Stolen Kisses Page 7

  “Impress you? Like what?”

  This was mean. I really should just say yes already and be done with it, but the attention and his zeal to do whatever I asked was making my head swell.

  “Make six figures a month.” I was joking. No one I knew made that kind of money.

  “I want more than a kiss for six figures a month.”

  I laughed and thought I’d make him crazier, especially since I could hear Christina coming down the stairs.

  I stepped closer, crooked my finger so he’d lower and I could whisper into his ear.

  “Dante … if you make six figures a month, I’ll allow you to touch me everywhere and anywhere you want, and then you can do whatever you want to me.” I whispered into his ear, nice, slow, and purposeful—seductive.

  He turned and his nose brushed against mine. “Fuck.”

  “We can do that too.” I teased, loving the dazed look on his face.

  I stepped back at the same time Christina approached with a curious look on her face.

  “What are you guys up to?” she asked looking from me to him.

  “Nothing … yet.”

  Christina rolled her eyes, while poor Dante couldn’t tear his eyes away from me. She had to hit him in the chest to get his attention.

  “Come on then, you are so weird.” She shook her head at him and started walking away without him.

  “Good night Dante,” I cooed. “I really wish you the best of luck trying to make all that money.”

  He didn’t answer instead he just walked away, but I knew what was on his mind. It was clear. I laughed, closed the door and headed to take out the trash. Vira had asked me to do it before she left this morning. I didn’t know why she couldn’t ask one of her male friends to do it for her. I always got landed with the shit jobs.

  At least tonight I had the memory of Dante’s face in my mind to distract me from the task. I couldn’t believe what I’d said to him. Practically offering sex on the table if the man could show me that he made six figures a month. I was so bad.

  A noise behind me made me jump. I turned to see a man leaning against the wall watching me.

  Fuck, I had never saw him there before. He was one of Vira’s creepy friends from the brothel who was always hitting on me.

  Steve, that was his name.

  He thought just because he was one of Vira’s longstanding well paying customers it gave him access to everything. Everything including me.

  When he stepped forward, I moved back to head toward the house.

  “Where you goin doll?” He grabbed me.

  I screamed when he shoved me hard against the dumpster.

  “Let go of me.” I winced.

  “Please, give it a rest I know you want it bad.” He taunted pressing me hard.

  Not giving up I scratched him right across his neck and when he jumped from the shock, I used the moment to try and escape.

  It was however the wrong thing to do. When he grabbed me this time, I fell hitting my knees on the ground and in a split second he was on top of me holding me down and tearing at my clothes.

  Tears poured from my eyes when I thought of what was going to happen to me, and I wished like hell I could call for Dante.

  “Leave me alone!” I cried, but he didn’t stop. My dress ripped as he flipped me over to face him, and he smiled down at me with his disgusting face.

  He lowered and placed his lips over mine. Kissing me even though I was crying and screaming.

  Then something slammed into him knocking him off me.

  No …

  Not something. Someone.

  At first, I thought it was Dante because of the leather jacket. Then I realized it wasn’t.

  It was someone else.

  Someone I’d never imagine coming down to these parts of town, let alone saving me.

  Lucian Morientz.

  Luc.

  The moonlight shone down on him as he picked up Steve and hoisted him in the air, grabbing him in his neck.

  “You think it’s okay to force yourself on a woman?” Luc balked.

  Steve was coughing and started to choke. If Luc wasn’t careful, he’d kill him.

  I watched in horror as Steve gasped like he was struggling for his last breath. It was only then Luc dropped him on the ground and kicked him hard.

  “Get up, you piece of shit.” Luc sent another kick to his stomach, but Steve knew better than to sit there on the ground. He got up and held his stomach, blood trickled down his nose and the side of his face.

  “Leave, leave town. Don’t ever let me see you anywhere near here again. If I do, you’re dead. You hear me?”

  Steve nodded and scampered away like a rat.

  Luc watched him go, then turned his blue gaze to me. His eyes looked almost silver against the moon. They were a bright blue with a hint of something that gave him an otherworldly appearance.

  He came over to me and I quickly adjusted my clothes.

  “You okay, doll?” he asked bending down to get closer.

  I nodded. “I think so. Thank you. Thank you so much.” I was trying to hold back the tears, but it wasn’t working. A few streamed down my cheeks and he did the nicest thing ever by reaching out to wipe them away.

  “It’s okay princess. He’s gone. Come here.”

  I took his hand and he helped me stand. “Thanks again. I should be more careful.”

  He chuckled. “Funny how people always say that after something happens.”

  “Yeah.”

  He looked me over and then it was like he remembered something. “Maria, that’s your name.”

  Oh my God, he knew me.

  “Um, yes. That is me.”

  “The diner, you work there sometimes. I’m Luc.”

  “I know,” I smiled.

  His smile turned up a notch. “Do you now?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well look at this, you know of me and I know of you and yet this had to happen to you for us to actually speak. We should do something about that, meet under better circumstances.”

  My mind completely drained of the horror from just five minutes ago.

