Her eyes widened. “Val doesn’t bring a lot of girls home?”
“The only girl he’s ever brought home is the one girl who was already there.”
“He’s never been with anyone but Zoey?”
He squinted at her, tilting his head. “How do you know about him and Zoey?”
“Uh…” She faltered before sputtering. “I could tell from their chemistry at the table. It was obvious.”
“Obvious, yeah, and weird as hell. Zoey moved in with us ten years ago. She became a part of the family.”
“Well, the tabloids have a different story to tell about Val.”
“He’s been in bed with the whole of Manhattan, don’t get me wrong, but he’s never claimed anyone but Zoey.”
“It must be weird to have a family who’s always in the news. You can’t even manwhore in peace without seeing your face splattered all over a rag the next day.”
“Thankfully, Val is the only one with that problem. He’s about to be a billionaire, and has the nerve to do it with a handsome face like that? Of course he’s all over the news. Manhattan worships him.”
“When you brag about how handsome Val is, are you really just indirectly bragging about how handsome you are?”
Leo laughed.
“You are twins, after all,” Jessica said.
“Fraternal.”
“To the naked eye, though, you’re identical.”
“Well, we aren’t. Not DNA wise, or personality wise.”
Jessica let the silence linger, hoping for more.
Leo shrugged. “Like I said, Val never brought a single girlfriend home his whole life, and Ma was concerned. So, really, when you think about it, all of the women I bring home have been more like… a public service.” He straightened. “A way to stop Ma from having a heart attack, worrying about her kids dying alone. For every woman Val didn’t bring home, I put ten more in her spot. I do it all for Ma. That’s just the kind of guy I am.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I enjoy beautiful women. What can I say? What do you want me to do?”
“Your Jersey accent is showing its face.”
“It does that from time to time. Usually when a beautiful woman is busting my balls relentlessly.”
Fighting a smile, she pointed to the right. “This is me.”
His eyes followed her finger, then his eyebrows shot up. “This place? I could’ve sworn it was still sitting.”
“Nope. I snatched it up.”
“The former owner of this house was tied up in a lot of unsavory stuff before it got foreclosed. I hope you didn’t get saddled with a bunch of problems that weren’t yours.”
“Papers have been signed for a year and I still have all my skin, but I appreciate the concern.”
Leo followed her up the driveway to the front door, studying the grounds. It was almost the largest house in the neighborhood, second only to the Romanovsky’s.
“Well…” he said. “You definitely got yourself a beautiful home here. Hell of a bargain, too, last I checked.”
“I’m surprised none of your brothers snatched it up.”
“Too close to the folks.”
“Can’t have that. Not when you have hordes of beautiful women to entertain.”
He slapped both hands over his heart and then threw them out in surrender. “Hold your fire, baby, good God.”
She giggled, coming to a stop at the door.
He dropped his head when she faced him.
“Is this the part where you pretend to be all bashful before you go in for the kill?” she asked.
His head shot up and his eyes widened.
When his surprised silence stretched on, she filled it. “Thanks for mowing me down in your Porsche today. It was fun.”
He blanched like he’d just taken a knife to the gut, eyes searching hers before they fell to her lips.
She let those lips fall open, breathing in the fragrant night air.
He leaned in, his eyes fluttering closed, but she pressed a hand to his chest, pushing him away.
His eyes popped open, and so did his mouth, a breathy laugh splitting his lips as his head fell again.
“I don’t kiss boys with hordes.” She kept her hand on his chest, arm outstretched.
His head stayed bowed when she pushed him again, pretending to stumble. He took hold of her wrist before he went too far, pulling her with him.
Jessica tottered forward and then planted her feet, holding her breath when he met her eyes again.
“I want to see you,” he said.
“You’ll see me tomorrow. I have that interview with Val, remember?”
He searched her eyes, gave her arm a halfhearted tug, and then released his hold on her wrist.
Jessica stepped back toward the door of the house.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he said.
Jessica felt his eyes burning through her backside when she turned away, and the blaze didn’t relent until she stepped into the house and closed the door behind her.
She slammed her back against the closed door, trying to take a deep breath.
Leo had tried to kiss her.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she jammed her eyes shut when it stalled, coming to a grinding halt under her ribcage. She willed herself to remain calm as one, two, three seconds passed.
Squeezing her eyes closed tighter, she pushed the vision of Leo’s plush lips out of her head.
Her stalled heart rebounded, resuming a steady pound.
She exhaled, reminding herself to refill her prescription.
Her heart hadn’t made that move in a long time.
“You giggled.”
Her eyes flew open when a male voice floated through the air, bouncing off the bare walls and sweeping across the lonely floors of the beautiful house. The voice echoed through the vacant halls before circling right back to her, surrounding her like a one-man symphony, forcing her to turn her head toward the sound without moving her body.
From behind the only two pieces of furniture in that entire house—two folding tables pushed together—her partner, Chet Lorrick, watched her with laughing eyes. The tables were in the dining room, littered with security screens, radios, and various other knickknacks appropriate for an extended stakeout. Chet spun half circles in his desk chair, still smiling that exasperating smile, with his hands cradled behind his head.
