back door and entered the kitchen, surprised to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table. My thirteen-year-old daughter rushed in with a big grin on her face. “Hey mom!”

  “Wow, when did this get here?”

  “Isn’t it totes awesome?” she asked. “It came about an hour ago.” Savannah was dying to know who’d sent it. She’d taken a peek at the card, and knew it wasn’t from her dad, so who could it be? Would I know? “There’s a card.” She pointed it out. “Open it up and see what it says.”

  I took the envelope from the arrangement, pulled out the small card, and read it aloud. “It says, ‘To Shelby, From, A secret admirer.’ There’s no name.” I turned the card over just to make sure nothing else was written on the back. “I wonder who sent it.”