Curtis (19 page)

Vaughn actually thought it was brilliant,
but didn’t say that again. He was beginning to think his grandmother had a mean
streak in her. He watched her pace the room and wondered aloud if she’d heard
from her brother.

“No. I’m pretty sure he’s either dead or
he’s run off with my money. I’ll hunt him down and cut his balls off if he—”

“Your money?”

She looked back at him with confusion.

“You said if he ran off with your money.
I’m pretty sure that it would be more mine than yours. My father is the one who
would have left it to me. Your husband was dead in prison. Mine at least would
have—”

“It was a simple slip of the tongue. Don’t
read too much into it.” She continued to pace, but he watched her closely now.
“As I was saying, I don’t think he’s run off, but with him it’s hard to tell. I
have been trying to reach his cell since yesterday and nothing. He’s more than
likely dead. What did that prick say when you told him that he would either
give us the building or the contents? You didn’t sound too thrilled about his
answer.”

“He said that he would take it under
consideration. As if I didn’t mean shit to him. I actually heard him laugh at
me. I can’t stand when people don’t take me seriously. I’m going to have to do
something that makes him sit up and take notice of me. So we need another plan.”
He took out a sheet of paper and because he knew it would irritate her, he
ripped it in half but way off center. She was a nut about things being dead on.
“We need to find out if the money was found. I’m thinking it wasn’t because the
paper or the news would have had something on about it.” He started to write
this on one half of the paper only to have her jerk it from him and hand him
another sheet. This one nearly perfect in size and shape. Lowering his head so
she wouldn’t see, he had to fight hard not to laugh. She was way too easy.

“I agree. And don’t let that go to your
head.” She sat down in the chair across from him. “So the thing we have to
figure out is if they didn’t find the money, then either it’s not there or they
simply didn’t look in the right place.”

Well duh
, he thought. “Okay.
So we need to sneak inside, figure out where they have looked, and try to see
if we can do a better job of it.”

“Sure. And have you been paying
attention to anything I’ve said to you tonight?” Her tone said that she knew he
hadn’t. His gun slipped out of his pocket and into his lap. He was going to end
up killing her, he knew it. “There are about ten armed guards around the place.
Not to mention dogs. I fucking hate dogs. And then there are the security
lights. I wonder if they have stock in the electric company for as much as they
have to be spending just to keep the bad guys away.”

Apparently he should have paid
attention. Guards, guns, and dogs were not what he’d expected. Though he should
have. They were aware as much as he was what might be inside the building. And
he now knew that the Hunters had more money than most celebrities. Vaughn put
money in the column and circled it. They really needed to…

“Mother fuck, what day is this?”

Mary grinned when she looked up.

“Mother fuck. I forgot the money I owe. I
have to get it over to them right fucking now.”

He stood up just as the office door
opened. Three men dressed in black, even black sunglasses in the middle of the
night, muscled their way in. He was held to his chair with a nine millimeter to
his head, as was Mary. Neither of them moved. Then his worst nightmare walked
in.

“Nice place you have here, Vaughny. Might
have to purchase it from you when this deal is done.” He sat in the chair next
to Mary and looked at her. “You, I know. And I’m pretty sure you remember me as
well.”

She nodded. That surprised him. Then he
remembered that someone had been feeding him information. But she didn’t look
to be very friendly with him. Fear was in her eyes. She glanced over at him and
then back at the man.

“You’re McKnight, Lambert McKnight.” He
nodded and she looked at him again. “He’s a mob boss out of Italy.”

He seemed so pleased with her answer,
but for some reason it didn’t lessen the fact that he was one scary person. He
leaned back in the chair and looked at him. His smile in no way comforted
Vaughn.

“You disappoint me, Vaughny. I expected
you to come to the docks like a good boy and you didn’t show. And now today you
didn’t call me to tell me that you have some money stashed somewhere.” He
tisked and shook his head. “I’m very unhappy. Do you know what happens when I’m
unhappy?”

Before Vaughn could shake his head no,
McKnight pulled a gun out of his coat and shot his grandmother in the head. She
fell over backwards as the chair hit the floor. Vaughn started screaming and only
shut up when McKnight stood up and pointed the gun at him.

“Please don’t kill me.” He was whining,
but he was breathing. “Please. I’ll give you anything you want if you don’t
kill me.”

“Oh you’re going to do that anyway, but
I find that I need you now.” McKnight sat back down. “Now, here’s the plan,
Vaughny boy. You’re going to tell me everything you know about that money and
the people who are thinking to take what belongs to me.”

With shaky hands he reached for the file
he had with the clippings in it. One of his thugs picked up Mary and tossed her
over his shoulder. He started cussing when blood dripped onto his shirt. McKnight
assured him that Vaughny would be more than happy to pay for the dry cleaning. He
found himself nodding before he could think how the hell that would work if
they killed him. And he was positive he was as good as dead.

The clippings, he read. Thoroughly. Then
he read the notebook. He didn’t know why he thought that so funny, but Vaughn
sat quietly and tried not to bring attention to himself. After an hour, the
door behind him opened again and one of the thugs McKnight brought with him
walked in carrying a tray of food. Vaughn stood up and started for the table. He
was starving.

“If you want something to eat then I
would suggest that you make yourself something. This is mine.”

Vaughn flushed at McKnight’s words. As
Vaughn started to the door, McKnight spoke again.

“And if you leave this house without my
permission I will hunt you down and cut your throat only to stand over you and
watch you bleed to death.”

