Double-Crossed

by Ali Vali

  When she got back to the living room, Finn was playing with the trucks and cars she bought for him, and Brinley was smiling as she watched him. It hit her how unfair life was, but she was glad for the kid. He was obviously not only loved, but wanted.

  “Thank you,” Brinley said with a smile. It was a change that made her stunningly beautiful.

  “I figured this way you didn’t have to chase him the entire time.” She glanced down when Finn drove his truck over her foot. “Are you hungry?”

  “I shouldn’t be, but I’m starved.”

  She took out two frozen meals and Brinley appeared amused. “I don’t cook, so it’s either this or nothing.”

  “I can make you another list since I do cook, but that might be too domestic for you.” Brinley sat at the counter and rested her elbows on the surface. “Do you own any pots?”

  “If they came with the house, I should, but you don’t have to go to any trouble. Maybe if I work fast enough, you and the kid can leave.” She placed Brinley’s meal on a plate and took the plastic off the top. “You’ll probably have to move once I’m done, but I’ll do my best to take you permanently off the radar of whoever wants you dead. Unless you’ve changed your mind about the cabin in the woods.”

  “Wall-to-wall nature isn’t my thing. Why do you think Dean would’ve set us up like that?” She concentrated on the microwave while Brinley cut up a piece of chicken and blew on it. “Naomi was a nice person with a little girl, not someone who was working to bring anyone down. I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

  “I wish I had all the answers for you, but the people you went to work for aren’t exactly the moral upstanding citizens you’re probably used to.” Standing across from Brinley was obviously an invitation for Finn to use her feet as an obstacle course for his trucks.

  “I can hold him if he’s bothering you,” Brinley offered.

  “He’s okay.” The little boy had a joyous laugh, and she couldn’t help but give him a small smile. “Where’s his father?”

  The question made Brinley hum for some reason, but the sound didn’t seem like something joyous. “His father’s serving a very long prison sentence for selling drugs. We all make mistakes, and he’s mine, but he did give me the greatest gift I’ve ever been blessed with.”

  “Does he give you problems?” A small but persistent voice at the center of her brain told her it was a waste of time to find out anything personal about Brinley.

  “I wanted to give Finn the best life I could, and Jarrell and his mother thought I’d make an easy mark for money. I’m not rich, but I have a steady job like a normal person, and they thought I was stupid since I didn’t want to spend what I made on drugs.” Brinley glanced down and smiled at Finn as he ran his trucks over her feet as fast as he could move them. “That’s all they cared about, so I didn’t list him on the birth certificate.”

  “The kid’s lucky to have you,” she said before taking a bite of her meal. Like always, though, it tasted like sawdust in her mouth.

  “What’s your name?” Brinley asked, clearly not giving up on that one.

  “Planning to give a complete story to the police?”

  “I’m sure you aren’t going to believe me, but I’d never do that. You could have killed us, and you didn’t. Because of my son, I’m going to do whatever you want.” Brinley put her fork down and placed her hands on the counter. “What you did is a gift to me and Finn.”

  She stared at Brinley and she believed her. “Reed.” Usually in a situation like this she gave the name Rebel, the name she’d been born with. At least in the eyes of the law, Rebel Jones had died years before and was thus untraceable back to her. Why she’d just given Brinley her real name was baffling.

  “Thank you, Reed,” Brinley said and briefly touched her arm. “Whatever you need me to do to help you, just tell me.”

  “The best thing until I come up with the plan is for you and Finn to lie low. Robert Wallace is a savage, and he isn’t the kind of man who thinks things through very well.”

  “What do you mean?” Brinley started eating again, which broke their eye contact.

  “He hired you, got you to do a job, then decided to kill you to keep you quiet. That’s not a great plan to begin with, but when you add two small children, you weaponize the cops to take you down.” The way Brinley was nodding made her want to laugh. Considering where they’d begun, Brinley was taking things pretty well.

  “What kind of person kills a small child? And how does this Wallace guy know anyone like that?” Brinley asked as she watched Finn abandon her feet and head back to the glass door.

  “Vegas is much more corporate than the old Mob movies, but that doesn’t make it tame,” she said, throwing her dish away.

  “I get that, since the accounting department at Moroccan was like any other place.”

  “What you have to understand is the Mob is something of a corporation now too. They’re not about tacky suits and back rooms anymore.” She started a pot of coffee and sat next to Brinley as it brewed. “Wallace might not be total family, but he must be, like, a distant cousin at least.”

  “Family?”

  “Every segment of organized crime is ruled by a family. We simply have to find out who controls Wallace’s world and it might get us somewhere.” Brinley nodded when she held up creamer and sugar once the coffee was ready. “No respectable family would’ve sanctioned what happened to your friend and her kid.”

  “The problem is, I’ve never met Robert Wallace,” Brinley said, following her back to the den.

  “Who was it who hired you again?” She remembered the name. She never forgot details. But it didn’t hurt to hear it again. Maybe it would shake something loose.

  Brinley slipped her shoes off and folded her legs under herself. “Dean Jasper. He’s the head of the department. From what little Naomi told me about him, he’s been there for a while.”

