Chapter 8
Jack kept his eyes trained on the tall, dark-skinned man returning his tray to the take-out booth. The late September weather was still warm, allowing the diners a choice of eating outside. Lucky for him, Steve Bishop, his former partner, had always liked the outdoors. He scanned the crowd, hoping Steve’s new partner would stay inside where he’d gone. Most likely to use the men’s room.Move quick.
Leaning against a pillar near the entrance to the shopping plaza, Steve lit a cigarette. As he drew it into his mouth, Jack slid out from between two large bushes next to the pillar. “I thought you were trying to quit.”
Steve’s head whipped around fast and his mouth opened wide, the cigarette almost falling from his lips. He grabbed it at the last second, moving it down to his side.
“Jack. Holy crap. What the hell are you doing here? Where the fuck have you been?”
The foul language was minor compared to what his friend was capable of.
“Where do you think I’ve been, Steve? Hiding in a friggin’ hole somewhere. I thought it was time I crawled out to see if the department has made any headway in getting me out of this fucking mess I’m in.”
Letting out a huge breath of air, Steve closed his eyes. Jack interpreted that to meanno. Damn. He was hoping some miracle had happened in the last six months and the Bureau was ready to put Victor in his own hole. A nice hole with steel bars across the front.Should have known better.
“We thought we had something recently but the evidence presented was thrown out due to technicalities. It’s the same story over and over. We get good, solid evidence, and it gets thrown out or misplaced or the witness gets whacked or goes missing. Cabrini’s got too many hands in his pockets. No idea who though. Covering his tracks is his specialty.”
“We need to find out who’s on his payroll, especially the fucking traitor from the Bureau.” Jack scowled, hating the fact one of his former colleagues was working for the mob boss.
“I don’t know, I wish I did. But whoever it is hasn’t ratted on you being FBI. As far as Cabrini is concerned, you probably worked for some rival syndicate trying to take him out and got Angelo instead.”
“We have a turncoat with ethics, nice. How did you find that out?”
“Our man on the inside said Cabrini still refers to you as ‘Matt Waters’not Jack Holland.”
“So you still have a few men on the inside?”
Steve’s face twisted. “We’ve got one but he’s not in a position to get much in the way of information. Cabrini’s too careful when it comes to hiring people to work close to him. Too bad we didn’t still have the little cutie you were chauffeuring around working for us. She sees Cabrini quite a bit lately. Did you know she had Angelo’s bastard kid?”
The insults hit him like a gale-force wind and Jack had to rein in his control and squelch the urge to pop his friend in the mouth. “Shut up, Steve. Bit harsh for an innocent child.”
Steve rolled his eyes and frowned. “Sorry. I’m a little surprised. She made it sound like she wanted nothing to do with seeing Cabrini. One of the last times I saw her, when we arranged that meeting for the info she had, I thought she seemed a bit smitten withyou. Guess money won out over looks, huh? Didn’t realize she was still doing Angelo.”
“She wasn’t,” Jack ground out, his jaw like granite. No one talked about Callie that way. He didn’t want them thinking she’d sleep with a dirt bag like Angelo Cabrini. “Never had been.”
Steve’s eyes were skeptical. “What are you talking about? She had the kid eight months after Angelo died. Who…”
His eyes widened as he figured it out. Shit. He should have left well enough alone. But no one called his son a bastard or implied Callie was a tramp.
“Damn.” Steve exploded then looked around cautiously. “The kid is yours? How long have you known? You never told me you and she were…you know…doing the nasty.”
“Yeah, well it wasn’t exactly professional of me to be sleeping with an informant. But trying to keep her protected, things …escalated, you know. It’s how Angelo ended up dead. He found out Callie was pregnant and planned to cause her to miscarry. He suspected I was the father and wanted me out of the way. I’ve had some people keep an eye on her and when she had the baby, I went to see her in the hospital. She named him Jonathan.”
Steve’s smile widened and his eyes twinkled. “Named the kid after his old man, huh? Congratulations. I think. Have you seen him since he was born?”
“A few times. Nowhere near enough. But, Steve, listen, you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone. I have no idea who in the Bureau is in Cabrini’s pocket but we know someone is. It could be more than one person. I don’t trust anyone.”
“You’re trusting me, Jack. I guess I should be honored. I won’t say anything. Too much crap has been going down for me to tell tales. I don’t want to be responsible for getting you killed.”
“The worry shouldn’t be for me. Callie and Jonathan are in as much danger if Cabrini were to ever find out the boy isn’t Angelo’s son. Can you imagine what he’d do?”
Steve grimaced but stayed silent. Yeah, he knew.
“It’s been six months since I last heard from you. Why did you pick now to come and see me?” Steve asked, keeping his eyes open for trouble. The man was good at his job and being observant was one prerequisite.
“I’m sick and tired of running. I wanted to know what’s been done to get Cabrini put away for good. I was hoping you could give me any new info that might help me. I want to do some digging myself. After a few too many close calls, I stopped for a while. Kept moving from place to place. But this time I don’t plan on letting anyone in the Bureau know what I’m doing except you. I trusted too many people last time and it almost got me killed. One bullet missed me by less than an inch.”
Steve looked around, his eyes flicking from place to place, his jaw tense. “I can’t give you any information. I’d lose my job if I did. Maybe you should head up to Canada and live a nice life up there. I doubt Cabrini would follow you out of the country. He has enough problems right here inthiscountry.”
