by Dale Mayer
Petra frowned. “I just wanted to talk to you about Papa,” she said.
The aunt just shrugged. “I don’t give a shit,” she said. “I cleaned that old man’s butt for a long enough.”
Petra stiffened beside her.
“He was the same age as you,” she said, with difficulty. “But if that’s how you felt about my father, I’m surprised you looked after him all this time.”
“I needed the money,” she said. “It’s not just the invalids who have to eat, you know.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize things were that difficult.”
“You knew,” she said. “You just didn’t give a shit.”
“And, if I supposedly knew, what was I supposed to do about it?” Petra asked incredulously. “You’ve got your house and property. I don’t have anything like that.”
“Well, you do now,” she said. “Your father’s property will go to you.”
“Yeah,” she replied, remembering how Cain had suggested she play it. “But it’s already been sold to pay you to look after him,” she said. “I don’t have much left.”
“Are you sure?” her aunt asked shrewdly. “I think you’re lying.”
“Why would I lie?” she said.
“So that you don’t have to share what you have with us, of course. Do you know how hard it has been for us? How much of our time and effort went into looking after your father? The least you could do is share.”
Cain watched, as she swallowed hard.
“I did share,” she said. “I gave you a job … to look after him.”
Cain saw Petra struggle with the words wanting to escape her tight control.
Her aunt just snorted. “You have more than that because your father had more than that.”
“But what money is left is for my future.”
“I knew it,” she sneered. “You don’t care about us. You don’t care about anything but yourself. We took your father in, when nobody else would. You couldn’t even afford to look after him, and then you sold the property. But you didn’t share it with us, did you? Now you’ll get his full estate, and still, we get nothing.”
Petra recoiled at the very selfish and vindictive words coming from her aunt’s mouth. “I guess this isn’t a good time to talk to you,” she said, with difficulty. Then she turned to Cain. “I’d like to go now,” she murmured.
He hesitated, other questions to ask the aunt burning in the back of his mind, but he nodded and said, “That’s a good idea.”
Her peace of mind was so much more important than anything this old bat might have to say. He held out his hand, and she immediately slipped hers into it; then he tugged her toward the front door.
“Yeah, disappear with your little sleazy friend there,” she said, “like that’ll help.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said and turned to look at her. “Nor do I understand why you called me that.”
“We’ve heard you’re here hunting down some of the locals,” she said. “How is that a normal thing? We heard all about it. You come in here, using my place to hunt down our local people,” she sneered. “You’re nothing but a hired gun.”
He stared at her, feigning shock.
She shook her shoulders. “You think we’re just all backward old folks here,” she said. “We know how this works.”
“How what works?”
“You come in here, take out a bunch of people who matter to us, drive the economy down even lower, then buy up property at bargain prices, only to demolish everything and to put up a big development.”
“That’s the gossip?” He stared at her, not understanding how any of these pieces fit together.
“Where did you hear all that from?” Petra asked.
She shrugged. “Tristan, I suppose. He’s not a bad kid,” she said.
“Well, except for when he doesn’t pay his bills fully, right?” Petra said.
Instantly her aunt stiffened. “What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said, “but that’s all right. You’ll get everything that’s coming to you.”
And, with that, Cain ushered her out the front door. As soon as they got outside, he asked, “Was that necessary?”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but it definitely felt better than anything else I said.”
He nodded and smiled at that. “I get it,” he said. “I really do. But pulling the tiger by the tail isn’t what we need right now.”
“She killed my father,” she said. “Anything we do that hurts her is good.”
“Do you know of any cops we can trust?”
“I don’t know anybody here in law enforcement,” she said. “It’s a small town, but the police change all the time.”
“In that case, I’ll have to get somebody to help us out,” he said.
“Local?”
“No, not local,” he said. “I’m calling Ice.”
As soon as he had Ice on the phone, he quickly explained what they’d overheard.
“Wow. Nice place you’re at,” she said on the phone.
“No, not nice at all. We’re talking some seriously ugly people here, some with a sense of entitlement that is just unbelievable.”
“Right. Expect a phone call in a little bit.”
“Will do.” When he hung up, he said, “She’s contacting some of her people.”
“I want to be Ice,” she said. “I want to have people.”
He laughed. “Other people are out there, like her, but not too many,” he said. “She’s in a class of her own. She’s helping us search for our friend, but we fear he is already dead, as well as hunt those who are trying to kill the rest of us.” He needed to remember to ask for any updates on Bullard. And Terkel. Cain hated to admit it, but he was desperate to believe Bullard was alive. And needed Terk to give Cain that bit of hope.
Just then he got a phone call. He looked down to see it was Ryland. “Hey, anything new on that satellite you’re monitoring for us?”
“He’s at his father’s house,” he said. “You might want to head that way.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I lost track of Eton.”
