Nico hurried over to Matty too, as Matty stared down the barrel of Sal’s gun. Matty should have known like Nico knew, Kay figured as she watched, that Sal knew far more about what happened in France than probably either one of them.
And Matty gave in. She could see it in his eyes first, and then he spoke the words. “If you move that gun out of my face we can talk,” he said to Sal.
Sal hesitated. Why was he hesitating, Kay wondered. Move the gun so the man can talk, she wanted to yell out. But then Sal removed the gun.
“Now talk,” Nico said.
Matty stood erect, straightening his suit coat.
“Talk motherfucker!” Sal yelled.
“After Nico’s men wiped out most of my crew, I put feelers out to round up some men on behalf of the Peltrone family, in honor of the boss. I was gonna take Nico’s ass down if it was the last thing I did. But then I get this call. He says he heard I’m looking to hit Nico. I say where you hear that shit from? He says he has his sources and if the price is right he can get a crew to France that can kill two birds with one stone. They can take out the woman he wants dead, who happened to be visiting Nico, and Nico’s ass too.”
Kay’s heart dropped through her shoe when she heard that revelation. But from the look on Nico’s face he seemed more angry than surprised. But it was clear now: Kay was the target of that ambush on the Riviera after all.
“So how could I beat that?” Matty kept talking. “I didn’t have any crew in France. I wouldn’t know where to begin to track your ass down in France. So I took the deal.” Then he looked at Nico. “But it obviously didn’t work. Your ass still here.”
Nico frowned. “Who was the guy willing to ice me for cash?” he asked.
Matty actually smiled. What was funny, Kay wondered. She was in distress over his little news, and he was smiling?
But Matty was smiling when he answered Nico. “That’s the crazy part,” Matty said.
“Crazy why?” Nico asked. “Because of who he is?”
“Because of what he used to be,” said Matty. “Believe it or not, the guy who was gonna hire these assassins used to be a United States Senator. Senator Eddie Drake, to be exact. Go figure!”
Kay sat straight back in the chair in that safe room as she stared at that monitor. And that time, Sal was shocked too. “Motherfuck,” he said, and looked at Nico.
Kay could see that Nico was shocked as well. He knew Drake was involved in that video scheme, but he hadn’t worked out how Drake could have been involved in that ambush on the Riviera. Now he had the connection.
And that was when Kay saw it. She was so busy listening to what Matty was saying that she stopped observing anything else. But he had it. He had slipped it down from his suit coat sleeve into his hand that hung at his side. The side where Nico was standing completely unaware too. Matty, Kay realized, knew exactly what he was doing. He was cooperating while he was getting ready to slash Nico’s throat.
“Nico!” she yelled. “Nico, he has a knife!”
Then she realized she should have known he couldn’t hear a word she was saying. She began searching for a button to press. There had to be some kind of audio on all of that high-tech equipment. She searched and she searched. She got on her feet still searching. Until she finally saw the word audio.
She found that button just as Matty had grabbed a hold of that knife. She pressed that button and screamed out, “he’s got a knife, Nico,” just as Matty lifted that hand and slashed at Nico.
Nico heard Kay’s voice just in time, and was able to lean sideways and just out of the reach of that slash. Matty’s slash came so close to connecting with Nico that he cut part of the shirt Nico wore.
Sal tried to fire his gun, but Matty kicked it out of his hand and then Sal and Nico both grabbed for Matty’s hand, to get that knife out of his possession. As they struggled, all three men fell over the sofa wrestling for that knife.
Kay’s heart was already pounding, but it began hammering when she lost sight of all three men behind that flipped sofa.
But she could hear the tussling. She wanted to cry out to Nico, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to interfere with his concentration.
And then, as quickly as they had fallen down, Nico and Matty were on their feet, with their hands on the knife. Sal got up, too, and was rushing around the sofa to get his gun just as Nico out-muscled that knife from out of Matty’s hands.
“Yes!” Kay yelled, as if it was some sporting event. But her hammering heart reminded her it wasn’t. Nico’s life had been in danger.
But now the tables had turned. It was Matty’s life, Kay knew, that was in danger now.
And Matty suddenly began to stand on ceremony. “Sal said no more bloodshed!” Matty cried. “We have a truce! Tell him Sal!”
“You paid men to try to kill a boss,” said Sal. “You just tried to slice him yourself. What truce? It’s open season now, motherfucker!”
And Kay knew what Nico had to be thinking. That man’s scheme almost caused her her life. That man’s scheme almost caused Nico his life, and not once, but twice. And there was no way, as long as Nico had breath in his body, that he could ever let Matty get away with that. Kay understood as clearly as she understood her own ruthlessness, as Nico would declare.
And Sal wasn’t about to intervene either. She saw that too. Right was right, in his book, and paying men-for-hire to hit a boss was wrong.
Kay figured that was why Sal stood idly by and watched as Nico grabbed Matty by the throat, raised that knife, and began doing to Matty what he had tried to do to Sal.
Matty fell down, begging for mercy, but Nico got on his knees and showed none. Kay couldn’t see the actual damage, because both men were behind that sofa, but she saw that knife in Nico’s hand come up and go down, over and over, as if he was gutting a pig.
