by L. A. Fiore
Pressing my face to his chest, I took a minute to just soak up those words. He took the opportunity to push his point. “So no acting on what you see.” His thumb touched my chin lifting my face to his. “Lost too much in my life, can’t lose the most important thing too.”
Any protest I had died on my tongue and not just at his words, but the glimpse of the lost look he’d had when we were younger. “I won’t act on anything.”
“Good.” And then he pulled the string on my sweatpants so they pooled at my feet. He lifted me up onto the kitchen table, his hand working his zipper seconds before he drove into me. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he lowered me back onto the table and pulled me closer to the edge as his hips moved in a lazy, almost deliberate motion. Sliding a hand over my stomach, along my ribs, he settled at my breast, teasing the nipple as his hips continued their exquisite torture. My stomach tightened and my breathing turned shallow. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I drew him deeper as my body ached for release. Cole's eyes locked on mine as he pulled my lower lip into his mouth and bit it at the exact moment the orgasm claimed me. The combination of pleasure and pain was mind-numbing. Cole’s focus moved from my face to lower down my body, his fingers digging into my thighs just before his eyes closed and he stilled, holding himself deep inside me as he came. As was his way, he pulled from me, dropped to his knees and ran his tongue right along my core to taste us and after last night, I totally got it. Turning his head, he pressed a kiss to my inner thigh before sinking his teeth in.
“Ouch!”
He didn’t look at all repentant when he stood and zipped up. “Need to call your tat artist, babe.”
Smug bastard. And yet, as soon as he left, I did just that.
Later that afternoon, after I returned from the tat parlor, I grabbed a glass of wine, retrieved the flash drive from Cole’s safe and settled at his computer. When the pictures popped up on the screen, it felt a bit anticlimactic. Silly, but this drive was likely why my dad had been killed and yet all it contained were candid shots of people in various clubs. Had you not known the history behind the drive, it wouldn’t seem significant at all.
I recognized Stein and some people, local politicians, though I didn’t know who they were so didn’t understand the importance of these pictures. Sure, the clubs looked like gentleman's clubs, but that was hardly newsworthy. Donny, the pale-hair, was in several of them, as was his counterpart…a man whose name I never learned. Couldn’t help the shiver that worked through me because those men were depraved monsters.
Ejecting the drive, I put it back in Cole’s safe and moved to the living room where I had Dad’s accounting books. The nagging question as to why Dylan needed to sell, especially learning Dad had purchased Tickled Ivories, was driving me crazy. I needed to understand, my curious nature that both delighted and frustrated my dad and Cole, demanded it.
Dyl wasn’t much of a bookkeeper, which pulled a smile until I really studied what he’d done. Grabbing the other book, I found similar patterns in his entries, not mistakes, deliberate. Something dark twisted in my gut as I allowed myself to entertain the possibility. I wasn’t a forensic accountant, but I knew someone who could confirm my suspicions. Freddie boy had given me his cell number when we were working together on those projects and as much as it grated that I needed his help after our meeting the other day, I called him.
“Yeah.”
“Fred, it’s Mia.”
“What do you want?” And though he tried for scorn, all I heard was fear. Cole had gotten through.
“Believe me, you are the last person I want to call, but I need your help.”
“And you think I’ll help you after your Neanderthal threatened me?”
“You’ve been on my ass since almost the beginning and yet I know you know you’ve been a dick because for the first month, you were human, even nice. I need your help and since I’ve seen you through countless fire drills, you’re going to help me.”
“Or what?”
“What was it that Cole said? If I’m unhappy, he’ll assume it’s because of you.”
“Are you blackmailing me to help you?”
“If you want to look at it like that, sure.”
He swore, loud, and let it linger over the line for a few seconds. “What kind of help?”
“Financial questions.”
“About what?”
“Accounting questions. Can we meet at the café down the street from the office?”
“Now?”
“I wouldn’t be calling you if it weren’t important.”
I could practically hear him pulling his hand through his hair. “Fine. I’ll meet you in a half an hour.” He clicked off before I could reply.
I didn’t want to believe what I was thinking, but numbers didn’t lie. Leaving a note for Cole, I hurried out to meet Freddie. He was already there when I arrived, sitting in the back drinking a coffee, reading something on his phone.
“Hey.” Dropping the books on the table, I pulled out a chair and joined him.
“So what’s so important you have to bother me on a Sunday?”
“I want you to look at these and tell me what you see.”
“What are they?”
“My dad’s expense books for his garage.”
I got a look, which I understood since why would I be looking at these now when both my dad and his business were gone? He didn’t voice that though and instead pulled out his glasses. “All right.” But he said that like I had just asked him to give me his kidney while holding a gun to his head.
An hour later, he leaned back in his chair, any lingering bitterness gone and instead it looked like concern staring back at me. “Definitely cooking the books.”
My heart plummeted. “He’s delaying expenses, the number of non-recurring expenses throws up a flag not to mention the off-balance sheet items. Whoever controlled these books was hiding something.”
