“How? It seems like I would have noticed something like that.”
“Jonathan arranged it.”
“Of course.” I’m not sure if I’m pleased I’m considered part of the family or ticked off over the violation of privacy. Mostly, I don’t like the idea that it was done without my knowledge. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I’m annoyed that Jonathan had access to my body while holding a needle. “When?”
“While you were in the prison hospital,” he says. “After your public shooting rampage, I thought it was best to keep track of you.”
“Is that supposed to make me all right with it?”
“You want it gone, Evan?” Rinaldo gives me a hard look. “Do you really? Do you really want to be in a position where I have no way of finding you?”
I know exactly what he is saying. As much as I don’t like the idea of someone being able to track my movements, I like the idea of being captured without anyone able to find me even less.
I slowly shake my head, and the whole subject is dropped.
As I’m leaving, I run into Lucia.
“How is he really?” she asks. She bites at her lip, and her expression is strained. “He keeps saying he’s okay, but he looks just terrible lying there. I can’t stand it.”
“He’s going to be fine, Lucia.” I reach out and touch her arm. “Just a little recovery time needed.”
She places her hand over mine and nods but doesn’t look convinced.
“He will be fine,” I say with more emphasis. “I promise. He’ll be so much better when he gets home into his own bed with some real food in him. The hospital fare makes him pissy.”
“I’m sure Mom will be all over that when he goes home tomorrow.” She smiles slightly. “He’s going to drive her crazy.”
“I think it will be a race to see who drives who nuts first.”
Lucia laughs and grips my hand a little harder. She runs her fingers over the ink on my arm and looks up at me as she smiles.
“I really am glad you’re back, Evan.” She takes a small step closer to me. “He needs you, you know.”
I don’t know how to react. It’s not the first time Lucia had made rather intimate contact with me. She’s never done that until recently, and I don’t know what to make of it. The way she and Beni were acting around each other a couple of weeks ago, I had been convinced they were an item, but maybe I was wrong.
Is it possible she and Beni are working together? Would she try to undermine her own father for the sake of taking over the business when he’s gone? She has to know he’s never going to seriously consider her to run his empire, but Beni is on the short list. If she thinks he will come out on top, she could be using his affections to get what she wants. They could be using each other to gain control of the family business.
Could she think I’m on the list as well and is hedging her bets?
She had never come on to me in all the years I’d been around her family. Not that I hadn’t been tempted myself—Lucia is a beautiful girl—but I’d never make such a move without Rinaldo’s explicit permission.
I place my hand over hers, smile at her, and then take a step back.
“I’ve got a lot to get done today,” I tell her. “Go spend some time with him. Maybe you can get him to eat something.”
“I’ll do my best!” Lucia beams at me, leans close, and kisses my cheek.
I watch her walk through the door to the private room and can’t help but stare at her ass as she goes. My imagination takes over for a moment, and I see her in my bed, up on her hands and knees, calling out my name.
Dismissing the thought, I turn and nearly run right into Nick as I walk out of the hospital.
“Hey,” he says as he tosses a cigarette into the gutter.
“What’s up, Nick?”
“I was just dropping Lucia off. I don’t know how long she’ll be, though. I guess Lele ran home to get the room ready for Rinaldo’s return.”
“Nice of you to give her a ride.” Nick and Lucia have always gotten along well though they are very different. I think Lucia liked the idea of having a sibling from the beginning even though they never acknowledge their relationship. “I have to get moving. Work to do, you know.”
“Mind if I go with ya?” Nick asks.
“I don’t really need the help,” I tell him. “It’s just research anyway. Nothing too exciting.”
“I gotta do something,” Nick says with a shrug. “I haven’t even seen my father since he was shot, you know that? And now that he’s headed back home, I won’t see him until he’s recovered. I don’t get any actual assignments, and I’m tired of just waiting for other people to tell me what’s going on.”
“Fine,” I say. I really do feel bad for the guy. He’s in a shitty position, and there’s nothing he can do about it. “Let’s go.”
We head out to the parking lot, and I open the door of the Camaro.
“Nice ride,” Nick says with a whistle. “When did you pick this up?”
“Not too long ago.” We both get in and start toward the warehouse.
Nick runs his fingers over the controls on the dash, admiring everything about the car. I didn’t realize he was such a fan of old classics, but he has a lot to say about it. It makes the drive quick, and I almost forget I’m running on empty.
“I need gas and smokes,” I say as I pull into a service station. “You want anything?”
“I’m good.” Nick leans back in the leather seat.
“Back in a minute.”
I fill up the tank and then head inside. I need to take a piss, so I get the key to the bathroom from the lady at the counter and head around the side of the building. When I come out of the bathroom, I recognize the homeless guy rummaging through the dumpster nearby.
“Hey, dude!” I call out.
He looks up and narrows his eyes at me, immediately defensive.
“You need some food?” I ask him. I don’t like the idea of him going through the fucking garbage, and there aren’t any hotels in the near vicinity. He’s thin, and he still doesn’t have any decent clothes for the weather.
