At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

“Come again?” he asked dangerously.

  “You’ll explain things to her after the Chicago PD takes him down,” Haines went on.

  “You think he should move out?” Colt asked incredulously.

  “I think we make Hart think his threats worked,” Mike explained. “Keep Cal safe. Keep an eye on Vi. Pryor says he’s close.”

  “Close with what?” Cal growled.

  Mike’s eyes caught Cal’s. “Tax evasion.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Cal bit out, “that’s a fuckin’ joke.”

  “They got a lock on a second set of books,” Mike returned.

  “A lock?” Cal asked. “They don’t even fuckin’ have the books?”

  “The Feds are involved now,” Colt explained, “they’re makin’ deals.”

  Cal shook his head. “You want me to leave Vi and the girls for tax evasion?” Cal returned, knowing Mike’s game. He didn’t want Cal safe. He wanted Cal to leave Vi. “They get him he’s bonded out in hours.”

  “Odds are, they’ll hold him without bail,” Colt noted.

  “He’s got money, he’s got lawyers, in his business he knows this shit could happen any time. He’ll be prepared,” Cal told Colt.

  “They set bail, it’ll be set high,” Sully noted.

  “He’ll be out,” Cal shot back.

  “Like I said, Cal, you explain it to her after it’s done,” Haines repeated.

  Cal turned fully to Haines. “Last night she stood in the kitchen in my arms giggling herself stupid. You think after she’s walked through two years of hell, I get her to the point of giggling herself stupid, I’m gonna rip that away for tax evasion, you’re fuckin’ whacked,” Cal returned and now Haines’s jaw was hard for another reason, his hands were clenched and his body was solid.

  Haines glared at Cal. Cal scowled back.

  “Boys,” Sully mumbled, Cal looked away from Haines and saw Colt and Sully both were on alert.

  “Security, vigilance, tails,” Cal declared. “I’ll keep my gun where I can get it and carry when I’m not with Vi and the girls.”

  “You got a permit to carry concealed?” Sully asked.

  “Man, do you know what my job is? I got a concealed permit in forty-seven states,” Cal answered.

  “Right,” Sully muttered, his eyes slid to Colt and his lips twitched.

  Cal did not find anything funny and his eyes hit Colt.

  “He’s gettin’ impatient and he’s gonna fuck up. Every man standin’ here knows that. Your job is to make sure he doesn’t fuck up with Vi, Kate or Keira in his crosshairs.”

  “You need to stick to town, not go out on a job,” Mike put in, losing his bid to get Cal out of Vi’s house he was changing his tune and Cal’s eyes cut to him.

  “Yeah, Mike. Thanks for that head’s up,” Cal’s sarcasm was obvious and Mike straightened.

  “We’re all on the same side here,” Sully noted as the air around Cal and Haines again grew heavy.

  Cal speared Sully with a glance and looked at Colt.

  “You got the gifts or you send them to Pryor?” he asked.

  “Sent an inventory and photos to Pryor. Gifts were delivered here, they’ve stayed here. They’re in evidence,” Colt answered.

  “I want to see them all. Chronological,” Cal demanded.

  “Why?” Sully asked and Cal looked at him.

  “Do you know what I do for a living?”

  “Security,” Sully answered.

  “Stalker sub-specialty,” Colt muttered and Sully looked at his partner.

  “No joke?” Sully whispered.

  “No joke,” Colt repeated.

  “Wow,” Sully was still whispering, “I didn’t know that. We should have brought you in sooner.”

  Colt looked at the ceiling. Haines pressed his lips together. Cal growled.

  * * * * *

  “You feed the Feds this shit?” Cal asked Barry. He was sitting in the seat beside Colt’s desk after having gone through a fuckload of expensive gifts that got chronologically more expensive, more desperate to make an impression and more demanding to get a reaction.

  “Feds aren’t interested,” Cal heard Barry’s answer through the phone.

  “Not interested?” Cal asked.

  “You’re interested. I’m interested. Any Chicago police officer is interested, they knew Tim or not. The Feds… no,” Berry answered.

  “Nothin’ ties him to this shit,” Cal surmised.

