Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~CARMINE~
“ I knew it,” Annika says as we hurry into the house behind her. “I knew something was wrong. I just found this.”
She practically runs into an office at the end of a long hallway as if she has to get there before whatever’s in there disappears.
“Is he here?” Nadia asks.
“No.” Annika’s voice shakes as she points to a trunk on the floor next to her husband’s desk. “Look in there. Rich always tells me to stay out of this trunk, that it’s none of my fucking business what’s in here.”
“Lovely way to talk to your wife,” I mutter as I open the lid and stare down at what must be a dozen sandwich bags full of pills, a bundle of hundred-dollar bills, and a piece of paper.
“It’s an address,” Annika says when I pick up the paper. I open it, and sure enough, it’s an address.
449 Oak Ave. 4pm
“He’s a fucking drug dealer.” Annika sits on the arm of a sofa and stares blindly ahead. “He’s dealing. I want no part of this. I’ve worked damn hard to stay out of the illegal scene, Nadia. You know I have.”
“I know.”
“Where is he?” I ask as I turn to look at the two women. “Where is he right now?”
“His office, I would guess,” Annika replies. “And if you’re going there, I’m going with you because I want to give him a piece of my damn mind.”
Richard’s office is across town, so it takes us a good thirty minutes to get there.
I don’t know what kind of pills are in those packages, but I have a feeling it’s the same drug that killed Armando at the wedding. I took a bag and the computer mouse from the desk to give to Shane for prints.
The three of us march through the medical plaza and up a flight of stairs.
“His office isn’t attached to the clinic,” Annika says, pointing to a door next to the clinic. “He likes having a separate entrance.”
“How convenient,” I mutter and knock once before turning the knob. To my surprise, it isn’t locked.
“Well, shit,” Nadia murmurs as she holds Annika back. “No, baby. No, you don’t want to see this.”
“Yes, I do.” Annika forces her way through, and all three of us stare at Richard, slumped over his desk, white foam coming from his mouth. “Oh, Jesus.”
“Keep her back,” I say to Nadia. She nods, and I step closer to the desk. More of the same pills are in piles on the top as if he’d been counting them out to go into bags. Could he have accidentally taken one and killed himself?
Or did he do it on purpose?
Without touching the body, I search the space. I see no note, and nothing seems out of place.
I reach into his pockets and find his phone and wallet.
“Do you know the code to the phone?” I ask Annika.
She just blinks, staring at her husband.
“Annika.”
“No. He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Can I take it to Shane?”
I just keep adding things to my brother’s to-do list.
“Yes. My God, he’s dead.”
“We’re going to leave everything exactly as it is,” I say and take her arms in my hands. “We’re going to sneak out of here like we were never here, and then we’re going to call the police.”
“Carmine,” Nadia says in surprise.
“I could call the cleanup crew, but if I do, he’ll go missing. His family will look for him. If we call the police, it’ll be wrapped up as a drug situation gone wrong, and Rich’s family can bury him.”
“And I can play the part of the devastated newlywed,” Annika says bitterly.
“It’s your call,” I tell her. “How do you want to play it? Either way, you have to lie.”
“Call the cops. His family will know that he was a drug dealer and a piece of shit. And they can bury him. But I won’t act the part of the devastated widow. He didn’t earn that.”
“Okay, let’s go. When we get to your house, you can call the office and ask them to get Rich from his office.”
She nods, and we leave the way we came.
“I have prints and drugs for you.” I toss both items on the desk as Shane looks up in surprise.
“Where’d you find drugs?”
I fill him in on everything that happened over the past few hours.
“So, the fucker’s dead?” Shane shakes his head. “Well, without the prints, I can tell you that I found quite a bit that piece of garbage, Alex, missed. Rich never went to college. It was all a front. And he didn’t work at that clinic. He rented the office next door and pretended to go there to work every day.”
“Holy shit.”
“I’m still digging into some stuff, but these prints will help. If my suspicions are right, Rich was behind everything all along. He tried to kill Pop, he sent out the feelers to New York, and when that fell through, he had that kid killed.”
“But why? It just doesn’t make sense.” I shake my head, perplexed. “Why start wars with the mafia when he just came into the family?”
“Good question. Maybe he thought he was proving his worth to Nadia’s dad so he could start working more intensely for the family. Who knows? How’s Annika holding up?”
“She’s damn pissed off.”
“Yeah, I would be, too.”
“Nadia stayed at the office with her. The police are probably there by now.”
My brother’s brow lifts. “Police?”
I tell him the plan and remind him that we have a few contacts in the Denver PD to make things go down the way we want them to.
“Looks like we have our man,” Shane says. “Right here in Denver, all this time.”
“It’s a hell of a thing,” I agree. “I wish he’d been alive when I found him. I’d have liked to break his fingers and then shove a pill down his throat myself.”
“Are you sure it was self-inflicted?”
I shrug. “My gut says so. I think he poisoned himself by accident because he was an arrogant idiot. He was counting pills on his desk. No gloves.”
Shane clicks his tongue. “All he had to do was lick his finger or something, and it would all be over.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“So, what now?”
I shake my head. “I’m not entirely sure. I still have questions. Why would he have Nadia attacked?”
“Because she was digging around, and he didn’t want her finding him out.”
“You’re right. It makes sense.”
“I’m still going to keep digging on him. I want to know more, but I have a few other jobs coming up, so it’ll take some time.”
“He’s dead. I’d say there’s no hurry. Where’s Rocco?”
“He got called back to Seattle. He’s probably in the air by now.”
I nod. “Thank you. For all of your help. You didn’t have to.”
“It’s what family does,” he reminds me. “Now, I’m going to load up and get back to my place in the mountains. The city gives me hives.”
I laugh as Shane closes his computer and shoves it into his bag. He’s a recluse, through and through.
