Chapter Six
Jeremy
“Answer the fucking question,” James hissed at the man cuffed to the table.
“Has he hit him yet?” I kept my gaze forward as the baseball player stepped up to the glass beside me. I folded my arms over my chest after I set down my cup of shitty coffee. “Nope,” I answered.
“He's innocent,” Dean stated flatly as I saw him tie his hair up into a bun out of the corner of my eye.
“No one is innocent anymore,” I murmured as the tainted FBI agent circled Haley’s co-worker, Grant. James’ team had been conducting interviews of all the employees of her marketing company since the Tyler Project launch.
“James, man, I have no idea! I swear! I didn’t know anything about Mr. Romano until the night of the launch,” Grant stammered.
He had been Haley’s partner on a lot of projects and had met James a few times.
Of course, he didn’t know what James really did for a living, not until the FBI showed up at his doorstep late last night.
They brought him back here, to the field office in St. Louis, for interrogation.
“So, you had no idea Haley Austen was going to be attacked that night?” the agent asked. Grant shook his head back and forth.
“No! I swear! Please, tell me she's alright!” he cried.
James stared at him, bracing his hands on the metal table as he leaned down to get into the man’s space.
Here we fucking go.
Dean sighed through his nose. I knew Grant only had maybe two more minutes before James broke.
“They found it,” Dean said to me, his voice low to avoid lingering ears. The body. Charles Tipponi’s body. The three of us left it in the middle of Busch Stadium on Homeplate last night. His face was gone, thanks to James’ bullets, and due to that fact, we left the Romanos a little note.
“Who?”
“Local PD found it at four in the morning. Called it in here a few minutes ago,” he explained, widening his stance and keeping his eyes on James.
“Gotta love how everything comes full circle,” I deadpanned.
James killed Tipponi, and the case file on his murder ends up back here.
I didn’t blame James for his actions. I couldn’t, because knowing the kind of man that I was, I'd have done worse—much worse.
James knew that. I knew that. Hell, I was sure Dean even knew.
We all had committed unspeakable things to protect the ones we loved, and the way I saw it, we'd done no wrong.
“How are we going to play this, Jer?”
“The only way I know how,” I replied, my voice stern. “With fear.” The streets didn’t need soft. They needed blood. Romano blood. They needed justice.
I turned my head to find the baseball player staring at me, studying me. His hazel eyes filled with something I couldn’t read, but then again, Dean Connors was a man who knew how to hide his emotions well. Like the flip of a switch.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head and turned his attention back to the interrogation. “If you had anything to do with the Romanos, if anything happens to Haley. I will rip your tongue from your throat and bleed you dry,” the agent seethed, his teeth bared to the trembling man in the chair.
At least he was on the same page as me.
“Jeremy?”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Honey.
When I saw her as I walked in this morning, my heart stopped. Despite everything going on around me. Casey Gomez had the power to do that. I turned to face her, bracing myself. My eyes met hers. and for a reason I couldn’t quite comprehend, I didn’t want to be here anymore.
I wanted this woman pinned down, taking everything I fucking gave her as she cried out my name. Her little body letting me in. Ruining her. Owning her. Marking her. My cock twitched in my jeans at the thought.
“Jeremy?” she repeated.
I blinked, shaking off my lust for her. “What is it?”
She was holding her laptop on her forearm, her eyes scanning the screen behind her black-rimmed glasses.
Her outfit was killing me today, in more ways than one.
The tight black jeans she wore clung to her curves as if they were a second skin, and her Game of Thrones T-shirt made her look like a badass.
Her hair was up in her signature ponytail, the long dark strands hanging down from the top of her head.
Those pink, plump lips were shiny, beckoning me to taste her.
“Collin was spotted in Boston.” And just like that, I was back in the game, my feet moving forward, not stopping until I towered over her.
“When?” I demanded. She peered up at me and my jaw clenched.
“Just now. He came out of a building downtown…” she trailed off as her brows came together.
“What is it, honey?” I asked, my tone soft as I tried to rein in my anger.
“Trying to hack the cameras,” she murmured as I stared down at her, her sweet scent settling around me. My brow rose as a new feeling of pride sparked inside me. My honey was so intelligent.
