“Wait. You’re saying…”
“I’m saying Sergio Perelli could have fathered a child with his first wife. I think this child is his oldest son.”
Shock came first, followed by understanding. “Older than my father, which means if he is, my grandfather might have considered him to be the heir to the family business.”
Vanessa nodded. “With the timing of the birth, I have to think the divorce was caused by one of two things: either Helen Alexander found out she was pregnant and didn’t want to live life as a mafia wife.”
“Or?” Carina prompted.
“Or she had an affair, and your grandfather divorced her because he knew the child wasn’t his.”
Carina shook her head. She hated the truth about her grandfather’s dark side, but she understood it well enough to be certain she knew the answer. “If Helen Alexander had cheated on my grandfather, she wouldn’t have lived long enough to give birth to another man’s son.”
Vanessa stared at her for a minute, as though trying to comprehend the truth. Then she said, “Let me check one more thing. I’ll be right back.”
She picked up her phone and started dialing a number as she walked outside onto the screen porch. Through the glass, Carina could see her talking to someone but couldn’t hear the words over the constant rumble of waves crashing up on the beach.
Several minutes passed before Vanessa walked back inside. “It looks like you’re right.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had a friend check out Helen Alexander’s financial records. She didn’t have any assets to speak of when she married Sergio, but after the divorce, she had regular deposits to her bank account, even though she never held a job.”
Carina looked at her suspiciously. “Vanessa, what exactly do you do for a living?”
“It’s probably best if you don’t ask me that question.”
Carina crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair as she considered both the information and the source. “Maybe the payments were just alimony.”
Vanessa shook her head. “These deposits seem too big to be alimony alone. Not only that, but right after the baby was born, Helen moved into a new house. She paid cash, but there’s nothing to indicate she had a way to come up with that kind of money.”
“That does sound like something my family would do.” Carina nodded in agreement. “Real estate has always been a favorite way to hide cash.”
Vanessa pointed at the computer screen. “I think this is the man we’re looking for. ‘Alex’ is really Raymond Alexander.”
* * *
“Who is Raymond Alexander?” Jay asked as they all sat around the dinner table Saturday night.
“If we’re right, he’s Carina’s uncle,” Vanessa told him. “It would make sense why her grandfather was helping him move up in the organization and grooming him to take control.”
Jay looked from Vanessa to Carina and then back again. “You think her own uncle may be behind all of this?”
“He fits the description Lou gave you. Fifty-four years old, from Texas, FBI,” Vanessa said. “According to his file, he’s been assigned to Chicago for the majority of his career.”
“How did he manage that?” Amy asked. “From what my brother has told me, FBI agents usually rotate every five years or so to a new city.”
“Apparently, every time he was due for a rotation, he would convince his superiors that he was on the verge of some big mob bust. Since he kept producing results, it made sense to keep him around.”
“Where is he now?” Jay asked.
“I don’t know.” Vanessa shrugged. “I left a message for his supervisor, but I probably won’t hear back until Monday.”
“I sure hope this is the person we’ve been looking for.” Jay reached for Carina’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I am so ready for all of this to be over.”
“We all are,” Carina said.
36
Carina sat on the deck, an umbrella overhead, shading her from the noonday sun. Her hand moved the pencil in long fluid lines over her sketchbook as another design took shape. A gentle breeze cooled the otherwise humid air, and she found the sound of the waves soothing. So many thoughts were rolling through her mind after the excitement of the weekend that she was surprised she could sketch anything, but the ideas were flowing, and she wanted to get these latest ones down on paper before she lost them.
She supposed her emotions were feeding this current frenzy, or perhaps it was the possibility that she was so much closer now to finding a new sense of security. Vanessa had talked to someone in the FBI earlier that morning. Carina didn’t know how she had managed to uncover so much information, but according to Vanessa, Raymond Alexander had been on leave the day Lou was murdered. He had also been on vacation the day her mother was killed. The possibility that they had finally identified the person who had taken so much from her was overwhelming, as was the knowledge that her father was likely innocent.
With her emotions in such turmoil over the past couple of days, she was glad Jay and his friends had postponed their departure until this morning. They had planned to leave on Sunday, but bad weather had affected the ferry schedule, and they had decided to spend another night.
They had all been such a great source of emotional support to both her and Bianca that she knew she was really going to miss them over the next few weeks. She also found herself looking forward to moving to Virginia Beach, where she already felt like she had a built-in network of friends.
When everyone left a few minutes ago, Carina had found this good-bye with Jay to be a little easier than the last time he had deployed. She didn’t know if it was because he had already proven to her that he was going to come back or if she was more accepting now that this was part of who he was.
Her pencil broke, and she reached into her briefcase on the chair beside her. She dug a fresh pencil out of her bag and started sketching once more. She was so absorbed in the details on her design that she didn’t hear the footsteps.
