He looked down as he pulled out the pistol with the fresh magazine. It was already locked and loaded. He closed his eyes for a moment as the chorus of gunshots blasting through books and wooden shelving filled the air entirely. He took a deep breath when he heard Lexi scream again, and to his surprise Lauren’s face appeared. She wasn’t smiling, she wasn’t speaking; instead she just gave a solemn nod. Lawson wasn’t a man who ever contemplated the afterlife. He’d always felt it was a waste of time pondering something that no one had ever seen. But what he felt when he saw Lauren nod to him in his mind’s eye was something more than just a daydream. And even though he knew it wasn’t really her, and she wasn’t really there, he felt a calm come over him.
A cold and knowing calm.
Knowing, because he was doing all that he could do to save his daughter. How she got there, how he got there, and all that happened to put them in that horrible position, none of it mattered. Cold, because it didn’t matter what he had to do, he just had to save her. He was willing to die right there in that room if it would set Lexi free of all the terrible things these men had brought into her life. She may never be able to live a normal life due to the scars of these horrific moments, but with God as his witness, Lawson was going to make sure she at least had the chance.
Lawson rose to his feet. Behind him he heard one of the guns click, an empty magazine, and the automatic gunfire stopped. He took three steps toward the aisle that separated the rows of book shelves, turned the corner, and the entire office came into view. Forty feet away, he could see his first three bullets hit the chest area of a man swapping out a magazine in his large gun. Lawson had found him in his sights immediately when he turned the corner, because when he rushed into the office a moment ago, he had marked one of the guards as standing directly below the six on the large clock hanging from the back wall.
Lawson moved his pistol two inches to the right, and as he squeezed the trigger, he felt two painful thumps hit his chest and stomach, nearly taking his breath away. The bullets hitting his vest stopped him dead in his tracks. Dazed, he watched the second guard drop to the ground. Lawson’s bullets had hit their mark. With the room finally free of gunfire, Lexi screaming “Lawson! No!” echoed in the large open office. Lawson took a second to peek down his shirt, and though the pain was severe, the bulletproof vest had done its job. He looked up to tell Lexi he was okay, when he felt what seemed like a Mack truck blindside him, literally knocking him off his feet. He slammed into the bookshelf two feet behind him, the top of his neck and back of his head taking most of the impact. He had forgotten about the man guarding the elevator.
Lawson barely had time to look up before being yanked up by the shoulders of his bulletproof vest, and the next thing he knew, he was flying through the air and then crashing into the coffee table in front of the couches. His back smashed through the wood table, and he landed sitting upright on the floor, propped against the oversized chair. His back was turned to De Luca and Lexi, but he could hear De Luca laughing. And he could now see what was strong enough to throw him around like a rag doll.
Vincent Ricci.
De Luca’s number one enforcer. More of a gorilla than a man. He began stalking toward Lawson. Lawson tried to move, but his body was temporarily out of commission.
“Told you I would see you soon, Raines.” He tossed a couch aside and kept walking toward Lawson. “And I told you you’d be getting yours, and here it is. Much better to embarrass you in front of your daughter than a bunch of prison inmates anyway.”
De Luca must have pulled some strings to get him out of jail. The longer Lawson had been out of prison, the more it seemed laws didn’t apply to anyone anymore. Especially a lifelong criminal with money like De Luca. Lawson wanted to say something to Vince, but he still hadn’t gotten his wind back that had just been knocked out of him.
“Leave him alone!” Lexi screamed.
Vince once again grabbed Lawson by the vest and stood him up. “Cute kid. Too bad this is how she will remember her daddy.” He punched Lawson in the gut so hard that it felt like Vince’s knuckles scraped against his spine. “As a sorry son of bitch who couldn’t do a damn thing to save her.”
De Luca spoke up. “Stop talking and end this thing, Vince.”
Lexi screamed again. “No! Leave him alone!”
Lawson turned to look at his beautiful daughter. Her face a shade of red that only fear and hurt could turn a person. The tears running down her cheeks glistened in the overhead lights. Lawson tried to take a breath, but it still wasn’t coming.
“Let go of him!” Lexi screamed again.
