"I know this job has been a difficult one for you," Shayna said when they were, for the most part, alone. "This happening... this couldn't have been good for your frame of mind."
"My frame of mind is fine, Shayna. Have you forgotten that I once had to stand by while a man carved up a woman's back for hours? Or that I watched a fellow agent get shot execution-style right in front of me by a cartel member? This is hardly the worst I've seen."
"True," she agreed, not flinching because, well, she knew all about the dark shit her agents' jobs involved. "But never after any of those jobs did you say you were quitting. So you'll forgive me if I am concerned about you."
"I'm fine, Shayna. I'm just done. We all get done one day. Sometimes it's after the first useless death. Sometimes it's after the fiftieth. Sometimes it's when we get hurt. And sometimes it's when we realize we have nothing outside of the goddamn job," he said, not realizing his gaze had moved across Lam to land on Faith, smirking at Block with her hands on her hips, a brow raised at something he said.
"Oh," Shayna said, drawing his attention. Daniel looked at her, seeing that she saw and she understood. "Or sometimes it's a woman," she said with a shrug, not belittling that reality. "I've read a lot about that one," she added, looking back over at her as Block threw a frustrated arm out, making Faith just smile wider. "Is she everything her file says she is?"
"A lot more. That detective is going to ice his balls after this," he said, smirking because he knew it was true.
"Faith!" a deep male voice hollered through the open front door, making everyone's heads snap in that direction to see a very determined-looking K being held back by the cops at the door.
Faith's gaze flew to Daniel who looked at Shayna with a shrug. She, in turn, being the fucking fantastic boss he always knew her to be, nodded her head at the cops and K flew inside, making hard eye-contact with Daniel before moving away.
A lot was said between men without words.
So much so that Daniel could read three things in that look: this is your fault; I trusted you with her; and, lastly, you better fucking fix this.
Shayna, used to working with many, many men, was fluent in the unspoken male language as well. "Oh, someone has some amends to make. I have to check in on Max. Will I see you at the hospital?"
"As soon as I am done being interrogated by Detective Blockhead," he agreed with a nod.
He was vaguely aware of the cops finally getting Vin to open the panic room doors and of Vin and Salvatore being cuffed. It was all show, though. They couldn't charge them with shit. They would skate, as they always did. Normally, he couldn't have given any less of a fuck about their future, but for reasons he finally understood, they were important to Faith. That meant that he cared that they didn't get locked up for a lifetime for crimes they actually didn't commit for a change.
See, he had heard the interaction between Anthony and Faith. How couldn't he? And the pieces fell into place.
Anthony had been there the night her parents had been brutalized. That was likely because some of Vin's men had done the brutalizing. Because he had done a lot of research on the job, he knew that was some shit that Vin would not allow. Hell, word was that Vin put a hit on Xander Rhodes' wife's ex because he had tortured her in God-awful ways for years and she had asked it of him.
In a way, for a criminal, he had a decent moral compass.
So if his men hurt women and children, Daniel had no doubt that those men weren't breathing easy anymore.
"FBI, huh?" Vin asked, lips curved upward slightly despite the shooting, despite his son clinging for life. "I'm getting rusty." There was no malice in his words, likely because he knew Daniel hadn't seen or overheard anything that could be used against him.
"Faith," K's voice clipped, drawing Daniel's attention and he turned his head to find K physically restraining Faith as the detective turned away from them.
Knowing it was going to be tense, but not giving a fuck, he moved over toward the duo, stepping in front of Faith, an action that made her stop struggling and shake off K.
At Daniel's raised brow, she huffed out a breath. "He's such a fucking dickhead."
"That he is," he agreed, watching as the bluster slowly drained out of her, as she watched Vin and Salvatore be led outside along with the other two men who had been at the meeting.