A man’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Nice view you have here.”
Carina’s sketchbook dropped out of her hand, and her pencil went flying. She stood up and turned to see the man standing at the base of the porch steps and lifted one hand to her chest, where she could feel her heart racing. “You startled me.”
She took a closer look at him. He was dressed like a tourist in khaki shorts and a polo, and appeared to be around fifty. His eyes were dark and unreadable, his graying hair receding. He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Carina tried to tell herself he was probably just lost and needed directions, but something in the way he was looking at her made her uneasy. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I believe you can.” He walked up the steps onto the porch, and Carina instinctively took a step back. She knocked into the chair she had just been sitting in, stumbling before she managed to put a hand on the table to steady herself.
“Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He glanced at her cell phone lying on the table and then looked back at her. “You have something that belongs to me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Carina shook her head.
“Your father sent you something,” he clarified. “I want it.”
“You’re Alex.” The words escaped her the moment the thought entered her mind. She saw the truth in his eyes and asked, “Why are you here?”
“You’ve seen me.”
Confusion came first. Memories pushed through her mind as she tried to place this man. Then she remembered the night Leone Hamilton was killed, or silenced, as someone in her father’s office had said. This man had been there with her father and her uncle Marciano. “I just want to be left alone. I have been silent for all these years, and the family has left me alone. That’s all I want.”
“I might have been satisfied with that, but your grandfather’s death complicated things,”
he told her. “Your father sent you a package. I need it.”
“What are you talking about?” Carina asked. “I haven’t communicated with my father in years.”
His eyes grew cold, and his voice sharpened. “Don’t play dumb with me. I know he sent it to you, and I know it wasn’t in your apartment.”
Carina remembered the information Vanessa had given her just that morning. “You killed Lou.”
Alex reached beneath his shirt and pulled a pistol out of his waistband. “If you don’t want to be next, I suggest you give me what I came for.”
She stared in disbelief, unable at first to see past the gun. Then all she could think was that her past and present had finally collided. All of her preparations, everything Jay and his friends had done to help her hide from her family, hadn’t been enough to prevent this moment. “Where is the package your father sent?” he repeated evenly. “You should have received it in the beginning of May.”
“Someone did leave me an anonymous note on my windshield,” Carina admitted, realizing now that Lou must have intercepted the package that had been meant for her. “Is that what you’re talking about?”
His eyes sharpened. “What did it say?”
Carina tried to read this man’s face, desperately trying to decipher whether he intended to let her live or whether she was destined to end up like Lou. She let out a shaky breath and gave him a portion of the truth. “It said ‘remember who you really are.’”
“What else?”
“That was it.”
“What about the key?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carina insisted.
He grabbed her arm, and fury lit his face as he rammed the gun beneath her chin. “Don’t lie to me!”
Carina yelped in surprise and pain. The next thing she heard was the door opening and Bianca’s voice.
“What’s going on?”
Then suddenly, the pressure of the gun barrel eased, and Alex abandoned her for her sister. Carina stumbled back against the railing, helpless as Alex grabbed Bianca, his gun now aimed at her left temple. Tears threatened, mirroring the ones in Bianca’s eyes. Her face was pale, confusion and terror evident in her expression.
“I’ll repeat. Where is the key?”
“My boyfriend has it. He was trying to figure out what it was for.”
“Call him. Tell him to bring it back here.”
“He doesn’t live here.”
“No, but he only left ten minutes ago.” Alex gave her a knowing look. He released his grip on Bianca and motioned toward the phone. “Actually, you call him. I’m not sure I trust your sister.”
Carina nodded to Bianca, praying that she would know what to say to help Jay understand the danger.
37
Jay sat in the backseat of Brent’s SUV with the strange sense that he was forgetting something. They were due to board the ferry any minute, but he was having trouble keeping his thoughts focused on shipping out tomorrow. Instead, he kept mentally going over everything that had happened that weekend, feeling like he had left something vital behind.
He tugged at the duffel bag at his feet and checked the outside pocket.
“That’s the third time you’ve checked your bag. What’s wrong?” Seth asked.
“I just keep feeling like I forgot something.”
“Whatever it is, you’re going to have to do without it,” Brent said from the driver’s seat. “The ferry is getting ready to load.”
Jay’s phone rang, and he saw Carina’s number on the caller ID. He answered with a smile. “Hey, Carina. I was just about to call you. Did I forget something at the house?”
“Actually, it’s Bianca.”
“Oh, hey, Bianca. What’s up?”
“Carina asked me to call you to see if you can bring her that key you were holding onto for her.”
Jay opened his mouth to tell her that Carina already had a copy. Then he hesitated. He listened more closely to the background noise, realizing that he was on speaker phone. “Sure, I can do that.” Then on impulse, he added, “You know, I think I know what I forgot. I was going to bring the leftover pizza from last night with me. Did I leave it in the fridge?”
