Chapter Nineteen #2
When Corbin and Will had left the resort bedroom, Gene’s body went hard with what he saw.
His man had put on black dress pants, a black shirt, and it was unbuttoned at his throat. If that wasn’t hot enough, his hair was down, and he smelled like sin.
Jesus.
Christ.
That alone made Gene want to commit a plentitude of sins.
All of them involving his man.
Someone cleaned up real good, and he couldn’t wait to get him messy later.
That was half the fun of being with Ethan Blackhawk. Sullying him up was always a fun adventure.
Now, as they were getting out of the car, Ethan was beside him as they walked toward Dark Spirits. What caught Gene off guard was he felt Ethan put his hand in his.
And it made him giddy.
Every time they held hands in public, like they were normal people, it gave him a thrill.
This was his lover.
His significant other.
And his other half.
Someone wasn’t afraid to be seen with him, and that said a lot about how far they’d come with their relationship as of late.
Giving his hand a squeeze, Gene enjoyed the simple moment, as it became one of his favorite memories of this trip.
It was the blossoming of Ethan Blackhawk.
Someone was growing and it was beautiful to watch it happen.
Behind them, Corbin and Will were doing the same thing, following them up the ramp and toward the ‘spooky’ bar.
“Ready?” Gene asked, staring right at Corbin—the weakest link.
The man nodded.
“Don’t do anything ridiculous,” Gene ordered. “We’re working and on the clock.”
He got it.
They weren’t going to be pounding margaritas and table dancing with some Goth music in the background.
“No worries,” Corbin said. “I know we’re handling a case. My memory is just fine. One drink.”
That was another rule, and Corbin definitely had been paying attention. Getting sloppy drunk on the job was stupid.
And dangerous.
It dulled your senses.
Inside, they were met by a hostess who was dressed in a tight black dress and her arms were covered by all kinds of symbols of Paganism.
Ethan was checking them out, making mental notes if they were found on the bodies.
None were.
Once more, he wasn’t shocked.
That just reinforced his belief that it had been staged out the wazoo.
“We need a table for four,” Gene said, pulling out his badge and flashing it. “And we need to speak to a few people. We’ve already spoken to your boss. Is she here?” he asked, scanning the area.
The woman nodded.
“Essie told us you would be coming in, and she said to accommodate you with anything you wanted or asked for,” she admitted.
Thank.
God.
The last thing they wanted to do was jump through hoops when it came to the mob man and his lady.
They still didn’t have a decision on whether they were part of this, or being set up.
It was a toss-up for now.
“We want to do it lowkey so no one is any the wiser, so can you give us a table that’s off to itself, Miss…?” he asked, waiting for her name.
She smiled, and the fangs appeared.
“Lilith, and yes, I can,” she offered, as she led them through a crowded bar to a dining area.
Once there, they saw the VIP section, and both Rodrigo and Esmeralda were there, cozied up to each other in the owner’s booth.
When they sat, Gene went there, jumping in to start the questioning.
“Did you work last night, Lilith?” he asked, not buying for a second that was her name.
Call it a hunch.
She nodded.
“All night,” she stated. “Your server and I are the ones who were. Everyone else was off.”
How convenient.
That didn’t help their cause. That only made it more difficult for them to be cleared.
Now, was it inadvertent, or were they pulling the strings?
He kept asking questions.
“Last night, when did they leave?” he asked, pointing at her boss and the man she was dating.
Lilith thought about it.
“I’m going to say he left at one, but Essie stayed until we close at four.
She has to close the place out. We do a lot of business, as you can see, so the deposit is pretty sizable.
She doesn’t like anyone to handle it except her in fear someone might hurt the person dropping it in the bank’s overnight slot. ”
Corbin was curious.
“How sizable?” he asked, pulling his blazer back, so she could also see his badge.
Lilith considered it.
“Over twenty thousand,” she said. “We make a lot of revenue on alcohol.”
Holy.
Shit.
That was over six hundred thousand dollars any given month. Even with staff salaries, and overhead, someone was still making half that in profit.
Easily.
Scanning the room, Ethan noticed that there were some incredibly wealthy people there. Not far from where Rodrigo and Esmeralda were sitting, there were some wise guys.
How did he know?
They were carrying and they were all in suits that cost more than his yearly salary.
There was mob in the house.
“Thank you,” Gene offered, getting a timeline on when they both left.
TOD was right around when she’d be leaving, and closer to dawn. That was more than enough time for him to leave here, torture a person, and then have his wise guys dump a body.
