“Very good,” my dad replied, leaning away. “Do it quickly. I want that plan done by the end of the week.” I opened my mouth to protest, but my dad raised an eyebrow. “That’s not gonna be a problem, is it?”
I had half a mind just to give him something half-baked, and if he got fucked due to his impatience, that was on him. “No.”
“Good.”
He walked over to where Arturo was sitting and started talking to him, but I did my best to tune them out. Regardless of their impatience and disregard for Denise’s life, they had every reason to be suspicious. The Carmine-Illiana relationship didn’t make sense, and whether it was subtly or guns-blazing, Denise and I were going to need to find out more information before we could proceed.
I was just leaning back into my computer, preparing to do more work when my cell phone rang. I lifted it from the table next to me and brought it to my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Boss?” It was one of the soldiers who I instructed to keep an eye on the safe house.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“That car is back.”
“Car?” I thought back, but nothing came to mind. “What car?”
“That one I thought was a cop. You showed up, and we found out that he was here about something else. He’s sitting out here again.”
“Maybe he’s got something else going on there?”
“Your girl showed up about an hour or so ago,” the soldier said. “He showed up five minutes later and has had eyes on the place since. He’s looking up like he’s watchingyourplace.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. “Uh.” Surely Denise wouldn’t be working with the cops. “All right, I’m on my way.” I slammed my phone against the table. “Fuck!”
“What’s wrong?” my dad asked.
I shook my head. “I think the safe house has been made. I gotta go check it out.”
“Fine,” he said, and with only a glance in my direction, my dad went back to paying attention to Arturo. “Ditch it if you have to. Even if she’s in it.”
“Yeah,” I grunted back as I packed up my computer and left the room. “Bye.”
What had started out as such a good day got bad quick. I had so many more questions than I had answers, and I hated feeling like I couldn’t entirely trust what Denise was up to. The safe house we were using was one that we’d used before. We bought it for the business close to five years ago, and not once had it ever been watched by cops. Now, all of a sudden, Denise moves in, and police are showing up?
There weren’t many coincidences in my line of work, and Denise was going to need a good explanation to make me feel better about this one.
Once I was in the car and on the way to the safe house, I called the soldier who was watching it. “Yeah, boss?”
“Listen. I may know what’s going on with that cop. I’m about to make a call, and I need you to let me know right away if he leaves, all right?”
“Of course, boss.”
“I’m talking the second he starts up his car to go, you give me a call.”
“Yes, boss.”
Without even saying goodbye, I hung up the phone, then rerouted the built-in phone to call Denise. It trilled a few times before I finally heard, “Hello?”
All the anger in me subsided in a second. God, I hoped Denise wasn’t playing me because I was crazy about her. “Hey.”
“Hi,” she replied. “How’s it going?”
“Good. I’m on my way to the safe house. Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m already here. I told my family I was spending the night with a friend.” She snickered. “I suppose it’s not untrue.”
