Todd pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He wasn’t going to jump to conclusions and think the worst. Dylan had a busy life. There were hundreds of urgent things happening each day that Todd could help with. It might not involve New York or the gang that had set them up a few weeks ago.
He found Dylan’s number and waited for him to answer. “What’s wrong?”
“Where have you been? You were supposed to be at Pastor Steven’s place half an hour ago.”
Todd gripped the phone tight. “I got held up. William said to call you.” He heard Dylan take a deep breath, and he got ready for the news that couldn’t be good. Dylan had been in the Military, captured by the Taliban, tortured and left for dead. Someone who’d been through all of that didn’t scare easily.
“Detective Munroe called. Word on the street is that Mitch is coming after you.”
“Shit.”
“You’ve got that right. We need to talk security. If anyone finds out where you’re living, they’ll hit hard and won’t stop until you’re eliminated.”
Todd fought past the panic freezing his brain into a solid chunk of ice. Mitch Zambezi ran the gang affectionately called, Mama’s Boys. But there wasn’t anything affectionate about the way they did business. The streets of New York were littered with their leftovers. Homeless men and women became drug mules, prostitutes, and thieves. And that went nowhere near the scumbag’s drug infiltration at schools. He hooked them young and left their families to deal with the consequences.
At last count, the NYPD estimated Mitch Zambezi’s control of the New York drug scene at around thirty percent. He gave thousands of people their daily fix for a small fee. He’d amassed a large fortune and created an empire. There’d been no cracks in his armor until Todd turned up three years ago.
“You still there?”
Todd heard the concern in Dylan’s voice. His last trip to New York was supposed to track Mitch down once and for all. But he was as slippery as a snake and managed to get away. Again.
“I’m here,” Todd said. His voice was strong and steady, a mile away from what he was really feeling. Mitch Zambezi had killed Todd’s wife and son.
Before the worst night of his life, he’d never heard of Mitch Zambezi. But Mitch had heard of him. He’d sent his minions to follow him, scout out his most vulnerable moments, test his ability to fight back. They’d broken into Todd’s home, shot his wife and son, and left him for dead.
Todd had unwillingly become a pawn between the New York drug lord and the FBI. With his testimony, he could have brought Mitch down, had him arrested on felony charges that would have slapped him in prison for the rest of his miserable life.
But even with Todd’s testimony, there hadn’t been enough evidence to get a conviction. That hadn’t stopped Todd. He’d kept looking for evidence, pushing Mitch to make a mistake that would land him in prison.
Todd knew Mitch was pissed off. On his last trip to New York, he’d flaunted what he knew under Mitch’s nose to get him out in the open. From the network of people he’d cultivated, he’d discovered that some local politicians were as dirty as Mitch Zambezi. Todd’s philosophy had been simple; hook one senator of dubious character and you had Mitch scrambling to untangle himself from the lies and deceit that wove them together.
Todd knew he had to think smart if he wanted to stay alive. He forced the images of his wife and son to the back of his head. He was so damn close to stopping Mitch that he could almost smell the monster’s aftershave. But close wouldn’t get him anywhere except killed.
While Dylan told him everything Detective Munroe had said, he focused on the tub of flowers beside Pastor Steven’s front door. There were pansies, maybe some daisies. Other flowers cascaded over the edge of the container. They didn’t need much care, just a steady stream of water and a whole pile of good intentions.
Dylan was almost paranoid about Todd’s safety.
“He won’t find me.” Todd turned his back on the flowers and stared down the street. He was looking for something that wasn’t there - inconsistencies, small differences that weren’t part of normal everyday life. If Dylan had been standing in front of him, he would have been scowling something fierce by now.
It wouldn’t matter what Todd did to become invisible. They both knew that Mitch Zambezi could find anyone he wanted to. He’d done it once and he’d do it again. But this time he wouldn’t leave any loose ends to trip him up.
“Detective Munroe said Mama’s Boys are in an uproar.” Dylan paused, then continued on. He didn’t need to tell Todd what an idiot he’d been. “We stirred up a hornets’ nest in New York. The thugs the police arrested were all related to Mad Mitch. With them out of the gene pool, everyone’s scrambling for position. Mitch wants a successor named before he leaves the Bronx.”
That was news to Todd. Mitch never left his old stomping ground. “Where’s he going?”
“You don’t want to know,” Dylan said.
“Wait…” Todd was trying to process what his friend had said. “Is Mitch coming here? To Bozeman?”
“That’s what Detective Munroe told me,” Dylan said slowly. “His information could be wrong, but I wouldn’t bet on it. You need to stay low, maybe even get out of town for a while.”
“He never leaves New York,” Todd insisted. “I’ve been tracking him for three years. The guy’s a master of deception, but he never leaves the city.”
“I guess he’s changed his mind. Exactly what did you find in New York?”
Todd moved away from the front of the house. “I can’t tell you.”
“You can, and you will.”
Todd walked under an old oak tree down the side of Pastor Steven’s home. He hadn’t wanted to drag Dylan into the mess he’d created, but he’d run out of options. Mitch Zambezi’s business had taken a path that was so twisted that Todd felt sick thinking about it. The less Dylan knew, the safer he’d be.
