Amanda's Return

by June Kramin

  “I couldn’t be sure that anything would happen at all. Have you read any of it? What was I supposed to do? Read the whole thing and try to find who wasn’t corrupt? Look what happened to you.”

  “What happened to me?”

  “You played both sides. Who’s to say if you were really on the side of the law?”

  “Sue—”

  “You’re why Darci is dead. You also murdered my brother and walked.”

  Mandy asked the guard to give her a few minutes alone with Sue. She pulled up a chair and sat by the bed. “All of your views on everything are so damn distorted. I wish you would have come to me.”

  “You wouldn’t have helped.”

  “All I’ve been is there for you. Don’t you know all I wanted was to try to make everything up to you? I loved you. You and Darci were all I had for a year. Would I have helped you kill everyone? No. But something like this in the right hands may be what it takes to do some good around here. I would have been behind you one-hundred percent. I could have picked up where I left off. I hated spending a year with these people to essentially get nowhere.”

  “You weren’t in anymore. Why would you have started up again?”

  “I would have if you asked me to.”

  “There was no point. If we’d stopped them, some other gang would just take over.”

  “James give you his coyote speech?”

  “His what?”

  “Never mind. What the hell were you doing if you knew that was the case? If you can lie there and know it was for nothing, why did you risk it?”

  “Same reason you killed my brother.”

  Mandy considered this for a long moment before she replied. “Touché. Now tell me what else you know, Sue.”

  “I don’t know anything more than the list of people I wanted dead.”

  “So share the list.”

  “What’s the point? I’m done.” She choked back tears. “You killed Sinclair, and I’m off to jail.”

  “Because now I’m involved, and I want the time away from my daughter to have meant something. Help me, and you can help your daughter’s death mean something.” Sue wouldn’t look at her. “I took the blame for everything, but what you pulled out of that safe tells me Lonny may not have been as innocent as I thought. Or you for that matter. Look at me.” Reluctantly Sue turned her focus to Mandy. “How much do you know, and what can I do?”

  Sue stared hard at Mandy for a long time before she spoke. “You can go to hell.”

  Mandy stood and left the room. James was walking down the hall as Mandy walked out. “Just get her out of here. We’re getting nowhere.”

  “I was just coming to get you. We’re moving Angelo. Go say your goodbyes. I’ll get Sue and take her back to headquarters until we decide what to do with her.”

  Mandy sighed. “Sadly, I don’t even care right now.”

  “You loved her.”

  “I loved a lot of the wrong people.”

  Mandy wanted nothing more than to collapse on a bed with her husband, but she wasn’t about to do it here. She followed James’s men outside. Hunt was helping support Angelo.

  “I’ll get to you when I can,” Mandy said. “I’m not throwing you out there alone until you’re ready. Any idea where you want to go?”

  “I’m thinking a nice beach in California for starters.”

  Mandy smiled. “I think that shouldn’t be a problem.” She hugged him goodbye. “Take care of yourself.” Tears were hard to fight. She didn’t even try.

  She turned around to see James and another guard walking Sue out of the cabin, with her hands cuffed in front of her. Within seconds, Sue shoved the man on the right into the doorjamb and reached into his coat. She came out with his gun in her hands and fired. Someone by Angelo returned the fire. There was a clean shot to her chest. Mandy screamed and started to run to her, but Hunt shouted her name, and she stopped. She looked over at Angelo. He had been hit.

  Three days later, Mandy stood at a cemetery between Eddie and Hunt. A Catholic priest gave his final blessings over three caskets. As the crowd dispersed, Eddie turned to Mandy.

  “I’m glad Vince could finally be at peace, laid to rest the way he would have wanted. I don’t think he ever expected to be laid with Angelo so soon, though.”

  “I don’t really believe he’s thinking much of anything, Eddie.” Mandy didn’t want to deal with him anymore, but she wasn’t ready to go home. There were too many questions left unanswered.

  “It’s nice to not worry about a damn sniper,” Eddie said.

  “Don’t stop completely watching your back, Eddie. There are still a lot of questions out there, not to mention I’m sure a copycat or two will pop up. We still don’t know who nailed Sinclair or why. You’re not entirely in the clear.”

  “Come and see me tomorrow. I want to talk.”

  Mandy’s eyes welled with tears. She was filled with more disgust and hate than ever. “I call the shots. I’ll tell you where we’re meeting.”

  “That’s more than fair.”

  They walked away from Eddie and the crowd. Hunt helped Mandy into the black limousine waiting for them. Once they were on their way, she nodded at the figure on the seat behind the driver.

  “Pleased with the turnout?” Mandy asked.

  “That was good, wasn’t it? Damn Catholics. We always did funerals with as much pizazz as weddings.”

  “Will you go now?”

  Angelo adjusted his arm in his sling. “I would have liked one last drink with my dad, but sure, I suppose I can go now.”

  “How were you going to have one more drink with him?”

  Hunt answered for him. “Pour it on his grave.”

  Angelo nodded. “You know the difference between a mob wedding and a mob funeral?”

  Hunt chuckled. “One less drunk.”

