Chapter 23 Cassian
CASSIAN
“What were you talking about with him?” I ask as I add cuff links to a black button down.
“The funeral. I wanted him to take me if you didn’t get back in time.”
“That’s all?”
She shrugs. “When did you bring my clothes over?” She’s rifling through the part of the closet where her clothes hang.
“Had someone bring them a few days ago. I thought we weren’t lying anymore. I’m back in time to take you and that’s not what you were talking about. Tell me, Allegra.”
“Fine. I told him I didn’t want you to be like all the other men in my life have been. I didn’t want you to be a liar too. He said most people in your life are liars too. Is that true?”
“That’s an interesting thing to say.”
“Jet seems to know a lot about you,” she says, holding up two black dresses, surveying them.
I knot my tie watching her in the reflection of the full-length mirror. “We were close once.”
“You’re not close now?” she asks, meeting my gaze in the mirror.
“It’s different now.”
“But you trust him.”
I nod, adjust my hair, then pick up my holster and put it on.
“You’re going to bring a weapon?” she asks.
“Just a precaution,” I say, facing her. “There will be a lot of people there. People I don’t know.
” She studies me, but I’m sure she’s considered this.
She must know most of the people who show up today will show up armed.
“We leave in about half an hour. I’m going to take care of some business while you finish getting ready. ”
I grab my jacket, pull it on and head to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. Jet’s leaning against the counter eating the last of his toast while watching some video that has him chuckling.
“You’re getting crumbs everywhere,” I tell him after I pour myself a cup.
He takes another loud bite and crumbs fly. “Do I need to change my sheets?”
I grin. “Depends. Do you enjoy sleeping in other people’s come?”
“Asshole.”
I laugh. It’s good to laugh, actually. “Come with me.”
He tops up his coffee and falls into step beside me.
“Did you know your brother has surveillance on most of the men who work for him?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says as we step into my office.
“Is that normal for him?”
“Sev’s paranoid. He had something for you?”
I close the door once we’re inside and walk to my desk where I drink a sip of coffee before putting the mug down. I unlock the top drawer and take out the flash drive. I already watched the footage once, but can’t quite wrap my brain around it.
I hold up the drive. “Yep.”
“That’s helpful of my brother. Generous even.”
“Oh, he didn’t do it out of either of those things. He wants the deed to the AC property.”
“Now that sounds more like Severin Blackstone.”
Turning my laptop around, I open it and plug the flash drive in.
“It only records when there’s movement,” Jet says as video goes on and off with random things, an delivery, someone coming home with groceries, the man I killed.
It’s tedious for the first ten minutes and I push the button to move the video forward.
It moves quickly, everyone a blur, until we pass the moment where a motorcycle pulls up.
The driver climbs off leaving the bike idling and hangs a bag on the doorknob.
“There,” I say. Jet peers closer.
I push the back button until we get to the drop.
I play it at normal speed and watch the bike come into view.
The driver is wearing a helmet, and the shield is tinted black.
Even though he’s looking straight ahead, I can’t see his face.
He’s quick, casually carrying an innocuous grocery bag to the front door.
“There should be sound,” Jet says, and fiddles with some keys until he unmutes the video. The man is whistling casually. I don’t recognize him, and the bike is only partially visible. He’s delivered the bag and gone in less than twenty seconds, the license plate conveniently muddied.
We watch the older woman arrive home at the end of her day to find the package on the door. She glances inside it and is quick to spin around, to look for whoever left it. They’re long gone, though.
“Is that it?”
It happens again, same bike, stopping in the same place and leaving another bag. I check the date stamp. It’s the day after that gun delivery.
“Know the bike?” Jet asks.
I shake my head. “I was hoping you might.”
“He doesn’t work for us, Cassian. Sev is a dick, but he wouldn’t go that far. And besides, he wouldn’t fuck with you, not like this. He’s not stupid.”
“He hates me. He hates you being involved in my life. That’s motive enough to hurt me and he knows hurting my family is the way to do it.”