His caramel skin glowed against the three bright security screens before him. Dozens of wires fell from the tables and littered the floor, traveling at all angles, leading uneven paths to power outlets all over the room.
His hazel eyes danced the way they only did for Jessica, and he craned his neck to gaze at her over the screens, making his prominent nostrils flare.
“You giggled,” he said again. “And I’m not even going to ask what went on in that bathroom. There was a very unusual amount of gasping and panting going on in there. I almost poured myself a glass of wine.”
Holding his eyes across the room, Jessica reached under her bra and tore out the wire that had been scratching her boobs all evening.
“It was a real bitch getting this thing hidden under my sports bra.” She removed the wire’s receiver from inside her armband, where it had been doubling as an MP3 player.
“I never doubted you, or your bra, for a single moment.”
“You’re an animal.”
“Hey, neither of you have let me down yet.”
“How was the audio?” she asked, approaching the tables while undoing her braid.
“Muddled.” His eyes rose higher with every step she took closer to him, following the wire when she tossed it down in front of him. “But that’s to be expected when the microphone’s been shoved between your giant cans.”
“It’s the best I could do. Leo Romanovsky is a titty man. A pervert. He looks at a woman and sees an object.” She tapped the underside of her breasts, making them jiggle.
Chet lit up, nearly bursting into laughter.
&
nbsp; “The girls had to be on full display,” Jessica said. “And the pants had to be tight. My giant boobs were the only place a wire wouldn’t be completely obvious.”
“I could still understand most of what I heard. Like that giggle. A giggle is one of those sounds that’s pretty much unmistakable. Even when the audio is shit.” He showed his crooked teeth as a smile lit up his face.
“Fuck off, Chet.”
“I didn’t even think you knew how to giggle.”
“I had to stay in character.”
“When did we agree that Ashley Williams was a giggler?” His eyes followed her as she entered the kitchen and fetched the only thing in the fridge, a can of soda.
“I need this to be beer,” she said, moving back to the table and taking a seat in the empty chair beside him. She removed her running jacket and slung it on the table before throwing her sneakers on top of it, crossing her legs at the ankle. After frowning around another sip, she slammed the soda on the table. “I really, really, need this to be beer.”
“Not on duty.” Leaning forward on the table with a grin, he nodded toward her body. “That’s gonna bruise.”
Jessica looked down at her arm, noting the scrape. “I’ll be fine.”
“You collect bruises like a redneck collects rifles. I know you’ll be fine.”
“So why bring it up?”
“It just amazes me more every day. How you’ll stop at nothing to solve a case, even if it means tearing your own skin straight from the bone.”
“Damn right.”
“It’s okay not to be married to your work sometimes…”
“Not when solving this case would mean my promotion. A huge raise. A bigger office. Respect, as a woman, in this field, which is almost unheard of.” Jessica nearly screamed in frustration as she thought of the case the FBI had been building on Governor Victor King. Now that he was officially running for President, the ten year investigation on him had been fast tracked, and out of all of the felonious crimes he had his dirty hands in, Jessica had been assigned the Romanovskys? “I think we both know why we were assigned this family, Chet.”
“Because you’re the one who alerted Harp to their connection to Victor King in the first place?”
“Because headquarters won’t trust a female agent to dig into the real dirty work on King.”
“Here we go…” Chet gave her shining eyes. “Now I need a beer.”
“God forbid they see a female agent infiltrate the mob, the federal government, or a Mexican drug cartel. They give the woman the Romanovskys.”
“Why do you hate being a woman so much?”
“Why do they hate me so much for being one?”
Chet laughed. “You’re the one who convinced Harp that you found yet another crime we can nail King with once we decide to close in. You convinced him that Val and Tony’s testimony alone would be enough to open an entirely new investigation on the corruption that went on at 5th Precinct while he was Chief. That is why you got assigned this family, Jess. Are you just a small cog in a much bigger machine? Yeah, but every agent on King’s case is, including the ones looking into his connections to the mob and the drug cartels. Personally, I’m not sure why you’re so desperate to be tangled up with those kind of people, anyway. I would choose a Romanovsky over a Corleone any day.”
“And that’s why you work on surveillance.”
“Do you see me whining about it? Never. Because I know that we all play a part here, however big or small, and they’re all equally important. My god, not everyone is out to get you.”
“I just want respect. Of course I’m married to my work, Chet. Of course I’m tearing my own skin from the bone. I have no choice but to.”
“I understand where you’re coming from, Jess. I feel you. I’m just saying… it’s okay not to be so reckless. To have some boundaries. Healthy even.”
“I’m an undercover agent. My entire job depends on me breaking boundaries.”
“A boundary was definitely broken tonight. Leo Romanovsky… he was feeling you.”
“Leo Romanovsky tortured me in high school. Leo Romanovsky can eat a fucking dick.”
Chet shifted. “Don’t let Harp find out you went to school with this kid.”
“The only way Harp will find out is if you open your big fucking mouth.”
“He won’t hear it from me.”