I get him to agree to wait for me, and I run back inside for a sandwich and coffee to bring to him. When I get back out, he’s made a bit of a nest out of all his plastic shopping bags, and he’s sitting in the middle of it.
“There’s shrapnel in my leg,” he says as I approach. His eyes are dim and confused. “They couldn’t get it all out. There was a nurse there though. She was a looker, too.”
He’s babbling, but I still get it all. I start to smile, but I can’t. It’s all too familiar.
“I bet you were all over her.” I hand him the sandwich, and he tears into it immediately. “What hospital?”
“Some place in Virginia,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t remember the name.”
“That’s where they took me. The nurses there were hot.”
“You were in ‘Nam?”
“No, sir,” I say, shaking my head. “Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“You Army?”
“Marine.”
“Fuck the Marines,” he says, but he’s smiling when he says it. “You fuckers never showed up until us infantry already made it through.”
I’m not about to argue with him. I knew enough Army guys back in the day to have heard it all before. All the branches poked fun at the others, but in the end, we were in it together.
“How long were you MIA?”
He blinks a couple of times, and his eyes glaze over a bit. I reach out and touch his arm, but he flinches away.
“I was gone eighteen months,” I say. “Spent most of the time in a hole, wishing they’d taken me out along with the rest of my unit.”
He focuses on me for a minute and then grabs my hand.
“Two years,” he says quietly. “They had me for two years. The only guy left in my unit got cancer from that Agent Orange shit. He’s been gone a while now. They had to leave the shrapnel in my leg. Too much tissue had gr
own around it, they said.”
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Sergeant Donald Hansen,” he says.
“Lieutenant Evan Arden.” I squeeze his fingers in some semblance of a handshake.
“Marine officer!” Donald says with a snort. “You took me to that hotel.”
“Yes, I did.”
“That was a nice place. They had really good food.”
“I’m glad you liked it. Where are you staying now?”
“The shelter on North Sangamon. I got a few days left.”
“I’m gonna give you my phone number,” I tell him. “If they kick you out, you call me, okay?”
“Okay.”
He produces a pen and paper from one of his plastic bags, and I scribble my number down for him. I have no idea if he’ll use it, but I want him to have the option.
“You need anything else before I go?”
“Key to the john?” He points to the one I got from the woman inside. I hadn’t returned it when I bought the sandwich. “They won’t let me have it.”
“Sure.” I hand it over to him and then make my way back to the Camaro.
“I thought you got lost,” Nick says as I get in.
“Had to take a shit.” I don’t know why I’m reluctant to mention Donald, but I don’t tell Nick about him.
Nick glances at me out of the corner of his eye. He must not believe me, because there’s something off about his look, and he’s got his hand balled up on his thigh. He’s holding it tight enough for his knuckles to go white. I don’t know what he thinks I was doing, but I decide it doesn’t matter. Let him wonder.
We meet Jonathan at the warehouse and go over some of what he has found. Everything he’s telling me is superficial, and I can tell he’s holding back. Assuming it must be Nick’s presence, I give him the keys to the Camaro and send him out for pizza.
He can’t resist the combination.
Once Nick is out of the way, Jonathan opens up.
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Nick.”
“I figured as much. What did you find?”
“Quite a bit.” Jonathan turns his laptop toward me and places his phone beside it. The phone is running his new security system. “I’m actually pretty pissed off. I should have noticed this before.”
“What is it?”
“Someone created a backdoor into the app,” he says. “That wasn’t a false alarm or some electrical trouble the other day. Someone activated the system to get me out of the way.”
“It was a little too coincidental. Who could have created it?”
“There are only a handful of people who ever had enough access to do something like this. Beni is one of them.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Who else?”
“Nick is another. I’m not sure he knows enough about computers to do this, though.”
“But Beni does?”
“Just enough.”
“Anyone else?”
“Becca was on the system early on,” Jonathan tells me. “She had some accounting thing she wanted added to it, but it didn’t work properly and got put on the back burner. Paulie had access as well, but that dude can’t even figure out Candy Crush.”
“Paulie is dumb, but he’s not a rat.” I smirk and shake my head.
“You punched him out.”
“He deserved it. If he was part of some conspiracy, he wouldn’t have risked flipping me off in the first place.”
“Good point.”
“Beni’s at the top of the list. We need eyes on him.”
“Agreed.” Jonathan nods. “Who should watch him?”
“I don’t know who to trust yet,” I say. “Something is going on with him and Lucia, but if I can’t be sure about her, I can’t use her to dig into it.”
“You think Lucia would betray her dad?”
“Honestly, no. She’s got her ambitions though. She might be using Beni to get herself ahead. I can’t trust her not to say something to him about our investigation, so I can’t risk telling her.”
“Makes sense. Paulie then?”
“No. I want him staying close to Rinaldo at all times.”
“Who’s left?”
