by Ali Parker
"No, that would do me in for sure."
I nodded and turned, walking to my car with nothing more than my thoughts to accompany me.
*
"Are you shitting me right now? What are you waiting on?" Marco stood up from behind his desk and walked around to grip my shoulders. "Go get the tapes and bring them down here. I'll lock them up and get a recorder later. We'll play them back and see what the hell is going on."
"I haven't had time. It's been a little busy jumping from one thing to the other, and the last thing I wanted was for D or Daddy to know that I had them. Everyone is out to get Freddy, but us."
"Which is fucked up, by the way. We should be at the front of the line."
"Agreed." I pulled from his hold and turned to walk out of the office. "It was our mother that he had gunned down."
"Don't say that. Freddy would never do that to momma, Izzy. You know him. He's the softest, the most loving out of all of us. If Freddy called in the hit, then something forced him to. He would have given up his life for mom. Fuck, for any of us. Don't believe what you see just yet. Family means something to us... him included."
I nodded and walked down the hall toward the stairs. Marco was right, and yet I couldn't force the nagging feeling away that I was missing something huge. Something right in front of my face. My father wouldn't be happy with me, but I was going to go through my mother's small office to see what I could find. The only reason in the world to murder her, other than to send a message to my father, was to silence her. There were a million ways to get my dad's attention, but this one would lead to carnage and death. Someone had declared war, whether they meant to or not.
I gathered the tapes and the small recorder from a locked box under my bed and walked back down to Marco's office. He glanced up from pacing the floor in front of his desk.
"Do you think Jonathan can pull the red light tapes from the day mother died near the alley where they found her?"
"I think they would have already done that, but yeah, let me call him and see what he can do." I pulled my phone from my pocket and walked toward the large window across the office that opened up to the front of the house. Springtime had brought with it dark green grass and beautiful flowers all along the property. They made me think of my mother.
"Hey, baby. Where are you?" Jonathan's voice was oddly comforting.
"At my place. Do you, by chance, have time to pull the tapes from my mother's murder? I wanted to see them myself." I held my breath, not quite sure if he were that much into me. It hadn't been more than a week of us seeing each other. Good thing he was a lonely cop.
"Yeah, I can do that. Come by the station and we'll replay what we have on my computer. I helped a little with the case, so it's all good."
"Alright. We'll be there in fifteen minutes." I dropped the call and nodded to my brother, who was watching me closely. "He'll do it."
"Good. I'm almost scared for the poor bastard. You sounding sweet and caring is a little unnerving. No wonder he's already all in." He snorted and grabbed his keys as I popped him hard in the gut.
"Don't tell anyone there's another side of me."
"Never. I love my life too much."
*
The tapes were fuzzy, hard to make out with any clarity, but Jonathan walked us through the way they came up with the size and shape of the four men who assaulted my mother. It took every ounce of strength inside of me not to have an emotional breakdown as they pulled her into the darkness. I was grateful that the sound was off. Hell, I didn't know if those type of cameras had sound with them. Either way, I couldn't have handled hearing her scream.
"Those aren't the Kallups, Izzy." Marco glanced over at me. "Unless they have some new recruits that we haven't seen."
"No. It's not them." I got up and paced the floor a little, trying to think through who it might be. "What about Cooper? Do you think maybe he sent some of his guys from California?"
"Adam Cooper?" Jonathan stood up and moved in front of me. "We've been watching him for some time with the boys out in L.A., but he's incredibly slick."
I nodded and turned back to Marco. "Let's go. We need to keep searching."
"What can I do?" Jonathan reached out and gripped the side of my arm, pulling my attention back toward him. His dark green eyes were filled with compassion. I moved into his arms as I should have.
"Sweep the alley like someone who lost their mother in it would." I brushed my nose by his and let my expression relax a little. "Help me find out who took my mother from me, Jon."
He licked his lips and nodded. "Oh course, baby. I'll go out there today."