“If I tell you, it could put you in even more danger. The FBI are working the case. I’m not getting involved again.”
“It’s too late,” Dylan’s voice was low and gritty. “There’s something else you need to know.”
Todd braced himself for what was coming next.
“Sally had dinner with Tess and Logan last night. She thinks someone’s following her.”
Todd froze. He had to remember to breathe, to suck oxygen into his lungs and kick-start his brain. He’d heard those words before, laughed them off as his wife’s overactive imagination. He wasn’t laughing now.
“Speak to me,” Dylan barked.
“I’ve got to find Sally.” Todd ended the conversation with Dylan and called Sally’s cell phone. It kept ringing, flipping to voice mail before he’d made it back to his truck. He unlocked his door, threw his cell phone on the seat and raced toward her apartment.
Mitch Zambezi wouldn’t get anywhere near her, not while Todd was still breathing.
***
Todd walked past the main reception desk at the animal shelter. Sally hadn’t been home, so he’d called Dylan back, got Logan’s phone number and spoke to Tess. Sally wasn’t with her or any of her friends in The Bridesmaids Club. Apart from her parents’ ranch, the animal shelter was the only other place they both thought she’d be.
“Slow down, stranger.” Jenny Galbraith smiled at him from behind a stack of doggy treats. They’d started volunteering at the shelter at the same time, learning from the ground up how to take care of the animals that made their way here. “I haven’t seen you in ages. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Jenny. Have you seen Sally?”
The smile slipped off her face. “Is everything okay?”
“I hope so.”
Jenny nodded, then opened a drawer under the counter. She passed him a security card, then pointed toward a corridor behind them. “She’s in the small operating room. Chris had to come in for an emergency. They should be finished by now.”
Todd took the card and strode through the glass doors. The animal she
lter had once been a psychiatric hospital. If it wasn’t for the fact that he could have been here as a patient, it would have almost been funny.
Reeling from changes to the health sector and increased operational costs, the hospital had closed its doors about six years ago. Intent on leaving a good impression with the folks of Bozeman, the owners had offered the hospital back to the community for minimal rent.
No one had known what to do with the building until Sally had suggested turning it into an animal shelter. And the rest, as they say, was history.
He looked through a glass window in one of the doors to his right. The small operating room was used for stitching open wounds, vaccinations, and spaying. No one was there.
He walked further along the corridor, swiping his card in front of three other doors. Security on this wing of the shelter was tighter than anywhere else. The architects that had reconfigured the interior layout had kept all of the surgical rooms together, for obvious reasons. Drug supplies, recovery rooms, and even an intensive care unit had been created out of the goodwill of the community.
“Todd? What are you doing here?” Sally walked into the corridor. She stopped a few feet away from him, a set of clean linen folded in her arms.
“I need to ask you something.”
Heat surged under her pale skin, leaving a wash of pink on her cheeks. “Sounds serious.”
The doors behind her opened and Chris walked into the corridor. “Todd? I didn’t realize you’re still volunteering.”
“I’m not. I’ve come to see Sally.”
Chris looked confused. Todd didn’t know what his problems was. People visited each other all the time. Maybe not to see if they were being stalked, but Chris didn’t know that.
“Well…” Chris was still having problems with the concept of Todd coming to visit someone.
Sally stepped forward and handed Todd a clipboard that had been buried under the linen. “I need to change the bottom sheet on the table we just used. You can hold Percy’s clipboard. We’ll put it at the end of his enclosure in the recovery room after we’re finished.”
She walked past him and waved her security card across a scanner. “Coming?”
Todd walked quickly toward her, opened the door, and waited for her to go through.
“I’ll see you next week, Todd,” Chris said with a grin. He wasn’t confused any more. “Thanks for your help, Sally.”
“No problem,” she yelled from inside the room.
Todd closed the door behind him and watched Sally flick a sheet open over the operating table. He thought about what he was going to say. He didn’t want to frighten her. For all he knew, she might not have been followed. But he wasn’t taking any chances.
He grabbed hold of one end of the sheet and tucked it under the base of the table. “I was talking to Dylan…”
She looked up and frowned. “Don’t tell me he’s changed his mind about the golden labrador? Annie would have loved him. He’s sweet and affectionate and desperate for a loving home.”
Todd shook his head. “I don’t know anything about a dog for Annie.”
Sally’s smile returned. “That’s good. You know how hard it is finding homes for adult animals. This one’s going to be perfect for Annie and Dylan. Can you pass me a new box of gloves? We used the last of them when we stitched the cut on Percy’s head.”
Todd opened the cabinet beside him and passed Sally the gloves. “Dylan saw Logan this morning. He said you thought you’d been followed.”
Sally’s happy smile tore deep into his heart, made him curse all of the things he’d done. When he’d started looking for his wife and son’s killer he’d wanted justice. If that cost him his life, he didn’t care. He had nothing to live for, nothing to look forward to. But now, four years later, he’d found the beginning of something worth living for. Sally didn’t realize just how much danger she could be in, and it was all because of him.
