Falling Deep Into You Trilogy Box Set

by Terra Kelly

  Ted looked startled. “Did I help you?”

  Finley smiled. “You sure did. There are a couple uniformed cops that will take you some place safe. You won’t be able to call or communicate with family or friends though.” He headed toward the door. “The lasagna must be good, eh?”

  Ted shook his head. “It’s the best on the menu.”

  When Finley stepped out of the interrogation room, he felt…relief. “Well, I think that’s the confirmation we were looking for?” He leaned on the table next to the guys.

  Miles shook his head. “Hell yeah, now let’s go take these sons-of-a-bitches down.”

  Cooper waved his hand to calm them. “We need more proof. Giano and his cronies are smart, very smart. Let’s look at all the facts from every angle and see if we’re missing anything first. Then we can look at putting the team together to go search the restaurant and any other location associated with Johnny.”

  Miles seemed frustrated. “With all due respect Sir, if we wait another minute, we lose any chance of finding a shred of evidence at that place.”

  Finley knew his partner was right, yet did they have enough to go on? At the moment, his mind was not thinking straight. All he could think about was bringing those assholes down one at a time. In the back of his mind something was nagging at him, but he couldn’t figure it out.

  He stood up from the desk and headed toward his computer. “Okay, so we have eyes on the restaurant which gives us a little time to look at everything. How can we prove that Johnny is Jason Keets? We also need to find the location of the lock box that the two keys fit into. We get the lock box; we have the final piece of the puzzle.” Or so he hoped.

  Cooper walked up behind Finley. “How do we find the location of the lock box? Have we looked at the ledger Letizia found to see if we’re missing anything? Maybe there’s a location hidden somewhere on it.”

  Finley shrugged his shoulders. “We’ve had it checked several times, not sure how else to look at it.”

  Miles was grabbing coffee and jokingly said, “Have we tried UV light?”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and glanced at each other. Finley laughed. “Um, did anyone think to check the pages with a UV light? I know I didn’t.”

  Cooper was cursing under his breath. “Shit. I don’t think evidence looked at it that closely.” Finley watched as his boss quickly headed into his office, most likely to call downstairs and have them check the book again.

  Finley leaned back in his chair. “UV light? Huh, think it’s possible they thought of that over twenty years ago?”

  Miles shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, anything’s possible. They were determined to keep their little mob ring super-secret.”

  Finley chuckled as he stood to go see if Cooper had got a hold of the evidence room. He noticed Cooper was just hanging up the phone as he made his way into the office. “Anything?”

  Cooper shook his head. “They said we needed to get down there, apparently they have something interesting to show us.”

  Finley turned his head to the side. “Interesting or incriminating? Personally, I would love it to be the latter.”

  His boss nodded. “You and me both. Come on, let’s go see what all the excitement’s about.”

  Finley was in the lead as they made their way downstairs. He felt anxious at what they would find. Letting out some of that frustration, he slammed his hand on the down button for the elevator.

  Miles put his hand on his shoulder. “We will sort this out. We’re not letting that son-of-a-bitch get away with anything.”

  Finley appreciated how supportive his team was, and he knew they had gone above and beyond the call of duty with this case. Softly shaking his head, he thought to himself, how is it possible for one woman to find herself in this much danger? If only her parents would’ve been smarter on their choices back then, but it all didn’t matter now. All he cared about was ensuring both Letizia and Cristiano would be safe.

  He raised his head up as the elevator made a ding sound and waited for everyone to exit. There was a guy in a long white lab coat waiting for them as they entered the tiny room. Their evidence room was designed differently than most precincts and had a separate cubicle where they could examine everything thoroughly. A long table was available to spread evidence out and piece together the puzzles they were presented with in every case.

  The guy in the lab coat handed a UV light to Cooper. “Interesting suggestion, chief. Look.”

  Finley was looking over Cooper’s shoulder, feeling excited. The room went silent as Cooper took the light and shone it over several areas of the ledger. Then suddenly something popped out and Miles gasped. Finley laughed and reached around to grab the book and the light. As he went over the mystery spot two things happened: a name appeared, and an address was listed.

