When the Devil Comes to Call (A Lars and Shaine Novel Book 2) (10 page)

Bruno could no longer deny the smell. He went into the linen closet and placed a few extra blankets, including the holiday one with the snowmen on it and a frayed turd-brown blanket he remembered from childhood, as well as a few towels from the guest bathroom, over his mother, covering her in a cotton blend burial mound.

Upstairs, he decided to finally lift the pillow off his father and look at him. He immediately regretted the decision. The first thing he saw were teeth. He couldn’t tell if Leo had been shot under the chin, through the mouth or from the side, but his jaw had exploded in a way that scattered teeth everywhere like his head was a piñata filled with molars. Then he saw some of the teeth moving. Maggots. How the hell did they get in here? All the windows were closed. Fucking nature.

He noticed the nearly black crust of dried blood on the underside of the pillow as he replaced the shroud over his father’s ruined face. Before the pillow made it back into place he caught a short glimpse of his dad’s cloudy, grey eyes. That one would stay with him a while.

He flipped the blankets and sheets over from his mom’s side of the bed and double covered dad. The smell was still enough to lure flies and parasites from several blocks away.

The doorbell rang.

Bruno walked downstairs and answered the door to a small man with grey hair. Nino, one of Leo’s seconds in command. One of countless “uncles” Bruno grew up around.

Nino made a sour face as the smell wafted out onto the porch.

“Jesus Christ, kid. What’ve you got in there, rotting meat?”

“What do you want, Nino?”

“I want to talk to you. Let you know what the deal is.”

Bruno stepped aside. “C’mon in.”

Nino tightened his collar to the cold. “That’s alright, kid. I’ll stay out here if you don’t mind.”

“Say what you got to say.”

“Some of us boys met last night, to talk about the future.”

“And?”

“And we wanted to let you know your position hasn’t changed. We still have a ton of respect for Leo and you get to keep all your angles. Things proceed as normal.”

Bruno felt the chill through his light T-shirt. The balmy heat of the house met the cold from outside in the doorway and frosted the glass on the front door.

“You don’t think maybe I should get a bump up?” he asked.

Nino took it slow. He figured Bruno had to know what the rest of them thought about him.
A lifelong fuck up. No leadership skills. A little crazy in the head. Keeping him in the same position as before had been an act of respect he didn’t deserve,
Nino thought.
But for Leo’s legacy, they all agreed to it.

“Bruno, we got to keep a low profile right now. Things need to stay on track and then in a few weeks, maybe a few months, we can reconsider things. The important thing right now is to make sure no one sees us as vulnerable.”

“So what are you doing about the guy who killed them?”

“What do you mean?”

“The fuck do you think I mean? Who’s gonna get the son of a bitch who murder my mom and dad?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if we had some information–”

“We have information.” Bruno held the door tightly in one hand, stepped to the edge of the threshold, wanting like hell to smash Nino’s face with the heavy door. “I know who the guy is. I know who he’s working for.”

Nino sighed, his breath a white cloud. “We can’t go starting a war with Nikki.” Obviously they’d talked about quite a lot in this meeting of theirs.

“Why the fuck not?”

Nino sharpened his tone. “Because that’s not in anyone best interest.”

“Especially not my dad’s.”

“Look, kid–”

Bruno reached out and grabbed Nino by the collar. He pulled him face to face, Bruno sweating in the heat of the house, and chilled from the sweat evaporating in the cold air blowing in from outside. “Say kid one more time. Say it. I fuckin’ dare you.”

Nino struggled to maintain his balance. He always knew the kid was unstable. Spoiled fucking brat is what he was. Leo gave the kid anything he ever wanted except responsibility.

“Look, Bruno, we’ll get someone on it.”

“I got people on it.” Bruno kept the old man tilted at an angle, his silver hair coming undone and spilling wisps into his face. Bruno’s cell phone rang. He righted Nino and took the call.

“Yeah?” Bruno heard the response, cupped his hand over the phone and said to Nino, “Told you I got people on it.”

Nino pushed his hair down, straightened his jacket, tried to catch his breath which billowed in bright pillows as he huffed.

“He went where? Why the fuck is he going to see her? He ain’t got no fucking right.” Bruno said. His face went red with anger. He turned and slammed the door in Nino’s face.

Lars entered through the back door. Anthony stood there to greet him like a rottweiler on the prowl. At least Nikki had his bodyguard back. Lars could leave town and feel less guilty about it.

“His meeting over?” Lars asked.

“Yeah. Said he wants to see you when you got in.”

“Okay.” Lars waved Shaine in behind him and went to Nikki’s office. Eleven
a.m.
and Nikki was sitting down in his chair with a fresh two fingers of scotch, neat.

“How’d it go?” Lars asked.

“Fuckin’ feds,” Nikki said. “Try to pork you in the ass and don’t even bother with the reach around.” He noticed Shaine trailing behind Lars. “Honey, could you give us a minute.”

Shaine looked to Lars.

“She’s fine, Nikki. No secrets here.”

“I like to be able to speak freely is all.”

“You can,” Lars said.

Shaine leveled a stare at Nikki. “An FBI agent abandoned me and my dad to go run off and fuck my mother. You’re not telling me anything I don’t know about getting it in the ass from those guys.”

Nikki nodded, impressed at the girl’s moxie. Girls didn’t seem to have moxie anymore. They needed more. Where did all the moxie go?

“I got one more for you,” Nikki said.

“One more what?” Lars asked, as if he didn’t know.

“One more,” Leo said.

Lars immediately protested. “Nikki, I–”

“Hear me out.”

“Nikki, I’m done,” Lars said.

“Just one. It’s important. You get to it right away and you’ll be on a plane out of JFK tonight.”

