The Woman with the Wallet (Costa Family #10)

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

Max

“Finally,” Megs said the next morning when I finally peeled my aching self out of bed, forced myself to shower and dress, then made my way out into the common space. “I was worried you’d out-sleep Nicole.”

“Everything is fine, Megs,” I told her, but I kept my back to her as I started to make a pot of coffee, so the lying didn’t feel as big of a betrayal.

“You stole some guy’s wallet, then within the same day, he shows up at our doorstep,” Megs said. “And I’m really supposed to believe he had nothing to do with your attack?”

“He didn’t attack me. And he didn’t have someone else attack me,” I told her, this time turning because it was the truth. Sure, I may have been attacked because of him, in a roundabout way, but he had nothing to do with ordering it.

“Well, I don’t believe it,” Megs said, lifting her chin and crossing her arms.

Megs was too sweet to pull the move off, but I forced myself not to smile. She was worried. I needed to ease her concerns. The last thing I needed was her doing something stupid like trying to follow me around.

“Look, the truth is, the guy who broke in stole Miko’s wallet,” I told her. I could let her in on that truth without revealing anything about the diamonds. “That’s why Miko was here. To get it back. But then he found me like this,” I said, gesturing toward my face. “And he was surprisingly good about it.”

“Oh,” Megs said, loosening up. “Okay. Well, that’s good, I guess. Why are you dressed? You’re not going out, are you?”

“I just had plans with Lil,” I told her. Another half-truth to feel guilty about. But it was all to protect her.

Our years together had been full of protective lies.

No, I didn’t nearly get raped when that guy caught me alone in the shelter right before you walked in.

No, the man who’d hired me to walk his dog hadn’t tried to ‘get more for his money.’

No, that dude I chased down the alley after he stole your sleeping bag hadn’t offered to give it back if I went down on him. And, no, I hadn’t found a random piece of glass and sliced him across the throat to get the fucking thing back so you didn’t freeze that night.

There were dozens, or hundreds, of lies like that between us that she didn’t know about.

It was okay with me that I had to be twice as hard just so she got the chance to know some softness.

I would deal with the diamond problem without telling her a word about it.

“Oh, that’s good. I like Lil.”

“Everyone likes Lil,” I agreed. “The woman could talk the sun into shining all night.”

“Do you want to borrow some of Nicole’s makeup? I don’t know if it covers bruises like that, but it might help a little.”

“No, I’m good. We’re just gonna hang at her place.”

“That will be nice. I would come, but Tyler is coming into town finally, and we all—“

“Oh, I know what you all plan on doing. Good thing I have plans. I could use not to be locked up in my room with noise-canceling headphones on for, what, six or seven hours?”

“We told him to pick up some electrolytes on the way over,” she said, already getting dreamy-eyed at having the third member of their little relationship home for a bit.

“Morning,” Nicole said, coming out of the bedroom wearing a comically oversized hoodie. “Oh, fresh coffee.” She took a deep breath as I reached for mugs for the both of us.

“Max has plans with Lil today.”

“That’s probably smart,” Nicole said with a wicked little smirk. “Though, personally, I think you would be better off spending your time with that hottie from last night. Looks like he could star in the next Scorsese movie.”

As if on fucking cue, there was a knock at the door.

Megs made her way to the door, glancing out the peephole, then unlocking the door and letting Miko into the apartment.

“Shit,” he said, wincing as he looked at me.

“That good, huh?” I asked.

The mirror had been too fogged after my shower to really get a good look at myself. But a little prodding around told me that my cheek, jaw, and at least under one eye were bruised.

The throat pain was halfway managed, thanks to the throat spray Miko had thought to pick up the night before.

“It’s not that bad,” Megs insisted.

“It is,” Miko countered.

“I’m inclined to believe Miko on this one,” I said, pouring my coffee into a travel tumbler. “Want a cup?” I asked. “Nicole has a whole collection of these things,” I told him, waving the travel mug at him.

“Listen, is it my fault that they put those damn cups right by the registers when I’ve been on line for long enough to fall in love with them?”

“Sure, I’ll take a cup,” Miko agreed, looking surprisingly comfortable in a room with three strange women.

Even Taylor, who was dating two women at once, would sometimes comment that our apartment could be ‘almost uncomfortably’ feminine.

