Seeing Love: Saints Protection & Investigations (27 page)

Leaning down the rest of the way, Bart settled his lips onto hers in a barely there, gentle kiss that left no doubt in her mind that it was a kiss of promise.

By the time she opened her eyes, he had moved silently out of the room with Jack and Cam, leaving a smiling Bethany in their wake.

It did not take long for the two women to get Faith’s skirt and blouse back on. Her tights were shredded so they ended up in the trash. Bethany squatted to slip Faith’s sensible flats onto her feet. “It’s cold outside, but Cam will bring Bart’s truck around to the entrance. Then Cam’ll ride back with us while Bart takes you home.”

The simple act of dressing had Faith’s head pounding once more and her abrasions stung. By the time the nurse came in with the discharge forms and instructions, she would have signed a pact with the devil to get out of the hospital and back into her own bed.
Oh yeah, I can’t go home yet.
She quickly decided Bart’s bed was even better.

*

The ride home
was silent, but not uncomfortable. Bart shucked his jacket, making a pillow for Faith’s head before they pulled out of the hospital parking lot. She knew she should not doze off, but it felt nice to rest her eyes from the glaring lights.

He cut his eyes over to her often, making sure she was not asleep. He wanted to talk, but did not trust his temper.
Fuckin’ hell! Someone’s gonna pay for hurting her,
he vowed.

Later that afternoon, he tucked her into his bed telling her to rest, but that he would be waking her often. She smiled wanly up at him, touching his heart.

Walking back downstairs, he called Jack. “Tell me you got something, boss.” A sigh on the other end of the phone had Bart’s blood boiling.

“Nothing yet, but we need to meet. I’m sending everyone to your place, unless you have an objection.”

“No, come on over. Someone’s after Faith and it’s gotta be because of the Krustas case.”

Disconnecting, he checked on her before waiting back downstairs for the rest of the Saints to arrive.

Within thirty minutes, all of the Saints were settled around Bart’s large dining room table. Cam’s fiancé, Miriam, came also. As a nurse, she assured Bart that she would sit upstairs with Faith. Offering her a genuine hug, he kissed the top of her head. “Owe you, darlin’,” he said.

“Oh, please, Bart,” she said, rolling her eyes. “After all you did to help Cam rescue me, I hardly think you owe me anything.” Giving him a squeeze before winking at her fiancé, she headed upstairs.

Turning back to the group, he asked, “What have we got?”

“The witnesses told the PD that the sedan was black with dark-tinted windows and they corroborated Faith’s story that it changed lanes to go straight for her. There’re no cameras at that light. There are cameras around the block focusing on the elementary school, but not on the intersection.”

“Fuck,” Bart cursed. “There’s no way she can get run down in broad daylight and no one can figure out shit!”

“And the news gets worse. I talked to Mitch,” Monty added. “Ivan made another transfer of money this morning, but no word on Erik yet. Over a week now. Jesus, this sucks.”

Luke said, “I’ve been working around the clock to try to follow the money trail. I know my skills are better than what the FBI has, but it’s like someone is a step ahead of me. There’s some kind of blocking system that I’ve never seen.”

“While the field of suspects could be huge, it seems if someone is after Faith, then the culprit has to be someone that you two interviewed. Someone who feels that she’s on to something,” Jude said.

“So, are the FBI focusing on the Maldonis, Miguel, or the Volkovs?” Blaise asked, looking at Monty.

“My money’s on Sergio,” Bart said, his voice cold and hard.

The Saints looked at him, waiting to see what he would say.

“The other three want Krustas out of business, but Faith didn’t get a definite feeling about any of them, other than the criminals they are. But Sergio? She felt anger, betrayal, and even hurt over Ivan turning him over to the Feds. And this kidnapping bullshit? It’s personal. It’s goddamn personal.”

The others nodded in agreement while Luke’s fingers were tapping quickly on his keyboard.

Bart leaned forward, piercing them with his stare. “Ivan’s worth a shit ton of money. Yeah, these constant payments are hurting him, but it’s not going to take his business completely down. Someone wants his fucking money, they demand a couple of million right off the bat. But this? This is wanting to gut the man where it hurts. And that, to me, leaves Sergio.”

“Who were his cohorts before he was sent to prison?” Blaise asked.

Quickly sending the information out to their tablets, Luke said, “He had no one else in the family that was working on the takeover, but he had his own large crew of men, with a possible tie to Volkov.”

“What are they doing now that their leader is in prison?” Chad asked. “Or could Volkov be doing it for Sergio?”

Blaise spoke up. “I don’t see Volkov doing anything for Sergio. Sergio may still have power, but he’s got a long prison stay. They’re both ruthless leaders. I don’t see one wanting to work for the other.”

“According to Mitch, most of Sergio’s men integrated into other, smaller gangs, but the FBI is sure Sergio has sway on the outside with them…or others,” Cam added.

“Who’s had contact with him in prison?” Chad wondered as Luke pulled up the prison records.

