I was stunned, with the simplicity of his plan. We had top of the line security and cameras everywhere—except inside the storeroom. I gasped. I hadn’t meant to do it aloud, but it didn’t go unnoticed by Corey.
“What?” Coming out of the kitchen, he crossed the room with a piece of cold chicken dangling from his mouth by his fingers.
“N-nothing, just—”
“I know, baby, it was so easy. I went right around all those pesky cameras and security switches.” While he confessed I smiled the best I could and told him where I had the ring, the key. “The ring is in my safe downstairs, in my storeroom. “He nodded and returned to the kitchen.
I knew what was really in that safe. The first time I’d seen it, it had frightened me. Now, it gave me hope. Knowing I needed to sound concerned, like the upset girlfriend he’d left behind, I tried to make conversation. “What happened with the accident? The sheriff said you died, we had a funeral and everything.”
I glanced at the clock by my bed, Dominick called me every night when he was ready to fall asleep. I couldn’t remember if my phone was on vibrate or not, but I prayed he got suspicious when I didn’t pick up.
“Oh, there was an accident. I watched the whole thing from the tree line. As far as the sheriff, he couldn’t find his way out of a wet paper bag with instructions. Because he knew I drove that car, he just assumed I was in it. The funeral home was given a bag of ashes to bury.” He started laughing out loud. “Those stupid bastards buried the ashes of the fucking car’s interior, there wasn’t even a body in it. ”I smiled, playing my part. How could something so simple, and yet so complicated, be true?
“As to why? I needed an alibi. I plan to make Santos pay for all he took from me and my friend.” Corey didn’t know I had been told why he’d been killed, or attempted to be killed. He’d been stealing from Dominick, just like he was stealing from me now.
“You can’t pin a murder on a dead guy, now can ya?” Though his logic was skewed, it was technically correct. A dead man can commit no crime. “So, how about you pack a bag, we get the ring, and then get the hell out of here.” He clapped his hands together, the excitement of his plan evident.
“Where are we going?” I questioned standing from my sofa, wanting to keep us in this room as long as possible. His smile grew even bigger as I watched his face. His contact-tinted eyes held no secrets to his elated emotions. “Back to New Orleans, Ari.”
The only light still on downstairs was coming from the refrigerator. All the arrangements sat ready for the wedding, which would take place tomorrow. I sent a longing glance to the secured door, which opened to the courtyard and loading dock; the very door his box had been carried through. My poor delivery guy had most likely cursed my name as he’d carried Corey from his truck.
“Couldn’t get away from the garden, could you, Ari?” His voice startled me as I rounded the corner. His tone was as condescending as ever. Instead of encouraging my hobby and love of plants, he’d found it to be an area to poke fun at.
“Corey, you know I love to create things.”
“Yes. You did a fine job on the ones you made for my funeral.” He leaned over to touch my face, the chill from his cold finger making me nauseous. What a sick and twisted son of a bitch. He’d been able to stand there and see the people who loved him most, suffer, because he’d wanted to fake his death.
“Thank you,” I choked out.
The safe sat on the floor at the end of the room. We had to pass several shelves to get to it. I wondered if Marissa had found it while rearranging the things I had waiting to be unpacked. Corey was taking what he wanted and placing it in his pocket. The fucker had no boundaries.
Ba beep.
I froze briefly at the sound of the sensor indicating someone had pulled into the loading dock. Sophia had always claimed it was annoying, but it had saved her from checking the back door over and over to see if someone was there.
“Sounds like your smoke detector battery needs changing,” Corey assessed as he continued rummaging around in the box. His eyes never looked in my direction. Glancing down, I noticed Marissa must have discovered the safe because a box was now covering it. When I tried to lift the box, the bottom caught the door and lifted it. I dropped it when the sensor to the back dock chimed again. Corey pulled something from his pocket, which reminded me of one those burner phones Dominick kept in the wall.
“Corey, that isn’t a smoke alarm, those are hard-wired. It’s someone in the back alley. I need to check it out, it could be one of my employees.” I didn’t wait for him to answer, since he was too busy messing around with the phone in his hand.
