Trained To Kill (23 page)

He paced around her living room. In
truth, her penthouse was a little cold to him.

Isa and DeCarlo emerged from the
kitchen and she came and stood next to Alex. He knew she didn’t
want him to feel threatened by DeCarlo, and he appreciated the
gesture.

He lifted a questioning eyebrow at
her. She shook her head almost imperceptibly.

Rafael was watching them and he
laughed, “Isadora, I hope you understand that I won’t
stop.”

“
If you insist, but at
this point I’m going to be looking into myself.”

“
I understand.”

Alex almost felt sorry for the guy. He
obviously felt like shit for not being able to protect her at the
moment. But he said he wasn’t giving up, so Alex could tell he
wasn’t feeling sorry for himself.

“
We could work together if
you would allow it, Coltello is very good.”

“
We’ll see what
happens.”

Rafael left with nothing more to
say.

“
So?”

“
Rafael underestimated
him. Carmine almost killed him, but he had Coltello with him so
they got out.”

“
What about
you?”

“
Carmine said he had
finally found something Rafael loved, and he wouldn’t stop until I
was dead.”

“
Jesus. What did Rafael do
to him anyway?”

“
He wouldn’t tell
me.”

“
Wonderful. So now
what?”

“
What do you think young
Padawan?”

“
Intel?”

“
Exactly.”

They went back to the
office.

“
I’ve already got the
basics.”

“
I figured.”

“
Now we just need to go a
little deeper and find what friends he has, and what he’s been up
to.”

“
So how do we do
that?”

“
You tell me.”

Alex pushed away and paced to think.
This wasn’t his area of expertise. He knew the streets. He could go
intimidate thugs, but the computer was Isa’s territory.

“
You’re going to hack into
his financials like you did DeCarlo?”

“
Yes, and you are going to
hit the streets. Carefully. If he knows about DeCarlo, he
definitely knows about you.”

“
Right.”

“
If he could do that to
Rafael, there’s no telling what he can do to us.”

“
Why did Rafael go with
only one guy?”

“
It’s not just about
muscle, right? It was a power play. Rafael was saying he didn’t
find Carmine a threat. Carmine hurting Rafael was an insult, and
the only reason he could do that is if he felt he was well
protected from Rafael.”

“
I get it. He was saying
'fuck you; I can do what I want because I have friends in higher
places than yours'.”

Isa smiled at him. “That’s an advanced
class.”

Alex smirked. “Mob relations aren’t
exactly my area of expertise, but I am a cop. I understand the
politics of crime.”

“
I know you
do.”

“
Right, so where do we
start?”

Isa looked at him sideways.

“
You’re going to do
something illegal aren’t you?”

“
Maybe.”

Alex struggled with the ethics. “I’m
gonna go find something else to do then. Give you
space.”

Isa was already hacking, so she just
waved him away. He definitely wasn’t in the advanced class with
computers yet. Checking the streets for info on Carmine wasn’t
something he could just go do. Something like that would take some
time. He needed to find contacts, or his buddies’ contacts that he
could semi-trust.

When Alex got home he decided to go
for a run. Isa’s training would keep him in shape, but he had been
running since Junior High, he needed to run to clear his head.
They’d gone together a few times, and he liked it a lot. But,
sometimes he needed to go alone.

He laced up his Asics, shrugged his
favorite hoodie over his sweater and a beanie on his head and took
off out the front door.

He had been running for about 10
minutes when he felt someone pacing him. He slowed down to listen,
and the footsteps slowed down. He glanced over his shoulder but
couldn’t see who was running. He turned left and ran down a side
street he hadn’t been down before, but Alex knew New York. He could
come out on any side street and find his way back.

When the footsteps followed him he
cursed. He didn’t panic yet though; it could still be just a
jogger. He continued to wind around a circuitous route and they
kept following. After another 15 minutes, he slowed down to a light
jog and turned a corner and stopped in a doorway, he was cursing
himself for leaving his off duty piece behind. Especially since he
knew Carmine was after them. But he hated the weight of it when he
ran. It was distracting. He waited, breathing shallowly to listen.
The steps slowed. They were listening for him. Shit. Pulling out
his cell phone, he text Isa and Merrick his location with a ‘911’.
He didn’t dare call 911 and give away his location to the jogger.
He just prayed one of them looked up from their work long enough to
see his message in case things with his jogger went
south.

He heard the footsteps closer. Steps
now, no more jogging. They paused and listened every so often.
Closer still. Alex was already benefiting from Isa's training. He
was hyper aware of his surroundings and what the jogger was doing.
They were looking around corners and behind dumpsters, he could
hear the top of the dumpster he had passed being lifted up and the
let down slowly. He waited. Waited for them to get closer. Alex
could feel them about to turn the corner. Alex kicked out and
connected with the jogger's side. He didn't want to maim blindly,
it could still be nothing. But it was definitely something when the
jogger recovered quickly, too quickly, from Alex's kick and stood
on a defensive stance. He recognized it as Muay Thai. Another of
Isa's lessons. He was about to get his ass handed to
him.

"Stop." Alex said forcefully. "I'm
NYPD. Back away and put your hands on your head." The man didn't do
as he said.

Rather than repeat himself and sound
like an idiot Alex asked, "Did you hear me? Speak
English?"

"I hear you asshole."

"Then what do you want? Why are you
following me?"

"To fuck you up."

"Oh really?"

The man grinned at Alex and continued
to stand in his defensive stance.

