Chapter 14
“I can’t even get close enough to talk to her. She’s been at the hospital all week, and every night she goes home with the Corbias brothers,” Clarette told Conan.
“Hold tight and be ready to lure her from any of those men, including her brothers. Word is that her brother Salvatore is being released from the hospital tomorrow. That means she won’t be surrounded by the media and constant police protection either. Be ready to corner her outside of Corb Enterprises. I’ll call when it’s the right time.”
He disconnected the call.
“Now what?”
“Get the military guns and ammo into Ace’s car. Then make it look like a deal gone awry and shoot the fucker.”
“You want him dead?”
“No. I don’t think what I have planned will make Venetia give in if I kill him. She needs to know that the only way he survives and doesn’t wind up behind bars is if she comes back to me. Simultaneously, have someone run one of their cars off the road and see that he gets hurt, too. She’ll be at Corb Enterprises right after these things happen. You snag her there with Clarette’s help.”
* * * *
It had been an exhausting week, but Venetia’s brother was home and resting and Ace was going to work on another small project with his brothers today and tomorrow. Ace yawned as he got into his car. He left the base late, and when he headed down the highway on his way back home, he caught a glimpse of a truck and bright lights coming up fast. He slowed down, and the truck slammed into the back of his car, sending him to the side of the road. He skidded to a halt, and then guy in the truck did, too.
“What the fuck, asshole!” he yelled as he got out of his car.
The guy got out, came around the truck wearing a black hoodie, and before Ace could react, he saw the gun and felt the shot to his shoulder. He fell back, and then guy came at him, hitting him in the head with the barrel of the gun. He tried to fight back, but the guy had the upper hand. Slowly he slid against the car as dizziness overtook him.
* * * *
“No fucking way. That’s bullshit!” Zane yelled at the detectives who stood outside of the hospital room where Ace was recovering from a gunshot.
“Calm down, Zane,” Roman said to him.
“Calm down? These guys think our brother stole military weapons and ammo from the base and tried selling them on the street. They think this was an exchange gone badly.”
“I should call Vincent,” Venetia said to Apollo.
“Wait until Garvan gets here,” Apollo said and held her close.
“The evidence is there. I suggest you get your brother a lawyer. In the meantime, we’ll have a guard placed outside the door to ensure he doesn’t disappear,” the detective stated.
“He isn’t going anywhere. He didn’t do it,” Zane yelled.
One detective pointed at Apollo. “Don’t even think of trying to move from here. I’ll bring charges against all of you. We’ll have more questions for the five of you shortly.”
“For us? Now you’re looking to investigate all of us?” Apollo asked.
“You do a lot of overseas traveling. We need to be sure there isn’t more to this case and your brother’s operations.” He walked away.
“This is a fucking mess. Someone is framing him,” Roman said.
“It’s Conan. It has to be Conan,” Venetia said aloud.
“That motherfucker. He’s dead,” Zane stated firmly.
“Calm down and lower your voice. We need proof of this. We should call Vincent like Venetia said and maybe Falcon, too,” Apollo stated.
“Yes, call them and see what they can do to help. If we don’t, then as soon as Ace is okay, they’ll take him to jail,” Venetia said, and tears filled her eyes.
Zane swallowed hard and then looked at Venetia. “Ace will be fine, and we can handle this,” he told her, but he could see the fear and the uncertainty in her eyes.
Her cell phone rang, and she looked at the caller ID. “It’s Vincent.”
* * * *
“I’m glad that you called.”
“I heard about Ace.”
“Oh, God, Vincent, what do we do? These detectives were here, and they said they’re charging him with stealing with the intent to sell military weapons. They’re talking about Ace getting a dishonorable discharge and putting him in jail. They even have an officer coming to stand guard so he can’t run or something like some criminal.”
“I know all about it and so does Falcon. He’s working on some information and activities that are going on with Conan, and he feels that Conan set Ace up.”
“Oh, God.”
“There’s more, Vin. The informant that Salvatore was after just turned up dead. A bullet to the back of the head. Falcon thinks that it isn’t a coincidence.”
Her heart began to pound.
“Conan?”
“We think so.”
“He set that up. He’s showing what power he has. Oh, God, Vincent.”
“I need you to calm down and let us handle this. Falcon and the feds are getting closer. I didn’t get what it is they’re working on, but it looks like they’re close to pinning good charges on him.”
“Well, that’s great, but in the meantime, he’s hurting people I love. Salvatore could have been killed and Ace, too.” Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t stop shaking.
“Just stay with your men and with Ace. Let us handle this.”
She said good-bye and then looked at her men standing by the door and talking, filled with anger. Garvan wasn’t there yet. He had gotten caught traveling to North Carolina and was on his way back. She wanted all of them here with her, next to her where she knew they were safe. She also worried about her brothers, but now that Vincent thought that Conan was responsible, both he and Dante would take extra precautions.
