Ten
Moses
“I’m going to kill her,” I say as soon as I slide into the SUV and Jules fires up the engine. “That wasn’t a fucking last resort. We could’ve gotten out—”
“Say what you want, man, but I would’ve done the same thing in her position,” Trey says, defending Magnolia’s actions. “If he kept coming your way, there was a damn good chance he would’ve seen the fence. You sure as fuck wouldn’t have got out the same way. And now cameras are up again.”
“What do you want me to do, boss?” Jules asks.
“Drive around the block and stop in front of the building.”
He cuts his face to mine. “You want me to park in between the fucking cop cars or what?”
“Yeah, whatever you gotta do. Just fucking go get her.”
He shakes his head slowly from side to side as he shifts the SUV into gear. “I hope she knows what the hell she’s doing.”
“You and me both,” I say as he circles the impound lot. I glance back at Trey. “Cut the camera in front of the building again. I don’t want Magnolia on the feed.”
As we turn the corner, I catch sight of the cop she was walking with, turning and leaving her in front of the building. “Slow down, Jules. Give him a few seconds to walk away.”
We crawl down the street as Magnolia picks her way carefully toward the ugly brown building. The swivel of her chin tells me she sees us coming, but she’s waiting for her cop escort to get out of sight before she changes direction and raises his suspicions.
Jules comes to a stop as the cop turns the corner, headed back down the fence line he’s going to find a slice in, when Magnolia dashes to the SUV.
“Trey, open the door.” I give the order, but Trey’s already on it, and Magnolia jumps up into the SUV and shuts the door. “All right. Go.”
“You find anything?” Magnolia asks as she settles into her seat.
“What the hell were you doing?” I turn around so I can see her face.
“Helping. And, clearly, everything worked out okay, so you need to take that attitude and stow it, Moby.”
From beside her, Trey can’t help but chuckle.
“Something funny?” I snap.
Unable to hold back his laughter, Trey chokes. “She calls you Moby, and I gotta know—is that short for Moby Dick? Because if it is, that is the best fuckin’ nickname I’ve ever heard.”
Trey is laughing all out now. Tears roll down his face as he chuckles, and the mood of the entire car lifts when Magnolia joins in. It’s contagious, and soon Jules is trying to hold back a chortle.
Finally, I crack a smile. “What can I say? It may be a nickname, but there’s nothing short about it. I bring a lot to the table.”
Jules bursts into laughter.
It takes us a few blocks before we’re able to control ourselves, and to tell the truth, we needed the moment of levity.
When the mirth finally dies down. Magnolia asks again, “You get what we needed?”
“Yeah, mama. We found the ’Stang and emptied it out. Ricardo didn’t have a lot, but he had enough. Now we just gotta sort through it and see what connects him to the fucking asshole who broke into your place.”
And who might have slit Alberto Brandon’s wife’s throat. My brain fills in the part I don’t need to say, because I guarantee everyone else is thinking it too.
“Good. It’s time for this bastard to go down,” Magnolia says from behind me.
“And he will. Don’t worry about that. We’re gonna find him and take him out.”
Jules takes a winding and backtracking route to the house in the Marigny, just in case we have a tail, but I don’t see any signs of one.
“We should be good, man. Let’s get home and start digging.” I twist in my seat to look at Trey. “We got a cell phone. Hopefully that’ll be our jackpot.”
“Disposable?” He squints, and I know what he’s thinking. A burner won’t do us as much good.
I shake my head. “No. It looks like it’s a nice, new one.”
“I’m surprised Ortiz was smart enough to leave it in the car when he brought his fucking wallet to the job,” Jules says, disgust for the rookie mistake underlying his tone.
“His wallet didn’t do us any favors helping to figure out who the fuck he really was,” Trey says, pointing out the truth. “Clearly, he wasn’t worried about it being found. Maybe that means he was getting cocky with his anonymity. Could also mean his cell has answers his wallet didn’t.”
“Okay, okay,” Jules says, conceding the point. “As long as you find a name we can hunt down to put this son of a bitch to sleep, we’ll be all good.” He hits the button on the visor. The garage door opens, and then he parks inside.
I’m out of the SUV first, bag in hand, but I’m not racing into the kitchen to empty it out on the table. First things first. I yank open Mags’s door and pull her out and into my arms.
“When I heard your voice outside the car, my heart practically fucking stopped. I do not like you taking risks, mama. Not one fucking bit.”
“All’s well that ends well,” she replies, pressing a kiss to my lips. “Besides, that’s about the best encounter I’ve ever had with a cop. You worried for nothing.”
I run my hand over her hair and press my mouth to her warm forehead. “Come on, woman. I’m taking you inside. As soon as we’ve sorted through this shit, I’m taking you to bed and showing you exactly how I fucking feel about you.”
Her smile could light up the pitch-black night. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Moby.”
Eleven
Magnolia
When we make our way inside, Jules is dumping the contents of the bags onto the kitchen table. Moses and I walk toward him, and I’m hoping like hell we find something from the damn car to tell us who is after me so we can put an end to the man.
The memory of the words smeared on my wall—in blood—still scares me, and that pisses me off more than anything. I don’t let men bully or intimidate me anymore, and the fact some nameless, faceless asshole disrupted my life and put me on edge is driving me crazy.
There’s no two ways about it. He’s gotta go, and I hope he rots in hell.
Moses leaves my side and crosses to Trey and Jules. He claps his hands together. “All right, boys. Let’s do this. Time to piece together every goddamned thing about this bastard so we can find out who the fuck would care that he died.”
Trey grabs the phone first. “I’ll take this. There’s gotta be something useful on it.”
He strolls over to the end of the table and unearths a cord from the laptop bag on the floor. After he finishes untangling the knot it’s tied in, he plugs the cord into the phone and then into a little silver box connected to the laptop.
He grins immediately. “She’s dead, but she won’t be for long, and soon, we’ll have a hell of a lot more answers about ol’ Ricardo.”
Moses nods in his direction. “Good. We fucking need them.”