I moaned softly as his fingers sunk into my hair and his lips pressed against mine. Where there was little heat between us, the warmth of his goodness hadn't been missed on me.
"Hey. I'm still here. Shit." Marco walked out, and I turned my head, deepening the kiss.
"Stay with me tonight," Jonathan mumbled through our kisses as he pressed his hand against my lower back and trapped me to him.
"I can't, but soon." I licked at his mouth and locked gazes with him. "Soon. I promise."
Chapter 6
Edward
"These seem to be doing their job." I reached up and adjusted one of the cameras at Madam Gizelle's place as I balanced on a rickety old ladder. Workers comp wasn't part of the deal thanks to us not having an official business. I chuckled at the thought.
"Good." She smiled as I glanced down at her. "What's so funny, good looking?"
"Just being comical in my own head. It's the only way to survive in this serious bunch of thugs." I climbed down the ladder and wagged my eyebrows at her. "You know I'm a good boy."
"Please. I know you like to pretend you are, but don't wear the mask so long that you forget who you really are." She reached toward me and tugged at the front of my shirt. "Let's go into my office and check to make sure that the camera is pointed in the exact spot you want, in order to get a good view of the cars that pull up to get the girls."
"Alright." I glanced down the street. "We need to check this one and number eight, which is on that light pole up there." I pointed toward it. "It should give us a perfect view of the license plate number."
"Good. That'll be handy, unless the asshole doing this uses a different car each time, or doesn't have the car registered in his name."
"That's for sure going to happen. These guys, or guy is slick. We're just starting to look for him after three girls have been assaulted." I followed her back into the house, unable to help myself from taking in just how fucking hot she looked in her slick blue dress. I'd have paid double the going rate to watch her take it off slowly before she-
"Edward? Did you hear me?" She glanced over her shoulder.
"Oh yeah. Just imagining you naked." I winked at her, giving my best boy-like charm. Izzy might have my heart, but the rarity of me getting her body left me wanted a few other play-dates during the week.
She opened the door to her office and walked in, not responding to me. For a moment, I worried that I'd offended her. Could you really offend the Capo of a whore house?
"Maybe you'll get lucky once we catch this guy." She licked at her lips and sat down, leaving my heart racing at the thought.
"Are you still a call girl, or just the Capo now?" I took the seat next to me, trying hard not to trip over myself. I felt like a nerdy kid who was dressed for the science fair all of a sudden. She looked like a goddess with her dark red hair and perfectly applied makeup.
"I'm whatever I need to be." She smiled. "Stop drooling and let's check out this camera."
"Right." I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and winked at her again. "The code is 8-70-225."
I leaned back and watched her as she pulled up the two different cameras. She turned her computer screen toward me and pointed to each of them.
"This what you wanted?"
I left my flirtatious comments dancing around my sick head and nodded. "Yep. That should work really well. I wish we had someone
that could go under cover with the guy for us, but Izzy is strapped with a hundred other issues she's having to deal with."
"I would go, but I'm pretty sure the guy knows who I am. Everyone seems to know me."
"If he's connected with another mafia, by chance, then yeah, he's totally going to know who you are. He's an idiot if he doesn't."
"So we've ruled out the idea of him being a standalone perv with maniac intentions?"
"I think so." I turned my gaze back to the screen. "I wonder if Izzy's new pet at the police station has someone that might be able to help us."
"No. The last thing we need is a cop helping us. You know as well as I do that once this guy is caught, they would turn around and shut us down." Sandra stood up and brushed her hands down her shapely sides. "I'm not having that happen. Joe trusts me to keep this business alive and growing, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."
"Alright." I stood up and tapped the desk. "Let me work on the phones for a little while. You think about whether you have a girl in the house that might be tough enough to help us. I hate to put anyone in danger, but we need a tracker to find this guy, Sandra."
