No Good Deed

by Allison Brennan

  * * *

  Maggie Hunt strode through her house to the oversized country kitchen. “Are they gone?” she snapped at Tito.

  “Yep,” he said, pointing to the security screen. “Just turned onto the road.”

  Tito was slow but loyal, and had been with the family for years. He couldn’t think on his feet, but he followed orders well. Maggie said, “I need everyone here in one hour for a family meeting—no excuses. Except George and Trina—send them to the vault. I want every gun and bullet we have stashed back here before dark. If the feds come back, they’re not getting in. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He ran out the back door to track down the half a dozen people who worked for Maggie on the property. Then he’d call in the rest. Family—which included blood as well as those they’d adopted.

  With Tito on his errand, she sat down and grabbed one of the many burner phones she had. This one was international.

  She stared at the wall of photos. Jimmy and his idea of family. He could be such a fool sometimes, but she loved him. He had the vision, she had the brains.

  Jimmy answered. “Yep.”

  “It’s me.”

  “Mags.” His voice softened and she felt that little jolt in her stomach that reminded her why she had loved this man for forty-three years. “How are you, baby?”

  She wanted to say fine, that everything was working the way it was supposed to, and she’d be down to visit him next month, as planned.

  “I was great until ten minutes ago when the FBI came knocking.”

  “You knew they would eventually. Once they realized Nicole’s file was fake they would have learned about us.”

  “They asked about Tobias.”

  “I should have told you about that.”

  Her hand tightened around her phone. In the calmest voice she could muster, she said, “What haven’t you told me, Jimmy? Tobias can’t handle himself around the feds. They’ll kill him.” Her voice rose. “If anything happens to my son—”

  “Shh, baby, Nicole and Joseph are taking care of him, like always.”

  “How do they know? How did the FBI put it together so quickly?”

  “They made a leap they can’t prove.”

  “Explain,” she said, fuming. The only way their organization worked was if no one knew who Tobias was. He was the unknown but powerful leader. As long as they kept up that illusion, everything worked. But if their competition found out that he was the weak link, they’d push back. That would cost time, money, and territory.

  She wasn’t going to lose her only child. Or her money.

  “Truthfully, Mags, it’s his own fault. When Nicole went to jail he started thinking on his own, and you know how he gets. When I told him to kill Harper Worthington to keep Adeline in line, he came up with an asinine plan and used Elise.”

  “Oh God, no.” Maggie sat down heavily. Elise was a wild card. Maggie didn’t trust her, not because she’d go to the cops, but because she was half crazy. Considering how crazy Tami had become over the years it was no wonder the kid was fucked up.

  “Nicole’s the only one who was ever able to get Tobias or Elise to do what they were supposed to, once I was forced to leave the States. Nicole was in fucking solitary confinement. What was I supposed to do?”

  Grow some balls. But she didn’t say that. Jimmy, living the high life down in Mexico, while she kept the family together.

  Nicole’s arrest had come before they had all the pieces of the operation set up. But it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Because Nicole was smart, and she had an escape plan, one that Maggie had helped her create. Everything had worked exactly as they planned … except the FBI should never have been able to connect Tobias to Nicole, or Joseph to Nicole.

  She frowned. How had the feds found out about Joseph? He was wanted for killing Adeline—how did they know he worked for the family? Or were they just fishing?

  That was most likely. That’s how the fucking feds operated.

  “I’m sorry, babe,” she said, “until Nicole retrieves the money we lost when Adeline went off the deep end, we’re at a standstill.”

  “There’s no more hiding in the shadows,” Jimmy said. “The feds know because that bastard Kane Rogan has been feeding them information. But Joseph came up with a plan and Rogan’s as good as dead.”

  “At least that’s one piece of good news. And the feds who screwed our plans? Donnelly and Kincaid? Are they as good as dead?”

  “All in good time.”

  “That means you don’t have a fucking plan. Dammit, Jimmy!”

  “Look, Mags, I know you’re upset, but we have it under control. Nicole will locate our money and get it back. She’s smart, you know that. And we still have a few people on the inside.”