  The guy in the lab coat cleared his throat. “Yeah, we looked at the book from every angle and never thought to use a UV light. It didn’t feel like it had been altered.”

  Finley sat the book down and shook his head. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He wanted to hit something, or more like someone. The name that appeared was Alessandra. How was she involved? She made it sound like she was the victim in it all, but from what they discovered, they all had been played. That was the most likely scenario. How was he going to tell Letizia this piece of information? “This has to be a cover up of some kind. Alessandra told us what happened.”

  Cooper and Miles both gave Finley an are-you-kidding-me-look. Miles moved closer to the table to peek at the ledger. “Could they have maybe written her name just to cover their own asses?”

  Cooper shook his head. “This is old, words were hidden and names were changed. There was a lot of thought that went into this. She had to have been involved.”

  Finley groaned in frustration. “We were going about this all wrong.” He headed over to the dry erase board and wrote things down. “Okay, so we know Alessandra was supposedly helping Dani and Lando, but she must’ve been a double agent and reporting back to Jason Keets A.K.A. Johnny.” He stopped for a moment and went over those important pieces of the puzzle.

  Cooper nodded. “Jason was Lando’s good friend, right?”

  Finley rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s what Alessandra shared that night when she let Letizia know about everything that hap…” He stopped. “Wait, Cristiano.”

  Miles turned his head to the side. “Um, is this a game where we randomly blurt out names?”

  Finley growled. “No. Who is Cris’ father? If it’s Johnny, then we have the answers we’re looking for.” He grabbed his burner phone and dialed Preslie’s number. He knew Preslie’s phone was more secure since they had already left for the undisclosed location. When she picked up, he didn’t give her a chance to talk. “Hey, can you get Cristiano to a police station or hospital? We need to get a DNA test run on him immediately.”

  Preslie laughed. “Well hello to you, too.”

  Finley sighed. “Sorry, but this is pressing information and will help solve this case a hell of a lot faster…or so we hope.”

  “You got it, Superman.” She giggled. “I will send you the number of the hospital and you can request the information to be faxed to your location.”

  Finley shook his head. “Well, looks like that name will be sticking, eh? Thanks, Pres. Hey?”

  She made a sound. “Yeah?”

  He sat there for a beat. “Will you tell her everything will be okay, and I’ll see her soon?” He hung up the phone and paced the room. “Okay, we have to wait for the results. In the meantime, can we go search the asshole’s place? We need to get a fingerprint or some item with Johnny’s DNA to cross-match with Cris.”

  Miles made a sound of approval. “We need to see if the fucker is hiding anything, boss?”

  Letizia had been trying to absorb all that had happened since saying good bye to Finley a few days ago. Preslie and Vikki could get approval to release Cris; they were given instructions to ensure Cris stayed calm and got the rest
he needed. The big secret had been the cabin Preslie and Miles owned, it would be the perfect place to whisk Letizia and Cris away from the mess they were in. Preslie, Vikki, Miles, and Finley took all precautions needed to ensure no one knew of their whereabouts.

  “You doing okay?” Letizia turned toward Preslie and smiled at her kind words.

  Letizia nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” She loved how protective Preslie and Vikki were.

  Just then Vikki wrapped her arm around Zia’s waist. “You think so, eh? We don’t get a hells yeah?” The girls giggled in unison.

  Letizia sighed. “Probably not today.” Then she looked around at her surroundings. “But I have a feeling I will feel close to fantastic soon.” She squeezed both women’s hands and headed over to the little wooden stool resting against the side of the cabin. As she sat down, it was like weeks of stress were working their way out of her body. When Preslie mentioned on the way to the airport, they were heading back to America and to a cottage, Letizia had no clue what the hell she was talking about. They pulled up to this little cottage in Clearwater, Florida and she about fell over. As they walked through the cute little home, Preslie shared how Miles had found her there and asked her to marry him. Zia knew the place had some serious sentimental value and loved that they decide to buy the cottage to continue building on the memories. The place was obscure for sure; the only way Giano and his gang would find her is if they had been following her…and they hoped they hadn’t.

