Judged (The Mercenary Series Book 4)

by Marissa Farrar

  “Anyway,” I said, changing the topic, but hoping I’d put enough seeds of doubt into his head to stop him asking so many questions. “How have you gotten on with that other thing I asked you to do.”

  He nodded with a single jerk of his chin. “Yeah, I’ve been looking into it.”

  “And?”

  “Harvey Baglione was killed at Tony Mancini’s house. There are numerous blood spatters, and obviously we don’t have DNA equipment like the cops, but we think if your father spotted the body, and decided to keep hold of it, he would have called in one of the cleaners. Those guys have special places they can hold onto corpses for a length of time, just in case it’s not a good time to get rid of it yet.”

  “You got any idea what cleaner he would have used?”

  His eyes narrowed again. “Why don’t you just ask him that?”

  “I told you, I can’t bother him right now, especially not for something as trivial as this.”

  “Finding a body don’t seem trivial to me.”

  “Yeah, but getting someone out of jail isn’t something my father is going to want to be bothered with. I’ve already spoken to Joseph Monroe, and he’s working his side of things to get this guy out. We need him. He was doing some work for my father, and he can’t complete the job if he’s inside.”

  “If he’s been inside, the cops are going to be watching him. Are you sure your father would want to keep him working when he gets out?”

  I scoffed. “If we didn’t work with people who’d been inside, most of New York’s mafia would be out of business.”

  My comment caused a smile to quirk the corners of his lips. “Okay, you have a point.”

  I thought of something else. “Do we have anyone on the inside who might be able to have this guy’s back if he gets into any trouble inside?”

  Dylan’s mouth twisted. “Not in that part of the prison. He’s being remanded, right? Most of the guys in there are just parole violations and are only serving a year or less. Doesn’t mean they’re not nasty sons-of-bitches, but the guys we have inside are all on longer terms.”

  “Dammit.” Okay, that option was off the table, then. It was a shame. I would have liked to know X wasn’t on his own in there—not that I could really trust anyone.

  I moved back to the topic of finding the body. “Okay, find me the cleaner you think my father would have used, and then you can take me to him.”

  “I’m on it.”

  I saw Dylan out, and turned to find Nicole standing behind me, nibbling at her nails, something that had become a recent bad habit of hers.

  “You think he’s suspicious?” she asked.

  “Yeah, he’s suspicious, but he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be suspicious of. He’s got no way of knowing the truth, Nickie. Try not to worry.”

  I knew it was easier said than done. I worried all the time myself—about X, and the baby, and my sister, too. It was my normal frame of mind to worry about Nicole. She had barely left the house since we’d been back, except for the odd occasion when she’d come out with me to make visits to people my father used to know. I tried to encourage her to contact some of her old friends—the same ones she lamented about missing so much when we’d been in Witness Protection. Her whole reason for breaking our cover in WITSEC to Tony Mancini was that she’d wanted to come back to her old life here in New York, yet now she was back and our father was gone, she’d holed herself away like a little mouse. She told me this was enough, and that she only wanted to be here for me and the baby when he or she arrived, but I was concerned it wasn’t enough for her. She was eighteen years old, but she’d also recently lost a man she’d believed she’d loved, however brief their romance, so I told myself she was also in a period of mourning.

  “Everything will be fine, Nickie. We just have to keep it together, okay?”

  “Okay,” she replied, but from the way her teeth dug into the skin of her lower lip, I wasn’t so sure she would be.

  ***

  I went to bed that night feeling as though I wasn’t doing enough to help X. I vowed I’d do better, and would get up early the next morning to figure out what more I could do. But when I woke, I’d already slept well into mid-morning, and Nicole was standing beside my bed, holding something.

  “Vee, you got some mail.”

  I sat up. “I did?”

  No one knew I was here—at least no one official who’d want to send me anything by post. There was only one thing that I knew would arrive by mail. I took the letter from her hands and eagerly checked the official stamp on the outside. I tore the letter open.

  Finally, it was here. My official notice allowing me to visit X in jail.

  Chapter Ten

  X

  “Hey, Mason, you’ve got a visitor.”

  Sometimes I had to remind myself of my other name, so it took me a moment to realize he was talking to me and respond.

  “I do? It’s not a lawyer again, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t. Don’t just sit there. I’m not waiting around all day for you.”

  There was only one person who’d visit me here. Only one person who even knew I was here, that I was aware of, anyway. The thought of seeing Vee filled me with mixed emotions. I longed to see her more than anything, to touch her skin, to taste her mouth, to try to remember there was a life outside of this place, but at the same time, I didn’t want her to see me like this. My whole body ached from the beating I’d taken, and the hole in my hand throbbed and was crusted over with a thick, dark scab.

  I couldn’t just leave her sitting out there. It would break her heart if I didn’t visit with her. She wouldn’t take my excuse of wanting to protect her from my injuries, even though that was the truth. Vee wasn’t a woman who would appreciate being protected from anything.

