I lashed out hard, but it was already too late. Whoever it was had his hand over my mouth and he was strong enough that he contained me with one arm.
“Shut up! I’ll kill you if you don’t stop fighting right now!”
29 Twenty-Nine
I wasn’t the type to give up. Even though I sensed the person in the garage was much bigger than me, I wasn’t about to let him win. I viciously swung an elbow at the same time I bit the hand over my mouth, finishing with a hard kick to a knee that elicited a grunt from the figure behind me.
He shifted, which allowed me to take a step away from him. Sure, that step caused me to smack into the side of my car thanks to the darkness, but I no longer had a stranger’s hands on me, so that was a bonus.
“Knock it off,” the man growled out, causing me to pull up short. I recognized the voice.
“Russell?”
“Who else?”
He asked the question in a tone that made him sound as if I was the one acting out of sorts.
“What are you doing in here?” I felt around until I found the wall and hit the switch to illuminate the space. Russell blinked several times before focusing on me.
“I came to save you.”
“Save me?” I arched a challenging eyebrow. “What are you saving me from?”
“My father.”
I was dumbfounded. “Your father?” Things clicked into place. “Phil Keane is your father.”
“What’s sad is that you look proud of yourself for figuring that out,” Russell said dryly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “The clues were all there. You shouldn’t have needed this much time to put it all together.”
I shot him a withering look. “Do you really think now is the time to insult my intelligence?”
“I think your intelligence can always be called into doubt, so what’s that saying? There’s no time like the present, right?”
“Uh-huh.” He was beyond annoying. That didn’t change the fact that he was in my garage, cutting me off from the door that led to the house — where Jake and Eliot waited for me — and the controller that opens the automatic door. I was truly screwed, essentially trapped in a corner of my garage with no way out. “Is there a reason you decided to hide in my garage? How did you even get in here?”
“I went through your sliding glass doors,” Russell replied matter-of-factly. “You really shouldn’t leave them unlocked, especially when someone is out to get you. Then I went through the house and hid here. I was worried you guys would enter through the automatic door, so I hid behind that shelf thing over there. Luckily you guys didn’t take too long to come home.”
“And who is out to get me?”
“I think you already know.”
“Your father knows I was at The Domino Club earlier, doesn’t he?”
Russell bobbed his head. “That whole place is covered by cameras. You shouldn’t have done what you did. He knows you were eavesdropping.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No. I overheard him talking to Kendra.”
“Who is ... ?” I prodded.
“The daughter of one of my father’s associates,” Russell replied. “She’s not important in the grand scheme of things.”
“Except she was plotting with your father.”
“Kendra will plot with anyone as long as money is involved.”
I nodded as I licked my lips. “I guess that makes sense.” I rested my hand on my stomach in an effort to settle my nerves. “Are you here to fill in the gaps?”
“I’m here to get you out,” Russell corrected. “I failed Jay Truman. I hope you will be different.”
“Get me out of what?”
“This house. My father is coming to shut you up.” I took a step toward the door, but stopped when Russell held up a hand. “You have to run now.”
“Eliot is inside. His mother, too.” I purposely left out the part about Jake visiting in case Russell wasn’t aware of the new development. He said he’d entered through the sliding glass doors. That had to be before we returned home. That meant Jake arrived after, and there was a good chance Russell was unaware that we had another ally in our corner.
“I didn’t come here for them,” Russell supplied. “I came to get you out.”
“Why do you even care about me?”
“Because you kept digging on Jay’s death,” Russell answered. “You exerted enough pressure to upset my father. I like it whenever anyone upsets my father.”
“It doesn’t sound like you have the healthiest of relationships with him.”
“Definitely not. Why do you think I have a different last name? That wasn’t his doing. It was mine.”
“Are you working against him? Are you undercover with the police?”
Russell snorted, legitimately amused. “I may dislike my father. Hell, I dislike him more than you could imagine. That doesn’t mean I’d work with the cops. That holds no interest for me.”
“Okay, well ... .” I had no idea where to steer this conversation. Russell came to the house with a plan. That plan didn’t involve Eliot and Maggie. I was happy he left Eliot out of it, but worried that his father wouldn’t feel the same way. It sounded as if Phil was on the way and he had murder on his mind. “You didn’t kill Jay Truman. You said you tried to save him and failed. Does that mean Kendra killed him?”
“Pretty much,” Russell confirmed. “She moved into the building to watch Jay, to try to befriend him for information about my mother. When it became apparent that Jay didn’t want to be friends with anyone — the guy always was a crabby crank — my father launched another plan.”
“Kill him,” I surmised.
“Yes. It was supposed to look like an accident, but Kendra got a little too overzealous with the fire.”
“How did you know they were planning a hit?”
“I’m on the periphery when it comes to my father’s work,” Russell explained. “I was determined to stay out of it as much as possible. I don’t want this life. I never did. My father refused to leave me out of it. Eventually, I agreed to take over the day-to-day management of The Domino Club and handle the books. In exchange, he was supposed to keep me out of his other dealings.”
