“What did he want?”
“He showed me pictures from the reception.” She explained the images she saw and how Agent Phillips gave a brief background on each one.
“Sounds like he was fishing.”
“Yeah, he doesn’t have anything concrete. I found that out in Los, I mean that he was lost and looking for me to fill in his blanks. That is never going to happen.”
She corrected herself quickly, but not before I caught that she was going to say something else and it had to do with Los Angeles. While I believed her about the run in with Agent Phillips, I knew there was more going on. I didn’t push it because I did trust her. She was one of the few people in my world who I could trust.
Her brows furrowed together, causing a crease to form in between. She chewed on her bottom lip as she surveyed the damage again. “Overreact much?”
“Yeah, sorry about the extreme measures, but I was worried about you.”
“They’re going to charge me…well, they’ll charge Grant’s credit card. That’s going to cost a small fortune to fix and I can’t afford that!”
“Hey, don’t worry. I broke the door so I’ll take care of it.” I gently traced my thumb over the crease, trying to smooth it. She leaned into my touch and I wound up cradling her face, heat radiated off of her cheeks which were still flushed from the hot shower. She inched closer until her body was brushing against mine and I was unable to resist pulling her into a kiss. Her lips parted under the gentle pressure and I dipped my tongue in, tasting mint toothpaste.
My hands left her cheeks, skimming down to her shoulders enjoying the softness of her skin as they traveled around to her back and I pulled her close. Natalie’s arm that was crossed in front of her chest, holding the towel together, prevented me from getting any closer. Her bed was a few feet away and it would have been so easy to just take her. We both wanted each other - that had never been a problem. We always had physical attraction and couldn’t keep our hands off of each other from the very first night we met at Crimson. We had a strong emotional connection too, one I’d never experienced with another woman before, but that connection, while not severed, had suffered some damage while she was off in California dating another man. As much as I wanted to move over to the bed, I ended the kiss and put some space between us. I wasn’t going to make love to Natalie until we were both all in, physically and emotionally.
Her cheeks were more flushed than ever and she looked up at me through her eyelashes while biting her lower lip. That fucking vulnerable sexy look was wreaking havoc with my decision to stop.
“Let’s slow things down, okay?” I asked, exhaling sharply and taking a step backwards so I was just outside the entrance to her room. “Before I barged in like a caveman, I was planning on asking you out for dinner, but we can’t leave your door unsecure like that. How quickly can you pack?”
“Pack? Where am I going?”
“Well, you can’t stay here. I can get you set up in another suite or you can stay with me.” She gave me a look. “In the guest room,” I quickly amended.
“I’ll think about it while I get dressed.” She shut the door and I sat down at the desk near the living room. Picking up the phone, I dialed guest services, making the decision for her.
Close to twenty minutes later, Natalie emerged from the bedroom wearing jean shorts that showed off her long legs and a purple V-neck t-shirt. Her hair was combed out straight and still wet, leaving dark marks on her shirt. She towed one suitcase behind her and carried a smaller one. I was talking with the hotel manager on duty and a maintenance guy. They were assessing the damage to the door and estimating what the replacement cost would be. Natalie grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen before joining me.
“So what’s the damage?” she asked, the bottle cap made a snapping noise when she twisted it off of the bottle.
“Don’t know yet, but they’re going to move you to another suite just a few doors down.”
“Oh,” she said with a frown. “I thought I’d stay with you and save Grant some money.”
“No it works better this way.” The manager approached me then and I turned to talk to her. She turned her tablet so I could see the screen and reviewed the itemized invoice that covered replacement and labor charges. The electronic key pad entry was the most expensive item. In total, I was responsible for $1,835.00. I pulled out my wallet and counted out nineteen one hundred bills. “Keep the change, for the hassle.” Suzy, the manager, looked surprised before she smiled at me, tucking the money into her pants’ pocket. She took my accountant’s email address to send a copy of the paid invoice. When she was done, Suzy handed me two key cards for Natalie’s new suite.
“Take it easy on the door this time,” she teased and shook my hand. Seconds later Suzy left, taking the maintenance man with her.
I crossed the living room to Natalie’s luggage, which was propped against the back of the loveseat. “Is this all you have?” I asked.
“Yeah, well except for the water and some fruit in the fridge.” She grabbed a plastic bag and opened the refrigerator, dumping the contents into the bag. “Problem solved,” she said, using her hip to shut the door.
We walked down the hall together to her new suite. I forgot I had the keys and set her suitcases down to grab the cards out of my pocket. Handing them over to Natalie, she opened the door and we entered a suite identical to her old one.
Natalie stocked the refrigerator while I put her bags in the larger of the two bedrooms.
“Dom, you could have downgraded to a smaller room. It’s just me. I don’t need all of this space.”
“No downgrading for you, babe.” I winked at her. “You hungry?”
“Starving! That run burned right through brunch.”
