No Good Deed (11 page)

He was not easily baited.

“And bring me the priest.” Dover glanced over at the altar boy he’d taken to ensure the priest would comply. He was tied to a pipe, head down. Defeated. Good. “I need to make sure he understands exactly what he’s supposed to do to save his little lamb.”

CHAPTER TEN

Nicole fell back onto the sheets, naked, wonderfully sweaty and comfortably sore. She reached over Joseph’s naked chest for the water on the nightstand and drank greedily, then stretched and looked down at her lover. “I love you, Joseph.”

“I missed you.” He kissed her ear, then her neck, caressing her breasts until she considered staying in bed.

“You’ve done so well without me, I thought you might not need me anymore,” she teased.

“Everything is for you, Niki. Everything I do is to make you happy.”

“You have made me happy.” She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. “Tobias will be here soon; we should get dressed.”

“He can wait,” Joseph said. He rolled her over and held her wrists loosely above her head. He kissed her passionately. She’d truly missed his affection while she sat in prison.

“Yes, he can,” she said. She returned his kiss, then pulled back. “But he’s been reckless and I need to pull him back in line.”

Joseph’s dark eyes narrowed as he stared at her, his face only inches away. “He had too much freedom. He became arrogant and we lost so much of the ground we gained over the last three years. Longer—all the sacrifices we were forced to make ever since you joined the DEA.”

“It’s … delicate.” She moved her body against him, hoping to divert Joseph from this conversation. It was complicated, and while Joseph claimed to understand, he truly didn’t. He didn’t have family.

“I would have killed him for you,” Joseph said.

“He’s blood, Joseph.” If Tobias didn’t yield to her authority, if he continued to make mistakes, she would have to kill him. She’d do it herself, because he
was
blood. She’d never allow anyone else to take him down, not even Joseph. “He knows that he screwed up. Now that I’m out, I will control him. I promise, Joseph.”

Joseph didn’t say anything. He rolled over to his back. She put her head on his chest, needing him to understand her decision, needing to understand why he was so moody—moodier than usual. “Tell me what’s troubling you, baby.”

“He’s the reason you were found out.”

“No, Joseph. That was Trejo and Sanchez. They are dead and their organization has been annihilated.”

“Tobias brought Trejo into the operation.”

“Yes, but we agreed. At the time, it seemed like the smart decision.”

“Perhaps.” Joseph sat up and didn’t look at her. Nicole didn’t move. Sometimes it was best to let her lover work out his problems himself. He would always come around to her viewpoint, he would always support her decisions. They’d been together far too long to let one small disagreement come between them.

“Aside from my arrest, everything else has been moving along according to plan. We had a delay; now we can finish. As soon as we get back the money taken from us, and finish this last big job, we’ll have enough resources to disappear and run our operation from anywhere in the world. Without Toby.”

When Joseph didn’t answer, she said, “Is there another problem?”

“The fed doesn’t know anything about our money. If he did, he would have talked.”

“Someone does.”

“Who?”

“When we get Dunbar’s files decoded we’ll have our answers. Has Lyle returned?”

“No.”

“I should talk to Tobias about it.”

She started to get up, but Joseph turned back to her, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her back to the bed. “Make him wait.”

Nicole stared into Joseph’s dark eyes. This was important to him, she realized, that she choose him and his needs over her cousin.

She smiled and put her hands on the back of his head, kissed him. “He can wait until fucking morning for all I care.” She bit his bottom lip and Joseph growled.

“Dear God, I missed you, Niki.”

And they made love again.

*   *   *

They’d met in summer school.

Nicole was a sophomore, but she had flunked two classes and to be a junior in the fall, she had to repeat them over the summer. She considered dropping out altogether, but her uncle insisted.

“We have big plans for you, Nicole.”

Joseph had just turned twenty, and wanted to be in summer school even less than Nicole. He’d skipped more classes than he took, though he was only a few months away from getting his GED. They were in the same geometry class.

