Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Frankie
“Mr. Cille, I got a package for you. Need a signature.”
In his brown uniform and cap, I could almost believe Joey was delivering a package. With the brim pulled down low, it was hard to distinguish his features, but we slipped in the side door just to be on the safe side.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t order a goddamn package,” Cille groused when he opened the door.
I immediately stepped inside and blocked the exit, and Joey followed me inside.
He kicked the door shut with his foot and stood behind me, arms folded across his chest. Of course he was standing at my back, but I knew him well enough to know that was always the way he stood because it’s not like I hadn’t spent the last twenty years studying him, watching him, and being slightly obsessed with him.
I turned my head just a little to confirm that I was right, and I was because Jojo was who he was.
He gave me a dirty look and jerked his head, telling me to turn back around.
Goddamn, I loved this man.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“We have a couple of questions about your extracurricular activities.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” The fake bravado in his voice caused it to crack a few times. He cleared his throat and glanced over at a table near the couch.
Joey casually walked over, pulled the drawer open, and helped himself to the gun inside.
“Mr. Cille, that is not a very hospitable way to treat visitors,” I told him.
His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times as if on a string. His eyes slid across the room to the cabinet.
Holy shit, he was bad at this.
Joey obligingly walked over to the cabinet and found the second gun.
“Any others you want to tell us about?” I asked.
“Just tell me why you’re here.”
“You seem interested in a friend of ours, and we wanted to find out why,” I said simply.
Cille’s eyes widened, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
“Came to his house and everything.”
Cille’s eyes darted around the room but didn’t land in any particular spot.
“Looking for another piece? I assure you mine is bigger.” I pulled my jacket lapel back, my gun clearly visible. I pulled it out slightly so there was no mistaking the silencer on the end. “Let’s have that chat.”
“Fine. It’s not that…”
My prey moved to sit down on the sofa. The placating move wasn’t as effective as I was sure he hoped. The jerkiness of his movement betrayed every bit of his nerves. Perhaps it wasn’t strictly necessary to let him get halfway to sitting before I intervened, but a little fun never hurt anyone.
“Oh no, no, no. We’ll have a chat with my friend, and you’re coming with us.”
I smiled softly as I watched the color drain from Cille’s face. Drops of sweat appeared instantly along his upper lip and clung precariously to the scraggly attempt at a mustache there. “Sorry, I forgot to ask, do you prefer Mr. Cille or Briom?”
“C’mon, now you’re just fucking with him too much.” Joey chuckled behind me.
I heard the quiet tap of his fingers against his smartphone while he called in for an apartment clearance. Cille reluctantly straightened himself back up and dragged himself close to me.
“Nothing to worry about, my guy. Our chat won’t last too long.”
“You should know my cousin’ll be looking for me.”
The desperation in his voice shouldn’t have been annoying, but it was. Given how our quick foray into his favorite dive revealed the desperation of the people working there, he didn’t get to claim nerves. Fuck that.
“He’s a cop. Important one too.”
“Interesting,” I murmured, noncommittally.
“Yeah, it is,” Cille said before he lunged for the doorway blocked by Joey.
He was a wiry fucker, but Joey grabbed him and yanked him back by the collar.
Cille swung wildly, but Joey’s fist to his solar plexus knocked the air out of him and sent him sprawling to the floor.
He hadn’t said anything, and I wouldn’t ask in front of anyone, but I studied Joey’s face carefully, looking for any sign of pain.
His mouth was set in a hard, pinched line.
“You little pissant,” I growled. I dropped a knee, cushioned by his stomach, and ground down a little. “You’re going to get off this goddamn floor and walk out of here on your own two legs. And this time it’ll be without the dramatics. We clear?”
Cille kept his mouth shut but gave an abrupt nod.
“Let’s go,” Joey growled.
Ignoring Cille’s whine, Joey gripped his arm and frog-marched him out the door.
The stiffness of his shoulder was obvious to me, likely because I stared at him every chance I got.
The damn fool made another run for it. This time, Joey slammed the butt of his gun against the back of Cille’s head.
He crumpled to the ground when his knees buckled underneath him.
With a sigh, I slung him over my shoulder in a firefighter’s hold.
I was going to enjoy handling this cleanup myself.
“Welcome back. Your cousin sends his regards.”
“What the fu—” Cille’s voice trailed off when the precariousness of his position hit him through the fogginess of his brain. “Where is he?”
Cille’s arms and legs were tied tight to his plastic chair over a tarp. If he’d noticed the surroundings, he kept it to himself.
“He had an accident. Tragic,” I answered. “He needed time to think about his choices and drove out to the mountains. Lost control and went off the side of the mountain. It’s a shame.”
Matteo sounded bored when he spoke with our guest, but I knew him well enough to know it was an act.
He was in a controlled rage, ready to rip Cille apart.
Given that the asshole was the reason Joey couldn’t move his shoulder, I wasn’t feeling overly charitable myself.