"What the hell happened here?" she asked, mostly herself. "Oh, God, I have to call Gio," she declared, suddenly moving away to go behind the bar and grab her cell. She hit the number and stared for a long time at the phone, taking deep breaths. "Yeah, it's me," she said, her voice a small imitation of itself. "Gio listen. There was a shooting inside Lam and Anthony is at the hospital." There was a short pause, her eyes wincing. "No, it was serious, Gio. You need to get over there. Yeah, they're down at the station. No. Okay. Yeah. I will meet you there. Okay. Bye."
She tucked the phone into her front pockets and went to scrub her hands down her face in frustration when she froze suddenly, arms in the air, taking in the blood covering her hands up to her wrists.
And when he said she froze, she fucking froze.
"You and me, we need to have some words. But right now," K said, giving Daniel another hard look, "I need you to take care of that girl. I could do it, but I think she needs it to be you right now."
Daniel gave him a small nod and moved behind the bar, snagging one of the raised arms at the wrist and slowly pulling Faith out from behind the bar and down the small side hall toward the bathrooms. He led her up to the sink, his body right behind her, reaching around her to turn on the tap, pulling her hands under the stream with one hand and reaching for the soap in the other.
"I need to get to the hospital," she said, her voice weak.
"Right now, you need to clean up. Then I will bring you to the hospital."
"I don't want you..."
"Yes, you do," he cut her off, catching her eyes for a split second in the mirror before she lowered her gaze, but seeing the truth there. She did want him with her. That was all he needed to know.
"I know he's an asshole and I know he's done a lot of shitty things to me and to other people, but he's sick," she said, voice barely loud enough to be heard over the water, maybe paranoid that someone was listening.
"Sick?" Daniel repeated, scrubbing soap across his hands and then hers, not exactly unaware of how still she was holding hers, like she was afraid maybe that she would grab his hands and hold on if she wasn't careful.
"He's an alcoholic. He has been for about a decade now. He's really not so bad when he's mostly sober. I think," she paused, taking a breath. "I think he was trying to clean up. Making an effort anyway. And now..."
"And now he's probably in surgery and hopefully he gets a second chance to do just that," Daniel said, not sugar-coating the possibility that he wouldn't, knowing she wasn't the kind of woman for empty promises. "I still need to talk to the dickhead, baby," he said, the side of his face resting against the side of her head as he curled his palm and fingers over one of her hands. And she didn't pull away. "I know you need to go. Maybe K can go with and I will meet you?"
"It's fine," she said, suddenly remembering she was supposed to be mad at him, yanking her hand away and moving out away from his body, shaking the water off her hands. "Don't worry about it," she said, pulling the door handle and disappearing outside.
Daniel turned off the water and dried his hands before going back out. Faith and K were gone and Detective Block was waiting for him to reemerge.
"What? Trying to make sure your stories line up? Really, an FBI agent falling for a mafia princess? How cliche is that?"
Daniel snorted, unable to help himself. "A mafia princess would mean she's actually the child of one of the big guys. She's not. She's a fucking bartender. Do your research. Now, if you don't mind, let's get this shit over with. I have my own pile of paperwork to fill out about this."
With that, they got it over with. And then he finally was on the way to the hospital to check on his best fr
iend, but, even more so, to check on his girl.
FIFTEEN
Faith
She felt like she couldn't breathe.
That was so cliche, so pedestrian for someone as seasoned in bloodshed as she was, but that was how she felt. There was a vice grip that had gotten ahold of her lungs and was just squee-squeeze-squeezing away, tighter and tighter as each minute passed.
Her mind was a chaotic place. One moment, it was completely blank. The next moment, it was swirling with so many thoughts that she felt dizzy.
K was beside her in the back of the cab- a stoic, stalwart presence that was calmer than you could expect a fucking yogi to be. That was the nice thing about K; nothing rattled him except maybe one of his women getting into trouble. In all other situations, you could count on him to be a calming energy, helping to ease yours when it was wild and uncontrollable.
He didn't offer comfort. He didn't hold your hand.
He was just there for you.
Sometimes, that was more than enough.