"On whose orders?"

"Nobody's man, I'm just
crazy."

"Yea right."

"Come on pussy, let's see and see what
you got. I'd love to fuck up that pretty face."

Alex really wasn't suicidal. But he
wasn't going to stand there all night either. He had been in his
fair share of fights long before he met Isa. He could take
it.

They faced off squarely in the
alleyway. The man was Asian, about 5'10", solid muscles. Isa had
helped him hone a few moves he was already good at, but they hadn't
been at it long for him to be as good as her, or Mr. Muay Thai
apparently.

He waited for him to make the first
move. It had started to snow at some point.

Jogger came at him low and fast. Alex,
barely had time to step out of the way, but when he tried to turn,
he felt a blow to the back of his knee.

Shit, shit. Motherfucker that
hurt.

He limped away, facing the man once
again, his arms up in defense. Jogger came again but Alex was ready
this time, he kicked out with his left leg, but it was a feint. His
right leg came up out of nowhere and connected with the side of
Jogger's shoulder, knocking him off balance. It might not have hurt
as much, but at least he knew Alex was no cake walk.

“
Ah, Pretty Boy knows a
few moves? Good. It makes it interesting."

"Why don't you tell me who sent you?"
Alex didn't want to give away the fact that he knew it was Carmine,
in case they didn't know that Rafael had told them about
him.

"Your mother sent me
asshole."

Now Alex knew Jogger didn't know his
mother was dead, but that didn't stop Alex from charging at him
like a bull in Spain. He hated those jokes. His charge must have
surprised Jogger because he caught him in the gut and heard the
breath leave his lungs in an explosion. He landed on his ass in the
snow.

Alex was a good guy. He waited for
Jogger to get up. He was getting winded already thanks to his run.
Jogger couldn't breathe at all, but it didn't stop him from getting
back into defense while he tried to get air back in his
lungs.

Alex lifted an eyebrow, "Had
enough?"

Jogger glared at Alex.

"You're not ready to talk yet, I
understand. I used to be shy too."

Alex side-stepped and missed Jogger's
foot in his face by hairsbreadth.

He turned back again, when his other
foot came flying up. And once again, until the fucker caught him on
the side of the head. Alex managed to get his hand up just enough
to stop the kick from breaking his neck.

Alex went down in the snow hard. He
felt the rattle in his bones, and wasn't sure if he broke
something.

Jogger was not a good guy. He came
after Alex while he was down and Alex scooted back on his ass fast.
Not very dignified, but he didn't give a shit right now.

"NYPD! Freeze!"

Jogger took off like a shot with the
officer in hot pursuit. His partner stayed behind to check Alex,
but Alex waved her after her partner. She ran after him.

Alex lay back in the snow. He was
pretty sure his wrist was broken or sprained at least. Not too bad
considering he could be very dead right now. He might have a
concussion from that kick to the head, but he didn't think so. 10
minutes later Isa was there.

"Alex!" He heard her yell.

He lifted his arm and waved, staying
on the ground for another minute sounded like a good
idea.

"Hey Iz."

"Are you ok?"

"Mostly."

"Where are you hurt?"

As she was checking him over, the cops
came back empty handed and piss-spitting mad. "He got away
Sarge."

"Yea. He was a fast little
fucker."

"Sorry sir."

"Don't sweat it. He was a
professional."

"Yes sir."

Isa searched through the debris in the
alley until she came up with some stiff boards and she used her
handkerchief to tie them around his wrist to make a splint, which
impressed the hell out him, and his wrist felt slightly better. He
gave a description to the officers while the paramedics check him
over and had them send out an APB. He wasn't expecting anyone to
find him, but it was all he could do at the moment.

The paramedic gave him a slightly more
sterile wrist splint and told him to go get x-rays, but he didn't
think it was broken.

"Could be a hairline though," he said
cheerfully. "You know Sarge I think this makes the fifth time I've
worked on you."

"Oh yeah? Did you lose a
bet?"

The medic laughed and packed his bags,
taking off. Isa was standing sentinel close by, not
smiling.

Alex got up and limped over to Isa
wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “Hey, I’m ok,” he
said.

“
This time.”

“
Yeah, I know. He wasn’t
playing around that’s for sure. You know the small amount of time
we’ve been training helped enormously.”

Isa looked up at him,
“Really?”

“
Yeah it did,” he said
smiling. “Just think what more will do.”

He succeeded in making her smile a
little. He was beginning to think making her smile was his new life
goal. Isa took him home. She had driven, she said, because she
wasn’t exactly sure where he was and her GPS was in her car. “I
called the police first, in case anyone was near you.”

“
Then you saved my
life.”

She looked over at him after she put
the car in park. “Next time take your gun.”

“
I will. I
promise.

Chapter 29

She was dressed all in black: Black
watch-cap to hide her blonde hair, black turtle neck, black cargo
pants, matching flack-vest and black boots that were made
especially for her. They were reinforced but not overly heavy,
perfect for kicking in heads and knee caps.

She had called in a favor and stood in
the shadows with The Ghost outside Carmine’s New York townhouse. He
too was dressed all in black, and barely said two words the entire
time they were staking it out. He was an eerie fellow, but he was
all she had since Alex was injured. She hated leaving him behind
but what else could she do? He was no good with a broken wrist and
bum knee. She was nothing if not practical. Rafael had been pleased
she had called him for help. She tried not to think about the
repercussions, but she knew there would be plenty.