“I’ll be twenty-six on Wednesday and I’ve spent five birthdays with my dad. Today was it. We don’t get another one together.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”
“I just—I couldn’t…” She shook her head.
“What?” he encouraged her, playing with her hair.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about—what would it have been like if he never left us?” She lifted her head, meeting his gaze. “Why did he leave us, Reed? He loved her.”
He stared into her devastated eyes, hating that he knew exactly why Vinny had left his family behind and couldn’t tell her. “Have you asked him?”
“Sort of.” She dashed at her cheeks. “No.”
“Come here.” He sat down, crisscrossing his legs and settling her on his lap so she straddled him. “Maybe you should ask him. Get some answers—some closure.”
“I know I should.” She lifted her shoulders in a jerky shrug. “Lately, I can’t seem to take my mind off my mom and dad and our little house. She was so good to us—so happy. For a little while, we were all happy.” She lost her composure again. “I never get to have that back.”
“No, you don’t.” He captured her hands in his, kissing her knuckles, wanting so badly to take away her pain. “But you get to keep the memories the three of you made.”
“I don’t have that many. I was so little.” She closed her eyes, crying harder. “He looks worse every time I see him. I’m going to lose him soon.”
He pulled her closer, not sure what to say, so he held her tight.
She returned his embrace, settling her head in the crook of his neck as she sucked in more shaky breaths. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle it when I have to say good-bye.”
“You’re going to hurt and grieve, and I’m going to be right by your side while you work through the worst of it.” He kissed her. “The days will suck for a while, but they’ll pass, and things will get a little easier.”
She sniffled. “You always make me feel so much better.”
“Good.”
She sat up, cupping his face. “What would I do without you?”
He’d wondered the same thing about her more than a few times. They’d been together mere months, but he knew his life no longer made sense without her. “I’m thinking we should never find out.”
“Agreed.” She kissed him. “I can’t imagine not having you in my life.”
God, did he love the hell out of this amazing woman. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She nodded and kissed him again. “I want to think about something else for a while. Do something else—be happy on this beautiful day.”
“So let’s keep walking.”
“I don’t know. You look pretty sexy with your hair blowing in the wind like that.”
He lifted his head higher, catching more of the breeze. “Even sexier, right?”
She grinned. “Definitely.” Her smile faded as she pushed herself forward in his lap, bringing them fire to fire. “You know what else is pretty sexy?”
He slid his palms up and down her thighs. “What?”
“You buying our puppy a cookie at the bakery even though you think it’s silly—just to make me happy.”
“Hey, I aim to please.”
“Oh, I know.” She trailed her fingers down his chest and abs, staring at him with teasing eyes. “That thing you do to me with your tongue pleases me plenty.”
He felt himself go rock hard. Taking her hand, he rubbed her palm against him, making himself crazy in the process. “This is what you do to me.” He snagged her bottom lip with his teeth. “What do you think we should do about it?”
“I have some pretty good ideas.” She nipped at his chin. “I want you.”
He went after her neck. “It’s your special day.”
She smiled and pulled his face to hers, capturing his mouth in a hungry kiss. “I need you, Reed.”
He dove in again. “Who am I to deny the birthday girl what she wants?” Ready to explode, he scrambled to his feet, bringing her with him in the process. “We should go home so I can do all kinds of things to you.”
“The tongue thing, right?”
He gripped her ass, giving it a good squeeze. “Try to stop me. Come on, Lucy,” he called, then ran with Bella to the truck, grinning as she laughed in his arms.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“So, what do you think?” Reed asked, sitting next to Vinny at the kitchen table, watching him study the detailed aerial map of Brooklyn’s south end.
“This spot.” Vinny nodded, tapping his finger on a grassy area approximately two hundred yards from the Coney Island Creek—the same location he’d pointed to on the laptop last Thursday. “I’m positive this is a spot.”
“On a scale of one to ten, with ten being absolutely certain.”
“I’d say nine.”
The excitement was back—the old juices that stirred when he knew an investigation was heading in the right direction. They were getting somewhere. It was too damn bad he’d had to wait so long to show Vinny the map Skylar overnighted last Friday, but his schedule hadn’t allowed for anything different. “Good.” He picked up Vinny’s list of murder victims, scanning both sides of the paper. “Who’s buried there?”
Vinny jerked his shoulders. “Hell if I know.”
Frowning, he tore his gaze away from the insane number of names—men he’d first read about when he’d been a teenager—and looked at Vinny again. “How do you not know? You wrote all of this.” He gestured to the page. “You killed them—buried them—didn’t you?”
“I’m not a fucking serial killer. It’s not like I ditched a body and went back to check it out again. I was getting rid of assholes before I got caught.”
He nodded. “All right. Fine.” Who wasn’t as important as where at this point. The anthropologists could make positive IDs with DNA if worse came to worst. “How many bodies are buried there?”
He shrugged again. “Probably one. Maybe two. A couple of guys got whacked at the same time. We tossed them close together, but I don’t know if they’re here.”
