None of the club members were wearing a cut, though all but Keys was dressed for battle in fatigues. The Tech was wearing a t-shirt with a T-Rex holding a chopstick in each small hand and using the tool to type on a keyboard. The captionI’m Unstoppablewas in large letters under the cartoon dinosaur.
After getting his balance back and righting his glasses, Keys sat up and tried to play it off like he hadn’t nearly fallen on his face. “I found who owns the cage. They don’t call them shell corporations for nothing. It’s like playing Three Card Monte while drunk to follow some of those trails. But I got it. Cage is part of a fleet owned by the Gavigan crime family.”
Steel didn’t blink or outwardly show his confusion. “Am I supposed to be trembling in my boots? Who are they and what is their connection to Melanie?”
“They’re low-level Irish mob. Not like the K-and-A, but they recently inherited a chunk of a business that wasn’t previously theirs. Hence the shell game I just played,” he added with athumb over his shoulder towards his laptop. “They deal mostly in protection and running guns and prescription drugs. As far as I can tell, they don’t touch human trafficking.”
They were running drugs, and Baldwin was a dealer. Steel was starting to get a sinking feeling, and an idea was taking root that he’d never even considered before.
What if Rodney Baldwin hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time, an innocent bystander who died for chivalrously walking Melanie back to her dorm room?
What ifMelaniewas the one who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time? What ifMelaniehad been the innocent bystander in someone else’s war?
Red-hot rage battled the ice in Steel’s veins at the possibility that Melanie’s death was nothing more than circumstance.
“Get me everything on the Gavigans.” Steel didn’t even recognize his own voice as he headed back out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Cage called after him.
Steel didn’t answer. There was a chance he was heading to the hardware store to get more screws, or he could be heading to the cemetery to piss on Rodney Baldwin’s grave. He didn’t know. All he knew was that he was going to pick off the Gavigan family one by one until he learned who had pulled the trigger. Who had sat cowardly back in his car as he pointed his gun at an innocent girl to get to his real target.
He didn’t care what it took or how long it took. He’d bring the Gavigan family to their knees and make the streets of Philadelphia flow crimson with their blood.
CHAPTER 14
“Steel is going to kill me when he finds out I’m doing this to you.”
Jenna was surprised at the light chuckle that escaped her mouth. It might have been the first time she’d made any sound of pleasure since Melanie’s murder. Her head resting on Lucky’s shoulder, she said, “It’ll be our little secret.”
Today was Ollie’s appointment to get his cast off, which also marked eight weeks since the car accident and Melanie’s murder. Lilly was a Godsend. In Jenna’s condition, there was no way she could have taken care of either her son or herself. Aaron was also an incredible help. He’d gotten his cast off his arm a few weeks ago, but even that cast hadn’t stopped him from doing everything he possibly could to help out Ollie. Jenna was incredibly grateful to her fellow ol’ ladies and their men. They cooked, cleaned, and rotated keeping Jenna company even when she didn’t want it.
And now, Lucky was carrying Jenna out of her bathroom. Jenna’s wheelchair did not fit through her bathroom doorframe. Bathing had been difficult of late, especially on days when any movement caused her increased pain. In addition to helping her with her bathroom necessities, Lilly had been giving Jenna dailysponge baths and washing her hair over the kitchen sink every few days.
But she wasn’t going to miss Ollie’s appointment. So come hell or high water, Jenna had gotten herself into the bathroom that morning to take a real bath. Unfortunately, the act of bathing and getting dressed afterwards had exhausted her so much that Jenna couldn’t make herself stand up and walk with Lilly’s assistance to the wheelchair waiting only feet outside the bathroom doorway. They’d had no choice but to call in reinforcements.
Sherefusedto think about how much easier her life would be right now if Jack were at her side.
Lucky had already been downstairs and had come running to Jenna’s rescue. He’d easily picked her up bridal style to carry her out into her bedroom, but was now pausing as to where to put her. “Are you ready to head downstairs?”
Jenna knew that she’d sleep if he laid her down in her bed, so she nodded. Her back was quaking. Her last infusion did not seem to have the same easing effect the previous one had had. Her right thigh was bothering her more than she was trying to let on.
Lucky headed out of her bedroom and sidestepped the chairlift to bring her down the steps. Jenna had to grit her teeth as each step felt like she was being bounced on a trampoline. It wasn’t Lucky’s fault; he was being incredibly gentle with her. Her body just wasn’t a fan of movement anymore. Even the daily exercises Lilly did with her were torturous.
But this was for Ollie. She was hismother, and she needed to be there for him.
Laughter rose up from the kitchen.
“It doesn’t smell that bad!”
Jenna saw Aaron first as Lucky brought her under the door frame. He was standing at the fridge with a flower in front of hisnose. “Babe, I trust your sense of smell even less than your sense of fashion!” the young man remarked.
Ollie, aghast, put a hand to his chest. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his bedazzled crutches leaning up against the wall behind him. “Moi?! My fashion sense isimpeccable!”
“You’re wearing shoulder boards!” Aaron argued, pointing at Ollie’s jacket. The lightweight, blue jacket that was a shade shy of being navy had a yellow-green shoulder pad on Ollie’s right and a pink one on his left. Underneath he wore a white and lime green horizontally-striped V-neck shirt. Jenna couldn’t see his pants from her angle in Lucky’s arms, but she was sure they would be as equally, uh,unique.
“They’re called ‘epaulettes’,” Ollie defended with a note ofduhin his voice. “And regardless of how fabulous I look, it does not take away from the fact that you said my feet smell!”
“Foot,” Aaron corrected. He grabbed a pitcher of iced tea from the fridge with one hand while still holding the flower to his nose with the other. Jenna noticed a large vase of flowers on the kitchen table, along with a number of greeting cards. “Babes, you’ve had a cast on your leg for two months! Of course it’s going to smell. No amount of perfume or whatever it is you’ve been spraying on yourself is going to cover that up.” Placing the iced tea on the table, Aaron leaned over Ollie’s chair. In profile, he looked so much like Cage it was uncanny. “But no amount of stank or your questionable fashion choices will ever make me love you any less.”
