Page 36

Tayla

“ C ypress Realty and Design, Aubree speaking. How may I direct your call?”

“Yes, I’m looking to speak with Melanie. Is she in?”

“Yes, hold, please, while I put you through,” the receptionist said before clicking off the line.

I called to get the design process started at Brice’s doctor's office. He was dragging his feet and hadn’t even stopped by to get the keys.

He had always been the one to care more about everyone else than himself, often pushing his stuff to the side.

“This is Melanie.”

“This is Tayla, Brice’s wife. I mean fiancé, no wait…”

“Let me stop you right there. Has Brice ever called you his wife?”

“Yes,” I answered assertively, more confident than I had been moments ago .

“Trust it then, if that fine ass man of yours says that you’re his wife ring or not, that’s what you are. When they know, they know. Forgive me for calling him fine. It’s that damn lab coat and scrubs combo I swear. Hmph, hmph, hmph. Can you fight?” She asked and paused, answering before I could.

“Yeah, I know you can fight. His ass is bound to have a horde of hos following behind him that you have to ward off.”

“Yeah, with damn a FB thirty Brazilian body wave.” I let slip past my tongue. I was not insecure, by any means, but Ivy had me acting out of pocket, which is what pissed me off about her even more.

“Don’t you just hate that? I swear I almost mollywhopped this ho the other day. All in Demi’s face with a fire balayage. I rebuke thee!” She said, and I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. She reminded me so much of how JoJo acted about Steph.

“I’m sorry. I am the most unprofessional professional you’ll probably ever meet. What can I help you with?”

“I know Brice’s building is finished, but he never picked up the keys. Could you go ahead and start the design process? He needs the push.”

“I have already started the design process. Outside of his medical equipment preferences, I compiled a folder of things he would like. I can get it designed in two weeks, tops. Pending there are no delays, we can schedule an appointment if you would like to shoot by or meet me there and approve,” she said.

I listened as her fingers hurried across a keyboard .

“I have availability this afternoon, actually. Does one work for you?”

“That sounds great.”

“Ok, I’ll meet you there. See you soon,”

“See you soon,” I parroted before hanging up.

As I hung up the call, JoJo stepped back inside the room.

We were currently sitting before each other in her old home office.

We each had our laptops on either side of the desk, working to update the Bio Scan software.

Currently, the program is set to comprise data only from areas where it can search on US soil.

We needed it to be international. I didn’t like how once Nina left the country, she was no longer trackable.

I also didn’t like that we couldn’t see into the past. I needed to know where they frequented when we weren’t watching or nearby on a stakeout.

I wanted to sit in front of my computer and conduct my recon. We were trying to fix that.

“Did you get everything squared away with Brice?”

“Yep,” I said, never looking up as my fingers took on their own fast pace. I was almost done with the new coding.

Just a few prompts more, Tay!

I hit enter, and the program beeped before shutting down.

“Ok, JoJo. I think I got it this time. It’s rebooting.” A long, grueling minute later, it restarted.

“It’s back up,” I said, the anticipation killing me.

I plugged Costa’s face into the program and entered the prompt to reverse-search his locations.

Not only did I obtain the exact location of the warehouse where he was currently hiding, but I also had a visual path, including addresses, of everywhere he’d been while in Italy.

“It fucking worked, JoJo,” I said, raising my face to look around the computer at her with wide eyes. She got up and jogged around the desk to my side, with just as much excitement as I had.

“Tay, stop lying.”

“On my mama,” I said with the most serious expression I could muster. She looked at me with disdain written all over her face.

“Tay,” she said flatly.

“OK, on my dead homies then,” I said, mimicking a voice that sounded like Steph’s. We both knelt over laughing. It had become a running joke with him since we last had dinner at Ms. Adri’s. We were one step closer to the finish line and I was ready to wrap this shit up.

Jourdan and I spent the afternoon reviewing surveillance cameras and photos from Costa’s time away.

We’d deduced that he and Nina had spent exactly one week in Sicily waiting for a sit-down.

We were currently looking at it in a photo that stood out from all the rest. The picture was of Costa in a private meeting with Francesco Bonetti the head of La Cosa Nostra the fucking top of the Italian Mafia.

They were alone on a veranda. Bonetti was angry, and Costa was visibly disheveled.

The image we’d pulled caught the exact moment spittle flew from Bonetti’s mouth.

“Damnit, JoJo. Two things could have happened here. One Costa fucked up. The other is that he’s okay with going to war with The Cartel. Which leaves us caught in the middle of their shit.” I leaned my head into my hands, roughly brushing them over my low cut.

“What in the hell are we going to do?”

“Calm down, let’s not jump to any conclusions.

Let’s take what we have to Steph and Brice and devise a plan together.

That’s the only way we all make it out of this alive.

” Her mouth was saying to calm down, but JoJo had ripped her scrunchie off, teasing her fingers through her hair and tugging at the roots.

It was her tell. She was nearing a state of panic, the same as I was.

I stood to pace. Back and forth I walked as I thought out all the scenarios.

“Ok, let’s talk this out. Costa is a low-level mafioso trying to take over,” I said, waving my hands around.

“Right!”

“There’s no way he was permitted to steal from The Cartel, right?”

“Right!”

“Right!” I repeated. I was only slightly more confident than I had been previously. I glanced at the clock on the wall to see we’d been at this for hours. It was well after noon.

“We’ll come over for dinner tonight. If I keep this up, I’ll be late for my appointment with Melanie.” I closed my laptop and left JoJo in the office

“Lock up for me,” I yelled as I left through the garage.

Damn, life be life-ing