This time, Dan stepped around Erin, and Lawson caught a glimpse of what Lexi’s childhood with that man was like.
“I said shut your mouth, Lexi!” Dan screamed. Then he slapped her.
When Lawson saw the man who murdered his wife put his hands on Lexi, something broke in him. It was almost as if he could hear it click. As Lexi grabbed at her face and sobbed in pain, Lawson turned his head and locked eyes with Vince. Vince must have seen it too because his chiseled jaw went slack and he pulled back his fist, almost, it seemed, out of fear. When he brought his fist forward, Lawson simply lowered his head, and when Vince’s fist slammed into the top of Lawson’s skull, everyone in the room could hear his hand break. As Vince took two steps back and shook his arm in pain, that breath finally came to Lawson. And when he heard Lexi shout the words “Get him, Daddy!” enough adrenaline flooded his system to fuel three men.
“Kill him, Vince! Now!” De Luca shouted from behind his desk.
However, for the first time since Lawson had known Vince, he saw in his eyes that he wasn’t sure he could make it happen. Lawson stepped forward. The monster that had come to life in prison was still there inside him. Stronger than ever. Because now, this wasn’t only about his survival, it was about the survival of his daughter as well.
Lawson jabbed a lightning left hand to Vince’s throat, striking his Adam’s apple. Vince’s hands shot up to cover his throat, and Lawson delivered a right hand to his forehead, thrown so hard that the 250-pound man backpedaled five steps from the force. He caught himself on the arm of a chair and stood himself up straight. But Lawson was already on his way in. He rushed forward, lowered his head, wrapped both arms around Vince’s waist, drove him backward, pushed against the man’s barrel chest as he moved his right foot behind Vince’s left leg, and tripped him. Lawson landed on top of Vince on the floor and immediately passed over his legs into a full mount.
“Shoot him, Kevin!” De Luca shouted. “Do your job!”
Lawson heard De Luca, but it didn’t register. All he saw was red. Vince reached both arms up to try to block, but it didn’t matter. Lawson drove his forearm down so hard that it went right through Vince’s muscular arms, and his elbow glanced off the top of Vince’s head. Vince’s arms went limp, he was unconscious. Lawson raised back up and dropped the same elbow, but this time it landed flush to Vince’s forehead.
De Luca was incensed. “I said shoot him! Do it now!”
After one more elbow, Vince was dead.
Lawson stood, hovered over him for a moment, then turned to find the man in the room whom he hadn’t first recognized holding a gun on him. Beside him, De Luca was incredulous. “I told you to shoot him, Watson, what are you waiting for?”
The FBI hit man Lawson had let live early that morning in his hotel room at the Flamingo had Lawson dead to rights. His moment of weakness was going to get him killed and ruin the rest of his daughter’s life in the process.
45
As Lawson stared helplessly down the barrel of Watson’s gun, it occurred to him that his initial instinct about FBI Director Adam Billings had been correct. He wasn’t the type of man to collude with the mob. De Luca had bought Kevin Watson and had clearly brought him in to take Lawson out if his plan of getting Lawson to work for him backfired like it did. Director Billings didn’t send Watson in. Cassie had been mistaken. Her initial speech back at the motel was pro
bably true. Billings probably wanted Lawson back with the FBI so he could go after De Luca again, the legal way, and bring him down once and for all.
That revelation only brought on more questions. If Director Billings hadn’t been leaking information to the De Lucas about how close Cassie and Lawson were to taking them down ten years ago, then how did they know to come after Lawson to stop it from happening? And why was it Cassie’s husband, Bobby, and Dan who came out to the boat that morning?
Lawson knew that he would never get those answers, so none of it mattered now. But the mind runs independently of its host sometimes, and you never know what you’ll think about in the last moments of your life. Lawson was a detective through and through, so it wasn’t surprising that in his final moments his mind was full of questions.
“Shoot him!” De Luca screamed.
Dan turned toward Watson and raised both arms, palms up in frustration. “What the hell are you waiting for, man? Shoot the big bastard. Or give me the gun so I can!”