Chapter 13
When Cain turned and looked down the street, everything inside him went hard and craggy looking.
Petra had heard just enough of that conversation to immediately say, “You’re not going without me.”
He frowned and slid her a sideways glance.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t know what’s going on, but, if Eton needs help, he needs both of us.”
He gave her a half smile. “It’s not your kind of work, sweetie.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “There will be something I can do to help out.”
“I love the sentiment,” he said, “but the reality is that you’ll be in the way, and my attention will be diverted, trying to look after you, while I’m trying to find out what’s going on with Eton.”
“Let’s go take a look.” This time her hand squeezed his. “Come on. Stand strong,” she said.
He smiled and said, “You have no idea what may happen.”
“No, I don’t,” she admitted. “I get that this is the stuff you do, and it’s dangerous all the time,” she said, “but we have a lot at play here.”
“I’m not planning on blowing anything,” he said, “except maybe the guy’s head off, if he hurt Eton.”
“And that’s what Tristan wants to do?”
“Tristan wants to kill Eton,” he said. “Tristan’s part of the same team who took down some of my crew.”
“So, we won’t give him that chance.”
Cain stopped in the middle of the street, as a car crept up and went around them.
Petra thought she saw Cain give an imperceptible nod to the driver.
“You don’t have a stake in this,” Cain said to Petra.
“You’re wrong, Cain. I threw my lot in with you, and n
ow you have it, whether you like it or not,” she said defiantly. “Come on. We’re wasting time.”
“I can hardly just walk down there and expect a welcome.”
“That’s exactly what you’ll get,” she said, “because that’s the kind of scumbag he is.”
“What are you expecting him to do?” he asked, interested in the sudden change in her.
“Well, the sneaky part of him would just shoot you from the window, if he got the chance,” she said. “Unfortunately he has threatened so many people in town that everyone will turn a blind eye and just be grateful that it doesn’t involve them. They’ll just want you to leave, so it will all be over, so things can go back to normal.”
He stared at her thoughtfully. “That’s a good point,” he said. “I suppose now some might want you gone as well, right?”
“Well, my aunt and uncle want me gone obviously. And, if they could manage to kill me and collect, while all this is going on, they wouldn’t be so upset about not getting the rest of their payment from Tristan.”
“Maybe that’s precisely what he promised.”
“Nothing would surprise me at this point,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “We can’t let people like this go on unchecked.”
“I gather the four founding families have always been a bit of a law unto themselves?”
“Always,” she confirmed. “Nothing nice about either of the families in this mess.”
“What about the rest of the town?”
“Most of the good guys left,” she said. “And the old ones? Well, I don’t think they have any family left. It’s a hard road when it’s only you against the rest.”
“Nobody needs that,” he agreed. “But I won’t stand here and let him take out my friend.”
“Of course not,” she said, “and that’s what Tristan’s expecting.”
“Exactly. So now we have to get in there and surprise him,” he said.
“In that case, we need to get moving now.” She headed out, leading him through another alleyway.
“Where are we going?” he protested.
“Just a different entrance.”
“Is this whole place full of these secret routes?”
“Little side streets, yes, because all of these were, at one time, one really big property,” she said. “Then parts were sold off, but people kept bits and pieces.”
“Strange town.”
“A town of strong loyalties,” she said. “When they hate, they hate deep. When they love, it’s the same.”
“But the veil between love and hate—it’s very thin,” he warned her.
“Yeah, I found that out. I had no idea my aunt and uncle were the people they are,” she said. “It’s a bit of a shock.”
“But you’re handling it well,” he said.
“I’m not actually. I’m really not. I’m just holding on to get justice.”
“Well, Ice has got something going.”
“How about calling for backup right now?”
“Not until I know what’s going on.”
“And your friends are tracking him?”
“Well, they’ve tracked him to the house.”
“Nobody should even be there because of the murder scene,” she said. “My sister’s body has barely been taken away. Shouldn’t the forensics people still be there?”
“No, they’re probably done by now,” he said. “I mean, it takes time but usually not that long. They should have been done sometime during the night, I would think.”
She nodded. “I hope they actually gave it some thought, instead of just writing it off as a quick suicide.”
“I don’t think they would have done that,” he said. “If nothing else, they have to show proof to their supervisors to get it signed off.”
She gave a laugh. “I don’t know if it’s still the same police chief because I don’t keep up with that, but it used to be the old drunk’s brother.”
At that, Cain stopped, looked at her, and said, “Seriously?”
She nodded.
“Then we won’t see any kind of justice from that group, will we?”
“No.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “We won’t.”
“Then we’ll have to do it another way,” he said, with a half smile.
“I hope you have some miraculous way to make it happen,” she said, “because I don’t.”
“I do, and her name is Ice.”