“His lawyer is the only one who has visited. His mail and email are monitored, but it is assumed that anyone contacting him with that method has codes they use and hidden identity.”

“FBI follow up on any of it?” Marc prompted.

Monty shook his head. “Nah, it’s too much work and not enough manpower for the FBI to do that. They wanted Sergio, not his underlings. Ivan handed them what they wanted so as long as he’s in prison, they’re satisfied.”

“Fuck!” Bart exploded again, shoving his chair back in frustration. “I’ve got my girl upstairs, bruised and concussed, and I’ve got no fuckin’ clue who did this to her!”

The men around the table shared a smile as they looked at the big, blond amongst them.

“Your girl?” Cam asked, his white teeth gleaming against his tan skin as he looked at his best friend.

Bart’s gaze moved around the table as he slowly nodded his head. “Yeah. My girl.”

“Then I should go back and visit Sergio to see what feeling I get now,” came Faith’s soft voice from the middle of the stairs as she walked gingerly down with Miriam’s assistance, her eyes on Bart.

A
s the Saints
erupted in
Hell, no
and
Fuck that
, Faith stopped short of the bottom of the stairs, Miriam’s arm still around her waist.

Bart jumped up from the table, his chair scraping against the floor, and stalked over to where she was standing.

“Princess,” he forced his voice to gentle, “Why are you up?”

“Miriam had to wake me up and then I needed to…uh…” she blushed, leaning in to whisper, “go to the bathroom. We heard voices and I asked her to bring me down.”

Miriam had moved over to Cam, looking up apologetically. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I shouldn’t have let her come down.”

Cam hugged his fiancé, saying, “It’s okay, babe. Bart was going to have a hard time keeping her from knowing what we’re looking into.”

Jack came over to where Bart was standing with Faith tucked into his embrace. His eyes moved over her forehead, a bandage covering the stitches. “Faith,” he said softly, “you don’t need to go meet that piece of trash again.”

She met his gaze before slowly looking at the other men in the room. “I’m sure you don’t believe in the feelings that I get, but I’d like to keep working on this.” She twisted her head around to stare into Bart’s eyes, wincing in the process, and said, “Maybe this time I’ll be able to get us closer to finding Erik.”

“We’ll talk about it later, princess, but not now. Right now, you need to rest and heal,” Bart said, brushing her hair back from her face, seeing the dark circles underneath her eyes and the bruising showing at the edges of the bandage on her forehead.

Too tired to argue, she nodded and allowed him to sweep her off her feet as he carried her back to bed. Miriam followed, stepping out into the hall after he tucked the covers around Faith.

“Miriam, I need you to stay with her. Jack’s going to obtain special permission to go to the prison tonight even though it’ll be late when I arrive. I’m going to talk to Sergio myself.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Miriam promised.

“I’m asking Cam to stay with you two for protection while I’m gone. I’ll be back in the middle of the night so you two can stay in the guest room.”

“We’ll be fine,” she assured once more, patting him on the arm. “I’ll check her and make sure she’s well.”

Bart quietly entered his bedroom again, seeing Faith already in the large bed. Kneeling by the bed, he whispered, “I’m going out, but I promise to come back to our bed as soon as I can. Holding you through the night is the only thing I want to do.”

Bending over to kiss her lips in a feather-light touch, he admitted in a whisper, “I’m falling, princess. Falling hard for you.”

He stole out of the room and back down the stairs to the Saints.

Faith drifted off to sleep, a smile on her face.

*

This time, as
Bart sat at the grey table in the prison conference room, he had Jude sitting with him. Jude’s eyes darted around, trying to take in everything, until the guard entered the room with Sergio following behind. Glancing to the side, he adopted Bart’s nonchalant attitude, keeping his eyes on the prisoner.

Sergio shifted his eyes between the two large men before he sat down in the plastic chair across from them. His lips curved into a slow grin. “I see you brought someone else with you this time, big man. What happened to the pretty seer?”

Bart saw red, but refused to fall for Sergio’s dig. “You got something to hide from a seer?”

“Everybody’s got something to hide,” Sergio sneered.

The room was silent for a moment that uncomfortably stretched among the players. Jude said nothing, keeping his dark eyes on the prisoner. Bart was willing to let the silence continue until Sergio spoke, but the man sitting across from them appeared to have all the time in the world.
Fuck, he does have all the time to wait us out.

“I think you’ve got more than you told us,” Bart said. “I think you know exactly where Erik is and that’s why you’re afraid.”

Sergio laughed at that, throwing his head back. “You are searching, aren’t you, big man.” His face taking on a serious expression, he shook his head. “I’ll tell you this, but only because I’ve got nothing against the kid. You want to find him? Don’t look at me, ’cause I got nothing to do with it. You want to know…look closer.” The metal chair scraping against the tile floor screeched as Sergio pushed his seat back and stood. “Got nothing else for you, big man.”

*

The images seemed
to float among black, rolling clouds.
A storm’s coming.
Faces, mostly filled with anger, swept by. Her chest hurt, heart pounding in fear, as the faces from the past week continued to haunt her.