Maria and I paid for our books while my guys thanked the bodyguards in a very guy way.
My guys and I headed out to the parking lot, weaving between cars. I joked about them having lost their car, which of course would never happen due to their paranoid level of awareness, but the way we were weaving through cars, you’d think it.
I was about to tell the odd little detail about Nico when Zeus tensed and shoved me behind him.
I followed the direction of his gaze to movement in the shadows. Zeus had his piece out. Thor had his piece out. Odin was suddenly nowhere. And then there was more movement out in the shadows, then a grunt and a clunk.
The skirmish turned out to be Odin pressing Noel James’s face onto the hood of our Navigator. Noel, the good James brother. Or so we’d thought.
“Fuck!” Noel said.
“What the fuck are you up to?” Odin growled.
“I’m not up to anything! I wanted to talk.”
Odin pulled a gun from Noel’s pocket and let him up.
“You want to talk?” Thor asked.
“Yeah, man—discreetly—but I guess I should’ve hired a skywriter.”
“Fine. Come on, then,” Zeus said. He clicked the key fob to open the SUV doors. “After you.”
“Seriously?” Noel said. “You think I planted a fucking bomb in there?”
“I don’t know,” Zeus said. “Seems to be the trend.”
“Fuck you.” Noel yanked open the door and got in, and then Thor and Odin followed him into the back. I got in the front with Zeus.
“Satisfied?” Noel asked.
“Our car was blown up, and it had your brother Kenny’s signature all over it,” Zeus said. “And Manny didn’t want to say where Kenny is, so…”
“I get it, I get it,” Noel said.
“You here to give him up?”
“Look,” Noel began, “I felt like after your last visit that we were moving toward a better relationship.” He nodded at Thor. “I liked working with you. I felt like we had something productive going. You helped my brother.”
“How is he?” Thor asked. “Did the swelling dissipate? Are you tracking the color like I told you?”
“Pretty much,” Noel said. “He’s on the mend, but my brother Manny—you guys, come on, you came into our home uninvited. Now this car bomb shit and you’re saying it’s Kenny. Manny isn’t your bitch, and you can’t go at him like you did today.”
I looked at my nails, wondering how my guys went at poor Manny today. “People like to be respected,” I said.
“Exactly,” Noel said.
“And they like their cars not to blow up,” Zeus said.
“I get that you’re upset by that. I see where it would lead you to think Kenny did it, but I swear to you it wasn’t Kenny. We have certain reasons not to want attention put on Kenny, and it has nothing to do with you guys. Manny’s pissed off and not in the mood to help you, but you’re hurting us with this attention right now. So I’m going to hold out an olive branch and help you and tell you that Kenny is in Bali right now. Bali, as in Indonesia.”
“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?” Zeus said.
“You don’t have to.” Noel pulled out his phone. “Kenny went a bridge too far in the job we pulled, and Manny got him out of the country. Last Friday, it was.”
“Must’ve been quite the bridge too far,” Odin said.
Because Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the U.S., I realized.
Noel had Skype open. “I’m reaching out in peace between our families. Manny doesn’t know I’m doing this, but this heat from you guys is bullshit, and so is this growing feud. So hopefully you see this and it helps you catch the person who did this. And hopefully it builds up a bit of goodwill between our families.” There was a tone and suddenly a voice. “Hey, buddy,” Noel said.
“Dude!”
I couldn’t see the phone, but Odin and Thor were looking hard.
Noel said, “Do me a favor—go walk onto the porch. I need to see something.”
“Like what?” I heard a guy, presumably Kenny, say.
“I need the streetscape. Just go out there and turn around. Just to get the layout. I want to see your neighborhood.”
Apparently Kenny did it, and it was convincing—I could tell by the glances that flowed between Zeus and Odin.
“You fucker, look at that sun!” Noel said. “Motherfucker.”
“Is Manny there?” Kenny asked.
