Even though Luca was expecting the beating, the first blow came as a shock, the smack of flesh on flesh a harsh echo in the room. He jerked in the cuffs that bound his hands over his head, and almost lost his footing on the cold cement floor. His new cell was much like the other, except this one had chains on the ceiling and bloodstains on the floor.
Jeff laughed. “Not so tough now without your mob friends around.”
“I own a restaurant.” And soon a nightclub after he got his hands on Prince. Bracing himself for what was to come, Luca drew in a deep breath inhaling the fetid air curiously laced with the sweet smell of laundry detergent. He had figured out pretty fast that he wasn’t in an ordinary jail. No, this appeared to be Jeff’s own personal torture chamber, which meant no one knew where he was and no one would be coming for him.
“Italian food.” Jeff smashed his fist into Luca’s jaw, sending Luca’s head jerking to the side. “Much too heavy. I’m making Gabrielle a cochinita pibil tonight. Very light. Very tasty. I’ve paired it with a bottle of Tarapaca Gran Reserva 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. Gabrielle loves her reds. After two glasses, she becomes very affectionate. Usually, I’ll just cuddle with her on the couch—such a bore—but tonight I think we’re ready for the next step. She’s obviously gotten over David’s death if she’s been fucking you.” He delivered two more blows, each more painful than the next, but the physical pain paled in comparison to the rage he felt at the thought of this sick bastard anywhere near Gabrielle.
“Just think,” Jeff continued. “You’ll be here, hanging from the ceiling. And I’ll be there, making her mine.” He moved to the side and delivered a powerful punch to Luca’s kidney, sending a wave of nausea through Luca’s gut. “Actually, she’s always been mine. It just took her a while to realize it.”
“Fuck you.”
“Actually, fuck her.” Jeff moved again, punching Luca with abandon. Luca grunted, but didn’t give in to the pain. As far as beatings went—and he’d been through a few—this wasn’t so bad.
“That’s what I’ll be doing. Unless, you tell me you’re in the mob … Then I have to rethink how this ends. Even I don’t want a Cosa Nostra vendetta on my head. I’ll have to be more careful with disposal. I hear Lake Mead is very deep.”
“I own a restaurant.” Nothing would ever make him break omertà. He would die before he admitted he was in the Mafia.
“Right now you own a restaurant. But when I’m done with you, I have a feeling you’ll tell me something else.” Jeff tipped his neck from side to side, bounced up and down like he was in a boxing ring or sparring at the gym. He’d clearly dressed for a workout in his LVPD T-shirt and sweat pants, giving him free range of movement for the roundhouse kick that sent Luca rocking in his chains.
“Either way, I win,” he continued, huffing his breaths. “If you admit you’re in the mob, I get the girl, scoop up all your friends and associates in a career-boosting arrest, and I’ll finally get the promotion David stole from me.”
Luca didn’t care about Jeff’s jealousy toward David but talking about it seemed to distract him from the beating, so he kept his mouth shut and imagined all the different ways Jeff was going to suffer when he got out of here. He couldn’t figure out if this was just about Gabrielle or if there was something more, but it was clear that Jeff had come unhinged.
“She was always supposed to be mine.” Jeff switched sides, delivered a brutal kick to the kidney he’d just punched. Luca gritted his teeth and focused on breathing through the pain.
“We both taught her classes,” Jeff said. “I met her first, but I couldn’t ask her out because of the damn rules about dating academy recruits. David knew I wanted her. We used to go for drinks together at the end of the day and he’d listen to me talk about her.” He glared at Luca as if Luca was the one who had stolen his girl. But then, in a way, he was.
“The day she graduated I went to buy her flowers,” he continued. “She loves flowers. But the line was so damn long, and by the time I got there, it was too late. David got to her first. He asked her out after she walked off the stage, and she said yes.” He slammed a fist into Luca’s gut and Luca’s vision blurred.
“What kind of friend does that?” he shouted. “He knew I was going to buy flowers. He knew why. He knew I wanted her. He fucking betrayed me. I did everything to get her back. I sacrificed everything so I could have more money, a bigger house, a better car…”
Luca already knew how the story ended. Gabrielle wasn’t that kind of woman. She put her heart into everything she did, and when she gave her heart, she gave it all. He had no doubt that she’d loved David deeply, and far from feeling jealous, it just made him want her even more. He was grateful for every day David had spent with her. Not only because it meant she had truly been loved, but also because he had saved her from this monster.
