Chapter 28
Rey once told me that nothing good happened in the witching hour. So, why was I huddled in my coat against the predawn chill off the water? Because a two-word text from Micah had sent me running for the docks.
Inventory’s done.
The dockmaster wove through the stacks of containers toward a stout building. It was where we kept the vaults that secured the most expensive shipments, and unease made the coffee I’d chugged on the way in slosh uncomfortably. It probably wasn’t a good idea on top of the meds Doc had given me, but I was tired and hurting. I wasn’t going to add cranky to the list too.
When we were all seated, Micah finally got to it. “We’re missing a shipment.”
Record scratch.
“How did an entire shipment go missing, and whose was it?” It didn’t even seem possible. We had systems on top of systems to keep things moving.
“Kincaid. His painting came two days earlier than usual. We were about to lock it up when the explosion hit.”
He didn’t have to explain more. Cash had obviously taken a calculated risk. He’d already been messing with my shipments, the extent of which we still hadn’t fully seen and wouldn’t until after the audit was finished. Moving from fucking with numbers to outright stealing was well within his wheelhouse, but taking Troy Kincaid’s painting was a mistake.
The man spent years looking for each painting then paid millions just for security on the pieces, let alone the actual sticker price. They were his babies, his most prized possessions. Losing one was damn near unforgivable, but stealing one? Cash would be lucky if his great-grandkids weren’t still paying for the offense when he was nothing but bones in the ground.
“How do you want to handle this, boss?” Dominic asked from his place on the other side of the room. The distance between us was growing with every second, and unlike with Greyson, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to bridge it. Love healed a lot, but not this.
Tapping my fingers on the armrest, I tried to think of a way out of the mess Cash had gotten us into. “Was the painting scanned into the system?”
Grey had set up an inventory system separate from what the official manifests noted. It sent notifications to clients when their shipments arrived at the docks and gave them an option to negotiate pickup. If Troy knew his painting had arrived, we were fucked. He had the pickup planned down to the minute.
Micah shook his head, leaning back in his chair. “We didn’t have time.”
Thank god. That gave us a small window to find it before Troy found out. “If we steal it back, maybe we can avoid a Kincaid meltdown. Whether Cash deserves it or not, it looks bad on us to lose a shipment. We can’t afford bad press right now.”
Grey and Dominic nodded absently, both stuck in their own heads. “So, we figure out where it is and get it back.”
“I put cameras on the docks after we realized the Aces were fucking with things. They’ll tell us which direction to start looking, and we can call in some help from the SPD if we need to. They owe us a few favors.”
“Let’s avoid that if possible. I don’t want to rely on anyone outside of our network.” After everything, I didn’t trust that Cash wasn’t burrowed deeper into the city than I expected.
Just as he moved for the door, Grey’s phone rang. A quick glance had him slowing before stopping altogether.
“Mari.” I looked up, and he held it out to show me the name displayed. Sabine.
Because it’s not suspicious at all that one of our missing CIs calls just as we’re learning about a theft in our system.
“Answer it.”
He set the phone to record the call and answered. “Sabine?”
“I know where the painting is.”
What did it say that Cash wasn’t even trying to hide the trap this time?
“You’re gone for weeks, and you come back talking about a painting. Are you okay?”
“Don’t play with me, Greyson. I don’t have the time. I know you’re missing Troy Kincaid’s painting.”
“What does it look like?” Grey asked, pulling up his text thread with Troy. I’d already memorized the painting, but a refresher never hurt.
“Don’t know what kind of painting it is, but it’s huge black-and-white shapes with splashes and lines of blue.” Sabine paused to laugh under her breath. “Honestly, it looks like a toddler painted it.”
Bingo. I held my hand out for the phone, and Grey set it gently in my palm.
“Sabine, it’s Mari. Where are you?”
“Hey, boss.” Her voice shook and had none of the comfortable tone she normally spoke to me with. She was scared shitless. “I’m around, just keeping a low profile.”
I’m sure she is. “Are you okay? Whatever’s going on, I can get you out. Britt?—”
“No, no. I’m fine,” she said quickly, cutting me off. “Like I said, just staying off-grid for a bit right now.”
“I could understand that for a week or so, but your s?—”
“I just went out of town for a while. There was something I had to do,” she said seriously.
Without Brittany? I didn’t think so. Dominic grabbed a piece of paper and wrote what we were all thinking, She doesn’t want to mention the kid. Which meant Cash was close by.
Not wanting her to hang up before we got any more information, I kept my mouth shut. Sabine took that for disbelief, which was half true anyway.