“Nah. Look, I gotta call you back later.” Noel cut the connection.
“That’s Bali, alright,” Odin said. “Real-time.”
“He could’ve flown down last night,” Zeus pointed out.
Noel snorted. “The whole call could’ve been a film of a film. Look, I’m trying to backchannel here.”
Zeus studied his face. I could see him deciding to trust Noel. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”
“So you’ll cool off on Kenny? Yeah, it was his signature with that bomb. Kenny loves a big smoky inferno like that, but I’m telling you it wasn’t him. Neither was the Corvette, obviously.”
Zeus exchanged glances with Odin. They both bought it.
Odin narrowed his eyes. “Does anybody else know Kenny’s in Bali?”
“Just you and us.”
“You planning on keeping it that way?” Odin asked.
“Yeah,” Noel said. “It doesn’t help that you all are asking around about him. The attention is no good.”
“Okay, Noel,” Zeus said. “No more asking around about Kenny.”
“Thanks, man,” Noel said.
“Let me ask a favor,” Zeus said. “You mind if we let people go on thinking we blame Kenny?”
“You can let people think whatever you like,” Noel said. “Let ‘em think you found Kenny. Just stop beating the bushes for him, okay?”
“I appreciate it,” Zeus said. “I appreciate the cooperation between our groups. And this helps us.”
Noel pocketed his phone and took back his piece. “You think you can repair with Manny one of these days?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Some gesture. Restore the respect.”
Zeus nodded. “We’ll see.”
Chapter Ten
Zeus drove like a maniac across town in rush-hour traffic. It was partly because we had that reservation for La Belle in an hour, partly because it made us harder to tail, and partly because Zeus was Zeus.
My guys were mostly convinced by Noel’s story. And while on the one hand it was good to have a suspect ruled out, it was bad in another way, because if the bomber wasn’t Kenny, who was it? Danger could come from anywhere.
We were back to square one. Rebels without a clue. Except not…
“I had an interesting conversation with Maria,” I began, excited to tell the possibly-now-relevant detail about the wedding gift. “Very interesting.”
“That BMW,” Thor mumbled, eyes on a passing car.
“It got on at the last entrance,” Odin said.
“You sure?” Thor said, and the two of them had a lengthy exchange that showed how shockingly aware they were of every car around us.
Fugitive mode. Survival mode. My story could wait until dinner.
Like a madman, Zeus slid across four lanes of traffic onto an exit.
I had to sit out in the car with Thor while Odin and Zeus did a room-by-room inspection of our posh and fabulous hilltop hideout. Would we even make our reservations? Finally they let me in.
I changed into my gown in less than ten minutes, which my men seriously didn’t appreciate enough, being that they were capable of changing their looks in five seconds flat. But they appreciated the result when I strolled out, and that was super-nice.
La Belle turned out to be an old-school, white-tablecloth-and-candles type of place, an institution that was just a little worn around the edges.
We went in and waited at the maître d’ stand behind two other couples. Even there my guys were scanning the place, as
sessing every patron. They fixated on a few people briefly, only to rule them out, all in their silent language of glances and minute movements.
I wrapped my arms around Thor, wearying of the cloak-and-dagger routine.
“This is a hidden gem,” Zeus said. “They make a special fish on Valentine’s Day, their secret recipe for crab-stuffed sole.”
“You’ve been here?” I asked.
“No,” Zeus said mysteriously. “But I’ve always wanted to come.”
And then it was our turn. Zeus told the maître d’ that we had a Valentine’s reservation for four under Zieman, one of his favorite fake names. The host grabbed menus. “The two couples will dine together?”
“We’re one couple,” Zeus said. “So yes, we will dine together.”
The man looked confused, then he simply led us back.
“Oh, fucking-g Jesus,” Odin muttered under his breath.
I cringed, remembering the couples massage incident. Thor grinned wickedly.
The host stopped at a pair of window tables. “Together, then,” he said, more of a question than anything.