  “Speaking of people on the inside—take care of Adam.”

  “He’s already dead,” Jimmy said.

  “What the fuck happened?” Maggie’s orderly life was spinning out of control. For years she’d kept this family together and now her careful, meticulous plans were unraveling.

  “You just said to take care of him, who cares how it happened?”

  “Tell me,” she said through clenched teeth.

  “We sent him to take care of Rogan. He’s the one who got that redhead Rogan is hot about. We had him … then he went all Rambo on our men. The girl saw Dover, and he let Rogan get the girl out. I told Dover she dies or he dies. I don’t know that he believed me until he was dead.”

  “The feds know Dover lied in Nicole’s file.”

  “Don’t matter now.”

  “Of course it matters! Shit, Jimmy, are you fucking stoned? They’ll go through Dover’s files with a fine-tooth comb. How do you know he didn’t keep logs? Records? Proof?”

  “He didn’t.”

  “You’re un-fucking-believable.”

  “He had no reason for leverage. He’s been in our back pocket since he whacked John.”

  “We need to pull everyone out. The feds are too close and they are going to ruin everything.”

  “Nicole has it under control. She’ll come through. She always does.”

  “I’m worried, Jimmy. In all these years, I’ve never been worried like I am right now.”

  “Baby, come to me.”

  “I can’t just up and leave!”

  “Pull our safety net and get your gorgeous ass down here.”

  She wanted to. But what if Tobias needed her? He was in over his head. She was his mother—she had to protect him. She trusted Nicole, but Joseph had always hated Tobias. She should have killed Joseph before Nicole got so attached to him.

  “I’ve missed you, Mags.”

  She sighed. “I need to protect our son.”

  “Nicole will do it.”

  “Tell him to meet me at the safe house in Mexico.”

  “But—”

  “Do it, Jimmy. I can’t bear to find out the feds killed him. Tobias only listens to you.”

  “You’re right, as always. One of the many reasons I love you, Mags.”

  “Call me when it’s done, and I’ll come down.”

  She hung up. Yeah, she loved him and he loved her. But she’d heard the other woman on her husband’s end. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was her own damn fault. She’d willingly shared her husband with Tami because Maggie didn’t like some of Jimmy’s proclivities, and if Tami was willing to play his sick games, great—she no longer had to. But with Tami gone, and Jimmy in Mexico, Maggie couldn’t expect him to remain celibate. They could only be together a few weeks of the year … and those weeks were spent working or keeping Tobias from doing something stupid.

  And that was the biggest problem. All Maggie wanted from Jimmy was to protect their son. She knew Tobias had some problems, and she and Jimmy had tried to cure him. They managed to channel his sexual urges toward prostitutes and other whores who wouldn’t go to the police, but they had to teach him not to kill the bitches. And most of the time he was able to control himself. The who
res were well paid, and everyone was happy.

  He slipped a time or two, but they always fixed it.

  Jimmy should have seen that with Nicole in jail, he needed to leave his sanctuary in Mexico and take charge in San Antonio. If he’d done what a patriarch should do, Tobias and Elise would never have hatched such an insane plan, Adeline wouldn’t have gotten so freaked, and they could have extracted their money with minimal bloodshed.

  At least, no bloodshed until after the money was in their bank account.

  But Jimmy was always more concerned about his own neck, and that weakness in her husband made her want to loathe him, even after forty-three years of loving him. Everything they’d done had been for family. Their family, by blood or by choice. Who was going to protect Tobias and Elise when she and Jimmy were dead? They were in their sixties, dammit, they wouldn’t live forever. That they’d made it this far was nothing short of miraculous.

  And a whole lot of common sense. Her common sense.

  She made a series of calls, starting with the son.

  * * *

  Joseph straightened his spine when he heard the voice on the other end.

  “Aunt Maggie.”

  Maggie wasn’t his aunt, but she liked it when he pretended.

  “Who took the money and when will you have it back?”