It was then I noticed three separate hair ties and clips scattered across different surfaces. Too many blankets and squishy animal pillows on the couch to cuddle up and watch movies with. A heating pad was plugged in and draped over one of the chairs. And someone had bought a box of tampons and hadn’t brought it from the kitchen where they unloaded it to put it in the bathroom yet.

Miko was unfazed, though. But he had mentioned having sisters when I’d said I don’t like chocolate.

“Black is good,” he said when I finished filling his cup.

“Alright,” I said, putting the cap on my own coffee, then grabbing my jacket. “We’re heading out. You guys have fun. Preferably in your own room and not on all of our common furniture and surfaces,” I said, getting a shared smile between the girls.

“Do I want to know what that was about?”

“Their boyfriend is coming into town. I’m glad to be getting out of the apartment for a while.”

To that, I got a little laugh out of Miko as we moved into the elevator.

“Does it ever get awkward?”

“When I hear all three of them fucking? Yeah,” I said, sipping my coffee, suddenly wishing I’d thought to ice it.

“I meant having them all in a relationship.”

“It probably would if I was around all the time. But I work a lot.”

“What do you do?”

So, he had my address and my arrest record, but he didn’t dig deep enough to figure out what I actually did for a living. Interesting.

“I’m a courier.”

“A… courier,” Miko repeated, tone as dubious as the look he was shooting me.

“Yep.”

“And you’re that busy?”

“Yes,” I said, moving out onto the street.

“What do you deliver?”

“Oh, this and that,” I said, heading off in the direction of Lil’s place, since I didn’t see that car he had the night before.

“You’re being deliberately vague.”

“I am.”

To his credit, he didn’t press. But I got the sense that he was not the sort to give up so easily. He was probably just biding his time until after we spoke to Lil.

“Is there anything I should know about Lil before we get there?” he asked when I mentioned it was one street away.

“She’s probably going to flirt heavily and relentlessly with you. It’s just how she is. I don’t think she can turn it off.”

With that, I made it to Lil’s door, knocking until I heard her shuffling around inside.

The door slid open, with Lil standing oddly half behind the door. It wasn’t until both Miko and I stepped inside that I understood why.

Because her arm lifted.

And then there was a gun pointed at Miko.

It wasn’t some small, girl gun, either. It was a damn cannon.

To his credit, Miko didn’t cower or back up. Hell, I didn’t even see him jerk or tense. If anything, he almost looked a little… impressed.

With her free hand, Lil reached out, grabbing me, and yanking me away from Miko’s side.

“Whoa, wait, Lil,” I said as she glared at Miko.

“You’re going to wish you didn’t put your hands on her, fuckface.”

“Is this the flirting you mentioned?” Miko asked, looking over at me, lips actually curving up. Completely unbothered by someone holding a gun on him.

Just how crazy was his work that he didn’t flinch when staring down the barrel like that?

“Because I’m worried about your past interactions with men, if that’s the case,” Miko went on.

“What is happening here?” Lil asked, not taking her gaze off of Miko. Hell, I didn’t even think she blinked.

“Lil, this is Miko. Miko, Lil.”

“I don’t want to meet the asshole who beat in your face.”

“It’s not that bad,” I grumbled, my hand instinctively going to my cheek.

“It is,” the two of them said in unison.

“Miko didn’t do it,” I told Lil. “He showed up after it happened.”

To that, Lil exhaled hard and slowly lowered the gun. But she didn’t put it down. It stayed there in her hand as she took a step back to look at me.

“So, you have cameras I don’t know about, huh?”

“I’d be an idiot not to have security measures in place. Saw you coming, looking like that. Him next to you.”

“And decided to blow a hole the size of a cannonball in him for me.”

“Hey, we girls in this business gotta stick together.”

“So, you’re a… courier too?” Miko asked, eyes twinkling. “Side gig, I’m guessing. Precious gem business not paying the bills?” he asked, looking around the room.

“Yep. Me, I just love… delivering shit,” Lil said, turning to shoot me a confused look. “Good exercise.”

“Sorry to drop in on you like this,” I told her as Miko took a step forward, glancing down at the piece we’d clearly interrupted Lil’s work on.

“Is this what I think it is?” Miko asked, piquing my curiosity. When I moved beside him to look down at it, though, I had no idea what he was seeing that I wasn’t. Aside from a gaudy, ugly necklace that was already partially disassembled.

