Page 11

Rico

My eyes are closed and I’m trying to decide if I’ve died and gone to heaven. I’m almost afraid to look. Afraid this was just a dream. Glancing down, our girl is still there. We have a lot to talk about, but not now. Now we all need to cuddle and rest.

“Kade, check our security then we’re all going to sleep for two hours.”

I stand, lifting Fancy and cross to the bed. Laying on my back, one hand under the pillow, Fancy cuddles to my other side, her head on my chest. Kade snuggles to her back, pulling her butt into the cradle of his hips. I smile to myself before dozing off. Yep, she fits us perfectly.

Two hours later I wake to my internal alarm and a head full of questions. The first thing is that we haven’t checked Fancy’s home. Is someone watching it? Waiting for her?

Second, we need to check the roof again closer to the time Phil would have been arriving at the Casino. He was like clockwork. Always arriving at seven pm.

Third, what set them on to him that night? Did he get sloppy on his research? Leave a trail from his hacking? That doesn’t feel right. Something else had to have happened.

Kade and the bosses aren’t going to like it, but I need to go back into the Casino. Show up like normal. I’m confident they didn’t see us on the roof or when we were tailing Fancy when she ran away. Maybe I can learn something

“What’s got your brain spinning so loud?” Kade asks.

Throwing back the covers I stand. “We’re missing something.”

“Yeah. DeStefano.”

“DeStefano is a jerk,” Fancy mumbles, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“I always thought he took advantage of Phil. Phil didn’t see it because he was paid well and he felt bad for the guy because he’d been hurt in the war, supposedly.

Now that you tell me he’s related to Adorno, I’m sure he’s just as rotten. ”

“Wait, you said your mom was DeStefano’s mistress because Adorno told her to do it. Did Phil know his boss was…”

“Fucking my mom? I don’t think so. Mom was smart enough not to risk her two golden eggs. Remember, Phil was always her fall back. Phil trusted his boss until recently. I’m not sure what triggered the change.”

Kade looks at me. We both have a pretty good idea. Her mom’s death. Phil was smart, he must have known who she was fucking. “Babe, I want to check your home. Do you have a security system?”

“We didn’t, but Phil put one in after Mom died.

I don’t know much about it except I have a code that I use to unlock everything.

Once inside I have to reset the lock. If ever I came home, and the light was white instead of red, I wasn’t to touch anything and get as far away as I could, then call him.

“Although if it was white, I’m sure he’d be calling me before I ever noticed to warn me not to go home.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kade reaches for the lamp near him as I ask, “Did either of those things happen?”

She looks between us then pushes up and leans against the headboard.

“No. Well, sort of. A few days ago, there was a delivery driver on my porch when I got home from the store. He was all upset and apologizing. Said he didn’t mean to mess with the lock, but the box hit it, then it started flashing and he was just trying to shut it off.

By the time he got done telling me, Phil was calling.

He had me tell the kid the cops were on the way.

The kid panicked, yelling he’d lose his job and ran off. ”

“What kind of delivery?”

“The box was plain brown with just Mom’s name and our address.”

“Something for your mom? Didn’t that seem strange?”

“Yeah, but Mom was always ordering things, custom made fancy dresses or trinkets mailed to her with no return address. It was just hard that it came so long after—after she was gone.”

“Did you see the delivery guy’s vehicle? Was it the post office?” Kade asks.

“I never saw where his truck was parked. He ran down the street for a couple blocks then headed south. He was dressed in a brown shirt, but I don’t remember tags. Phil told me to put the box aside and not to open it. That he’d come and get it and have it tracked somehow. So that’s what I did.”

“When was this?”

“A couple days ago.”

“Two days before he was killed? Or the night before he was killed?”

“It came Saturday afternoon before I had to be at work. It was still there Sunday when I got home. I went to work again at three. Phil came and checked on me like he always did before he hit the tables that night. He didn’t say anything about the package. That was the night… You know the rest.”

“I need to go to the house. I need the code. All the research he was doing was methodical. He figured out who I was and that we were investigating. I wonder if something in that box set him off.”

She sits up and climbs from the bed and grabs clothes from the dresser.

“What are you doing?”

“If you’re going to my house, we’re all going. You need Kade to cover you and me to get you in and show you what you might need to see.”

“That’s not how this works. Kade stays here to protect you and I go investigate.”

“I know—big, bad, secret agent man. Except, I get the role of thorn in your side. It was my mother they killed. My friend, only friend really, and father figure who they killed in front of me. I’m going and so is Kade so we can all watch each other’s back.

“If you leave me behind, I’ll follow. You could tie me to the bed, but that would not be as much fun as if we all did that together.

And it would leave me in a very vulnerable situation.

” Turning toward the bathroom, she calls over her shoulder.

“Hurry up. We want to get there while it’s still dark. ”

I look at Kade as the door closes. “We are so fucked.”