Lawson knew he was a dead man, but he didn’t want to go without at least telling his wife’s killer that he knew. He glanced over at Lexi, and to his surprise she was looking at him. Not with fear in her eyes the way he had expected. Instead, she was tapping her index finger on the left pocket of her jeans and looking at him wide eyed as if she was trying to tell him something.
The recorder.
Lawson slid his hand in his pocket.
“Hold it right there,” Watson shouted. “Take your hand from your pocket slowly, or I will shoot you right now.”
“Give me your gun right now, Watson,” De Luca said. “I’ll shoot him myself!”
Watson glanced at De Luca. “I’m not going to kill him in front of his daughter.”
Lawson slowly lifted his hand out of his pocket then raised both hands about shoulder high.
“Just tell me one thing before you have me killed, Nero. You at least owe me that much.”
De Luca scowled. “I don’t owe you anything, Raines.”
Lawson asked anyway. “How did you know Cassie and I were about to take you and your father down?”
Dan stepped forward. “I’d be happy to tell you that, Lawson.” Dan had a knowing smirk on his face. He glanced at De Luca, and when De Luca didn’t stop him, Dan continued. “I used to be a big-time poker player here in Vegas. One of the best. But I only played where the real money was, not these big flashy television tournaments. One night I’m at a table with this guy named Bobby. I could tell he was a small-timer, but he was on a good run that night. After I took him down in a heads-up cash game, I took him out for some drinks. He was a lightweight, couldn’t stop talking about his girlfriend and how she was about to take down some big crime boss named Tony De Luca. Then I became interested. At first, I thought he was just some drunk, spouting off about things he didn’t really know about. Then he mentions your name, Lawson.”
Dan smiled at him. He was loving this moment, Lawson could tell. Lawson didn’t react.
“I remembered Erin here saying something about you being in the FBI in Vegas. She was always wanting to go see Lauren, but I couldn’t let her be hanging out with some Fed’s wife. I don’t care if it was her own sister.”
Erin began to cry. Lexi tried to console her by rubbing her shoulder.
“Give it a rest, Erin,” Dan told her.
“Finish the story, Dan,” De Luca said. “I want to see the look on Lawson’s face.”
“Right, anyway. So when I heard your name, Lawson, I knew the guy was telling the truth about the FBI, and how you and your partner were about to take down De Luca.”
Lawson finally spoke. “So, for a little money, you killed your wife’s sister?”
Erin stood from the chair she was sitting in. A look of shock hung on her face. “You did what?” she said to Dan.
“Money? No, no. This wasn’t about money. Not for me. For Bobby maybe, but not me. No, I owed Tony De Luca everything. About two years before all of this, I was completely broke and owed a lot of money to a lot of bad people. Tony De Luca bought my debt and let me have time to pay him back. I owed the man my life.”
Lawson couldn’t believe the series of events that had led to all of this tragedy.
To the murder of his wife.
“So anyway,” Dan continued, “we did a little investigating of our own and found out that you were the lead in the investigation of the De Lucas. Nero here asked me to take care of it for Tony, so I did. As you can probably guess, it was supposed to be you. But your pretty wife got in the middle of it. Good thing De Luca here had the chief of police and the district attorney in his pocket.”
De Luca laughed. “I knew it would come in handy. But even I didn’t know they would be able to pin all of that on you. Money and power make up for a lot of sins, Lawson.”
Dan spoke again. “I wish it would have been you I killed on that boat, Lawson. I really do. But watching the way everyone worked together to make sure you took the fall was quite a sight to see. That’s why I made friends with the De Lucas when I did. You never want to be on the bad side of powerful men like them. You should have thought of that instead of trying to take them down. So, really, it’s your fault your wife is dead.”
Lawson made a move for Dan. He couldn’t listen to another word.
“Hold it, Lawson.” Watson stepped closer to Dan and made sure Lawson could see he still had the gun on him.
“I’ll never forget the way she looked in that yellow bikini.” Dan whistled and licked his lips.
A rush of anger flooded over every inch of Lawson’s body.
Then something happened that none of them saw coming, not Nero De Luca, not Dan, and especially not Lawson.
Watson looked over at De Luca. “So it’s true? Lawson didn’t really kill his wife?”
