Chapter 29 Falco
FALCO
With Aerin safe in her room, my suspicions about Giacomo sent in a coded text to Pidge along with a request for him to call with the info he found, and Guido singing my praises for once again protecting his daughter from unknown assassins, things finally begin to settle.
Except Pidge doesn’t text me back.
He doesn’t text me back the next day either. I call once from a payphone outside the boutique that Allegra drags Aerin to buy new shoes.
Pidge doesn’t answer.
This isn’t like him.
While communication between us is limited, the coded text I sent last night should elicit an equally coded response.
By the time night rolls around and I escort Aerin to her room for the night, worry has formed a heavy lump in my gut.
It remains all the way back to my own room after ordering the night guard to wake me in four hours.
I call him again, this time from my private phone.
It rings out, and the weight in my gut increases.
Sleep escapes me.
Should I be worried? Pidge is a smart man and he can take care of himself, but the attack at the cabin showed that we’re dealing with someone willing and capable of going to extreme lengths.
Could that someone have traced the cabin back to Pidge?
Or worse, has one of the families that Bullet or Rex work for discovered that they helped a family outside of their circle?
What on earth did he find?
My thumb hovers over the ring button for the third time after pacing a faded line into my carpet. I can’t call him. I have to see him.
Something isn’t right.
As I grab a fresh shirt from my closet, knuckles rap softly against my door, and the nerves across my shoulder jump as if it were a gunshot. Approaching the door cautiously, I open it slowly to find the night guard standing there, yawning.
“What is it?”
He rubs his eye as he looks at me. “You said to come get you after four hours,” he says with his brows creasing. “It’s been four and a half.”
Did I really spend four hours pacing my room instead of sleeping? Shit. Aerin was right.
“Thanks.” Brushing him aside, I throw the shirt on my back and quickly button it while hurrying down the floor and up the stairs to Aerin’s room.
The patrolling guard on temporary placements greets me with a blank, polite smile and excuses himself as I arrive.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, I knock gently on Aerin’s door and push it open while fully prepared to wake her gently from her sleep.
Instead, Aerin’s upright against her pillows with her bedside light on low and a book open on her lap. “Falco?” Her eyes widen immediately. “Is everything alright?”
“Why are you awake?”
“I couldn’t sleep. Too much thinking.”
“About?
“The future. The cabin. My mom. The wedding. Everything.” Her lips press together as she sighs, then she looks me up and down and concern bleeds into her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I…” The words catch in my throat and I shake my head. “Since you can’t sleep, why don’t we go for a drive? The night air might clear your head.”
There’s a moment where Aerin looks utterly confused, but my expression must have convinced her because a second later she’s throwing the blankets back on her bed. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s lucky you’re awake or I would have had to call one of the drivers.”
“I wouldn’t let you leave without me.”
“I know.” She smiles, wandering into her ensuite. “Give me ten minutes.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re driving through the city with the estate under the impression that we’re both asleep. I don’t trust any of the guards enough to let them know I’m taking Aerin out, but I left a message with Guido personally, should he grow concerned for his daughter’s whereabouts.
“Now that we’re miles from home,” Aerin says while stifling a yawn. “Care to tell me what this is about?”
“Pidge.”
She tenses immediately. “Did something happen?”
“I don’t know.” Revealing my fears will only scare her, but she doesn’t press further. Instead, she sits up a little straighter and gazes out the window at the passing streets.
She’s different since the cabin.
It’s subtle, but it’s there. Her edges have sharpened and her shadows darkened. No wonder, given what she had to do to save my life. Treating her like she’s still fragile feels…wrong.
“He hasn’t responded to me,” I say finally. “He should have and he hasn’t.”
“You’re worried something’s happened to him?” Aerin smiles softly. “He’s smart and capable. Even I’ve seen that and I don’t know him that well. If something’s happened, I bet he’s already halfway through fixing it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Pidge’s apartment is in darkness when we arrive.
Parking a block away, we walk the rest of the way but linger on the street under the shadow of a burst streetlight to watch his doorway.
There are no signs of life, no cars parked on the street, and no hints that any window is hiding someone keeping an eye on things.
Once I’m certain the route looks safe, I take Aerin’s hand and we walk down the street like a couple.