“That’s what I thought too. Thanks, Fred.” I stood, feeling disheartened because there was no explanation that Dylan could give that would justify what he had been doing; he’d been cheating my dad. I needed to tell Cole.
“I’d be careful, Mia.”
This earned my attention. “Why?”
“It could be as simple as skimming money from the top, but it could be something more.”
“Like?”
“Large sums of unexplained money filtering through a business.”
My legs went weak as I dropped back into my chair. “Laundering.”
“Yep.”
What the hell had Dylan gotten himself into? “I’ll be careful. Thanks, Fred.”
“You starting back at work tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“See you tomorrow.”
On the way home, I stewed and the more I thought about Dylan’s betrayal, the angrier I got. I had told Cole I wouldn’t act on what I saw in those pictures, but I couldn’t keep my silence with this. Dylan had been more than a friend, he was family, and he’d been stealing from Dad. Changing direction, I headed to Dylan’s and by the time I was walking up his front path, he was in serious danger of being physically assaulted by me.
I didn’t give him a chance to offer a greeting, stepping past him into his living room before turning and glaring. I dropped the books on the sofa and as soon as he saw them, his face blanched.
“Want to explain that to me so I can decide whether I need to go to the cops.”
“Mia.”
“Don’t Dylan. I want to know what the hell you were doing. Were you just skimming or were you into something bigger?”
He started to pace, growing more and more agitated. “You should have left it alone.”
“Left what alone? You’re an arrogant ass, stealing from my dad and leaving the proof of it with his things. But then why the hell not since both the man and the garage are gone. How much did you take?”
Pulling his hand through his hair he was practically chanting now. “Should have left it alone, oh Jesus
.”
“He loved you, he trusted you and I’ve proof that you were at the very least stealing from him.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“No!” That one word came out in a bellow, sounding of fear and fury. “I got into some trouble, borrowed from some people and couldn’t pay them back.”
A memory of a conversation between Dad and Dylan came back to me; Dad had been stupendously pissed with Dylan getting involved with people he knew better than to get involved with. “My sophomore year.”
Surprise flashed over his face for a second. “Yeah. That’s when Mace learned about it, but I had already been under their thumb for a couple years. I really didn’t have a choice, they were going to kill me. Instead they offered me an out. I could keep breathing as long as I laundered some money for them. I worked the books anyway, so Mace would have never known. For four years, I filtered cash through the garage and no one was the wiser.”
Numb, my entire body went numb, the pieces falling into place. “I was taking over the books when I graduated.”
“I panicked. You would have figured it out.”
“What the hell did you do?” Fury slammed into me as I gripped Dylan’s shirtfront in my fists and pushed him up against the wall. “What the fuck did you do?”
“I told the man whose money I was laundering that the arrangement was about to experience a serious snag.”
“Whom were you working for?”
“Stein.”
My knees almost buckled under me, my hands dropping from Dylan’s shirt as I blindly stepped away from him. “Stein. Who not only got his hands on Dad’s garage after he died, but conveniently the business that was illegally laundering money for him was no longer. And it didn’t strike you as too coincidental, Dad’s death and Stein’s good luck?”
It was in his eyes, he knew. He’d known the entire time who was behind my dad’s death. “You bastard. You knew. Is that why you’re so riddled with guilt, because you’re the reason he’s dead? And make no mistake about it, Dylan, you are the reason he’s dead.”
“I never wanted Mace to get hurt.”
“He’s dead.”
“I’ll testify, I’ll do whatever I can to make it right.”
“Why? Why now?”
“Because the guilt is eating me alive. The guilt is a heavier burden than the fear.”
Reaching for my phone, I called Bruce.
“Hey Mia, what’s up?”
“I’m at Dylan’s. He’s coming in with information on my dad’s death and Stein’s involvement.”
Silence greeted that answer for a beat before he said, “Dylan has information?” There was disgust and surprise in his voice.
“He sure does.”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting for him.”
Hanging up, I reached for the books. “I’ll hand these in after I’ve made copies. Bruce Knox will be waiting for you.”
Turning from him, since I couldn’t stand to look at him another minute, I headed for the door.
“Mia?”
“There is nothing you can say to make this right. Confess, testify and help put the man who killed my father behind bars, but you and me, we will never be okay. You no longer exist to me…” meeting his sorrow-filled gaze, I added, “You’re dead to me.” And then I left, head held high until I was down the street from his house. Pulling over, I dropped my head on the steering wheel and cried until my tears ran dry.
Pulling in front of Aunt Dee’s house, I called Cole and got his voicemail. “Cole, I’ve…” I choked down a sob, “Please call me as soon as you get this or come to Aunt Dee’s.”
Disconnecting, I climbed from the car and headed up the front walk. Aunt Dee must have seen me, more the condition I was in, because the door opened before I knocked.
“What’s happened?”
I walked right into her as tears streamed from my eyes again.
“Mia, you’re scaring me. What’s happened?”
Lifting my gaze to hers I said, “Dylan was involved in Dad’s death.”
In response, her expression went blank for a beat or two before she managed, “What?”
