Hit List

by Darcia Helle

  Color rose in Ian’s cheeks. Holly’s tone bordered on insensitive. So much for sisterly love. Lucianna decided now would be a good time for her to jump in. She said, “Was Corinne seeing anyone new that you’re aware of?”

  Holly reluctantly shifted her attention to Lucianna. She twirled a few silky strands of hair around her finger. “Not that I recall,” she said. “Just that Sam character. Although why she wasted her time with that man I will never know.”

  “You didn’t like him?” Lucianna asked.

  “Oh, it wasn’t that I didn’t like him. He simply had nothing to offer.”

  Ian cleared his throat but said nothing. Lucianna asked, “Did Corinne mention anyone by the name of Ben?”

  “No,” Holly replied. “But it’s not like she told me everything, especially when it came to the men in her life.”

  “Why is that?” Lucianna asked.

  Holly shrugged, twirled her hair some more. “I’m married to a very successful stockbroker. Perhaps that intimidates her. You know, perhaps she’s jealous.”

  Lucianna doubted that was the reason but she left it alone. She glanced at Ian, wondering if he was ready to ask the big question. The one that mattered most. He met her eyes and held them for a moment. She could have sworn that electric currents flowed between the two of them.

  Ian turned to Holly and, his voice soft and carefully controlled, said, “Holly, we’ve gotten some information about my mother that might help explain what happened to her.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Holly exclaimed with a clap of her hands. “Is it depression? Or alcohol? Like she was a closet alcoholic or something? Will they be able to cure her?”

  “It’s nothing like that,” Ian said. He raked his hand through his hair and inhaled sharply. “Did my mother have another child?”

  Holly’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What are you talking about?”

  “When I was about four,” Ian said. “Was my mother pregnant? Did she have another child? A daughter?”

  Holly squirmed uncomfortably. Lucianna said, “Holly, it’s vital that we have this information. We can’t help Corinne until we know the truth.”

  Silence filled the room. When Holly finally spoke, her voice was an octave higher. “What could something that did or did not happen twenty-six years ago possibly have to do with anything now?”

  “It could have everything to do with it,” Ian said. “We don’t have time to explain it all to you now but something happened, Holly. My mother is terrified to remember, so she lives in this pathetic little world of meaningless babble. If you know anything, you have to tell us.”

  “What is she terrified of?” Holly asked.

  The muscles in Ian’s jaw flexed. Lucianna swore she could hear his molars crunching. She allowed an edge of impatience to her voice as she said, “If we knew that, we wouldn’t be here asking you these questions.”

  Holly looked Lucianna’s way but didn’t meet her eyes. She kept her gaze fixed on the floor. Her hands were clasped so tight in her lap that her knuckles were turning white. The three of them sat in an unnerving silence.

  Ian stood up and began to pace. His voice was harsh when he said, “If you’re covering for her, please don’t. You’re not helping her that way.”

  “I’m not covering for her,” Holly said softly.

  “Then you don’t know anything about a baby?” Lucianna said.

  Holly didn’t reply. Ian sat back on the edge of the couch, closer to Holly this time. He stared at her as he said, “When I found her that day, she was clutching a pink baby blanket.”

  Holly’s head jerked up. She stared back at Ian, her jaw slack and her eyes wide. “Are you sure?” she stammered. “I mean, maybe it’s not a baby blanket. Just because it’s pink, that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “It’s a baby blanket,” Ian said firmly. “Crocheted. Pink. A shell pattern with little tassels off the ends.”

  Holly’s face went completely white. She shook her head and muttered, “Oh my God.”

  “What?” Ian demanded. “What do you know, Holly? Did my mother have a daughter?”

  “No,” Holly whispered. “I did.”

  Ian stared at her. “I’m not talking about Andrea.”

  “Neither am I.” Holly swiped at a sudden flood of tears. “How did she get that blanket?”

  Ian turned to Lucianna. She shrugged and shook her head, just as confused as he was. “Holly,” Lucianna said, “did you have another daughter? Before Andrea? And you believe that blanket was hers?”

