“No, Joseph. That was Trejo and Sanchez. They are dead and their organization has been annihilated.”
“Tobias brought Trejo into the operation.”
“Yes, but we agreed. At the time, it seemed like the smart decision.”
“Perhaps.” Joseph sat up and didn’t look at her. Nicole didn’t move. Sometimes it was best to let her lover work out his problems himself. He would always come around to her viewpoint, he would always support her decisions. They’d been together far too long to let one small disagreement come between them.
“Aside from my arrest, everything else has been moving along according to plan. We had a delay; now we can finish. As soon as we get back the money taken from us, and finish this last big job, we’ll have enough resources to disappear and run our operation from anywhere in the world. Without Toby.”
When Joseph didn’t answer, she said, “Is there another problem?”
“The fed doesn’t know anything about our money. If he did, he would have talked.”
“Someone does.”
“Who?”
“When we get Dunbar’s files decoded we’ll have our answers. Has Lyle returned?”
“No.”
“I should talk to Tobias about it.”
She started to get up, but Joseph turned back to her, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her back to the bed. “Make him wait.”
Nicole stared into Joseph’s dark eyes. This was important to him, she realized, that she choose him and his needs over her cousin.
She smiled and put her hands on the back of his head, kissed him. “He can wait until fucking morning for all I care.” She bit his bottom lip and Joseph growled.
“Dear God, I missed you, Niki.”
And they made love again.
* * *
They’d met in summer school.
Nicole was a sophomore, but she had flunked two classes and to be a junior in the fall, she had to repeat them over the summer. She considered dropping out altogether, but her uncle insisted.
“We have big plans for you, Nicole.”
Joseph had just turned twenty, and wanted to be in summer school even less than Nicole. He’d skipped more classes than he took, though he was only a few months away from getting his GED. They were in the same geometry class.
Nicole didn’t believe in love at first sight or kindred spirits or soul mates or any of that other crap. Her parents fought constantly until her dad was killed, and her uncle cheated on her aunt practically in front of her. Nicole couldn’t wait to get out of the house, to be free.
She missed her dad.
He wasn’t perfect, but that was because he missed the army. He became moody and irritable, and really hated being a cop, but he believed in giving 100 percent in everything he did. He could be judgmental and his punishments were severe—but he liked order, what was wrong with that? And her mother was a flake, anyway.
So Nicole didn’t believe in love crap, but there was something about Joseph … something different. When he looked at her, she got a feeling in her stomach she’d never had before. And he knew. It’s like he sensed she was attracted to him, a bee to honey.
It wasn’t long before they talked, then went out together, then became inseparable.
Joseph was with her when she found out the truth about her father’s murder.
Joseph was with her when her uncle told her what his plans were for her.
And Joseph told her he would stay with her through it all.
Family came with a price, but Joseph’s love had no strings.
He even went to college with her. Joseph was smart, he just needed a reason to be smart in school. So he took two years at community college, aced his classes, and was admitted to UCLA as a junior when she entered as a freshman.
And history was made.
Uncle Jimmy didn’t like outsiders, but he’d been used to having Joseph around for the last three years. When he told her to lose him so she could clean up yet another mess created by her cousin, though, Nicole put her foot down.
“Joseph is in, or I’m out.”
“You can’t walk away. We’re family. Blood.”
“Joseph is in, or I walk. Don’t test me.” She was terrified. She’d never stood up to her uncle. He was six foot four and 220 pounds. His temper was brutal, almost as brutal as her father’s. But he was family. And family stuck together, especially now. Especially after what happened to her father.
Joseph wasn’t intimidated. Nicole didn’t know how he couldn’t be, because Uncle Jimmy had two inches on him and forty pounds. Joseph had had a rough childhood, though he never talked about it. Nicole had never met his parents, didn’t even know if they were alive. He was an only child, or so he said.
“Sir, I will be an asset. I will do anything—kill anyone, sacrifice myself—to protect Niki.”
Maybe it was his tone, or something in his eyes, but Uncle Jimmy backed down.
“We’ll see,” he said. “But remember, Nicole, we have bigger plans.”
“I’m aware.”
Not only was she aware, she’d fixed all the problems with Uncle Jimmy’s Big Plan. Uncle Jimmy was smart, but he sometimes forgot that his son was a sick, twisted prick who was going to blow it for all of them.
“Get him, clean up the mess, bring him to me.”
Thirty minutes later Nicole and Joseph were standing in the middle of the whore’s bedroom. She was dead, of course.
Tobias was becoming a big fucking problem. Uncle Jimmy had kept him under control for a long time, but over the last year Tobias started disappearing on them for days or weeks at a time. And when he fucked up—like now—he’d call and beg for help and forgiveness.
Tobias was naked, sitting at the end of the bed, smoking a joint. He scowled when he saw them walk in. “Took you fucking long enough.”
Tobias was twenty-one, two years younger than Joseph, but a lifetime less mature. He was pudgy around the middle and had ham hocks for fists. How someone so stupid could come from the sperm of Uncle Jimmy was beyond Nicole’s comprehension.
