13. Franco
13
FRANCO
“ S o, you first met your ex in Santa Fe?” Romeo asked Chloe.
She nodded, pulling her lower lip between her teeth as she seemed to concentrate. “I want to say it was mid-April. Yeah. Mid-April. I was almost through my spring courses when we met.”
That was specific, and I appreciated how concise she was trying to be. Yesterday, when she admitted that an abusive ex had been stalking her, I wanted to burn the world down and hunt him until he cried for mercy. Chloe was too sweet, too innocent to ever warrant or deserve some asshole targeting her and wanting to hurt her.
Wes Morrison was his name, and he would pay for his sins. She told me a little more about him last night when we both suffered the same dose of insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night. Today, though, she was determined to shed her fear and shame and tell Romeo, Liam, and one of our best hackers more information so we could track him down.
“He came into Benny’s, the diner I was waitressing at, and started talking with me.” She glanced at me. “It was a diner near a strip club, and that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence with the late hours of the diner being open. Men would walk from the strip club and still be in that, uh, mentality of seeking women. All of us waitresses would be hit on.” She shrugged. “He didn’t stand out at first, and he was really charming. That was his ‘thing’, to lay on the charm so thick that later, when he changed to being an asshole, you were duped. Like it was hard to believe that this super slick and sweet man could possibly be such a jerk.”
I shook my head, hating every second of her reliving this. She remained calm, though, with her hands folded on her lap in the big living room.
“I hate men like that,” Eva said as she sat and handed Chloe a glass of water.
My distant cousin, Dante’s niece, wasn’t always involved in these matters. She was a part of the organization, though, the princess of the Constella Family, and she wasn’t ever out of the loop. Liam suggested that she sit in on this chat in case Chloe would want the presence of a female.
“I think it’s fair to say anyone would hate any man or woman like that,” Romeo added.
“After a couple of casual dates, I could tell that Wes was interested in a lot more. He was really lovey-dovey, really trying hard to impress me, and given how…” She sighed. “Given how lonely I was, I was likely an easy target. He bent over backward to impress me and be sweet to me.” She looked at me, struggling for a moment. “I was very lonely.”
Her words hit me hard. Why? Why did you ever make yourself feel that way? I was here, available for you.
“I was working nonstop. When I wasn’t working, I was taking my classes. I left Beckson with a scholarship, but it only went so far. I still had to pay for expenses, and I refused to ask my parents for any money.” She licked her lips. “I went out of my way to go no-contact with them.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand. “You left town and never spoke with them?”
She nodded, lowering her gaze.
Then why didn’t you come with me? If she left her controlling parents, why not come to me , come start a new life with me? I would’ve paid for her classes. I would’ve given her everything she wanted. The main reason that she split from me was because of her parents’ disapproval. If she burned her bridges with them anyway, why not do it to be with me in the end? This news stung an already open wound.
“They didn’t like that, though, which is why they sent Wes to find me.”
“Like a PI?” Romeo asked.
“No.” She sighed. “Wes was a cop who'd stayed in the force long enough until he went into politics. He doesn’t hold an office, but he’s affiliated with many influential people.”
At the word cop , we all shared a glance.
“Oh, boy.” Liam raised his brows.
Romeo smirked as the hacker typed away, faster.
“Wes came from money, and that’s how he knew my parents. I’m guessing my father knew him through his job, as a judge, and they formed an acquaintance of some kind. They wanted to know what I was doing, and eventually, Wes came clean about how he knew them and tried to persuade me to come home and visit.” She scowled, shaking her head. “When I found out that he’d come all that way, stayed months trying to get in my pants, I was pissed. I dumped him on the spot, but he was persistent, trying to break me down.”
“Why did your parents want you to come home so badly?” Liam asked.
“They’re very controlling,” Chloe and I said in unison.
“Anyway,” she said, “I refused. Each time he tried to come back into my life, I would shy away from him, not give him the time of the day, and plan to move again. And again. For a while, I think he just wanted to do as expected. Maybe they were paying him to retrieve me or something. After a while, I think it evolved into a game, some sort of sick, twisted ploy, like an obsession. That’s where I learned to leave as little of a trail as possible. No cards, watch my internet use. All of it. I’ve been trying to start over with nothing traceable.”
“He’s no longer a cop, though?” Liam asked.
“No. But I think he has enough connections that he can find out whatever he wants,” she replied sadly. “I was very careful coming to New York. I got a decent job through a friend in Philly, but when someone shared a video that went viral and I was walking by in the background, he found me.”
“Damn. That’s shitty luck,” Eva said with a wince.
“Yes. But not as shitty as thinking I could be anonymous here, one among so many in the city, then having my new workplace shot up.” She rubbed her face. “If the deli was shot up because of Wes, it’s my fault Manny and Suzie are dead.”
I rubbed her back, wanting to console her. “Has he ever used force or shot at you or anyone in your life before?”
Romeo frowned at me. “I’m not sure Wes shot up the A&J himself.”
I nodded. “He’d hire it out, but still.” I looked at Chloe expectantly.
