by Ali Vali
“Where’s my boy?” Diego asked.
“We’ll lead you to the morgue whenever you’re ready,” the younger cop said. “And we’ll be anxious to set up and interview everyone to help in our investigation.”
“Give it a rest. Not now, Detective,” Ezra said.
“What’s the matter, Mom?” Gabriel asked when the police opened the door and left.
“Is karma finally catching up to you?” Pietro asked, and Diego lifted his fist, making her son take a few steps back in definite fear.
“I’ll teach you all about karma if you say another fucking thing,” Diego yelled, and no one said another word.
Sofia covered her mouth to muffle her sobs when her father mentioned karma. She’d started this by killing Victor, and now she’d paid the ultimate price. Paolo was more than her brother. He was the one man in her life who’d never disappointed her and had always provided comfort. Because of her, though, he was dead, and it was all her fault.
“Come on, Papa, it’s our turn to take care of Paolo.” His loss meant her life would never be the same, and she’d have to find the strength to make it on her on. “We owe him our attention.”
* * *
Remi Jatibon sat close to the glass wall in the office Mano had set up for her at the Gemini as Gino Roca glanced around, seeming to study the room. This had been an especially bloody time for her competition, with the death of Victor Madison and the discovery of Caterina Terzo. A request for a meeting from Francesco Terzo’s top lieutenant wasn’t what she’d expected, but she’d agreed if only to see what the old man was going to float.
“Mr. Roca, is there something I can do for you, aside from giving you decorating ideas?” she asked to see if she could get him to focus on her and Mano. They’d taken the meeting alone, leaving all the muscle in the outer office.
“I’m sure you’ve heard that Caterina was found dead at the Bellagio,” Gino said, talking through his teeth as if he was pissed about something.
“We did, and I wanted to give Mr. Terzo a little time, but I was planning to call and offer him my condolences.” The anger she understood, because Gino was like a part of the Terzo family, but why it was directed at them was a mystery.
“Are you sure you can’t offer something else?” He leaned toward her a little, and Mano copied the move as if to protect her if this guy was stupid enough to attack.
“The only other thing I can offer is flowers or to donate to Caterina’s favorite charity, but that’s it. I’m not sure why you’re here, but if it’s to accuse me or my family of something, you’re free to go.” She tried never to lose her temper to the point of raising her voice, and Gino narrowed his eyes when she spoke in low tones.
“Cut the shit, Remi, we all know you and Mano want to corner the Strip for your operation and don’t want to leave room for anyone else. Caterina was working to strengthen our share and neither of you liked that.” He pointed his finger at her, and he obviously didn’t have the same discipline as she did because his voice started to rise.
“Careful, Gino,” she said, raising her own finger. “I’ll let this kind of disrespect slide since you’re grieving, but come in here and accuse me of something I had nothing to do with and it might backfire on you.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She wondered if he was there at Francesco’s request after all. “It means I wouldn’t move against your boss or anyone in his family because I have no reason to. Accuse me of something, then follow it up with some retaliatory moves, and I’m going to lose my temper.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I don’t owe you any explanations, but I’m not at the mercy of anyone else.”
“Do you like talking in riddles?”
“I’ll talk slower so you can keep up. We needed a service for our family business, so we purchased a business to take care of it. As a matter of fact, we bought two, since Gemini has a twin in Biloxi. Why the hell would I care what Caterina or any other Terzo is doing on the Strip?” She crossed her legs and tapped her finger on the side of the custom-made black alligator boot. “If Caterina’s death is a murder, you’re wasting your time here. And I don’t appreciate it, if I wasn’t clear.”
“I had to be sure, so don’t take it as an insult that I’m here.” Gino sounded like a spanked puppy, and she could guess why.
“When I speak to your boss, I’ll be happy to explain it to him. Whoever made the move against Mr. Terzo’s family will not be found here, or in our employ.”
“Come on, Remi, there’s no reason to throw me under the bus. I just wanted to give the old man a place where he could take out his frustrations,” Gino said, holding his hands out as if pleading for her silence.
“Sounds like you were going to throw me under the bus. If you want me not to mention your lack of intelligence today,” she said and Mano snorted, “then tell me what other theories you have about this. A move against the Terzo family took cojones, and no one does that without a good reason.”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
“I see, your way of doing things is to shoot blind. That’s a problem.” She put her hand up when Gino opened his mouth. “You have our answer, so get out of here before I change my mind about talking to the old man.”
She leaned back when Gino left as fast as he could without actually running.
“We need to call Benito and set up that meeting.”
“For what?” Mano asked.
“We have a lot of dead people, and we’ve been visited by both the police and now the Terzo family, though I don’t think any of them knew Gino was coming here. Benito was responsible for Caterina, but we talked about how there was no way he did that without someone’s blessing. He needed that to keep the rest of his family alive.” She stood and grabbed her jacket. “Benito has to pay you back for that information by getting us a meeting with whoever his godfather is. That’s the guy who’ll keep us out of the fray.”
“Hey,” Hugo said, knocking and coming in. “Sorry to bother you guys, but there’s something else.”
