Desired Too (30 page)

I shook my head.

Mason frowned letting his frustration evident. “And why the hell not? Raquel, your life is in jeopardy, and so are the people around you. How could you be so selfish?”

“I know that, okay? Why do you think I’ve stayed away from here and stayed away from Max? I don’t want to put anyone’s life in jeopardy. Ira and I are working everything out. He’s calling his contacts to try to get Basile off of my back. You know, leak that I’ve been an innocent bystander in all of this, but for some reason it’s not working. Shit, I’ve been so scared Mason, every second of every day. I’ve been scared to drive my car or any car for that matter. I’ve been scared to leave the house, and I’ve been even scared to stay in the house. But, the crazy thing is, I’m more scared of losing Angel than anything else. I don’t know how he will take what I’ve done. I snitched on this family. That has to be a deal breaker for men like him, right? How can he protect me from something like that? I feel like I need to settle this on my own, take matters into my own hands and just to save him.”

“No, that’s a horrible idea, Raquel. Don’t you dare do any dumb shit like that, got it?”

“What else can I do?”

Mason and I watched each other for a long minute before he spoke, his voice changing with each syllable he used. “Who’s the guy with you?” his head nodded in Junior’s direction.

“Yeah, that’s another thing. Apparently, Angel’s cousin somehow knows everything. He’s told me, in not so uncertain terms, that if I didn’t tell Angel what was going on, he would. And, his version wouldn’t be the one I would want Angel to know. He said not to go anywhere else with Ira. Junior over there would be my protection until I tell Angel what’s happening.”

Mason nodded. “Yes, I actually agree with Angel’s cousin. That’s the best thing to do here. Angel needs to know because his life is in jeopardy right along with yours. One thing you don’t want to do is leave him blindsided. Men like that, hell men like us, need to know when the threat is coming, if we can. Call it control if you like. We actually make it a point to know. Also, you don’t want him to learn about this second hand. He would feel betrayed.”

“You should have told him the moment you two started dating, but you didn’t. Which, I get that. Why bring up old shit, right? Especially when it’s not an issue. However, the moment it became an issue, you should have told him, but you didn’t. Now when you do, he’s going to feel like you didn’t trust him. You went with your ex, put your faith in that piece of shit, instead of your man. He’s going to feel betrayed and lied to. But you have to know he would destroy this city brick by brick if something ever happened to you. And if something happened to you and he didn’t know you were in trouble to begin with…Well, let’s just say that wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone around him. He would blame himself for the rest of his life.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Tough shit. It’s how men like that are wired. Raquel, you have to come to the realization that you mean a lot more to him than just a chick he’s fucking.”

I sighed and nodded, conceding. “You’re right about everything, I know this. I know how he feels about me. I also know that the moment I tell him all of this, he’s going to lose his shit. That’s why I don’t think he knows everything about me. If he did, bodies would have dropped way before I left San Francisco. He would have made his presence known.”

“How do you know he didn’t? I’m sure he’s not going to tell you that he dropped some bodies in your name.”

“I think I would have found out. I’m sure all of San Francisco would’ve known. It would have been messy.”

Mason shook his head with a hint of pity in his eyes. “Oh, Roxy, I can guarantee you, if Leonetti buried some bodies in San Francisco, no one would have ever known.”

Mason and I stared at each other for a minute longer before he said, “Tell him tonight.”

I nodded. “I plan to.”

“Good.”

We both stood as I got Junior’s attention and signaled to him that I was ready.

Mason touched my arm, and I looked at him. “You call me if you need anything.”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t do that.”

“Raquel, you can and you will. Trust me, if you don’t and I find out you were in trouble and you didn’t call, I will also feel betrayed. You don’t want to betray me, got it?”

“Okay, I got it. And, Mace, thanks.”

“Anytime.”

I walked out with Junior, not before he checked our vehicle while I waited in the building. I pulled out my phone and dialed Angel. I figured, what better time than the present to let him know that I needed to talk to him.

When he didn’t answer, I texted him that there was some things I needed to talk to him about. I asked him to call me the moment he had a minute.

Once I got to the apartment, and I hadn’t heard from him, I texted him again, then called him. His phone went straight to voicemail, but I didn’t think anything of it at first. Sometimes when you’re making a call and someone was calling you at the same time, a call could go straight to voicemail. I tried a couple more times before panic started to settle in. I didn’t want to believe something had happened. I would think if there were something on the horizon, Ira would’ve told me. Ira claimed he had his ear to the ground, but as this day fell away, I was beginning to think something wasn’t right with Ira being here too. Things were starting to unravel; namely me.