Bianca’s voice was shaky when she answered him. “Yeah, I think so.”
Brent started to pull forward onto the ferry, and Jay tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. Then he flashed him a hand signal to indicate that there was trouble and they needed to turn around.
Jay felt like his world had fallen out from under him. They were in trouble. The kind of trouble that ended in death. “Bianca, tell Carina that I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. My friends wanted to go out to eat before we catch the ferry, so I’m going to drop them off first before I head your way.”
Her voice was more tentative when she said, “Okay. I’ll tell her.”
Jay hung up and saw that everyone in the car was staring at him. “They’re in trouble. Alex must have found her.”
Brent motioned to Amy. “I want you to stay here. Call in the local authorities and get them here fast.”
Amy nodded and climbed out of the SUV. “Be careful.”
“We will.” Brent nodded. Then he motioned to Vanessa. “Come on, Vanessa. You’re our driver. Let’s see if we can put some of your CIA training to work.”
“You got it.” Vanessa scrambled out of her seat and slid into the driver’s seat as Brent slid over. As she started back toward the house, the three members of the Saint Squad began formulating their plans.
* * *
“Why don’t you ladies have a seat?” Alex waved his gun toward the patio chairs. “My associates will let us know when your navy friend arrives. And they’ll make sure he’s really alone.”
Carina caught a glimpse of a man at the side of the house, undoubtedly a guard Alex had brought with him. She couldn’t tell how many others there were and prayed that Jay would understand what he was coming back to. He had mentioned pizza, their personal code for danger. Surely he would be prepared.
Bianca stumbled toward a chair, the one farthest away from Alex. Carina chose the seat to the left of her briefcase, fully aware that the side pocket was open, her gun within reach. But she also knew that if she reached for her gun, her long-lost uncle might very well end her life before she had a chance to use the weapon.
Bianca reached for her hand and gripped it tightly. Carina could feel her fear. She shared it. When she looked up at Alex, clarity overshadowed all else as she realized this man held the answers she had been searching for. Her voice was surprisingly calm when she asked, “What is the key for?”
A ghost of a smile crossed his face, as though he found humor in the simple question. “It’s the key to the family.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course not. You’ve been gone for too long.” Alex leaned back against the porch railing and lowered his weapon like the weight had become too much to bear.
“Why don’t you explain how things are now?” Carina suggested mildly. “Jay said it would take him fifteen minutes to get here.”
He seemed to contemplate for a moment before he shook his head. “This isn’t something you need to worry about.”
“You’re holding us at gunpoint. I have every right to worry,” Carina countered. “What I don’t understand is why Nick helped you find us. I thought he worked for my father.”
“Nick was naive enough to trust the wrong people.” His lips curved slightly. “He knew I was looking for you. One of my associates suggested that he help find you to keep you safe.”
“So he thought my father sent him to protect us, but he was really working for you without even knowing it.”
“Ironic, isn’t it?”
Carina tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. Her shoulders straightened slightly when she asked, “What do you want with us?”
“This is between your father and me. He’s going to give me what I need, or he’s going to find that he doesn’t have a
ny family left.”
Carina swallowed hard, and she heard Bianca bite back a sob. “Was it you?” Carina asked. “Were you the one who really killed my mother?”
Alex didn’t answer. He only stared at her with a look in his eyes that Carina knew too well. How often had she seen one of her father’s men with that same awareness on his face, that understanding that they were about to kill the people standing in their way, just as soon as they got what they wanted.
“What now?” Carina forced herself to ask. “What happens after Jay brings the key?”
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
* * *
“Are you sure you don’t want to try a water approach?” Seth asked when Vanessa stopped the car a quarter mile from the house. “It would be unexpected.”
Jay shook his head. He was trying hard to think of this as just another mission, but he was failing miserably. “From the background noise, it sounded like Bianca was out on the deck. Besides, that house was designed with a ton of windows overlooking the beach. Someone would see us coming.”
Brent passed his binoculars to Jay. “I counted three guards. We have to assume there’s at least one with the girls, maybe more.”
“I think we go with a ‘play dumb’ entrance. I go in with a key and neutralize anyone threatening the girls.”
“And we watch your back,” Seth finished for him. He shook his head skeptically. “The only problem with that is if those goons down there decide to shoot you first and look for the key later, you’ll end up dead.”
Jay gave him a wry look. “I’m trusting you to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Brent nodded his approval before addressing Vanessa. “How are you on a rifle?”
“Not as good as Quinn, but I hit what I aim for,” Vanessa told him.
“In that case, you can cover us from up here. My rifle is in the back.” Brent motioned toward the trees on the side of the house and spoke to Jay. “Seth and I will work our way down into the yard and use the trees and shrubbery for cover. As soon as we’re in position, drive to the house, nice and slow so we can make sure no one is planning to use you for target practice.”
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