Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Idon’t want to leave Lia alone at the beach house, but if my plan is going to work I have to keep her squirreled away until I bury Saul. Either in jail or in a coffin. Either way, I need to keep Lia out of sight.

The minute I’m in my car, I get on the phone. It doesn’t take long for Armande to pick up.

‘This is stupid.’ His words come through the car’s speaker loud and clear.

‘I’m trying to keep her safe. Line secure?’

Armande groans. ‘Line secure. We have a team watching the beach house from the fucking water, Valley. The fucking water. On a Goddamn boat. Do you know how much this shit is fucking costing us?’

‘Yes. I signed the checks. Did Saul call Jimmy yet?’ I ask him.

‘Yeah. I have their conversation recorded. This feels, I don’t know, Val, like ratting. I don’t like this. Setting up a don⁠—’

I stop him. ‘Did he not try to kidnap Lia while I was there? And if I’d been asleep, don’t you think those assholes would have put a bullet in me?’

He sighs. ‘It’s been weeks of this shit. Sorry, Val, I forgot how this shit started.’

‘You need a break? Does Jimmy have any limbs left or are you taking your time?’ I ask him. The way that I like pain is the way that he enjoys giving it.

‘He’s still breathing. I haven’t had any real fun with him yet since we were waiting for that call from Saul. What else do you need from me?’ he asks.

‘Have the parents meet me at the office tomorrow.’

‘It’s Saturday, Val.’

‘Armande, don’t piss me off. Saturdays are perfect for them and that’s what we need this to be, right? Perfect for the Bonetti family, to get them safe and get Saul out of their lives so I can be with the woman I love.’

‘Love? That’s a development. Didn’t know it was love, Valley, boy. Are you sure this isn’t just infatuation with one of Saul’s playthings? How much does she know about you? Does she really know Don Barrone? What he’s capable of, what the fuck he’s been doing to keep her pretty little ass safe?’

‘Armande.’

‘Does she know?’ he asks, almost with a hint of anger in his question.

‘She has an idea. She was there. She’s seen what I can do.’

He grunts. ‘That’s the tip of the fucking iceberg. This girl is going to be the death of this family.’

‘Enough!’ I shout, the monster hiding within scratches at the surface, but I don’t want to be that guy with Armande. ‘I know, I know you’re just doing your job⁠—’

He cuts me off this time. ‘My job? You think I’ve taken bullets for my fucking employer, my employment, my fucking job? You think I’ve severed … fuck you, Valentino. I’ll make sure everything you want done is done. After this shit, I’m taking a vacation.’

‘Make sure you put in your request to HR.’

‘Oh, you want to be funny. Laugh at this. Saul’s proof of product is your girl’s left middle finger. That’s what he wants Jimmy to fucking send you. You know what the end result is. He never intended to let her live, Val.’

‘So why are you giving me so much shit?’

‘Because losing her would kill you! You think Saul’s going to stop. He has you. He has this family because you had to go fucking fall in love. She’s a liability unless she can take care of herself.’

‘If it makes you feel any better, she’s got a mean right hook. I got a new busted lip as proof.’

‘For fuck’s sake. Keep your kinky shit to yourself. Val, listen, you know I’m only looking out for you. It’s all I know how to do. You, you’re the only family I got. I can’t have you fall apart over this girl. We’ve worked too hard building Barten to what it is now to throw it all away over Saul fucking Caputo. The list of guys who want this grease monkey in the ground is longer than my dick. We can literally have anyone else take him out. It doesn’t have to be you. We don’t have to be the ones pulling the trigger.’

I get it. ‘He made me agree to stay out of his business and as a reward for my cooperation, he tries to kidnap a woman he agreed to stay away from. He broke into her home. He’s been threatening her and her parents. He set them up and let some animal assault her mother. If Eddie Bonetti hadn’t stabbed that prick, it might be her in the piling instead of one of Saul’s goons. He’s going to regret ever asking for Lia’s middle finger.’

‘Fine. Where do you want the finger to come from?’ Armande asks as if I can pick a grocery store for him to shop at.

‘Jimmy’s left fucking pinky.’

Armande groans. ‘Fine. I hope you can fucking act because Saul’s going to know if you don’t explode over this shit.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll set off so many fucking fireworks La Familia will have to call a meeting to settle this shit. Take his finger just for shits and giggles. I gotta visit Underwood.’

‘He’s such a fuckin’ creep. You can’t get a body from anyone else?’

‘Who? Armande, if you have anyone else who works at the county morgue, please let me know. All of the funeral parlors Pop used to keep on payroll have gone belly up.’

Armande laughs.

‘It’s not funny, shithead.’

‘It’s a little funny. You’re so fucking touchy. I gotta go cut a finger off. Do you need anything else?’

I sigh. ‘Be nice to her parents, please. I kind of want them to like us.’

‘Fuckin’ shit, you really do like this girl. Fine.’ Armande hangs up before I can ask him to do anything else.

The rest of the drive leaves me alone with my thoughts as I head into Manhattan from Long Island. I should go home, but I want to go back to the beach house to sleep with Lia. I have a stop to make. My hope is to prevent what happened the last time Lia spoke to Cecilia.