Opening the back door, I saw headlights, but of a cab picking someone up. I’d gotten one foot out the door when Corey jerked me back. The force was so hard, my shoe stayed lodged in the door. I was being pulled backward with one bare foot and the door still open.
“Did I give you permission to open a fucking door?” Gone was sweet Corey, and in his place was the Corey I knew, the one I feared. Motion behind me had him releasing me. “S’bout fucking time you got here.”
I turned around rubbing my arm where he’d jerked me and almost fell to the floor as Meadow and Riggs walked in my back door.
“You owe me two hundred bucks, bitch.” Meadow had changed her hair from purple to a neon green, added a tattoo to the side of her neck, and, by the looks of things, a guy to her bed. Riggs scanned the area of my back room, and went straight for the front of the shop.
“Where do you keep the money?” Meadow, who refused to be ignored, shoved me in the chest. “Your little Houdini trick cost me the price of the hotel room.”
When Meadow had convinced me I needed to go to Mardi Gras with her, she’d said we would have to split the cost of the room. The bill was on my credit card, so they wouldn’t have let her sign the receipt.
“Show her where you keep your cash.” Corey jerked my hair, pulling me to him, and then twisted my head into an odd angle, making pain shoot through my neck. He shoved me into the counter ordering me to get him all the money I had. Gabby usually took all the cash to the bank on her way home, but only on Mondays. There wasn’t usually a great deal of cash in the store; most people paid with credit cards.
“This way,” I directed, taking him into the main shop. Riggs was looking for something, sorting through the supplies we used to make arrangements. He continued on when we entered the room. The cashbox was kept in a closed drawer under the front counter. Taking it out, I sat it on the counter beside Corey. His finger opened the metal box before taking out the bills inside.
“Two hundred bucks,” he sneered. “I’ve seen what kind of business you do. Where’s the rest?” He pushed the box back at me, keeping the money, which he shoved inside the front of his pants.
“That’s it. Most of our business is credit card sales. “Something switched in him and he took me in his arms, wrapping himself around me. “I’m sorry, Ari. You know I get crazy sometimes. We need to get the ring and get out of here.”
Just as he let me go, the dock sensors chimed again. More than likely the cab leaving, and taking my way out of here with it. I prayed Marissa hadn’t taken the gun out; I had to get the hell out of here. Walking back into the storeroom, I discovered the box Corey had been pillaging through was overturned, various Halloween decorations broken on the floor.
I knelt down once again, sliding the box out of the way. The dull metal of the safe obscured my view of the possible salvation lying underneath. A quick glance at Corey and Meadow showed four sets of eyes watching me. Riggs had taken over going through boxes as Corey moved closer. Looking back at the gun, I reached my hand in and wrapped my fingers around the handle. My heart was thumping so loud I’d have sworn it had leapt out of my chest and run out the back door. Sucking in a steady breath I heard the pounding sounds of something coming up the loading dock, followed by the whooshing sound of the back door opening before slamming against the brick of the building.
Corey spun around
. Not liking what he saw, he took three huge steps in my direction. Either too stupid, or too fucking high to know what was going on, Riggs took his sweet time turning around. Meadow struggled to pull something out of her pocket as Corey pulled my body from the floor, and placed me in front of him like a human shield. A gun had materialized in his hand and was pointed at the now barricaded door.
Dark suits, serious faces, and handguns, the matching uniform of the man who’d once again come to save me. Dominick’s face was cold and lethal. Gone was the gentleman who brought me dinner and picked apart the movies I made him watch, the man who called me every night to tell me he loved me. The steely eyes fixated on Corey were calculative and eerie calm, and belonged to the coldblooded killer I’d first envisioned when I’d found out who he was. Before me stood the leader of a Mafia Family. Terror should have filled me, strangling me in mind-numbing fear, but relief filled me at the sight of him, my knight in shining armor arrived to defeat the evil dragon.
“Well, if it isn’t the pussy man himself. Nicky Santos. Along with his two cock sucking sidekicks.” Bobbing the end of his gun as he named each man, Corey laughed at his poor attempt at humor.