Reaching for her hand, since she was now experiencing shock, I pulled her into the kitchen and poured us each a healthy tumbler of whiskey before I filled her in.
“Dylan borrowed money that he couldn’t pay back. Stein offered an option, instead of killing him, he’d forgive his debt if Dylan used Mace’s Auto Body to launder money, an arrangement that went unnoticed until I graduated and planned to take over the books. Dylan panicked and told Stein that the jig was up. Stein killed Dad, eliminating the potential exposure and gaining his garage, something he’d been eying for a long time.”
“Dylan told you this?”
“Yeah.”
Her glass went sailing across the room, “I’m going to kill that motherfucker.”
“Get in line.”
“He knew. This whole time he knew, he could have stopped it, warned Mace, but he said nothing just so he could protect his own ass.”
“Yeah.”
“And now he feels guilty. I’m going to rip his head off.”
“Not until he testifies. With his testimony and the info we’ve recently uncovered, Stein’s going away for a long time.”
“What info?”
“Just stuff, not important. Do you think Dad knew it was Dylan?”
“I don’t know, but I kind of hope he didn’t. That knowledge would have cut deep.”
“I told Dylan he was dead to me.”
“He’s dead to me.”
“He was like an uncle.”
“He was like a brother. Does Cole know?”
“Not yet. I called him, but he didn’t answer. He had some things he needed to do today. I came right here after my discovery.”
Aunt Dee pulled down another glass. “I’m getting drunk. You with me?”
The idea of temporarily forgetting sounded really great. “Yep.”
A whole bottle of Jack later and Cole still hadn’t returned my call. I wanted him, wanted him to hold me like he did, wanted him to take me to bed and love me until I forgot. Dialing his number, I waited but he still didn’t answer.
“Want to order in?” Aunt Dee asked.
“Yeah.”
I’d eat, switch over to water and hopefully when I returned home, Cole would be there so he could take care of me in the way only he could.
About an hour later, I was still drunk, maybe not roaring, but I wasn’t going to love the world in the morning. In an attempt to head off the hang over, I drank my body weight in water. A pointless exercise since now I was peeing every twenty minutes. It was just as well because I wanted the buzz, the foggy mind, so I didn’t think about Dylan’s betrayal because like Aunt Dee had said, it cut deep for me too.
“Look who I found?” Aunt Dee slurred but my focus was already on Cole who stepped into the room just behind her.
“Cole.” It wasn’t my most graceful execution of standing up from a sofa, but I didn’t face plant on Aunt Dee’s new floors, so there was that. Walking right to him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. He didn’t hesitate to pull me in and hold me close.
“Mia, what happened?”
It just came crushing down on me, all of it, but most specifically the reality that Donny had likely lied to me when he claimed to not have had a hand in Dad’s death and thinking about him doing to Dad what he had done to Kevin, I couldn’t control the sobs. Cole’s hold on me tightened and I was vaguely aware of Aunt Dee filling him in, felt as his body turned hard, felt his heart rate increase, heard the curse that rumbled up his throat. He held me until I pulled it together but when I lifted my gaze to his face, my breath froze. I’d seen him looking annoyed, furious, remote, frosty, crazy dangerous and just plain disinterested, but I had never seen him looking deadly.
Threading his fingers through my hair, he cradled my face in his hands;
his hold possessive, urgent and yet tender. “I want you to stay here tonight.”
“What are you up to? You don’t need to worry about Dylan. He’s already agreed to testify against Stein. I called Bruce, arranged for them to meet.”
“Good, that’s a good step, but I need to do a few things. Stay here, I don’t want you alone.”
He was scaring me and I said as much.
“Everything is going to be fine.” And then his eyes drifted down for just a second, but it was a tell…he couldn’t keep eye contact because he didn’t believe his last statement either.
“Let the cops handle it, Cole. Please don’t do something stupid. I can’t lose you too.”
His expression turned fierce. “Not going to fucking happen, but if things don’t go as planned—”
My exhale turned into a sob as panic welled up and out of me. “No, don’t say that.”
“Mia, listen to me. If something happens to me, do you remember when you were a kid and you got in trouble for playing with something you weren’t supposed to? Don’t say it, but you know. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“My garage. A copy of the drive is there.”
He had Dad’s tools, but I couldn’t focus long on that because Cole was about to do something stupid. “Please don’t do this. Stay here with me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Goddamn it, Cole, I am not going to the funeral for another person I loved and lost. Do not do that to me!”
“I love you, Mia.”
He kissed me, so sweetly, but my fury and fear were turning into living things. Pulling from him, I beat on his chest with my fists. “Fucking stay here.”
His thumb brushed along my cheek. “See you soon.”
And then he started for the door. Never in my life had I felt so helpless, so frustrated, so angry and so terrified and it was because I felt all of that at once, the next words escaped my mouth in a hysterical ultimatum. “You walk out that door, we’re over.”
He pulled open the door; his gaze speared me from across the room. “Never. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.”
“Please don’t do this.” But he was already gone. Dropping to my knees, sobs racked my body because I had a terrible feeling everything wasn’t going to be fine.