  Ignoring my pains, I got to my feet and followed the corrections officer out to the visitors’ room. I did my best not to limp or hold myself at an angle. It would be a sign of weakness, and I already had enough problems. I kept my chin up, staring directly ahead so as not to catch the eye of anyone—prisoner or guard. The floor squeaked beneath my shoes, my prisoner’s uniform rough and scratching the skin of my biceps, chest, and thighs as I walked.

  She was already in the room as we approached, looking out for me, anticipation lighting her eyes. Other visitors were sitting at tables around her, some already sitting opposite the prisoners they were visiting, while some had come in pairs. The atmosphere in the place was a mixture of over-emotion, people hugging and crying, while others sat back with cold indifference.

  Vee was sitting taller than anyone else, her shoulders down, her neck lengthened as she watched out for me. My heart swelled with love for her, but then she caught sight of me and I watched dismay flood over her features, dimming the light in her eyes. The guard pushed me into the room, and she got to her feet and reached for me.

  I pulled her into my arms and held her tight. Her presence filled my soul with the nourishment it needed to keep going in here. I pressed my nose against her hair and inhaled deeply, committing the scent of her to memory. I reached down and gently pressed my palm against the swell of her stomach, a moment to say hello to our baby as well. She’d grown bigger in the last few weeks, though the loose shirt she wore covered her bump.

  Though I didn’t want to, I had to let her go. We were only allowed a brief hug hello and goodbye, and I didn’t want to do anything to give the C.O.s any more reason to act like total jackasses, even though they didn’t seem to need a reason.

  We both took our seats opposite each other at the small table. She reached out to take my hand, and noticed the large blackened scab in the center of it.

  She looked into my face with anger and despair. “Who did this to you?”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  I noticed a couple of the other prisoners looking over at her and sudden realization twisted my gut. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

  Lines formed between her dark brows. “W
hat? Why not?”

  “Your family is notorious in New York, Vee. You don’t want people seeing you here.”

  She shook her head. “If you think there’s any way I’m not going to visit you, you can think again.”

  “I just don’t think it’s safe.”

  “I don’t care. Since when has anything we’ve ever done been safe?”

  She had a point.

  “What about you?” I asked. “Where are you and Nicole staying?”

  She pressed her lips together, her gaze shifting away from me. “We’re back at the house.”

  “The house? You mean your father’s house?”

  “Yeah. I can do more from there.”

  “That sounds like a really bad idea, Vee. Everyone will be able to find you.”

  “I’m aware of that. Don’t worry. I’m covering my back.”

  “How? How could you possibly be doing that?” Fear for her safety filled me. Sure, her father might be off the scene, and we’d taken out several of the big players here in New York, but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of smaller guys trying to move through the ranks. They wouldn’t be happy with Vee getting in the way.

  She leaned forward slightly so she could lower her voice. “You talk about staying safe, but this is the only thing that’s going to do it. If I try to hide out and people—the wrong people—start to realize something has happened to my dad, they’ll track me down and kill me. Them thinking I’m back, and with my father’s forgiveness, is the only thing that’s keeping me alive right now.”

  I pushed a hand through my hair. “Jesus, Vee. You need to get away from here. You know where the lockup is. Just take the money and go.”

  “No, I’m not leaving you here. And I am using the money—it’s paying for your lawyer.”

  “The one you sent here?”

  “Yeah. He’s the best. If anyone’s going to get you off this charge, he will. He managed to free my dad, after all.”

  “He’s the one who got your father off the charges?” I wasn’t sure I liked this new piece of information. “How can you be sure we can trust him?”

  “Because if he doesn’t do a good job, he knows what will happen to him.”

  “Jesus.” I’d thought her visit was going to make me feel better about things, but instead I felt like a dangerous web was being woven around us, and we were going to end up struggling to break free. “I didn’t want the money to be spent that way, Vee. It’s supposed to be there so we can start a new life.”

  “We can’t start a new life if you’re locked up for murder.”

  “This is killing me. I hate not being with you. I feel so fucking useless in here.”

  “We’ll get you out. I promise.”

  I nodded and cast my gaze downward, taking a breath. I didn’t want for us to fight. We were all we had, and the idea of us leaving on harsh words was more than I could stand.

  I reached out and touched her fingertips with mine. “And how have you been?” I said, changing the topic. “How’s the baby?”

  She smiled and her face became radiant. “I’d show you my bump, but I’m trying not to let anyone know. I figured they’d see my pregnancy as a weakness, and I didn’t want that.”

  It was a smart move, but I didn’t expect anything less from here. “You won’t be able to hide it for much longer. You’re what, four months now?”

  She nodded. “Yes, a little over.”

  “You’re going to start showing soon.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe not. It’s my first pregnancy, so it’ll take longer to get real big, plus I’m tall, so that’ll help hide it.”

  “I need to be out of here when the baby’s born. This is hard enough, but it’ll kill me if I can’t be with you during that time. I want to see our son or daughter born. I want to be one of the first to hold him or her, and I don’t want to do it in chains.”

