by S. M. Dapelo
I bit my lip, thinking. “Okay. I get it. Do you think this guy is going to bring any of you in?”
“With just one of him here?” Luc made a face, “No. He wouldn’t stand a chance. Hell, he’s not even threating, he’s…” Luc licked his lips and looked around. “It’s not something I can discuss right now. We’ll talk when we’re alone tonight.”
“Okay,” I frowned. “I think I understand.”
Luc brushed his hand against my cheek, “It’s not that I don’t want to, I just can’t right now. I have to wrap my mind around what these statements mean.”
“How worried are you?” I glanced into his eyes.
His face turned grim, “About jail? Not at all. About the threat to the Amato family? Very.” He leaned down and kissed me. “The plane’s already been delayed, so Elena and your mom won’t be back until real late. Keep busy. We’ll go to Rudy’s at about five-thirty.” He walked back toward the study. I sighed and frowned. I knew Luc’s first focus was to keep me safe. Unfortunately, it didn’t line up with my focus, which was finding my brother’s murderer.
I strolled into the kitchen, Cindy was sitting at the table drinking coffee with three men surrounding her, listening to her stories. “Hey, Cindy. Sorry it took so long,” I forced a smile.
“No problem,” she smiled. “I was just telling the boys here how not to act at a strip joint.”
The smile left my face, “They don’t know?” I looked at the men, who appeared red faced and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“A lot of men don’t.” She waved her hand as she got up, “They always confuse a strip joint with a whore house.”
“Two completely different place,” I nodded like I knew what I was talking about.
“Right,” she said in agreement, then looked at the men. “So, we go to strip clubs to…” she trailed off with the sentence.
“Have an enjoyable time, not get laid,” one guy answered. Then looked at me suddenly when he realized who I was.
I rolled my eyes. “Good guess,” I muttered. “Hey, I was going to show you my artwork,” I smiled.
“You sure were,” Cindy got up, not missing a beat. “Bye, boys. Don’t forget what you learned.”
“Yes ma’am,” they muttered, looking anywhere but at me. I laughed as I led Cindy down the hall.
Sam caught up with us in the hall. “What are we doing?” she asked.
“Searching Dom’s room, then sneaking out,” I answered. “Luc and Marc are going to be busy.”
“Sounds fun,” Sam smiled. “Finally, something I’m good at.”
I opened his door and my mouth dropped, “What the fuck?”
Someone trashed the room. They had tossed his clothes out of the closet and the bookshelves pushed over.
“How did no one hear this?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know,” I started to walk in, but Sam blocked me with an arm and walked in first.
“Cos stayed out with Rudy last night,” Cindy winced. “He slept our guest bedroom. He said he didn’t want to stay here alone.”
“I need to know the people on guard detail last night,” Sam said as she texted something into her phone. “Then I need to question them.”
“You mean Luca does,” I reminded her.
“I’m better,” she said as she crouched down to pick something up. “Is this a parking ticket?”
“Yeah, I saw that earlier,” I responded. “Dom wasn’t a big Crown Center guy. He hated malls and how commercial they were.”
“It’s dated the day before he died,” Sam muttered.
“Sugar, what’s going on?” Ethan walked in, then paused as his eyes grew. “When?”
“We’re thinking last night.” Sam stood, “Cosmo stayed at Rudy and Cindy’s place. It was the perfect opportunity. I just don’t know what they were looking for.” She handed the ticket to him, “We found this.” He frowned as he looked at it.
“I was called in to play the middle-man with Bishop,” he said, still staring at the ticket. “I just came into possession of some vital information and we’re going to implement Plan R sooner than we thought.”
Sam frowned, “The one with the llamas?”
“That’s plan P,” he said.
“How many plans do you have, and why do you have so many?” I asked, hands on my hips.
“Right now, only twenty-six. We’ll implement the ones needed depending on the situation.” He pulled his phone out and made a call, “Berto, I need a list of all the various apartments around Crown Center. Email them to me in the next fifteen minutes.” He hung up and glanced at us, “I have to deal with Bishop. You three keep busy. I’ll have my guys go through this place with a fine-tooth comb.” He kissed Sam on the cheek and whispered something to her, then left.