Vaughn turned slowly and looked at the
man now sitting at his little table. His voice had been so calm, so easy going,
that it would have sounded like a joke. Might have sounded like a joke but for
the large gun sitting in his one hand and the fork with food on it in the
other. The man wasn’t just scary but terrifying. Vaughn walked to the kitchen
on jellylike legs, suddenly not very hungry any longer.

~~~

Royce watched his brother. Curtis wasn’t
a man who got ruffled, nor did he get thrown off. But he was both. If the circumstances
were a little different he’d laugh at him. But right now everything was riding
on their next steps. No one wanted anyone to get hurt.

“What do you suppose that guy, Trust,
what was his angle in this whole thing?”

Royce reached for the thick file on his
desk and opened it. He didn’t point out to his brother that he’d asked that
same question not ten minutes ago, but answered him again. “According to his
file at work, nothing. But Mann had been monitoring his actions for a few years,
and since the transfer of the building owner changed he’d been a tad more
active. Mann thinks that he is either in with one of the families or simply one
of those people who came in and took the goods when the work was all done.”
Royce thought it was more than that, but didn’t comment. He had a feeling that
he was related to LaMancusa somehow.

“So he knew that we were going to try
and see about the money. How? Who might have told him? Mann?”

Royce nodded.

“So who do you think he told? LaMancusa?”

“More than likely. You got the phone
call yesterday so we can assume that he knows more than he did. And the fact
that he knows his mother is alive and kicking means someone besides the Feds
knew. It was more than likely the older woman that was with him when he went
searching for her.” The phone ringing made him glare, but he answered it. He’d
told his secretary to hold his calls.

“I just found out that Trust is actually
William “Billy” Salinas. He’s a half-uncle to our little buddy Vaughn. And his
half-sister is none other than Mary Salinas LaMancusa, wife of Vaughn Senior.”

Royce felt the hair on his arms rise.

“Mary and Billy, as he likes to be
called, were united by family when her mother married his dad. Salinas adopted
Mary after a couple of years married to her mother and the rest, as they say,
was history.”

Royce told his brother and put the phone
on speaker so they both could listen as Mann continued. “There was another
sibling, but she was brutally raped just after the marriage and she killed
herself. Rumor had it that it was Billy, but as no one pressed the matter it
was forgotten. Mary ended up marrying senior when she was seventeen while Billy
was in prison for something else.”

“So did he join the family too?” Curtis
started making a flow chart of sorts and Royce watched him. It looked like a
family tree. “If he did then that explains how he knew.”

“It doesn’t look like it. And if he had,
it wasn’t on the up and up. His crimes got progressively worse as the years
went by until he was put away about eighteen years ago on a drug charge. Three
times he was out.” They heard papers shuffle around. “The reason we never knew
about him being related, I suppose, is because he never did anything similar to
the family. Bank robberies and murder while Billy sold drugs and dealt in
prostitution as well as arms.”

“Then how the hell did he end up in the
Feds?” Royce didn’t want to think about how the man had accomplished to get
there. Money? Blackmail? “I mean, you said he had worked there for nine years.”

“Yes, William Trust did work for us. Out
in California. It wasn’t until recently that we figured out this man was not
the man who worked for us. Someone came across the real Trust’s body about two
years ago. For reasons I can’t go into we never confronted the man we killed
yesterday, but suffice it to say, he was being watched very closely.”

They knew. Or someone did. Someone in
the operation knew that Trust was part of the family and kept him close to see
if they could get information from him. Curtis looked as if he had figured it
out as well. And he wasn’t happy about it.

“So instead of taking care of the
problem you left it so that someone had to get shot years later. What if my
future wife or one of the other men and women there had gotten shot instead?
Would you have come clean with this and admitted your mistake?” The door
opening behind him and their mother stepping into the room didn’t slow Curtis. He
was pissed. “You mother fucking ass hole, the next time I see you I’m going to
kick your fucking ass and then break every bone in your body.”

“Curtis.”

He turned to the sound of his name and
saw not only Mom, but Kylie as well. Royce waited for his mom to yell at him,
but Kylie continued to speak.

“You can’t blame this man for someone
else’s mistakes.”

“The fuck I can’t.” Curtis flushed when
Royce cleared his throat. “Sorry. But you could have been hurt. I want…no, I
need you. I can’t stop…you could have been killed.”

“Yes. And you could have been too. But
neither of us was and the only one that died is the bad guy. We won this time. Let’s
make it a trend and not bite the hand of the messenger.”

Curtis walked toward her and their mom
moved out of the way. Royce was pretty sure that neither of them remembered
that they were in the room with them either when they finally came together. Royce
felt his own face heat when his mom cleared her throat.

“I love you.” Curtis said after a few
seconds of simply holding Kylie. “I’m so sorry. I should have…but every time I
think about what could have been? I get pissed.”

“I have more information for you if you
want it. Or I can call back later. I have nothing more to do today than listen
to a big overgrown baby get his ass kicked by his fiancée.” Royce laughed as
Mann and Curtis said something low. Kylie slapped him on the shoulder as they
both made their way to the desk again.

“What do you have? And so you know, I’m
not sure I’m any less pi…mad at you. I reserve the right to still wipe the
floor up with you.” Mann laughed before continuing with his information.

They had known about Mary and her
working in the household. But until they’d spoken to Michelle they hadn’t known
that she was related to LaMancusa. The pieces were finally tumbling together. The
woman known as Mary Phyllis was the head of the LaMancusa family.

Then there was the information that they’d
found at the home of Billy. He’d been very well informed. And the building on
Biloxi had been his biggest concern. The man had blue prints from back when the
building had been built, as well as the plans that Curtis had recently had
finished up on the renovations to the building.