Riggs turned in Dominick’s direction, sneering a laugh and then turning back to rummage some more through my boxes. “You okay, Anna?” Dominick’s face was colored in anger, but his voice, his question to me, was laced with love and concern.
“Don’t fucking talk to Ari.” He gripped my hair harder, pulling me against his chest, causing me to wince from the pain. Dominick had to be calculating how many ways he planned to hurt Corey. “You and your daddy like to play with girls like her, then toss them away when you feel like it.”
Marco took a step forward, his eyes blazing in Corey’s direction. “Really, motherfucker? You have an innocent woman, a fucking gun to her head, using her as a fucking shield, and you call Boss a pussy? Man, I’m gonna have fun fucking your shit up.”
The menacing tone of Marco’s voice forced me to shiver. Dominick often spoke of him as a loyal man, but I knew for Marco to be standing beside him, he had to be just as lethal as Dominick.
“Let me tell you something, you inbred motherfucker.” Dominick pushed his way into the room, a gasp catching in my throat in terror of what Corey might do. “You’re gonna toss that fucking gun down and release my girl before you damage her any more than you already have.” His chest was heaving and there was a slight shine of sweat on his upper lip. I’d never seen him like this, controlled rage and unbridled courage condensed into one solid package.
“No, motherfucking Al Capone, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. My fiancée Ari is going to get my ring out her safe and put it back on her finger, like it’s supposed to be. Then me and Riggs are gonna walk out of this bitch and take whoever’s car is sittin’ out there.”
“And go where?” Dominick moved closer, his teeth clenched as Demetri and Marco reach for their guns. “New Orleans? Back to your fucking stash? The one Anthony and youse two fucks managed to build?” Corey had no witty comeback. His body shifted behind me as he lowered the gun from my head.
“Yeah, motherfucker. I know all about your little stash. The guns, drugs, all the money and shit.”
Corey started mumbling, but Dominick wasn’t finished. “About your side action with Miranda and Anthony? How could you believe a girl I kept around to suck my fucking dick when I didn’t feel like jacking off, would ever get one over on me?” His face was turning red, anger boiling to the surface. Dominick kept his focus on Corey since the two men on either side of him have their guns drawn, ready to follow any order given.
“You think your boys, Anthony or Gallo, are gonna set you up? Give you a pretty title to go with that worthless scar you’re hiding behind your shirt?” Dominick pushed Marco’s gun to the side and stepped around a box Riggs had discarded. He seemed fearless, unafraid of approaching a man holding a gun. “Allow me to educate your broke, punk ass. The only thing Gallo ever did for the pussy motherfucker who made you think you were something, was move his fucking foot as I tossed his severed tongue at him.”
I wished I had the ability to stop time and take a photo of the look on Dominick’s face just to ask him later what he’d been thinking in that moment. Where his eyes were fixed and filled with anger, his smirk suggested this was more of a game to him, a challenge to conquer.
“Let me guess, Anthony guaranteed you a seat at his table, men to do the dirty work, and more pussy than you could fuck in a lifetime? You saw all the money he tossed around and the promises he made, and you wanted a slice. Too bad he was being played, just like you are.”
“Whatever,” Corey tossed back. “Where is Daddy fucking Dearest anyhow? Out molesting a bunch of sheep?” Dominick’s face didn’t falter, Corey’s words missing their target by a mile. “Nah, man, he’s shutting the fucking mouth of a common whore, permanently. Just like I did to your man Anthony, and like I’m about to do to you.”
Riggs finished with his search of the first box, tossed it to the floor, and then picked up another, ripping the tape off. “Goddammit, Riggs, knock that shit off, man,” I yelled before I could stop myself.
“Hold up. Did you say Riggs?” Demetri questioned, his eyes never leaving mine, and his gun steady. When Riggs didn’t answer, he asked me, “Anna, this mute motherfucker thinks he can mess with your shit. You want me to make him stop?” I knew better than to remain quiet, shake my head, or just stare at him. With a shaky voice, I responded, “Yes, Demetri. It’s for Karla’s shower.”