She walked around the desk and paused by her door. "I might have someone. Let me go talk with her."
"Alright." I moved around to her side of the desk and sat down, letting my eyes move across the various view we had of the place. None of the bedrooms were tapped, but it would have been fucking amazing if they had been. My raging hard-on over Sandra wouldn't have been lost on nothing. I smirked at the thought.
Twenty minutes of implanting the phone with a device that could help track where calls were coming from, and I was done. I stood up about the time the door to the office opened.
"Hi." A beautiful blond with big blue eyes and perfect tits opened the door and leaned against the frame. Her tight tank top and high-waisted shorts had my body hardening all over again.
"Hey there. Sandra just walked down the hall if you're looking for her." I gave her a kind smile and glanced back down at the phone. I'd give Sandra some shit about being hot, but there was no way in hell I was going to tease any of the girls that didn't know that I was kidding around. It wasn't professional, and I liked my job. And my balls.
"This is Audrey, Eddy. She's the only girl who might be up for the task." Sandra walked around the girl and stopped beside me as I turned to face her. "She learned self-defense when she was younger, and she looks sweet, but she's a tough cookie, right, Audrey?"
"I'm happy to help if it means keeping the other girls safe." She walked into the room as I glanced over at her. Something about her swagger said that Sandra was right... she might look like a blond pixie that had come to service your naughtiest of dreams, but she wasn't at all what she appeared to be. My cock ached at the idea of finding out what she was hiding... particularly below her slutty outfit.
"Awesome. We can talk about it and then I'll run it by Joe and get his thoughts." I forced a tight facade in place and turned back to Sandra. "The phones are ready to go. D wants us to try and pull the calls from the dates and times that we think the guy called last. So if Jessica came back to you last Thursday, pull the caller log from the day before. He wants to see if we can pin down when this asshole called last and hopefully we can lock down the sound of his voice. The program on the phones should allow for that. Just pull the dates and I'll work on the technology later today."
"Will do." She reached out and brushed her hand over my shoulder and down my arm. "Go talk with Audrey and see if you're comfortable with her helping us."
"Are you?"
"Yes. I believe in her." She glanced from me to the girl by the door.
"Alright." I picked up the trash I had laying around, threw it away and walked past the door, barreling into Daniel. "There you are. Shit, I'm done now."
"Sorry man. I had a meeting that didn't go as planned this morning." The slick Italian bastard had a five o'clock shadow and looked like he hadn't slept in three days.
"It's alright. Come on, Sandra wants us to talk with Audrey about going undercover to help us locate the asshole who's hitting on the girls."
"Audrey?" He glanced behind us and smiled. "Oh hey. We met last time I was out here."
I ignored them as they made small talk and worked my way down the hall to the kitchen. The girls lounging around the living room gave me hell for looking so cute in my jeans, but it was all part of their charm.
Daniel walked to the fridge as I sat down across from Audrey and tried hard not to eye-fuck the poor girl. She was exquisite. Soft alabaster skin and big blue eyes with long black eyelashes and full red lips. I could see why she was a call-girl. She had to bring in top dollar.
"How long have you been working for Madam Gizelle?" I pressed my forearms to the table and half expected her to say she was brand new. I'd never seen her around before.
"It'll be a year this summer." She played with a packet of sugar and kept her eyes adverted from me.
"What? Seriously? I've never seen you around here." I wanted to reach out and squeeze her hands, to give her a little bit of comfort, but it would have been weird. My mother always said I had a thing with touching people too much.
"I've seen you." Daniel smiled and sat down beside the girl. "She's played my girlfriend a few times at large events for arms dealers."
"Large events?" I snorted. "You guys sell illegal products to the black market and you have events? What sort of events? Conferences and shit?" I laughed as Daniel smiled like a tomcat.
"Something like that." He glanced over at Audrey. They'd fucked before. I would have put money on it. Such a shame really... She didn't seem the type to go for a slick Italian.
