His Captive Kitten (Owned and Protected Book 4)

by Measha Stone

  John reached over her shoulder and retrieved the thrown-away document. He found the father field right away.

  Thomas Addante.

  “What the hell is this, Chris?” he demanded.

  “The reason Tommy is with her mother. I’m sorry, Julie, but she’s not there unwillingly. She’s not his hostage. I didn’t want to say until I knew for sure, but after tailing them for the past two days, we’re sure. She’s coming and going as she pleases. They’ve gone out together, come back separately. Any number of times she could have just walked away.”

  “Twelve years ago, your mother had his name added to the certificate.” Chris pointed to the date on the bottom corner of the document.

  John placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her body tremble beneath his hand. He needed her to stay calm, stay collected, because he knew the look in Chris’s eye. This was just the beginning of the bad news.

  “Then I found this.” He pulled out another sheet and handed it to John. Julie didn’t try to take it from him. She sat staring at the birth certificate on the table.

  John scanned the document. Marriage certificate.

  “He’s married to a Cardone?” John took a step back from Julie. “What the fuck is all this? I thought we were just looking for a drugged-out woman. Maybe she fell in with a bad crowd, then Tommy was using her to buy his shit for his meth lab. How does all this tie together, why would he be going after Julie if she’s his daughter?”

  “He was married to a Cardone. He fucked up a hit. His prints were found all over a murder scene. All over the murder weapon, too, that just happened to be left at the scene. Open and shut case. He went to jail, his wife divorced him, his ties to the family severed.”

  “Twelve years ago.” Julie shoved her chair away from the table and began to pace the room. “So, what, her secret lover goes to jail and she starts using? If she knew him, had been involved with him, why didn’t I know about him? He can’t be my father. She wouldn’t have kept that from me. She wouldn’t have hid all this from me.”

  “That I don’t know, hon. Sorry.” Chris glanced at her, then back to John. “But I do know that these guys are looking for you. That guy you mentioned, Jimmy? He’s got his own rap sheet. Petty theft, larceny, auto theft. But all the arrests were buried, never even stood in front of a judge.”

  “What about my commander? How does Grover play in? I assume you’ve found dirt on him?”

  “Yeah. His brother was the DA on Tommy’s murder case. My guess is that since Tommy’s out now, he threatened Grover’s brother in order to get Grover on his payroll.”

  “I don’t—so, wait, my mom just disappeared because Tommy Addante got out of jail? That doesn’t make any sense.” Her hands were fisted as she kept moving around the room.

  “That’s the only thing I don’t get. Why disconnect from you?” Chris agreed.

  Julie snagged a pack of cigarettes off the counter.

  “Julie,” John warned.

  She pointed a finger at him. “No. You don’t get to say no. You just stand there. I’m going outside for a smoke. And you,” she swung her finger at Chris. “Tell me what the hell we’re doing tonight.”

  “We’re going to go to the club, you’re going to do what Jimmy told you to do, and we’ll see what happens. I’ll be there, John will be there. You’ll be safe.”

  “That’s it? That’s the whole plan?” Julie laughed. She already had a cigarette out of the soft pack and rolled it between her fingers. “Never mind.” She walked back out to the back porch, making sure to close the door.

  “They’ll try to grab her,” Chris said to John.

  He nodded. “Yeah. But I don’t understand why. Why didn’t her mother just tell her about her father? Why not just call to clear all this up?”

  Chris shuffled the papers around, pushing them into one pile. “I don’t know. But there’s something about her that makes Tommy nervous, or he wouldn’t be pursuing her like this. I mean if she’s his daughter, wouldn’t he be pulling her into his family? Not trying to keep her out? Maybe while he was married, but afterward?”

  John walked to the back door, pushing the curtain away from the window and peeking out at his girl. She leaned against the iron railing, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. He’d give her one, but that was it. Learning about her father was good enough cause to stumble back a step and light up.

  “So, you two hooking up?”