  “Jasper might be a good place to start, but I’ve got to finish something else tonight.”

  Brinley stared at her intently again with an unreadable expression. “You’re not going to kill anyone, are you?”

  She laughed at the stilted question. “Granted, I was hired to kill you, but that’s not my usual line of work. I may be exceptionally talented at it, but I’m more of a thief. That isn’t legal either, but I’m not out there trying to up my body count.”

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you that.”

  “No problem.” She finished her coffee and motioned for Brinley to keep her seat. “If I promise not to shoot anyone, will you stay inside?”

  “I give you my word, if you make one more deal. We’ll stay here, and you go to the grocery store again.” Brinley smiled. She really was beautiful. “I’ll make you another list while you get ready.”

  “Sure, and don’t call anyone either.” She knew she’d have to leave the house behind if Brinley decided to be stupid, but it could be much worse.

  “Go and we’ll be good.” Brinley held her mug with two hands and sat back.

  Reed got up to get dressed and decided to stop worrying about things she had no control over. The job would require another walk through the casino, so she changed into slacks and a dress shirt. Brinley was on the floor with Finn when Reed came back down, and she accepted the bundle Reed handed her. They’d have to do something about clothes for both of them, but there was only so much shopping she was willing to do.

  “The room on the left at the top of the stairs is all set if you want to get some sleep. That T-shirt should do if you want to be more comfortable out of those clothes.”

  “Thank you, Reed, and I meant what I said. Whatever you need, you let me know, and I’ll do it.” Brinley stood up and walked to her. “I’ll do it not only for Finn, but for Naomi and her daughter.”

  “Do you have any of the information from the audit you were doing for your boss?”

  “The boxes in my car,” Brinley said, clearly disgusted. “Damn, I should’ve saved those.”


  “I did,” she said, picking up her keys. “They’re all back at the storage unit.”

  “It’s a start.” Brinley seemed almost shy when she handed her another note. “And here’s another start—to stocking your pantry and refrigerator.”

  “Maybe it’s a start for both of us, but if not, we’ll figure it out.”

  * * *

  Sofia held the phone in disbelief that the bastard she’d hired hung up on her. She had to get her hands on the money since there was hardly any in her and Victor’s joint accounts, and life insurance would take a while. This was the problem with not knowing who was working for her, but she’d have no choice but to wait him out.

  “What’s wrong?” Paolo asked when he joined her outside. The sun was starting to set but the temperatures were still stifling.

  “Nothing.” She didn’t want to hear another lecture from her father or her brother.

  “Sofia, come on,” he said, putting his head on her shoulder. “I’m still the guy you used to sneak out with, and the one who’s always kept your secrets.”

  “You wouldn’t understand.” And he wouldn’t. Every man in her family was a little like Victor when it came to women. They did what they wanted, with whomever they wanted, and there was never a consequence.

  “I do understand, and more importantly, I’ll help you explain it to Papa. What Victor did, how he died, isn’t how a real man conducts himself. You had him killed, and he deserved what he got.” He shook his head before leaning down again and kissing her cheek. “The only thing I’m pissed about is you not calling me and telling me what he was doing. If you did take care of it, believe me, it’s going to be fine.”

  “How can you know for sure?” Paolo had truly been like a friend her entire life, and it made it hard to hide anything from him.

  “Because no matter what you face, you’re no different from me. We were raised the same, and we tolerate no disrespect.” He sat next to her and unbuttoned his shirt a little so he could run an ice cube from his drink along the top of his chest. “You need to be honest, though. There’s more to what happened than what you’ve said, and we need to plan for the fallout from all of this.”

  “You and Papa keep talking about fallout, but all I see as a downside is that I’m a suspect.”

  “You have to know that people like us and the Terzo family were going to use Victor for something, considering what his job was. And no one kills someone like that, no matter what kind of scumbag he was, without permission,” Paolo said, and he sounded reasonable. “There’s going to be fallout between the families, Sofia, and only by telling us what you’ve done can we keep you safe.”

  She stared at him, realizing her mistake might cost her more than Victor’s money if her asshole husband was working for her father and God knows who else. Telling the truth would confirm her stupidity, but her father would never allow anyone to harm her, of that she was certain. But not telling the truth could also put her family in danger, and then she’d be as dead as Victor, so she had no real choices here.

  “Let’s go inside,” she said, placing the burner phone in her pocket. “If I have to confess to my sins, I might as well do it only once.”

  “You hired someone without meeting them?” Diego asked twenty minutes later when she told them the entire story. “Why would you take that kind of chance?”

  “Because I asked a few people, and this guy is the best anyone with connections uses. Hell, even I believed this was an accident. I don’t know how he did it, but everything was perfect.”

  “Yes, it was, but whoever this guy is now has your money.”

  Her father spoke with an eerie calm that worried her. Rage and screaming she understood, since that’s what she’d seen all her life.

  “And he knows who you are, and who your family is. If you don’t see that as a problem, let me tell you—it is.”

  “It’s done, Papa, and all I need to do is get the account numbers to finish this.”