"I wanna help." She glanced from Daniel toward me, never playing into his flirting or my strain of questions.
"Good. Let me check with Joe and I'll let you know if we're moving forward with it." I got up and turned toward the living room, waving playfully at Lizzy, a blond that could suck a dick like nothing I'd ever seen in my life before.
"What exactly are we asking her to do?" Daniel was a little more defensive than he should have been. Did he have feelings for the girl?
I glanced over my shoulder and focused on him. "We're asking her to go undercover with the guy. I'll get a couple of tracker pills from D and she can swallow one before she goes anywhere. We'll be here when she goes and will keep a good eye on her." I turned around and pressed my hands to the table, putting my attention back on her. "You just have to be ready to fight should he tie you up. You down for that?"
She nodded. "Absolutely. Do you guys have help at the police station?"
"Maybe. Why?" I tilted my head to the side a little. There was something about her that screamed high-class. Why that bothered me was a mystery. She'd been with Sandra for a damn year... she was a call-girl. Obviously.
"Because, I'll engage in the fight and scratch him. If I can get a little bit of skin under my nails, then you can have it analyzed. That's the best way to see who we're dealing with."
"True, but I'd rather just track you and show up when he gets you inside. I don't want you hurt, and trying to fight this guy off must be a chore, otherwise the other three girls who've been hurt by him would have done the same."
"Maybe. Maybe not." She shrugged and stood up, walking past me into the living room. "Just let me know."
"Alright." I let out a long sigh and glanced toward Danny. "You fuck her?"
"Nope. I wish. My mother is psycho about me saving myself until I marry." He shrugged like it was no big deal that he was what... a virgin?
"Awesome." I let it go. No fucking way was I diving into that conversation so early in the morning. "Let me show you the cameras and walk you through what they do so that you're not behind when we come over here for surveillance."
"Alright, and you need to call D, not Joe. I know you guys have your differences, but he's the underboss of the organization. You and I both answer to him."
"Yeah, I'm good with that." I turned and walked through
the living room, tickling girls as I went and joking with them like we were old friends. I'd slept with most of them and hated the fact that they sold their bodies for money, but I wasn't one to judge. Hell, I was paying for sex most days of the week to keep from having a relationship just in case Izzy finally accepted my subtle pushing.
"You really think Freddy is involved in this shit?" Danny moved up beside me as we walked out onto the porch. "You've been closer to the Castaletta family for much longer than I have. What do you think?"
"I don't know. I can't imagine Freddy being able to tie his shoes without help, but you never know. I hope for Joe and Izzy's sake that he's not involved. They don't need that kind of shit after losing Vivian." I brushed my fingers down my face and pointed up to the first camera. I'd talk to D later that day about Audrey. I couldn't imagine him or anyone else rejecting the idea of having help from the inside.
Chapter 7
Audrey
"Hey." Edward stopped just inside the kitchen about the time I lifted my sandwich to my lips.
I paused. "What?"
He smiled, which was dangerous. If he wasn't such a childish frat boy, sleeping with every girl in the whore house, I might have been inclined to think he was hot. I forced myself not to see him or any of the other men in the Castaletta family as anything but a means to an end.
"I spoke with Demetri. He validated that you have been here a year. You'll have to forgive me. I thought I knew everyone here at the house."
I took a bite of my sandwich and shrugged like it was irrelevant, because honestly, it was. "Awesome. I'm not a liar. Score a point for me?"
He chuckled and walked toward the table. "He's good with you going undercover, but wants to remind you that your safety is much more important than you helping us catch this guy. If something doesn't seem right, get out of there."
"I'll be fine. I grew up on the streets." I took another bite of my sandwich. I'd grown accustom to lying so much over the last year that it had become second nature at this point. Twelve months in the whore house and not once had I opened my legs for a man. I'd drugged a lot of them, but never had I been forced to push myself to give up everything for the job.