  Holly choked back a sob and nodded. Ian looked as if he were about to jump off the couch and scream. He touched Holly’s arm, trying to get her to look at him. She wouldn’t. He said, “Did you give the baby up for adoption?”

  Holly crumbled into the couch. She covered her face with her hands and shook with the force of her sobs. Lucianna and Ian watched helplessly. After a few minutes, as the sobbing slowed, Lucianna had that light bulb click on in her head. She did a mental groan, disgusted with herself for being so blind to this possibility before. She said nothing, though, hoping Holly would get to the truth of it all soon.

  Ian crossed the room, disappeared down the hall for a moment, then returned with a box of tissues. He handed them to Holly. “Tell us what happened,” he said. “You were only about eighteen then, right?”

  Holly wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Then she said, “How did you even know about this? Who told you?”

  Ian said, “Really, it’s a long and complicated story. But the information seems to be linked to whatever happened to my mother.”

  “This can’t be. He promised. This was never supposed to come out.”

  “Who promised?” Ian asked.

  Holly’s voice took on a cold edge. “Your father.”

  “What?” Ian said. “What did my father have to do with your daughter?”

  Holly looked away. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks. Ian said her name, prompted her to answer him, but she said nothing.

  Lucianna moved to the couch and sat beside Ian. She touched his arm lightly. His muscles strained his skin. He had to know, had to see the connection now. He just didn’t want to face it. She said, “Holly, Cameron was the father of that baby, wasn’t he?”

  Ian stiffened as Holly nodded. Lucianna stroked Ian’s arm lightly, willing him to relax. She said, “And he convinced you to give her up for adoption?”

  “I had no choice,” Holly said. “I was still living with my parents. If they found out… If Corinne found out…” She sobbed into a tissue, wiped the tear-streaked mascara. “Cameron told me that he had a friend. That this friend would find a good home for our baby. That she’d have a great life with parents who really wanted her. He promised she’d be okay. And that no one would ever know.”

  “Do you know that friend’s name?” Lucianna asked.

  “No. He never told me.” Holly blew her nose again. “I told everyone I was doing a semester of school in California. Then Cam drove me to this horrible motel in the mountains in New Hampshire. I stayed there until she was born. Cam stayed with me a lot. Then that day… The day she was born… He brought a doctor to deliver her. Then, after the doctor left, Cam took her and he made me promise to keep my mouth shut. He said everyone would call me a whore. That my family would disown me. He said he was working things out with Corinne and that I shouldn’t interfere.”

  Holly closed her eyes. The tears had dried and her voice had taken on a mechanical tone. “I watched him getting ready to leave and suddenly I couldn’t do it. I was losing everything. I begged him, promised I’d never tell that he was the father. But he wouldn’t listen. He slapped me, told me to shut up, then he left me there like that. He never came back to the motel. I stayed away for another month. I thought I would go mad. Then I went back home but I stayed away from Corinne for a long time. I couldn’t face her. Or him.”

  As Holly spoke, Lucianna watched Ian. He’d been staring off at nothing. Now he stood, went to the rack bes
ide the door and grabbed his coat, then disappeared outside. Lucianna said, “Cameron never told you what happened to your daughter?”

  “No,” Holly said. “He never really spoke to me again, aside from a few formalities when we were forced to be together.”

  “Thank you,” Lucianna said. “I know this has been hard for you.”

  “How did Corinne get that blanket?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “You know what happened to her, my baby, don’t you?” Holly asked.

  “No, not yet.”

  “You’ll find out?”

  “We’re trying to.”

  Holly lifted her gaze. Her red-rimmed eyes pleaded with Lucianna as she said, “Please keep this between us. I couldn’t bear for my family to find out.”

  That was when Lucianna realized that the tears, the emotion, it was all for herself. After all she’d done to the people in her life, it was still herself she worried about most. Lucianna nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Then she got up, grabbed her coat, and let herself out the front door.