  I nodded in complete agreement. It seemed like I had just hit the jackpot I wished for not even an hour ago.

  Chapter 9

  Dante

  Present day …

  “What would you guys do?” I asked looking from Alex to Gio.

  “I’d act then think about the consequences later.” Gio nodded.

  We were talking about Maria. I’d told them how weird I thought things were with her.

  We were at the garage playing poker in the back. The three of us sat around a table.

  Claudius was over by the work table fiddling with some part for a bike someone wanted fixed with a newer engine.

  He’d come in about ten minutes ago right when we were at the height of the game.

  “Is this a woman you want Dante?” Alex smirked.

  “Yes.” I could always be real with them.

  “Then why are we talking about this like it’s business?”

  “Because we have to tread softly, because it’s Maria.” Gio chuckled. “I forget you probably don’t know how bad Dante wanted her back in the day. Now she’s freed up and he wants her again.”

  Claudius lifted his head and looked over at us. “You guys talking about Luc’s Maria?”

  “Jesus not you too.” I snapped. “You should know better than to call her that.”

  Claudius shook his head at me. “What you want me to call her? Your Maria when you didn’t have the balls to claim the woman?”

  “She was with Luc; we don’t piss on each other that way.”

  “Well, you can piss all you want now. She came by the restaurant yesterday with her son asking for a job. She didn’t know we owned the place. She saw Luc and took off.” Claudius explained. “Luc went to see her and said she seemed like she was in trouble, because she’d only ever go to her aunts if she was.”

  Fuck. I knew I shouldn’t have
just left her.

  “That all he said?” I asked.

  “He thought the boy was his.”

  Alex started to laugh. “Now that would be big news.”

  Claudius shook his head at him. “Dante, what she doing at her aunt’s, I hate that place.”

  “I know. She maintains she’s fine, but I know she’s not.”

  “Get her out of there and sort her out with someplace to stay. Ava was worried. They met and she liked her.”

  Ava liked everybody. The woman wore her heart on her sleeve.

  Something was going on with Maria though, and now I knew with certainty that she was asking for a job.

  I was about to continue gathering advice when a man walk in through the door.

  He was a middle-aged man with muscle.

  He had a full beard that was speckled with gray hair and a crew cut. He wore a suede jacket and black clothes underneath. In his hand he carried a white envelope.

  Claudius straightened when he saw him.

  “Gibbs,” Claudius said.

  Gibbs tipped his head and nodded at all of us.

  I looked on at him.

  Was he the P.I?

  He had the look of a guy who’d been in the military.

  “I went by the office and your secretary told me I could find you here. I hope it’s okay I came by,” Gibbs stated.

  “It’s fine.” Claudius nodded. When he looked over to me, I knew this guy was the P.I. “Dante, this is the guy I was telling you about.”

  I stood up. “Hi.”

  He could only be here if he had something. Claudius said he would make contact when he had something to report back. Maybe this was it.

  Gibbs came over and shook my hand. “I have something for you,” he kept his gaze trained on me while handing me the envelope.

  I took it and held it, just looking at it. It felt light.

  The guys all looked at me waiting and watching.

  I steadied my hands and reached into the envelope, pulling out one single image. My heart stopped when I saw Christina in the picture.

  She was standing outside a building.

  It was just her and she was smiling while looking on at someone.

  She looked … so alive and happy.

  “What is this?” I looked at Gibbs. It may have seemed like a stupid question, because clearly it was a picture of Christina. That wasn’t what I was asking though and he knew it.

  “In my line of work, you look everywhere,” Gibbs began. He leaned against the wall and looked at me. “Places most people would never look, after all it’s what you do when you’re trying to find something. I found that in some documents taken from an old photographer who was murdered around the same time as your sister. Looked like he had seen too much. His name was Stephen Archamey and he wasn’t the run of the mill photographer. This guy took pictures of very important people. Secrets. He took pictures of secrets and that was how many secrets were exposed.”

  “Secrets exposed?” I asked, because I was starting to see that I was right. I was damn right and this was starting to take some kind of form.

  Gibbs nodded.

  “You found this picture by itself?” Claudius asked cracking his knuckles.

  “I found the picture by itself. My take on it is this. It was found amongst some fed files in the unsolved crimes unit. I think someone found it and was trying to figure it out. The numbers on the bottom of the photo suggest it was part of a batch.”

  I looked at the little numbers and saw the numbers 019:20.

  “Part of a batch and this one somehow got left behind. When Stephen was murdered it became an immediate federal investigation, because of who he was. They knew that if anyone was going to kill him it was going to be someone with power that wanted him dead. They wanted to be all over the crime scene. Feds picked up all his files and that was the only picture of your sister which means either the others were taken away or destroyed, or both.”

  I stared at him trying to make sense of it. “This guy was someone you’d hire for serious shit.” I stated.

  “Looks like the kind of shit you would need to get the best to work on,” Gio added.

