He shifted from one foot to the other, talking so fast that he almost tripped over his words. “We’re gonna get to a safe spot and have someone remove the body.”
“What if the feds trail you?” I said.
“We’ll lose them.”
I held his gaze for a long moment. Jesus, he was just a kid, barely out of high school. “Don’t let anything happen to your cousin.”
“I won’t,” he said, stepping toward the door like he was trying to prompt Aly into action.
I looked down at her. “I’ll be okay. You?”
Her brows pinched together as she frowned. “I hope so. I don’t like this.”
“Me neither, but they’re the experts, and we have to trust that they know best.”
Greg snapped his fingers. “We don’t have time for a mushy goodbye, Aly. Come on.”
Annoyance flashed across her face as she turned away from me. “I’m coming. Jesus, calm down.”
I met Greg’s eyes over Aly’s head and gave him the barest shake of my own, my stomach churning with anger. Dad used to snap at my mom, and it was a huge pet peeve of mine. “Don’t do that again.”
I’m not sure what my face looked like, but it was enough to make the child of a hardened mobster take a step backward.
“Sorry,” he said.
I tipped my head toward my girlfriend. “To her.”
He looked at Aly. “Sorry. Now, can we please go before my da –”
Nico reentered the room from a side door. “What the fuck are you two still doing here? Andate, idioti!”
Greg, obviously more afraid of his father’s wrath than mine, grabbed Aly’s wrist and hauled her toward the mudroom. She broke his hold halfway there and threatened him with bodily harm if he touched her again.
She shot me one last look before she left. “Be safe.”
The words were a warning. Be safe, or else. I forced a reassuring smile and nodded. “You too.”
Greg said something sharp from the other side of the door, and Aly stepped out and shut it on the sound of their continued bickering. A rumbling noise told me the garage was opening again.
And then I was alone with Aly’s mobster uncle.
I turned toward him, wary, but he was already stomping out of the room again, head craned toward the ceiling as he yelled at his other sons to get a move on. Soon, three more men tumbled into the room, ranging from their mid to late 20s. They looked like Greg, only filled out more.
Nico returned to the coffee maker and started pushing buttons. “What happened?” he threw over his shoulder, and suddenly, I was the center of attention.
I hated being the center of attention. It made me want to fold in on myself, hide, but Aly was relying on me, so I had to keep my shit together for her.
“First, where are Greg and Aly going exactly?” I asked.
“Back into the city to an autobody shop we run,” Nico said as the fancy coffee machine whirred to life. “Our guy there will clean your car while others take care of what’s in the trunk.”
“And you think Greg and Aly will be okay?”
He nodded with his back to me. “Greg knows what to do. He’s one of our best drivers, and he’ll get other people on the road with them to run interference if he and Aly pick up a tail.”
I let out a heavy breath, more nervous for Aly than before because it finally hit me that my girlfriend was about to be back on the road, driving around the city with a dead body. Fuck, I should have argued more or found some other plan that didn’t involve her taking such a risk, but it all happened so quickly.
“You still with us, Joe?” Nico asked.
I jerked my gaze up from the floor and found him staring at me, arms crossed over his chest.
“It’s Josh,” I said. “Tell me she’ll be okay.”
I thought my continued delaying would piss him off, but he only grinned. “You really like my niece, huh?”
I nodded, looking around to see all four men eyeing me in the same speculative manner. Why did this suddenly feel like a trap?
“And are you responsible for the body in the trunk?” Nico asked.
I nodded again, and the men around me tensed. It occurred to me then that the idea of Aly dating a killer might not be a welcome one to her male relatives.
“Then you need to tell me what happened,” Nico said, and I had a feeling that if he didn’t like my story, not even Greg’s promise to Aly that I would be okay would keep me alive.
“A rapist and likely murderer named Brad Bluhm was in the hospital two nights ago,” I said. “He and Aly had a verbal altercation, and she insulted him. Earlier tonight, he tried to break into her house.”
The room filled with the rumblings of angry men, and I started to feel a little safer now that we had a mutual hatred of Brad in common.
Nico’s dark eyes burned with anger. “Why was he there?”
“He had a kill kit on him,” I said, not bothering to elaborate since they likely knew what it was. “We overpowered him, tied him up, and planned to leave him on the back porch of his latest victim’s family, but he died en route. Aly said we should come here, so we did. Brad’s cell phone is still at his house, and he turned his car’s GPS tracker off, so I don’t know where it is, but I’m guessing somewhere near Aly’s house.”
“How do you know that?” Nico asked.
Fuck. Walked right into that one. “I’m a hacker.”
One of Aly’s cousins shifted forward, drawing my gaze. “What model and make is Bluhm’s car?”
I told him.
Nico snapped his fingers at the son who’d spoken, and I tried not to grind my teeth. It must be a family thing. “Call Jimmy,” Nico said. “Get his guys over there, and don’t leave until you find the car and haul it out.”
His son nodded and peeled away, heading for the door.
Nico turned to another one. “Her house needs to be scrubbed down. Have Aly and Greg meet you there when they’re done with Josh’s car so she can get her cat and her things before you start.”
That son headed for the door next, leaving just me, Nico, and Nico’s oldest child – Junior? – standing around the island.
The family patriarch eyed me. “What else?”
“All Brad learned about Aly at the hospital was her first name, so he must have done some digging to find her,” I told him. “I’m worried that his phone or a computer at his house might point the cops straight to Aly when he gets reported missing.”
Nico turned toward Junior. “Go to Vinny’s and tell him you need a whole crew at Bluhm’s house.”
“He comes from money,” I warned them. “He’ll probably have security cameras and alarms and –”
Nico held up a hand, silencing me. “All due respect, but this isn’t our first rodeo.”
“Are you going to steal the computer or hack it?”
Nico glanced at his oldest.
Junior met my eyes. His gaze was even harder than Greg’s. “This needs to be a smash-and-grab because we don’t have time to prepare. We’re gonna steal it.”
I shook my head. “That’s too suspicious. Take me with you, and I’ll hack it.”
His brows lifted as he looked me over. “You sure?”
I blew out a breath. “Yes. I do this for a living, and I can get in and wipe Brad’s drive in less than ten minutes without leaving a digital footprint.”
Junior turned toward his father, brows raised in question.
Nico threw his hands up and whirled back to the coffee machine. “I’m gonna have to make this all over again in a to-go mug.”
Forty minutes later, I was still alive, having passed whatever weird test that was with Nico in the kitchen, and now I sat in the back of a van, sipping a piping-hot macchiato out of an insulated mug. The sides of the vehicle bore the markings of the local power company. I couldn’t figure out if it was stolen, a good copy, or, worst-case scenario, actually belonged to said power company because it was mob-controlled.