  She let her eyes survey the land: The beach was quiet, the other cottages were far enough away for good privacy, and the weather made her…happy. As she sat there, her body relaxed. Then she saw a vision of Finely fighting one of Giano’s cronies and she felt anxious again. Letizia’s eyes wandered to the ocean. The waves were slamming against the shore with every beat of her heart. It felt like her eyes were deceiving her, but she wondered if the waves were increasing in intensity…or was that just her heart rate? The vision of Giano or one of his cronies hurting Finley threw her off. She wanted this nightmare to end, but how could she help all the way down here in the middle of nowhere?

  Just then a phone rang and Preslie’s voice was getting louder until she appeared in the doorway next to her. “Hey sweets, there is this handsome man who would love to speak to you.”

  Letizia stood and grabbed the phone. “Fin?” She needed to hear his voice.

  There was a soft chuckle on the other end. “Hey bella, are you safe?”

  She sighed. “Well, yeah, but I would feel safer if you were here.” Which was the truth. She found over the last few weeks he seemed to calm her growing nerves.

  Finley cleared his throat. “Well, we may be closer to finding the answers we need. I need to talk to you, and I hate doing it over the phone. Is Preslie or Vikki close by?”

  Letizia felt worried. “Yeah, Finley, talk to me, I can take it.” Well, she hoped she could.

  Finley stayed silent for a moment. “Did you as a kid in Minnesota ever meet Johnny? Do you think you could’ve met him?”

  Letizia scowled. “What? Johnny? The man who attacked Cristiano?” Her mind reeled back, trying to see if maybe he was in any of her memories. It was a like a brick wall that sat between her and the memories she desired. “Why are you asking, Finley?”

  “We made a discovery on the ledger you found.” She waited for him to say more, but he went silent.

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, should I be worried?” Well, she already was.

  “Zia, when we used a UV light on the ledger, it showed Alessandra’s name and an address we are looking up now. What we’re trying to figure out, was Alessandra involved or did they list her name?”

  Zia paced the length of the porch, “Wait a second. You’re telling me the woman who rescued me and brought me to America was working for the mob?” She stopped at the steps and made her way down. “No, this cannot be possible. She loved us.”

  Finley tried to reassure Letizia. “Hey, it may end up they added her name to throw anyone off who found the ledger. We asked Preslie to get a DNA test run on Cristiano. If we can match his DNA with Johnny’s then…” He let out a sigh. “We need to rule out if Cris might be the product of Alessandra and Johnny. It may be way off, but it’s one angel we’re looking at further.”

  Letizia wanted to scream. “No, no, I can’t hear this. I have to go.” Before Finley could say another word, she ended the call. There were tears welling up and her body was shaking now. She fell to her knees and sobbed. Cristiano wrapped his arms around her and she grabbed on, trying to latch onto the last bit of hope left inside her aching body.

  Cristiano was soothing her with soft words. “Z, I’m here. I’m here. It’s okay, I promise.”

  Zia wanted to believe it would be okay, but that was becoming more difficult by the second. “I don’t know Cris; I don’t know anymore.” She tightened her grip around her brother and continued to cry.

  Cristiano brushed hair away from her face. “Hey, I do. Whatever it is, we’ll work through it, okay? We have made it this far, haven’t we?”

  Letizia leaned back and looked at her brother. “All this shit has aged you. That’s so not fair.”

  Cris rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Now talk, what made you cry just now?”

  Zia glanced at the ocean and then back at Cris. “Do you remember at all if Johnny maybe visited us in Minnesota?” She hated asking him, but she had no choice.

  He sat down in the sand and seemed confused. “Johnny, the guy who almost killed me? Why would he have visited us, Zia?”