Matteo nodded to me, and I stepped forward.
“Am I gonna have one?”
“Depends on how cooperative you are,” I answered.
“Thought you were the bodyguard,” Cille sneered. He jerked his head in Joey’s direction and added, “You get demoted?”
“For someone who wants to walk out of here, you sure have a lot of questions,” Joey retorted. His voice sounded strained, and that pissed me off. “I’d find some fucking manners if I were you. For the record, being the bodyguard is the demotion.”
Cille squirmed under Joey’s unflinching stare. The scar on his cheek was more pronounced as he clenched his jaw in frustration.
“Why Connor?” I asked. “You put in a lot of effort to find him.”
And then I shut up. Cille squirmed a few times, looking anywhere but at me, before sighing deeply.
“His uncle owed me, and everyone knew it. If I let it go, then no one else pays either.”
“He’s dead.”
“Doesn’t matter. Connor’s his family, so he owes the debt,” Cille sneered. “I’ll take it from Matteo if I need to, but the debt is owed.”
“And Sam?”
“He takes down Matteo, and he can step into his place.”
Elio, who’d been watching quietly from the corner, stepped forward with barely controlled rage. “And you picked me to be the fucking fall guy for your bullshit?”
“Meh, Sam said no one would care.”
That comment earned Cille a hard smack to the back of his head. Maybe no one but me noticed Joey’s wince, but I fucking did. This man was gonna end up in physical therapy, and I was going to go with him just to watch how he’d explain the required shoulder movement for his goddamn job.
“Are you really this fucking dumb?” Joey interjected incredulously.
“Seriously? Sam thought he could take over Matteo’s business, and you thought Matteo wouldn’t fucking destroy you?
And your cop cousin was under investigation anyway and tried some bullshit story that Matteo was dirty, which got laughed out of the office.
This is what I fucked up my shoulder and got stuck with this asshole over? ”
“Jojo, that’s not nice.”
“Joey, for the record, I did do a little something to make the investigation go nowhere,” Matteo added with a smirk. “I thought you might like being lost in the woods with that asshole.”
“I can’t say I love being described as an asshole by my boss.” My complaint was ignored. “And we weren’t lost, except for that one tiny wrong turn that I corrected immediately.”
Joey’s snort was unreasonably loud. And rude, as per usual.
“I don’t think Jojo minded it as much as he wanted to mind it.”
“Fuck off, Frankie. Don’t call me that.”
“I will call you that.”
“Why does he call you Jojo?” Connor, who’d slipped unobtrusively into the room, asked innocently. He glanced between all of us, but I saw the glint in his eyes. He wasn’t innocent at all, but with the halo of red curls, it was always easy to forget that.
“It’s just a stupid nickname from when we were kids,” Joey answered defensively.
“It was my nickname for him when we dated as teenagers,” I answered at the same time.
And for just a second, the world stopped moving and the air around us stopped being heavy with whatever Cille was facing. All eyes shifted to me.
Matteo broke the spell first.
“You two dated when we were kids? When? How? Why?”
“Why do you have so many fucking questions?” Joey snapped.
Matteo raised an eyebrow but let it slide. His smile was as close as Matteo ever got to a shit-eating grin, so I knew he was pleased with his direct hit.
“Wait a minute… After your accident…? The shed…? Holy shit, Frankie, did you dump him because of the accident? Jesus, that’s fucking shallow.”
“What am I missing?” Connor asked after he threw his hands in the air.
Joey joined the gesture but included double middle fingers in my direction.
“I should let them think that,” Joey muttered before turning to Matteo and adding, “No, he didn’t dump me because of that.”
Joey was two seconds away from exploding, and I knew it. His jaw was clenched so tight that the scar had blanched white from the pressure.
“It was because my dad said that me being gay wouldn’t fly with him and—”
“And he didn’t want his kid with a rat,” Joey added. I’d never heard him talk like that.
“Joey, what the hell? Who the fuck is a rat?” Matteo hadn’t yelled, but it was close. “You’re not your dad.”
“Frankie’s dad was right to be worried.” The resignation in his voice broke me.
“So sweet,” Cille sneered. “All up in your feels. Gonna kiss him now too?”
“You need to shut the fuck up,” I answered, and because I was tired of his bullshit, I pulled out my Glock and made that happen. “It was a good suggestion though.”
“Kiss, kiss, kiss,” Connor chanted while laughing at the nonsense that had gone down in here. “I’m not sure whose honor is being defended here.”
“C’mon, pup, they don’t need an audience.”
“They do though,” he said with pursed lips. “It’ll be like a live-action porn in a minute.”
“Hmm. I’ll give you something better to watch,” Matteo said with a wolfish grin before grabbing Connor and hauling his giggling self out of the room.
“Gotta find Doc,” Elio added as he slammed the door behind him.
Jojo and I were left with a now-silent Cille slumped over on the floor at our feet.
“What now?”