“Push them together, please,” I said with a warning look at Zeus.
The man pushed two two-tops together, and we sat. The waiter came with two roses.
“Only one, right in the middle of the table,” Zeus said. “We’re all together.”
The waiter smiled. “Not one for each couple?”
“We aren’t two couples,” Zeus said. “We—the four of us—are a romantic unit, and we hope to be treated as such.”
“Very good,” the waiter said diplomatically as he set one bud vase with one rose in it in the center of the table. We ordered our drinks and food.
I exchanged glances with Thor after he left.
“What?” Zeus barked.
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “Just sending up a silent prayer that no assholes come around trying to give us more roses.”
Odin smiled his glittering smile. “I’m quite sure the news has spread through the entire staff.”
“Good,” Zeus said. “I’m not ashamed of our relationship. I want everyone to see that we’re together.”
“I’m proud, too.” And at that moment, I was. I reached out and took Odin’s hand, and then I took Zeus’s hand and I turned and kissed Thor on the cheek. I knew some people thought I was slutty to have three guys, but right then, I couldn’t have been more proud.
Odin regarded the rose thoughtfully. I got the feeling he was thinking what I was thinking, how Zeus used to tear those things up.
The waiter delivered our drinks and some little spiced olives and nuts with bread crisps, and my bandits started talking about the case. There was an aliveness to them that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
“This is good,” Zeus said. “The James Gang thinks we’re off Kenny, and everyone else in the world thinks we’re on Kenny. Our culprit will relax.”
I picked up my glass and swirled around my champagne. “It’s too bad you don’t have a clever member of the team who knows about the wedding present Maria would have gotten, if only Don Galvano and Diego weren’t on the outs. Knows exactly what that present would have been.”
Three surprised gazes landed on me, and I enjoyed that feeling.
“She has a dowry after all?” Zeus said.
I smiled. “It’s not really a dowry, but yes, territory would have been forthcoming upon the marriage. Though I’m almost considering not revealing all that I learned, being that you sent me dress shopping instead of investigating. Making me feel less than a partner.”
“Baby.” Zeus gave me his dangerous rangy-bear look. “I am going to start counting.”
My belly tightened; I knew what that meant. I sighed and popped a spicy olive into my mouth. “The present would be all of his shakedown territory adjoining his central corners up to Oakford Lanes. The don felt like he would be stepping on Diego’s toes or something, running protection around Diego’s corners. Diego won’t get that territory now, but it’s what he would’ve gotten if the Corvette thing hadn’t happened.”
“That’s good,” Zeus said, and my heart puffed with pride.
“So interesting.” Thor pulled out his phone “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I’m sorry that we were busy strong-arming Noel and chasing around and dressing for dinner. I’m telling you now.”
He set his phone at the center of the table. It showed a map, and he’d drawn a red square over the territory. “Roughly,” he said. “Right?”
“So the question is, who would want to prevent that transfer of power?” I said, continuing on my Sherlocky streak.
“Strange,” Odin said. “Nico was so sure there was no present. Remember?”
“I thought that was interesting, too,” I said. “I asked Maria about it, and she said it was because he always had a complex about seeming to be into her for the money. Nico never wanted people to think he liked Maria only for the money.”
Odin raised his brows. “So Nico did know?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Nico, Nico, Nico,” Odin said, like they’d caught him out.
“What?” I said. “It makes sense to me.”
“Not to me. Why would Nico want to pretend to think there is no wedding gift now?” Odin said. “Why would he care? He’s whipped on another woman.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Odin gave me a delicious look and adjusted his glasses in the sexy way he sometimes did, waiting.
Zeus grunted. “You’ve learned something interesting, and it’s not about the dowry.”
Odin paused here and beamed at me while the waiter came to deliver a new round—the cheese platters.
“All very delicious,” Odin said, and he wasn’t talking about the food.
The waiter smiled and left.