  Joseph glanced at Nicole. She was going through the files—the second set of files—that he’d gotten for her earlier today when Tobias left with the original flash drive. But at the mention of Maggie’s name, Nicole jerked her head up and stared at him with wide, concerned eyes.

  “We have a lot of paperwork to get through. We’re looking. We’ll have the answers soon.”

  “Look faster. The feds have connected Tobias to Nicole and Nicole to me. But they don’t know most of it. Yet.”

  He tensed. “Which feds?”

  “The FBI. A bitch named Novak. They also know about you, though they haven’t put your relationship with Nicole together yet. How did they do that? Why would they come here—to my home—asking about who Nicole was involved with in college?”

  Joseph closed his eyes. He didn’t see how they’d put it together … except all the puzzle pieces were there. Adeline’s connection to Tobias and the money laundering. The fact that he’d worked for Adeline and the FBI thought (rightly) that he’d killed her. It wouldn’t take much of a leap to figure that he was also working for Tobias.

  And then there was Elise. Playing the victim could only go so far. Sometimes she thought she was smarter than she actually was.

  “Elise is in custody.”

  “Tobias assures me that she’ll be out tomorrow, and she’s in a psychiatric hold, not federal prison.”

  “You know she likes to play these games—”

  “She may be young, but she’s not stupid. I need you to be the man here, Joseph.”

  It was her tone that made him tense. Hadn’t he proven to her over and over again that he’d kept her family safe for years?

  “I’ve always done what is required,” he said, his voice low.

  Nicole jumped up and grabbed his arm. Don’t make her mad, she mouthed.

  “I know you have,” Maggie said apologetically, “but we’ve never been so … vulnerable.”

  “That’s because Tobias put himself on Kane Rogan’s radar, and that bastard doesn’t stop. But we almost have him.”

  “Almost isn’t good enough. And Kane Rogan isn’t in the FBI or the DEA. So why do these damn federal agencies know so much about our operation and our people?”

  “They have poured all of their resources into looking for Niki. You know that, Aunt Maggie. And Rogan has a family connection in the FBI now, here in San Antonio. We’re going to take care of it, but she’s not as easy to get to as the others. If we want our money, we need to be patient. It would help us tremendously if you could tell your son not do anything without talking to Nicole first.”

  “What? What happened?” She sounded panicked, as well she should be. But Joseph kept his voice calm and respectful.

  “Tobias seems to think that he can find the money, and he left the safe house after I explicitly told him not to. And he’s not answering his phone.” Joseph needed to soften his voice. Maggie was so damn protective of her lunatic son that if she thought he was a threat to Tobias, she’d try to have him killed.

  “Aunt Maggie,” he said calmly, “Tobias went wild when Nicole was in jail, and I had my hands full putting together the escape. Everything went off perfectly. Except now Tobias is a loose cannon and he isn’t sticking to the plan. The plan you helped us create,” he added.

  “Jimmy is recalling Tobias to Mexico immediately. By tomorrow, Tobias will be at the safe house.”

  Joseph would believe that when it happened. “Thank you, Aunt Maggie.”

  “Bring Elise home, I don’t want her on her own. She’s still a child.”

  Child? Hardly. But Joseph didn’t comment.

  “And get our money back!” She hung up.

  He walked over to the bar and poured himself a double Scotch. Nicole put her head on his back and wrapped her arms around his body.

  “I would have talked to her.”

  “Oil and water,” he said. “Did you make any inroads?”

  “I’ve gone through all the memos Dunbar wrote about the case. He only mentioned you a couple of times. His focus was on Adeline and the people she was helping—lobbyists, businessmen, other politicians. He knew nothing about Tobias except what the FBI told him. I’m now going through messages that other people sent him around the time that the money was moved from our accounts to the FBI. I just hope I’m faster than Tobias at figuring this out.”

  “Or that Maggie can get through to him,” Joseph said. “Because he’s this close to getting a bullet in his head.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  By the time Nate drove Lucy home, it was after ten and she was exhausted. No surprise there. Hans followed in an FBI pool car.