  Gibbs smiled wide and ran a hand over his beard. “I knew I’d like you guys. You make the work a lot easier. More interesting too. A picture can say many things. That one tells me Christina was with someone very, very important. Important enough to hire a guy like Stephen Archamey. He followed them and took these pictures. Then by looking at the dates I can see that this someone didn’t want the person who hired him to get these pictures. He died two days after the dates printed on the image.”

  I looked at the date: 10/03/2008.

  Christina was killed just three months later.

  I placed my hand to my head. All of this really was deep shit. While I knew more, it still wasn’t enough.

  Still no name. I still didn’t have a damn name.

  “Who? Who do you think it is?”

  Gibbs shook his head. “Son, I don’t know but in my experience shit like this always involves government types. They’re always the ones who want to keep their secrets out of the public’s eyes. Criminals and gangsters want the world to beware of them. You know the name far and wide for being notorious. These guys are like wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

  Government official. Fucking hell. I’d been looking in the wrong areas. All these long years and I’d done it all wrong.

  I was looking for people associated with the Manellos and Antonellas.

  “What do you suggest we do?” Claudius asked.

  “Not a lot right now. I’m going to see if I can get my hands on the other images. I assume they’ve all been destroyed, but I don’t want to rule anything out until I’m certain. I want to go through the stuff the feds seized from Stephen’s house. If I can get his camera or possibly computer files maybe I can find more. There’s no point looking around when you don’t know what direction to look.” He pulled in a breath and straightened. “Cases like that are difficult to get information for and are always the ones that will be tricky. They lead to all manner of roads. We just have to make sure we pick the right path.”

  “What about this place in the picture?” I asked. I was certain knowing that could help in some way.

  “Well, that’s something that would help massively. I don’t know how you’d work out where she is though, because that’s just the front of the house. Not a lot there.”

  I set the picture down on the table on top of the cards.

  We stared at it for a few seconds.

  Alex picked it up and balled his fists. “This.” He put the picture back down and pointed at something at the corner of the image. It was a statue, looked like a fish tail. It was bronze.

  “What Alex?” I asked.

  “I … I think I recognize that.’

  “Looks like a fish tail.”

  “Yeah, if I’m right I think it’s part of a group of statues in a fountain at Crowthorne Hall.”

  The minute he said Crowthorne my blood boiled. The Crowthorne Society was the club, the hall was where they had all their official functions. As far as I knew the Antonellas did not own that, but damn it to hell I was certain this showed there was some involvement.

  “Crowthorne Hall, like the society?” Gibbs asked.

  “Yes,” Alex replied. “Um … I followed Jude, my brother there once.” He looked to Claudius then back to me. “Back when I suspected him, I used to try and follow him where I could. This was one of those places, he went to a fundraiser, looked like he wasn’t actually going to the event itself, but to meet someone. I lost him in the crowd, so I don’t know who it was he was meeting.”

  I nodded, grateful for more direction and glanced at Claudius.

  “If it’s Crowthorne the Antonellas and Manellos are still involved somehow.” I stated.

  “Yes, I agree and we know that when they aren’t trying to steal nukes they’re either trying to assassinate or protect very, very important people.” Claudius
nodded and returned his focus to Gibbs. “Gibbs, this is quality work. How are you planning to continue? It’s my duty to warn you from here that this may get a little dirtier than you’re used to. These people are above me. I’m not afraid to admit it, but we need justice. I really don’t want you to end up like Stephen.”

  Gibbs smiled. “Mr. Morientz, the main thing about me is I have no price, nothing left to lose. They can come for me and it won’t matter. I like to live, the money helps with that and until I die, I’m good to solve unsolved mysteries.”

  Claudius nodded. “Your checks been paid with a bonus.”

  “Much obliged. Be seeing you soon.” Gibbs tipped his head like he was doing so in reverence and walked out leaving us.

  I watched him until he walked through the door and looked on as he continued into the car park, got on a Harley and rode away.

  I looked back at the guys who were all focused on me, Claudius in particular.

  “I should be paying him Claudius.” I thought I’d say that first.

  Claudius shook his head. “No. This is on me. I’m really sorry I never got my hands on Joe in last year’s fiasco. Or at least one of them. Any one of them.”

  I looked at him and sighed. “It was a messy situation.”

  “Messy, or maybe me being too careful.” He surmised. “We’re mobsters. I promised Luc we’d be as legit as we could, but we are what we are, and sometimes legit isn’t the way forward. It can’t be in our line of work. It’s what makes us those guys who get things done. I feel like that whole legit thing and keeping our nose out of stuff had been a weakness. Our enemies have been getting away with all manner of fucked up shit, because of it.”

  “If we aren’t legit then we’re what we used to be.” I added.

  Claudius shook his head again. “No, we were never anything of the sort. That was way before my time. There’s a reason why Raphael Rossi owned this town and it wasn’t just money. People were afraid of him. The Antonellas and Manellos could never have what he had, but they wanted it. I think it’s time to kick it back old school and be like the type of gangsters who came before us. We’ll have to delve into Antonella territory. We have to know where to look though and sniff them out. The only person I know from that time who’ll know anything is my father.”