Lawless: Mob Boss Book Three (16 page)

S
he stood
near the door and scanned the darkened room. It was a big space, with plenty of room for the wall to wall bookshelves, sofa and loveseat, antique carved desk, wing chairs, and liquor cabinet, plus several small tables. When her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she crossed to the desk.

There was a leather blotter and a cup with pens, scissors, and a letter opener, but no computer. She opened the drawers, rifling through paperclips and receipts, phone chargers and computer cables. She even found an external hard drive in the top drawer.

But no computer.

She looked around the room, weighing her options. After a brief hesitation, she held onto the hard drive and started searching the rest of the study. Fifteen minutes later, panic was getting the best of her. Unless she was missing it, there was no computer in Sean Murdock’s study. She’d checked the desk twice, the bookshelves, the liquor cabinet, even the end tables around the sofa.

Shit.

“There’s no computer in here,” she said, knowing the mic would pick it up.

“Nothing?” Luca’s voice.

“An external hard drive,” she said. “But no way to check and see what's on it.”

“Think you can get to Murdock’s bedroom?” Luca asked. “That’s the next most likely place for his computer.”

“Negative.” Nico. “Hayes just walked up the stairs. Get out of there.”

Her blood turned cold as she thought about the lascivious stare of the Murdock’s head of security. It had been almost punishing, like looking at her made him angry and he couldn’t wait to take it out on her.

“What about the file?” she asked.

“Take the hard drive,” Nico said. “And get out of there.”

“Copy.” She stuffed the hard drive in her bag, frustration threatening to overtake her. She’d finally decided to put the past behind her and their ticket to freedom was nowhere to be found.

“Keep an eye out for…”

But the rest of his words were lost as the door to the study swung open. Ian Hayes stood in the doorway, backlit by the lights from the hall.

“Well, well, well,” he said. “Doing a little exploring?”

“I was looking for a phone actually,” she said. “Mine’s dead, and it’s so noisy downstairs.”

The lie rolled smoothly off her tongue. She would have been proud of herself if there had been any sign it was going to do her any good.

Hayes shut the door with an ominous click and advanced into the dark room. She forced herself not to back up, not to look scared or guilty, as she clutched her bag — and the hard drive inside of it — close to her body. Whatever happened, she had to get it out of the compound.

“Why am I finding it hard to believe you came up here just for a phone?” Hayes said, running a hand absent-mindedly along the back of the sofa as he came closer to her position in front of the desk.

She smiled. “Probably because no modern girl would let her cell phone die at the hottest party of the year.”

“Or maybe because you’re here with Vitale,” he said, still advancing. “And because you were in Rome, nosing around McDermott.”

She didn’t bother lying. “That was a favor for Raneiro Donati.”

She knew immediately that the name wouldn’t have the same effect with Hayes that it had with Murdock’s men in Rome. He just smiled, like he was bored, and kept walking until his body was up against hers, her ass pressed against the edge of Sean Murdock’s desk.

“The funny thing is I almost didn’t come in here.” He held up something in front of her face. “Then I saw this.”

It was her hairpin, and she remembered dropping the tension wrench, bending down to pick it up, the piece of loose hair she’d secured — obviously with one of the other pins.

She shrugged. “Sucks being a girl sometimes.”

The feel of his erection through his trousers gave her a flashback to Dante and the time he had almost assaulted her in the basement of Nico’s headquarters. That it sucked being a girl sometimes was the understatement of the century, and she could only hope Nico and Luca were picking up the conversation and had a plan for getting her out of there before Marco and Elia stormed the house.

His eyes dropped to her breasts, and she took advantage of the opportunity to look for something she could use as a weapon. The desk lamp was out of reach, but she might be able to get to the letter opener. It would be messy though, counter to their plan to get in and out with no one the wiser until Murdock found the Darknet file missing.

She cringed as Hayes slid a hand up her thigh, his palm cold and clammy against her bare skin. She pushed at his chest, but he just moved in closer, pulling up her dress, wedging himself between her thighs.

“You really don’t want to do this,” she said.

He ground his hard-on into her, and she felt bile rise in her throat. No one was allowed to touch her like this but Nico.

No one.

She turned her head, reached for the letter opener. Hayes’s hand had found its way to the cleft between her legs, and she went cold as he pulled her panties aside. The letter opened was almost in her hand. Almost…

She was preparing herself for the assault of his fingers, imagining how good it would feel to sink the letter opener into the bastard’s belly, when he suddenly disappeared from in front of her. It took her a few seconds to orient herself, to realize he was now on the floor, a beast of a man hunched over him, punching him in the face again and again.

Nico.

“Motherfucker,” he muttered, Hayes’s bones crouching under the force of the blows.

She was frozen, still clutching the bag holding the hard drive in one hand, and improbably, the letter opener in the other. When had she gotten her hand around it? She thought vaguely that Nico might kill the man turning bloody under his fists, but then someone else was there, pulling Nico off the ruined face that belonged to Hayes.

“We need to get out of here,” Luca said to him. “Okay?”