  Chapter 44

  Dean rapped on the door to the small office at the back of the garage. From the other side, Nico called a gruff, “Yeah?”

  These past few days Nico had been in a particularly unpleasant mood. Dean was hoping the information he’d spent the better part of the last two days uncovering would lighten that mood. And, at the same time, propel him further up the ladder. He was tired of the grunt work. He wanted the more important jobs. And the money that went with them.

  Dean pushed open the door and stepped inside. Nico was sitting behind the small metal desk. Viper stood leaning against a nearby wall, his huge arms folded across his rock hard chest. Neither man looked happy about the interruption. Dean hovered by the door and said, “I’ve got some info for ya, boss.”

  “Lucky me,” Nico said dryly.

  Dean bit back his irritation. “It’s about that detective broad that’s driving you nuts.”

  “Close the door,” Nico said. He pulled a cigarette from a nearly empty pack and lit it with the silver Zippo he always carried. Smoke streaming from his nostrils, he said, “What’ve you got?”

  “An ex-boyfriend of hers,” Dean explained. “Pencil-neck by the name of Patrick Nelson. He’s been following her around, playing the lost puppy act. You know, trying to get her back.”

  Nico drummed his fingers impatiently against the desk. “Why would I care?”

  “I guess the guy took it too far,” Dean said. “Pissed her off. Her uncle, that dude used to be a cop? He went after the pencil-neck last night. Knocked him around. Threatened him, from what I heard.”

  Nico was staring at Dean, not looking at all impressed with the information so far. Dean cleared his throat and said, “This Nelson dude, he’s stalking her. He wants her back, don’t want her with no one else. People’ve seen him. This Vinnie character don’t want him nowhere near the broad, so he must be thinking the guy’s dangerous.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Nico said. “Get on with it. What the hell is your point?”

  “I figured we could use that. You know, to get rid of the detective broad. You wanted her gone, right? But the situation’s too sticky for us to just take care of it like usual. So I figured we could set this Nelson dude up. Make it look like he killed her. The uncle would go for it in a snap. He’s an ex cop, he’d send his buddies after the pencil-neck to lock him away for life. Or he’d just take the guy out himself. Either way, we’d be in the clear.”

  Nico took a deep drag from his cigarette, then nodded into a cloud of smoke. “Might work. Find out all you can on this Nelson. See if he’s still following that Martel bitch. Then tail her yourself. Take some pictures. Long lens. Shots that this pervert would take himself. Then we can plant them in his bedroom for the cops to find, along with the gun we’ll use. No, make that a knife. Up close and personal. One of those crimes of passion. Wrap it up nice and tight for Vinnie to swallow.”

  “Sure thing, boss.” Dean said.

  “Good work,” Nico said.

  Dean’s pulse quickened but he kept his expression blank, not wanting to come off like an over-eager kiss-ass wimp. He gave a half nod, then slipped out the door.

  ***

  They were less than ten minutes from Lucianna’s office. Inside the truck, both had remained silent throughout the ride. Ian stared out the windshield, using that weird auto pilot setting most people had buried somewhere like a computer chip. Lucianna didn’t have to be psychic to know his mind was definitely not on the road in front of him.

  She considered offering some sort of sympathy. But no matter how she twisted the words around in her head, there was simply no way to tell someone you were sorry that his father had screwed his teenage aunt, got her pregnant, then sold their baby on the black market. Hallmark sure as hell didn’t make a card for that occasion.

  They pulled up behind a line of cars at a stoplight. Ian continued to stare straight ahead. Lucianna frowned at her own incompetence. She was trying too hard to handle this as a girlfriend would, or a lover. Not that they were lovers. Yet. All this emotional baggage tangled her up in a messy wad of goo.

  Finally she gave up on the sympathetic approach and opted for the comfort of her business mask. She said, “Do you think your mother knew about the affair?”