“I didn’t have a chance,” Jeff spat out. “Not even with all the money. He was so fucking perfect.”
With a roar, he launched himself at Luca, pummeling him with fists and knees. Luca’s body bowed under the force of his blows, his brain fuzzing with the pain, until all he could think was thank God David got to her first.
“She doesn’t care for you.” Jeff dropped his arm and panted his breaths, his T-shirt dark with sweat. “She ratted you out. That’s how my officers knew where you were last night, how I knew about the Albanians. It was all a set up. She told me everything about you.”
Far from destroying him, Jeff’s words gave Luca strength and hope. Gabrielle hadn’t told Jeff anything. Luca knew it in his heart, as much as he knew the words for a lie, because he’d never told Gabrielle about the Albanians. She hadn’t even asked. Gina had fooled him because he didn’t really know her. But Gabrielle was part of his soul.
Luca’s stomach churned when Jeff picked up a multi-tailed whip from a collection of torture implements on a table by the wall and walked behind him where Luca wouldn’t be able to see to prepare for the blows.
Cristo Santo. If he made it out of here alive he was going to confession, no matter how long it took.
Pain sheeted across his back like a thousand stinging bees. Jesus Christ. He had no idea where he was, but he wasn’t at a police station where he might have hoped someone would intervene. He might not trust the legal system, but there were at least limits to what a police officer could do under the law. Unless, of course, he was a dirty cop.
“Did you seriously think I’d let you have her?” Jeff asked. “After all the work and time I put in? I gave up everything for her. I did things I never imagined I would do. I waited two years for her to get over David’s death, and then you waltz in and try to steal her away.”
Another crack of the whip. Another line of searing pain. Despite his resolve, Luca grunted at the sheer agony and grounded himself by focusing on staying alive to save Gabrielle from the monster that lurked beneath the surface of the man she thought of as a friend.
“And then I find out you’re messing with my fucking business, too.”
The blows came faster, searing across his back, and it became harder to focus on Jeff’s words as he struggled to contain the pain.
“Everything … Sex … Flowers … Casino … Ironic … Church … Your mother … Pathetic … Son.”
A pause. Blood pounded his ears, drowning out everything but the frantic thud of his heart.
“Are you fucking listening to me?” Madness tinged Jeff’s voice and Luca sagged in his chains, shuddered. He’d endured torture and beatings, bullets and broken bones. But he’d never endured anything like this.
“Jeff.”
Luca lifted his head in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. They weren’t alone. Sometime during the beating someone had come in, and he didn’t even notice. He was losing it, and he needed to get his shit together or Gabrielle would never be safe.
“Take it down a notch,” the visitor said. “You’ll kill him, and if he is in the mob, that’s signing a fucking death warrant for us all.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Jeff snarled. “I’m not afraid of the fucking mob. We just have to be more careful when we get rid of his body.”
Luca’s heart kicked up a notch. He heard footsteps. The click of a door.
Jeff picked up a bullwhip.
Then he heard himself scream.
* * *
“Cristo santo. Look at you. Luca’s gonna fill me full of lead for letting you meet Garcia dressed like that.”
Gabrielle tugged down her tank top under Frankie’s appraising stare. Posing as Paolo’s eighteen-year-old girlfriend had its disadvantages, namely the ultra-tight clothes that made it difficult to conceal her weapon. Paolo had shown her a picture of the girl he was dating and Gabrielle had done her best to dress the same, squeezing into a pair of ultra-tight worn denim jeans, a white tank top decorated with big pink jewels, pink UGG boots and a black-and-white letterman-style jacket sporting a giant pink G. After she’d added a black wig, pink ball cap, pink sunglasses and chunky pink jewelry, Paolo had pronounced her “cute.”
“Just tell him I didn’t give you a choice,” she said to Frankie.
Frankie laughed. “If you were any other woman, I wouldn’t get away with that excuse. But you … I might just get off with only a few broken limbs. If they do have him and he gets a look at you, we won’t have to bust him out. He’ll break down the fucking walls.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She leaned against his Chrysler 300C while the rest of the crew parked around them in the tourist lookout above the city.
