by Camy Tang
The bar was off to the side of the main room, set back into the wall and shielded from the dance floor by a two-story-high pile of wooden crates erected as decor art. To the side of the bar was a set of swinging double doors leading to the kitchen.
Mariella snagged a bistro table in a corner, and they only had to wait a few minutes before she waved frantically to one of the waitresses, a petite girl with a long braid whose face lit up when she saw Mariella. She finished serving food to a table, then wove between the chairs to their table. “Hey, cuz! This isn’t your usual night to come here.”
“Dawn, I brought a friend, Elisabeth.” Mariella leaned closer and Elisabeth could only just hear it as she said, “She’s the one who helped Joslyn get away from Tomas.”
Dawn’s face paled, but she anxiously asked Elisabeth, “Is Joslyn okay?”
“As far as I know.”
“Tomas will never stop looking for her,” Mariella said.
“I’m trying to find proof that Tomas killed Joslyn’s father,” Elisabeth said. “The only way Joslyn will be safe will be if Tomas is behind bars. Did you know that his alibi was that he was here that night?”
Dawn shook her head, then bit her lip, and her eyes skated around the room briefly.
“I’m not a cop,” Elisabeth said. “Would you be willing to tell me about the night of the murder?”
“They’d kill me if they knew I was talking to you about that,” Dawn said in a low voice.
Elisabeth touched the girl’s hand briefly. “They will never find out from me or Mariella.”
“It’s for Joslyn,” Mariella said to her cousin. “You know what Tomas did to her, and then he killed her father. We can’t let him get away with that.”
Dawn’s eyes were still troubled, but her chin firmed.
“Did you see Tomas here the night of the murder?” Elisabeth asked.
“Yes, but he didn’t come here until just before closing at three.”
Elisabeth’s hands clenched in her lap. She knew he couldn’t have been here, but hearing confirmation was more important to her than she’d expected. “What did he look like?”
“He was really agitated. Worried, but angry at the same time.”
“Did you notice any blood on his clothes?”
Dawn bit her lip again. “I thought there were some dark stains on his cuffs, but the club is dark, and his clothes that night were dark, too, so I can’t be sure.”
“What did he do? Who did he talk to?”
“He talked to one of the big bosses.” Dawn glanced around. “I don’t see the man here tonight. They spoke in Filipino, so I didn’t understand what they were saying to each other, but when the boss got on his cell phone, I heard him say the name Terence. People say that he’s their...cleaner.”
Elisabeth felt a chill along the base of her spine. They sent a cleaner to the crime scene? He would have erased any evidence that led back to Tomas. “If you told the police what you saw—”
“No!” Dawn shook her head frantically. “No way. I won’t testify against a Bagsic.”
“But—”
“A few years ago, someone else testified against a Bagsic,” Mariella said. “The Bagsic got off on a technicality, and the witness and his entire family were killed.”
Elisabeth shivered. She told Dawn, “I wouldn’t ask you to make yourself or your family a target.”
But they needed concrete evidence. There had to be something, someone they could pursue who could give them what they needed to have Tomas arrested and convicted. “Dawn, who was with Tomas that night?”
“Two other captains in the gang. They call one of them Shades because he’s into sunglasses. I don’t know his real name and I only know the other guy by sight.” Dawn glanced around. “Actually, they’re here tonight. That’s them over there.” She pointed to two men sitting several tables away.
At just that moment, one of the men looked up and saw Dawn gesturing to them, and the three women looking at them. A slimy smile spread across his thin lips.
“Oh, no.” Dawn turned back to Elisabeth and Mariella, her eyes wide.
“Go,” Elisabeth told her.
As Dawn scurried away, she looked back to the man. He nudged his friend, said something to him without taking his eyes off of the women and then the two of them got up and started walking toward Elisabeth’s table.
“What will we do?” Mariella hissed.