She wiped her eyes and felt sick to her stomach.
“I need to use the ladies’ room.”
“Go ahead, honey,” Apollo said and then they went back to conversing about a lawyer and what they needed to do in order to keep Ace out of jail and from being thrown out of the Marine Corps with a dishonorable discharge.
She felt like crap. Her men were getting their lives destroyed because of her.
She walked into the bathroom and went to the mirror. She gripped onto the sink. “They’re all going to get hurt, or even killed, because of you. Goddamn you, Conan,” she hissed.
The door to the bathroom opened, and she saw the blonde, Clarette, the one from the hotel that was stalking Apollo.
“Don’t say a word. Just listen.”
“Why should I?”
“If you don’t, then Conan is going to kill Garvan.”
“What?” she asked and stepped closer. Clarette stepped back.
“Conan had me trying to work Apollo over for months. I have incriminating evidence that Conan can use to destroy Apollo’s business reputation. All I need to do is give it to Conan.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
She reached into her purse, and Venetia tightened up.
“I don’t have a gun. I’m not going to kill you. Conan is fucking nuts and will do whatever he can to have you back. He doesn’t care.” She handed over pictures. They were of Apollo and Clarette at a bar with other men. She was all over Apollo, and he was holding her arm and didn’t look angry or as if he was trying to get her off of him. Venetia felt jealous and then looked up at Clarette.
“Conan is prepared to use these to blackmail Apollo and the businessmen around him. They’re all Fortune 500 guys. CFOs, CEOs of companies in the public eye. He has a story ready to go to the media saying that, while on business, Apollo supplies prostitutes for these men. They’re all married by the way.”
“He can’t do that. How could he prove that?”
“Honey, you don’t know how defamation works. All Conan needs to do is make people doubt Apollo, taint his name and his companies’ names, and there go all the hotels, the restaurants, everything. Don’t
“You can sneak out now, or you can cause another man you love to be seriously injured or maybe killed. It’s hard to predict what could happen when there’s a car accident.”
Venetia watched her go, and she didn’t know what to do. If she told the men, then they would continue to suffer and get hurt. If she called her brother, then he, Dante, her parents even could be next. She couldn’t just stand here and watch the men she love get shot, her brothers get shot, and her parents hurt, too. What if Conan started going after her friends next? This had to end, but she wasn’t going to be stupid. She just didn’t know what to do.
She washed up and tried to calm her shaking hands as she exited the bathroom then walked down the hallway. She locked gazes with Zane, who looked worried and then relieved at seeing her. He hurried to her and pulled her close.
“You were taking so long. I got worried.” He rubbed her arms, and she hugged him tight and kissed his neck and inhaled his cologne and knew in that moment that she would die for these men. She loved them with all her heart.
She pulled back. “I needed a few minutes. How is Ace?”
“He’s resting,” he said and caressed her back, rubbed along her hips to her ass.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Neither can we, but we’ve got things under control.”
“How can you say that? My brother was shot, and now Ace is being framed for something he didn’t do and will lose his job, a career in the military he loved, never mind have his reputation destroyed.”
“Calm down and let us handle things. Your brother said they’re working hard to get the charges dropped and they have other people looking into how the weapons were stolen and checking for serial numbers. We will work this out.”
“I don’t want any of you to get hurt. This is too much.”
“We can handle it. Let us do it, Venetia. Just let us take care of it.”
An hour later, as they sat in the cafeteria to get something to snack on, Zane’s phone rang.
“What?” he asked and looked at her and then got up. “How bad? Where are they taking him? Okay, we’re here.”
He closed up the phone and looked at them.
“What is it?” Roman asked him, and he looked at Apollo and Titan and then at Venetia.
“Garvan had a car accident on his way here.”
“No.” She covered her mouth with her hand.
“He’s okay, Vin. They’re bringing him here to the emergency room. He’s all banged up and—”
She shook her head and covered her face with her hands. Conan was going to continue to hurt those she loved. She had to get away from them in order to protect them. She had to.
* * * *
Apollo watched Venetia as she held Garvan’s hand and cried about the cuts and bruises and the gash by his shoulder.
“Don’t cry, baby, please. I’m okay, and it was just an accident.”
“No, no, it wasn’t, and you and I know that.”
She continued to cry, and Apollo felt so angry and pissed off, but Vincent said he needed to let the police and the feds handle this. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Venetia that they were taking her, and her parents, away from South Carolina and that her friends were going to get private protection paid for by him and his brothers until Conan was behind bars.
She wasn’t going to be satisfied. She would still worry about her brothers. He couldn’t believe that this guy was getting away with all the criminal activity. The thing was he wasn’t doing it himself. He had other people doing it. When was this going to end? What would it take to finally keep them all safe?
* * * *
Venetia dried her eyes and told the men she needed to go use the ladies’ room and wash up. With a heavy heart but a determination to end this bullshit once and for all, she sneaked out the side door and into the night. Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed Falcon’s number as she made her way to the subway station.