  “I looked into it, Colt looked into it and nothin’ ties him to that shit. She was still in Chicago, gettin’ visits, maybe they’d care. Harassment isn’t a big deal but they’d be happy to pin anything on him, it keeps him locked away even a day longer. But she’s in Indiana gettin’ gifts we can’t pin on him, they don’t care,” Barry replied. “They want him shut down. They think they got a lock on that and so they’re focused.”

  Cal clenched his teeth. If he heard the fucking word “focused” one more fucking time he was going to do bodily harm.

  “You suggested protection, Colt’s people can’t offer it. You got the resources up there to give Vi and the girls that?” Cal asked.

  “She’s out of our jurisdiction,” Pryor answered.

  “What about the Feds?”

  “Sorry, man, like I said. They’re not interested,”

  Fuck! The word exploded in his brain then Cal took a deep breath and laid it out for Barry.

  “You need to keep him busy, Pryor, his mind on other things,” Cal advised. “Shake up his operation. Give him headaches. Even if you can’t follow through with what you’re doin’ just be a nuisance.”

  “How’s that gonna help?” Barry asked.

  It wasn’t, Cal knew from the gifts it wasn’t going to stop Hart doing what he was doing.

  Daniel Hart was like Kenzie Elise. He was used to getting what he wanted just wanting it. The gifts he’d been sending, the shake up in the schedule since Vi moved, the escalation of attention were not good signs. Colt knew it and was doing what he could do. It wasn’t right he didn’t share with Cal not only considering what Vi was to Cal but what Cal did for a living, but he was doing all the right things, including making it so Vi could live her life and only worry about all the shit that was in it, not adding anything extra. The fact that she was protected, not even receiving the gifts, and Cal had no doubt Hart knew she wasn’t, was probably driving Hart up the wall. He couldn’t get close, not with a restraining order and a cop living on Vi’s street. He wasn’t stupid and wouldn’t take that chance. Colt would take him down in a second. Hart could only hope Colt would mess up, miss a delivery, she’d get her diamonds and he’d get his reaction. Something Hart needed to function and something Colt had kept from him.

  What Cal had to find was Hart’s Marco. Marco held Kenzie’s strings and yanked them when she got out of line. No man was an island. Not even the top of the heap in a crime syndicate. Hart had buyers, sellers, suppliers, employees – people he had to keep happy. Focusing on the mother of two daughters in Indiana when his focus should be on business, business that was all of a sudden getting a shakedown from the cops, would not make any of those people happy.

  And then Sal could do his work which would make all those people really not happy and hopefully end in Daniel Hart being dead.

  That was Cal’s plan. It was shit but at least it was a plan.

  “Feds makin’ deals, cops on his ass, his attention is scattered, his operation goes into disarray someone’s gonna notice and he’s gonna have to make a choice. He chooses Vi, his operation falls apart, people get pissed, he’s fucked. He doesn’t choose Vi, shifts his attention away, gets with the program, she’s free. Either way, she wins,” Cal explained.

  “You’re askin’ me to put a shitload of boys in danger. This guy does not like to be messed with,” Barry replied.

  “I’m askin’ you to serve and protect. Tim did it and died doin’ it,” Cal reminded him.

  Barry was silent and when he spoke his voice low and pissed.

  �
�I met you, I liked you but don’t fuckin’ use the Tim card on me,” he warned. “You didn’t know him, you don’t get that card.”

  “His daughters go to bed under the same roof as me. I know him, Barry,” Cal said quietly. “You’ve seen the waste Hart laid to those girls’ lives but I’m cleanin’ it up and you think I won’t use that card for them, you’re fuckin’ crazy.”

  Barry was silent again, it lasted longer this time then he bit out, “We’ll do what we can.”

  Cal didn’t respond.

  Barry spoke again, “You tellin’ me you’re livin’ with Vi and the girls?”

  “Yeah,” Cal answered.

  Cal heard movement on the phone and he knew it was Barry seeking privacy when he said, “I checked you out.”

  Cal pulled in breath and closed his eyes.

  “Your line clean?” Barry asked.

  Cal opened his eyes. “I’m on Colt’s phone at the Station.”

  “You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry advised and Cal was surprised.

  “He’s family,” Cal replied.

  “You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry repeated.