He kept stabbing for so long that Sal had to intervene. He pulled Nico up. “You made your point, brother,” Sal said to him.
And from what Kay could tell in Nico’s eyes, he was only just realizing he could have saved his energy something like twenty stabs ago. Based on the way Nico was handling that knife, Kay thought, Matty was probably gone by stab number two.
And then Sal and Nico stood there, staring down at the downed man. Kay still wasn’t relaxed. Was this Sal guy a good guy like Nico, or more like Matty in the long run?
She decided he was more like Nico because Nico was completely relaxed around him.
Then Sal spoke up. “Your ass didn’t tell me we had a woman in the house,” he said to Nico as he continued to stare down at the dead man.
“Your ass didn’t ask,” Nico fired back.
And it was only then, when Sal actually chuckled at Nico’s comeback, that Kay felt as if the danger had passed, and she was able to exhale too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The handoff was arranged as Carmine, instead of Nico’s usual driver, drove Nico and Kay to an underpass where a van was waiting to transport Kay, undetected by any prying eyes, to her campaign headquarters. They decided that she would meet the press at headquarters, instead of at her home. But as they rode, sitting side by side with Nico’s arm around Kay’s waist, they both had concerns.
“Did you get your answers?” Kay asked Nico.
“I did.”
“Who were those guys exactly?”
“The guy named Matty Mapp was the underboss of a family here in Chicago.”
“And the other guy? Sal?”
“Sal Gabrini. He comes from a long line of mobsters. We don’t exactly get along, as I’m sure you heard, but he’s a man I’d trust with my life.”
“Why?” Kay asked.
“Because his word is like ink on a page. He’s a man of his word.”
Then Kay shook her head. “When that Matty person said Eddie Drake was behind that ambush in France, I nearly fell off that chair.”
“You?”
Then Kay looked at Nico. “What are we going to do about it?”
Nico smiled
. “We? What do you mean we, Fresh Face?”
Kay smiled. “Yes, we,” she said. “What are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing until after the election,” Nico said. “If a video suddenly appears the day before, we may need him. I don’t want to harm your chances.”
Kay stared at him. “Be honest,” she said. “You don’t want me to win this election, do you?”
“I absolutely want you to win,” Nico said. “Hell yes!”
Kay was surprised to hear it. “Why?” she asked.
“Because, Kay,” he said, “you give hope to a lot of people who never had this chance before. I’ve wanted you to win from the moment you announced your candidacy.”
Kay smiled. “Really? That’s quite a change from a decade ago.”
Nico nodded. “I’m a different man, Kay. I made a mistake not trying to work it out with you, instead of just leaving. It was arrogance on my part to figure I knew what was best for you.” Then his look turned more sober. “That should have been our call. Not just mine.”
Kay leaned against him. He got it. And he got her, too, she decided.
“Question,” Nico said as she leaned against him.
“What?”
“Why did you go into that safe room?”
“I felt I needed to know who I’m dealing with. I need to know that other side of you too.”
Nico’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer, but he knew he had to ask the question. “Now that you know,” he said, and then looked at her, “ready to run away in horror? Because that’s my life too. When people come for me the way Matty tried, I have to come for them. And I go hard, as you saw. That’s the only way I get to stay alive. Otherwise, it’ll be open season. That’s a part of my life, too, Kay. Not the biggest part, but a part of my life.”
Kay nodded. “I know.”
“I’ll keep it away from you,” Nico said. “I promise you that. I’m going to do everything I can so that you won’t be tainted by me.”
Kay was moved by the way he said that. “Oh, Nico, you can’t taint me,” she said, her heart going out to him.
“But my life gets rough like that sometimes, Kay,” Nico wanted her to understand. “That’s what I mean. That’s why I left all those years ago, to spare you from this life. But after they tried to attack us at my house in France, there’s no more sparing. You already got a taste. But that’s the deal. I have to make it my business to make examples of anybody that tries to harm me, and especially tries to harm the woman I love.”
Kay wrapped her arms around his waist. “I understand.”
“You understand it,” Nico said, “but can you live with it?”
Kay thought long and hard about that question. In a lot of ways, she’d already made up her mind. “That depends on how much of the rest of you,” she said, “is nothing like that part of you.”
Nico smiled, and kissed her hand. “You have nothing to worry about there,” he said.
Kay smiled too, and rubbed the side of his face, but even she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road for them.
“I have a question, too, Kay,” Nico said.
“Okay.”
“Who knew you were coming to see me in France?”
Kay didn’t have to think about that. “Just Rog and myself. Why?”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. I mean, the donor who provided the plane, and the pilot that flew me over there, didn’t know who I was going to see, or anything like that. Why?”
“How would Eddie Drake know that you were going to see me in France?” Nico asked.
And Kay realized it too. “Oh, right,” she said.
“Just you and Roger, hun?” Nico asked.
Kay looked at him. “Rog would never betray me like that,” she said.
“Then who, Kay? Because it has to be somebody in your campaign.”
