Her laugh was abrupt, cold even. “He dropped the kid off at his sister’s earlier. But Logan, I would have thought you’d know the answer to the whereabouts of Lizzy’s sister before me.” She stressed Lizzy’s sister.
That’s when I knew I was fucked.
“I know you’re having a relationship with the missing woman’s sister. I’m not stupid. I just hope you’re not.”
With everything in me I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but then my father would end up in jail on the trumped-up RICO charges she was ready to pounce on. It was the ball she dangled over my head. The reason I was doing this in the first place. It was the reason she had me picked up four months ago. She’d hoped my bleeding heart over my father would persuade me to help her—and she was right.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act allowed the DEA to gather enough circumstantial information on my father for him to be formally charged for crimes not committed by him but linked to him through his assistance. The only way he would be spared from being charged was if I agreed to cooperate with the DEA and get them all the information they wanted.
God help me, Agent Meg Blanchet, the she-devil with her red hair, red shoes, and matching red lips, has been yanking my chain for way too long, and I’d just about had enough. But then I thought about my old man behind bars and knew I had to keep going. I’d done everything she asked of me in terms of cooperation—met with her at Molly’s every week to give her updates on my father’s “calls” for Patrick, or at any time she deemed appropriate. She wanted Killian, or more accurately the Mob-linked crime information that existed only in his head, to further her case against the Flannigan family.
With much hesitation, soon after the night she brought me in, I talked to my gramps. I told him she wanted names, dates, and facts—information he’d never want to give. “To be a rat!” he’d screamed.
I left there that night convinced he wasn’t going to do it, but in the end, he, like me, couldn’t stand to see my father go to prison. We both knew he’d never come out still breathing. He was weak and he’d be eaten alive on the inside. Because of this, and this only, Killian agreed to meet with the DEA and we both agreed to keep this task I’d been strapped with from my old man. He didn’t need any more bullshit to deal with.
The final provision of my agreement with the DEA, the one that would free my father, the one that I couldn’t wait to deliver, was the information on the next cocaine shipment. They wanted to witness the exchange between buyer and seller. With that, there would be enough solid proof that Patrick and Tommy Flannigan were running the biggest drug ring to hit the Boston streets in years.
The only reason I’d been doing this bullshit for the past four months now was because with Patrick and Tommy behind bars, both my father and I would be free. And now so would Elle and Gramps.
I couldn’t wait.
“Let me see what I can find out. I’ll call when I know anything.”
She tsk-tsked. “I’ll be waiting.”
The line disconnected and my foot slammed down on the gas. At ninety miles an hour, I was back in the limits of Boston by eight forty-five. I tried Elle’s cell but she didn’t pick up.
Taking a chance, I decided to hit up the boutique first. She was still staying with O’Shea, so if she wasn’t there, she had to be at work.
Whether or not she knew anything, I’d already decided I would have to come clean and tell her what was going on. She had to get to O’Shea and find out where the product had been delivered. The drop point was key in the investigation, and the place and people would be used as the link to O’Shea, and in turn to Patrick and Tommy.
O’Shea would be collateral damage.
I knew Elle wouldn’t want anything to happen to him, but if he were smart, he’d make a deal with Blanchet. That wasn’t my concern—my concern was my father, and now Elle.
Where Lizzy fit in, I had no idea.
The pieces were sketchy.
She was somehow involved with Tommy, but whether it was with O’Shea’s knowledge or not, I didn’t know.
My cell rang again when I was about a block from the boutique. It was my old man.
“Yeah, Pop.”
“Hey, I have Declan and Miles with me. Miles did some recon and found out that before Elizabeth Sterling O’Shea got married—less than two years ago, I might add—she had been arrested a slew of times, for drugs, disorderly conduct, and the last time, a prostitution charge. And guess where she was last employed before marrying O’Shea?”
“I don’t know, Pop. Where?” My nerves were shot and I didn’t have time for twenty questions.
“Lucy’s.”
“That’s how she knows Tommy,” I guessed.
“Yeah, and I’m going to go through payroll and see how long she worked there.”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Might help.”
“There’s something else—I pulled up the records and you’re never going to believe who was the pro bono attorney assigned to her case.”
I slammed the steering wheel. “Son of a bitch.”
“Yep. Turns out O’Shea got her off and gave her a job as his secretary. Soon after they married, and seven months after that, she gave birth.”
“Seven months?”
“Yep.”
“So she was pregnant before she got married. That’s not a crime.”
“No, but her priors show years of arrests, usually drug-related charges. Then nothing after the baby. Seems she cleaned up fast.”
Maybe a little too fast.
Or maybe not at all.
“Thanks. I have some things to take care of, but I’ll be in touch.”
“Everything okay, son? I thought you’d be jumping at this information.”
I parked my SUV. “Yeah, it’s fine. I gotta run. I’ll call you later.”
I disconnected and walked toward the boutique. There was so much going on, I was finding it hard to focus on anyone—anyone but her.
The lights were on, but I didn’t see her. After I knocked, I figured she must be downstairs. I still had the key she’d given me on my key chain and decided to use it.
I knew I’d scare the ever-living shit out of her, but I needed to talk to her. I also needed to see her.
It had been three days.
Three days too many.
I hated what had happened when she’d called me the other night, but Blanchet had come into Molly’s and I—well, obviously I’d done a shitty job of covering us up.
Besides, I’d vowed to stay away from Elle until Friday.
But now, Friday was only one day away and if things went according to plan, we could soon be together without worry.
Together forever if we wanted.
Did I want that?
My mind was such a fucked-up mess. Still, I knew wanting her wasn’t some fleeting feeling. It was an ache getting worse with each passing moment that I didn’t have her. I felt like I could love this woman that I’d only just met. Was that even possible?
First the old butler bell chimed, which didn’t alert anyone to shit, and then the alarm started to chime, which at least she’d activated. I typed in the code B-L-O-W.
“Elle,” I called.
She didn’t answer.
Her red felt hat sat behind the counter, and seeing it made me smile.
Feeling oddly happy, I took the stairs two at a time as I descended them. Excitement stirred within me. My world had changed. Not only was it upside down but inside out. I wasn’t the same man who walked the streets of Boston alone. I never wanted to be that man again. Tommy would soon be locked away forever and then Elle would be beside me. Where she belonged.
Random, strange, somewhat foreign thoughts entered my head and unknown feelings swirled within me. She’d gotten under my skin, into my bones, and somehow had become a part of my soul. It could only mean one thing. Yes, I did love Elle and I was going to tell her so—right now.
The steps seemed like way too many. We were so close and still way too far apart. I turned the corner and—
My hands grabbed my head.