After an hour went by, and panic settled in, I went looking for answers. I started with Junior and grilled him on what he knew. I opened the front door and found him leaning against the wall, face in a frown while looking at his cell. I went in on him quickly. He claimed he didn’t know anything.

“I don’t have a clue what’s going on. Maybe he’s in a meeting or something. Look, I’m sure-”

I poked him in his chest, quieting his lies. “Do you really think I’m stupid? There is no way you wouldn’t know where your boss is. That would be your demise. No, I know you know. I heard you on the phone out here ‘yes, sir’n someone. Just tell me what I want to know. It will go smoother for you that way.”

I gave Junior my most intimidating look with warnings all through my eyes. However, I seemed to be losing my touch. He didn’t tell me anything. He put his hands up in front of him in a patronizing way and smiled.

“Ma’am, I really don’t know what’s happening. I really wish I did.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t actually. I was getting pissed. I was scared and my heart was hammering in my chest. I didn’t like not knowing what was going on. I didn’t like that Angel hadn’t called me to tell me if something was going on. I thought he would send word if he couldn’t do it himself, but I hadn’t heard anything.

I was going to let it go, really I was, but the smug satisfying look on Junior’s face enraged me further. So the claws came out and with a little persuasion, making a few phone calls and going to see Darrell face to face, I got what I wanted and it didn’t make me feel any better.

Shit!

I can’t breathe. I’m so fucking pissed. I want to kill someone
.

They released me from Federal custody after sitting in a cold ass room attached to a table for six damn hours. Those damn fucking brainless idiot agents! I swear they were dumber than a barrel of spit and just as useful. I knew this shit was going to be a waste of time, but I didn’t expect it to take this long. Typically, it didn’t. I’d made countless trips, and it didn’t take them nearly this long to realize that they didn’t have shit on me.

I should have known things were going to go to shit when
he
came to arrest me. Special Agent Daniel Lincoln, who had a complete hard on for this family, was the reason for this debacle. He didn’t just arrest me on suspicion of possession with an intent to distribute, but on terrorism as well. Yup, that’s right. He claimed he had proof that I’d been funding terrorists and that we were using the multiple humanitarian companies we had as means of sneaking weapons to insurgent’s hands overseas.

Daniel had it bad for Lincoln and for this family; it was something that I’d known for years. He was the one that tried to pin those murders on Lincoln a year ago, and he was mixed up with my brother on the kidnapping of Georgia. Although he
claimed
that he didn’t have a clue about Eddie’s double cross, you would think he would have learned his lesson messing with my brother, but it seemed he hadn’t.

Yes, I knew that this little arrest was the work of my brother. This was probably his biggest play and if I wasn’t smart, I’d probably be still inside that building being water boarded or some shit. However, I was smarter and over the decades that passed, I’d proven how smart I was, but it was clear that Eddie hadn’t learned his lessons yet either.

Let me double back and tell you what happened.

Daniel came to arrest us at the warehouse, as you well know, claiming he had evidence of an obscene amount of drugs on the premises. He showed me the warrant before he signaled for his team to take Hugo, Darrell, and me downtown to the Federal building.

I sat in a cold ass room for hours before Daniel walked into the room. He wore that “I have you by the balls” look on his face as he sat down in front of me. Daniel Lincoln was tall like his brother and me, solid, but not as bulky as us. His hair was short and dark, as well as his eyes. He tried his best to pull off the brooding look, but he couldn’t quite do it like his brother, and I think he knew that. I also believe he couldn’t hate Lincoln as much as he put on; mixed into that hate was a lot of jealousy that he would never admit.

Lincoln was everything that Daniel wasn’t; fearless, strong, brave, smart. Lincoln was a survivor. Even though Daniel followed in his father’s footsteps and became a part of the prestigious FBI, Lincoln had been sought after by a secretly driven organization that had more clout and fear among a shitload of countries than the FBI could even dream of. Lincoln had created a name for himself while Daniel was still trying to be a gleam in his daddy’s eye; a gleam that quite honestly would never exist as long as Lincoln was running the streets, spitting in the FBI’s face every chance he got.