  “You won’t. We’ll get you out before then.”

  “But what happens in between? How long are you going to be able to pretend your father is only away? People are going to start getting suspicious when they have no contact with him.”

  “I don’t know. I’m hoping to be able to win a little of their fear and respect before that happens. If they think they might be better off with me at the helm rather than my father, they might decide to accept things as they are.”

  “And what happens when the baby is born? Or when you’re so pregnant, you’re struggling to act normal? They’re going to take advantage of that, Vee. These men, they’re not going to go all soft on your because you’re a mom. They’ll see it as an opportunity to push you out of the way.”

  “I’m hoping you won’t be in here long enough for us to reach that point.”

  Sudden anger boiled up inside me and I lifted my fist and slammed it down on the table. The couple of C.O.s seated around the visitors’ room glanced over at us and frowned. One rose slightly from his seat, but I lifted both hands and shook my head as a way of telling them everything was okay and I wouldn’t be causing any trouble.

  “God dammit. I feel so fucking useless in here. Your father certainly got the last laugh, didn’t he?”

  She fixed me with her dark eyes. “No, he didn’t, because this is just a blip. We’re going to get you out, and then we’re going to go on and live a long, happy life, the three of us—Nicole, too.”

  God, I loved this woman. Admired and respected her, too. Where others would have been crying and lamenting about how shitty life was, she was focused and determined. After everything she’d been through, she still hadn’t given up.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked. “You’re staring at me.”

  I allowed myself a small smile, though it hurt the injured side of my face. “I was just thinking how much I love you, and how fucking lucky I am to have you in my life.”

  “I’m not sure I’d call having me around lucky. Your life was a hell of a lot simpler before I came along.”

  “Maybe, but I didn’t have anything to live for back then. I was only existing. Now I have everything I could ever want—you and the baby. I don’t need anything else.”

  She nodded, her lips pressed together, as though she couldn’t quite bring herself to smile. “I feel the same way. We’ll get through this, just like we’ve gotten through everything else.”

  I hoped she was right.

  Chapter Eleven

  V

  Seeing X hurt like that had almost killed me, though I had done my best not to let my emotions show. Each time I closed my eyes, I saw his bruised, swollen jaw, and the hole in the back of his hand. I could only imagine what other injuries he hid beneath his prison clothes.

  I knew he was more worried about me than he was himself. I was going back to visit him again, no matter what he said. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for people to see us together, but I couldn’t go months without seeing his face. Having to go for days and weeks was hard enough. All I wanted was to be with him, and yet the universe had conspired to keep us apart.

  No, not the universe. My fucking father. If he’d only left X alone, we could all have gotten out of the city—hell, the country—by now. Even Nicole had come to the understanding that staying in New York wasn’t going to be any kind of future for us. I think losing Mateo had made her realize that. The possibility of losing another person she loved to violence was enough to make her want to start somewhere new. I noticed how all her old friends no longer hung around, no one had called or been to see her. She was tainted goods now, and people had been most likely warned not to get involved with us. Couldn’t say I blamed them.

  “How was he?” asked Nicole when I got back to the house.

  “Not good. Someone had been beating on him, though he wouldn’t say who.”

  Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, no! I can’t imagine X ever letting someone get away with that.”

  “It’s different in there.” Sadness filled my voice. “Everything’s different.”

  I could see she didn’t know wha
t to say. I was normally the strong one, but right now I felt sapped of strength. I couldn’t make her feel better right now.

  Exhausted from the emotional strain of the day, I went to bed. Sleep was something I needed more than ever. I could sleep for twelve hours straight now if given the chance. Before I’d gotten pregnant, it would have been a good night if I managed to get six hours.

  I didn’t even bother to undress, just climbed beneath the covers in my clothes and tried not to think about what might be happening to X.

  ***

  I opened my eyes, staring into the darkness. What had woken me?

  My hands slid down to my belly, the skin stretched almost impossibly thin, a swollen abdomen that didn’t feel like it belonged to me. My mind hitched. How was it possible the baby was so big? I was only four months along, wasn’t I? How had I missed the last five months? I didn’t know. I was confused, but at the same time I seemed to accept it. Inside of me, the baby pushed, a tiny fist pressing back against my palm. I gasped in surprise, a smile spreading across my face.

  “Hello, little one,” I said, softly, hoping my child would be able to hear me. The baby pushed again and awe filled me. I’d never felt so connected to another person before. The child was a part of me, but was another person in his or her own right, too. It suddenly struck me what a miracle carrying a child was.

  A weight pressed down on the end of the bed, something large and heavy, and the feeling of wonder I’d been experiencing at feeling my own child vanished, and was replaced by dread.

  “Hello, Verity.”

  My father’s voice.

  My breath caught in my chest, tears prickling my eyes. How was he here? He was supposed to be dead.

  Not dead. He never died out there. You knew that all along, you just didn’t want to consider the possibility.