  Mandy elbowed him. “You two are horrible.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  While arrangements were made for the funerals, Hunt and Mandy visited with his parents and Hannah at their home in Florida. James said they would be safe and he wasn’t worried about having to relocate them right away, but he did post two men on the house to be safe.

  Hunt rocked with his daughter sound asleep on his shoulder. Although spoiled in their absence, it was obvious Hannah missed them both dearly. She had gone constantly between the two of them, sharing her stories until she wore herself out.

  “I’m ready to rent her out as a personal GPS for Disney World,” Hunt’s mother chuckled.

  “Blame her mother on that one,” Hunt said, winking at Mandy.

  Mandy had remained glued to his side. She didn’t want to leave her daughter for a second over the short visit home. “I accept that with pride.” She picked up her baby’s hand and kissed it. “She loves it there. I’d hate to move away.”

  Hunt turned to her. “I know you’ve made it darn near her second home, but a lot of families only go once a year, every few years, or never for that matter. She’ll be fine, babe. Don’t you have other things to worry about?”

  Hunt’s mother’s ears perked up. “Something to worry about? I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “This is a good worry, Mom. Tell them, babe.”

  Mandy walked over and stood in front of them. Placing her hands over her belly was all it took. Hunt’s mother clapped her hands together then quickly stood for a hug. They were soon sandwiched by Hunt’s father with a hearty, “Congratulations!”

  The peaceful visit wasn’t long enough, but Mandy was refreshed and ready to go that following Sunday for the funeral. What to do from there was going to be tricky.

  They met Eddie at the pizza place. It was inconvenient enough for Eddie that Mandy liked the sound of it. It was neutral territory with enough foot traffic that she didn’t have to worry about him trying anything funny. She never would have risked a civilian getting hurt. Having to deal with Hunt’s cheese-induced snoring was the only downfall.

  Eddie was good at blending in with a cro
wd when he had to. He looked like any other overweight, slightly-balding Italian man out for the pizza his wife no longer allowed him to have at home. He topped it with a heavy helping of Parmesan cheese and crushed peppers, added a draft dark beer, and then joined Hunt and Mandy at a table.

  “You came alone?” Mandy asked. “That’s surprising.”

  “Earl is in the car.” He put down his plate and glared at Hunt. “You could have given me the same courtesy.”

  “I’m staying,” Hunt said.

  He took a large bite of pizza then spoke with his mouth full. “So what now? I didn’t expect you to come back after the funeral. I figured you’d stay away.”

  “I’m not back for you this time. I’m back for me.”

  “You have nothing left here. You never really did. I can’t believe the likes of Angelo was enough to draw you back.”

  “Of course I’d come for Angelo. And it’s not like it was up to me. You were threatening me and my family, if you recall. I believe the word is kidnapping.”

  Eddie took a sip of beer before he answered. “The way I see it, you got him into that mess.”

  “How so?”

  “The boy going soft was your fault.”

  “My fault? I knew he wasn’t cut out for this the day I met him. You remember how the story goes. Two guys were beating up on him, and I jumped in and helped. I didn’t know who he was.”

  “I know the story. As I recall, it was Kermit and Axle then, too. Funny how things tend to repeat themselves.”

  “Then those two idiots actually served a purpose. Twice. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m grateful things turned out the way they did, and Angelo’s free now, but I can’t believe your goal was to get me to take him away from all this.”

  “You’re right. He was just the excuse I needed. Not that I don’t care about the boy but mainly I just don’t like you. Never have. In all my years of running these streets with Vince, you were the sorriest excuse to come along. A few palms get greased; a few get killed. We’ve never needed an undercover with the FBI to have our backs covered.”

  “Yet you brought me back when the going got tough.”

  “I never thought you’d see day two.”

  “Is that a fact?” Mandy leaned back and crossed her arms.

  “Vince died wanting his revenge on you. I followed through with a promise I made to him.”

  “I guess it was dumb of me to think he’d ever stop looking for me.”

  “You got him shot and changed his son. It wasn’t something he was going to forget. I’m surprised he didn’t have someone go after you sooner. I think him trying to keep it from Angelo was your only saving grace. That and the fact he must have wanted to do it himself when he was out of jail.”

  “And he told you this on his death bed? Or sidewalk?” Hunt asked.

  “Never judge a dying man’s wish, cop.”

  “Most men want to make peace with their maker at that moment. His last thought was on killing my wife? I’m touched.”

  “Keep it up. It sure as hell won’t take nothing more to convince me to lay you out right here, crowd or not.”

  Mandy placed her hand over Hunt’s mouth.

  “Can we just get back to the facts and quit the pissing match? What this boils down to Eddie, is you using me like a pawn like Abbey was all those years ago, hoping I’d fail. Sorry to disappoint you, but we found your shooter and something you didn’t even expect.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “I knew about the book.”

  “So why didn’t you take care of it?”

  “I knew about it, I didn’t know where it was.”

  “So you were going to let Sue run away with it?”

  “She didn’t, now did she?”

  Mandy’s eyes widened. “You killed Sinclair?”

  He took another bite. “Wish I could say I did. That frog of hers was disposable. I never would have killed her, though, out of respect to Lonny, no matter how much of a pain in the ass she’d been.”