As they stepped along the fence, he pulled out his phone and quickly sent a message to both Ryland and Ice.
“Who’s this guy Ryland you were talking to?”
“One of the ones who got hurt in the last attack,” he said. “All because of Tristan’s orders, it appears.”
“I still don’t understand why they went after you.”
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out.”
“Tristan’s not likely to talk, even if you do get a hold of him,” she murmured. “And, even if he does, you can’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth.”
“Nice people you got here.”
“Desperate people,” she said. “Like you said earlier, they just want to live their lives in some sort of peace and quiet.”
“That may be,” he said, “but their town is about to get blown wide open. And, if the police chief doesn’t do his job properly, he won’t be around to do it again.”
“It’ll take more than you to put him out of office,” she said.
“Depends on how much he’s guilty of,” he murmured.
They were up against the house already. She stared at the huge property, the stone walls, and the big house where her sister’s life had ended. “You know what? I’d really like to go in with guns blazing, just shooting up everything,” she said. “The trouble is, we’d likely kill the wrong people, and the right people will continue to live a nice cozy life, like they always seem to.”
“Now follow my lead. Don’t talk. We’ll go do some surveillance. See what we’ve got.”
Cain approached the house from the back, his phone in his hand. She watched as he made a connection with somebody. She wanted to ask questions, but he’d been very clear about not making a sound. He looked down at the phone and frowned.
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
He looked toward the house, then leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “I want you to stay right here, and, if anything happens to me, I want you to text this number.” Quickly he sent a number to her phone.
When her phone vibrated, she looked at it and asked, “And who is this?”
“Ice.”
She nodded. “How will I know if anything happened to you?”
“If I don’t come back out within a few minutes,” he said, “and you hear gunshots.”
“Are you telling me to call her if I hear anything?”
“Only if it sounds like something I can’t get out of.” He hesitated, then said, “That’s very nebulous, I know.”
“Just go,” she said. “I’ll figure it out.”
He smiled, then leaned over and kissed her gently. “Thank you.”
She reached out and placed a finger on his lips and said, “Come back.”
“I will,” he said.
“Promise?”
“Promise,” he said, adding a smile, and, with that, he was gone.
*
Cain shouldn’t have made a promise like that because this was life and death right now. And, if somebody up there had hurt Eton, there would be hell to pay, and, before Cain died, he would make sure that somebody else paid first. In order to make that happen, he had to get into position, so he needed to get on it.
He moved swiftly alongside the house, checking doors and windows. So far, nothing would let him inside without going around to the front door. He kept avoiding that because, chances were, that’s where Tristan was watching. Any smart team would be watching the entire place, but he also figured they would let Cain get inside to a certain degree, then close whatever trap they ha
d. He just wanted to make sure he had a better end game than that.
Finally, at the back, he found a small cracked window. It was barely big enough for him to get in. He removed the pieces of glass quietly and slipped inside. As he landed, he turned to look back through the window and saw her watching him from under the canopy of a huge olive tree. He gave her a thumbs-up and disappeared inside. It felt odd to leave her there, like she was watching his back.
But this was different. It wasn’t the same as a team member, but somebody was watching him for a completely different reason. He shook his head, trying to throw off the attachment that grew between them—at least for the present.
He needed to focus right now. Eton was his concern and Tristan, the bastard who’d killed her sister. Cain had no doubt in his mind that Tristan had done that. Cain didn’t know how he’d managed to get out of the room without unlocking the doors, but he knew Tristan had found a way somehow. Now that Cain was in the basement of the house, he crept through the darkness, wondering just what the hell was down here. As he turned on the flashlight of his phone, he saw weapons. Cases and cases of weapons.
He let out a silent whistle and quickly took photos, sending them off to Ice and Ryland. Somebody needed to ensure this arsenal was collected and not handed out to the next group of criminals. Cain was hoping for documentation on some of it, and, if they got a chance, they’d get back down here. But that wasn’t the priority right now. He had one thing on his mind, and that was making sure Eton was okay.
After searching all the rooms in the basement and not finding his friend, he moved to the main floor. No way to know where Tristan was within the property. But, in a quirky moment, Cain figured that Tristan was probably either up in his father’s room or where Petra’s sister had died, although that wouldn’t be anything more than a morbid thought. Surely nobody wanted to stay in that room.
This guy was sick and a bastard, so maybe he would stay in that room.
As Cain crept through this level, he found absolutely no sign of anyone. He didn’t know what happened to the drunk father either. As Cain headed down and around what appeared to be an office, he slowed his steps as he saw someone through one of the sheer Gloucester panels on the French doors, separating the office from the rest of the floor. He crept up slowly but didn’t recognize who it was. The chair was turned around, facing the window, as if he were lost in thought. But as Cain got closer, he winced because the person wasn’t lost in thought. He was lost to the world.
