Page 23 of Junior Has a Secret

“Turn around before you end up getting beat up, Jack,” I order.

“The governor’s mansion is in Albany so where are we going?”

“You’re highly uninformed, Jack,” Andrew chimes in.“The state bought a luxury property at the new Greystone on the Hudson development last year.Occupancy began last year before this term.”And reading my intent, he adds, “Which is why we need a subway.A squad car can pick us up at the closest stop.And dude,” Andrew warns, “you’re really going to fall or hit—”

Jack crashes into someone, and as we all halt, I doubt I’m the only one who cringes at the big brute of a man now scowling at Jack.Jack faces him to apologize, and the stranger growls at him, curses, and then steps around him to hurry away.Jack got lucky.The guy clearly needs to be somewhere and had no time to beat his ass, in which case, I would have had to arrest, or stab, someone and I can’t guarantee it would not have been Jack.I point for Jack to move to the other side of Jay and with his chin tucked he does as commanded.

The group of us resume walking, leaving the offended man behind, but holy fuck, Jack’s a horror freak who always manages to be my own personal horror show.My life is “catching” killers, a description I use lightly since I tend to kill them, not arrest them, but either way, said killers are busy spinning webs of lies and chaos.I don’t need a distraction.I can’tafforda distraction, which is why Rich had to go and Kane does not.One could never understand I was at war with a monster every day of the week.The other has one foot in hell with me.If I don’t tolerate distraction in my bedroom, I darn sure won’t tolerate it outside.Decision made, I cannot hire Jack.Not a chance.Not ever.And I don’t like the way he showed up right when the note showed up.At all.Though I don’t suspect Jack of leaving that note, the very idea that I had a fleeting moment of uncertainty is a demonstration of the out-of-character paranoia that note stirred in me.

Andrew motions for Jay to fall back and the two of us pull ahead.“What do you know?”Andrew asks softly.

“Not much other than the police chief and my boss will be there.Correction.They are there.What did dad tell you?”I ask.“Anything?”

“They arrived at the mansion to a problem,” he says.“I was commanded to get my ass there and to bring you.”

“Well, I’d say that means Dad didn’t create the problem, but then again, it’s Dad.”

“He’s highly skilled at ensuring he wasn’t the one to cause the problem,” he agrees.“I’m shocked he wanted you there so damn badly.It’s not as if he has any reason to think you’ll help him, which I don’t blame you, not after all that has passed.I’m frankly shocked you saved him.”

The whys of me saving his life are between me, Kane, God, and Dad.Not that I’m certain God would know my name beyond ohher, but I like to think I get points for helping him send a few bad guys to hell.“Dad’s probably still freaking out over Ghost,” I reply.“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is all about him wanting us to hunt for Ghost and thus why we’re all about to surround him like his servants.”

“That rings truer than I wish it did,” he says dryly, as we turn a corner.“You think Ghost is a problem?”

There’s a lift to his voice when he asks that question and I’m really not surprised.Ghost, king of assassins that he is, makes all the men in my life freak the fuck out.And while, yeah, he’s a killer, who doesn’t value life, he’s not Roger, who tormented his victims.With Ghost, it’s not about enjoying the kill.It’s about a payday and recognition.Both deserve to die a brutal death but I can’t help but wish Roger’s would have been a little slower, and far more painful.

“Lilah,” Andrew presses.

“Ghost is a killer for hire, Andrew.He kills for money, not emotion.Not some fetish outside of money and status.And if someone paid him to kill Dad, he’s not a problem, as much as a solution, but they didn’t or he’d be dead right now.”I consider Kane’s assessment of Ghost and reject it.“The reason Ghost has never been caught is he doesn’t risk the games that allow that to happen.”

“Could Dad have hired him to kill someone close to him?Say Pocher?”

“We can only hope, but if Pocher’s dead, Dad isn’t behind it.I just saw them together and Dad’s too afraid of Ghost to hire him and with good reason.”

“I suspect that few have ever felt the wrath of Ghost’s personal vengeance,” he says, “but Dad did.Because of you, Lilah.You don’t seem to understand the implications of that, while the rest of us do.”

“Because you’re an emotional wuss.”

“Then so is Kane.He’s worried, Lilah.”

“When did you become Kane’s confidant?”

“When we dealt with Roger for you.”

And there it is.My opening to confirm he saw Roger in the dirt, but the question lingers on my tongue, until I swallow it.Andrew is emotional.And while Kane is generally not, he’s got a ghost of his own to deal with right now.And that’s his father.He can handle his father.I can handle Ghost.What I don’t need right now, on top of those two, is another dead guy, who’s not dead aka Roger.

Chapter Nineteen

“I’m serious,” Andrew grinds out, still harping on I don’t know what.I don’t remember.He’s always harping.If irritating him is my sisterly duty.Harping on me is, I guess, his brotherly duty.

“You’re always serious, Andrew.”

Jay rejoins us.“Kane sent Augustin to drive us.He said wait at the corner.He’s about to be here.”

Augustin is one of Kane’s men who worked for Mendez Enterprises at the corporate office, until Kane moved him here, where he’s taken over supervision of our apartment building, a position that’s been a revolving door thanks to the cartel and the Society forcing Kane to move men around.I don’t know Augustin well enough to hate him yet but it’s safe to say I’m not going to start today.The reality of riding in a vehicle with Jack yapping about some horror movie, Andrew glaring at me over Ghost, and Jay trying to hold my hand, is too much.Augustin is my man.He’s my safe place.

We reach said “corner” and a black SUV with tinted windows is, indeed waiting on us.“I’m sitting up front,” I inform Jay quietly, for his ears only, my eyes telling him why.He needs to sit with Jack and Andrew, not me.

“Please no, Lilah,” he mouths, and he looks like I just told him to defy Kane, as if this is the end for him.