“What?” Mano shook his head. “You come to town, sis, and all hell breaks loose.”
“It’s my exciting personality.” She winked at Mano and waved Hugo on. “What else?”
“Paolo Moretti is dead.”
“Simon,” she said loud enough for her guard to hear. “Call Emile and tell him to keep everyone inside, and send some more people to the house. I don’t want anything happening to the family.”
“Who the hell killed Moretti?” Mano asked.
“The better question is, what the hell is going on?” Remi waved him toward the door. “We’d better find some answers before we do what I accused Gino of doing. We can’t start shooting blind, but these assholes are going to bring the Feds down on Vegas, and therefore on us, with the bodies they’re piling up.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Brinley sat on the bed and wiped Reed’s forehead. The fever had started early in the night and she’d spent hours making sure Reed was okay. She’d put Finn on some blankets on the floor next to the bed, and she was exhausted from watching them both. “You need to wake up so I can tell you all the stuff I found.”
“I’m shocked you’re still here,” Reed said without opening her eyes. “It was your chance to run.”
“Run where, exactly?” she asked, not stopping her caresses with the cool washcloth.
“I’m sorry.” Reed seemed pale and weak, and when she opened her eyes, Brinley couldn’t look away. They didn’t hold the soul of an evil person even if Reed had done some evil things.
“For what?” She put the washcloth aside and pressed her hand to Reed’s cheek to see if the fever had broken.
“That all this happened to you. You and Finn didn’t deserve what Wallace had planned for you.” Reed sighed and tried to turn her head but Brinley prevented her from doing it.
“You’re right, we didn’t, but you protected us from all that. We’re here bec
ause of you.”
“Still, you should run at the first chance you have to get away from me.”
“What happened isn’t your fault, Reed. I may not have understood in the beginning, but I don’t blame you.” The pain in Reed was so visible she could almost touch it. Her head told her to turn away, but her heart couldn’t do it.
“I don’t deserve those words.”
“Tell me what happened to you, and I don’t mean why you were shot. I know it’s something, and like I told you, it’s not your fault.”
Reed stared at her for a long while and Brinley didn’t expect an answer. They’d eventually part ways, and she shouldn’t care, but she was alive because of this silent and imposing woman. She couldn’t overlook that, no matter how hard she tried.
“I grew up with my mother until I was five,” she said, then told her about her mother’s overdose and her years in foster care. “After about ten placements they put me in a house with a bunch of other kids, and that’s where I met Oscar. He’s my only family, at least the only family that I know of. It took us years to get out of there, but we made it together.”
“You survived all that?” Brinley’s eyes swam with tears. The parts of Reed’s story about the attempted molestations and beatings were hard to hear. That she’d become who she was felt totally understandable in an irrationally logical sort of way, and she admired Reed’s will to survive. Not everyone who grew up in the system became a killer, but if you piled enough shit on a kid, you couldn’t really blame them if they did. “Did you ever know who your father was?”
“Penny was too busy and too high to have ever figured it out. She always thought I was a true bastard, and in a way, she was right.” Reed seemed exhausted by the time she finished, and Brinley wanted to leave her alone, but now that she was talking, she didn’t want to stop.
“Reed, I don’t really know my father either. I mean, I know who he is, but he left and my mother raised me. I was lucky that she did everything to give me a good life. You did it alone, and that doesn’t make you a bastard.” She combed Reed’s hair back and put the cloth back on her forehead. “No one may have told you this before, but your life is a miracle, not something to be ashamed of.”
“You don’t have to whitewash it,” Reed said with her eyes closed. “I’ve already told you—I’m not a nice person.”
“Tell that to Finn, who doesn’t use someone’s feet as an obstacle course unless he likes you. My mom always said small children see the best in us, even when we can’t see it for ourselves.” Brinley touched her face again, not wanting to stop. She moved her hand when the door opened.
“You still alive?” Oscar said, walking in and stopping by the bed.
“Good work, Oscar, and I’m sorry I lied to you.” Reed didn’t say anything else.
“You lied about killing a small child and his mother. Those are the kind of lies that are forgivable every time,” Oscar said, squeezing Reed’s hand. “Get some sleep and then we’ll have to talk.”
Reed’s eyes were already closed and her breathing was starting to even out. The couple of days had helped Reed’s healing progress, and Brinley’s worry eased. “Would you like some coffee, Oscar?”
“Will the kid be okay?” Oscar asked, glancing at Finn.
“He’ll be fine, and if he wakes up we’ll hear him, or at least I will.” Brinley walked out and expected Oscar to follow her and he did.
“What’s all this?” Oscar asked when they made it to the kitchen. He sat at the table where she’d been going through everything Reed had given her.
“Reed went to Dean Jasper’s house and got the true books for the Moroccan’s operation. The guy that runs it—”
“Robert Wallace, who put the hit on you,” Oscar finished for her. “Well, more precisely, his fixer or assistant Alex Bell ordered the hit.” Oscar turned around when she didn’t say anything. “Reed and I are partners, but I never actually work with her in the field.”
“Should you be telling me all this?” She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest while the coffee brewed.