Eyeing him, she leaned forward, pulled her cell phone out of her jacket pocket, and pulled up an old picture of her family, turning the screen toward Chet so he could see.
He leaned in, squinted at the image, and then chuckled. “Okay. I see your parents, and I see two huge dudes standing behind your parents.” His eyes rose to her. “Which one are you?”
She kicked at him, watching as he nearly fell off his chair to avoid the blow, laughing.
With a roll of her eyes, she recrossed her legs and tossed her phone on the table. The clank echoed through the empty halls.
“I was obese in high school,” she said. “Bigger than most of the linebackers on the football team. It didn’t help that I dressed like a man. Leo used to call me Beer Belly Borgia.”
“Seems appropriate.” He dodged another kick with a chortle.
“He never tried to fuck Beer Belly Borgia the way he’s going to kill himself trying to fuck Ashley Williams,” Jessica said. “Yes, I went to school with all of them, but they wouldn’t recognize me in a million years.”
“Like I said, Harp won’t hear it from me.”
“Good. I think we both know how he can get when it comes to protecting his agents, even if it comes at the expense of closing an investigation. If he finds out I went to school with the family, or that I threw myself in front of Leo’s car tonight, he’d pull me so fast my head would spin. I can’t let that happen. I need this case. My entire professional future is dependent on my performance with the Romanovskys.”
“How many different ways can I say he won’t hear it from me?” Chet slapped his hands to his chest. “He won’t hear it from me, Jess. Enough with the lecture.”
She took another swallow. “I think I’m going to have even more fun nailing Leo than I will his twin brother.”
“We haven’t proven Val is the killer.”
“Of course he is. We have his mug shot. A mug shot someone went to an awful lot a trouble to bury on the night two people were murdered.”
“A mug shot with no booking papers or fingerprints.”
“Which makes it all the more suspect.” She beamed. “When is the last time you’ve seen a mug shot with no paper trail? No prints? Huh?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Never, bitch, that’s when.”
“Still doesn’t prove Val’s a killer.”
“He has the same tattoo the driver had—”
“They all have that tattoo—”
“And he has a mug shot that was taken that same night? Chet. Come on.” Jessica waited for Chet’s rebuttal. When it didn’t come, she stared off into the empty house, shaking her head. “You should’ve seen the look in his eyes when I ran into him in the hallway. He has the creepiest eyes. Eyes that have seen things, you know?”
“Are you describing Val’s eyes… or yours?” Chet laughed. “Creepy eyes, does not make someone a killer. If they did, you would’ve been convicted a long time ago.”
“I can’t stand it when you go all devil’s advocate on me. It makes my teeth itch.”
“Telling the truth does not make me a devil’s advocate. Refusing to blindly follow everything you say does not make me a devil’s advocate.”
“Val is guilty.”
“Receipts?”
“There’s a reason that mug shot was wiped clean from every database but one. There’s a reason there is no trail. It’s because he’s guilty. He’s guilty, and someone tried to make it go away. I’d bet my last penny that someone is his father, since Tony was supervising chief at the very station that mug shot was taken in right before it disappeared from sight. Victor King was Tony’s Chief of Police. To g
et rid of that mug shot, Tony would have had to go through him.” Jessica took a deep breath, staring into space. “God knows what else King covered up during his time at the 5th Precinct.”
Chet spoke up and brought her back to the present. “Look, don’t get me wrong. You did real good today. You did.”
“I got an interview at Novsky tomorrow morning.”
“I heard. You always did work fast.”
“I’m going to have bugs and cams set up behind any wall Val breathes on. If I don’t have solid proof he killed the Blacks today, it’ll only be a matter of time before I do. If I have anything to do with it, he’ll be squealing before the end of the month.”
“Then we can move on to the real work.”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t underestimate the Romanovskys. They might be the guppy fish,” Jessica said. “But guppies play the most important role. They lead you straight to the shark.”
“Five minutes ago you were singing a different tune.”
“I’m feeling enlightened.”
Chet smirked. “The FBI’s been after King for almost ten years. I don’t think the word shark really covers it anymore.”
“You’re so annoying. Fine. Fine. What’s the biggest fish in the sea, then?”
“I don’t know. Sperm whale, I think?”
“Sperm whale?” Jessica chortled. “It just doesn’t have the same devious ring as shark. I hear sperm whale and want to die laughing. I want to swim with the sperm whale. But the shark? I want to see the shark suffer. I want the shark floating, dead in the water.”
“If you want King dead in the water, we’d better work quick.” Chet leaned over and swept up one of the many newspapers he’d plowed through that night, dropping it in front of her.
Jessica took in the headline on the front page and scoffed.
“Number one in the polls,” Chet said. “And he’s just getting started.”
“King will never be President, Chet. He might have a chokehold on every cop and mob monkey in New York and New Jersey, but he doesn’t have a hold on the FBI. This man has been destroying lives since before I spoke my first words. Enough is enough. I’ll do my part and prove he helped cover up the murder of the Blacks, and even if every other op falls apart, my op won’t. And it’ll be enough to destroy his reputation and stop him from smearing his shit all over everything else he touches.”
Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) Page 4