“No.” She shook her head. “I know he’s got a gun. And he’s trained with firearms from his time in the police department he started at before he went into politics, but he’s never escalated to that level of violence. He’s always stayed on the down-low. The most he’d ever done to me physically was slap me around a few times, mostly just backhanding my face, but that was it.”
That was it? I fumed at that phrase. Like this fucker raising his hand to her wasn’t so bad in the scheme of things. Sure, a backhand to the face was nothing compared to being shot. However, neither of those were okay—at all.
If Wes was responsible for the attack on the deli, that was a significant change in his intentions. If he wanted to stalk her and just follow her, then that was one thing. Engaging in a shooting like that—even hiring it out to be done on his say so—that was an entirely different matter.
So, why would he change it up now? Why try to shoot up her workplace now, after seven years? Even though Chloe’s suspicion had some substance, I couldn’t be sure that the shooting at the deli was because of her being there and her stalker ex wanting to see her wounded or dead. The attack happened on Constella property—a place where drugs were packaged and distributed. It could have been a hit on the Family.
“Did you give away anything that could’ve had him tracking you here? Use anything that could be registered anywhere?” the hacker asked. “Cards, phones, anything?”
She shook her head. “No. I learned from my mistakes, unfortunately. From trial and error, I figured out what he could use to find me, and I avoided those things.”
Liam followed up with more questions, and Romeo did as well. It was a thorough and extensive investigation, and Chloe cooperated through it all.
“I think that’s all for now,” the hacker said. He stood, tucking his laptop under his arm. “I’ll take this back to the office and have my team do a deep dive.” With one more nod at us, he took his leave.
“If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know,” Chloe said, rubbing her eyes. She was still so tired, and I couldn’t blame her. Fucking each other like we did last night would wear a person out. Plus, it had to be mentally taxing to relive the experiences she'd suffered under Wes’s abuse and stalking.
“Want to hang out by the pool for a while and unwind?” Eva asked as she stood, smiling at her. “I’m pretty sure the others would be up for a swim or soak.”
Chloe raised her brows. “Now? In this weather?” She glanced at the window. While it was still chilly, some signs of springtime showed outside.
“No, no. The indoor pool.” Eva tipped her head in the direction of where that enormous conservatory-like room was.
Chloe opened her mouth wide, giving a silent Oh, wow .
Her parents were wealthy, but it sounded like since she forsook them and left, she had been living penny to penny. All to get away from her ex. An ex she never would have met if she’d chosen a life with me, like she promised she would.
Enough. Stop. It wasn’t so easy to tell myself enough was enough, but I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. I'd spent so long hanging on to this bitterness that she left me, and now that she was present and we’d reconnected to some degree, I wasn’t sure how to act around her.
“Am I… allowed?” she asked, looking up at me. “Can I go with her?”
I nodded. “You don’t need to ask permission. You’re not a prisoner here.”
She arched a brow.
“You need to stay on the premises, under guard, though. Until we know who attacked that deli where you happened to be working, you have to stay safe and hidden.”
“Come on. It’ll help,” Eva said, coaxing Chloe to follow her out of the room. She’d find her a suit or whatever she needed.
I was glad for the break from her too. “Did you look at the report that he found?” I asked Liam and Romeo about what the hacker sent us all just before we met here to talk with Chloe. I skimmed it, but I’d reread it later.
“Yeah. Wes Morrison is connected to the law firm that Elliot Hines worked at,” Romeo said. He narrowed his eyes as he mentioned that attorney’s name. Tessa, his fiancée, was expected to marry the creepy man. Romeo killed him, though, not only because he wanted him out of the way so he could have Tessa for himself but also because Elliot Hines represented Reaper, the Prez of the Devil’s Brothers MC.
“That’s what I noticed too,” I said. Ever since—no, before—Dante met Nina and pretended to date her, we’d been facing off with the Devil’s Brothers MC and the Giovanni Family. It seemed that every which way we looked, there was another connection to one or both of those groups. And now it looked like Chloe’s ex was tied to our enemies as well.
“We don’t need more damn people after us,” Romeo said.
As Nina neared the end of her pregnancy, we were all on edge. Dante was protective of her already, but with a baby here, he’d be really cautious.
“Then let’s take him out,” I suggested. “Let’s find Wes and remove him from this situation. If he shot up A&J’s to scare or hurt Chloe, he’ll pay for it. If he ordered that deli to be attacked to hurt us, as a message from the MC or Stefan, then he’ll pay for it.”
Liam and Romeo nodded, glancing at each other and in approval of that plan.
I shrugged. “It’ll be one more thing removed.” Personally, it’d be my honor to kill the man who'd dared to hurt the woman I loved.
“We’ll plan it. I’m sure the tech guys will track him soon,” Liam said.
I held up my hand. “And Chloe won’t need to know. All right?” I looked them both in the eye, silently conveying that this would remain our plan, among us.
She already thought I was a ruthless, evil killer, and I didn’t need to taint any image she had of me. If we could ever try to forge ahead in a new future, I didn’t want her to have more reasons to cast me as the bad guy she shouldn’t be with.