“It was silly. I’ve been watching too many police shows on TV.”
“What happened?”
Something in his tone must have caught her attention. She stopped what she was doing and stared at him. “I was driving back from Safeway yesterday. A black pickup followed me through town, which wasn’t all that weird. But the same pickup was behind me when I went to mom and dad’s place. It was parked outside my school last week, too. It’s almost too much of a coincidence.”
“Did you report it to the police?”
Sally shook her head. “What would I say? I’m being stalked by a black pickup? They’d think I was crazy.”
“How do you know it was the same vehicle?”
Sally thought about her answer. “It had a rental company’s license plate. Why would tourists go to the same places I’m going?”
Todd’s heart sped up. “I don’t suppose you’ve got the license plate number?”
Sally nodded. “I recorded it on my phone as I was driving. Matthew and Sean installed a fancy hands-free thing on my dashboard. It’s the first time I’ve used it. What’s going on?”
He raked his hand through his hair. This wasn’t a conversation he ever thought he’d be having with anyone. It was all his fault. Even after the police had told him to keep away from the case, he’d ignored them. And now he was paying a price that wasn’t his to negotiate.
“Someone might be following you because of me.”
“Why would they do that?”
“My wife and son were murdered four years ago. We’ve found the people responsible and they’re not happy.”
“Can’t the police arrest them and get them off the street?”
Todd frowned. “They tried, but they didn’t have enough evidence. Four years ago I was supposed to go into the Witness Protection Program with my family. We never made it.” And now the people around him might be paying the price for his stupidity.
Sally’s mouth dropped open. “Why did the police want you to change your identity?”
“I saw a man being killed.” He looked at the crisp green sheet they’d put on the table. He still had nightmares about the bloody mess he’d seen, the cries for help that had ended in silence.
“I used to be a pilot. My work schedule was crazy. One night I was driving home after a long-haul flight. I hadn’t had dinner, so I stopped at a restaurant and ordered takeout. By the time I got back to the parking lot, it was almost empty.”
Todd could see the scene in front of him, feel the freezing night air seep into his bones. It was so cold that he’d thought snow wasn’t far away. He’d been in a hurry. He’d rushed out of the restaurant and sprinted across the parking lot before his dinner got cold.
He’d nearly missed the fight on the other side of the road. And he wished, more than ever, that he hadn’t seen it. “There was a street light not far from where I was parked. Two men were arguing. They were yelling at each other, pushing each other around. Then one of them pulled a gun out of his jacket. He shot the other person at point blank range. The victim didn’t stand a chance.”
Sally’s face lost all of its color.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “What happened after the man was killed?”
“The guy with the gun saw me. I jumped in my car and took off. He followed me, so I drove to the nearest police station. I called 9-1-1 on the way there. I had his license plate number. He had mine.”
What had come next had been everything his worst nightmares were made of. “When the police were getting close to making an arrest the violent texts and emails started. Then came the surveillance of our home, the vehicles that followed my wife wherever she went. As soon as the FBI linked a high profile gang leader to the murder, all hell broke loose. The texts and emails stopped and the unexpected visits started. We hadn’t wanted to be part of the Witness Protection Program. We thought we’d be okay, but we realized we couldn’t go on as we were.”
Todd swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “The night before we were due to leave, four men broke into our hom
e. They tied us up. I pleaded with them to let my wife and son go. Josh was a baby…” Tears fell down his face. He heard his son crying, his wife screaming at the top of her lungs until they’d knocked her unconscious.
Sally wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “You don’t need to tell me what happened.”
Todd was so lost in the past that he didn’t hear her. “They shot my wife first, then my son. When they aimed the gun at me, I wanted to die. My life was over. They’d taken everything that was important to me.” He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt, tried to hold years’ worth of grief inside him.
“I don’t know what to say, Todd. I’m so sorry it happened.” Sally waited silently beside him, rubbing her hand across his back to offer what comfort she could.
After a few minutes her hand stopped moving and her whole body went still. “You think the person following me has something to do with your wife and son’s murder?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chances and neither should you.”
“But this is Bozeman, not New York. People don’t act like that here.”
“They do if they’re from New York. We need to go to the police.” He could see Sally thinking about what he’d said, weighing what they knew against what they didn’t.
“Why now?” she asked. “What’s changed?”
“I went to New York a few weeks ago. I talked to someone who’s willing to testify against Mitch Zambezi, the leader of the gang. They’re in the Witness Protection Program waiting for the case to go to court.”
“What about you?”
“I thought I’d be okay. The FBI have added my family’s murder to the case they’re working on. But it’s not the only charges that have been laid. Mitch’s business has spread into other areas that make me sick. The evidence they’ve got ties him into some of the worst criminal activities they’ve ever seen.”
Sally paced backward and forward. “So why is this Mitch guy coming after you? Your family was killed four years ago. If he’s doing even worse things now, wouldn’t he be covering them up first?”
Head Over Heels (The Bridesmaids Club Book 3) Page 7