In the few years I’d spent with my father, he had taken me shooting with him quite a few times. Always to an outdoor range, where the sound of the gun going off was so loud it caused me to jump. Riggs’ body fell like a stone while the final shell casing danced on the concrete floor, and I held in the scream, which begged for freedom. I refused to allow Demetri to feel bad for killing the man, or to have Corey see any fear come from me.
“You did us a favor. Motherfucker was a crack head anyway.” Meadow had always been a bitch, but I had come to the understanding she was in lust with Riggs. Maybe I’d read her wrong.
“Who the fuck pulled your chain, bitch?” Marco barked from Dominick’s left as I refused to look away from the eyes of my savior. “Nobody did shit for you. He’s dead for touching Anna’s shit, same as Anthony is for touching the bosses girl.”
“Fuck you, Guido.” Meadow piped up, her eyes full of revenge. Marco twisted his gun to the side, his face scowling as he directed his anger at her racial slur. “Boss, tell me this whore did not just call me a fucking Guido.” Dominick and I remained firm, not caring about the fight going on in the room.
“How ‘bout I put this fucking size ten in your dick sucking throat, huh? I bet we could fit it in alongside your brother’s two-inch dick you’re sucking every fucking night, huh?”
“Go ahead,” came a voice from behind my back, Corey speaking for the first time. “Shut her the fuck up for me.” Meadow turned away from Marco, her eyes huge with surprise. “Shut me the fuck up, really, Corey? You wanna shut me up before I tell Ari about you killing her father?”
Corey grabbed me tighter. His lips against my left ear began nipping at the lobe while Dominick looked on. “Shut up, Meadow.”
“Oh, hell no. Ari, when your daddy found out this bastard was moving smack in his jurisdiction, he came over and tried to arrest him. Corey shot him in the chest, making it look like a bust gone bad. He fucking lied to you about your dad wanting him to take care of you.”
Pain ripped through my chest, anger bubbling in my blood. Corey was responsible for my dad’s death? “Tesoro, look at me,” Dominick commanded, and I looked back into his eyes, ignoring the barrel of his gun pointed at me. “You remember what I swore to you?”
“Motherfucker! Stop talkin’ to my girl!” Corey interrupted.
“Last Friday, when we were playing on the couch. Do you remember?” Dominick ignored the mouth by my ear, his eyes telling me everything his words couldn’t.
Dominick had a meeting, which ran late. He’d come to the shop with a bag in one hand and a smile on his face. He tried to tell me how sorry he was, but I shook it off as being part of his job. He picked me up and carried me to the couch where he started tickling me. We wrestled around for a little while until I moved my knee and thought I’d caught him in the balls. I hadn’t, but he decided to show me how to hurt a guy if I were ever in a bad situation. “Sweetness, I don’t give a shit how big the fucker is, you take out his knee and he’ll fall to the ground every time.” Every time I tried to catch his knee, I managed to miss and throw myself off-balance, taking him to the floor with me. When we landed, he whispered he liked my version better and we made out for hours.
I nodded once, ever so slightly.
“Take a knee, Tesoro.”
With all my strength, I dropped like a lead balloon to the hard floor of the room. I closed my eyes tight against the pain in my knees from landing hard on the concrete. Gunshots sounded, filling the room with echoes of spent shells and the smell of gunpowder. When all was quiet, I didn’t have the courage to open my eyes. The acrid scent of the gunpowder stung my nose and the aftershock from the noise made my ears ring. A hand grabbed my left shoulder in a tight grip, jerking me up and into the arms of my Dominick.
“I’ve got you, Tesoro. I’ve got you.” Dominick held me on the floor of the storeroom while I trembled. His warm, strong arms caged me in a blanket of security and trust. Corey’s lifeless body lay riddled with bullets, his eyes still open and money peeking out from the waistband of his jeans. Dominick’s strong hand pulled my face to his chest as he tried to shield me from seeing the disaster that had once been my organized storeroom.
Stolen Secrets Page 30