“That’s it?” my mouth fell open.
“Ethan’s guys will take care of this,” she turned to me and Cindy. “What do you want to do?”
I knew she was Luca’s cousin, but I went all in. “First, I want to check out the parking ticket. I want to get a feel for why he was at a mall the day before he died.” I stopped and looked at them, “The question is: do you want to come or not? I can do this on my own if you’re uncomfortable.”
“I’m in,” Sam smirked.
Cindy gave a huge smile, “I thought you were the good girl. You already know how to sneak out, don’t you?”
“I hope so. I’ve been doing it since I was sixteen,” I smirked. “I never did anything wrong, but sometimes you just need to get away.”
“I get it,” Sam nodded.
“Where’d you go?” Cindy asked out of the side of her mouth.
“Only to Rudy’s for gelato,” I admitted. “I’m pretty sure he told Dad the first time I did it, but never again. Guess he felt if I was sneaking out for sweets it wasn’t bad.”
“Not bad at all,” Cindy said as we walked into a connected greenhouse.
“So, what’s the plan?” Sam asked.
I shrugged, “It never fails, someone always leaves a set of keys in one car. We grab the car and drive out the side entrance, which is never watched.”
Sam scrunched up her nose, “Luca’s going to have to change that.”
“It has a gate,” I admitted, “But all the cars have the remote control in them. Easy peasy.”
“Let’s go,” Cindy gave a gigantic smile and Sam threw her head back and laughed. We’d be back before anyone missed us. I hoped.
20
“How mad is your husband going to be?” Cindy asked from the backseat as we pulled into the same parking garage my brother had used six months previously.
“About leaving without him or taking his car?” I asked in reply. Yeah, the first one we found with the keys was the bright red Ferrari that I’d been taken from Colorado Springs in. Sam sat in the passenger seat, since she beat Cindy in rock, paper, scissors.
“Either.”
“Probably pissed as hell for both,” I winced. “I just can’t wait. I’ve been puttering around and not figuring anything out. I have to get this done.” I didn’t know why, but it felt like everything was closing in on me. Like if it weren’t figured out soon, we’d lose our chance.
“I understand,” Sam nodded.
Cindy bit her lip. “See, Rudy encourages me to misbehave. It’s part of what he likes about me. Luca doesn’t strike me as that sort.” Sam snorted and then schooled her features.
“He’s not,” I muttered. “But he has enough on his mind without having to worry about this. If we can figure it out, he’ll be able to relax a little,” I reasoned.
Sam looked at me with her mouth open, her hands carved through her hair, held it, then released it. “Are we talking about the same guy? Do you really believe that?”
“Until proven otherwise, yes.” I sat up straighter as I parked the expensive vehicle and exited. “Plus, I want lunch and this place has a pretty excellent selection of restaurants.”
“Yeah, but the shops suck compared to other malls,” whined Cind
y.
I shook my head, “They don’t suck. They just don’t have as many. It’s a lot smaller, but it’s awesome during Christmas.”
“Everything costs an arm and a leg.”
“I’m paying,” I smiled at her. “Now come on. There’s a candy store here too. Let’s get some sweet stuff and then figure out why my brother was here.”
After making a huge purchase of candy that caused me to pay by credit card instead of cash, we were wandering from the store. I had to wonder when Dad was going to cut me off. Cindy sighed, “You know I always thought it’d be great to live in this area, but with all the tourists, I might have been wrong.”
“Yeah, it’s nice, but busy.” I looked around. “Dad said Dom was supposed to move to San Francisco, but I can’t see it.”
“Why not?” Cindy frowned at me, “It’s got magnificent views. The traffic would be tough, but I always loved it.”
“You’ve been there?” I asked.
“I had a friend who lived there,” she smiled. “One of the smaller apartments. I think it was barely over a hundred grand.”