“Seriously, Mari, I’m okay,” she promised.
“If you’re sure.” We all knew I didn’t believe her, but her relieved breath meant lying was the right thing to do.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Look, my intel on the painting is a short turnaround, but I can help you get it tonight. Word on the street is Kincaid doesn’t know it’s missing.”
“Your intel always was the best.” It was why losing her had hurt so much. We could’ve had Cash in hand weeks ago if our network hadn’t been smashed to bits first. On his part, it was smart. On ours, it was a major inconvenience. “Where and when?”
“I’ll meet you by the old ferry platform tonight at ten. It’s not far from there.”
Before we could say anything else, she hung up. The entire conversation rubbed me the wrong way, but I hadn’t heard any pain in her voice, aside from avoiding talking about her sister. There was no rasp or rattle to her breathing either. I had to hope that she was alive and well, even if she was under duress.
“When do you want to leave?” Grey asked.
“Within the hour.” There was no point in delaying. I wasn’t going to wait all day for Cash to set us up again. If we caught him by surprise, we had a better chance of getting in and out without casualties.
One look and I knew my consigliere and I were on the same page. Now for my underboss. “That work for you?”
“Yeah,” Dominic agreed.
Perfect. Grey took his phone back and ran a hand over my shoulder gently. “I’ll call the other families and see if anyone can help, but I doubt they will.”
So did I. Two-Bit had made sure he wasn’t on the line for anything Marcosa-related, and stealing from us and Kincaid definitely was.
The thought that Cash knew about that little clause wiggled its way into my brain, flashing like a neon sign. It made me wonder if he’d done more than steal our CIs. Had he managed to infiltrate the other families as well? I wasn’t sure, but I knew I’d need to check soon. If he’d weaseled his way into the families, he was closer to owning the city than I thought, and our window of opportunity to avoid a war was closed.
“I’ll help,” Dominic said. “We’ll get it done faster with both of us checking.”
“Keep it small. We can’t drive an army down the streets of Seattle and not get noticed, even at night.” I turned to Micah next. “Walk with me?”
Micah stood, quietly ushering me out of the room so the boys could make their calls in peace. “What do you need from me?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? “Lock it down as soon as we leave. No one in or out until I say so. Hold shipments until we can get this sorted out. If anyone questions why things aren’t moving, tell them there was inclement weather off the coast or a power grid failure. Anything. They keep pushing, send them to Grey.”
Micah nodded. “You got it. Should I beef up security too?”
The thought of the man he’d lost made me desperate to say no, to avoid more potential casualties, but I couldn’t. “Yes. I’ll send some of our guys down too. No matter what, be careful. I don’t want a repeat of what happened earlier.”
With a respectful nod, Micah left to get things in order. I shot Moore a text to send a small crew over to the docks for additional support and got him started gathering supplies for all of us. We planned a rendezvous spot nearby, and he promised to bring vests for everyone, including Dominic this time.
When I was done coordinating that, I hovered over one name in my contacts list. I had no reason to call, but I wanted to hear his voice.
“Hullo?” Nate’s voice was groggy with sleep, and I could practically see him bleary-eyed and annoyed at the wake-up call. The connection that pulled us tighter together wrapped itself around my throat. I wanted to see him like that firsthand. I wanted to wake up with him even though I never would.
Clearing my throat, I responded. “It’s me.”
“Mari?” His voice was suddenly much more awake, and rustling told me he’d probably sat up. “What the hell are you doing calling me at three a.m.? Did you leave the house?”
“Yeah, not long ago. Look, there’ve been some developments and?—”
“You’re going after Cash.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say. I had things I wanted to put out between us just in case things went wrong, but I couldn’t. He’d set the boundaries, and despite how good it had felt with his hands on me yesterday, I wouldn’t cross that line. If he wanted me, he could bring it up.
“You know it’s a trap.” No question there.
“It is,” I agreed.
“He’s going to hurt you.”
“He’s going to try.” More rustling and some low cursing that made me laugh. “What are you doing over there?”
“Getting dressed.”
My brows scrunched together. “Why?”
“I’m coming with you.” He said it like it was obvious, like I should’ve expected that, but why would I? He wasn’t part of the family. In fact, he’d specifically mentioned he wouldn’t be part of the family, so there was no reason for him to help us.
“Nate…”
“I’ll grab a ride with the others when they come for you. Think Moore will let me borrow a gun?”
“No.”
“No?” He hummed. “Knives work too. I’ll just have to be more careful. I’d really prefer a gun, though.”
“That’s not what I meant. You aren’t coming.”