We only break apart when we reach Pidge’s apartment door. I hurry up the path and lift my hand to knock on the door when Aerin grabs my arm and stops me. Glancing at her, her concerned look says it all.
Knocking is stupid.
I’m not thinking clearly.
“Let’s try the back,” Aerin whispers. She leads the way back down the steps and around the side of the building.
Pidge’s rear entrance is likely more dangerous than the front, but somehow we weave through the messy backyard without issue.
When we reach the door, Aerin smiles up at me.
“When you were in that coma, he told me about the traps he set up,” she explains.
“He has a lot of ways to keep himself safe. He even taught me how to rig a trip wire, although my version was…terrible.”
It seems I missed a lot while I was unconscious.
Aerin then leans past me to the pristine windowsill resting under the rear window. With her nimble fingers, she feels underneath the wood until a subtle click meets my ears. A small panel falls away into her palm, followed by a small golden key.
“Is there anything he didn’t tell you?”
She smirks and shrugs while sliding the key into the lock. “He’s pretty talkative if you ask questions.”
The lock clicks and humor vanishes as the door slides open an inch. Positioning Aerin behind me, I remove my gun from my waist and push the door open as slowly as I dare. My first step inside sets my heart pounding as an achingly familiar scent immediately assaults my nose.
Blood.
With Aerin walking slowly behind me, we walk through an empty kitchen and an empty hallway. Cold air clings to my exposed skin like icy fingers trying to draw me away from what I already know is behind the door to the living room.
I can smell it.
The silence here is heavy. Each breath struggles for space against my racing, pounding heartbeat. Reaching the door, I grasp the handle and keep my gun raised and close to my chest. Waiting just a single second, I steel every nerve that’s threatening to burst and push open the door.
I can’t breathe.
Pidge sits on the couch in his living room, his laptop resting next to him on an upturned pillow. His eyes are closed, his head resting back against the cushion and his mouth slack.
There’s a single bullet hole between his eyes, vibrant against the ashy paleness of his skin.
No blood trickles down from the wound because Pidge was already dead when they shot him in the head.
His torso is riddled with bullet holes, his clothes torn and soaked with crimson that also seeps down into the couch and across the floor at his slack feet.
The bullet to the head was a message.
A strange, ragged breath tears from me as I stare, motionless, at Pidge’s cold, dead form.
He was my friend. He was the only one who put up with me. He had my back and I…I had his.
I was supposed to have his.
Suddenly, Aerin’s warm hands cup my face and she coaxes me to look down at her. No sound escapes her moving lips, so I frown and finally blink away the burning in my eyes.
“…do that?”
“What?” I croak.
“Sweep the apartment,” she says, her brows knitting together as sorrow fills her eyes. “I need you to sweep the apartment and make sure no one else is here. Can you do that for me?”
How long was she talking to me and I didn’t hear her?
I never thought of myself as a man easily shocked anymore, but this grips me like a vice and doesn’t let go. Every sensation inside me grows numb and cold, but I force myself to nod.
Focus.
Protect Aerin.
Sweep the apartment.
“Stay here,” I instruct, then I tear myself away from the living room.
Pidge is dead.
How the fuck is he dead?
The rest of his apartment is exactly the same as it was the last time I was here. Every room is empty, filled with his belongings scattered around, but there are no traps, no assailants, and no hints that any fight took place leading up to his execution.
By the time I return to the living room, I can feel my heart beating again.
“I called Bullet and Rex,” Aerin says. “I didn’t know the codes or anything, so I just asked them to come for drinks. They’re on their way.”
“They’re okay?” I ask numbly, gazing past her to Pidge’s motionless corpse.
“Yes. I also tried to get Pidge’s computer working, but it seems fried. I plugged it in to charge but it’s not turning on.” She hiccups suddenly and her hand shoots to her mouth, tears shining in her eyes. “Falco… I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. He’s your friend.”
“I’m fine.”
“Falco—”
“The apartment’s clear. We’re safe here, but we shouldn’t linger. They left him here like this to send a message, but it could also be a trap.”
“Who are they?”