  “Barry –”

  “I don’t wanna know,” Barry cut him off.

  “You know,” Cal said again quietly and heard Barry sigh.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “That shit doesn’t blow back on me,” Cal warned.

  “We didn’t have this conversation,” Barry stated.

  “Good,” Cal replied.

  “Jesus. All the luck, Vi moves away from that fuckface and moves next door to a security specialist with mafia ties. Fuck me,” Barry muttered.

  “She doesn’t seem real lucky to me,” Cal remarked.

  “Maybe her luck has changed,” Barry returned. “I gotta go. I got a Captain to try to convince to commence operation shakedown on a guy who’s whacked one of his detectives and put two others in the hospital, one’s still a vegetable three years down the line. Lucky for you, Vi and those girls, he misses Tim’s shortstop on our softball team.”

  “Tim good?” Cal asked.

  “The best,” Barry answered.

  “I’ll bet,” Cal murmured.

  Barry was silent again. Then he whispered, “Keep her safe.”

  “You got it,” Cal promised.

  Barry disconnected and Cal put down the phone.

  Colt rounded Cal’s chair and sat in his own.

  “Pryor in line with your plan?” Colt asked and Cal looked at him.

  “Yeah,” Cal answered.

  Colt studied Cal then asked, “We good?”

  Cal studied Colt then asked back, “I tried to take on Denny Lowe without keepin’ you in the loop, would you be good with me?”

  Colt’s face went hard. “Not the same thing and you know it, Cal.”

  “Explain to me how.”

  “You were there when we had our conversation.”

  Cal leaned into his friend. “Fuck, Colt, just you roundin’ my fuckin’ house to have that conversation meant you knew.”

  Colt held Cal’s stare and then his jaw clenched.

  “I stepped out for two and half months, leavin’ her alone,” Cal reminded him.

  “You’re in that line of work, Cal. You knew what was goin’ down and where it was gonna go. You stepped out for a reason. You can’t tell me you weren’t workin’ through some shit,” Colt returned.

  “I didn’t have the intel, Colt, you kept it from me. I was workin’ through some shit but I woulda worked through it next door to her fuckin’ house and in the know about the escalation of attention,” Cal shot back.

  “We had our eye on her and the girls,” Colt informed him.

  “That be good enough for you, someone was takin’ pictures of Feb and Jack?” Cal asked.

  “Like I said, I made a call. You didn’t like it but nothin’ I can do to change it. We knew what was goin’ on and we kept our shit sharp and she’s good. Pryor knew all about it and her brother did too and they still did what they thought they had to do so that isn’t on me. You’re welcome to stay pissed at me, man, but it’s a waste of energy. It’s done.”

  This was all true and it pissed him off.

  Cal stood and looked down at Colt. “Now are you assured of my focus?”

  Colt visibly bit back a smile. “Yeah.”

  “Thrilled, man,” Cal growled and turned to the stairs.

  “This is over, I’ll get Feb to make you one of her frittatas,” Colt called after him.

  “Can’t wait,” Cal called back but didn’t turn as he took the stairs.

  This was true too but he wasn’t giving Colt that. He’d heard about Feb’s frittatas. According to her brother Morrie they were heaven in the form of eggs.

  They might be good but Cal would bet a thousand bucks that Vi’s seafood shit was better.

  * * * * *

  Cal was nearly home when his cell rang. He looked at the display and it said “unknown caller”.

  He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

  “Yo.”

  “You’re gettin’ a call in ten minutes at your office,” a man’s voice said then disconnected.

  Fucking Sal. Always the drama.

  He turned away from home and toward his office. By the time he unlocked the door the phone on Lindy’s desk was ringing. He picked it up and put it to his ear.

  “Yo.”

  “Cal, figlio,” Sal said in his ear and Cal could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Sal,” Cal greeted, not smiling.

  “I hear you were in Chicago. Saw Vinnie, Theresa. No visit for me?”

  “It wasn’t a social call,” Cal told him and Sal was quiet.

  Then he said, “Yeah, bad business. Vinnie told me.”

  Cal was impatient. “Listen, I got a woman at home, she’s got daughters and someone’s takin’ snapshots and sendin’ them to cops. I don’t wanna be in the office. I wanna be home. You have a good talk with Vinnie?”