I knew why Lincoln felt the way he did about his family. What I wanted to know was how deep the rabbit hole went for Daniel and why. I actually had an idea where it started, and today I was going to test my theory; you know, poke the bear and all that.

Daniel sat down across from me and placed the folder he had under his arm on the table in front of him. “Why don’t we dispense with the tug of war and you confess now? Make it easier on yourself.”

I didn’t reply.

We stared at each other for a long moment before he smiled. “I didn’t think so.”

He turned and looked at the two-way mirror behind him before he faced me again. He sighed and opened the folder. He went through the contents inside, and I took this time to start poking. I hated the motherfucker for one simple reason; he fucked with my blood. You don’t fuck with the people I care the most about, not without feeling my wrath.

I tilted my head to the side and folded my cuffed hands in front of me. “Why do you hate him so much?”

“What?” He looked up at me questioningly, but the realization of where my question was going caused him to frown. “I’m the one asking the questions here.”

I ignored him and added, “I mean, I can understand why you hate
me
. I’m better looking than you. Drake hates it too, so I’m used to it. However, it’s a little baffling as to why you hate your own flesh and blood. Now, if I had to guess, I figure you hate him because he’s a far better man than you are. My brother hates me for the same reason, so I know the signs. I bet you wish you could do half the shit Lincoln could. He was better in everything growing up, wasn’t he? He could probably run circles around you in sports, academics, even though he barely gave an effort, and I bet you couldn’t get half the pussy he could. Still can’t, can you?”

I noticed the break in his façade, but he quickly hid it from me and pushed a couple of papers in front of me. “While we’re waiting for my team to comb through the warehouse, I have a few questions for you. Please confirm if this is your company.”

I drummed my fingers on the table, then snapped my fingers as if a thought just hit me. “I bet he fucked one of your Ivy League girlfriends in college. Is that it? Is that why your dick is so hard? What did he do? Lay that fucking pipe so well that she completely forgot all about you?”

“This is your signature, correct?” Daniel attempted to bring this interrogation back to his control, but it wasn’t working.

“She sucked his dick, didn’t she? And you walked in on it? Yeah, that’s what happened. I know my cousin. I could imagine your shock. There was your teenager brother getting head by your college girlfriend and you lost your mind. Am I right? Come on, Cuz, tell me what happened. We’re family…”

Suddenly, Daniel slammed his hand on the table. “We’re not fucking family!”

I smiled. “That’s what happened, huh? I bet you were in love with her, weren’t you? I bet you’d already bought the ring and everything, mapped out where you two were going to live, how many kids you were going to have?”

Daniel tried to recover from his outburst as smooth as possible, but I could see I’d rocked him already. That was easy.

“Mr. Leonetti, answer the question,” he replied, but now that I tasted blood, I was going in for the kill.

“Tell me what happened. You decided to surprise her and go see her at her dorm room and what? You heard her moaning behind the door-”

“We have reason to believe that your company is a front for more than your ‘humanitarian activities’.”

“Were you in shock? She probably never moaned like that for you, huh? I bet she probably faked that shit. Or what? She told you she didn’t suck dick? You gotta watch those college sorority girls. ”

Daniel ruffled the papers he had in front of him, trying not to show the deep red that was creeping up his neck.

Too late!

I smiled broader. “Let me see if I could set the stage. You placed your sweaty palm on the doorknob, probably praying that it was her roommate that you heard. Much to your dismay and surprise, the doorknob turned freely. You walked inside-”

Daniel’s voice rose as if the increased volume would shut me up. Oh, but his face was turning more red and deeper by the second. “There are six bank accounts under this company’s name,
your
company. My analysts had discovered some questionable transactions. Care to explain why you withdrew half a million dollars from each of the six accounts?”

I leaned forward, my face bright with humor and satisfaction.

This bitch is gonna crack any second. I wish Lincoln were here to see this shit.

“You crept into the room slowly,” I continued, lowering my voice, deepening it as if I was a narrator of a play. “…Heart beating clear out of your chest. Your legs heavy with anxiety, mouth dry with fear. The sounds were getting louder. You’re closer to her bedroom door now, so you probably heard a deep male voice right along with your woman’s voice. You finally realized your worst nightmare was coming true. Which has me wondering, at this point, had the slurping noises started to caress your ears? Don’t you just love that sound?”

Daniel cleared his throat, trying to get me back on task again. “Each of the transactions happened on the same day, and we know exactly where they went.” He looked through his folder, hands shaking with anger.