There was a long, pregnant pause before Nate spoke again. “Thought you said you trusted me.”
The disappointment in his words—and the edge of what I thought could be hurt—almost made me change my mind. I’d read his file. We really could use someone with his skills on our team, but I hadn’t seen them firsthand and I wasn’t stupid enough to trust a piece of paper—or a man who seemed easily swayed—with my life.
“I said I was thinking about it,” I corrected. “This has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with not knowing your capabilities.”
“I was in the Army for almost ten years, angel. I think I know what I’m doing.”
I blatantly ignored the nickname.
His dry humor made me smile, knowing he was getting comfortable enough around me to voice it, but I didn’t budge. “Congratulations, but an ambush isn’t the best place to figure that out for myself. When we get back, you can show us all how awesome you are. After that, we’ll talk about adding you to the roster. Until then, you stay home.”
Another long pause stretched between us, this time long enough that I thought he’d hung up on me. I decided to offer him a truth he hadn’t asked for. “I didn’t call to upset you. I just wanted to talk before we left.”
Because if anything happened, I wanted his voice to be one of the last I heard.
He let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” I confessed.
“I should be there.”
“Next time.” I shouldn’t have said it, but it felt right, so I didn’t take it back.
I wanted him with us, with me…and I was starting to believe that was what he wanted too. But hope was a fragile thing, so I didn’t voice it. I didn’t want to feel the destruction it would bring if I was wrong.
“Be safe.” Like before, there was a world of weight in his words, things he couldn’t or wouldn’t say. The small seedling of something gave me hope that eventually I’d find out what they were.
One day.
“I’ll try.” It was the best I could offer, and we both knew it. “Bye, Nate.”
“See you soon, angel.”
Hanging up before I thought better of it, I found Dominic not far off, staring at me again. “Any luck?”
“O’Bannon said he’d try to make it. The others refused as expected.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, and I guessed it wasn’t. They had no reason to help us. The Irish were only doing it because they wanted the marriage alliance that still sat in my inbox waiting for review.
“Was that Nate?”
Dominic tried to act uninterested, but the way he asked had my hackles rising. “Yeah. I wanted to give him an update.”
Dominic ran a hand through his hair. “Look, he seems like a good guy, but?—”
“You don’t trust him.” That much was obvious. Hell, even Grey didn’t trust Nate. I didn’t trust Nate, but hearing it from Dominic pissed me off.
“You know nothing about him.”
He wasn’t wrong. I knew Nate’s history and very little else. But hopefully, that would come with time. Something inside me was screaming that he was on my side, and for once, I wanted to listen to it.
“Knowing someone doesn’t guarantee trust either,” I pointed out.
Dominic was always quick to frustrate, and his hair-trigger was even faster than usual. “I’m just trying to protect you. Is that so bad?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because I never asked you to protect me!” Christ, why didn’t he understand? How many different ways did I need to explain it so it would penetrate his thick-ass skull? “I don’t need it, Dominic. I need you to be my friend. To have my back. To support me instead of walking around like I just killed your fucking puppy. That’s what I need, but you can’t do it because you’re stuck on a girl who’s been long gone for years, aren’t you? You can’t be what I need because I’m not the one you want. She is. Right?”
Silence was my only answer yet again, and I was just so fucking sick of it all. There was no right time, and despite the countdown toward another shootout, I couldn’t let it continue. If I didn’t make it past dawn, I wanted to know I’d said what I needed to say before I went.
We had so much unsaid, and unlike with Nate, I had no hope for Dominic and me. Not anymore. The damage was done, and it was too extensive to fix. Best to cauterize the wound and hope for better healing down the line.
“We’re done, Dominic. Whatever this is or could’ve been, we’re done. You obviously can’t accept me for who I am, and I’m going to respect that.”
His brittle voice nearly broke me. “Mariposa?—”
“It’s Mari. Just Mari. Your little mariposa is gone.” Dominic’s face fell, echoing the ache in my chest. He opened his mouth, only to close it again, swallowing thickly. Finally, he nodded, and it felt like I’d taken another bullet to the vest. Cracked ribs, cracked chest, cracked heart.
It was over, and I wished with everything it hadn’t had to end like that.
“I’m going to check on Grey,” I told him, needing space. “Get your head on right, and meet us in the car in ten.”
With every step past him, I put all my feelings for Dominic away. We’d had our time together as children, and that had to be enough. We didn’t work as adults. Not the way we were now. The past needed to stay where it belonged for us to have any sort of future at all.
I knew we would find a way to work together eventually because the family needed us more than we needed to soothe our hurt feelings. And no matter what, family always came first.