“Which are?”
“Too much for us to talk about right now,” Russell replied. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“You’re going to make time.” I was firm. “I’m guessing you overheard your father order the hit on Jay and decided to save him ... although I’m still uncertain why. From what I understand, Jay was the ultimate tool no one wanted to be around. You didn’t owe him any loyalty. Why step in?”
“Because I owed him for something else.”
“But ... he killed your mother.”
“No, he didn’t.” Russell shook his head. “My mother is still alive. Jay helped her disappear and allowed the rumors about him being responsible for her death to haunt him for decades. In reality, while basically a jerk, Jay had a soft spot for my mother. It was his undoing.”
My mouth dropped open. “Your mother is alive?”
“She is.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because she contacted me a few years ago,” Russell replied. “She wanted to see how I was doing, offer me a way out. I knew that wouldn’t go over well with my father. He would never stop looking for me if I ran. I told her to remain in hiding. When I realized what my father was doing, I worried that Jay would trade information about my mother’s whereabouts to save his life. It turns out that Kendra attacked him from behind. That’s how she operates, so it was hardly surprising.”
“She hit him in the head.” I tried to remember what Jake said about Jay’s autopsy. “He had a head injury.”
“I saw her hit him,” Russell said. “I was at the end of the hallway when it happened. She started the fire to cover what she was doing, approached Jay at his unit, and offered to help him down the stairs during the evacuation.”
“That was smart,” I mused. “He wasn
’t expecting her to turn on him.”
“No. There were too many people in the stairwell, though, so Kendra pulled off on the seventeenth floor. I heard her before I saw her, and knew where to go. It was too late. Jay was already dead.”
“Did she see you?”
“She did.”
“And?”
“And Serafina ran,” Russell replied. “She was upset by what Kendra did and took off. I just wanted to disappear, but when I realized Kendra wasn’t going to look for the kid I felt a sense of duty. Serafina didn’t ask to be part of this life and she got saddled with the worst mother in the world. That’s not her fault.”
“No.” I remembered my first glimpse of Kendra the day of the fire. She seemed legitimately upset that her daughter was missing, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Clearly, Kendra was a good actress. She would have to be for Phil to assign this task to her. “She was going to let her daughter die in the fire?”
“I don’t think she ever wanted Serafina,” Russell said. “The kid was an easy means to an end. ‘Look at me. I’m a non-threatening mother. You have nothing to worry about.’ It worked for years, but the older Serafina gets, the more agitated Kendra becomes. She’s not exactly maternal.”
“So Kendra abandoned the kid in a smoky high-rise and headed to safety,” I said. “You stayed behind and found the kid. You carried her down.”
“I did.”
“Why give her back to Kendra? I mean ... you knew Serafina wasn’t safe. Why not just take her and run?”
“I could hardly do that with the police, fire chief and you standing right there, could I?”
“You recognized me.” It wasn’t a question. “That’s why you disappeared. Everyone was looking for you.”
“As I knew they would be,” Russell said. “Kendra saw me. She knew why I was there. However, I knew she abandoned her daughter to a fire. Even my father — who is a terrible person — would’ve frowned upon that. We had each other over a barrel, so neither of us said anything. That didn’t stop Kendra from breaking into my house to find dirt on me, but there was nothing there for her to find. I’m always careful.”
That explained why his house had been ransacked the day we stopped by. “And yet you’re here now,” I pointed out. “Why?”
“Because you might be my only chance out of this mess.”
“How do you figure?”
“You have power,” Russell explained. “You have the ability to take down my father. You have the sheriff’s ear.”
I blinked, surprised. “I wouldn’t quite put it that way.”
“It’s true. Everyone in the county knows you’re close. You have a lot of tongues wagging because people believe you’re sleeping with both of them.”
I didn’t bother to hide my eye roll. “That’s gross.”
“I didn’t say they believed you were having threesomes or anything.”
I frowned. “Double gross.”
“I guess that answers that question.” Russell smirked, the small smile stripping years from his features. “We need to get going. My father is coming for you, which means you can’t be here when he arrives. We should go directly to the sheriff.”
“I’m not leaving Eliot.”
“You don’t have a choice. I can’t save you both.”
“Yes, well, maybe I don’t need you to save me,” I pointed out. “I’m perfectly capable of doing it myself.”
“And how do you figure you’ll pull that off,” Russell challenged.
“Because we’ll be with her,” Eliot growled from the open door. He’d been listening on the other side. I saw his feet moving through the small gap between the floor and door, which is why I was perfectly comfortable questioning Russell without making an escape attempt. He’d managed to open the door without making a sound, and Russell was stunned by his sudden appearance.
Instead of shrinking in the face of Eliot’s rage, Russell took a step toward me. That forced Eliot to extend a warning finger.
“If you touch her ... .”
“You’ll what?” Russell challenged.
“I’ll kill you,” Eliot answered without hesitation. “I will rip your head off your shoulders and kill you without thinking twice about it.”