“No. You’re wrong. I don’t think he’d do it. Makes no sense.”
I sigh. I agree with him. I just don’t like what it means if it’s not Sev. “Is that what you’re wearing?”
He looks down at himself. “I’ll change.”
“Come armed. I don’t expect Malek to turn up, but who knows?”
He nods.
There’s a knock on the door. “Cassian?” Allegra calls.
I close the laptop and take the thumb drive out. I slip it into the drawer, take the gun from inside it and lock it. I slip the gun into its holster.
“In here,” I say. “Thanks for arranging the meeting with Severin by the way,” I tell Jet before she walks inside.
“Well, we got a deed to land out of it, so maybe we should be thanking you.”
Allegra opens the door. She looks suspiciously at us.
She chose an elegant A-line dress with three-quarter sleeves and high-heeled boots that go just above her knees.
Black opals dot her earlobes, and her hair is pulled back into a bun, wavy locks framing her face.
She’s lined her eyes in thick black, her lips a deep glossy pink.
She steps inside and puts her hands at her sides, clearing her throat. I realize I’ve taken too long, but she looks, well, she doesn’t look like she’s going to a funeral. She’s too strikingly beautiful.
“You look… good, Allegra.” I walk over to her feeling Jet watching us. She doesn’t even glance at him though.
“You think Malek will turn up?”
I take her hands. “Don’t eavesdrop.”
“I wasn’t. Just overheard.”
“Yeah, right. As far as Malek, I doubt it, but I’m taking precautions.”
I touch her cheek, see how she’s covered up a fading bruise. “You’re beautiful. Do you know that?”
Her fingertips brush the collar of my shirt, and I pull back so we’re eye-to-eye.
“So are you.” I smile, but I see in her eyes she’s anxious.
“Okay?” I ask her.
“I’m nervous.”
“I’ve got you.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
She lifts up on tiptoe to kiss my mouth. I wind my fingers with hers and turn to Jet who’s been watching. In whose eyes I see something that I can only describe as lonely and that thing inside my chest that twists when I see Allegra in pain, it tightens.
A beat passes.
“I’m taking the lime,” he says with a grin. “See you there.” He walks out.
“The lime?” Allegra asks.
“His Porsche is painted a hideous shade.”
“Why?”
“He lost a bet.”
“Oh. Okay then.”
I take her coat and slip it over her shoulders. I do the same with mine then turn to her. “Ready?”
She takes a deep breath in, and her fingers squeeze mine. She nods and we walk to the front door where a soldier opens an umbrella and hands it to me as soon as I step outside. A row of SUV’s awaits us.
“Do you know it always rains when one of my family members is buried.”
“Does it?”
“Strange right?”
I wrap an arm around her waist and shield her from the rain as we walk to the waiting SUVs. Jet drives off as we climb into the second vehicle.
“Is all this necessary?” she asks of our procession.
I nod.
“Because they’re all going to be there even though they didn’t care for my brother,” she says flatly.
“They’ll still want to pay their final respects. And, of course, they’ll be watching. Everyone will be watching. It’s a pivotal time for the Moretti family. Rival families will be there too.”
My phone pings with a text. I reach into my pocket to retrieve it. It’s Angelo.
Angelo: Received papers from Severin’s lawyer regarding AC land. What is this?
Well, I knew this was coming. Timing is shit, but isn’t it always? I glance at Allegra. I should find a different way, but this is the most direct. This way, I’ll know.
Me: Come to the Moretti house. Bring the papers.
Angelo: Moretti house? Isn’t today the funeral?
Me: Yes.
Angelo: ??
Me: I’ll see you there in two hours.
I silence my phone and tuck it into my pocket.
“Who’s that?” Allegra asks.
“My uncle. It’s nothing. There’s going to be a lot of people at the church, you know that, right?”
She nods.
“And at the house.”
“I can’t think about that part yet. Let me get through this first.”
We need to talk about it. About the formal condolences after the Mass.
About the family’s inner circle, those who worked most closely with Alaric.