Nico was breathing hard, his eyes glazed over, but he nodded. He turned to Angel, gently smoothing her dress before taking her in his arms.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said. She was dimly aware that she might not be fine later, but they needed to get the hard drive out of Murdock’s house before someone realized Hayes was missing.

“You guys got her?” It was Elia’s voice in her headset.

“Confirmed,” Luca said.

He bent to Hayes’s body, felt for a pulse, then pulled something from the unconscious man’s ear. “He’s alive, and he disconnected his mic, probably to keep the other guards from hearing what he was about to do.” Rape her. That’s what Luca meant — what Hayes had been about to do. “That buys us some time.”

Nico took her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Do you have the hard drive?” Luca asked.

She nodded, clutching the bag harder to keep from shaking.

“Let’s go.”

Luca checked the hallway before giving them the signal that it was clear. Then they were out of the study, closing the door behind them and heading for the staircase. They emerged into the busy kitchen and moved calmly through the throng of cooks and servers, all of them acting like they had every business being there.

They emerged into the grand hall and threaded their way through the thinning crowd. It was late, and some of the guests had already started to leave. They were almost to the door when someone spoke loudly behind them.

“Leaving us so soon?”

They stopped, turned around. Sean Murdock stood near the stairs, his expression unreadable. She saw Nico’s hand shift toward his waist, knew he’d draw his gun if it came to it, even though they’d planned to avoid it to protect the party guests.

“I’m afraid so,” Nico said. “But it’s been…enlightening. I had no idea your interests were so varied.”

Sean smiled, and in the pause that followed, Angel prepared to get out of the way. If Nico drew his gun, chaos would ensue. Luca would be right behind him, and it would only be a matter of moments before Marco and Elia appeared to assist. They were better off not having to worry about her.

“Well,” Sean finally said. “It’s important to give back, don’t you think?”

Nico didn’t say anything right away, and Angel was painfully aware of the passing seconds. They needed to get off the property and into the van with Marco and Elia before someone figured out Ian Hayes was missing.

Nico’s jaw twitched, and she knew he was reigning in his temper. Sean was the worst kind of liar. One who hid behind good deeds that would never be enough to make up for the misery he brought to the world.

“Absolutely,” Nico said. “In fact, it’s something I’m putting a lot of thought into these days. You’re quite the inspiration.”

Sean opened his arms. “Just doing my part.”

“Good luck with that,” Luca said.

And then they were out the door, heading past the valet and toward the gates.

N
ico put
his arms around Angel as soon as they were inside the van. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She nodded, and he grabbed a blanket that was folded on the floor and put it around her shoulders. He looked into her eyes, and the shock and fear there made him want to turn around, tear Sean Murdock and every one of his men apart.

“I will never let anyone hurt you,” he told her. “Never. Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Where’s the hard drive?” Luca asked gently.

Angel opened her bag, pulled out the small blue device and handed it to him. “I don’t know what’s on it,” she said. “There was no computer.”

Marco climbed into the back while Elia sped toward the airport. He opened a laptop and connected the hard drive from Sean’s office.

“What am I looking for?” he asked.

“Something called Darknet,” Nico said.

“Hold on.” Marco tapped at the keys.

Nico glanced at Elia in the driver’s seat, his face illuminated by the lights on the dash. “How are we doing?” Nico asked him.

Elia checked the rearview mirror. “So far, so good.”

Nico knew firsthand how influential well placed bribes could be. Dublin was Sean’s territory. None of them would rest easy until they were out of the country.

Marco handed him the laptop. “This what you’re looking for?”

Nico looked at the dates and names on the screen, then continued to a seemingly endless list of weaponry, from handguns to automatics, grenades to RPGs. Next to each entry was a quantity and numbers that looked like coordinates. The location of the weapons cache in question, Nico guessed.

“This is exactly what we’re looking for,” he said, his eyes still on the screen.

“That’s some heavy shit, boss.”

Nico nodded. “It is indeed some heavy shit.”

Raneiro had been right; Sean Murdock was much more — or less — than a software genius. He’d been brokering weapons deals to some of the most savage warlords around the world — people Nico had seen on the news raping and pillaging, preventing countries in turmoil from establishing law and order and honest governments. They were power hungry thugs with access to weaponry usually reserved for countries with military budgets in the billions. Sean Murdock had made it all accessible to anybody with enough cash, and from the names on the list, it was cash that had been accumulated drug running and trafficking. He wondered how many of the people on the list had benefactors within the governments of first world countries. It was information that could change the face of law and order all over the world, that could free people from fear of death at the hands of tyrants, that could stabilize countries in the midst of civil wars.

He’d been fooling himself to think there was a clean way of conducting his business. Had been rationalizing by telling himself he was mitigating the damage. Maybe he hadn’t sanctioned weapons sales to vicious killers the way Sean Murdock had done, but Nico had done his share of illegal things. Picking and choosing which income streams were palatable was just a way to justify how he’d made his living. How his father had made a living. These were the kinds of people in the world of the Syndicate — the world he’d been part of.

People like Sean Murdock. Like Raneiro Donati.