Our eyes meet. As much as I want to voice my suspicion of her brother, it would destroy any trust or faith she has in me if I’m wrong. And if I’m right, she’ll blame herself for nearly spilling all that information back in the garage.
“I don’t know,” is my final answer. “Pidge was…he was doing everything he could to trace those bastards from the cabin.”
Aerin’s nodding like a bobble-head, fighting with herself to keep the tears at bay, but a couple escape down her cheeks. She hastily wipes them away. “Should we uh…should we cover him?”
“No. Don’t touch him.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“No it’s… If they’ve done something to his body, the slightest chance could trigger something.”
“Right. Right.”
Silence falls. Despite my best efforts, my eyes slide back to Pidge.
Staring at him is like staring at an open flame.
It hurts. It hurts in ways I can’t decipher because it all clashes like a storm cloud in my chest until I once again almost can’t breathe.
I must have made a sound because Aerin’s hand slides back into mine and she pulls me close.
An hour later, Bullet and Rex stand in the living room with their faces dark like thunder. After Rex’s thorough inspection, we’ve covered his body with a blanket.
“This is a hit,” Bullet remarks.
“It wasn’t us,” says Rex. “You have to believe me.”
“Why should I?” I snap, gritting my teeth as I cross my arms tighter. “You didn’t always work for the Italians, did you?”
“No,” Rex replies, his eyes narrowing. “But I never hid the work I did for the Russians before I found my current employer.”
“Wait, you work for an Italian family?” Aerin asks from behind me, her hands wrapped around a mug of undrunk tea that was warm half an hour ago.
“A smaller family, but yes.”
“Do you?” Her eyes slide to Bullet.
“No. I’m like Pidge. Done with tyrannical masters.”
“And enough money to be free,” Rex snorts.
“Stop. None of this matters. What matters is that someone found Pidge and murdered him. And once he was dead, they shot him between the eyes so we’d know it was a hit.”
“Or it’s someone making it look like a hit to throw us off,” Rex interjects. “We have to consider all the possibilities.”
“But who would want to kill Pidge?” Aerin asks softly. “Doesn’t he excel at being a ghost?”
“He does…did,” Bullet says, his voice growing tight.
I can’t stop staring at his body, even as the others dissolve into discussion around me. Pidge had information, and whatever it was he found must have gotten him killed. There’s no other explanation.
“He contacted me,” I say, cutting through their conversation. “Yesterday he sent me a message basically telling me he had found something, but I couldn’t call him back right away. I got busy. I texted him I was free and he never texted back.”
“What do you think he found?” Rex turns to glance at Pidge’s covered body.
“The cabin, that’s what he was looking into, wasn’t he?” Bullet asks. “He asked me to track down a bank account.”
My eyes lock with Bullet’s. “What account?”
“It was a throwaway. Looked like nothing.”
“It must have been more than nothing.” Rex takes a step forward. “Do you still have the details?”
Bullet nods. “Not on me, but I have them.”
“Get them.”
“No.” Aerin’s voice cuts through me and we all turn to face her.
“No?” I ask, disbelief momentarily quelling my anger.
“No, not right now. We have to leave. We’ve been here too long, and if, as you say, this was a message, then we can’t just linger here.
We have to go back and pretend everything is normal.
If there’s a chance this is unrelated to anything to do with us, then great.
But if someone did this because of us, because of me—” Her voice cracks.
“Then they’ll be watching me, right? So we need to go back and act normal, Falco. ”
She’s right.
“Fuck,” I groan. “I can’t be in two places at once.”
“No,” Rex replies. “But we can.”
A beat of silence fills the air as the three of us regard each other. Strangers brought together by the man now lying dead behind us.
“You’ll keep me updated?” I ask tightly.
Rex and Bullet exchange a glance and nod. “For Pidge.”
“For Pidge,” I repeat softly. “Thanks.”
As we turn to leave, Bullet’s voice stops me in the doorway. “He spoke highly of you, by the way. Even when you were no contact for a few years. He never stopped thinking about you.”
I keep it together until we’re back home and Aerin’s tucked up in bed. I keep it together until I’m back in my room, unable to fully grasp the fact that Pidge is gone.
I keep it together until I’m in the shower under a full blast of scalding hot water.
Then, the tears come.