“We had our agreement.”

“Yeah, and your little pixie here doubled it, so I figure you owe me double the work.”

Lars sighed, obviously annoyed. He thought back to his conversation with Shaine about respect. Right then he felt Nikki had no respect or fear of him. He wondered which he wanted from Nikki more.

“How many scores you got to settle, Nik?”

“This is something last minute. Came up in the meeting. Not like I’ve been hiding aces up my sleeve.”

Lars chewed his lip, really wanted a stretch. He tilted his neck back and to the side, getting what little muscle work as he could. “I was really looking forward to getting out of here.”

“And you will. You take one short trip out to Long Island, you’re back eating peanuts and reading the skymall in no time.”

Lars turned to Shaine. She shrugged her shoulders.

“We need to talk about it.”

“What?” Nikki said. “With her? Is she your manager now?”

Shaine stood. “No, I don’t tell him what to do. Nobody does.” She and Nikki glared at each other like cats across a backyard fence as Lars led her out of the room.

They stepped out into the hall.

“I told you,” Shaine said. “He treats you like shit.”

“I’d have no problem walking away if it weren’t for the second million.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“I’m not blaming you. But it’s not my thing to take money for something I didn’t do.”

“You did the thing he brought you here for. You did that.” Shaine forced Lars to look at her, scolding like a wife. “Leo is dead and it almost got us killed. And all this is to make his life easier. Now he wants one more. I bet you all two million he calls again in a few months and wants one more, and one more after that.”

Lars ground his teeth. “I won’t answer the call.”

“Bullshit you won’t.”

“I won’t. This is it. Last one. Then I can feel like I earned the money and I won’t think twice about it.”

Shaine shook her head, disappointed in him. “Fine. But we go straight from there to the airport. We don’t come back here.”

“All right.”

Shaine let Lars go through the door first. She knew she was leaving behind her opportunity to kill Nikki, but she would rather let him live than keep Lars around the old bastard and see him sucked back into his old life.

As she took her seat on the sofa again she wished for a ring with a hidden compartment to hold poison she could slip into his drink. But she lived in real life. She knew better than most, killing people isn’t all sexy spies and bloodless shots to the gut. Hands got dirty, and they never came clean.

***

“Who is it?” Lars asked.

“Nobody. Low level bureau guy named Ford.” Nikki handed Lars a sheet of paper with Ford’s address in Massapequa.

“Why him?”

“Why do you care?”

“I shouldn’t care who I’m being asked to kill?”

“You never asked why before.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, Nikki, but this isn’t before.” Lars looked into Nikki’s eyes, locked on like he was sighting down the old man through a scope. “Things change.” Nikki looked away under the uncomfortable stare.

“Y’know, I hired you in the beginning because you had the coldest heart I’d even seen.” Nikki spoke past Lars to Shaine. “You should have seen him, sweetheart. Never asked why. Never asked how much. Just got his assignment and did the job. He’s Jack Frost.” Nikki laughed a raspy laugh.

Lars knew it was true. He wondered where that cold-hearted youngster went. Had all those years in the desert melted his killer instinct away?

“So why this guy Ford?”

Nikki lost his smile, turned deadly serious. “Because he’s gunning for you.”

Lars cocked his head to the side.

“He knows you’re here,” Nikki said. “Word travels fast. He was the guy in charge of Mitch the Snitch.”

Shaine perked up at the mention of her father.

“Either you go get him,” Nikki said. “Or he’s gonna get you.”

***

Lars studied the Google map printed on paper, turn by turn directions taking him out onto Long Island. He folded the paper, put it in his pocket, and walked out without a word.

He and Shaine loaded their bags into the trunk of the rental. Nikki watched from the window of his office.

“I should say goodbye,” Lars said.

“You should be putting a bullet in his head is what you should do,” Shaine said. “The wrong guy is getting done.”

“What?” Lars couldn’t believe what she said.

“Forget it. Go say goodbye if you want. Wish him a nice life of leisure on the FBI’s dime.”

“You’ve lived it. Would you really call it a life of leisure?”

Shaine paled. She stung with the truth of it. Didn’t hurt to try to drive that wedge between Lars and Nikki deeper if she could, though.

Lars gave a weak wave to Nikki who returned the half-hearted favor. As Lars drove away the clouds showed no signs of letting the sun through.

Nikki went to his phone and dialed a number he hated knowing by heart. Qualls answered.

“He’s on his way to you,” Nikki said. “He’ll be at Ford’s doorstep in an hour.”

“Not on the auspices of turning himself in, I assume.”

Nikki turned the knob on his oxygen tank, increasing to maximum airflow. He found himself a little short of breath. “Yeah, not quite. Only one way I knew to get him to come to you.”

“Is he armed?”

“The fuck kind of question is that? Did the sun rise this morning? Of course he’s armed.”

“Just want to know what we’re dealing with.”

“You damn well might be dealing with more than you can handle, but that ain’t my problem anymore. We’re square, right?”

“As soon as he’s in custody.”

“I mean now. When’s my ride get here?”

“It’s a Saturday, Mr. Pagani. We’ll have your escort ready to go first thing Monday morning.”

“Monday? What the fuck kind of bait and switch are you pulling?”

“Tell people not to have such a freak out when government employees go into overtime. I took your call on a weekend as a courtesy. I have six armed agents waiting at Ford’s who are all about to earn time and a half. I’m working for free here, so is Ford.”

“You better damn well be sure you get him, then. I don’t want Lars coming back for me.”

“You scared, Mr. Pagani?” Nikki could hear the smile on his face through the phone.

“Right now he’s headed your way. You’re the one who ought to be scared.”