“Follow my lead.” Elisabeth affected a casual pose, forcing her rigid shoulders to relax. She stared directly at the two men, her mouth pulled into what she hoped was a coy smile.
The men came up to their table, one of them leaning his elbow heavily against it. “Hey, ladies.” He was swaying, even with the support of the table, and Elisabeth caught the strong smell of alcohol on his breath.
“Hi.” Elisabeth leaned her elbow against the table, too, mirroring his gestures.
“I’m Manny. This is Shades.” He nodded toward the other man, who wasn’t wearing sunglasses indoors but did have an expensive pair tucked into the pocket of his purple Armani shirt. Manny blinked at her blankly for a moment, and Elisabeth wondered for a second if he was drunk enough to pass out in front of them, but then he said, “So you’re friends with Dawn?”
“Oh, sure,” Elisabeth said. “But I know Tomas better.”
“Tomas?” Manny’s dark eyebrows rose. “Baby, don’t you know he’s already taken? But I’m free.” He gave a loose-lipped smile and leaned closer to her.
Elisabeth faked a pout. “He didn’t seem taken the last time I saw him. You guys are friends, right? What’ll happen if he sees me talking to you?” She gave him a bold look from beneath lowered eyelids.
Manny’s wide smile glinted brightly in the darkness of the club. “Oh, trust me, we learned to share when we were in kindergarten.”
Elisabeth had to fight to suppress a shudder. “Where is Tomas anyway?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him in a few days.”
“He’s up in Northern California somewhere.”
Manny either hadn’t been told exactly where, or maybe he hadn’t cared. Either way, perhaps Tomas’s business in Sonoma wasn’t widely known. “Northern California?” Elisabeth pretended to look disdainful that anyone would choose to travel up there. “Why?”
Manny shrugged, then he caught sight of another gang member walking past and called to him. He said in Tagalog, “Hey, Alfonso, do you know why Tomas is up north?”
“Naw,” Alfonso replied, also in Tagalog. “No one knows except the bosses.”
“It might be better for him to stay up there,” Shades said with a sneer. “Especially after he lost that shipping container off the Pansit.”
What shipping container?
Unaware that Elisabeth had understood them, Manny turned to her and said in English, “He’ll be gone for a while, baby. How about you play with me instead?”
Shades had been giving Mariella appraising looks from beneath his heavy brows, but she’d kept her gaze on the table. Elisabeth could feel her knee shaking where it touched hers under the table.
Elisabeth said to Manny, “I wish I could, but I have to take my friend home. She’s not feeling so hot.”
Shades’s mouth curled in disgust and he leaned back slightly. Then he said to Manny in Tagalog, “I’m outta here.” Without bothering to say anything to the women, he turned and followed where Alfonso had gone, deeper into the club.
Well, that took care of him. Elisabeth had been afraid she’d need to resort to more creative measures to get rid of him.
“I can take you both home.” Manny fumbled in his suit jacket pocket a few times before pulling out a ring of keys and jingling them in front of her.
As if she’d get anywhere near a car with him. Even without his smarmy manner, his blood alcohol level must be through the roof. But she jumped to her feet with alacrity. “Oh, sure. Let’s go.”
Mariella gave her a wild-eyed look. Elisabeth returned it with a calculating expression of her own, hoping Mariel
la got the message.
Manny clamped onto her elbow with a large, heavy hand, but he was staggering dangerously. “Let’s go out the back door,” she said through a puff of breath as he stumbled and dragged down on her arm.
Once they’d exited, Elisabeth cast a glance around to make sure there wasn’t anyone else around, then prepared to throw a carefully aimed blow that would knock the drunken man out.
But before she could do it, a shadow separated from behind a Dumpster and rushed toward them. She barely had time to recognize Liam before he tackled Manny to the ground.
Liam’s attack must have shot adrenaline through Manny’s system, temporarily shoving aside the fog of his drunkenness, because he began throwing heavy, powerful punches.
But Liam was more fit and agile, plus he was sober. He dodged the clumsy blows and rammed his elbow against Manny’s head. The gang member went limp.