I added fuel to this over ripe fire. “I bet this was the point in which you thought about running.  I don’t blame you for thinking it. You could easily pretend this didn’t happen. No one saw you go into the room. You could escape with your dignity. I bet you even turned around to leave, but stopped the instant you recognized your own brother’s voice behind the door.”

Daniel remained quiet, his eyes heavily on mine, allowing the anger to rise in him.

You think I was making this story up to goat him? Well, I wasn’t. Lincoln had told me all about it. He said he went to see Daniel, for some reason, on campus. He went to his dorm room and his roommate told him that he thought he’d gone to some chick’s room. When he got to the room that Daniel’s roommate gave him, he asked for his brother and the girl that answered smiled, looking him up and down. Lincoln told me that the girl never said she was Daniel’s girlfriend, and Daniel had never brought the girl around the family.  So, when she came on to him, Lincoln didn’t stop her.

I added, “I could only imagine what you must have been thinking right at that moment. How could your sixteen-year-old brother make your woman scream with ecstasy and you couldn’t even make her moan your name?” I leaned in closer and grinned. “Was she butt ass naked when you walked in? Was she kneeling in front of him, bobbing and weaving? Lincoln probably had his hands in her hair, gripping her tight as shit, wasn’t he? What did he say to her? Knowing my cousin, he probably said something like, ‘You like that shit, baby? Wait ‘til I get in that pussy’.”

He actually didn’t tell me that he said that, but who gave a shit, right?

I laughed. Shit, I couldn’t help it. This motherfucker was as red as a fucking lobster.

Here was the
pièce de résistance
…

“Come on, I know you remember that night. Tell me what you did. Did you turn and run?” I shook my head. “No, you stayed to watch, didn’t you? You found that you couldn’t move. You just stood there like a dumb son of a bitch, and when Lincoln saw you, he just kept going, smiling. I bet she was wearing the engagement ring you bought for her too?”

The look on his face told me that I was right, and I laughed again. I mean, I threw my head back and let a laugh so big escape my throat that it was loud and raw.

“Oh shit! I bet she was! Damn, that’s fucked up. But you probably deserved that shit.”

Quick as lightening, Daniel was on his feet. He lunged over the table and threw his hardest punch at my face. I stood quickly, moving out of his reach, as I knew it was coming. Daniel’s momentum carried him all the way across the table to the floor next to me.  By the time he scrambled up off the floor and wrapped his hands around my neck, the door burst open and in came three agents.

Some guy in a dark black suit came charging in the room after the three men with an air of some importance. He walked up to Daniel, face just as red.

“Get your shit and get out of here, Lincoln, right now. Go walk it off.”

“But sir…” Daniel protested.

“Go!” he boomed.

The air from Daniel quickly dissipated as he realized what just happened.

See, I told you I was better at poking the bear. The point was to poke in order to get a rise out of someone, not just for kicks. If I was going to start some shit, best believe I was going all out. I poke for a purpose, and Daniel fell for it completely. I knew if there were a case, it wouldn’t be his anymore.

As Daniel pushed his way out of the room, the red faced man turned his sights on me. I was rubbing my neck with an accomplished smile on my face.

“You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?”

I didn’t reply.

He pointed a meaty finger at my face. “You don’t fuck with my team.”

I frowned. “No, you don’t fuck with my family. You don’t have shit on me. The longer you keep me in this room without legal counsel, the more I start thinking about pressing charges against your man.”

He moved to my face. He was a foot shorter than I was, so the threat he was trying to portray didn’t go over as well. Besides, I was better at it. I met his gaze with some heat of my own.

He faltered slightly, but he still said to me. “Is that a threat?”

“Quite the contrary. It’s a fact.”

“You have been arrested for terrorism. So, the fact is, you don’t have any rights when that happens. I can let you rot in a jail cell for the rest of your natural life before I even speak to you. Another fact is that your high priced lawyer will not be able to do shit about it. As a matter fact, sit your ass down.”

I waited a beat before I sat, grinning at his ploy to intimidate me. Now, I had to look up at him. He looked down at me for a minute, grabbed the papers from the table and left me in the room.

I fucking waited for at least another two hours before two new suits came into the room with stoic looks on their faces. I guess this was their way of being menacing. Damn, they really need to work on that though, because it wasn’t working. Both were large men, stuffed in cheap dark suits. They sat down in front of me and pulled out the same folder Daniel had come into the room with earlier.