Faith hated hospitals. She hated them in all their forms- emergency places, psych hospitals, care centers for the elderly. Maybe it was because she spent so much time in those kinds of places with her mother, was assaulted by either the crazed energy or the soul-deep hopelessness the halls were always filled with.
Regardless of all that, though, when he cab pulled up, she practically ran inside, almost knocking over Gio in the process.
Gio looked like his brothers. He was tall, dark, handsome, and well-built. Whereas his brothers wore suits because that was just the only acceptable dress in the family, Gio was almost perpetually in jeans and a tee. Granted the jeans cost almost three-hundred bucks and the tee was at least a hundred and the shoes on his feet were rare enough to make any sneakerhead jealous. The only real difference between Gio and his brothers was where Anthony and Salvatore had dark brown eyes, Gio had ones that were almost honeyed in color.
"Surgery," he said immediately, wrapping an arm around her and kissing the top of her head. She hadn't seen him in the better part of half a year, but he always greeted her like they were the oldest and dearest of friends. "K," he greeted the man behind Faith, giving him a head nod. "They're hopeful, honey. Hey," he said, pulling back, looking into her face, "were you crying?" he asked.
"I..." she started to deny it, then shrugged. "It was a crazy night."
"Do they have anything to pin on Pops and Salvatore?"
"Not that I can tell," Faith said, shaking her head. "I got in there just seconds after the shots went off, but the panic room door was already closed."
"Thought he was a fucking idiot when he put that damn thing in," Gio said, smiling. "Guess Pops was right yet again. Who the fuck did this?"
"Alan," Faith said, remembering the shock she herself had felt at seeing him holding the gun.
"Alan Sapriano? The fuck with the huge gut and bravery of a goddamn wild rabbit?"
The one in the same. He was pretty low-level in the organization. He mostly sat in the car while the other guys collected the money. He was a glorified fucking chauffeur.
"The one and the same."
"The fuck could make him flip like that? I didn't even know the bastard had it in him to hold a gun, let alone fire one."
She wanted to know the exact same thing. When she calmed down enough to think things through, that was all she could focus on- what the hell went down at that meeting?
The meetings at Lam were always between the higher-ups, the guys who saw to all the business. And there was hardly ever any conflict above raised voices. Half the guys hadn't even gotten there yet and somehow a shootout took place? That made no sense. Was it because of Max? Had Alan somehow weaseled out the truth about him? Had he decided to try to earn some brownie points by shooting him? But then, why the hell shoot Anthony? Whatever he might have gained by shooting Max, he lost by shooting Vin's son. Hell, he would be lucky if he ever made it to prison. Vin's wallets were deep and his connections were everywhere.
"Faith, I'm going to go call Xander. They had to have heard about this by now," K said, nodding his chin to the sign that said to turn off your cells. "And Corey is probably losing her mind hearing about gunshots and seeing all the lights. I'll be back in a bit," he said, giving her wrist a squeeze before moving away.
It was barely two minutes later when Faith watched as a tall, attractive and professional looking woman in a black pantsuit walked up. She had been at the bar with Daniel and, if she wasn't mistaken, was likely his superior.
"Faith Costa," she said, giving Faith a small smile before looking at Gio. "Giovani D'Onofrio," she said, nodding her head slightly.
"Oh, see now that's not fair," Gio said, sending her a charming smile despite the tense situation. He would flirt with a female cop who was arresting him. That was just how he was. "You know us, but we don't have the pleasure of knowing you."
Her smile curved up further, but she was clearly not impressed by him. "I am Special Agent Shayna Smith."
"Well, Special Agent Shayna..."
"How's Max?" Faith cut him off, not in the mood for levity in a very serious situation.
"He's doing just fine. Didn't even need surgery. They pulled out the bullet and stitched him up. He's currently trying to charm the pants off all the female nurses."
Faith felt herself smile at that slightly, thankful. Things would have been a whole new world of bad if an FBI agent was killed at Lam.