Reed circled the area with a red pen, wrote the possible body count for that site, and took a picture, texting it to Skylar with a message.
Here.
He set down his phone and gave his attention back to Vinny and the map. They were rolling right along, but they needed more—lots more. “Where else?”
“Uh.” Vinny pushed his glasses farther up on the bridge of his nose, scrutinizing the two-foot-by-two-foot image. “Maybe here or over here. Or maybe this spot.”
The uncertainty in Vinny’s voice wasn’t lost on Reed as Vinny pointed to areas a good fifty to one hundred yards apart. “Take your time and think about it.”
Vinny moved the map closer and shook his head. “I’m not sure. Looking at stuff on a picture isn’t the same as being there in person.”
“There has to be some way to remember. We can’t dig up the whole field.” He glanced at his watch, clenching his jaw as time ticked away. He’d gotten to Reseda twenty minutes ago, and Bella was expecting him at cooking class in an hour. He shouldn’t have come at all tonight, but he needed these bodies. They needed this break if they were going to make something happen with the investigation. The long stretches between visits with Vinny weren’t working; they’d lost five days this time around. “A landmark. Something that looks familiar.”
“There are trees, bushes, and more trees and bushes. It’s green on green.”
Reed scrubbed his hands over his face as his frustration grew. Things were starting to fizzle before they even began. “I’m not gonna lie, Vinny. You kinda suck at this.”
Vinny glared. “It’s not like we put flags in the ground to call attention to the places where we left the bastards to rot. We dug holes and dumped them in when it was dark.”
“Think back—”
“We did this over years, Reed. Years and years of whacking people when my father gave us the orde
rs to do so.”
He steamed out a breath, well aware that being an ass wasn’t getting them anywhere. “I know. Try to think back to just one or two. Something specific that might have caught your attention when you were there that night.”
Vinny nodded and looked at the map again. “Maybe this little spot here by this grouping of trees.”
Reed sat up taller, hopeful that they were back on track. “What makes you point it out?”
“I remember losing my boot. It had been raining the day before—got stuck up to my knees. Alfie and Dino had to pull me out. The suction took my damn boot.”
“And you think it was here?”
“Yeah. But here’s another clump of trees too.”
He rubbed at his tense neck muscles. “Let’s talk about the scale again—one to ten. How positive?”
“Five—six.”
“And this was one of Alfeo’s hits?”
“More than likely. The odds are in our favor.”
He nodded, circling the two potential spots by the groupings of trees and added question marks, then sent off the text, not bothering with another message. Skylar would get the idea, and he was trying to keep things vague on his personal phone.
“This damn thing’s not doing me any good,” Vinny said as he slapped at the map and sat back in his chair. “It would be easier if I could go there. Looking at a twenty-five-year-old picture doesn’t do me much good. It doesn’t look the same as standing there.”
Reed shook his head as he stared at Vinny’s bony shoulders accentuated in his T-shirt and the yellowish tinge to his skin. “You can’t travel.”
Vinny’s spine snapped straight. “I can do whatever I want.”
How the hell would they slip that one by Bella? “Let’s see what Skylar and her supervisor can come up with.”
Vinny sipped at his juice. “What’s the plan?”
“Skylar talked to him last Thursday night—after she and I got off the phone. Now that we have the map, they’re waiting on us to get them something to work with. They’ll take an evidence response team out tomorrow—probably start with dogs. See if they can pick up on a scent. Maybe bring in ground radar.”
“They better dig fast, cause they won’t be able to keep stuff under wraps for long. Alfeo’s got eyes everywhere around there.”
“They’ll go in small—keep it discreet.”
“What’s your informant coming up with?”
“Nothing. He has no idea what Alfeo and Matty’s plans are, and he’s never heard of Nicoli having a child.”
“A call wouldn’t have hurt.”
“I’m trying to keep calls to a minimum. The less there is to trace between the two of us, the better.”
Vinny nodded.
“I would have called if there was a problem.”
“I figured.” Vinny stood, holding onto the back of his chair for several seconds before he started over to his recliner. “Your snitch better watch his back if he plans to live a long life. Everyone in the organization has their antennae up with Alfeo’s release date so close. I can guarantee you that.”
“It’s tense in Bensonhurst.” He folded the papers Vinny had written up and put them in his laptop case. “I want more, Vinny. We need more bodies. As many as we can find.” He glanced at his watch again and winced. “I’ve gotta go. Bella and I have cooking class in forty-five minutes.”
Vinny covered himself with a blanket. “So go. Don’t disappoint her.”
He was doing his best to juggle both ends of his life, and he was currently screwing up the most important one. “I’ll lock up. Keep thinking. Try to remember. Look at the map every now and again and see if something pops into your mind.”
“I will.”
He set Vinny’s juice on the side table next to him and locked the door. Hurrying to his truck, he dialed Bella’s number as he turned the key in the ignition and backed up.
“Hello?”
“Hey. I just wanted to let you know I’m on my way.”
“You have plenty of time. Are we meeting at the house?”
