Caroline turned to look in the direction Rheyna was referring to, just as a horn blared. Annie’s ears perked up, and she barked at the darkly tanned man in swimming trunks waving from the bow.
“Hey, Caroline!” he yelled as the boat came to a stop less than ten feet away from them.
She smiled with recognition. “Hi, Phil. What are you doing out here?”
“Same as you, honey—working on my tan.”
Caroline frowned. “Where’s Jesse?”
“Speak of the devil,” Phil said, smiling at the gorgeous young man with blond highlights, coming from the other side of the boat.
Rheyna felt relief the minute she saw him. Her gaydar went off in full force. She had no doubt they were lovers.
“Hi, Caroline,” Jesse said cheerfully with a wave of his hand.
“Hey, Jesse.”
“Who’s your friend?” Phil asked, looking directly at Rheyna.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Phil, Jesse, meet Rheyna Moretti.” She turned to Rheyna. “Rheyna, I’d like you to meet two of my dearest friends. Doctor’s Phillip Lowry and Jesse Kar.”
Rheyna found it hard to hide the smile creeping at the corners of her mouth. “I’m pleased to meet you both,” she said.
Jesse smiled at Rheyna. “I love your name. I don’t think I’ve heard it before.”
“Thank you. I have my grandmother to thank for it.”
Rheyna knew they were sizing her up, and from the look on their faces, she was sure their gaydar had gone off as well.
Caroline lifted her glass to them. “Wanna join us?”
Phil shook his head. “I wish we could but we have to head back.”
“We’re both on call tonight,” Jesse chimed in and then asked, “Why don’t you two join us for dinner sometime next week?”
Caroline looked at Rheyna. Rheyna shrugged. “Sounds great to me.”
“Okay, then. I’ll give you a call later,” Jesse said over his shoulder before ducking back into the cabin.
Phil winked at Caroline. “You’ll have to bring Rheyna with you to our party.”
“Oh, Phil, that’s three months from now,” she teased.
A big smile crossed his face. “Since when is it too soon to plan for a party?” he asked.
“You’re incorrigible,” Caroline laughed.
Phil smiled and put the boat in gear. “See ya soon!” he yelled as the boat took off toward the Yacht Club.
“They seem very nice,” Rheyna said.
Caroline sat back down in her lounger. “They are.”
“Have you known them long?” Rheyna asked after Caroline refilled their glasses.
“Since I was seventeen. Jesse and Phil encouraged me to become a veterinarian.”
“They must be very good friends,” Rheyna said as she watched their boat get smaller and smaller.
“The best anyone could ask for.” Caroline took a sip of wine. “The party Phil was talking about is one they do every year to raise money for the Pediatric Aids wing at Children’s Hospital.” She set her glass on the table and stood up. “I’ll be right back. I have a surprise for you.” After a few minutes, she reappeared with an ice-cream cone and handed it to Rheyna.
Rheyna involuntarily groaned when she realized what flavor it was. “Moose tracks is my absolute favorite,” she managed to say between licks.
“I know,” Caroline said smugly.
“How do you know?” Rheyna asked, surprised at the revelation.
Caroline shrugged. “I overheard you tell Mom.”
Rheyna tried to keep up with the ice cream, but the sun was melting it faster than she could lick it. Annie, on the other hand, was not minding it a bit. A steady stream ran down Rheyna’s arm, falling off her elbow to the deck below, where Annie happily slopped it up. Rheyna grabbed the sides of her temple. “Oh … brain freeze. I can’t eat anymore,” she said, giving the rest of the cone to Annie.
Caroline picked up a napkin and leaned toward Rheyna. “You missed some,” she said softly, gently wiping off a small bit of ice cream near the corner of Rheyna’s mouth.
The act froze Rheyna to the spot. Her heart raced into overdrive. The roaring in her ears was so loud; she was convinced that Caroline could hear it.
I really need her to stop touching me
, she thought, raising her head to look at Caroline. Something was telling her that Caroline was feeling it, too—she could see it in her eyes.
Caroline was the first to break the contact. She got up and walked to the helm.
Maybe I just imagined it. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. Just maybe Caroline really didn’t know the effect she was having on me. Maybe you have a little too many maybes, she told herself. Maybe you should try focusing a little harder on the job you came here to do. “What’s happening to you, Rheyna?” she asked herself. You need to stop screwing around and act like the FBI agent that you are. The roar of the engine forced her to stop talking to herself.
“We need to get going because the sun will be setting soon,” Caroline said as she raised the anchor and put the boat in gear.
It took them a full hour to get back to the Yacht Club, and ten minutes after that, Rheyna and Annie were on their way home. She tried not to think about Caroline. She was fighting a losing battle. She had such a great time being alone with Caroline, and she hated for it to end. Once again, her thoughts turned to Jenny. “What am I gonna do, Jen?”
###
Don Carlos Massino, the head honcho of California’s crime family, was sitting at his favorite table in the back room of Barecci’s Restaurant. He listened intently to the voice on the other end of the telephone. His brow furrowed into a frown, his face and body visibly stiffened.