“Cool, come on,” I held my hand out to her and she accepted, lacing her fingers through mine. It felt so natural.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
We walked out into the warm night. Traffic zoomed by in a cloud of hot exhaust as we strolled down the sidewalk towards a stretch of illuminated storefronts. We bypassed all of the restaurants, the air an aromatic blend of spices, grilled meat and fried dough. Natalie laughed when I held the door open at our destination: Wawa. I knew Natalie loved her hoagies and she mentioned more than once that California was sorely lacking this convenience store. We placed our order on the touchscreen monitor and while our hoagies were being made, wandered around gathering other items. By the time were checked out at the register, we had a six-pack of Diet Coke, a giant bag of Herr’s potato chips, two soft pretzels (for Natalie’s breakfast) and a bag of M&Ms.
It was a quick walk back to the hotel where we spread our feast out on the coffee table in the living room area. We found the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre on TV, which was a horror movie we both hadn’t seen yet. After we ate, Natalie curled up next to me on the loveseat and when the movie was over, I looked down to see she had fallen asleep with her head on my chest.
Managing to extricate myself from beneath her without waking her, I scooped Natalie up into my arms and carried her into the bedroom. As I laid her down on the bed, her eyes fluttered open and she gave me a sleepy smile. “Thanks for tonight, baby. I love you,” she murmured before rolling over and falling back asleep.
I paused at her words and whispered that I loved her too as I tucked a blanket around her shoulders. Our emotional connection was still there and growing stronger the more time we spent together, but Natalie was flying back to L.A. in four days and I was afraid it wasn’t going to be enough. We needed more time.
Before leaving, I cleaned up our mess from dinner and made sure her soft pretzels were wrapped up tight so they wouldn’t get stale. As I was getting ready to leave, my cell phone vibrated. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was Dante calling so I answered.
“Hey cuz, what’s going on?” I said, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door to Natalie’s suite behind me. I double checked to mak
e sure it was secure before continuing towards the elevators.
“Meeting is on as planned.” The time and place had been arranged earlier and Dante knew better than to relay that information over the phone. Even though we used disposable or “burner” phones, our calls could still be monitored since they were transmitted across network lines. While Dante’s brother applied some techie tricks, we still had to be careful.
“Is everyone going to be there?” I left Dante in charge of coordinating this meeting that Ji, Chan and Demetrius and I discussed at the wedding. Egan was the one who I suspected would be difficult and try to change the meeting to somewhere in his neighborhood.
“Yeah, everyone confirmed. Where are you?” he asked when the elevator dinged loudly upon arriving at the lobby.
“Leaving Nat’s hotel.”
“No shit, are you back together?”
“No, we were hanging out as friends. That dick from the Feds, Phillips, paid her a visit this afternoon.”
“What the fuck? What did he want?”
I walked to a deserted section located off to the side of the main entrance while I waited for the valet to bring my Mustang around and filled Dante in on how Agent Phillips was trying to get Natalie to turn on them.
“What an asshole. Does Grant know?”
“No way man, he just got married and I don’t want him to worry over nothing. Natalie told me she turned Phillips down.”
“And you believe her?”
I paused before answering, “Yeah, yeah I do. Nat’s a good girl she wouldn’t do anything to hurt Grant.”
“What about you, would she rat on you?”
“I don’t think so, that would inadvertently involve Grant too.”
“Well, I hope you’re right. We’ve finally got things on track and can’t afford to have L.E.O.s investigating any more than they already are.” L.E.O. was short for Law Enforcement Officer.
I hoped I was right too, but I was listening to my gut and that hadn’t failed me yet.
Chapter 14
Sam opened the door to The Speak and let me and Dante in, but not before surveying the neighborhood behind us.
“How ya doin’, Sam?” I asked.
“Good, boss. The place is secure and everyone is in the back.” Sam was a fixture at The Speak and took his role seriously. When he opened to door for Grant and I on New Year’s Eve, he didn’t know the change he was letting in. We took Marco and Telly out, swiftly and silently, leaving within minutes of our arrival. From that day on, Sam no longer looked at me as Rico’s punk kid. I had earned his respect and he started referring to me as ‘boss’.
Dante and I walked down the long hallway, past the living room area which had been converted to a bar during Prohibition. The hardwood floors creaked under our feet and voices grew louder as we approached the kitchen. Grant was facing the arched entrance and he looked up as entered the room. Egan had his back to us and he turned around to see what had caught Grant’s attention. The light conversation stopped when we walked in. My spot at the head of the table was open and I shook hands as I moved around to it. Four men leaned against the kitchen counter and I nodded at them, recognizing them as bodyguards for Demetrius, Chan, Ji and Egan. Demetrius’ man was big black guy whose neck was missing, dwarfed underneath layers of muscle. He was easily six feet tall, but looked taller since he was standing next to Ji’s man, who while small and wiry, had a fierce temper. Chan’s enforcer had more ink than plain skin and stood with his tattooed arms crossed over a barrel chest. Egan’s man had spiked reddish orange hair. A matching beard covered the lower half of his face and his knuckles showed the signs of a boxer, scabbed and swollen. Either he was a bare knuckled boxer like Egan, or he used his fists as a weapon. Since Egan’s second in command was gunned down during one of our initial meetings, I wasn’t surprised that he brought a more disposable member of his gang to this one.