De Luca gave a disgusted look. “Who the hell cares, I’m not the FBI. I’m not paying you to give a damn about who did what.”
Now Watson looked disgusted. “Who cares? I almost shot an innocent man. And it almost got me killed. I would be dead if Lawson hadn’t spared me. You said the governor only pardoned him because Lawson was doing him favors. You assured me that he was a murderer and that he was coming to kill you because of an old grudge. I would have never—”
“Who is this guy you hired, De Luca? A priest?” Dan butted in.
Watson turned the gun on Dan and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Dan’s smirk blew against the far wall, along with the rest of his head.
Lexi and Erin fell to the floor in a defensive position as they screamed and sobbed in fear.
“What the hell are you doing?” De Luca shouted as he backed up against the wall behind him.
“Lawson could have killed me this morning,” Watson replied.
De Luca said, “What are you talking about? You said you never found him!”
Watson disregarded De Luca. “But instead, he let me live.”
“And I paid you to kill him. So kill him, you son of a bitch!” De Luca pleaded. “Lawson doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air that we do.”
Lawson began to walk toward De Luca.
“What are you doing? Shoot him!” De Luca shouted.
Watson took a step back and tucked his pistol down in his shoulder holster.
“SHOOT HIM!” De Luca pleaded one last time. His face finally held true fear, instead of that smug “I own the world” smirk. This time, his words didn’t come out forceful, they were more of a frightened yelp.
It fell on deaf ears.
Lawson walked right by Watson. Watson didn’t try to stop him.
De Luca turned to Lawson who was coming at him fast. “You touch me and so help me God I will make sure that you and your daughter will end up just like your wife!”
Lawson held the switchblade in hand, the blade already out of its sheath. He took one last step forward, and with the arc of an uppercut Lawson swung the knife up as hard as he could, jamming it all the way through Nero De Luca’s throat. He stared into De
Luca’s dying eyes as he held the knife in place. He wanted to watch him go. He wanted to watch the man responsible for a lifetime of pain finally get what was coming to him. Lawson could only hope that whatever awaited De Luca on the other side was even worse than his final moments there on earth.
Lawson searched his eyes, shook him, making sure De Luca could still hear him.
“There’s a special place in hell for you, De Luca. Be sure to say hello to your father for me.”
46
The entire next day was a total nightmare for all parties involved. The police showed up at De Luca’s mansion not long after Lawson ended Nero De Luca’s miserable life. Lawson had a mind to run before they arrived, but he honestly didn’t have the heart. He did, however, tell Kevin Watson about the secret escape route through the cellar. They all decided together that no one would ever say a word about seeing the FBI hit man there. Though his voice was on the tape, Lawson would just say he didn’t know who the man was. Letting Watson live after torturing him in that hotel room ended up being one of the most fortuitous decisions that Lawson ever made. And like most of the good decisions in his life, he never would have made it without Lauren. Her voice acting as his conscience had saved not only his life but most certainly Lexi’s and Erin’s as well.
Even though Lawson was able to produce the recording of Dan confessing to everything, he and Cassie still had to spend the night in jail. Until the police were able to put all of the day’s murderous events together, they couldn’t let them go. For Lawson, it was a familiar feeling being locked in that cage. He imagined it was a much harder night for Cassie, seeing as how she had never been on the inside of those bars. Lexi and Erin were held at a nearby hotel, guards at the door but the location undisclosed.
The hardest part about the night in jail for Lawson wasn’t the fact that he was behind bars; it was because he wasn’t sure where things stood with his daughter. Twenty-four hours ago she wasn’t sure if he had murdered her mother or not. And while Lawson was confident in the fact that she now believed he wasn’t responsible for Lauren’s death, he still didn’t know where that left them. They had shared some tender moments in the car. She had called him “Daddy” when things were getting crazy in De Luca’s office. But that didn’t mean she wanted to be around him. All things considered, they were strangers. Lawson of course didn’t feel that way. You could spend a lifetime away from your child and there would still be that overwhelming bond you feel toward them. Lawson could only pray that Lexi felt that same pull.
When the Man Comes Around: A Gripping Crime Thriller (Lawson Raines, Book 1) Page 20