  “You do realize where the book is now, don’t you? You aren’t the least bit worried?”

  “Do I look like I’m shaking in my boots? None of that is ever admissible in court. The only thing you’ve given anyone is something else for their files. One more piece to a puzzle that no one bothers to put together. All the info in that ledger is about Vince. He’s dead. I don’t see that there is a lot that can be done about anything now.”

  “You’re connected to Vince, Eddie.”

  “And I’ll be connected to the next boss. Oh wait, that’ll be me.” He took another bite. “I know you’re not green enough to think any of this ever goes away.”

  “No, I’m not. It just gets passed on to those more young and stupid.”

  Eddie regarded her for a second before taking a sip of his beer. “Your point?”

  “Sue wasn’t behind this. It wasn’t by chance that she found Sinclair. I don’t know how you found her, or how you convinced them to go through with this, but it was a pretty ingenious plan.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Come on. You knew about Angie. You and Earl are as close as you and Vince ever were. He wants his son in the hot seat, and knocking up Angie was the way to secure his ass on the throne.”

  “The little bitch is pregnant?”

  Mandy and Hunt exchanged glances. “Didn’t Earl tell you? Darin and Angie were on their way to get married after leaving the cabin.”

  “They never came back as far as I know. Did you see them at the funeral?”

  Again Mandy turned to Hunt. He shrugged. “I never saw them.”

  “My mind wasn’t on those two,” Mandy said.

  Eddie flipped open his cell phone. “Get in here.” Earl came flying in the door within seconds, expecting trouble. When Eddie pointed to a chair, he took it without question.

  “You seen Darin?”

  “Not since you shipped him off with Angelo. I expected to hear from him after this went down.” He turned to Mandy. “Is there a reason you’re still keeping him up there?”

  “He left the night Angelo was shot. He said he was coming back to you.” She glanced between him and Eddie, trying to read them. Their expression made her believe they were honestly in the dark. “He did say he was going to make one stop, though.”

  “What kind of stop is keeping him for two days?”

  Mandy leaned back, reluctant to tell him. Hunt jumped in. “They were going to get married.”

  Earl screamed. “What?”

  Hunt continued. “Angie is…in the family way. They wanted to get married.”

  “That stupid sonofabitch.”

  “So you really didn’t know?” Mandy asked.

  “You think I’d let him do a darn fool thing like that? He’s twenty, for crying out loud.”

  Eddie faced Earl. “Amanda thinks it was our doing to set him up to take Angelo’s place; seeing as how she’s the new queen and all.”

  Earl laughed hard. “Right. Because this is England, and she’s the boss now because Vince couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, and she’s the last heir. What are you two smoking?”

  “You have to admit it’s a plausible thought, Earl,” Mandy said. “It only makes sense that if Angelo was in line after Vince, another child would take that spot if Angelo were out of the picture.”

  “But an eighteen-year-old girl that knows nothing about any of this?”

  “She doesn’t have to. Darin has practically had a gun for a teething ring. He’s bound to have dreams of being Mr. Big. He thinks the world of you and Eddie. Of course he wants to be like you.”

  Earl shook his head. “He can’t be that stupid.”

  “Then where is he? Let’s figure this out. I need to find the connection between him and Sue.”

  “If there is one.”

  “There has to be.”

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Mandy’s phone rang. She took the call; it was Gunner. “What’s up?”

  “Are you nearby?�
��

  “Sort of.”

  “Get here as soon as you can.”

  “I can be there in a few minutes. I’m with Eddie. What’s up?”

  “Earl with him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Bring them, too.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “Just get everyone over here. Pronto.”

  “Give us twenty.”

  Gunner hung up.

  “Who was that, babe?”

  She stood. “Gunner. He wants us there now. Both of you, too,” she said to Eddie and Earl.

  “He say why?”

  “You heard my part of the conversation. I don’t have a clue.”

  Eddie took another large bite of pizza. “Damn good stuff. I’ll have to remember this joint.” Earl took care of Eddie’s beer.

  They arrived at Gunner’s warehouse in just over twenty minutes. The man at the door waved them through, directing them straight to Gunner’s office. He was sitting alone at his desk. He stood and motioned for them to sit. Mandy was the only one to take him up on it.

  When he resumed his position behind his desk, Mandy asked him, “So what’s up?”

  “You’re not Vince’s daughter, are you?”

  “Why question me now?”

  “Just answer my question.” His tone wasn’t angry. It intrigued Mandy more than anything. She looked back at Eddie. He shrugged as if to say “go ahead.”

  “We’ve always had a good thing going, Gunner. I don’t want to lie to you. No, I’m not.”

  “So why did you bother with the whole song and dance?”

  Eddie spoke up. “Because I forced her to. She was Angelo’s right-hand man and knew these streets as well as anyone else. I needed someone to keep things going while we figured this whole shooter business out.”

  “So she was your pawn?”

  “I was a little more than a pawn, Gunner. Someone needed to step up and take charge. We knew being his sister gave me a little more credibility. We put a stop to the killings. I did what I came to do and kept peace in the meantime. Things are still square with Sully. I know that was a concern with Angelo missing.”