“I’ll lock up behind you.”
“Want me to call Pop?”
“Nah, I’ll do that, too.”
It’s late when Nadia finally walks into the Airbnb. She texted a while ago to tell me she was on her way.
Just from her text alone, I could tell she was exhausted.
And sad for Annika.
Nadia may do her best to hide things behind her hard exterior, but she’s full of love and compassion, especially for those she loves.
She shuts the door behind her, then turns. Her eyes widen as she takes in the room. I’ve lit several dozen candles, and I have food waiting in the oven. But first, I’m going to pamper her a bit.
“Follow me.” I take her hand in mine and kiss it, then lead her back to the bathroom, where a hot bath waits for her.
“Roses in the bath?”
“That’s right.”
She doesn’t say a word as I help her out of her black shirt and blue jeans. When she’s naked, I keep her steady as she steps into the bath.
“I didn’t even realize I needed this.”
“I did.” I kiss the top of her head and let her soak. The wine I bought—Nadia’s favorite—is chilled and ready, so I pop the cork and fill a glass. “Sip this while you soak. Just sip it. I don’t want you to get drunk on me.”
“What did I do to deserve this five-star treatment?”
I squat next to her and tuck her short, blond hair behind her ear. “We’ve been so caught up in things since we got here that I haven’t done enough things like this.”
“Is this goodbye?”
The question is a whisper.
“What do you mean?”
“Now that we know who was behind the murder, there’s no need to work together anymore.”
I lick my lips and watch her face intently. “Is that what you want? To go our separate ways?”
“It’s the way it is. We did our parts. It’s done. Now, we move on.”
I nod and stand, walking out of the bathroom. She didn’t answer the question. She didn’t say that parting is what she wants.
It’s definitely not what I want.
I pull out the steaks, potatoes, and salad, get everything plated and ready to eat, then walk back in to check on Nadia.
She’s not in the bath.
She’s in the bedroom, packing her bag, wearing nothing but a robe.
Excellent.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing, obviously.”
I nod once. “Why don’t you eat before you do that? I have dinner ready.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Just humor me.”
I take her hand once more and tug her behind me to the kitchen, where our food awaits. She sniffs and then softens.
“You know I can’t resist steak.”
“I know.” I hold a chair for her, then sit next to her and start cutting into my ribeye. “How is Annika tonight?”
“She was sleeping when I left. We went through some things in Rich’s office, but then the police came, and then his family. It was just a mess. I got everyone but Ivie out, fed her, and then poured her into bed. Ivie’s staying the night with her.”
“She’ll have a rough few weeks, but then she’ll be able to move on with her life.”
“I know. How do you move on from that, though?” She takes a bite of salad, seeming to think it over. “She was convinced that she knew him, was head over heels in love with him, and it turns out he was scamming her the whole time. How do you ever let yourself trust again? Fall in love again?”
“I think it takes a lot of time and healing.” I pass her a hot roll. “She may need some therapy. Does your family have access to a psychologist?”
“Yes, my father has one on staff. She’ll have a lot of support and anything she might need available to her, of course. I just feel for her.”
“You love her.” I take her hand in mine and squeeze.
“Yeah, and I can count on one hand the number of people who mean something to me in this world, and she’s in the top three.”
“Who are the other two?”
She frowns, pulls her hand out of mine, and returns her attention to eating. “How are Shane and Rafe?”
“Shane’s back at his place in the mountains, and Rocco was pulled to something in Seattle.”
“I can’t believe you guys still call him Rocco.”
I shrug a shoulder, watching her eat. Her lean throat moves as she swallows her food, her eyes heavy with fatigue.
She’s magnificent.
And after tonight, she’ll know without a shadow of a doubt that I do not want to say goodbye.
“I’m thinking Paris,” I say, earning a surprised glance.
“For what?”
“For our first stop.” I eat some potatoes. “A week at the Ritz would be nice. And then I think we should spend another week in the south of France, on the beach. There’s a lovely resort there that I’ll arrange.”
“Did you hit your head today?” she demands.
“Not to my knowledge, no.”
She takes another bite of steak and watches me. “So, you’re going to take a several-week vacation in Europe? Awesome. Have fun.”
“Not me.” I wipe my mouth on a napkin. “ We. ”
“Who’s we?”
“You, my lovely Nadia. And me. Us.”
“But I thought you said?—”
“I didn’t say anything. I asked you if it was what you wanted, and you didn’t answer the damn question.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t want to say goodbye. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Yes, actually. It is.”
“But I don’t see an alternative. I live in Atlanta. You live in Seattle. We’re not working together anymore.”
“The last time I checked, we’re both adults.”
“You know that it doesn’t matter for us. Our lives aren’t ours, Carmine.”
“Do you really think our fathers will lose their damn minds if we spend some time together on vacation? I think they have enough to worry about.”
She doesn’t respond to that.
“So, we’ll spend some time in Paris, and then in Cannes. We’ll shop, we’ll eat, and we’ll explore. And I’ll make love to you day and night, damn it. I’m going to soak you into every pore of my body. When it’s all over, you’ll be sick of me.”
“Doubtful,” she whispers.
“Sweetheart, don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying. There’s an onion in my salad.”
I scoop her into my lap and kiss her softly. “Let’s enjoy each other for a while. No pretenses, and no tracking down murdering assholes.”
“I should stay here for a couple of days to make sure Annika’s okay.”
“Of course.” I kiss her once more. “We’ll stay here for as long as you need.”
“Carmine.”
“Hmm?” I kiss down her neck, unable to resist her.
“I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
I can’t help but smile against her skin. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted. She’s my match in every way. And my opposite.
“No, there will be none of that.”
But there already is. And we both know it. We’re just too fucking stubborn to admit it.