Chapter 10
ISAAC
“You didn’t say Watts was coming.” Andrew frowned as he appeared from around the corner where Isaac had told him to meet.
Barker Street, the alley between the cleaners and the deli—both of which were fronts for money laundering, but then, most of this area was a hotbed of criminal activity.
“Oh, honey.” Kathleen batted her eyes, sizing Andrew up just like Luke had but with a more amused smirk.
“I’m your way in. Where we’re going has layers of checkpoints, and the only way an ex-cop and a snitch are stepping even one foot inside this place is with the proper front woman.
” She fluffed her long red hair over her shoulder.
Kathleen contrasted their black attire by wearing a brilliant royal blue dress and khaki-colored trench coat, like a dame right out of a classic 40s film. Isaac wanted him and Andrew to blend in behind her, like hired muscle.
Although, when Isaac wore all black, he looked refined and intimidating. Andrew looked like a boy playing dress-up, having donned the same black outfit from last night that he thought made him look like a badass criminal.
“You also didn’t say we’d be doing anything illegal,” Andrew hissed, as they continued down the alley toward an unmarked and generally unimpressive door.
“And we’re not,” Isaac said. “We’re simply going to have a conversation. Is that illegal?”
“Who are these people?”
“Person. And do you really want to know?”
Andrew’s frown deepened, far too much detective flickering across his features.
“You’re here because you were a cop and your brother still is one. The Wen name carries. Your father had plenty of collars in his day too.”
“I’m here as protection so no one tries anything if they have it in for you,” Andrew surmised.
“Only if someone makes a move,” Kathleen said, raising a well-manicured hand to knock. “Until then, you’re no one.”
She tapped out a gentle rhythm, and within seconds, a thin window in the door slid open to reveal a pair of fierce eyes bending from a towering height.
“Watts? Get in here, gorgeous. Where ya been?”
Andrew snorted as the door wrenched open, but Isaac merely shrugged. He’d hired her for a reason.
She did an admirable job, too, chatting up the bouncer and taking up most of the doorway so he wouldn’t pay them much mind, but he still did his job and cast Isaac and Andrew a quick glance.
“That Ford? I don’t know, Katy…”
“We’re seeing Willow, darling. And this is me. You know we’ll behave.”
The bouncer didn’t look convinced. “Who’s the nark?” he shot at Andrew.
“He always looks like that,” Kathleen dismissed, sidling in front of the bouncer to better hide Andrew. “I’m not allowed to have an entourage? Arty gets so surly without company.”
Isaac winced.
“I suppose… but Tony and Sandra got Willow’s door. They might not be as friendly.”
Kathleen tapped her fingers on the bouncer’s chest. “I can make anyone friendly. You better still be here when I get back.”
He let her through, all softness for Kathleen, but his hardness returned when Isaac and Andrew moved past him.
Isaac merely smiled and kept moving.
“Now will you fess up to being Artifice?” Andrew whispered once they were inside. “Or should I also start calling you Arty?”
“Nicknames can come from so many things.”
“I can come up with my own then. How about… Ike?”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Aww,” Andrew giggled, “but Ike’s kind of cute.”
“So are you, honey,” Kathleen fake whispered back at them, “but you need to work on your subterfuge. Anyone with eyes can tell you two are banging.”
That shut Andrew up, which was just as well in this crowd, not that Isaac liked Kathleen realizing the truth as easily as Luke had.
He hadn’t been in this particular den of thieves since his arrest, but the scene was the same.
Loud music, revelers and drinks being passed around, half like an underground club and half for business, because with the smattering of gambling going on, there were also whispered deals being made, and many faces in corners that Andrew had probably seen on wanted posters.
The detective look was all over him again, like he was taut to spring into action.
“Pick your battles,” Isaac said more hushed. “You're not on the PD’s payroll anymore.”
Andrew scowled but steeled himself with a nod.
They continued through the throng of people. Most ignored them, though there were a few unfriendly looks thrown their way and some admiring gazes for Kathleen. The building had several back rooms, but Willow G’s was the largest.
“Where are you going?” Sandra, the burly female bouncer, asked when they reached Willow’s door.
“Come on, Sandy, you know me,” Kathleen used her same universal charms. “I just need a word with the boss.”
“Do you? Or your boss does?” Tony bristled. He was the big muscle, larger than Luke or the bouncer at the main door.
“Arty and Willow go way back,” Kathleen kept on. “Let him and his friend through, and I’ll stay as collateral—and to keep you company. Five minutes.”