“At least you’ll keep the guys inside distracted,” Frankie said. “I did a couple of drive bys after Paolo got the address for the meet. There’s not much to the place. Looks to be about a four thousand square foot rancher with a basement in a middle-class suburban neighborhood. He’s got cameras around the perimeter, and a guard on each door. We shouldn’t have any problem getting inside to look for Luca if you provide the distraction. It’s a strange set up. If I was him, and I was wanted by the police, and I kidnapped a guy like Luca, I wouldn’t be hiding out in plain sight.”
“It’s a very effective strategy.” Gabrielle twirled one of her fake braids. “He’s very good at blending in, which is why we had so much trouble finding him. And no one has ever seen his face. Even when we caught high-level dealers who had managed to get a personal audience, they couldn’t give us a description. He’s like a ghost.”
“And I’m a fucking ghostbuster.” Frankie cracked a rare smile.
“What does that make me?”
“Dunno.” He pulled out a packet of cigarettes. “Haven’t figured you out yet. I don’t trust you. Don’t get why you’re risking your career by wanting to be part of this. You coulda gone back to the police station, rounded up your police pals and raided the place once Paolo gave you the address. Something goes wrong tonight, you could wind up dead, or even in jail if they think you’re working for the wrong side.”
“They would have made me stay behind,” she said. “They think I’ll go off half-cocked like I did before. But I don’t want revenge anymore. After I met Luca, I realized it had left me empty inside. There is more to life. There’s the future. And I want him in it. This time I’m here for Luca, and if we manage to catch Garcia while we’re at it then I’ll be happy with whatever kind of justice you want to dish out.”
“I got some ideas…” He pulled out a cigarette. “How are you going to protect yourself while we search the house? Paolo’s your ticket inside but he’s going to be next to useless in a fight. You packing?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get a .22 behind my back.” She plucked the cigarette out of his hand and tossed it in a nearby garbage bin.
Frankie’s smile faded. “What the fuck?”
“It’s an addiction, and it will kill you. My uncle died from lung cancer, and my brother was a drug addict and he died, too. Life is short, Frankie. I learned that the hard way. Don’t waste it doing something that’s going to make it even shorter.”
“Maybe I want it to be short.” He pulled out another cigarette and lit it. “Maybe I found my reason for living, and lost it, so there’s nothing to look forward to except the odd fucking cigarette and the hope it will bring the end that much faster.” Pain flickered across his face so fast, she wondered if she’d seen it.
“So what are you going to do with Garcia when we catch him?” she asked, taking the hint that she should drop the topic of his health.
“You don’t want to know, but I promise you’ll have your justice.”
Gabrielle sighed. “There’s a certain appeal to the way you do things. You get a tip where Garcia might be. Don Toscani orders a raid. Boom. Ten guys show up in less than an hour all ready to go and we’re on the road. No weeks of planning. No meetings and endless discussions. No politics. No paperwork. No warrants. No due process—”
“No law.”
“No law.” Gabrielle watched him puff on his cigarette, his hard, muscular body at ease as he leaned against the car. “What about Luca? What will happen to him?”
Frankie shrugged. “That’s Nico’s call, but you gotta understand you can’t be together. It’s an unbreakable rule.”
Gabrielle toed the cement with her bright pink boot. “Do you know Luca’s mother’s friend, Josie?”
“Everyone knows Josie.”
“She used to be a police officer.”
Frankie lifted an eyebrow. “Used to be. Operative words. And she wasn’t a normal cop. She was a renegade back in the day.” He gestured for her to get in the car with Paolo. “Kinda like you.”
“You think I’m a renegade?”
Amusement flickered across his face and for a moment she thought she saw a hint of the man beneath the beast. “You’re here. Pretty much says it all.”
Twenty minutes later, Paolo parked his vehicle in front of a tidy ranch house in the upper-middle-class suburb of Henderson. Gabrielle followed him up the walk, skirting around the underground sprinkler soaking the lush green lawn. She was taking a big gamble that Garcia wouldn’t recognize her. From what she knew, he hired out his dirty work, and the only reason she’d thought different in the warehouse was because the tipster had assured her Garcia would be there.