“For San Francisco?” I frowned, “Was it a box?”
Cindy frowned, “Alley, what are you talking about? San Francisco Towers.” She pointed to the high rise across the street.
“Son-of-a…” I gaped. “His condo was over there. Not in San Francisco, the city, in San Francisco Towers.” I started out the door, the other two following, “Come on. If I know my overly organized brother, he bought it for cash under one of his assumed names and set up a bank account just for the fees and utilities. It’s probably still flush and no one’s realized he’s not there.”
“Should we call Luc or Ethan?” Sam asked.
“They’re still dealing with the FBI,” I answered, crossing the street and heading for the lobby door. “I don’t want to take their focus off that until we can confirm Dom had a place here.”
“Makes sense,” Cindy agreed. “Plus, this is exciting.” Sam didn’t look convinced, but followed, anyway.
I tried to hide my grin; she wasn’t wrong. I’d always listened to Dad and my bodyguards before. Never breaking the rules, except for gelato, which I suspected my father knew about. I was always treated as weaker because I was a girl, now I’d prove that I could play with the big boys as well.
My phone rang as we walked into the lobby. Sam rolled her eyes. “Whoops,” Cindy muttered as the doorman looked our way. I gave a finger wave at him.
“Cindy, talk to that guy when I’m on the phone. See if Dominic Amato or,” I thought for a moment, “Nick Deering had a place here. If they still do.”
“Nick Deering?”
“One of Dom’s aliases,” I said. She nodded and sauntered over to the desk where the man was staring at her open mouthed. Sam looked at me with a smile as she leaned against the wall.
“Hello,” I sang into the phone, trying to diffuse any likely anger that might be on the other side.
It didn’t work. “Where exactly are you?” I heard my husband seethe. “Your dad was adamant that you were only going to get ice cream when you stole my car.”
“I didn’t steal it,” I said. “I borrowed it. Stealing implies I’m not giving it back.”
“Are you getting candy? Is that why you’re at Crown Center?”
My eyes went to slits, “How do you know where I am?”
“Because my car, my quarter-of-a-million-dollar Italian sports car, is low jacked,” Luc growled in response. “Now where exactly are the three of you?”
“Well, we bought candy,” I admitted. If fact, the bag was getting heavy. “Maybe too much candy,” I conceded. “Then Cindy reminded me that there’s a San Francisco Towers across the street. So…”
“Dom had a place there instead of the city,” I heard my husband muse. “Do not enter his apartment. Wait for one of us to meet you before going in.”
“You’re being silly,” I argued.
“Give me Sam,” growled Luc. I sighed and handed her the phone.
“Shut up and listen,” she said quickly before he could say anything. “They’re safer with me, then without. I’ll keep her safe. I’ll treat her like she’s my sister. We’ll check it out and I’ll let you know if anything is wrong.” She paused for a second, “Enough that the two of you are going to get diabetes,” she growled into the phone as Cindy waved me over. “Besides, I think Cindy found what we’re looking for.” I heard him yelling as she turned the phone off and handed it to me. Oh, I had a feeling this was going to backfire. Why didn’t I rebel when I was a teenager like everyone else?
“Well?” I asked Cindy.
“Tommie here, says a Mr. Nick Deering moved into his condo on the fifth floor just over six months ago,” Cindy smiled.
“I don’t think I can let you up, though,” Tommie’s voice rose with a look between panic and not wanting to disappoint his new friend.
“Will,” I pulled out my wallet and yanked out a hundred-dollar bill, “this help you decide? He’s my brother, so there’s nothing to worry about. We’re just planning a surprise for his birthday.”
He looked around the lobby for a second, then grabbed the bill. “Since you’re his sister,” he smiled.
“Thank you. Which apartment?”
“502.”
I smiled and headed toward the elevator, Cindy following. My phone rang, I turned it on silent. “Husband?” Cindy asked.
“Yep. Apparently, he put a tracker on the Ferrari,” I shrugged.