“And what if I kill her?”
“You won’t get close enough.”
“You seem pretty sure of yourself.”
“I’m sure that she’ll fight you with everything she’s got,” Eliot sneered. “I’m certain that I will get to her before you have a chance to hurt her. I’m also certain that I’m not alone.”
The look on Russell’s face was almost comical as he rocked back on his heels. “What do you mean?”
“We have a guest,” I explained, making sure to keep a lot of space between Russell and me as I attempted to circle the garage and move closer to Eliot. “It’s someone you might be interested in talking to.”
“Your mouthy cousin with the huge boobs? I think I’ll pass.”
“More like a judgmental sheriff with a whiny streak,” I corrected, sighing when I managed to close the distance to Eliot without Russell attempting to grab me. “He’s here. We’ve been working on this together. He can help you.”
“Why should we help him?” Eliot asked, tugging me to him.
“Because he came here to warn me about his father,” I replied as I impulsively gave Eliot a hug. “I hoped you’d realize I wouldn’t willingly hang out in the garage for more than sixty seconds by choice.”
“I realized something was wrong after thirty seconds.” Eliot never moved his eyes from Russell’s face. “Who is his father?”
“Keane.”
Eliot’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “Really?”
“Yes. He tried to save Jay Truman. He tried to save me ... although he was going to throw you to the wolves. Speaking of that, his father is on the way. We need to get backup here.”
“Okay.” Eliot pushed open the door and ushered me inside. “Go tell Jake what you just told me. I’ll show our friend inside.”
Something about Eliot’s tone set my teeth on edge. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”
“That depends on his attitude. I’m torn between ripping him limb from limb and hearing him out.”
“Hear him out. It will be worth it.”
“If you say so.” Eliot’s eyes were dark and dangerous. “Come inside, Mr. Keane. We have some things to discuss.”
“I go by my mother’s maiden name,” Russell said, resigned as he moved toward the door. “It was a better option than painting a target on my back for my father’s enemies.”
“Fair enough. Come inside. We have a lot to discuss.”
Russell turned smug. “You have no idea.”
“I HAVE TWENTY PATROL CARS coming this way,” Jake announced ten minutes later. He’d initially been reluctant when I insisted he listen to Russell’s story. He finally agreed, and it wasn’t long before he jumped into action. “If we play this right, we’ll be able to take Keane’s entire operation down in the next hour.”
“How?” I asked as Eliot slid a can of Diet Coke in my direction and sat beside me at the kitchen table. He put his arm around my back, as if to offer solace and warmth, and kept glaring at Russell.
“I told you we’ve been building a case against Keane,” Jake noted. “I wasn’t kidding. The second he shows his face in this neighborhood we’ll be able to take him in. I’m willing to bet he’s going to be loaded for bear, and with the information Russell has given us we’ll be able to put Keane away for a long time.”
Russell balked. “You want me to testify against my own father?”
“I do.”
“He’ll kill me.”
“He won’t get the chance,” Jake countered. “At the same time he’s moving on Avery out here, we’ll be dismantling his entire operation at The Domino Club. The feds are moving toward the building right now. It’s going to be a simultaneous operation. You have no choice but to testify ... or go to jail.
”
“But ... I don’t want the information about my mother being alive getting out,” Russell countered. “She would be in grave danger.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that. We can get you placement in the Witness Protection program. After testifying, you can start a whole new life somewhere else. Your mother can go with you.”
“I’m not sure.” Russell rubbed his cheek as he flicked his eyes to me. “What do you think?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“You’re the smartest one in the room. At least that’s what you tell people whenever you get the chance.”
He wasn’t wrong. “You should take the deal,” I said after a beat. “You said you never wanted to be part of this life. Now you and your mother can move away and start a new life. I don’t think you’ll get a better offer.”
“My father won’t be happy.”
“I don’t think your father has ever been happy. Not truly happy, at least.”
“Yeah.” Russell heaved out a sigh as he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Okay. I’ll do it. You have to take my father into custody and make sure he’s not granted bail. If he gets bail, all bets are off.”
Jake winked, clearly enjoying himself. He was about to take on the biggest bust of his career. He had a right to be excited. “Don’t worry. Once we have him, we won’t let him go. I promise you that.”
“So ... how are you going to get him?” Russell asked.
Jake’s eyes slowly tracked to me. “With a little help from a friend.”
“Oh, geez.” Eliot rubbed his forehead. “This is going to give me acid reflux. I just know it.”
I lightly patted his leg under the table. “It will be okay. I’m good in situations like this. I’ll have Phil so deranged he won’t even notice the cops are surrounding him.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
30 Thirty
“I think this is an absolutely terrible idea.”
Eliot watched me tug on a pair of sneakers near the front door. It was doubtful that I would need to run, but it was better to be prepared.
“It’ll be okay.” I did my best to appear brave, even though my heart was pounding. “It will be quick. We just need Phil to see me so he exits his vehicle.”
On Deadline & Under Fire Page 28