“Who else knows?” Dean questioned as he came to stand on the other side of her, his eyes scanning her screen. She looked up to him. “Just you guys, I wanted you to know first,” she explained as her eyes landed on me. My jaw jumped. She wanted us—me to know first…
“I know how much this means to you.” Her soft voice filled the space, her golden eyes holding me captive. My throat felt dry as I struggled to swallow. I nodded to her, unable to find the right words as the organ in my chest pounded against its cage.
“He is heading to Fenway Park,” she said after a moment of studying her screen. “The car he just got in is heading that direction.”
Last night
“Do you think Romano told Collin the truth?”
“Who's to say that Romano even knows Collin is his son?” Gwen asked from her place on the sofa. We were in my apartment, the four of us: James, Dean, Gwen, and me. Aiden was at the loft with Sullie for a small BBQ night. “Sundays at Sullie’s” had been put on hold until we brought our girls back home safe.
Two hours ago, we dumped the body of a Mafia boss in Busch Stadium.
A warning—no, a promise to the Mafia.
“Gwen, Ray killed his mother,” James said softly. It was the gentlest he had been the last few weeks—to anyone. She looked over at him, her blue eyes scanning him, and her lips thinned before she nodded. There wasn’t concrete proof of that yet, but it was a gut feeling.
She had been playing devil’s advocate for the last week, and before her, Dean was.
However, the baseball player knew the only way to get things done was with force.
The further we went down this road of darkness, the more of the monster I saw in him.
No doubt he was a force to be reckoned with during those years with Romano.
“Collin isn’t just his hitman anymore. One of the Yankee players told me he came by the stadium to check the funds, the bets. Ray was training him to run the damn operation. Tony never wanted to be on the business side of things,” Dean explained. “He wanted to be on the field.”
The mafia was using players like damn chess pieces, and you could either comply, or…
“Tony Romano wanted to play the game, and Kevin Matthews wanted nothing to do with it,” Gwen said, rolling her eyes at the end of her sentence.
She shifted in her seat, tucking her feet underneath her, cradling her cup of coffee to her chest as she looked out the window.
For a moment, a brief moment, I saw the old Gwen.
The girl who was full of life and love, the girl who dragged Kay and Haley all over this city to create memories, the girl whose laugh was so damn contagious, she could have the whole bar room laughing.
The woman in front of me isn’t that girl anymore.
I put my hands on the back of my head and looked to the floor.
This was so fucked.
“The Romanos stole everything from us,” I whispered, and the already-silent room slipped into a deep spell of heartbreak. No one spoke for a long time, all of us lost in our own thoughts, fighting our own demons.
Blame.
Guilt.
Rage.
Hate.
Pain.
Haley’s kidnapping was my fault, there was no doubting that. Doubting that would make me a lesser, weaker man. I was the one who pushed her to go after Collin after finding that file. My rage took control, and I—
My eyes fell closed as memories of us flying down the interstate flooded my mind, flashing behind my eyelids. Then, it shifted to memories of me picking on my sister when she baked for the crew. She made the best peach pie.
Would I be able to move on from this when they were home safe?
I already knew the answer if they didn’t. My punishment, my judgement awaited me.
Death awaited me.
My eyes snapped up to the unhinged agent at the sound of his movement.
He looked nothing like the James I had grown accustomed to.
He stood in black slacks, an unbuttoned black shirt, and his gun holster on his shoulders.
His white undershirt was stained with blood, caused by our run earlier, his face had the makings of a beard coming in, and his hair hung limp on his forehead.
That was Tipponi’s blood, spilled all over James’ apartment.
Did he get the answers we needed? Yes.
Did we have to kill the man? No, but fuck, was it fun.
None of us were the same people we were five years ago, and for normal people, that would be okay, but we weren’t normal people.
This wasn’t a normal life with white picket fences and nine to five jobs.
This was the world of twisted baseball run by the fucking mafia, and we were the infected, the darkness they spread running through our veins.
Contaminated.
Incurable.
“And we don’t stop until we find what was stolen from us,” James said, warmth absent from his voice.
Present Day. St. Louis Field Office.
“Casey!”
My honey girl jumped at the snap in James’ voice. Clenching my jaw, I twisted my neck to glare at him. He stood at the doorway of the interrogation room, his eyes wild with rage.
“Yes, sir?” she said, touching my arm as she peeked around my body to look at her boss.
My eyes fell to her hand.