  “That is what you need to do, but you talked to your guy like he’s a punk, and he called you down for it.” Diego lifted his hands as if he couldn’t understand her stupidity. “Let Paolo handle it from here on out, and he’ll get it done and find out who this bastard is. He’s a problem we’ll have to take care of.”

  “What about the rest?” The fact that she’d killed Victor before he got the chance to kill her would have made her laugh, if she wasn’t still worried about that being a possibility.

  “Rest of what?” Paolo asked.

  “The cops came here last night and showed us those texts. My contractor saw the cell phone and knows the names that go with the messages. He knows who wanted me dead.” She spoke without trying to let too much anger bleed into her voice. “I’d like to know who was trying to talk Victor into killing me, since you both keep going on about keeping me safe.”

  “I’m working on it, cara, but this town doesn’t know us. I’ve got to call in some favors, and we have to ask the right people.” The bell for the gate sounded and they all glanced at each other before Paolo got up and answered it. “If it’s those cops again, go up and don’t come down no matter what they threaten you with,” Diego told Sofia.

  “It’s Mano Jatibon, Papa. He called, remember?” Paolo said.

  “What does that slick son of a bitch want?” Diego asked. “Ramon and his kids are way too smug for my taste.”

  “He came because of Victor, he said,” Paolo answered.

  “If he’s mourning that piece of shit, he’s a sick fuck.”

  “I doubt that’s it,” Sofia said. “Mano doesn’t strike me as the type.”

  “That’s because you don’t know that fucking Cuban prick like I do,” Diego said. “Ramon doesn’t believe anything or anyone, and that makes him a prick as well as a dangerous man. He taught that to those twins of his, and they have no respect for anyone but themselves.” He stopped talking when the door opened but he didn’t stand.

  “Sofia,” Mano said when he entered and took both her hands. “I came to tell you that my family and I are at your disposal if you need anything.”

  “Thank you, Mano,” she said with a small smile.

  “Mr. Moretti,” Mano said, shaking Diego’s hand next. “It’s nice seeing you again, and my offer of help extends to you too.”

  “And what do I need help with?” Diego asked, and it was hard to miss the sarcasm in his tone. “Believe me, I’ve got everything I need.”

  “Then I’ll go ahead and leave. Sofia, you have my condolences on more than Victor’s death, and I wanted you to know I’ll have to miss the services.” Mano spoke right to Sofia and totally ignored her father and brother. “There’s another funeral I have to attend tomorrow, but I did want you to know that I’m available if you should need anything.”

  “Who else died?” Paolo asked before she had the chance. It was strange that Mano would announce something like that for no reason.

  “Benito Lucassi’s granddaughter,” Mano said and nodded for his guard to open the door.

  “Lucassi had a granddaughter?” Diego stood up and started for Mano, but Mano was on his way out.

  “He did.” Mano stopped by the door. “Beautiful nineteen-year-old, so you’ll understand why we won’t make it tomorrow.”

  “That’s all you’re going to say?” Diego asked.

  “You don’t need my help, and I won’t insult either of us by offering again.” Mano walked out and Sofia saw that only his man looked back.

  “Papa, I know you run the family, but all the answers we want just walked out the door,” Sofia said, and Paolo nodded slightly as if agreeing with her admonishment.

  “I don’t want his fucking help. He acts like he’s doing us a favor by his charity.”

  Sofia sighed and didn’t say anything else. Paolo, though, seemed to understand the significance of what Mano had said. “If the bitch with Victor was Lucassi’s granddaughter, that’s going to be a problem for us, Papa. He’s an old bastard, but the families back home lov
e him,” Paolo said.

  “Do you both remember the dead sorority girl was planning to kill Sofia?” Diego asked, sounding like a petulant child.

  “She wasn’t planning it alone, and the answer to who else was part of that plan was something Mano knew—you could tell. Now, though, he’ll die before he shares that with us.” The threat to her life might be still there. And if whoever it was hired someone with the talent of her contractor, she was as good as dead.

  “We need to find out who London Emerson was working for, even if it takes begging Mano Jatibon,” Paolo said, and on that she was in total agreement.

  “Don’t fucking worry about that. I’ll find out, and if you beg that asshole for anything, I’ll kill you myself,” Diego said. “All we have to do is find Sofia’s contractor and we’ll have our answer.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right, Papa,” she said as she started to leave. There was an overabundance of testosterone in the room and she couldn’t take it any longer. “Vegas is another planet compared to what you’re used to, and the people here won’t bend to your will simply because they fear the name Moretti.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Reed stood in the gardens right past the check-in counters in Bellagio and watched people taking selfies from every angle. Las Vegas had a way of attracting people who had an incessant need to chronicle every step of their trip to this cornucopia of sin. She smiled at the number of fanny packs and garish T-shirts and thought she was overdressed.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to wait a few days?” Oscar’s voice came through her Earwig and she chuckled at his cautious nature.

  “Are you ready to make me as invisible as David Copperfield in his show down the street?” She started walking at a leisurely pace so he could keep up electronically.

  “I’m ready, but if you think he’d hide whatever this is, what’s the hurry?”

  “Oscar, think a little about who Victor was.” She entered the beginning of the gardens where the private villas were and slowed even more to scan the area for more people.