Maybe it was the mix of Uncle Jimmy’s brutality and Aunt Maggie’s idiot IQ.
Nicole put on latex gloves and looked at the girl. This wasn’t the first dead girl she’d seen, but her stomach still twisted in knots. She didn’t know if it would ever get easier.
The girl had been gagged so she couldn’t scream while Tobias tortured her. Her flesh had been burned, cut, and bruised, as if he couldn’t decide what to do. His sperm had dried all over her body. Reluctantly, Nicole pressed two fingers against her neck, just to make sure she was dead.
She was very dead.
“Why didn’t you call sooner?” she snapped, turning away from the mess.
“I didn’t know she couldn’t take it.”
Nicole dry-heaved and ran to the bathroom, where she puked into the toilet. Tobias was sick, she’d always known it, but this … this was worse than anything before. Uncle Jimmy was going to have to stop him, and if that meant killing him or sending him away, so be it. He couldn’t go off and kill hookers whenever he wanted—he would eventually be caught. It would come back on the family. Their plan would be in jeopardy.
“Niki,” Joseph said quietly, standing behind her.
“I’m fine.”
“His prints are everywhere. He’s probably in the system already, from one of the others.”
This wasn’t the first girl Tobias had killed, but they’d always taken care of potential evidence. Uncle Jimmy taught her how to clean up the scene, but this was … worse than usual.
“He’ll grow out of it,” Uncle Jimmy had always said.
Nicole pretended to believe it, but now she couldn’t. She wanted Tobias caught and locked up.
But he knew too much about Uncle Jimmy. About her plans for after college. About the family. If Tobias went to prison, she would never be who she was supposed to be.
And she would never have the chance to lead the family.
“We do what Uncle Ji
mmy wants.”
“Damn straight,” Tobias said. He stood up, his dick half hard, and glanced over at the dead girl, consideration on his face.
Joseph turned and hit him. “If you were my family, you would already be dead.”
“I will kill you!” Tobias said and lunged for Joseph.
Tobias was not only weak, but stoned, and Joseph sidestepped him and then tripped him. Tobias landed on the floor with a grunt.
“Stop,” Nicole said. “Stop it!”
Tobias pulled himself up and glared at Joseph but he didn’t make a move.
That was when Nicole realized who had the real power in the family. And it wasn’t Tobias.
“This is beyond a standard cleanup,” she said. “Ideas?”
“Fire,” Joseph said. “It’s the only way to ensure everything is destroyed.”
“Done.” She looked at Joseph, felt that rush that only he gave her. Together, they were stronger. Together, she could do anything.
She said to Tobias, “Get dressed. Go to my car. Stay until I get there.”
“You’ve always been a bitch.”
“And I’ve never had to have anyone clean up my mistakes!”
Tobias made a move toward her, then glanced at Joseph and backed off. He picked up his clothes and left.
“We should let him go to prison,” Joseph said.
“He’s family,” she said, as if that answered everything.
Joseph didn’t say anything, but she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“I can’t,” she said, answering his unspoken suggestion.
“I can.”
She shook her head. “We’ll deal with Tobias later.”
She looked back at the body, but had to turn away. What had happened to her family? How could Uncle Jimmy have let this happen? “I don’t know where to begin.”
Joseph said, “This is an old apartment.” He led her from the bedroom to the living room. The heating unit was in the wall. “Gas.”
“Will that work?”
“We’ll make sure it does. Go to the bathroom. Look for nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, anything like that.”
Nicole did as Joseph said. She tried not to look at the girl’s pictures taped to the mirror. Maybe she hadn’t been a hooker. But she looked like one. Where had Tobias found her? It was a one-bedroom apartment and it didn’t look like she had a roommate, but would someone be looking for her?
Except it was after midnight. No one would be coming around now.
She found one half bottle and one full bottle of nail polish remover under the sink. No rubbing alcohol, but she found a large bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Once, when she was ten or eleven, she and her best friend had tried to lighten their hair with the stuff. It smelled awful, and made Nicole’s naturally blond hair an odd streaky white, and Jenny’s brownish hair an ugly red.
She brought the material to Joseph, who was pouring vegetable oil into a pot on the stove. “Will this work?” she asked him.
He glanced over and nodded. “Grab all the loose blankets and sheets you can find and bunch them up under the curtains in her bedroom. Douse them with the nail polish. Then grab some clothes and whatever and put those under the window in the living room. Pour the hydrogen peroxide on them.”
“When do we light them?”
“We don’t—we’re going to be long gone.”
She didn’t know what the plan was, but she trusted Joseph. She had to. She did what he said. When she was done, he was on his hands and knees in front of the heater, the front panel on the floor. She watched him blow out the pilot light.
“I don’t know how long it’ll take for the apartment to fill with gas, but it shouldn’t be too long. The flames from the stove will cause an explosion, and the bedding will keep the fire burning.”
“Shouldn’t we put it on the body?”
He shook his head. “This will work. Even if they recover her body, there won’t be any physical evidence tying her to Tobias.”
“But they’ll know this wasn’t an accident.”
“Tobias swore to Jimmy that no one saw him with the girl. If he lied, that’s on him, not us.”