Elisabeth found she was breathing heavily, almost as if she’d been the one in the fight. “Are you all ri—”
“What were you thinking, bringing him out here?” Liam got to his feet, his eyes boring into hers.
She glared at him. “I was thinking that I’d knock him out.”
“He’s twice your weight. He could have killed you.”
She thrust a hand toward Manny’s inert form. “He was drunk enough that he’d have been out like a light from just a tap.”
“Of all the foolhardy...” Liam pressed his lips together, and a vein throbbed in his temple. “You were taking a big risk.”
The last man who had yelled at her had been her ex-boyfriend, Cruise, who’d punctuated his anger with insults and his fists on her face. She knew Liam wasn’t Cruise, but the way he yelled at her made her hurt deep down. And that, in turn, made her lash out.
“I have been taking care of myself since I was sixteen. I never asked you for your help!”
“Guys!” Mariella’s voice cut through the haze of rage in front of her eyes.
Elisabeth blinked, and realized Mariella had shouted at them several times.
“We need to go,” Mariella said urgently. “Before your yelling catches someone’s attention.”
Elisabeth felt as if her head was still steaming. She stalked past Liam and headed toward her car, ripping the microphone and taped wire from her torso as she walked. She unhooked them from the radio transmitter and tossed them all into the glove compartment. Mariella climbed into the backseat and Liam started the car, all in silence.
As they drove away, Elisabeth heard her words again as clearly as if they were played back into her ears. She had worked so hard not to be vulnerable, ever, but Liam got to her. In that way, he was more dangerous to her than Tomas.
There was a buzzing sound, and Liam pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Fumbling his Bluetooth headset into place, he answered the call. “Hey, Shaun.” His tone was clipped, but Elisabeth wasn’t sure if it was because of the caller or because he was still mad at her.
His brow wrinkled. “Why?” Then shock washed over his face. “I’m...I’m in L.A. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He disconnected the call. “We have to go back to Sonoma.” His voice skated the edge of panic.
“What’s wrong?”
“That was my brother. He said he stopped two men who tried to break into my father’s house tonight.” Liam’s eyes were wide as she glanced at her. “I think one of them was Tomas.”
EIGHT
He’d put his family in danger. The guilt lay heavy in his stomach, a seething, pulsing tumor. He’d already put Elisabeth and Joslyn in danger. Now his father and brothers were at risk, too.
How could he fix this? He had to make things right.
They’d dropped Mariella off at her apartment in Los Angeles, receiving only a halfhearted agreement not to put herself in danger in investigating Tomas further. Liam didn’t quite believe her, but he’d been too anxious to start the return drive to Sonoma to stay and argue.
Elisabeth had sat silent for most of the six-hour drive. She’d scrubbed the makeup from her face and given Mariella back the clothes she’d borrowed, but she looked very different with her new short haircut, coupled with the lighter color. She’d withdrawn into herself ever since they’d argued in the parking lot of the club.
Listening to what he could hear of her conversations while she was in the club had been excruciating for Liam. He hadn’t been able to help her, to do anything to back her up in that dangerous situation. When she hadn’t been able to get rid of Manny’s company, he’d grasped on to the idea that he could get the guy away from her once she got him outside the club. And so he’d tackled the slimeball with all the force of his pent-up frustration.
But then he’d lashed out at her, because she’d spent half an hour driving him crazy. It hadn’t really been her fault, it had been the situation, but he hadn’t been able to distinguish it in his mind at the moment.
And she’d looked at him with loathing. That had cut him as deeply as the war wound in his shoulder.
During the drive, after he’d calmed down, he’d tried twice to apologize, but she cut him off both times by saying, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He hadn’t tried a third time.
She drove for part of the way so he could sleep, and then he’d taken over. She’d been sleeping for the past several hours, her head resting against the closed window. In sleep, her face had lost its toughness, showing a soft vulnerability in her lips and cheeks.