“I thought you should know,” Don Vitto Lucchese said through the other end of the phone.
Roberto watched Carlos shake his head, his anger very much evident by the stern set of his jaw.
“I thought as much. Thank you, Vitto. I won’t forget your loyalty,” he said, slamming the phone down on the cradle. He looked at Roberto. “Can you believe the nerve of that man? How can he possibly be stupid enough to think that the Commission, the Commission I chair, would take sides with him over me?”
Roberto nodded his head. “Yeah, he’s pretty ignorant and Henry told one of the boys he’s getting worse. You not attending Anastasia’s funeral has pushed him over the edge. He thinks you were disrespectful.”
“I know what the hell started it and it goes to show that Tony should keep his fat mouth shut if he doesn’t know all the facts.”
Roberto saw the hatred dancing around in Carlos’ eyes.
“I ought to go dig the son-of-a-bitch up and pump his rotting corpse full of holes. As far as I’m concerned, he and Tony are from the same fruit.”
Roberto clearly understood his boss’ rage. It would be a long, long time before he himself would forget the day Carlos found out the truth about his Under Boss, Salvatore Anastasia. The day he learned the truth was also the same day that Anastasia died.
Carlos’ granddaughter, Melinda Belotti had come to see him later that evening after hearing the news. She told Carlos that she had been keeping a dark, terrible secret for years, and had lived in agony over it. She fell into his arms, sobbing, and he had comforted her. He reassured her that it was all right, that she could tell him anything. After some gentle prodding, he got her to open up.
She told him about a business meeting that had taken place at his estate late one night. She described the events in vivid detail. She said that later in the evening, a man had come into her room. He climbed into bed with her and placed his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. He whispered in her ear, and said that if she made a sound, he would kill her.
He pulled up her nightgown, removed her panties, and raped her. Afterward, he told her that if she ever said anything, he would kill her parents, as well as Carlos.
Although it was dark, she had recognized him by the smell of his cologne. It was Salvatore Anastasia. Melinda was ten years old at the time. Carlos was speechless, enraged, and for the first time in his life, he was powerless. All he could do was sit and listen to his granddaughter’s anguish and try to comfort her the best way he knew how.
Roberto knew that Big Tony was in a lot of trouble. It was evident by the look on Carlos’ face. Roberto pulled out a chair and sat down across from him. “What do you want to do about it?” he asked.
Carlos slammed his fist down on the table. “I want to kill the son-of-a-bitch. That’s what I want to do. I don’t care about the details … and take care of Sonny, while you’re at it.”
Roberto pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. “I’ll call Sammy.”
Carlos held his hand up to stop him. “You know what? On second thought, let’s hold off for a little while. I have something else in mind.”
“Are you sure?” Roberto asked.
Carlos nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Chapter 15
Rheyna couldn’t believe how much time had gone by since Pandora’s Box had begun, and the last couple of months went just as fast. It was frustrating, seeing they were still no closer to bringing down Castrucci then when they started. She was frustrated, as were the members of her team, but no one more so than Edwards.
The Deputy Director was on his back and getting restless. He wanted results and wanted them yesterday. The cost of the operation was mounting, and it took all of Edwards’ energy to convince him they needed a little more time. So far, they had several hundred hours of useless surveillance tape and just as many photos, but nothing to link Castrucci directly to the killings or smuggling operations. Something had to give.
Her relationship—if you could call it that—with Caroline was growing, and so was Annie. She had long since had her cast removed, was sprouting up like a weed, and she and Rheyna were practically inseparable.
Rheyna continued with the ruse of running her photography business and her role in the operation felt more like that of a bystander. She and Laura concluded that surveillance alone was not going to cut it.
On most days, she was okay with her assignment and on others; it took everything she had in her to fight off the ever-increasing guilt for deceiving Caroline and Terasa. She and Caroline were spending a lot of time together in between her days at Haven. She found herself looking forward to the long walks she and Caroline took regularly along the beach with Annie. They even took the boat out several more times, and Rheyna actually drove it.
She felt no stress when they were on the boat, and for a few stolen hours, Rheyna felt at peace. She tried not to think about the time when it would all have to end, because if she did, she would also have to think about Caroline and how Caroline would hate her for what she had done to her and her family.
The thought of Caroline hating her tore her up inside. She dreaded seeing the disappointment in Caroline’s eyes, a disappointment she knew was sure to come. She pushed the thoughts aside and decided she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
After her fifth or sixth visit to the Castrucci estate, the guards no longer searched her. She came and went as she pleased and she took full advantage of her liberties, gathering whatever information she could by eavesdropping on Big Tony’s conversations out by the pool.
On one occasion, using a cool pair of sunglasses with a built in camera, she was able to get surveillance photos of two previously unknown members of the Massino crime family. She then passed the information on to Laura.
She and Caroline had gone to dinner with Phil and Jesse several times since their first boat trip. After spending time with them, Rheyna realized just what Caroline saw in them. They were kind souls, but most of all, they were genuine. They were also lovers, as Rheyna had first suspected. They had been together for almost nineteen years. Jesse was the cutup of the two and was heavy into joke telling.