Esmeralda couldn’t have been doing the deed.
“You’re welcome. If you have any other questions, just get my attention,” Lilith offered.
Oh, he would.
As the woman left, Gene pulled out his phone and rattled off a text to Greyson.
‘Can you run EVERYONE to see if there’s a boat connection.
It’s the one thing I didn’t chase down, and as I was sitting here, it occurred to me that we can eliminate people that way.
We know the bodies are being dumped in the water, with the exception of Samuel.
I’d appreciate it. Focus mostly on the mob man.
He left here early last night, and doesn’t have an alibi. ’
He hit send, and showed his partner where he was taking this next. As he did, Ethan clued him in.
“I started running that on my laptop. All Greyson has to do is monitor it. I was curious who has a boat.”
Yeah, him too.
Ethan lowered his voice.
“Also, we have mob in the house,” he said, telling him where to look. “The table not far from Rodrigo is where they’re at, and don’t look, Corbin!” he warned.
The man stared at him.
“I’m not an idiot. I wasn’t going to stand up, stare, and wave.”
That made Gene laugh.
“Nope. That’s low-hanging fruit. I’ll let that one go,” he stated—for Corbin’s sake.
The man just rolled his eyes, and then he took a selfie with Will, and in the background, he got a good picture of the men there.
For later, in case they needed it.
As they were sitting there, Gene was compelled to talk to Rodrigo again.
“Corbin, when the waitress comes, order us drinks. We need to talk to Rodrigo. I need to know a few things.”
That worked for Corbin.
Before he could stand up, his phone chimed. It was a reply from Greyson.
‘On it. I’ll let you know what I find. Ethan is already running a search. I’ll just continue on his laptop. Be safe, and don’t do anything crazy like let Corbin out of your sight.’
Yeah, he wasn’t crazy.
When he showed Corbin, the man sighed.
“You get in trouble one time, and the people you call family never let you forget it.”
That was funny.
As.
Hell.
With Greyson doing research, that took care of that. He could get down to work while they had backup.
“Want me to continue talking to the people who work here?” Corbin asked. “I’m going to assume you want to know more about the two people who are in the VIP section and if they can be alibied?”
He nodded.
“That and if any of the victims were in here. Take my phone, and show them the victims. We know the banker was in here, and we were told that both cops came in here, but let’s see if Jaden Medin showed up in anger.”
Corbin could do that.
It made sense.
He knew Gene was tying the two people to as many of the victims as he could—because that would give him a stronger suspect.
As they got up, Gene and Ethan headed toward the VIP section, and when they reached there, they were stopped by the mob man’s security.
When the one guy put his arm on Ethan, he grabbed his hand by the thumb, and bent it back so the man went to his knees.
“Didn’t we learn from today?” he asked, as Gene just smiled. “I’m not the one to fuck around with,” he stated, not smiling but instead, staring right at Rodrigo.
If he thought he could mark his territory with bodyguards, Ethan had bad news for him.
He fought dirty.
“I don’t think they did, EJ,” Gene admitted.
When they turned their heads, Rodrigo was waving them in so they could approach him.
“Looks like the boss wants to see us. Maybe keep your goddamn hands to yourself,” Gene stated.
Immediately, the bodyguards backed up, and Ethan set the one’s thumb free. When he did, the man shook it out with an angry look on his face.
Well, then, don’t put your hands on people. It was fairly simple.
No?
As they headed into the marked-off space, Rodrigo stood up, and both men sat down.
“Thanks,” Gene said.
The mob man sighed.
“Was that necessary?” he asked, meaning the melee with his bodyguards.
Gene shrugged.
“Yeah, because they’re dumbasses.”
Well, that said it all.
This was a pissing match, and someone wasn’t going to win—the mob man.
“What do you need?” Rodrigo asked, knowing they weren’t going to let up. Honestly, they didn’t seem like the type.
At that moment, Corbin was talking to a waitress, and they were making sure they handled their loose ends.
Basically, the alibis.
“We need to ask you a few more questions. It seems that your woman is alibied for last night, but you aren’t. Granted, she told us that you were her alibi, and that wasn’t exactly the truth. You disappeared around one, and Samuel died around five. Where were you?”
Rodrigo lifted a brow.
“I was working.”
Oh, he knew he was likely doing something dirty, and that wasn’t his problem. What was his problem was the dead people.
“So, share.”
Rodrigo said nothing.
“Okay, well, I’m going to walk my FBI ass over to that table, and I’m going to tell them that we are agents and know they’re crime bosses. That should end well,” he stated.