Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Christian
I lean against the wall in the study and look at the bright morning sunlight spilling through the window.
It’s a new day and Lilly and Rosie are still missing.
Miguel still has them and I don’t even know if he’s still in Chicago. He could have headed back to Columbia for all I know. if the fucker could fool everybody into thinking he was dead for close to a year, what to stop him from getting gone before we can catch up with him.
I was out all night on the streets looking everywhere I could, talking to everyone I could, getting my ass kicked for whatever intel I could get which was nothing.
It’s a new day and I’m nowhere closer to where I was yesterday.
Frustrated I move away from the wall and make my way to the bedroom. I need to lie down. I can’t sleep, but if I lie down it will be enough to give me some rest so I can be ready for later.
As I make my way down the corridor and pass Rosie’s bedroom I stop when I see the little assembly of her toys together on her bed. Her babies. The sight compels me to go inside.
There’s her little pig, a giraffe that’s missing a leg, a pink teddy bear she’s placed ribbons on the ears, and a giant goose with the little golden egg Amelia gave me next to it.
The egg… it was something I didn’t have. Now I’m the rich prick again and Rosie and Lilly were something I didn’t have either.
A family that I wanted.
I didn’t have to know them for any length of time. I’d known Rosie the least amount of time, but it didn’t matter.
I hear her little voice so clearly in my mind.
Are you here to save us from the monsters?
That’s what she said. I still am.
My phone rings pulling me from the trance. I reach for it in my back pocket and look down at the screen hoping it’s either Vincent or Gibbs with news. But it’s not either of them. It’s an unrecognized number. I don’t like calls like that. It’s never good but I answer anyway.
“Yes,” I say into the phone.
“Christian Giordano,” comes a male voice. The instant I hear the Spanish accent I tense, knowing this could only be one person with the balls enough to call me.
“Who is this?” I say, tightening my grip on the phone.
I hear a deep chuckle and I bite down hard on my back teeth, seething. I don’t have time for shit and I’m not in the fucking mood either.
“This is Miguel Diaz, I believe you know my wife,” he answers.
Fuck. I’m right. I’m fucking right. it’s him and I’m not surprised he got my personal number.
“The Miguel Diaz I’m aware of is supposed to be dead.”
“I’m sure you know in our world sometimes you have to get gone for a while. Die if you must and resurrect when the time is right,” he answers.
Motherfucker. Of course I’m well aware of what happens in our world.
“Where’s Lilly and Rosie?” I demand, gritting my teeth.
“My wife and my child are with me, thank you very much. Now I’m a man who doesn’t like trouble and suddenly I have all manner of people looking for me. Cops and fuckers like that. I need you to call them off.”
“Why the fuck would I do a thing like that?” I growl, roaring like thunder has laced itself into my voice.
“I know you, Christian Giordano. After watching you over the last few weeks, I see you’re the hot tempered one,” he says and my fucking blood runs cold.
Watching? Instantly I think of that guy from a few weeks back. It wasn’t Falcone who sent the fucker. It was him. Miguel. He sent the guy to watch me. How long has he been in Chicago watching? As long as I’ve known Lilly.
“You don’t think before you act,” he continues in a sing song voice. “You automatically assume you’re better than me and think you should have my woman and my child. You’ve fucked my wife enough. No more of it. Come for me and I’ll come for you. Stay the fuck away.”
“You don’t seem to know who you’re talking to,” I bellow.
“Oh, it’s you who doesn’t know who you’re talking to. Go outside and open the gates. I have a message for you and a warning.”
I’m enraged, but panic has me and it tells me to play nice. I’m not the one with the leverage here, it’s him and if I want to know more than I already do I need to cool it.
So I do as he says.
“Who is coming?” I ask.
“You will see. There should be a black Range Rover waiting by the gate.”
I practically dash outside and press the buzzer to open the gates.
Not a minute later a black Range comes down the drive.
It stops in front of me and a guy in a hooded sweatshirt gets out.
Holy fuck. This guy has to be the punk who was watching me.
Up close he looks leaner, a little taller, but it’s him and I can see his face.
He looks Hispanic and has a cross inked on his neck.
He gets out with ease and walks over to me.
“Your punk is here, what’s the message?” I ask Miguel on the phone.
“He will show you. This is the type of message you see and hear.”
The asshole in front of me takes out his phone and holds it out to me.
I look at the screen as he presses the play button on a video.
Shock suffuses me when the image of myself riding my motorcycle in the woods come on the screen. It’s from that night weeks ago when we pulled off the heist to get the guns back. Everything stops inside me when I watch myself shoot and kill Officer Tanner. Next to me is Vincent shooting Falcone.
You can see it’s us quite clearly. We don’t have helmets on.
Fuck.
“You motherfucker!” I growl at Miguel and the punk puts the phone back in his pocket.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I am. So, call off your hounds and stay the fuck away or we’ll leak that recording to the feds. Not only will you and your family lose everything, you’ll spend the rest of your life behind bars for killing a cop.”
This fucker has me exactly where he wants.
“You have until midday to give me the all clear, I’ll call back then. After that, the video leaks.”
Miguel hangs up and the fucker in front of me smiles.
“That was the message ese, now you need the warning to stay the fuck away,” he says pulling an envelope from his pocket.
I take it and he gets in the truck and drives away.
I look in the envelope and my stomach lurches when I see a finger inside with a wedding band.
Dropping the envelope, I know straightaway who the finger belongs to. It’s Kirk’s. And, that can only mean he’s dead.
The guy is nearly out the gate, but the time I look ahead. I want to kill his ass, but what the fuck would that achieve.
Things just took a turn for the worse so I do the only thing I can and call Vincent.
He answers on the first ring.
“We have a problem,” I say.