All of these men were packing and Ji’s man had a large knife strapped to his hip. That was his preferred weapon of choice and I’d heard he gutted a man from his stomach to throat with one swipe. When I walked by Miranda I overheard part of the conversation she was having with Chan. He was asking her about their honeymoon plans. I squeezed her shoulder and she smiled up at me.
“How’s married life?” I asked her.
“Not much different than before, except Grant is a little more relaxed now that the ceremony is over. We’re looking forward to our honeymoon. We need a vacation before the baby arrives.”
They were heading to Sihanoukville, a coastal resort town in Cambodia. Chan knew the owner of a five star hotel there and gave them a week’s accommodations as a wedding present. One of the advantages with Cambodia is that if shit did go down stateside, the government didn’t have extradition arrangements with the U.S.
“You’re leaving next week, right?”
“Yes unless you need us here?” she glanced around the room.
“Nope,” I reassured her and called everyone to attention before taking my seat. The table we were sitting at had seen a lot of meetings and the white Formica surface had been covered in lots of blood, but a little bit of bleach wiped it clean. While the bar area was more comfortable, we always met in the kitchen because there was the back door if we needed to make a quick exit. Also, a secret door along the back wall of the pantry connected us to the seemingly abandoned row home next door – just in case The Speak became surrounded. Uncle Marco’s paranoia knew no bounds, but also made sense.
“Demetrius, Chan and Ji have more demand than supply,” I began, using language I learned during an economics class taken during my brief attempt at college. “Egan, are you having the same issue in the Northeast?”
“Yeah, I can always take more product.”
“Okay, good. Our distributor can’t deliver more, so I called Gio out in L.A. He has another source and is going to help us out without any change in terms.” Gio made out well when I negotiated a deal with him to keep Natalie safe in California as long as I eliminated Marco. His profit share increased five percent. So if we sold more, he was going to make more anyway. Plus, he told me he liked Natalie and she had helped Victor, one of his men out. I didn’t know what to think about that and filed it away to ask Natalie about later. “We can’t get a new shipment in until next month. Can you work with that?”
“Next month? Early, mid, end-of-the month? What are we talking here?” Demetrius asked. “I got the 40th street gang biting at my ankles like little bitches trying to get a piece of my action. If I show any weakness, they’ll encroach on my business.”
“Stop being a pussy and just eliminate the competition,” Egan countered. “I’ll bring my boys down and fuck ‘em up. They’ll leave you alone.”
“Back off, cracker, I can handle my own shit.” Demetrius growled, his gray eyes narrowing to slits.
Fucking Malloy, he was always calling someone a pussy. “Enough,” I said and smacked my hand on the table, wishing I had a gavel. “Gio is expediting, but it’s a big order that needs to come across the country. It’s the best we can do. Demetrius, if you start to feel a pinch from the competition, let us know, we got your back and we’ll squash it.”
“Aright then.”
“Now to the next order of business…the Feds have been sniffing around. They have pictures of us from the wedding and an Agent Phillips tried to rattle my girl yesterday.”
“Are you talking about Natalie?” Grant sat up straighter and he clenched his jaw.
“Yes, she’s okay and didn’t give him shit. She has a stubborn streak in case you didn’t notice,” I said with a laugh. “Just like her brother.” This made Miranda chuckle.
“This is a heads up to be more cautious out there. They’re snooping and looking for weak links in our organization and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re doing the same to yours.”
“I know this Phillips guy. He’s been round before,” Egan said. He gestured towards his enforcer who nodded in understanding. “We’ll keep our eyes open.”
<
br /> “Same here, thanks for letting us know. It’s good to exchange information like this,” Chan said and Ji, who was a known rival of Chan’s, agreed.
I promised to let them know when the heroin had arrived and the meeting ended. Everyone left through the front door under the watchful gaze of Sam. Miranda, Grant and Dante hung back with me as we still had some stuff to talk about before the honeymooners left the country. I made a coffee at the Kuerig machine and sat back down at the table.
“What the fuck, Dom, why didn’t you tell me about Nat?” Grant lit into me and I was expecting it.
“Because it was your first day as a married man and I didn’t want to interrupt a sex marathon. I handled it, it’s all good.”
“How is Natalie? Was she freaked?”
“A little bit, but she handled it better than I thought she would. Did something happen in California?”
“Not that she told me. Why?”
“Just a feeling. I think she almost let something slip, but caught herself.”
“Well, did you ask her?”
“No. We’re not there yet.” I drained the last of the coffee and leaned back in my chair, running a hand through my hair.
“What does that mean?” Miranda shook her head in confusion. “You called her your girl, Dom.”
“She always will be. We’re working through some things and I don’t want to pressure her.”
“Buying her space for a gallery isn’t pressure?” Miranda teased. She smiled and rested a hand on her stomach. “I’m just sayin’, we all love Nat, but she went through hell. Give her some time to get used to how things are different around here now.”
“I know and I’m trying.” I stood and crossed the room, setting my dirty mug in the sink. “You guys know patience isn’t one of strengths.”
“Understatement of the year, cuz!” Dante said. “Impatient, impulsive and…”
Endings & Beginnings: Book Three of The New Mafia Trilogy Page 10