  “Hooking up? How old are you?” John glared at him. “We’re together.” He looked back out the window. Her wrinkled brow and pinched lips worried him. She could handle a lot of shit, had handled a ton of it already, but how would the evening play out?

  “This could get messy, John,” Chris said.

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “You sure you want to do this tonight? Using her like bait, it may not be safe.” Chris popped open a can of pop and chugged it.

  “She’s tough. She can handle herself well enough. Have you called Brian, to let him know? I don’t want to do this without him knowing.”

  “Yeah. I talked to him this morning. He’s going to keep the lounge area clear of members best he can, add security, too. Between the extra guys he brings in and my people, we should be good. Minimal risk all around.”

  “You have guys?” John asked with a grin.

  “Yeah, we PIs need backup sometimes, too. There’s four of them.” Chris piled up the papers again on the table.

  “All trained?”

  “Yeah, ex-military or police. We’ll get this sorted.”

  “I know. It’s not that I’m worried about.” He looked back out the window.

  He’d seen enough in his career to know a bad seed when he saw one, and nothing she’d told him about her mom made him think she was one of the good ones. Every little girl wants their mommy to be the stars and moon and growing up with a mom who barely kept it together, then went off the deep end, was no girl’s dream. And through all of that, Julie kept her mom on that pedestal.

  What would happen if she got knocked off?

  Chapter Twenty

  “I want a smoke,” Julie muttered to herself. John walked somewhere behind her.

  They were headed to Leather and Lace. He blended into the background of the bustling city street. When she looked over her shoulder for him, for a moment of silence when catching his gaze, she couldn’t find him. She didn’t stop to look though. He had been clear about that when he parked the car four blocks south. She was to keep moving, even if she didn’t see him. He would be there; he had promised at no time in the evening would she be alone. Even if it looked that way.

  He wanted it to look that way.

  Her stomach grumbled. She should have eaten before they left Chris’s house like John told her to, but she couldn’t trust it would stay down. If everything went as planned, if the night didn’t blow up in her face, she’d be going home with her mom.

  It wouldn’t be a walk in the park, Julie didn’t delude herself. The next few weeks would be hell, drying her mom out and getting her situated in a facility. There’d be questions with the police. They might still want a statement about the cook house. She had no real answers for them, at least none she would give willingly.

  But first she needed to get through this meeting with Jimmy. Figure out how he was involved, and how to get to her mom.

  Julie paused in front of the club’s door, checking her phone for the time. Five minutes early. Taking another look down the street, she still didn’t see John, but she didn’t need to put her eyes on him to know he was there. She tucked her phone back in the small purse Chris had given her to use, courtesy of one of his fly-by-night girls, she assumed. Her fingers brushed the Ruger LCR nestled at the bottom of the bag. The gun had come with another warning from John about not using it inappropriately. He really needed to get over the highway shooting.

  Taking a deep breath, she yanked open the door and climbed up to the entrance. Music played, the bass vibrating the walls of the hallway leading to the front c
heck-in. She touched the thin collar around her neck. John hadn’t taken it off, and she hadn’t asked him to.

  “Hey, kitten.” Justin smiled at her while he checked her membership card.

  “Hi, Justin. Uh, have you seen Jimmy yet, we’re meeting up.” If her voice shook as much as her insides, she’d have a hard time getting Jimmy to cooperate. Showing fear didn’t help give you the upper hand.

  “Nope, not yet. Not much of a crowd tonight, though,” he said.

  “I’m going to be at the bar,” she said. He nodded with raised eyebrows. Right. Why would he care where she was headed?

  Shaking off the nerves as best she could, she headed to the bar.

  “Hey, kitten. Whatcha havin’?” Joey asked.

  She looked around the lounge; only two other couples sat on the couches, and the barstools were all empty.

  “Uh, just pop—Coke if you have it.” She sat on a stool, watching the entrance door. “Oh, and a bourbon. Neat.” Jimmy wouldn’t drink it, but it seemed to be important to him that she have it ready. Maybe it was a signal or something.