He flared his nostrils as he glanced at the dashboard clock. “Uh, I should probably meet you there. I’m on the road now but I’ll be a couple minutes late—maybe ten or fifteen.”
“I’ll get us started. Just be safe.”
“I will. See you soon.”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.” He hung up, waiting at a stoplight. If Vinny was closer, things would be a hell of a lot easier. If Vinny was healthy, they could do this differently, but neither was the case. He accelerated and merged onto the 405, swearing when he came to a dead stop at the end of the on-ramp. Taillights glowed bright for as far as he could see. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” he muttered again as he closed his eyes and settled his head on the seat cushion. At this rate, he was going to be more than a couple of minutes late. He wasn’t making it anywhere anytime soon.
~~~~
Bella hunched over her prep table, piping lemon mousse curd onto shortbread crusts. She squeezed the bag gently, moving her arms in careful swirling motions, making certain that each golden peak had a perfect point. Satisfied with the results, she focused on the next tart, trying to ignore the fact that everyone else was cleaning up and Reed still wasn’t there. He’d texted over an hour ago, letting her know he was stuck in one doozy of a traffic jam, but he’d missed the majority of their cooking session. Again.
“Those look great.” Chef Paul stopped by her table. “Really beautiful, Bella.”
Smiling, she stood straight, scrutinizing her work. “Thank you.”
“You have a real talent in the kitchen.” He crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the shiny metal. “I hope you’ll consider taking more classes. My advanced courses start next month.”
“I’ve actually been giving it a lot of thought.” She wiped the hairs tickling her forehead back toward her ponytail with her arm. “I’m having a lot of fun.”
“Spots are filling up fast, but I can make sure we keep one open for you.”
Smiling again, she nodded, never quite able to tell if Chef Paul was being friendly or flirty. His golden surfer guy looks were certainly appealing, but he wasn’t Reed. “Thanks. Can I let you know in the next week or two? I have some stuff going on that’s making it hard for me to give you a definite yes right now.”
“Of course. Consider a spot yours if you want one.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Reed’s been absent the last couple of sessions. Is, uh”—he cleared his throat as he stood tall again—“is he no longer joining you?”
“He said he was coming.” She glanced at her watch and struggled with another wave of disappointment. “I’m sure he’ll be—”
The front door opened and Reed hurried in, rushing over to their cooking station. “I’m here. I’m sorry, Bella.”
“Welcome, Reed.” Chef sent him a polite nod and walked off.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated as he put on his apron. “The traffic was awful—some sort of rollover. It was down to one lane.” He hooked his arms around her waist, pulling her close and kissing her.
She wrinkled her nose and stepped back. “You smell like cigarettes again.”
“I know. My principal smokes.”
She frowned. “The same person as last week—the one from the bar?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
Why did that annoy her? “It’s not good for you to be breathing that stuff in. You should talk to Ethan.”
“I try to keep my distance, but we can’t tell our clientele they can’t smoke.”
“I don’t see why not. He’s hurting your health.” She heard the testiness in her own voice and turned, getting back to work, piping the last of the curd onto the star-shaped cookie centers.
“What are you making?”
“Tonight we created summer fare. Herb-grilled chicken breasts, an infused fruit salad, greens, and these tarts.” Not that he’d been there to help her with anything. She se
t down the bag and grabbed the bowl of raspberries and blueberries, adding one of each to the desserts, reminding herself that Reed didn’t have a typical job. He didn’t have regular hours, but he was trying. “I saved it in some dishes.”
“You didn’t eat?”
“No. I thought we would eat together when you got here.” She finished her presentation with a bit of lemon rind.
“Hey.” He turned her to face him, nudging her close with a pull on her apron strings. “I’m sorry about tonight.”
She shrugged. “It’s fine.”
He shook his head and hooked his arms around her waist. “No, it’s not. I’m not a big fan of breaking promises.” He kissed her. “Work has been a lot lately.”
She settled her hands on his chest. “This is what you do. I’m trying to get used to that.”
“It sucks right now.”
“Yes, it does, but we don’t have a lot of time together, so I don’t want to be mad at you when we do.”
“But you are mad.”
She shook her head, then nodded. “Yes, I am. Or at least, a little.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “Things will get better.”
She nodded, exhaling a long breath.
“And tomorrow, I’m yours. Just yours, Bella. On your birthday.” He rubbed her nose with his, then lifted his head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” And everything was, now that they’d talked about it. She held up one of the tarts, seeing the regret lingering in his eyes. “Want to try?”
“What about dinner?”
“We’ll spoil our appetite a little.”
He took a bite, groaning and nodding the way he did when he genuinely liked something. “Really good. You should make these for Sarah’s party next weekend.”
“That’s a good idea.” She popped the rest in her mouth and rolled her eyes, loving the complementary flavors of tart lemon and buttery sugar cookie. “I’m definitely making these.”
He cupped her cheeks. “Thank you for being so understanding. It’s not easy.”
She gripped his wrists. “I want you. I want us.”
“So do I.”
Deceiving Bella: Book Eleven In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series Page 37