“I think this is the place Ray brought me the first time we met,” Paolo said, pushing the buzzer below the security panel. “I was blindfolded, but it feels the same. No steps. Smell of grass. Quiet. After that first meeting, I picked up my stuff at Commercial Center.”
“It was brave of you to let everyone know about your connection to Garcia.” She squeezed his hand. “I know what that means for you. I just hope you can stay clean. I know how hard it is and if you need someone to talk to, I’ve been through it all with my brother.”
“I’m gonna try. I quit cold turkey last time and I’d been using for almost six months. This time it’s only been a few weeks.”
“Paolo.” A short, dark-haired dude wearing army fatigues and an army-green T-shirt opened the door. Two tall guys with barrel chests and thick necks stood behind him.
“This the girlfriend you told me about?”
“Yeah. This is Michele.” Paolo put his arm around Gabrielle’s shoulders. He was a few inches taller than her, which helped with the charade. “This is Ray and his friends.”
“Ray.” Gabrielle nodded, dialing up the young, hip vibe. Ray looked like he’d gone a few rounds in the boxing ring and broken his nose every time. He had a broad chest and huge biceps that she had a feeling didn’t come from steroids. He was big-time enforcement, if she had to guess, which meant it was time to get serious.
“Michele won the money at the casino, so she insisted on coming along.” Paolo shifted his weight, and Gabrielle groaned inwardly. He was so nervous he might give them away.
Ray frowned. “How old are you, sweetheart? You don’t even look legal to be in a casino.”
“My daddy owns the Casino Italia,” she said, thinking fast. “He taught me how to play and he kinda looks the other way when I want to game. He let me into the high-limit room for my birthday last week, gave me a bunch of chips and told me to go wild. I think he might have had something to do with my big win, but I’m not complaining, and neither are all my friends who are excited that Paolo’s gonna keep us well supplied with the good stuff.”
“The boss is gonna get a kick out of you.” Ray checked the street one more time and sent the two guards out to keep watch while Gabrielle and Paolo were in the house.
“Gotta do a pat down.” Ray said after he closed the door. His gaze traveled up and down Gabrielle’s body, making her cringe. “You first.”
She lifted her arms and twirled around with a giggle, praying that he wouldn’t touch her because he would easily find the .22 and there was no way she could meet Garcia unarmed. “You think I could hide anything in this outfit. I could barely get it on. And Paolo gets crazy jealous when other guys touch me. Don’t you, baby?”
Paolo’s eyes widened and he swallowed hard. “Yeah. Don’t touch her. She’s my … girl … friend.”
Ray’s lips tipped up at the corners, and he winked at Gabrielle. “Okay, sweetheart. You go in, and I’ll check Paolo out.”
After he’d given Paolo a thorough pat down, he led them over to a tan leather couch positioned in front of a wall-mounted TV. Gabrielle wasn’t surprised Garcia was distributing from a residential home. The Narcotics bureau had caught dozens of dealers operating the same way. Some of them lived normal middle-class lives, selling their product while their children were at school.
Gabrielle dumped the bag of money on the coffee table and wandered around the room as Ray counted the stacks of bills under Paolo’s watchful eye. She couldn’t see much beyond the living room although she could smell something delicious coming from the kitchen.
“Will Garcia come in here to meet us?” She checked out the family pictures on the mantelpiece, all of a couple and their young son. Was Garcia that brazen? From the clothes the couple were wearing and the woman’s hairstyle, she figured the pictures had been taken about twenty-five years ago, and although Narcotics had little information on Garcia, they had been certain he was under forty.
“He meets people in a special room that we set up for preferred customers like yourselves. No one sees his face.”
“Why?” Paolo blurted out.
“He was scarred in an explosion at a meth lab,” Ray said casually. “He had third-degree burns. His face almost melted off. Now, he doesn’t let anyone see him.”
Paolo’s face twisted in horror. “I didn’t think faces could melt.”
“Yeah, they can, and if you saw him, you’d think twice about doing your own manufacturing.”
“That’s why we came to you,” Gabrielle said. “We’re happy to pay a little extra so we don’t have to get involved with that side of the business.”
“You want something to eat or drink while you’re waiting?” Ray paused his counting. “Garcia likes me to treat our special customers right. We got all types of booze, chips…”
“What smells so good?” Gabrielle asked. “I wouldn’t mind having some of that.”