Nicole didn’t believe in love at first sight or kindred spirits or soul mates or any of that other crap. Her parents fought constantly until her dad was killed, and her uncle cheated on her aunt practically in front of her. Nicole couldn’t wait to get out of the house, to be free.

She missed her dad.

He wasn’t perfect, but that was because he missed the army. He became moody and irritable, and really hated being a cop, but he believed in giving 100 percent in everything he did. He could be judgmental and his punishments were severe—but he liked order, what was wrong with that? And her mother was a flake, anyway.

So Nicole didn’t believe in love crap, but there was something about Joseph … something different. When he looked at her, she got a feeling in her stomach she’d never had before. And he knew. It’s like he sensed she was attracted to him, a bee to honey.

It wasn’t long before they talked, then went out together, then became inseparable.

Joseph was with her when she found out the truth about her father’s murder.

Joseph was with her when her uncle told her what his plans were for her.

And Joseph told her he would stay with her through it all.

Family came with a price, but Joseph’s love had no strings.

He even went to college with her. Joseph was smart, he just needed a reason to be smart in school. So he took two years at community college, aced his classes, and was admitted to UCLA as a junior when she entered as a freshman.

And history was made.

Uncle Jimmy didn’t like outsiders, but he’d been used to having Joseph around for the last three years. When he told her to lose him so she could clean up yet another mess created by her cousin, though, Nicole put her foot down.

“Joseph is in, or I’m out.”

“You can’t walk away. We’re family. Blood.”

“Joseph is in, or I walk. Don’t test me.” She was terrified. She’d never stood up to her uncle. He was six foot four and 220 pounds. His temper was brutal, almost as brutal as her father’s. But he was family. And family stuck together, especially now. Especially after what happened to her father.

Joseph wasn’t intimidated. Nicole didn’t know how he couldn’t be, because Uncle Jimmy had two inches on him and forty pounds. Joseph had had a rough childhood, though he never talked about it. Nicole had never met his parents, didn’t even know if they were alive. He was an only child, or so he said.

“Sir, I will be an asset. I will do anything—kill anyone, sacrifice myself—to protect Niki.”

Maybe it was his tone, or something in his eyes, but Uncle Jimmy backed down.

“We’ll see,” he said. “But remember, Nicole, we have bigger plans.”

“I’m aware.”

Not only was she aware, she’d fixed all the problems with Uncle Jimmy’s Big Plan. Uncle Jimmy was smart, but he sometimes forgot that his son was a sick, twisted prick who was going to blow it for all of them.

“Get him, clean up the mess, bring him to me.”

Thirty minutes later Nicole and Joseph were standing in the middle of the whore’s bedroom. She was dead, of course.

Tobias was becoming a big fucking problem. Uncle Jimmy had kept him under control for a long time, but over the last year Tobias started disappearing on them for days or weeks at a time. And when he fucked up—like now—he’d call and beg for help and forgiveness.

Tobias was naked, sitting at the end of the bed, smoking a joint. He scowled when he saw them walk in. “Took you fucking long enough.”

Tobias was twenty-one, two years younger than Joseph, but a lifetime less mature. He was pudgy around the middle and had ham hocks for fists. How someone so stupid could come from the sperm of Uncle Jimmy was beyond Nicole’s comprehension.

Maybe it was the mix of Uncle Jimmy’s brutality and Aunt Maggie’s idiot IQ.

Nicole put on latex gloves and looked at the girl. This wasn’t the first dead girl she’d seen, but her stomach still twisted in knots. She didn’t know if it would ever get easier.

The girl had been gagged so she couldn’t scream while Tobias tortured her. Her flesh had been burned, cut, and bruised, as if he couldn’t decide what to do. His sperm had dried all over her body. Reluctantly, Nicole pressed two fingers against her neck, just to make sure she was dead.

She was very dead.

“Why didn’t you call sooner?” she snapped, turning away from the mess.