Three hard pounds on a door has someone scrambling behind it. I can hear the hustle of voices and people trying to get their shit together before opening the door. My voice booms in the hallway as I bark out commands. ‘Open the door, Cee-Cee. It’s Valley.’

‘I’m not supposed to be here. Shit. This isn’t how we were supposed to meet,’ someone says in a frantic tone.

‘First of all, fucking relax. Second, go put some pants on,’ Cecilia urges her guest before she opens the door, wearing a man’s button-up shirt like a dress. She fluffs her bangs as if that’s going to make her more presentable. Her blonde hair falls loosely around her shoulders as she steps aside to let me into her condo.

‘It’s after midnight, Valley. What are you doing here?’ she says, stopping me from stepping any further inside than the entryway.

‘I need to go over the plan for tomorrow and I couldn’t do it over the phone.’

She glances over her shoulder. The living room and kitchen take up most of the square footage with a single hallway leading to the other half of the condo. Her bedroom is at the end of the hallway where the door is slightly closed. There’s a sliver of light emanating from the cracks of the door with a shadow pacing behind it.

‘We can’t talk about this now. I’m entertaining. It’s fucking Friday night and I haven’t gotten laid⁠—’

I hold my hand up to stop her. ‘I don’t need to know anything about my little sister’s sex life.’

She grabs me by the chin, tipping my face up toward the light, raising an eyebrow. ‘Right, whereas you get to walk around wearing yours on your face. Again, Val? Is it going to be as bad as the last time?’

‘No.’ I swat her hand away from me. ‘I need you to be careful tomorrow. Armande’s bringing them to the office. He’s using the underground parking garage to bring them to the back door of that conference room. You have to use the same way to get in and out. I have no idea if Caputo has eyes on the family. I mean, he should, considering he’s kidnapped Lia. Your friend is still coming, right?’

‘Yes, I am,’ a voice says from down the hall.

Cecilia’s shoulders sag. ‘Come out, Jeff.’

I shake my head as the slender man emerges from her bedroom in a pair of my sister’s pajama pants.

‘Agent Jeff Darwin—’ Cecilia begins her introductions but I stop her, holding my hand up.

‘No, we’re not meeting right now. Especially not with him wearing that. You’re simply granting him access to my office space. Be nice to the Bonetti family. Take good care of them. The conversations and evidence of kidnapping will be waiting for you in that office. I can have Lia meet with you afterward. Are you sure that you can take them into protective custody right away?’

Agent Jeff nods, but there’s a twitch of hesitation in his eyes.

‘What?’ I ask him.

‘Keeping this as quiet as we have, I spoke with my superior and there’s only enough in the budget for the parents. Technically, the crimes that are happening are only happening to the parents, so they’re the ones going into custody. We’re already doing a lot by overlooking the manslaughter on their part. Honestly, if Saint Bartholomew’s wasn’t one of the cardinal’s favorite churches of the archdiocese, we’d be digging up those pilings to drag that body out. There are some political motivations behind this⁠—’

‘I’m not here to discuss what you want to do or could have done to maintain relationships. I’m here to make sure that the Bonetti family is safe from Saul Caputo. He’s kidnapped Lia and once she’s released, you need to take her into custody with her parents,’ I argue with the agent, but I can see Cecilia’s eyes growing wide with concern.

‘Listen, Barrone,’ Jeff says, ‘we can appreciate Lia Bonetti’s predicament. Yes, kidnapping is the FBI’s jurisdiction, but the larger case against Saul Caputo falls under RICO. Have her parents actually called in the kidnapping?’

‘No,’ I admit. ‘I don’t think they received the message yet. They probably won’t until tomorrow morning. By then, they should be with you and I should have my team in place to rescue her.’

‘See? Look at you, CEO of Barten, using your company’s resources for the benefit of a young woman in dire straits. Negotiating a kidnapping is just going to muck up the FBI’s case against Caputo. If you have a body at the end of it, then great. We’ll add the extra murder to the indictment and mention it was the result of a botched ransom delivery. But if Lia’s alive, then you can hide her. She doesn’t have enough to go into WITSEC.’

Anger bubbles as Cecilia jumps between us. She tries reasoning with me. ‘I know you wouldn’t have done all of this if she weren’t going to be protected, Valley. I’m just finding this out now.’

‘I just found this out,’ Jeff admits, mumbling under his breath. ‘That’s how I ended up here. Came as soon as I got off work. My higher ups aren’t going to protect anyone but the parents. To be honest, I had to fight to get the husband in on it too since technically he didn’t do anything but mishandle a dead body.’

‘Thanks for the heads up, Cecilia.’

‘Valley’—her tone is one of disappointment—’you know this is not my fault. I’m doing everything I can.’

‘I can see that. You two enjoy your night.’ I tip my head to them and walk out of my sister’s condo.

I have work to do. The sun’s going to rise before I finish gathering all the evidence I need to hand over to Agent Jeff and his cronies. While I’d never willingly cooperate with law enforcement, Saul’s actions have to get him into trouble with the feds. It’s the easiest way to stop a war, protect Lia’s parents, and get Saul out of their lives.

There’s also the monumental task of convincing Saul Caputo that Lia Bonetti is dead.