  Nate checked the entire house. He also double-checked that Lucy had set the alarm.

  Lucy showed Hans to the guest room upstairs, since Nate was taking the downstairs suite. Then she started pulling leftovers out of the refrigerator to warm. Someone had brought takeout to the Bureau, but it was gone before Lucy could get much of a meal, and she hadn’t been that hungry at six. Then the scene at the bar—by the time the FBI had come to assist with the marshals, SAPD was on-site and their SWAT team breached the facility. The shooter was dead, one civilian seriously injured, and one cop had been shot in the arm and was in surgery—the bullet had done some serious damage, though he was expected to fully recover.

  Now she was famished.

  By the time she had everything reheated, both Nate and Hans had finished with showers and returned to the kitchen.

  “This is a nice place, Lucy,” Hans said. “You like it here?”

  “I love San Antonio and the house. Sean picked it out, ordered furniture, did all the things I wouldn’t have thought about. It feels like home. I told Sean the house was too big, but he expects us to have company.”

  Nate grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and said, “Have you heard from Sean?”

  She shook her head. “I was hoping you had.”

  She wanted to call him, but she also didn’t want to put them in danger. After going down to rescue the boys three months ago, Lucy understood, at least in part, the danger Kane faced almost every day.

  And now Sean was in the middle of it, too.

  The doorbell rang and Nate’s hand immediately went for his weapon, though he didn’t draw it.

  Lucy walked to the front door, but Nate beat her there and looked at the security screen that Sean had installed in the wall.

  “Jack?” Lucy said, incredulous. “That’s my brother.” She quickly disengaged the alarm and opened the door. She couldn’t keep the grin off her face. “Jack! What on earth—why didn’t you tell me you were in town?” She practically leapt into his arms as she hugged him.

>   He squeezed her so hard that he pulled her feet off the ground. “Luce.” He kissed her forehead and put her back down.

  Nate closed and locked the door, then reset the alarm. “Nate Dunning,” he said and extended his hand. “Good to finally meet you, sir.”

  Jack took his hand and shook it. “Likewise. Call me Jack.”

  “What are you doing—” She stopped mid-sentence. “Oh God, no. Sean—” She started shaking.

  “Lucy, don’t go there.” Jack draped his arm over her shoulders. “Sean is fine as far as I know. He sent a coded report a few hours ago. He and Blitz located Kane. Kane is in hiding and lost his equipment. I don’t have details, but Sean and Blitz are waiting until full dark to extract him.” He glanced at his watch, and Lucy suspected that whatever was happening was happening right now. “I would have been here sooner, but I flew myself out. I needed to bring some supplies that wouldn’t pass through commercial airport security.” He motioned toward the duffel bag he’d dropped on the floor.

  She couldn’t respond. The fear for Sean’s safety had been sudden and very real.

  Hans stepped out into the foyer. “I thought I heard a familiar voice,” he said. “I gather this is a surprise visit.”

  “I smell food, and I could definitely eat something,” Jack said. He looked around. “Sean did good,” he said.

  “You’re the first in the family to see it,” Lucy said. “Dillon and Kate were supposed to come out a few weeks ago, but they canceled on us. Patrick is busy splitting his time between DC and San Francisco.” She brought out plates and utensils.

  “I can hear the eye roll in your voice, Lucy,” Jack said.

  “Cannot.”

  “Can too.” He pulled her hair like Patrick used to do when she was a little girl. Jack had already enlisted in the army when Lucy was born; they’d only become close over the last few years.

  Lucy hadn’t quite accepted Patrick’s girlfriend. She knew it wasn’t fair to Elle, or to Patrick, but in the six months they’d been involved, Elle had gotten into trouble half a dozen times. Patrick dropped everything to fly to San Francisco, and all Lucy wanted to ask was, What had she done before Patrick saved her butt the first time? “Patrick took a temporary assignment in New York a couple of weeks ago, and she went out with him. Sean wanted to meet up with them last weekend, but then Carina had the baby.”