“Yeah!” Cami added. “We have a huge collection. And if we don’t own it, we can get almost any movie on streaming.”
“You really don’t mind if I pick?” Annika asked.
“Not at all,” Lana said. “We insist.”
Matteo half expected Annika to pickBreakfast at Tiffany’s, but instead she selected the Disney cartoonCinderella.
He wondered if she saw herself in that character. The thought broke his heart. But she didn’t need a fairy godmother. She had her Prince Charming right there.
After he got the movie playing, he stooped down, kissed her on top of the head, and then the Daddies said goodbye as they all went back downstairs to the den.
They had some business to discuss and the girls didn’t need to hear it.
Once they were all seated, Matteo looked toward Kendrick. Part of him felt bad. He wondered if seeing the other guys with a Little made Kendrick feel lonely.
That wasn’t the topic of conversation tonight, though.
Instead, Jack said, “What do you think that was all about earlier when Annika saw the TV? Do we think that senator could be the one behind her trouble?”
Matteo had been pondering that very thing all evening since the incident had occurred.
“I think there’s a good chance,” he noted. “Something clearly spooked her. I mean, she took one look at the TV and folded like a house of cards. Broke my damn heart.”
“Mine, too,” Ace said, shaking his head as he strolled to the bar. “She was clearly in distress.”
A buzzing sound interrupted the conversation. Matteo got up and walked to the computer monitors, punched on the keyboard, and pulled up the home’s security software. A crystal-clear image from the front gate camera appeared, showing two of the officers from the Roosevelt Hotel.
“Hey, it’s Linn and Springer,” he said to the other guys. Pushing a button on a nearby microphone, he leaned down to be closer to where the device sat on the desk and said, “Good evening, gentleman. What brings you over?”
“Hey, Matteo. Mind if we come in? Got some info on those guys you clobbered.”
He laughed. “Not at all. I’ll open the gate and meet you out front.”
Three minutes later, the two officers were standing in the den where Matteo had led them.
“You boys want a drink?” Matteo jerked his head toward the bar. “Got just about anything you can want. And don’t worry. Kendrick is a better bartender than he was a cop.”
Everyone laughed.
“Kiss my ass,” Kendrick told Matteo, though the smile he wore revealed he was in on the joke.
“Sarge, you know we can’t drink on duty,” Officer Linn said.
Matteo grinned. “I’m not a sergeant anymore. So I won’t tell if you don’t.”
The officers laughed but declined the drinks.
The shorter one of the two—Officer Springer—stepped forward. “We’ve got to get back on our beat. But we thought you’d want to know about this. Those two guys you wailed on got picked up later that night. Pulled over for speeding and the officer recognized their description—and the lumps and bruises you gave them—from the APB we’d put out. So, he hauled ‘em in. They didn’t say much. And they’ve already made bail. But it turns out, they work for someone very powerful.”
Matteo’s body grew tense. He cleared his throat and then said, “Let me guess—a state senator.”
Both officers shook their heads, but it was Linn who spoke next.
And what he said chilled Matteo to the bone.
“Oh no. Whatever is going on goes higher than Sacremento. It goes to the richest man on the planet.”
“Those guys work for Edward Marlot.”
