Page 32 of One for the Money

“Yes…” I answered, tapping the throwing knife against my chin, “… and no.”

“Well, that clears it up,” he muttered.

Bear cleared his throat, asking for my attention. I lifted my gaze to look at the man who knew my process better than anyone and how much I hated interruptions.

“He needs to check your side,” Bear informed me.

“Now?” I grumbled.

Bear nodded, then slipped his hands under my armpits, hoisted me up, and removed me from my map island. “Better to get it over with now before you catch the scent,” he reasoned.

“Fine, he can take a look,” I relented. “Come on, ginger spice, let’s get this over with.”

Erik set the first-aid kit I hadn’t noticed he was carrying on my desk. Hopping up beside it, I lifted my arm out of the way, exposing the bandage for him. So far, today hadn’t been bad on the pain scale, but then again, I had a tendency to get lost in my work. There’s nothing better than an obsession to block out all your problems.

Moving at a snail’s pace, Erik started to peel off the tape holding the gauze. “Oh my God, just fucking rip it off, would you? I don’t enjoy feeling each individual hair being ripped out of my skin.”

Without any warning, Erik did just as I requested, causing me to hiss as some of the stitches had gotten stuck to the gauze. “See, I figured after all that went down yesterday, it might be a little angry or even started to weep a little, making it stick like that. But you wanted me to learn from your shockingly enlightened lesson, so I took you at your word.”

“Touché, asshole,” I muttered, glaring at him.

Erik grinned as he cleaned the wound and replaced the bandage. “By now, I would tell my patients to leave it uncovered, but since you did piss it off, I think it’s better to give it one more day. As for your forehead, we’ll uncover that during the day, but you need to keep it soft with ointment. Before you go to bed, I’ll cover it up so there’s no risk of you scratching it while you sleep.”

Catching Erik’s wrist, I pulled his hand away from my head. “For a man who says he plans to embrace his demons, this whole charming doctor routine isn’t gonna fly.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want me to tell you to rub some dirt on it and stop acting like a child?” Erik shot back. “Bear brought you to me to save your life, and until I’m not worried about infection or other complications, I’m going to do what’s needed.”

Never one to let my weaknesses show, it was challenging to be a good patient. “Just hurry it up and keep your commentary to yourself. I can’t listen to the voices in my head with you rambling.” Erik started to say something but decided against it and remained silent as he cleaned up my head wound.

Closing my eyes, I pictured the maps I’d been studying and tried to put myself in the twins’ shoes. What would make me go against my family’s wishes? Up until this point, they’d been good little soldiers and followed orders, so why then? Having two older brothers who were identical twins and incredibly close, they did everything together and even planned to run the family business as co-leaders when Dad passed. If I used them as my baseline, what would push them to the point of separating?

Everything I tried to picture had a way for them to stick together if they were willing to do whatever it took. However, I needed to keep in mind these twins weren’t identical. My brothers could challenge most legal issues by proving which one really did whatever they were being accused of. I’d seen it happen once, and when there was no definitive proof it was Matteo and not Lazzaro, the judge threw out the charges. The Accardi twins didn’t have that advantage, and if something happened to cause law enforcement to hunt one of them down, separating would be the right call.

Snapping to attention, I swiveled on my desk and hopped off the other side. Not bothering to sit down, I pulled up the Nepreeian police records from five years ago and typed in the address we’d been given to see if anything popped up. There weren’t any hits, but I didn’t think I’d get that lucky. Widening the search, I looked up the city the house was located in and excluded women, then narrowed it to men under the age of thirty from the search.

“What—” Erik started to ask but was cut off.

I glanced up to find Bear had shoved half the apple he’d been snacking on into Erik’s mouth. “No talking, it throws off her groove.”

Erik glared as he flopped back onto the couch and proceeded to eat the apple with far more aggression than was needed. Smirking, I returned to my search and grabbed my chair since there were five thousand entries to look through. It seems one reason they’d picked this city is because they were no strangers to the criminal world. Going back to the search criteria, I excluded any minor infractions. If I were right, then the threat of harsh punishment would be extremely high.

As that thought crossed my mind, I paused. “If you were the son of an incredibly influential person who could get you out of pretty much any criminal charge, what would make you refuse his help?” I asked, not really expecting an answer as I grabbed my stress willy.

The thing had been a gag gift from my brothers, but I actually found it rather helpful. It gave me an outlet to fidget instead of chewing the shit out of my bottom lip. Plus, it was rather satisfying to squeeze the squishy shaft of the fake dick and make the balls expand and turn blue.

“I knew a guy like that,” Erik spoke up. “He ran to the military and enlisted under a fake name. It worked for a few years, but the past caught up with him, and he was arrested for selling secrets to his father’s biggest competitor. I doubt if he went to his old man, he’d get any help after causing the company to go bankrupt.”

“That makes sense, not running to the military, but not going to Daddy because there’s always a line even the worst criminals won’t cross,” I agreed. “So what could a son do that one of the biggest crime bosses wouldn’t offer his help?”

Slouching back in my chair, I squeezed the willy rapidly as I went over the short list of grievances Gian Accardi wouldn’t have been able to forgive or want to help fix. One would be if they turned their backs on the Family and worked with law enforcement to undermine the Family business. Equally unforgivable would be if they tried to kill their father and brothers in order to run the business themselves. Neither made sense or explained why they split up.

“The twins don’t like each other,” I blurted, slamming the willy on the desk. “One made a move that the other didn’t approve of or agree with. So if he couldn’t count on his twin to watch his back, he’d equally assume he’d turn their father against him. This backed him into a corner and left only one option… to leave.”

Going back to the search, I excluded every crime that didn’t have a moralistic argument behind it. This left the top contenders having anything to do with cons, such as scams selling something that didn’t exist or charities that were fake. Another option was forgeries of priceless works of art or even counterfeit money, bonds, or other types of currency.

Yet if he was skilled in that area, why go to Trent?

A wide smile grew on my lips as the answer to that question appeared on the screen. “The address he gave us was a location where they’d lived, but it isn’t the one he gave to the twin five years ago.”