Destiny
"What is this?" Angelo demanded to know.
When I heard his low, cold voice, I felt my body shiver. I arranged my face into an expression of light anxiety rather than the fear I felt rising into the back of my throat and choking me.
"I just got it, but I don’t know what it is. What is it?"
He raised his dark eyes to me. "This is an account number, and it is reflecting funds—nearly the exact amount—that should be in mine. I recognize the code; it's from the same bank I used. Whose account is this, and where did this information come from?"
I shrugged helplessly. "I don’t know. It’s a private number, but besides you know not many people know my phone number, not after I got rid of my old phone and you bought me the new one. Maybe my former boss and… Zoe," I finished, seemingly reluctant to continue.
His eyes narrowed dangerously. He took a step closer, and I had to stop myself from taking a step back, it would only make him angrier. All he was doing was looking at me, but I could almost feel the physical weight of his displeasure. It pushed at my lungs, and I had to focus or I would stop breathing.
"Destiny. Why was this information sent to your phone?"
"I don’t know," I said, frantic, and it was only partly fake. "Who knows where she could even be at this point? We met, we argued, I tried to meet with her again and she walked out on me. I don’t know what's been going on with her, I just know she doesn’t like me. I'm sure she expected you to be working, she wouldn’t imagine we were together. Maybe whoever sent it—even though I can't think of anyone else—did it to gloat?" I offered as a possibility.
He grabbed my arm, tightly, and the pain was almost overshadowed by the overwhelming panic that made my heart squeeze in my chest. He pulled me close, and we were standing so most of the people in the room wouldn’t see just how tight his hold on my arm was. It would look like an intimate scene rather than the frightening one it truly was.
"Listen to me very carefully, Destiny. I don’t give a fuck whatever quarrel you have with Zoe; it should not affect me. Do you hear me? You will not leave this building. I am going to find Zoe, she and I are gonna have a nice little chat, then I'm coming back for you." He tightened his hand, and I winced. "Pray your friend had nothing to do with this. Because I will hurt her if she did. Then, I will hurt you."
He released my hand as he glanced at my phone. Then he put it in a pocket and looked at his own phone. With one last dark look at me, threatening enough to make me shiver and take a couple of steps away, he left. I watched his back, feeling a light tremble go through my body—in relief—before settling. I touched where he'd grabbed me, seeing that the skin was a flaming pink. It might even bruise.
He'd done that, in full view of people. And I'd just sent him right to Zoe—likely to her apartment, the one he set her up in around the same time he moved me into his place.
I almost felt bad for Zoe, though it was a little too late for that now. I'd gone to her place with the bag of money Alex had collected, that he'd stashed in my room.
What I took to the drop that Angelo designated was a bag full of paper.
Zoe hadn't been there, though I had a spare key to her place, since I'd stayed over plenty of times. I hid the money in her apartment, but it hadn't been for Angelo to find; it had been for the police, so both Zoe and Angelo would be implicated as accomplices without involving me in any way. I'd thought of it when Angelo called and told me to bring him the money—through a roundabout route, since most of his usual channels were being closely watched—but I hadn't expected it to turn out like this.
I stood frozen, wondering what I should do then, thoughts circling in my head, making me dizzy. There wasn’t much I could do for Zoe by just standing there.
It was probably time. It was way ahead of the plan, but I had to believe the feds could work with contingencies and improvising. I wasn’t going to stay put like Angelo wanted; I was through doing what he said.
It was the best time to hand over the information to the feds. While Angelo was distracted, and before he got to Zoe.
I met Alex's eyes across the room, and he got the message immediately. I started for the door as he hesitated at the computer. I saw him close it as I walked out. I didn’t wait for him, heading straight for the elevator. He managed to get inside just before the door closed.
I couldn’t help it; I threw myself into his arms, and he caught me. I trembled a little, shaken from Angelo's behavior, no matter how well I'd covered it.