“Of people I trust?” I shake my head. “No one. I’ll do it myself so you can keep digging. You’re better at that shit than I am anyway.”
“Anything else about Felisa?”
I debate telling him what Rinaldo revealed to me, but I don’t. If Rinaldo wanted Jonathan to know, he would tell him personally. If Jonathan went digging, he’d probably figure it out on his own, assuming he hasn’t already.
“Only what we already know. I’ll focus on that and Beni. You see if you can locate Joshua Taylor. He may very well lead us to Stark.”
“Got it.”
I tap my fingers against my leg for a minute, considering.
“Can you check out one more person for me?” I ask.
“Sure. Who is it?”
“Her name’s Alina. She’s a hooker.”
“This the whore of the week for you?”
“Something like that.” I take a deep breath. “I really want you to find her father. I’m pretty sure he’s in the city somewhere. I want to know where I can find him.”
Jonathan eyes me.
“Don’t ask.”
“Right.” He taps on the laptop keyboard for a few seconds. “You got a last name?”
“Nope.”
“Lotsa help you are.”
“Good thing you are so good at what you do.”
“Who’s her pimp?” he asks as he continues to type away.
“Don’t know.”
“Well, what do you know that might actually help me out here?”
I point out where I pick her up and give him Loretta’s name as her roommate. I really don’t know much of anything else about her, but he seems to think it’s enough to go on.
Nick returns with a pizza, smelling of weed.
“You better not have smoked that shit in my car,” I tell him, “or I’ll kill you right where you stand.”
“Nah, just outside the door.” He refuses to make eye contact, and I wonder if he’s lying to me. “What did you guys figure out?”
“A couple of leads but nothing concrete. Jonathan and I can take it from here.”
I expect him to be disappointed that I don’t actually have anything for him to do or research, but he seems relieved instead. I find it odd because he was so gung-ho to join me earlier, but now he’s dancing back and forth like he does when he’s nervous. I’m not sure why. I wonder if he thinks we suspect him, but he really isn’t in my list of top candidates. He seeks his father’s approval far too much to do anything outright against the family. It would go against his character, and that’s a very rare thing indeed.
Nick quickly scarfs down a couple of slices and says he’s getting a ride home with Cody. He glances at me once more as he leaves the warehouse. There’s something about the look he gives me that should have made me realize something was off.
It should have, but it didn’t.
I leave Jonathan to his research and head off to find Alina.
I really hope I don’t have to search too long.
Chapter 14—Devastating News
The glow from my laptop bathes my hands as I type quickly. I feel like I’m on the verge of figuring something out, but there’s still something missing—something that shouldn’t have escaped me. I click through a few more documents and then zoom in on one of them.
It’s a little past four in the morning, and Alina is sleeping in the other room. My mind is too cranked up for sleep, so I waited until she dozed off to get back to work. I’ve spent two days digging into anything and everything that is Beni Segreti, and I don’t care for what I’ve found.
There is no doubt in my mind that he’s tied to Seattle. I just can’t figure out exactly how. I’ve got pictures of him with Justin Taylor going back five years, long before Beni was supposed to be in this country at
all, but nothing of him with Landon Stark, Joseph Franks, or the southern gangs.
I have to be missing something.
Beni’s too smart for an obvious liaison with another outfit. Joshua Taylor has to be the go-between, but he’s an elusive one. Other than the two pictures Jonathan has of Joshua, there have been no signs of him anywhere in Chicago since he first arrived.
Someone has to be hiding him.
I go back to the shot Jonathan found of Joshua and Beni. The place where they met isn’t in the south, but right off the Magnificent Mile. He could be staying somewhere close by. I make a mental note to have Jonathan check out all the security cameras in the area to see if we can spot him.
I hear a little creak behind me and turn to see Alina in the hallway. She walks up to me, and I quickly close the laptop.
“Everything all right?” she asks.
“Just some work I need to catch up on,” I respond.
“Have you slept at all?” She reaches out and runs her hand over my head. “You look tired.”
“Not really, but I’m all right. Too much going on in my head to sleep.”
I open my arms, and Alina straddles my lap. She kisses me softly as she runs her fingers over the back of my neck. I tilt my head back toward the pressure.
“Every time you do that, I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep for a week.”
“I know.” Alina chuckles softly.
“Doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Acupressure. It helps you relax.”
I think about all the times she has pressed her fingertips against my skin. It did usually calm me down; I can’t deny that. I hadn’t realized she was doing it intentionally.
“Manipulating me, are you?” I reach down and cup her ass with my hands.
“It’s like the lavender,” she explains, “just something to help you get what you want anyway. If I were going to try to manipulate you, I’d grab your cock.”
“That works, too.”
She kisses me again but doesn’t deepen it. Instead, she leans back and looks at me for a long moment while her hand continues to massage my neck.
“Where did you learn all that stuff?”
“The acupressure I learned from a friend who took classes in it,” she tells me. “The aromatherapy I got out of Cosmo.”