Chapter Twenty Five
Az
We ditched the minivan in favor of an SUV halfway back to Sacona. I'd made it a point to dig through the glove box for the registration so I could follow through with my promise to Victoria. As soon as we were home and situated, I'd make a call to have the woman's van returned.
No longer on foot, we arrived home late the next evening, ditching the SUV on the outskirts of Sacona and having our closest crew pick us up. Victoria was dozing with her head on my shoulder when we pulled into the driveway to our mansion. Not wanting to wake her, I eased myself out of the vehicle and carefully gathered her into my arms.
"You can put her in my room if you want." Joey said quietly. "I'll bunk with Craig for now."
Giving him a nod of acknowledgment, I followed Rich into the house and made my way across the large open space that made up the living room and kitchen, heading for the stairs next to Leighton's bedroom. Victoria didn't stir at all until I laid her on Joey's bed and began gently removing her shoes.
"Whe-"
"Shh, go back to sleep," I whispered as she stretched across the king-size mattress. "You're safe."
She mumbled something incoherent and shifted just enough for me to put the blankets over her before she was out again. I studied her sleeping form for a moment, wondering how I ever thought she could be behind everything that had happened before turning back toward the door. When I made it back downstairs, Rich, Leighton, and Joey were seated at the large round dining table, and Craig was at the coffee maker.
"We need to discuss what to do about Phil." Rich spoke as I settled into an empty chair at the table.
"I'm telling you, Rich. It's not Phil." Leighton barked. "He's too loyal to be our mole."
Rich scrubbed a hand over his face and let out a long-suffering sigh. "He's the only one that makes sense, Leighton. He was in charge of finding the mole and turned up nothing, and then our location was leaked right after he brought the doc to us."
"Are we sure it wasn't a leak in Lacey's organization?" I asked as Craig moved to the table and sat a cup of coffee in front of me. "She seems to have players everywhere. Any one of them could have ratted us out."
"It doesn't make sense for them to wait as long as they did if it were one of her lackeys." Rich replied, his shoulders slumping forward. "We were in the cabin for a little more than a month and we saw her people maybe twice that whole time."
My eyes moved from each of the men at the table, landing on Joey. He was fidgeting, his eyes on the table, and his lips pulled into a tight frown. Phil had been his number two almost as long as he'd been part of the horsemen and practically taught him everything he knew.
"We should check in with our people now that we're back." I said, tearing my gaze away from Joey. "For the most part, they've kept me up to date while we were gone, but I'm sure there's small shit that didn't seem pertinent to share during the check ins."
"I think that's a good idea." Rich replied. "We should all get some rest, and we'll get to work first thing in the morning. I think it's best we handle business in pairs for a while, though. Craig can go with me, Leighton and Joey, you two already manage the streets so just make sure you have each other's backs out there. Az-"
I already knew where he was going. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be on babysitting duty. There's some paperwork from the club I need to deal with anyway. I can handle it from here."
"Get some sleep, boys. We'll touch base over dinner tomorrow." Rich said, pushing his chair back and rising from his seat.
I took a sip of the coffee Craig had given me before moving to dump it in the sink and rinse my cup. When I turned back toward the table, Craig was gone, but Joey and Leighton appeared to be having a silent conversation. Neither of them were taking the accusations thrown Phil's way well, but there wasn't anything to be done about it. Shaking my head, I made my way upstairs to my bedroom.
When I woke the next morning, Craig was already in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Snagging a cup of coffee, I leaned against the counter next to the stove.
"I know that look," I said, noting the frown on his face. "Not up to running with Rich today?"
"It's not that," Craig started. "After everyone went to bed last night, I did some more digging since I have my full setup now."
"And?" I pressed.
Craig turned off the burner and moved the pan of scrambled eggs he'd been cooking to the back of the stove before he turned to me. "I didn't find a whole hell of a lot, yet, but what I did find made it pretty clear that Victoria's so-called bestie is deep in the skin trade."
"So, the email to Rinaldo wasn't a one off? We kind of figured that, didn't we?"
"Yeah, but it got me thinking. After the shooting at Temptat!on she called Rich by his full name. If she were just some street level player, she wouldn't have known that. It's not like we run around announcing our government names to every player we meet."