"We need to hurry, Alex. He's going to kill her."
"I know," he responded.
"No, you don’t. Alex, if she dies, no matter how indirectly, it would be my fault. Please can we just—"
I broke off with a sob, pulling away from him and clamping a hand to my mouth as I tried to get ahold of myself. The last thing I had wanted was for something to happen to Zoe. I didn’t particularly like her after what she'd done, but dammit, I didn’t want anyone's blood on my hands.
Alex gripped the tops of my arms, hard enough to grab my attention and make me look up at him. He met my eyes, his own looking steady. I breathed through my nose, holding his gaze.
"Just breathe and relax, okay? I already sent a message to Belt. We'll be meeting him in a bit. It’s short notice, but he's been ready to move for a while now, anyway."
"So what do we do, just wait?"
"Right now, we're gonna go to the room. We will change clothes into something casual, and then you're going to pack what you need. Only what you can't live without; everything else stays."
I nodded. I'd kept my stuff packed, anyway, so I just needed to change my clothes and grab my backpack. The only phone I had, after I threw my other one away, was now gone. I'd have to think about getting a new one later.
As soon as we got to our floor, Alex took off running, with my arm in his grip. He moved in more of a jog, trying to be considerate of me with my high heels, but I was having none of that. It wasn’t comfortable, but I could run in heels. I was lucky I didn’t twist my ankle and fall flat on my face at the speed I was moving. He let us inside with his keycard and I went straight for the bedroom. He'd left some of his stuff in the closet in the hall, but he had even less than I did. When I came back out, changed and with my stuff on my back, he didn’t even have anything on him besides his phone, though he'd changed to something more casual.
"Where's your stuff?"
"I don’t need any of it; I only have a few clothes here, anyway. All the rest of my stuff I can have sent to me once I know where we're going. Now, c'mon, we don’t have a lot of time to waste."
He reached for me again, and the run back to the elevator was quicker with me in sneakers. Again, we were lucky to get an empty car, and no one interrupted on the way down. We didn’t run when we got back to the lobby, but we did walk fast. Alex handed the doorman a tip as he let us out. I was surprised no one was there to stop us, or had Angelo neglected to tell someone to hold me there, thinking I would do as he said without question?
I followed behind Alex closely as he jogged down the front steps, so I bumped into him when he suddenly stopped, letting out a squeak as our bodies collided. Was something else wrong?
"You… got here amazingly quickly."
I looked around his body to see two FBI agents; Belt, and the guy that had talked to me that day I wanted to run.
"We were close by. This is my partner, Miss Turner, you should already be familiar with him."
"Belt, about Angelo—"
"I sent people after him, and I'm gonna follow along. You guys stick with my partner and say nothing until I can talk to you, got it?"
He didn’t wait for either of us to respond to him, jogging over to a car, the same one from the last time, and got inside, then drove off. I watched him go, biting my lip anxiously, hoping they'd stop Angelo before it was too late.
I was distracted when Alex suddenly took my hand and tugged me after him. The agent we'd been left with led us to a different car, a black SU
V, and I wanted to laugh. It was like all those fed cars from the movies, too much of a cliché.
My throat was too tight for me to laugh, though. Alex let me get in the back first, following me as the agent took the driver's seat and put the car into drive.
Chapter 19
Alex
"You don’t hold up well under pressure do you."
I sent the agent a look. "No, not really. I also don’t handle boredom very well."
"You handled the clients pretty well," Destiny put in, maybe the first words she'd spoken since we left the hotel.
"Well, yeah, but I had a role to play," I answered.
I had been pacing for a while, and I was probably beginning to annoy them both, but it wasn’t like I could help it. I felt if I stayed still the anxiety would make my brain explode.
We were stationed at some low rent motel. I had experience with places like it, and Destiny was being good about putting up with it. Or maybe she was still in shock, and she hadn't noticed the peeling paint, the wet, moldy smell; the decrepit state of the rest of the room and the furniture.