“What’s in it for us?” Sandra asked.
“Besides my sparkling personality?”
They both chuckled but didn’t yet budge.
“You really beat Big Bruno in an arm-wrestling match?” Tony asked.
“Why? You want a go?”
“I ain’t that mean, but what about facing Sandy?”
Sandra grinned, and Kathleen shed her coat in one swift movement, tossing it at Tony.
“Seriously?” Andrew sputtered.
“You know what they say, honey. It’s not your size but how you use it.
” She winked. “If I win before they get back, you owe us a round,” she said to Sandra, who cracked her knuckles as she moved from the door.
Kathleen cracked hers too and leaned in close to Isaac and Andrew before leaving, “I can't believe I'm going to break a nail for you two. And probably Sandy’s thumb.” She winked again and hurried off.
“Does this mean Luke is the brains, and she’s the brawns?” Andrew asked after Tony waved them through.
“Depends on the day of the week.”
Willow’s room was especially busy and moving to a separate dance mix, but Isaac spotted her in the corner immediately, queen of her castle, stretched out in a curved booth with a table covered in drinks and a throng of people around her.
She spotted him too, not one to over-indulge in vices and keenly aware of her surroundings. She had skin deep black like Luke’s and thrived in contrasting colors, her hair an even whiter blond than Isaac’s and outfit all ivory and gold, as chic as any businesswoman on Wall Street.
She seemed amused to see him but not surprised, already telling some of her posse to scram, as he made his way toward her.
“Isaac Ford, you fucker.”
Isaac reared back at the interception. Lewis…
something or other, stood in front of him, an aging and useless thief who thought he was hot shit, but who Isaac had never deemed worthy enough to learn his whole name.
He was the type of greasy dried-up has-been Isaac had striven to never become.
And he looked like he’d just won a prize.
“I know half a dozen good men in lockup who’d kill to get this close to you,” Lewis sneered. “But I’m a good sport. No point in being unfriendly when there might be something better in it for me. You’re a negotiator, right?”
Opportunist. The world was full of them. “If you think I’m intimidated—”
“By some old man? Nah. But then, I listen, see, and lately, there’s a name that’s been following you around.”
Finally, someone was going to bring up Andrew—
“Wellesley, wasn’t it?”
Isaac stiffened, his worst fear realized at the drop of a name.
“Heard he’s only twenty-three. You fucking them that young now?”
The punch came so out of left field, for a second, Isaac thought it was his own, acting entirely on instinct when he saw red. But as the old criminal’s nose cracked, it was Andrew who stood there, huffing and shaking with his fists clenched after slipping in front of Isaac with a full-body swing.
A few people scattered as Lewis stumbled back, Isaac ready for unseen muscle to materialize out of the woodwork to grab them, but the lull that came over the music was broken by a snap of Willow’s fingers.
Someone dragged Lewis away, groaning and sputtering and spitting blood onto the floor, as the path to Willow cleared again and the music returned.
“A show of force can be a good thing in a place like this, right?” Andrew said to the floor before looking up embarrassedly.
Embarrassed that he’d just come to Isaac’s rescue. “Willow seems to think so,” Isaac said, warm and grateful and a little turned on all at once. He grabbed Andrew’s arm to lead him forward so the onlookers would stop staring.
Willow sat alone now in the center of her large booth, save two bodyguards at either end. “Mr. Wen, you sure know how to make an entrance.”
“He deserved it,” Andrew said simply. “You know me? I didn’t even know you existed until Ford said your name.”
“And you have no idea how much that pleases me.” Her attention swiveled to Isaac. “You could have just sent a message, Arty.”
“That would have taken too long. This needed to happen tonight.”
“I assume you’re not looking for a job then, unless you two are here for another career change.”
“You know why I’m here, Will. You didn’t send that note with Boyega’s obituary just to tempt me back into the business. You really thought this new thief might be me. Which means they’re acting more like Artifice than I thought.”
Andrew startled. It was as close to a true confession as Isaac had ever given in his presence, but he knew that wasn’t what had Andrew staring, because he had to realize what this meant too.
“Someone’s using my old codes in the classifieds, aren’t they?”
“Bingo.” Willow snapped a finger-gun at him. “I thought, if it wasn’t you, you’d have noticed by now, but I suppose with you out of the game, why would anyone think to look for the same old trick? Those codes were so hard to prove.” She grinned at Andrew.
“I remember,” he said.