I felt happy and excited now, too. “It’s not like Nico’s marrying Maria or even with Maria, so why would he make such a point to act ignorant about the wedding present?”
“More precisely, why does he want us to think there is no wedding present?” Odin asked. “Or, why does he want us to believe he thinks there is none?”
I nodded, keeping up, but definitely hoping this was the last twist of the pretzel.
Zeus pulled the phone toward him. “It’s weird. Nico has nothing to do with that territory. The Borelli family has no business there. The transfer wouldn’t affect him at all. What territory Diego gets should not be interesting to Nico.”
“And he’s whipped on Sophia Viga and still friendly with Maria,” I said. “He has no motive for wrecking that relationship between Diego and Maria or Diego and Don Galvano.”
“Nico used Handsome Jack as an alibi,” Zeus said. “Maybe we go at it that way. Maybe there’s something there.”
“Handsome Jack.” Thor takes the phone. “Handsome Jack’s isn’t in the territory. But he could be…”
“Right. It all depends on how you define up to Oakford Lanes,” Zeus said. “Does Diego know Handsome Jack? Is there any bad blood there between Diego and Handsome Jack? That would be a motive, if Handsome Jack didn’t want Diego in his business.”
They all looked at me for some reason.
“What? I’m just a simple sheep farmer.”
“Good job, that’s all.” Zeus slammed his scotch, grabbed his phone from his suit jacket pocket, and beelined out of the restaurant, presumably to call Diego and ask whether he’d had any dealings with Handsome Jack.
“Bottom line, somebody doesn’t want that wedding gift to go to Diego,” Odin said.
We went over the problem at different angles of thought. It was fun and exciting. But then Odin’s expression hardened. I twisted around and saw Zeus strolling across the restaurant in his casual-yet-predatory way, but something was off.
He slid into his chair with a dark look. “Denko is out there.”
Odin and Thor straightened.
“Wait—Denko?” I said. “Are you talking about the ZOX agent?”
&nbs
p; “Yeah,” Odin said. “You sure?”
Zeus nodded gravely.
Hands disappeared under the table. Firearms, I thought with a chill. My pulse raced.
“Pretty sure it was him. He let his hair go gray. It’s shorter. He has a crew cut—he looks more straight-laced than when we saw him in Panama. Stern. Steely.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Authoritarian and like a statue?” I asked.
“Kind of,” he said. “Why?”
“You guys,” I said. “No. I said I wasn’t into it if Zeus wasn’t into it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Zeus barked, and I could see quite plainly that he wasn’t fucking around. And Thor had gone white as a sheet. I heard a click. Somebody checking the chamber.
“ZOX is never a game of any kind,” Odin said. “Please know, goddess, that if we are talking about ZOX, there is no chance we are speaking in jest. Or arranging something like with your cartoon girl in the woods.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, setting down my fork.
“It’s okay, baby,” Zeus said. “We’re okay.”
“I don’t see anybody in here being off,” Odin said. “This is all civilians. Don’t you think?”
My guys all agreed. The restaurant was pure civilians.
The waiter set our fish entrées in front of us. They smelled amazing. Buttery, with just a hint of saffron. My heart broke a little because Zeus had so badly wanted this romantic dinner. He wanted this to be like a real Valentine’s Day date.
“Eat a little bit, baby,” Zeus said. “I wanted you to try it.” Something else clicked under the table. A snap. Ankle holster. Fuck. “It’s stuffed with crab, and they only make it one time a year. There’s a delicate hazelnut crust and…I want you to try it. I want to watch you try it.”
“Try it, goddess,” Odin said.
My heart pounded out of my chest. Everything seemed so final. “What’s going to happen?”
“In the next moment,” Zeus said, “you are going to enjoy a delicious entrée. And it’s going to mean something to us that we could give that to you.”
The Most Wanted (Taken Hostage by Kinky Bank Robbers #4) Page 12