  She stayed silent for a minute or two, then turned toward him. “They found Alessandra’s name on that ledger I found in our house. That’s why they wanted you to get your blood drawn, to get a DNA test. Once they get Johnny, they can see if you match up with his blood.” She watched as his eyes went from shock, to hurt, to anger.”

  He stood. “Are you trying to tell me that my mom worked for the mob? My dad could be one of Giano’s men? That’s impossible.”

  Zia got up and brushed off the sand that stuck to every part of her. “Is it? We’ve come this far and discovered crazy things about our family. How could that be impossible?” She threw the question back at him, knowing he needed to hear the harsh reality of it all.

  He paced in a circle. “Zia, do you realize we may have had contact with the mob the whole time we were in Minnesota? Why didn’t he try to kill us then?”

  She shook her head. “I bet just Johnny knew, because you were his son and he would do anything to protect you.” That seemed like lies she was just feeding herself to avoid the truth.

  He made a noise of frustration. “No, there’s no way he knew of our whereabouts. That must be why he seemed so shocked when he saw you because you do look like my and your mom.”

  Letizia nodded. “Good point. So, when I made that appearance on TV it had to be the first time anyone caught sight of me. Why would Alessandra walk away from it all if she was involved?” She was doubting that Alessandra was a part of the mob ring, it seemed too farfetched.

  “Well that went well.” Finley threw his phone on the center console and turned toward the window. They were about two minutes from the restaurant; the whole team was meeting up and planned to search every inch of the place.

  Miles cleared his throat. “That bad, eh?”

  Finley shook his head. “Seriously, we need to fucking find some shred of evidence at this fucking place. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” His nerves were shot, he wanted to soothe Letizia’s aching heart, and yet, he was stuck in Canada while she was in America. Fuck.

  When they arrived at the location, the other squad cars were already there and waiting for their go-ahead. Finley headed into the building but stopped for just a few moments to fill the team in on what needed to happen. “We need to find something that links them to the mob. I don’t care what you have to do to get the answers we need, just do it.” Then everyone scatted in all directions to tear the place up. A part of him was sad to see this p
lace close shop, but he knew now that everything inside the four walls was built on lies.

  After hours and several items thrown in all directions of the restaurant, someone called, “Got something.”

  Finley was in the front of the restaurant searching through the cabinets behind the bar. “What? Really?” He headed to the kitchen area, but another officer pointed to a room that was Johnny’s office. When he stepped into the tiny space, he noticed all eyes on four pictures laid out on the desk. “Wh…” Then he took a closer look and found himself needing to sit down. The first picture was of Alessandra, Dani, Lando, Johnny, and a baby which probably was Letizia. The second picture showed Alessandra obviously pregnant and holding young Letizia. The third picture was of Alessandra on a hospital bed with whom? It couldn’t be Cristiano because these pictures were taken over twenty-eight years ago. Johnny was lying down next to them both, and they looked so happy. The fourth picture was the shocker, it was of Letizia covered in blood and sitting next to her mom.

  Miles spoke first. “Hey, we know they’re safe, right?”

  Finley was not sure what to say next. He nodded. “Yeah.” Then with more confidence he added, “Yeah, they’re fine.” He looked at the pictures again. Why would anyone want to snap a picture like the one with her mom? All he could think about was what would possess you to even pull out your camera at a time like that? He shook his head. “These people are sick fuckers.”

  The one officer that found the pictures was standing there in the room still. “There’s more, sir.” All eyes went to the young man. He handed them a box. “Here.”

  Cooper cleared his throat. “Okay, we may need to inspect it to ensure we are not dealing with a bomb.” Finley watched as he looked toward the young officer. “Go grab Erickson.”

  Erickson had been trained in the bomb squad and was excellent at dismantling any device. As Finley’s partner walked into the room, everyone went silent. Erickson glanced around and chuckled, “Hey, relax. Go ahead and leave, I’ll yell when I know it’s safe.” He sat a huge bag down and pulled out a few computer devices. Finley never budged. Erickson smiled. “Fin, you can’t protect Letizia if you’re in several pieces, so go.”