The questions they’ll have for her, especially when they see me.
Angelo’s presence may make this even harder for her. Or it may be nothing and I’m wrong.
I hope to God I’m wrong because his betrayal would break something inside me.
“Okay,” I say, forcing a smile, squeezing her hand.
She closes her eyes and takes a long breath in.
“I’m with you, Allegra. You’re not alone. Not this time. Not anymore.”
She nods, but I can see she’s nervous. Nothing to be done about that now.
Rain batters the windshield, coming down harder the nearer we get to the church.
I keep my gaze out the window, watching closely as we approach, seeing the cars lined up along the road.
I’m sure the lot is full. When we reach the church gates, only one SUV accompanies us through, the others pulling off along the side of the road to wait.
I hope they won’t be needed, but won’t be taking any chances.
Jet’s SUV is parked in front of a No Parking sign just inside the gates.
He’s not inside though. We approach the circular drive in front of the tall double doors.
Mourners, or, more realistically, voyeurs, are dismounting from sedans with tinted windows, everyone in black, huddled beneath black umbrellas.
I spy the pile of earth in a distant part of the cemetery.
The headstones already there marking the graves of her father, her mother.
I wonder if they buried an empty box in her place.
Her body was unrecognizably burned by the time the firefighters put the fire out.
If it wasn’t for DNA she’d have been a Jane Doe which is what Alaric Moretti wanted.
I wonder how he planned on playing off her disappearance because I believe that’s what he was hoping for.
But that doesn’t matter anymore.
The hearse is already parked outside. I can make out the outline of Michael’s coffin. Allegra’s eyes land on it and remain there. I don’t know what she’s thinking. I don’t know much about her relationship with her brother apart from what I witnessed. I don’t know if she loved him.
My mind wanders to Seth. To the thought of him inside one of those boxes. I’m quick to shove it away before my throat closes. Later. I’ll deal with that later.
“Boss?” the driver says, slowing down.
I nod.
He stops the SUV. Jet is waiting just outside the doors under the cover of the overhang. He’s smoking a cigarette which I know he does now and then. He’s watching our approach and once we stop, he takes a final drag and flicks the cigarette away.
A soldier comes to open my door and holds the umbrella in place.
All eyes turn to us as I step out. I take a moment to openly look at them, registering all the faces, some of them blank, most of them curious, none of them friendly.
I’m interested in how they will react to seeing her on my arm.
She is Malek Lombardi’s wife, as far as they’re concerned.
My prisoner. At least that’s what they’ve been told.
I turn to Allegra and hold out my hand.
She places hers in mine and I see the still angry-red of the pinkie Malek cut off. How scared she must have been. How strong she is.
It takes all I have to keep that smile on my face for her. It takes everything inside me not to scream in a rage.
No. I can’t rush my revenge. I need to think through every detail.
Malek thought his move through. His plan began to take form the day I took her because he saw right through me. He did this to her because of me.
Allegra sets one boot out and I help her climb down. I lean in close.
“Pieces. I will deliver him to you in pieces,” I say to her.
She looks up at me and in her eyes, I see a strength that makes me proud. That humbles me. “As long as I get to deliver the final blow.”
“My violent little Allegra. Your wish is my command.”
Mourners who were on their way inside have all stopped at seeing us. Seeing her. They all watch as I walk Allegra Moretti, their mafia princess, into the funeral of her last family member. Not a single one looks away, and I see how their eyes move to where our hands are joined.
We reach the church doors. Jet comes to stand on the other side of Allegra.
She turns to glance at him. There’s a moment that passes between them and I’m curious. Because I love them both.
Allegra releases my hand and takes one small step forward.
She nods to the soldiers standing at the doors.
Moretti soldiers. Their loyalty is not yet known, but once she nods, they open those doors and Allegra steps inside.
Jet and I flank her as she takes confident steps, her head held high looking at no one as she makes her way down the long aisle where pews creak as people turn to look, the church falling dead silent at the sight of her.