“He didn’t want you to check this place on your own?”
“Nope, but I’m not alone since I have the two of you,” I smiled.
“Oh, you are so much fun,” laughed Sam. “Everyone made you sound like someone who never colored outside the lines but look at you.”
“No one’s ever given me the chance to be me.” I glanced over, “Everyone just expected me to do what was said.”
“I wonder what would have happened if we met earlier?” Cindy mused.
“Shenanigans,” I laughed. She joined me.
“You’re getting your bachelorette party,” she bumped my shoulder. “I’m taking you to a strip club.”
“I don’t want male strippers,” Sam frowned.
“Who said male strippers?” Cindy smiled, “I’m taking you to my old stomping grounds. Those girls are a blast. They’ll even teach you some moves. Your men will love it.”
“Awesome,” I laughed, feeling empowered as we walked out onto the fifth floor.
“How are we getting into this place?” Cindy stared at a gray door with the number ‘502’ on it.
“Please,” I waved her concern away. “I conned one of my father’s men into teaching me how to pick locks a long time ago. I think I was ten.” I looked through my purse and pulled a lock pick set out. I smiled at Cindy, “Daughter of a criminal, remember?”
“A girl shouldn’t think of her daddy as a criminal,” Cindy frowned at me.
“Fine, daughter of entrepreneur who sometimes colors outside the line,” I said as I started on the first lock.
“See, it’s all in how you put it out to the universe,” Cindy pepped up.
“You’ve been drinking from Mom’s cool-aid,” I said.
“I love Jenn. Everyone does, she’s always so positive.”
“Yeah,” I winced. “I need to finish this up so I can concentrate on her. I need to take care of her.” I heard the lock disengage and quickly disengage the other two.
“You’re pretty good,” Sam said as she pushed past me into what looked to be a studio apartment with fantastic views of the Liberty Memorial, an obelisk dedicated to World War One veterans. The park was manicured perfectly. The apartment had wood floors, white walls, and a computer sitting on a modern looking desk.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Cindy asked.
“Good question?” I frowned. “I guess papers that say something weird or deadly. Or any flash drives. Luc’s looking for some key to an encrypted file, so the program might b
e on it.”
“How do we get in his computer?” Cindy looked at a desk that contained four monitors and Lord knew what else.
“I can do that,” I walked over and hit the power button. “He always uses the same passwords.”
“Don’t computer guys used a bunch of numbers or something weird for passwords,” Sam said as she looked over my shoulder.
“Yep, but I know how he remembers them,” I smirked as I watched the computer come to life. Cindy started going through drawers and I started entering every password that Dom had ever used into the computer. I sat back with a smile, “Got it.”
“Hit the email,” Sam instructed. I did so and a ton of emails appeared. “What’s that?” Sam pointed to a folder. “It has your name on it.”
I clicked on it and several emails came up addressed to me about possible forgeries. “I’ve never seen these,” I admitted. “What’s this?” I hit another symbol on the computer and a bunch of numbers and letters came up. “I don’t know how to get into this.”
“Well, that’s sad news for you,” a voice came from behind me. I spun to see Detective Dean Basdin standing in the doorway.
I narrowed my eyes, “Don’t you need a warrant?”
“Don’t worry. If someone hears a gunshot I’m allowed right in,” he smirked as he entered.
“What gunshot?” Cindy asked nervously.
“The ones that are going to be heard when I shoot you three,” he said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Looks like you found your brother’s other apartment but held it back from the police. Not a smart thing.”
“Who says we didn’t tell the cops?” Sam shrugged. “I called Detective Royer right away.”
Dean gave a chilling smile. “Unfortunately, Sebastian is face down in the river right now,” sighed Dean. “Alley, with everything you’re going through, I really would have rather you told your husband, and I was killing him now. I guess it won’t matter, since I’ll be finding everything I need to send him and your father away for a long time.”
“Still trying to cheat your way into the FBI?” I sneered. “Got to wonder how the Director who’s currently talking to my father and husband, will look at that.”