  “Here you go.” The drinks appeared and Joey moved down the bar to talk with a couple who just walked up.

  “That’s my good girl,” she heard a deep voice say behind her. It wasn’t Jimmy.

  A hand touched her shoulder, and the person belonging to the voice moved around her, sitting on the stool beside her. She studied him, trying to place him, but couldn’t recall ever seeing him before.

  Black hair slicked back from his face, exposing a scar along his cheek and another over his right eyebrow. Small wrinkles around his eyes and his lips gave away his age as much older than her, even if he was dressed in a pair of acid-wash jeans with a buttoned shirt and suit jacket. She could tell he was nearing his fifties.

  “Where’s Jimmy?” she asked, itching to look over her shoulder. John had to be there somewhere, and Chris wouldn’t be far away either.

  “He’s fine.”

  “Who are you?” she asked, leaning toward him to hear better. The music didn’t blast as loud in the lounge, but he was talking too softly.

  “You don’t know me?” He gave her a feigned look of shock. “I’m Tommy Addante.”

  She’d expected Jimmy or some other asshole to show, not Tommy himself. She looked over his shoulder, and then her own. If he was there, there’d be other men, too.

  “Where’s my mom?” She shot out the question before thinking.

  “She’s fine too.” He laughed. “I’ve waited so long to see you. So long to introduce myself to you.” He moved his hand from her shoulder and played with the end of her hair.

  Julie yanked her hair from his hands. “Most fathers don’t wait nearly thirty years.”

  He dropped his hand to his lap, the smirk on his lips fading away. “You’ve figured that out, I see.” He shook a finger at her. “Your mother said you were smart. She said you’d find her, us, sooner or later and I should just reach out. Deal with you is how she put it.”

  “Deal with me?” She gripped the glass of pop. “Where is she? Why did you take her?”

  He laughed and pressed his hand to his chest. “Take her?” His eyes darkened; even in the dim lighting she could see the evil begin to pour into his glare. “Your mother came running to me as soon as they opened the prison gates. She’s been swinging from my dick for the past six months.”

  Julie pulled back, her chest constricted like he’d just kicked her in the ribs.

  “If that’s true, why didn’t she take my calls, or call me back? Why did she just disappear?”

  “She was pretty messed up when she came to me. You didn’t need that shit.”

  Her head spun.

  “You made her, or she decided?”

  “Marie is good at what she does. She makes me good money when she’s not distracted. And the shit she’s been sniffing and drinking has been distracting her.” He tapped the tip of his middle finger on the bar. “She’s a bit fucked up though, right? Started doing all that shit she used to sell for me while I was gone.” He shook his head, like he actually regretted it. “I’ve got her cleaned up.”

  Julie rubbed her forehead. “I don’t understand. None of this makes any fucking sense. My mom, my mother, would never sell drugs for you. She didn’t do that, she wouldn’t do that. She was a good mom, a good person until she started using.”

  Tommy tilted his head and studied her quietly. “A good mom? I told her I wanted nothing to do with you when she came to me and told me she was knocked up. You know what she did?” He leaned in close, a whiff of his stuffy cologne hit her. “She tried to get rid of you. Except she didn’t have the money, and I wasn’t paying for her fucking mistakes, so she stuck a hanger up her cunt and tried to kill you.”

  Julie swallowed back the bile rising. “No.”

  “Yes, I found her bleeding all over my goddamn bathroom floor. I dropped her at a hospital. She did a number on herself but didn’t hurt you at all. And after you were born, she’d leave you at home at night so she could come to me. No babysitter, no nanny, just leave you until she went back the next morning.”

  “That’s not true. She worked a night shift, I remember that when I was in grade school, but she had a sitter at the house. Mrs. Larson from downstairs, she’d sit with me.”

  Memories flashed across her mind. He was lying.

  “That old hag would go check on you because I paid her to. Your mom had nothing to do with it and didn’t care.”