“I didn’t know she couldn’t take it.”

Nicole dry-heaved and ran to the bathroom, where she puked into the toilet. Tobias was sick, she’d always known it, but this … this was worse than anything before. Uncle Jimmy was going to have to stop him, and if that meant killing him or sending him away, so be it. He couldn’t go off and kill hookers whenever he wanted—he would eventually be caught. It would come back on the family. Their plan would be in jeopardy.

“Niki,” Joseph said quietly, standing behind her.

“I’m fine.”

“His prints are everywhere. He’s probably in the system already, from one of the others.”

This wasn’t the first girl Tobias had killed, but they’d always taken care of potential evidence. Uncle Jimmy taught her how to clean up the scene, but this was … worse than usual.

“
He’ll grow out of it
,” Uncle Jimmy had always said.

Nicole pretended to believe it, but now she couldn’t. She wanted Tobias caught and locked up.

But he knew too much about Uncle Jimmy. About her plans for after college. About the family. If Tobias went to prison, she would never be who she was supposed to be.

And she would never have the chance to lead the family.

“We do what Uncle Jimmy wants.”

“Damn straight,” Tobias said. He stood up, his dick half hard, and glanced over at the dead girl, consideration on his face.

Joseph turned and hit him. “If you were my family, you would already be dead.”

“I will kill you!” Tobias said and lunged for Joseph.

Tobias was not only weak, but stoned, and Joseph sidestepped him and then tripped him. Tobias landed on the floor with a grunt.

“Stop,” Nicole said. “Stop it!”

Tobias pulled himself up and glared at Joseph but he didn’t make a move.

That was when Nicole realized who had the real power in the family. And it wasn’t Tobias.

“This is beyond a standard cleanup,” she said. “Ideas?”

“Fire,” Joseph said. “It’s the only way to ensure everything is destroyed.”

“Done.” She looked at Joseph, felt that rush that only he gave her. Together, they were stronger. Together, she could do anything.

She said to Tobias, “Get dressed. Go to my car. Stay until I get there.”

“You’ve always been a bitch.”

“And I’ve never had to have anyone clean up my mistakes!”

Tobias made a move toward her, then glanced at Joseph and backed off. He picked up his clothes and left.

“We should let him go to prison,” Joseph said.

“He’s family,” she said, as if that answered everything.

Joseph didn’t say anything, but she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“I can’t,” she said, answering his unspoken suggestion.

“I can.”

She shook her head. “We’ll deal with Tobias later.”

She looked back at the body, but had to turn away. What had happened to her family? How could Uncle Jimmy have let this happen? “I don’t know where to begin.”

Joseph said, “This is an old apartment.” He led her from the bedroom to the living room. The heating unit was in the wall. “Gas.”

“Will that work?”

“We’ll make sure it does. Go to the bathroom. Look for nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, anything like that.”

Nicole did as Joseph said. She tried not to look at the girl’s pictures taped to the mirror. Maybe she hadn’t been a hooker. But she looked like one. Where had Tobias found her? It was a one-bedroom apartment and it didn’t look like she had a roommate, but would someone be looking for her?

Except it was after midnight. No one would be coming around now.

She found one half bottle and one full bottle of nail polish remover under the sink. No rubbing alcohol, but she found a large bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Once, when she was ten or eleven, she and her best friend had tried to lighten their hair with the stuff. It smelled awful, and made Nicole’s naturally blond hair an odd streaky white, and Jenny’s brownish hair an ugly red.

She brought the material to Joseph, who was pouring vegetable oil into a pot on the stove. “Will this work?” she asked him.

He glanced over and nodded. “Grab all the loose blankets and sheets you can find and bunch them up under the curtains in her bedroom. Douse them with the nail polish. Then grab some clothes and whatever and put those under the window in the living room. Pour the hydrogen peroxide on them.”

“When do we light them?”

“We don’t—we’re going to be long gone.”