As bad as it was, though, it did the job. We wouldn’t sleep there, but I knew Belt was trying to shield us from the rest of his colleagues, except for his partner. I'd met the man once, and it hadn't been for longer than a few minutes, but I'd decided he was okay. I didn’t trust him, but Belt did; that was good enough for me.
"Any news yet?" I asked.
He looked up from where he was looking at a tablet screen, an ear bud in one ear.
"Not yet, but I think they should be close to making some arrests. Not much happening since the resistance from a bit ago," he replied.
It hadn't been that long, maybe an hour if even that, but it felt like years had passed.
"They won't announce anything, not unless it's an official line and I was told to avoid those. We'll have to wait for Belt to give us the news."
"Does he plan to come here tonight, though?" I mutter to myself, but he heard and answered anyway.
"He assured me he would, so long as it was possible. This is only a temporary location. If he can't meet us tonight, I'm to move you elsewhere."
I didn’t bother to ask where. I didn’t think he'd tell me. Belt was mellow, but he was still a federal agent and an effing suspicious bastard. I imagined his partner would be just as close-lipped.
I'd spent the better part of our time there pacing from one corner of the room to another. Occasionally, I would glance at Destiny, feeling a little worried. Once we'd made it into the room, she'd sat down on one of the beds and not moved much at all. Her eyes would track me, and occasionally the agent, but then I'd just see her watching the wall with this blank look that frightened the hell out of me.
It was maybe twenty more minutes of restlessness, keeping my feet moving while my mind and emotions fought about my priorities. Of course, it stopped on Destiny. We weren’t alone, but she needed some reassurance. I wasn’t sure she would even want me anyway, but I decided to give it a try. Still, I hesitated.
Of course, just when I managed to take a step forward, the door opened.
All three of us turned toward the door, the agent alert with one hand reaching under his jacket, probably for the gun he had hidden in a shoulder holster. I noticed Destiny get to her feet, and I didn’t know whether to be glad she was tracking her surroundings, or worried that she might fall, because I thought she swayed a bit.
The agent relaxed when he saw who walked in, but I didn’t. Belt looked like he'd aged a few years, dark circles under his eyes, his hair looked like he'd run his fingers through it and tried to rip it off at the roots. It only made me more anxious.
"What happened?"
"A lot of shit, kid. But we finally got the bastard."
Even though he sounded tired, there was definite satisfaction in his voice, in his eyes.
"We recovered money from your friend Zoe's apartment. He was in the middle of hurting her, but he didn’t kill her. She sustained injury, but nothing too bad. We can have him up on attempted murder charges, among various others."
He rubbed his face with his hand, then leaned against the door, crossing his arms over his chest and looked at Destiny.
"Even before he took off to kill your friend, we'd already caught up to a few of his deals, thanks to you. Mostly drugs, but we uncovered some details on his money laundering activities, and there are plenty more, and we've only just scratched the surface. And it's only the son, Angelo. Nothing on his father." He sounded disgusted.
"I don't know if anything I gave would be quite so useful. I know plenty of his shady deals, but I don’t have concrete information, just things I overheard and inferred," Destiny responded.
"Don’t worry about that. We just need to match what you do know to the evidence. It would be useful if you could ID photos of some of the guys you met that he works with, but that would mean I'd have to take you in.
Even though he spoke to her—about her—he kept his eyes on me. And he must have seen the absolute refusal in my eyes, because he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"It isn’t necessary, though. Thing is, this guy has been careless lately. With everything we already have, after your recorded testimony—and once Alex here sends me the rest of it—" he gave me a look, then skipped over to Destiny— "I'm sure we can put him away for life. There is just one little thing missing, though."
He looked right at me again. I arched an eyebrow, saying nothing.
"We checked the money in the bag. Based on the intel you gave me, we're missing some; quite a big chunk, actually. About a hundred grand."
I shrugged, unconcerned. "I wouldn’t know about that."