"How is Anthony?" she asked, seeming genuinely concerned which Faith found unusual.
Gio exhaled and Faith felt a pang of pain grip her chest. "He was shot in the stomach," she explained and watched as realization dawned on Shayna. Everyone who knew anything about getting shot knew the stomach was one of the worst places. "And the leg."
"I..." Shayna started, only to be cut off by another voice.
"How that cocky mother fucker got to be a detective is fucking beyond me," Daniel said, walking up behind Faith and wrapping an arm around her hips. It was so casual, so natural, that it looked like it was a way they stood all the time for years. "What's the word on Max?"
"Didn't even need surgery. Pulled it out, stitched him up."
"So you're saying the nurses on the floor are all at risk of being tortured by his incessant flirting right about now."
"I don't know," Faith said, her belly doing a fluttering thing she wasn't sure was a good or unsettling feeling. It felt like both. "I would hardly call being on the receiving end of his flirtation torture."
"Keep it in your panties, Faith," Daniel said with a snort.
"What the hell is this?" Gio asked suddenly, eyes bright, smile of the mega-watt variety.
"A long story," Faith said, trying to turn to get away from Daniel's hold, feeling weird about it in general as well as in front of Gio and Daniel's superior. But, unfortunately, Daniel seemed to anticipate the move and wrapped an arm around her lower stomach instead, pulling her whole back against his whole front.
"Alright then. That's my cue to go get Max's story," Shayna said, giving them a knowing smile and moving away.
"Alright, not that I generally give a damn about this shit, but who the hell are you? Who the fuck is Max? And why the hell were we just chatting with some FBI agent like she was a good buddy?" Gio asked, directing the first question to Daniel and the rest to Faith.
Faith tried to pull away again and that time, Daniel let her. She moved to the side, giving Daniel a look that he seemed to understand.
"I'm Special Agent Daniel Harrison and Shayna is mine and Max's..."
"You sure you want to do this?" Faith cut him off, surprised that he was about to blow Max's cover (if it wasn't already blown) without asking either Max or his boss.
"I'm sure," he said with a shrug. "Shay is mine and Max's boss," he finished.
"Where the fuck is a wine cart when you need one?" Gio asked the pretty young nurse as she walked past. "Alright. So you're telling me that two FBI agents were in the bar tonight when it got shot up?"
"Alrighty then," Gio said, shaking his head. "That's about enough family business for the next three months, I'd say," he said, trying to appear carefree, but Faith knew him just well enough to be able to tell by the set to his shoulders and the way his fingers were tapping anxiously against his thigh that he was anything but. He was worried. He was worried about his brother and his father and Salvatore. He was, at least a small part, she was sure, worried about what it meant for business, for income, for enemies who might take the opportunity to try to take over.
"I'm sure Vin has already contacted the lawyers from inside the panic room," Faith comforted him. "And rallied the troops. He doesn't need anything from you right now but to be here for Anthony."
Gio nodded. "I'm gonna go up to the surgery floor and wait," he informed them.
"I'll be right here. Come and tell me when you know anything," she told him, but there was a pleading in her tone.
"Chin up, sweetheart, worry isn't a look I like on your face," he told her, touching her hip and moving away.
"Coffee," Faith declared, moving across the space toward the waiting area where soda machines sat beside a giant hot beverage machine. Hospital coffee was every bit as bad if not worse than police station coffee, but she wasn't going to be too picky. "Shit," she said, patting all her pockets in frustration.
How the hell had she forgotten her wallet? Granted, things had been crazy, but that was so unlike her.
"Here, baby," Daniel said, hip-checking her slightly and reaching for his own wallet, putting a dollar in the machine and hitting the coffee button.
"Stop calling me baby," she said, but most of the fight seemed out of her voice.
"Stop acting like you don't like it," he shot back, handing her a coffee and turning to add money and hit the button for his own.
Dark Secrets Page 19