“But there is no one else,” she said, as they arrived at the underpass. “And I know it’s not Rog,” she added. Then she looked at Nico. “You have to respect my judgment too,” she said.
Nico nodded, although he still had his doubts. “Okay,” he said, and held her tighter.
The van was already waiting, and Kay was about to get out and get in that van, but Rog suddenly got out of the van and hurried to Nico’s SUV.
Nico pressed down the back passenger window where he and Kay were seated. “What are you doing here?” Kay leaned over Nico and asked Rog.
“I thought you said you stopped Eddie,” Rog said. “I thought you said you have the video.”
“We did. And we do. Why?”
“I just got a call from a reporter friend of mine. He says he and some of his colleagues have been called to the Mayflower press room, by former Senator Eddie Drake’s office, for an announcement about you, Kay. An announcement that they claimed to my reporter friend is going to upend the presidential race. That’s the beforehand warning he’d been given. They aren’t even allowed to make the presser public until after the announcement, or the announcement will be canceled.”
Nico and Kay were stunned. Nico quickly picked up his car phone and called his crew chief at the safe house. “Where’s Eddie Drake?” he asked him.
“He’s right here,” said the crew chief. “Why?”
“He’s still in custody,” Nico said to Kay and Rog. “Put him on the phone,” Nico said to his crew chief.
Within seconds, Drake was on the phone. “What is it?”
“Who has a copy of that video?” Nico asked him.
“Nobody has a copy. I told you that!”
“Then why the fuck is your office planning an announcement about that video?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Drake said.
Nico exhaled. He was wasting time. “Put my guy back on the line,” he said.
The crew chief came back on line. “Get Drake’s confession on video now.”
“We’re waiting for the team to get here that’s going to handle it.”
“Fuck that. Do it with your cell phone if you have to. Get that confession on tape. We may need it sooner than we thought.”
“Yes, sir. I’m right on it, sir,” the chief said, and the call ended.
“Why would somebody suddenly want to come out with that video?” Kay asked. “Is it the same person who told Eddie about my whereabouts anyway?”
“What do you mean?” Rog asked.
“Did you tell anybody about my trip to France, Rog?” Kay asked him.
Rog frowned. “You know I wouldn’t do that. Why are you asking?”
“Eddie hired a contract killer to take out Kay in France,” Nico said.
Rog was floored. “He did what?”
“Who would have known in that office?” Kay asked.
“Nobody,” Rog said. “I didn’t tell anybody!”
“Then who’s holding a presser?” Kay asked.
“Maybe he didn’t check in with somebody,” Rog said, “and they have a copy of that video too. That video is gold right now.”
Then it hit Kay suddenly. “Gold,” she said.
“What?” Nico asked her.
But Kay was thinking. “That’s it,” she said.
Rog looked at her. “What’s it? Gold? What about it?”
“It wasn’t gold.”
“What wasn’t gold?” Nico asked.
Then she looked at Nico. “I think I know who has that copy. I think I know who’s going to make that announcement.” Then her look turned sad. “I think I know who killed my ex-boyfriend.”
Nico and Rog both were stumped. Michael committed suicide. What was Kay talking about?
Kay pulled out her phone. Nico leaned over and watched as she watched the video that supposedly showed her shooting her ex-boyfriend Michael in the head. And that was when she saw it. The woman had her back to the camera as she pulled the trigger. She was about the same height and weight as Kay, and she wore a baseball cap, with her hair tucked inside. But she wore earrings too.
Silver earrings. It was a stretch, but it was possible. Most women she knew, especially in her social circles, wore gold. But there was one woman she knew who never did. Who always wore sterling silver.
“Let’s go,” Kay said. “We’ve got to get there before that announcement goes public. If it goes public, that tape of Eddie’s confession may not be believed. And I may pay for it at the ballot box. Let’s go!”
“We’ll be back,” Nico said to Rog, Rog stepped back, and the SUV took off.
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was that same secluded lake house Kay and Rog had visited a thousand times to talk strategy and to fume about a press report or to just get together after a grueling series of campaign events. But that was a decade ago. Now it looked dilapidated and sad. As if it was barely holding on.
Nico rang the doorbell. Brenda Drake opened the door talking. “What took you so long,” she said, as if it was her husband coming back to her. But when she saw that it wasn’t him, but that it was Kay and Nico, along with Carmine Jusseppi, a man she didn’t recognize, standing on her front porch, she immediately tried to close the door back again. But Nico put his big shoe in the way. And forced the door back open.
“Remember me?” he asked her. “I’m the fella who slapped the shit out of you once.” And then he grabbed Eddie Drake’s longtime wife and flung her further into her living room, and they all went inside. Carmine closed the door behind them.
“What do you want?” Brenda angrily asked, looking mainly at Kay.
“You’re scheduled to make an announcement today. Aren’t you?”
“Where’s Eddie? Where’s my husband?!”
“Where’s the video?” Nico asked.
Unlike Drake, his wife didn’t believe in beating around the bush. The fact that they were at her house, asking for that video, made her keenly aware that they already knew it existed, and her connection to it. “You give me my husband, and I’ll give you that tape.”
“How could you still love that cheater?” Nico asked her.
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