“Two million dollars’ worth of bad taste?” Lil asked as she moved behind her desk. She kept her gun in her hand and I had to respect her suspicion.

“Thought the cops had a lead on that,” Miko said.

“They do. It’s even the right guy. But they have no fingerprints, DNA, or video of the guy. And after a thorough search of his place and his storage locker, they never found the heavily insured, hideous necklace that they think he stole.”

“And now they never will,” Miko said, nodding. “Interesting racket you have going for yourself.”

“Almost as interesting as a mafia guy having half a million dollars of diamonds in his wallet while walking down the street.”

“In my defense, I was on my way to my fence.”

“Who the fuck said they could fence that many diamonds all at once?”

“One who knows they don’t have to worry about the cops. At least not for another week or so.”

To that, Lil nodded. “Okay. Now, why are you here?”

“Well, that’s a me problem,” I admitted, watching as her gaze slid to me, wincing at the look of me again. “I didn’t get to Miko’s place yesterday. And last night, someone broke into my place, did this, and took the diamonds.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, forcing the memories away when they started to replay across my mind. “Then he showed up,” I went on, waving an arm at Miko. “And here we are.”

“Under duress?” Lil asked, grip tightening on her gun once again.

“I mean, I think we’re both feeling a lot of pressure right now. Him, because of his money. Me, because I lost his money. And we’re here because I mentioned you to him when we were talking about what happened.”

“And, what? You thought I needed your money?” Lil asked, brow quirking up. “It wouldn’t be worth the headache of having to deal with you.”

Miko, not offended, shrugged. “So, what kind of cut are you getting on that?” he asked, gesturing toward the necklace.

“Ten to fifteen percent, depending on how big a job it is, or how much heat there is about a certain stone.”

Damn.

I mean, I figured Lil was doing well.

But this one job was netting her a couple hundred grand. And it was just one of many jobs she likely did a year.

I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t move her operation to a bigger place. Or, at the very least, move her home somewhere else. Unless she was scarred from her rough upbringing like I was. Though it was also possible she was just planning for her future, for a day when her hands would ache and refuse to do such careful work anymore. Maybe she lived frugally and socked the rest away as a retirement plan.

“So, do you have any leads on who did that to her face?” Lil asked Miko.

“Got some descriptions. We’re… looking into it.”

Oh, we were, were we?

I mean, it wasn’t like I had a leg to stand on even if I didn’t want to. And, sure, some part of me was interested to know he’d tracked down that asshole and made him pay. Even if, objectively, I knew it had nothing to do with my face and everything to do with the diamonds.

“Well, I can keep my ears peeled. Someone is going to try to unload those diamonds eventually. That shit gets around in my circles. Everyone wants to know who got some good gems and from where.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Miko said, reaching toward her desk to grab a pad and pen and jotting down his number.

“If she’s looking into this with you,” Lil said, glancing at me, then giving Miko a hard look, “are you going to make sure no one does something like that to her again?”

“No one’s gonna put a hand on her when I’m around.”

I wanted to interject, to insist that I could take care of myself, that I wasn’t some helpless little girl. The thing was, those words would fall kind of flat with my face and neck in the condition they were currently in.

Sure, my history showed that I was more than capable of taking care of myself. If I had a weapon on me. If I was on my toes.

I still believed that if I hadn’t been so overly tired, if I had been able to get to any one of my scattered weapons, the burglar would never have been able to do so much damage to me.

Though, it was entirely possible that was just my pride making excuses.

“I’m gonna remember you making that promise,” Lil said as she pointedly placed her gun down on the table.

“Got it,” he agreed. “Thanks for your time, Lil. Appreciate any help you can give us.”

“And if you need someone to create any jewelry on the quick once you find them, I might have some time.”

With that, Miko and I headed out onto the street.

The cold was like a slap to the face, but it was welcome for a change as it momentarily numbed my throbbing face.

“What would you say to coming with me to look at some pictures?” Miko asked when neither of us started to move.

“Come where?” I asked.

“Well, I’d need to stop home to get my laptop. But we could go somewhere in public, if you’re more comfortable with that.”

The fact that he was giving me the choice was what had me feeling comfortable enough agreeing to go to his place.

Which, I would find, was probably not the smartest idea.