Jesus, that feels like fucking heaven.
“Do you have the background check on this guy?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir. I gave it to Carter an hour ago…” She trailed off in confusion, but her hand remained on my arm. Her fingers on the edges of my bicep. I looked up to James, and he was furious.
“Why in the hell did you give it to Carter when I needed it?” he spat, venom heavy in his voice. Casey flinched. My honey girl flinched. Her fingers gripped my arm, firmer than before, and instinctively, my free hand went to her waist.
“He told me he would be giving it to you,” she stammered, her golden eyes wide with shock at his anger. He ran a hand through his dark hair, grumbling under his breath. He opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t want him lashing out at her anymore.
“We'll go grab it, Garner. Chill the fuck out,” I warned, my eyes locking on his. His face was unreadable, but his eyes flicked down to Casey’s hand and back up to me. His jaw jumped once. Twice.
Dean cleared his throat. “Go get it, you two,” he said as he stepped up to James.
I turned my attention to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her with me down the hall.
She followed, remaining silent as I led the way to her office.
I shouldn’t know where it was, but I did.
The first day I was here, we went at it, biting each other’s heads off in the conference room.
After everyone left the initial meeting, I wandered the halls looking for her.
I found her in her office, lost in her work blaring Nickelback through her speaker.
I didn’t apologize, because she didn’t need it.
She let my anger roll off her shoulders like the badass woman she was.
I stood to the side and let her open the door. She looked up at me as she stepped through the threshold and something inside of me snapped. Suddenly, the door was shut behind me, she was against the wall, my hands caging her in.
“Are you alright?” I asked softly, bending my neck to look into her eyes. She was shocked by my actions, and her perky chest rose and fell as she tried to find the words.
“I’m okay, Jeremy.”
“Has he gotten rude like that with you before? Lately?” I pressed.
She sighed and shrugged. “I can’t really blame the man; the love of his life was kidnapped by the Mafia.”
Wait—what? She knew?
“You know about Haley, and—”
“Yes. James told me when we were camped out at your uncle’s bar for three days.”
I swallowed and looked to our feet. “I didn’t like him talking to you like that.”
She scoffed, “Jeremy, I am a big girl. I can handle myself.”
“I know that, but I still didn’t like it,” I said, meeting her eyes again.
Her features softened. There’s my honey girl. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“I have to be mean to other people, so I'm saving my energy,” I teased. She giggled and dropped her eyes, and I didn’t like that either. There were a lot of things I didn’t like when it came to Casey Gomez, but the one thing that I did like was this.
Her body close to mine.
“I’m sorry you have to save your meanness for other people,” she replied with a smirk on her kissable lips, causing me to lick my own. I stepped closer to her.
“I accept your apology, honey,” I whispered. Her pupils dilated slightly as she sucked in a breath.
“Jeremy…” Her eyes dropped to my lips, and the air in the room changed. The tension between us morphed into something more. Something my cock wanted to explore more.
She jumped at a loud bang on her door, and I hung my head. “Ye-yes?” she called.
“Casey, it’s Carter. Garner just chewed my ass about that background check—”
He was cut off by me opening the door and getting in his face. “You better be at her door to apologize. If it's anything else, I am kicking your ass,” I growled at the man. His eyes went wide with fear, and he looked behind me.
She was probably in the doorway. I could feel those eyes at my back. Always.
“Who the fuck are you?”
A dark grin spread across my face. “Someone you don’t want to fuck with, boy.”
“Jeremy,” Casey hissed.
“Carter!”
We turned our heads to see the tainted agent himself storming down the hall to us. “Get your ass back to your desk before I have your fucking badge!” The man darted down the hall and past James.
“Casey,” her boss said as he got closer.
I turned to find her exactly where I knew she would be. She raised her chin to him. “What do you need, boss man?”
“I need to give you an apology,” he said. She waved her hand. “Already forgotten.”
“You sure?” he pressed.
She nodded before he turned to me.
“Let’s go.” After giving him a quick nod, I turned to her, my eyes searching hers for whatever was between us three minutes ago. She blinked and tightened her ponytail.
“Get to work, pretty boy.”
“Yes, honey,” I said with a smirk. As I walked down the hall with James, heading to spill blood no doubt, I still felt her golden eyes on me.
I liked that more than I should have.