  The only sign that Ian had heard her was the tensing of his jaw muscles. His silence stretched on so long that she figured he wouldn’t answer. He followed the line of cars through the green light, then turned right onto a less busy street. After letting out a long breath, he said, “No. I can’t imagine her getting over something like that.”

  “Okay, so let’s assume she had somehow found out about it recently,” Lucianna said. “And the baby as well, which would explain her recent possession of the baby blanket. Do you think that kind of information could push her over the edge?”

  This time Ian didn’t hesitate before saying, “Absolutely.”

  “Then the obvious question is who would want to do that to her?”

  “Not Holly, that’s for sure. Even if she wanted to hurt my mother that badly, she wouldn’t have exposed herself like that.”

  “I agree,” Lucianna said. “So who else would have had access to that blanket?”

  The question hung in the air. Cameron seemed to be the only alternative. Lucianna could see by Ian’s expression that he was thinking that same thing.

  Ian sighed, switched the heat off and cracked his window. He said, “Okay, if it was my father, why wait all this time? And why torment my mother with it?”

  “I don’t know,” Lucianna said. “Even if your father is responsible for that, this still doesn’t make sense. We’ve got the cops somehow involved, as well as a gang that should never have been concerned with your mother to begin with.”

  “Yeah, doesn’t make much sense at all.” Ian swung his truck into the parking lot and pulled into a spot beside Lucianna’s Solstice. He shifted into park but didn’t switch off the engine. He said, “I think I know how Alice must have felt when she fell down that rabbit hole.”

  Lucianna turned to him, covering his hand with hers. “We’re getting closer.”

  “I know.”

  “Are you okay? Do you want to come in the office for awhile?”

  “I’m okay. I’ve got to swing by Rob’s. We’ve got paperwork to take care of and I want to get it done before the shrink comes this afternoon.”

  “You’re still up for that?”

  Ian raked his hand through his hair. “Hell no,” he said. “But we’ve got to figure this out. Two o’clock, right?”

  “Right.” Lucianna leaned close and kissed Ian’s cheek. His cologne tingled her senses. Immediately a wonderfully pleasant mid-morning diversion for the two of them came to mind. She’d never had sex in her office. Now seemed like the perfect time. She did a mental eye roll and forced her thoughts back to business. “I’ll see you at two.”

  As she turned away, he pulled her back and held her cl
ose. His lips were soft against hers, moist, with just a hint of flavor from a breath mint. An electric current zipped through her like some kind of hormonal throw switch.

  When his lips parted from hers, she wanted to grab him, crush against his skin, rip his clothes off and explore every inch of his being. Instead she took the mature approach. She suppressed a guttural moan, smiled, and said, “See you later.” As she walked across the parking lot, she decided she did not like this maturity thing one single bit.

  ***

  Dean backed his car into a spot in the far corner of the lot. He stuck the long lens on the camera and propped it onto the seat beside him. Then he spread a map out on his lap, just in case some nosey loser wandered out this far. The parking lot wasn’t even half full and no other car was parked within ten spaces of where he was sitting. But he knew from experience that people usually showed up when you least wanted or expected them to.

  From where he’d parked, Dean had a perfect view of the front entrance. The Martel broad’s Solstice occupied its usual space just left of the doorway in the back row. Now he’d have to sit here and wait till she strutted her sexy body out of the building. Snapping the photos would be easy from this distance. Later tonight he’d take some shots of her in her house. Those would be a lot more fun. If he got some decent shots, he’d have doubles printed and keep one set for himself.

  It was sure a shame that the broad had to die. She had the kind of looks that turned most men into possessive lunatics. Wouldn’t be stretching the imagination much to get people to believe the pencil-neck killed her in some jealous rage.

  Dean fiddled with the settings on the camera, focusing the lens on the area around the doorway. That done, he had nothing but time. He’d brought a Penthouse magazine. The chick in the centerfold smiled seductively at him. She was all creamy skin and sweet curves. His body responded and he thought about stroking it right here while he waited. Wouldn’t be a problem as long as he didn’t get too distracted.