  Julie slammed her hand on the bar. “You’re trying to twist everything. You just said you wanted nothing to do with me. She was a good mom.”

  “Really? She went to PTA meetings, met with your teachers, checked your homework, all that shit?”

  Julie shook her head. “She worked.”

  “Yeah, for me.”

  Tears burned her eyes. “Why are you telling me this? Where is she? I want to see her.” Julie hopped off the stool, holding her purse close to her chest. “Now.”

  Tommy laughed. “Sure. Fine. I’ll take you to her, but you have to do something for me. I need you to give your statement to the cops about the little incident at the apartment. One of my guys was hurt pretty bad, and they’re pressing him hard, wanting him to take the heat on it. Normally, my friends at the precinct can help me with this stuff, but there’s this whole connection to me and my parole thing that’s making it hard. The fucking DA is wanting my ass back in jail, and well, that can’t happen. So, you’re going to give your statement describing men that don’t look a thing like my guys.”

  “Wait. That’s what you wanted? That’s why you had guys at my apartment, why you sent them to find me up at the cabin?” Since when did criminals track down witnesses to give a statement?

  Tommy shrugged. “I could have killed you, but then there’s more suspicion, and it would just take longer to get this DA off my ass. But, you’re my daughter. A man changes in prison. So, you’re going to give your statement, send their sniffing noses elsewhere, and we’ll be fine.”

  “What about Jimmy. Where is he?”

  “He’s back home with your mom.” He grabbed the bourbon from the bar and downed it in one gulp. “You didn’t think I’d let my daughter run free in this city without some protection, did you?”

  “What?” At what point of the evening had she been transported to another dimension?

  “True, I wanted nothing to do with you when you were a baby. I was pretty fucked up back then, but it’s different now. I’ll explain it later, let’s go see your mom so she can explain, then you’ll make your statement.”

  Julie hesitated. Going with him wasn’t the plan. None of this was part of the fucking plan.

  “I—”

  “Don’t worry about your boyfriend. He’ll meet us there.” Tommy grabbed her arm. She twisted, trying to get away from him, looking around the room for help.

  “Julie. Everything okay?” Joey came over to them and gave a pointed look at Tommy.

  “She’s fine.” Tommy
didn’t pull out a gun, yet he had all the power. He had her mother and he had John.

  “Pretty sure I asked the lady.” Joey’s voice hardened.

  “I’m okay, Joey. We’re going to get going.” She moved her focus from Tommy to Joey, hoping he understood she wasn’t exactly willing in all of this.

  “Julie, I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Joey said, looking over her shoulder.

  Two men stood from the couches in the lounge and started to walk over toward them. She shook her head.

  “It’s fine. I’m going to see John and my mom,” she said loud enough for them to overhear. Joey’s eyebrows lowered, his hands fisted on the bar.

  “Let’s go, little girl.” Tommy grabbed her again and pulled her out of the building. Joey stood watching with an angry look in his eye, Justin looked ready to jump over his counter, but Julie shook her head.

  She let this man, this horrible man, her father, drag her out of the dungeon, down the stairs, and to his car.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  John opened his eyes and immediately closed them. The bright light shining on his face made the throbbing stab of pain in his head worse.

  “Fuck. John, you awake?” Chris’s voice came from behind him.

  John couldn’t move his arms; they’d been tied behind him.

  “Yeah. You?” he asked, wiggling his body until he could work his way up to sitting. He opened his eyes, bearing the light and blinking away the blur until he could make out his surroundings.

  “Are we in a fucking shed?” he asked.

  “I think so.” Chris scooted closer; his hands were also bound behind him.

  The small room they were being held in doubled as yard storage. The scent of weed killer and oil filled the space.

  “What the fuck happened back there?” Chris asked, leaning against the wall.

  “I had my eyes on Julie, focused on her. I was too focused on her.” John cursed to himself. He completely blew it. While he should have been watching everything, he’d only been watching her. “Some asshole came out of the alley and that’s about all I remember. Although this fucking headache explains it pretty well.”