He laughed and nodded. “Who are you going to tell? You’re supposed to be dead, and if you leave here that’ll definitely be the case. If you’re here, though, it means Reed has some plan to get you back to your life, and the only way to do that is to work together.”
“That’s what she said, and I believe her.” Brinley poured the coffee and sat next to him. “She told me about what both of you went through, and I’m sorry. What I’m not sorry about is meeting her.”
“There were two contracts that day, and now it makes me sad she didn’t get assigned both of them.” He took a sip of the coffee and hummed. “When she told me she’d killed you, I think it was the first time she ever disappointed me. I was horrified that she could’ve done that, but I couldn’t say anything for one reason.”
“Oscar, I don’t think we should be talking about all this,” Brinley said, trying to put the brakes on whatever he was trying to accomplish.
“The thing is, Brinley, you and I have something in common. We’re both alive because Reed did the right thing.” He looked at her, and he had that same haunted expression Reed had when she told her the story of her life. “Are you going to turn her in if you get the chance?”
“No,” she said, louder than she meant to. “You can’t think that. I don’t want to end up dead by running, and I owe her everything. I’m grateful I’m alive, and my son is my main concern.”
“Then tell me what you found.” He waved to all the books sitting open.
“Can I wait until Reed is awake? Not that I don’t want to tell you, but I’d rather say it once.”
“That’s no problem, and not that this coffee isn’t wonderful, but why don’t we get some sleep while we have the chance? It should be a long week since Reed is the worst patient in the history of humanity,” he said and she laughed.
Brinley placed both their mugs in the sink and went up the stairs, smiling one more time when she turned toward the master bedroom. That Oscar didn’t say anything or try to stop her didn’t surprise her—well, not as much as the desire to do it at all surprised her. She checked on Finn before she moved to the other side of the large bed and lay on top of the blanket.
Reed was sleeping, and she dozed off watching Reed’s chest move in a slow cadence, glad that whatever had happened, Reed had survived and come back to keep her promises.
* * *
“Remi,” Angelo Giordano said, kissing one cheek then the other before he repeated the move with Mano. “Thank you for the gift.”
They’d had to wait a few days for Angelo to fit them in, but Benito had come through after Remi and Mano had sat him down for a serious heart-to-heart. Remi’s father and family had power in New Orleans and here in Vegas, especially after partnering with New Orleans Mob boss Derby Cain Casey, but Giordano was the guy in New York. His crew and family controlled everything from garbage collection to drugs and prostitutes, from the city to New Jersey. People like Benito and the Terzo family might live over two thousand miles away, but they kissed the ring when Angelo or his son Nicolai held their hand out because they were at the top of the food chain.
It had been Angelo who’d given his permission for Benito to take out Caterina when he’d gone to him about what had happened to his granddaughter. That order Remi had no problem with, since she agreed on a moral basis, but she didn’t know if Angelo realized there might be blowback, thanks to the ineptitude of the players involved in Vegas. She watched him open and prepare one of the Cuban cigars from the box she’d brought with her, and offered him a light when he was done.
“Mr. Giordano,” she said, sitting when he waved her into a chair. Mano smiled when she glanced at him with her own smile. She felt like she was in a Mob movie. Granted, they were in the same line of work, but Angelo seemed way old school.
“Remi, please call me Angelo. We may have never met before, but there’s no reason we can’t be friends. Am I right?” Ang
elo blew a stream of smoke away from her.
“Yes, sir, and it’s an honor. We may be in different businesses, but my father and my family have the utmost respect for you.” She covered all her bases as far as tradition, and he nodded as if she’d passed a test.
“Benito vouched for you, and I’m glad you’re here. Hopefully you’ll accept my invitation to visit New York with your father when you get a chance. If you make it, please bring your business partner, Casey. A meeting between all of us is way overdue.”
“We’d love to, thank you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you about a recent visit I got from Gino Roca, Francesco Terzo’s right hand.” After the visit from Roca two of their high rollers had been harassed going into the Gemini and been threatened, on behalf of the Terzo family, if they came back. Word had reached Mano when they’d canceled their reservations. Apparently, Gino’s word meant shit.
“What’s Roca doing visiting you? Terzo already has something set in town,” Nicolai asked, coming in and hearing what she’d said.
“Nico,” Angelo said, pointing to her and Mano. “Meet the Jatibons, Remi and Mano.”
“Good to finally meet you two,” Nico said, shaking their hands. “Are you having problems with Gino?”
“I can’t be sure, but it feels like someone is trying to place the blame for Caterina’s death on my family. And as I told Mr. Giordano, there’s no reason for us to have any involvement because we have no business together. We have no interest in a war between the families in Vegas, and we’re concerned about the very visible way they’re taking issue with each other.” It was as close as she could get without outright calling them morons.
“Thank you for letting me know, and we’ll take care of it,” Angelo said. “I’m sure you understand what grief does to people, especially if their children are involved. You aren’t a parent yet, but they become the center of your world, and Francesco doesn’t perhaps know how to handle the loss. Benito handled the issue as he needed to.”