“I want this to end. This woman Clarette is working for Conan and has incriminating evidence against Apollo that isn’t true. He shot my brother, he set up Ace, and he caused Garvan to have a car accident. You haven’t come up with shit, and this man is going to kill the people I love.”
“Where are you now?”
“Heading to meet him.”
“No, Venetia, that’s exactly what he wants you to do. Listen, turn around and head back. We’ve been working on the case against Ace, and we can clear him. He has an alibi number one, and number two, the weapons didn’t come from a base but from another location. The symbol on the boxes is the same symbol we have found on the illegal guns and ammo being sold to terrorist organizations, small cells that are training in the Middle East. We have witnesses to Conan being the lead in this with two other businessmen, including his father. We also have a witness to the informant being murdered. It’s Conan’s main bodyguard, Maddor. There are phone taps, even on that Clarette woman and what she was up to. We just need to know where he is bringing in these weapons. The location and then next shipment. We even have the people he hired to ransack your apartment, and they’ve been doing some bad shit for him.
“You need to get back to where your men are. We don’t know where Conan is right now. We think he’s going to try to get out of the country.”
“Maybe he’s going to the place you’re looking for. Clarette gave me an address to meet him, and it’s on the other side of the pier where the old shipyard is. Not many boats even dock in there. They have those large storage containers.”
“I know that place. Jesus, it was right under our noses. You need to get to safety before Conan has one of his goons grab you.”
She looked up right as she was about to walk down the stairs to the subway station and spotted Maddor.
“Too late.”
“Fuck. Get away from him, and I’ll get people to you.”
“No, get to that location and quietly. This ends tonight. I’d rather die than let my men, my family, suffer any further.”
She put the phone in her back pocket, leaving the call open so Falcon could hear. She stared at Maddor, who stared right back at her.
“Are you going to make a scene?”
“Maybe,” she replied. He raised one of his eyebrows up at her as if shocked by her attitude.
“So unlike you, Vin.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a bit pissed off right now, Maddor. My brother’s been shot and two of my boyfriends have been injured and set up, thanks to Conan, so excuse me if I’m not ready to have a drink and shoot the shit.”
He chuckled as he grabbed her upper arm. “Conan always gets what he wants.”
They started walking. She was glad that she hadn’t disconnected the call with Falcon and hoped that he was still listening in. She was so scared right now, but nothing scared her more than losing her lovers and her family.
“You know the cops and the feds are onto to all of you? They know it was you who shot my brother and made it look like that informant did it. Pretty fucking stupid to knock him off, too.”
“Shut up, Vin, you don’t know how these things work. Besides, I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you. The boss has plans. He’s gone to a lot of trouble to make your life a living hell.”
“So I heard, and he gets dumbasses like you to do it for him so his hands are clean.”
She gasped as he gave her arm a tight squeeze.
“He said to get you to him in one piece. He didn’t say to not smack you around.”
“Well, you’ve always been his servant. I bet it was you who shot Ace, beat him up, and loaded his car with those bullshit weapons and ammo. You know you fucked that up, right?”
“What?” He shoved her into the car. He grabbed her hands and tied her wrists with heavy tape.
“You screwed up, or whoever Conan had do the job didn’t think before he chose the weapons to confiscate from a certain area.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” he yelled at her and closed the door.
Her heart raced. She prayed that Falcon was still listening in and getting all of this.
“What’s that pretty little black sign, a logo of sorts that Conan loves to put on all those illegal weapons and ammo boxes that he sells to terrorist organizations? Was it a black spider or a cross, I wonder?”
“How do you know about that?”
She chuckled.
“The idiot who set up Ace used Conan’s own supply of illegal military weapons to plant in his car. The symbols were all over the boxes and the weapons.”
“Fuck.”
“Yes, you are.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“It sure will when the feds and detectives show up and arrest you guys and put you away for life.”
“Not going to happen, honey. Conan has a surefire plan, and getting you to him at the pier is the final step. We’re out of here. So long to this country and fuck the cops and feds. They’ll never find us.”
“The pier, huh? That’s like right out in the open, and you have all those security guards who have to check the containers by the main docks.”
“Yeah, it’s not by the main docks, and security is taken care of. Just throw a dog a bone, and snap, they look the other way.”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Already have,” he said, and they drove to the pier.
She prayed that was enough of a confession and evidence to help put Conan and his crew of shit away for life.
* * * *
“My God, she’s fucking crazy and brilliant. He’s singing like a canary. Are you getting all of this?” Falcon asked the other detectives and federal agents.
“Yes, we are, and it all confirms what we need to bring Conan and his bodyguard down. There will be a set of arrests going on simultaneously. We already picked up Clarette, and the detectives say she’s willing to cooperate. We have a team preparing to raid the pier and arrest Conan.”
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