She nodded. They could only do so much. “Okay. We should go.”
They left. Nicole wished she knew how long this would take, but they couldn’t wait around. Joseph had wisely parked two blocks away. There were no security cameras or anyone around who could identify them leaving the apartment in Van Nuys. By the time they reached the car, Tobias was asleep in the back.
“We should have left him there,” she mumbled.
But of course she couldn’t. Tobias was family.
She had to protect her family.
Two days later, Joseph handed her a copy of the LA Times after her chemistry class. She read it and began to shake.
“Joseph—I didn’t think—”
“I did. There was no other choice. It was either let Tobias rot or solve the problem.” He touched her chin, forced her to look at him. “I love you, Niki. I will always protect you.”
For a minute, she wanted to run away. Her and Joseph, leave the family, let Uncle Jimmy move his own damn drugs, let her flaky mother get taken by the next con artist, let Tobias rot in prison for murder, just disappear and never look back. She and Joseph, alone together.
As if he could read her mind, Joseph said, “Just say the word, Niki.”
She wanted to. Desperately.
But they were family. And only the family cared about retribution for her father’s murder.
“I can’t. I love you, Joseph, I love you so much … but they’re my family. I can’t walk away. I have to follow through. It’s my legacy.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I don’t want to lose you.”
He hugged her tight. “You will never lose me. I will be with you always. I will protect you from everyone—from your family, from your enemies, from the government. I am your protector, your lover, your soul mate.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. There was no going back.
VAN NUYS—A six-unit apartment building on Archwood Street near Saticoy and Sepulveda burned to the ground Saturday night. Four people died in the blaze, which started at approximately 2:30 a.m. The fire began in an upstairs unit rented by 19-year-old Maria Lopez, a student at a local community college. Witnesses report that they first heard an explosion. One of the complex renters, 69-year-old Hap Tomas, said the explosion woke him and he immediately ran outside. The upper floors were already on fire. He woke up the residents in the other downstairs units and they all were uninjured, treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns. Four of the six upstairs unit residents were killed. The other two weren’t at home.
The Los Angeles Fire Department released an unconfirmed report that a gas leak contributed to the fire. Arson has not been ruled out. A full investigation is under way.
* * *
Joseph watched Niki sleep. He hated that she’d spent three months in prison. They had been apart for much longer than three months over the twenty-three years he’d known her, but prison was different.
For five years he’d worked for Congresswoman Adeline Reyes-Worthington. Five miserable years. And in the end, she’d screwed up everything. It had been a pleasure to break her neck. When Niki finally was transferred to San Antonio, they saw each other when they could, which wasn’t often enough for Joseph. But now … now he wouldn’t leave her side. She needed him, more than she knew.
She may have kept Tobias on a short leash, but her incarceration had broken his chains, and she didn’t know the half of what he’d done. But Joseph knew Niki … she had to learn of his screwups on her own. She had to come to the decision herself to take him out.
He knew she would. He just prayed it wouldn’t be too late.
His phone vibrated. He reached over and looked at the screen.
A photo of their enemy, with a brief message from Dover.
Green light?
“Who is it?” Niki asked with a yawn.
He showed her the me
ssage.
“How did you set the trap? He’s never fallen for it before.”
“Patience, Niki. You have to know the enemy to defeat the enemy. I assume you want the plan to move forward?”
“Absolutely. I don’t care what they do to him, as long as they don’t kill him. I need information.”
“Understood.”
Joseph responded.
It’s a go.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
For twenty-six years, Kane Rogan had been a soldier. He’d only spent six years in the marines, but those six years had taught him a lifetime of skills and forged friendships that were stronger than blood.
Twenty years as a freelance soldier/mercenary/hostage negotiator—whatever you wanted to call it—only honed his skills. Kane had a sixth sense that only the most elite special forces units had. Mental muscle, spidey sense, whatever they called it, Kane had it—and as soon as he saw Siobhan’s cell phone on the charger in her hotel room, he knew she was in danger. Or dead.
He searched the room. Her clothes were there—just a few things, but she traveled light. A couple of changes, toiletries, her backpack.
And her camera.
Siobhan Walsh went nowhere without that damn camera, and she certainly wouldn’t leave it in a hotel overnight. He’d tracked down the taxi that had picked her up for breakfast, but instead of a restaurant, it had dropped her outside a church, Our Lady of Light. That made sense—Siobhan was Catholic, and yesterday was Sunday.
But she’d never come back to the hotel.
He grabbed her camera and cell phone and stored them in his jeep.
Kane checked out the church. The evening Mass would be starting in fifteen minutes, and he found the priest in the room behind the altar making preparations. The young priest handed one of the two altar boys the gifts and the other a large, heavy book covered in red leather. He saw Kane in the narrow entry when he looked up. Fear filled his eyes.
Kane didn’t say anything as he stepped aside to let the two boys pass. Then he said, “I’m looking for a woman who was here yesterday,” he said in Spanish. “This high”—he put his hand under his chin—“long curly red hair. Looks Irish. She would stand out.”
The priest shook his head. “Sorry, señor.”
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