“It’s cochinita pibil. But the boss made it for a private dinner.”
Cochinita pibil? Wasn’t that the dish Jeff was making for her tonight? What a coincidence. Or maybe not. Could Jeff be working for Garcia? No. That would be crazy. She’d known him as long as she’d known David. He was a good guy, a good detective, a good friend, although he’d been a little off kilter the last few weeks.
Paolo cleared his throat and glanced over at Gabrielle, then away. “I’ll have … uh … a beer.”
“Sure.” Ray wrote his count on a piece of paper. “How about you, Michele?”
“Just water, thanks.”
As soon as Ray disappeared down the hallway, Gabrielle crossed the room to look down the hallway opposite to the one Ray had taken. If Luca was being held here, he would most likely be in the basement. She just had to find the stairs.
“Gabrielle!” Paolo called after her in a horrified whisper. “We’re supposed to stay here while Frankie and the others check the house.”
“I’m sure you can handle the distraction on your own.” She turned the handle on the nearest door, but it was locked.
“I can open it,” Paolo said. “Locks are my thing.” He pulled what looked to be a metal wire from his pocket, and within a few seconds the locked clicked open.
“Handy skill to have,” Gabrielle said, checking out the very ordinary linen closet. “I’m going to search the rest of the house. You stay here and tell Ray I went to the bathroom. If they find me somewhere I shouldn’t be, I’ll pretend I got lost.”
Paolo’s eyes widened in alarm. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not sitting around playing giggly girlfriend while Luca is in danger. If he’s here, I’ll find him. We’re depending on you, Paolo. Time to show us what you’re made of.” She drew in a breath, inhaled the delicious smell from the kitchen again. Ray had said Garcia had made the dish for a private dinner. Jeff was bringing his meal over to her house tonight …
No. She was jumping to conclusions. She’d been to Jeff’s place and this wasn’t it. He lived in a two-bedroom condo only a few blocks from the station, and she and David had visited him many times. Why would he cook a meal here instead of at home where he had all his fancy pans and special ingredients? Jeff was an excellent cook and he’d treated them to many delicious meals. And Ray had revealed that Garcia hid his face because he’d been disfigured in an explosion. Jeff was a good-looking guy with not a scar on his face.
Still, she couldn’t ignore the warning niggle in her mind. On the off chance that her intuition had picked up on something that her mind couldn’t accept, she pulled out her phone and sent Jeff a quick text to tell him she was looking forward to dinner. But before she could even tuck her phone away, she heard the unmistakable sound of a Harley-Davidson engine … Jeff’s ringtone.
Her heart thudded so hard she thought it might break a rib. She sent a second text and a third, gesturing for Paolo to come as she followed the sound to a locked door down the hall. “Open it.”
Paolo quickly picked the lock and opened the door. Pulling out her .22, she edged inside. Jeff’s phone lay on the dresser, still lit up from her messages. His suit was lying on the bed, along with his LVPD-issue holster and his empty gym bag.
“Jeff is here,” she whispered.
“Hey! What are you doing in here? This room is off limits.”
Gabrielle startled at Ray’s shout. Taking a deep breath, she turned and played as innocent as she dared. “I was looking for the bathroom.”
“Together?” He glared at Paolo who had turned sheet white.
“He just came to tell me I was going the wrong way when I heard the sound of a motorcycle and opened the door. I love motorcycles. I thought maybe it was the door to the garage and I wanted to take a peek.” She crossed the floor to Ray and put a gentle hand on his arm. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have been so nosy, but the door was unlocked.”
He grunted, but didn’t pull away. “No motorcycles here. It’s a ring tone.”
“It’s the coolest ring tone ever. It went on and on.” She gave his arm a squeeze, guessing he had a soft spot for eighteen-year-old girls in tight pink clothes. “Is it yours?”
“No.” He grabbed the phone off the dresser and closed the door behind them on the way out, ushering them back to the living room. “Stay in there.” He pointed to the tan leather couches. “I’m just gonna take this downstairs, and I’ll be right back.”
“On the floor.” Gabrielle gestured Paolo down after Ray left. “Listen where he goes. I’m going to text again. Tell me when you hear an engine roar.”