“Hiding in plain sight, maybe.”
“Fuck, there they are!”
Mitch automatically slouched in the seat of the sedan, even though there wasn’t a hope in hell anyone would see himthrough the tinted windows of the car and on the busy street. There was something about seeing Pete walking along the footpath with Rocky Cummings that made his skin crawl. Rocky must have been twice the size of Pete, something that only highlighted the power imbalance between the two. What the fuck was Pete doing with a creep like Rocky? How did he get involved with one of the most notorious gangsin the area? Why the hell didn’t he stay in Melbourne where he was out of sight and out of mind? Mitch sure didn’t need his thoughts filled up with his ex-boyfriend.
Mitch straightened and tried to ignore the strange feelings surging through him. He was a professional and had a job to do.
“That must be the brother.”
Mitch looked away from Pete—jeez, he was getting sloppy, focusing on Rockyand Peter and not taking in the whole scene—and took in the bloke following the two men. From a distance the kid looked nothing like his brother, apart from the shock of fair hair. Rocky kept his buzz-cut, but Mitch knew enough to know his natural coloring was also that glorious shimmering blond that formed a halo around his brother’s head. It didn’t seem fair that the men in a family of criminalsshould be graced with hair that belonged on an angel.
Rocky and Pete stopped at the stairs that led to the entrance of the pub. The young guy caught up to the two men who’d been walking a couple of meters in front, and he and Pete started talking. Rocky said something, then turned to enter the hotel, leaving the two of them there. The guy put his hand on Pete’s shoulder, and something stirredlow in Mitch’s belly. The touch and the way Pete dropped his head as he listened to what the other man had to say reminded him so much of himself and Pete.How many times did we stand like that?
Mitch swallowed hard and tore his gaze away from the men. “What do we know about the kid?”
Ross checked his notes. “Finley Robert Cummings, better known as Finn to his family and friends. Age twenty-three.He’s spent the last four years living in Melbourne. He went to La Trobe University and attained his bachelor degree in financial management and accounting.”
“What the fuck did he come back here for, then? Sounds like he could be making something of himself instead of getting drawn into Rocky’s world.”
“Maybe he never left.”
Mitch’s attention snapped to Ross. “He’s got ties to Melbourne gangs?”
“Not that we know of. And he has been checked out.”
“Doing work for his brother from Melbourne?”
“The intel doesn’t show that either. From what’s been found out so far, he’s hardly been in contact with his brother or anyone else in the club since he moved down south. Phone records, internal searches show nothing. He hasn’t even been back to Sydney to visit since his other brother’s death.”
“That was 2014, right?”
Ross consulted his notes. “Yep. June. He was found dead of a drug overdose. Carl Junior was two years older than Rocky. When Carl Senior wrapped his bike around a tree, Carl was voted in as club president and stepped into his boots.”
“It’s convenient for Rocky that the two men both died in a short space of time, paving the way for him to take a shot at the leadership position.”
“I think he’d been angling for a while and managed to secure the votes of those members who weren’t happy with the direction the club was taking and wanted to go back to the old ways. Both deaths were ruled accidental by misadventure, but there’s always been some suspicion that Rocky played a role. He’s a psychopath with Machiavellian tendencies.”
“I’d like to review his profile. Let’s meet withRowena when we get back to the office. We need to know Rocky backward and forward, especially now that Peter’s involved.”
Ross turned to give Mitch his full attention. “This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”
Mitch raised a brow. “What? Me having contact with Pete again? Of course not. We ended things eighteen months ago, and I’ve hardly given him a second thought since.”
“Doesn’t mean itwon’t be hard, mate. The two of you, you’ve got a past. You put a lot of emotional energy into that man, so no one expects you to be unaffected,” Ross said.
Mitch bristled. “I can do my job.”And, it’s not like I have any choice.
Ross shrugged, giving him the benefit of the doubt, and Mitch was glad the subject was dropped. He just hoped he was right and hecouldkeep his past personal lifeseparate.