He didn’t want to be attracted to her. He didn’t want to care about her. But something about her made him feel more whole than he’d felt since returning from Afghanistan.
But the reality was that he was horribly broken, and he should keep his distance from this woman. She had her own problems, her own cares, her own baggage. He couldn’t put his burdens on her.
Just as he had been trying not to put his burdens on his family. And yet, danger had found them anyway. There must be something he could do to stop this, to make this situation all right again.
He took a back-way shortcut to his father’s house, cutting through some access roads, and finally turned onto the long dirt road between vineyards that led to his father’s eight-acre lot. The sun played hide-and-seek behind the clouds. The changing light made the day vacillate between gloomy and cheerful.
Finally the road ended before the two-story house. The front door was on the second story, and behind, the land sloped downward, with a magnificent view of the rolling farmlands, lined with grapevines, and a distant mountain. The effect of the professionally landscaped front yard was ruined by the strings of Christmas lights on everything green. Shaun had also erected some lit reindeer figures and decorated the tallest tree with gigantic gold, red and green ornament balls.
“We’re here.” Liam parked along the side of the driveway and cut the engine.
Elisabeth stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”
“Almost seven.”
Despite the early hour, the front door opened and Liam’s eldest brother, Shaun, headed toward them, followed by his wife, Monica. They must have been in the front room watching for them.
“You made good time, Liam.” Monica launched herself at him, holding him in a hug that soothed the ragged edges of his worry. As a former nurse, Monica had a way about her that made him feel as if he’d just stepped into a safe haven.
“How’s Dad?” Liam asked.
“He’s fine.” Despite the reassuring words, Shaun’s forehead was creased in a frown.
“How’re you?” Liam tried to make his voice casual, but Shaun’s piercing blue eyes saw right through him.
A smile creased his brother’s rugged face. “Better now that you’re here.” He then folded Liam into a bone-creaking hug, as if completely aware that it would embarrass him in front of Elisabeth.
But when Liam emerged from his brother’s harder-than-normal back slapping, he was surprised at the expression on Elisabeth’s face. Rather than humor, she seemed startled, and there was a hollowness to h
er eyes, almost like...envy. But that was silly. He was probably just tired and seeing things.
“Elisabeth, this is my brother Shaun and his wife, Monica.”
“Come inside, it’s chilly out here.” Monica put a gentle arm around Elisabeth to guide her into the house, and Liam was a bit surprised to see his capable, fiercely independent partner docilely submit to his sister-in-law.
Shaun put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back for a moment. “Dad knows about the attempted break-in, but I haven’t told him anything about the Bagsics or that you were down in L.A. six hours ago.”
Liam’s father was sitting in a recliner in the living room at the back of the house. A cheerful fire burned in the stone fireplace that dominated the room, and the scent of pine filled the air from the garlands strung along the mantel.
“Dad, I thought you’d still be lazing around in bed.” Liam grinned at his father as he clapped a hand on his shoulder. Dad’s bones seemed more prominent than they’d been only a couple weeks ago.
“I got up early to keep Shaun company. After what happened last night, your brother was too scared to go back to sleep.” His father’s blue eyes, exactly like Shaun’s, twinkled up at him.
Shaun rolled his eyes. “As if. I was making sure Dad didn’t go storming outside with his shotgun.”
“If it had been me last night, I’d have hit more than just the kumquat tree.”
Monica gave her husband a whack on the arm. “You hit my kumquat tree? When were you going to tell me?”
Shaun tried to look innocent. “I just did?”
She glared at him and crossed her arms in front of her, although a smile peeked out at the corner of her mouth. “You did that on purpose.”
“What?” Shaun held out his hands. “I’m not that good a shot.”
“You’re a terrible shot. But you only needed to fire in the general direction to take out my kumquat tree.”
“Why would he want to take out your kumquat tree?” Elisabeth looked bewildered and amused at the same time.