"Are you sure, kid?" Belt persisted.
I raised my hands. "If you want to search me, go right ahead. I don’t have a hundred grand on me. I drove straight to the hotel that night, with all the money in the bag."
"Rather than searching you, I was thinking of going through your properties. Besides your dad's house, I know you have two small apartments, one where you stayed alone, one where you stayed with a roommate. About five different deposit boxes, though why you need so many to begin with…"
I wanted to curse out loud, but I didn’t. No matter how good he was, he had way too much info on me. I didn’t think it was enough, because I only had three genuine boxes and the rest acted as 'dummy' boxes, in case of situations like these. I couldn’t be sure which ones he had, but I didn’t use those boxes to store money, anyways. Not the kind of money he was looking for.
I shrugged again, but the move was more annoyed this time. "You can do whatever you want, Belt. Send whoever you want on it. While they're at it, they can collect my stuff and bring it to me."
It wasn’t necessary. Even with a new identity, so long as I held the security info for the boxes, I could get to them whenever. Besides my ID, I didn’t have much of worth really. On the plus side, it meant starting over would be ridiculously easy for me, since my current ID would be redundant soon.
Belt held my eyes for a moment, then took out his phone. I expected him to step outside to make a call, but he just tapped on his phone a little then put it back in his pocket. I arched an eyebrow his way, but he ignored it.
"You're sure there's nothing else you're hiding? Because if you are, deal or no deal, I will arrest you," Bent assured me.
Was he trying to bait me? Did he think that would work?
"I don’t know, Belt. What if Zoe found the cash and thought to hide some somewhere? It was in her apartment for over twenty-four hours; it's entirely possible she saw it, and was planning to run with it after her lover stopped answering her calls."
He watched me with steely eyes, and I made myself look uncaring. Unless he found proof—and he wasn’t going to find it—he couldn’t hold me for the loss of that money. I grew worried the longer he stayed silent. Honestly, I thought he was going to arrest me and bring me in for questioning.
When he reached behind him, I thought he was reaching for handcu
ffs—or worse, his gun—but he just pulled out a brown folded envelope, and held it out to me.
I stared at it, momentarily confused. "What's this?"
"It's your new identity. Both of yours. Everything you need will be in there," he informed us.
I opened it up, looked through the documents, the few bills inside. I could feel Destiny come up beside me, but I couldn’t let her distract me just yet. We were so close. All the shit with Angelo was closed, but that didn’t mean it was all finished. No matter what Belt promised, I wanted to hear the guy was behind bars before I relaxed. And even then, sticking around wasn’t the smartest idea.
I found something I didn’t expect to be with the stuff. I held them up. "Plane tickets?"
"Yeah. You need to move, the sooner the better. Now, we have Angelo in custody, however, I doubt that news is going to stay secret for long. Once it goes public, a lot of people are going to be gunning for the two of you. We don’t have time for you to just lay low; I doubt it would be enough, anyway."
"Then… I really won't have to give live testimony?"
"I told you, we already have everything. You're both free to go." He stepped aside, gestured at the door. "I strongly suggest you leave now. I have a car waiting outside to take you to the airport, paid for." He glanced around, then frowned. "Luggage?"
I held up my phone. "I've got all I need for now." Pretty much everything else, even clothes, could be bought later. We both turned to Destiny.
She held up her bag. "I have my stuff here. Whatever's left at the hotel was Angelo's, so…" she let her voice trail off, giving a jerky shrug.
I put my arm around her, tentative at first, and when she didn’t move away from me, I tugged her closer, feeling relieved.
"If you've got everything, then you're both free to leave." He stepped forward and raised his hand. "I'll miss you, kid. You were a pain in the ass, but it's sad to see you go."
I snorted, even as I took his hand. "Ditto the pain in the ass bit."
Belt grinned. "Won't you tell me you'll miss me?"
Dirty Money: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alpha Men Book 1) Page 12