  “We talked but I think you need to come up to Chicago. We’ll have a sit down,” Sal said.

  There it was. Sal was in the mood to be persuasive.

  “Sal, respect, goes without saying,” Cal told him. “But I got a woman at home whose got daughters and someone’s takin’ snapshots, sendin’ gifts and puttin’ bullets in the brains of the men in her life. The man who’s ordering that shit is in Chicago. I don’t wanna be in Chicago, I don’t wanna be away from her and I don’t want her to be in Chicago. If you talked to Vinnie then we don’t need a sit down.”

  “I can see why this would make you impatient but there are things to discuss,” Sal countered.

  “You want to discuss, I go this alone,” Cal returned and Sal let out a very loud sigh.

  “We’re talkin’ a cop’s wife here, figlio,” Sal noted.

  “We’re talkin’ my woman here, Sal. Hart sent a picture. I’m next,” Cal told him.

  “How ‘bout this? I send a message to Hart, explain you’re family and that he should move on,” Sal suggested.

  “How ‘bout this?” Cal returned. “This guy isn’t family. This guy is a mean motherfucker who clawed his way to the top and took down everything that got in his way. He doesn’t get family. He doesn’t get respect. He doesn’t get anything but what he takes. He took from you. He took from me. He took from my family and your family and he took from my woman, who, Sal, cop’s widow or not, she’s mine now and that means she’s family and you can’t deny that and he’s still takin’ from her. Are you tellin’ me, he did all that, you’re gonna send this fucker a note?”

  “I gotta get organized, Cal.”

  “You gotta ask a soldier to put a bullet in a gun,” Cal replied.

  “We’re talkin’ war,” Sal pointed out, “war requires organization.”

  “That’s not what we’re talkin’ and you know it. The big man is out, you move in, you get back what you lost seven years ago and then some.”

  “Takeover like that, like I said, n
eeds organization.”

  “You’re up for that challenge.”

  “This is big what you’re askin’ me.”

  “It was bigger what I gave to you.”

  Sal was quiet again then he sighed loudly again. “The Bianchis. Always a pain in my ass.”

  “The pain was in my shoulder, Sal. You had a situation, Frankie called me and I stood up for you. I put myself in its path and took that bullet for you. You’re breathin’. I’m askin’ you to make sure I keep doin’ it and Vi lives the rest of her life doin’ it easy.”

  Cal listened to silence and this lasted awhile.

  Finally Sal stated, “All right, figlio. I do this, we’re square.”

  “You got it.”

  “Fin,” Sal pressed.

  “Fin,” Cal repeated.

  “You come to Chicago, you sit at my table, we’re nothin’ but family.”

  “Yeah Sal, me and Vinnie, we learned that lesson a long time ago.”

  Another sigh. “Vinnie Junior was a good man.”

  “He’s on Hart too.”

  “I remember,” Sal said softly.

  “And I’ll never forget.”

  “You Bianchis. Your loyalty is rabid.”

  Cal shook his head and reminded him, “Bianchi blood is in your veins.”

  “Luckily Giglia blood is dominant. Bianchis think with their hearts. Giglias think with their balls.”

  Cal smiled. “Giglias think with their dicks and, you see Vi, you’ll think I got Giglia blood.”

  Cal listened as Sal laughed then he listened to that laughter die.

  “Vinnie said she’s a good woman,” Sal said quietly.

  Cal didn’t respond. Sal was family and now Vi was family. Their paths would cross. Sal would find out for himself one day.

  “You held this marker a long time,” Sal noted. “You’re pullin’ it for her, she must be.”

  “Make my woman safe, Sal,” Cal ordered softly.

  “Fatto, figlio. Done,” Sal replied just as softly. “But when it’s done, I want her at my table. Gina will make cannelloni. You like Gina’s cannelloni.”

  “I figure Vi, the girls and me will be in Chicago a lot, Sal. We’ll be at your table.”

  “It’ll be good to see you, Cal,” Sal said and he meant it, the crazy fuck.

  Cal didn’t reply. He liked Sal just as much as he didn’t. But Gina’s cannelloni would be worth dinner at his table.