I took a moment to consider what he'd said. "You think she's a bigger player than we initially thought."
"I don't know, man." Craig sighed and started plating the eggs. "It's the only thing that makes sense, but I can't figure out how the hell we missed it if she's a major player."
"None of the pieces we've managed to gather have made any damned sense since the beginning." I offered. "But, we do know she's been running with the Devils; she could be a recently made woman for them. It would explain why she flew under the radar for so long."
"Still leaves the question of what the hell the Devils are doing working with the Jackals and why it seems like they've teamed up against us."
"All we can do is keep looking for the answers and have faith we'll find them." I replied just as Rich strolled into the kitchen, Joey and Leighton right behind him.
I snagged a plate from the counter and made my way to the table, receiving a dirty look from Craig in the process. Nobody talked as we settled in around the table and Craig brought over everyone else's plates. We were halfway through our silent breakfast when Victoria appeared, making a beeline for the coffee pot. Rich scowled at his plate as she passed by him, and I fought the urge to kick him under the table.
"We should get moving." Rich grunted out, dropping his fork and letting it clatter against his plate. "We'll meet back here for dinner."
"Where are we going?" Victoria piped in, causing Rich to turn an angry glare in her direction.
" We aren't going anywhere, Princess. You're here with Az." Rich scoffed, raising from his seat and motioning for Craig to follow him.
Victoria took a sip of her coffee and glared at him over the lip of her cup.
"Don't be mad, ma petit. " Leighton grinned, bounding from his seat to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "It's just gangster stuff, you're not missing anything important."
Rich huffed in annoyance as Joey and Craig moved from the table at roughly the same time to put their dishes in the sink and turned to head for the door with Leighton behind them. I watched Victoria set her cup down, and smirk to herself before she pushed off the counter.
"Wait a second!" She called after them, causing all four of them to freeze, but only three of them turned around. "I can't believe you all forgot something." She said, putting her hands on her hips as she approached them all with a small smile on her face.
I smirked as I watched her give Leighton, Joey, and Craig a kiss before stepping back and telling them to have a good day, promptly followed by flipping Rich off when he scoffed and headed toward the door. When she turned to look at me, I just shook my head.
"Brat."
"What? Don't tell me the concept of a goodbye kiss is foreign to you." she said innocently.
"It wasn't the kisses, Love." I chuckled as she moved back toward the counter to grab the plate Craig had left for her.
"So, what's the plan for today? I could really use a phone to call my dad and T-," she shook her head, "Er, just my dad and let him know I'm back."
"No dice, Love. We can't let anyone know we're back in town until we have all our ducks in a row. So, I'm going to grab my laptop and settle on the sofa to get some paperwork done, and you can watch T.V., explore the house, whatever you want as long as it's inside and not a phone call."
"I can respect that you guys have to get your feet underneath you since we just got back… but it's my dad. He's probably worried sick, and we haven't been able to say anything to him since we ran. And he hired you guys to look out for me. I don't know what the harm is in letting him know I'm safe." She fired off her points at me like rapid fire; her arms crossed over her chest.
"I'm not saying you can't ever call him. Just not today. I will make you a deal, though. There is one person I know you can trust implicitly that you can call."
"And that person isn't my father because…" She retorted with an annoyed expression.
"You can call Mrs. McMillan," I replied, choosing to ignore her attitude. "If you absolutely need your dad to know you're safe right this second, she can pass the message for you. She hasn't held down the center as a neutral zone this long by blabbing things she shouldn't."
"Ugh, fine. " she pouted, holding her hand out. "Phone."
I chuckled at her, dialing Mrs. McMillan's personal cell before handing Victoria my phone. "Don't even think about leaving my sight while you're on the phone, Love. You may not understand the need for secrecy right now, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna make the mistake–."
"Hey, Mrs. McMillan!" Victoria said into the phone, and she rolled her eyes at me before turning away, but she didn't leave the room.
I settled into the couch and flipped on the T.V. and tuned out the conversation but kept my peripheral on her so she couldn't wander out of the room without me knowing. After about ten minutes, she handed me my phone back, with a scowl on her face.
"Just so you know, the five of you are in deep shit with Mrs. McMillan." She said, swatting me upside the head. "She told me to give you that."