He looked over at Angel, her face turned to the window. She was the only pure thing in his life, and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to be worthy of her. To spend his life proving he was a good enough man to stand by her side. He’d almost destroyed them both.

Now it was time to make it right.

A
ngel understood
why Nico trusted Braden Kane the moment he walked into the hotel room in Monaco. He was tall and broad shouldered — so muscular he could have held his own with any of Nico’s men. But it was his eyes that got Angel’s attention. They were warm and green, the color of moss. Angel knew instinctively that he was a good man.

“You ready for this?” he asked Nico.

Nico nodded. “Raneiro’s deadline is the day after tomorrow. I don’t want to risk setting it up too late.”

“We’ll do our due diligence by tracing his location, but if all goes according to plan, it won’t matter; we’ll take him into custody once he’s incriminated himself with the Darknet file,” Kane said.

“Do you have the agreement?” Nico asked him.

Kane withdrew a folded set of papers from his pocket and handed them to Nico. “It’s all there. Amnesty for your people, per your request, and a promise that we’ll only seek to prosecute the people at the top of the Syndicate.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t easy.”

Nico nodded. “I appreciate it.” He tipped his head to the papers in his hand. “Mind if I take a look?”

“Not at all.”

Angel walked to the balcony door and looked out over the Mediterranean while Nico unfolded the papers. They’d chosen Monte Carlo for its proximity to Rome, almost certainly Raneiro’s choice of meeting places, and its relative quiet. Luca had moved on, his location undisclosed, as had Marco and Elia. They’d parted ways at the Dublin airport, and Angel had been overcome with a feeling of loss. Would she ever see them again? Would they be okay?

She hoped so. They deserved a new beginning, too.

“How are you holding up?”

She turned to find Kane standing next to her, studying her with his forest green eyes. “I’m okay. Ready to have this over with.”

He nodded. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“And you’re sure you’ll be able to get my brother out of Maine?” she asked.

She’s checked in with David when they arrived in Monaco, and while she hadn’t been able to give him details, he knew they were going to have to leave the country. She’d been surprised by his response.

“I think I’m ready for a change of scenery anyway, Ange.”

It had made her smile. He sounded like his old self, and she was actually starting to believe they might really have another chance to begin again.

“We’ll get him out,” Kane said. “Nico definitely made it easier for us by keeping him on the island.”

The island. Another thing that would probably be lost to them forever. Then again, she was starting to learn there was nothing new without the shedding of something old. Maybe that’s how it was supposed to be. You could only carry so much before it got difficult to move forward at all.

“Just be careful with him,” she said. “he’s been through a lot, too.”

“You have my word.” He hesitated. “You know where you want to go yet?”

She smiled. “We have an idea.”

He nodded.

“Looks good,” Nico said behind them. They turned around to face him. “Where do I sign?”

Kane crossed the room and pointed to the line at the bottom of the agreement and its matching copy. When it was all done, he pocketed one and handed one to Nico. Then he held out his hand. Nico shook it.

“Let’s do this, partner,” Kane said.

He picked up a Tracphone, then attached headphones to it. He handed one of the earbuds to Angel and put one in his own ear. Nico met Angel’s eyes, then dialed. Angel listened to the phone ring in Rome.

“Who is this?” a smooth voice asked on the other end of the phone.

“It’s me,” Nico said. “I have what you asked for.”

“So I heard,” Raneiro said. “Apparently you made quite an impression in Dublin.”

“I did what was necessary to secure the file, per your request. Now I want your assurance that we’ll walk — me, Angelica Rossi, her brother, and anyone else who works for me that wants out.”

Kane met her eyes. Nico was going through the motions, asking the questions Raneiro would expect him to ask if he was concerned about securing his freedom. If he weren’t working with the FBI.

“Of course,” Raneiro said. “We had a deal.”

“How do I know you’ll honor it?” Nico asked.

“I suppose you’ll simply have to trust me.”

“You haven’t made that easy to do,” Nico said.

“Be that as it may, I don’t see that you have a choice.”

Nico hesitated. “Fine. When and where?”

“Let’s stay on schedule and call it the day after tomorrow at eleven PM,” he said. “The dock we use for shipments in Rome. You remember the one?”

“I do,” Nico said.

“Fine. I’ll see you then. And Nico?”

“Yes?”

“Bring the girl.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal,” Nico said.

“It is now.”

“Not if I say it isn’t.”

“I”m afraid you’re overestimating your bargaining power,” Raneiro said.

“Why?” Nico asked. “She has nothing to do with this. I have what you want.”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. “I will admit that you have reason to distrust me. But I also have reason to be nervous. How do I know you don’t plan to kill me?”

“If I want to kill you, having Angelica Rossi there won’t stop me.”

“Perhaps. But you are nothing if not a gentleman, Nico. And no gentleman wants the woman he loves caught in the crossfire, especially when it’s already happened once before.”

“How do I know you won’t hurt her?” Nico asked. “You’re only making our trust issues more complicated.”

Raneiro chuckled, and a chill ran up Angel’s spine. “It’s too late to hope that our relationship will be simple. Bring the girl and the file. Otherwise you’re both dead.”