I rubbed the side of my head and watched her stomp back upstairs, waiting long enough to hear the door to Joey's room slam shut before I went to retrieve my laptop and get to work. We spent most of the day just existing under the same roof. I worked on all the paperwork I needed to catch up on, while Victoria only seemed to surface to find something to drink or eat. She'd finally decided she was bored enough to share space with me on the couch when Rich and Craig strolled through the front door. Craig was scowling so hard at the back of Rich's head; I wondered if he was hoping to develop telekinesis and drop the big man on the spot.
"Rough day?" I called out, closing my laptop and setting it on the coffee table.
"A waste of fucking time, actually." Craig replied, dryly.
"Why don't you go upstairs, Princess. " Rich said, a hint of irritation in his tone. "This conversation doesn't pertain to you at all."
Her eyes narrowed at him, and she opened her mouth to speak.
"Hey," I said gently, reaching out to grab her hand. "I know he's being a bit of a hard ass, but that's Rich in boss mode. Why don't you go on upstairs and if it turns out anything he needs to discuss with us does pertain to you, I'll fill you in later?"
Victoria's eyes widened for a fraction of a second as if surprised I could be reasonable. "Uh, sure." she murmured and pulled her hand from mine before heading for the stairs, only pausing long enough to flip Rich off once more for good measure before she stomped out of view. If Rich's scowl got any deeper, I wondered if his face would get stuck that way.
As if on cue, Leighton and Joey appeared in the front door, both of them looking suspiciously relaxed after a day getting their teams back in order. Not bothering to wait for Rich to start barking out orders, I made my way to the kitchen table and took a seat. The others all followed suit.
"So, who wants to fill me in?" I asked.
"Today was a waste of my time and skills." Craig popped off. "I should have been here going over anything new my programs popped up instead of listening to Rich give his ‘I'm the Boss' speeches."
"Yes, because I was just standing there stroking my ego," Rich huffed, "I didn't see you complaining when we had to go put down the upstart fucking with Leighton's street guys, and deal with the other punk that had got it in his head we weren't coming back. We don't need small fish making power grabs at the best of times, but sure as fuck not now."
"What upstart?" I asked.
"Just some punks that thought they could encroach on my territory. Like little roaches." Leighton answered. "Nothing we couldn't handle, but there were enough of them we needed to call in Rich and Craig to squash the issues."
"Anything we need to head off before the news gets a hold of it?" I asked, looking at Rich.
"Nah, Craig wiped the camera footage and we really only hurt a few of them. Once their leader had a bullet between the eyes, they were shitting their pants begging us to have mercy." Leighton laughed.
"They were mostly just kids trying to swim in the deep end before they're ready." Craig said, his mouth twitching into an amused smirk. "Kind of reminded me of us when we were young."
"I take it everything else is in order then?" I asked, looking around the table for any of them to fill me in on the rest of their day.
"Mostly," Joey said before sharing a loaded look with Leighton. "Couple of shipments got mixed up and I still need to track one down, but otherwise my end is solid. L and me are gonna head back out after dinner and see if we can't track it down."
I narrowed my eyes at the pair, something about the look he shared with Leighton not sitting right with his explanation. It wasn't necessarily unusual for him to take L to hunt down leads, but when he did, whatever he was hunting down was important enough for him to give us details of the shipment. I looked between them, trying to decide if I wanted to say something or just let sleeping dogs lie.
"So how are things on the legitimate side? Anything we need to know?" Rich said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Nothing to say really, since they're actual businesses, I pretty well stayed on top of things while we were gone so the only thing I had to do was catch up on the paperwork I wasn't around to fill out or sign." I shrugged.
"If that's all, I'm going to check my systems and see if anything new has been caught by my programs and start digging through the other shit I couldn't get through at the cabin. It's gonna take me most of the night since somebody insisted I play backup today. Y'all might wanna order pizza or something." Craig said, standing from his seat and heading for the stairs.
"Fuck yeah. Greasy pizza." Leighton whooped; fist-bumping Joey as Craig disappeared upstairs.
"Y'all call in the order. I've got a little bit of paperwork to finish still." I laughed, shaking my head at them before moving back to the living room to grab my laptop.