Junior shook his head. “No. Absolutely not. This isn’t a job for a woman.”
I reared back in Josh’s arms.
Overhead, I heard my boyfriend suck in a sharp breath and then let it out with the kind of ooh noise better suited for a playground. He let go of me with one hand and held it out in front of me. “This is the part where you take your earrings out, right?” he said. “I can hold them for you while you beat his ass.”
I craned sideways to look at him. “What about not resorting to violence in front of the baby?”
Josh’s expression was stoic. “I changed my mind. Sometimes, examples must be made.”
I turned back to my cousin just as Josh’s other arm fell away from me.
Junior, to his credit, seemed to realize he’d fucked up. He held his hands out placatingly and stepped backward. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant my dad will fucking skin me if I let you in on this.”
I took a step toward him. “I’m coming.”
He shook his head. “Aly, you can’t. I’m serious. The men on the team are rough. You shouldn’t be around them.”
Another ooh came from behind me, followed by a crunching sound. I glanced over my shoulder and found Josh staring at us with rapt attention. He’d pulled a single-serving popcorn bag out of the box of food he’d packed and was eating it with the kind of glee reserved for someone watching a Real Housewives reunion episode.
I shook my head at him, instantly deflating – which was probably his goal – and turned back to my cousin. “I work around rough people every day, Junior. I can handle myself. Find a way to make it happen because if Josh is going, I’m going.”
Junior’s face turned into a thundercloud, and for a second, he was the spitting image of his father after I’d told Nico about Brad’s body. “Fine. But you’re staying in the van.”
I nodded. I could accept that, and from the look on Junior’s face, I’d pushed him as far as he would go. “What else has been happening?”
My cousin’s expression turned cagey. “What do you mean?”
“With the whole Brad situation. Did you find his car?”
“Yes,” Junior said.
More crunching filled the room. Josh sounded like he was still enjoying the show, whereas I was starting to get annoyed again.
“And?” I said.
Junior shrugged. “And what?”
“Did you get rid of it?”
Junior rolled his eyes. “No, we left it where it was.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and ignored Josh’s poor attempt to cover his laughter. “Junior, please fill us in on what’s going on with the coverup of Brad’s death.”
The little shit grinned. “Well, since you asked nicely.” He retook his seat and took a swig of his coffee before indicating the chairs opposite him. “Please, join me.”
I tried not to grind my teeth as I sat. Beside me, Josh looked like he was having far too much fun. His eyes pinged back and forth between Junior and me like he was at a tennis match. I was beginning to think that Josh didn’t just enjoy needling me himself but took great pleasure from others giving me a hard time, too. Why? Because he was antagonistic by nature, or did he just like it when I got all riled up?
And where was the line? I hadn’t missed the moment Greg crossed it when he snapped at me in Nico’s kitchen. Josh had gone from an easy-going, loveable golden retriever to a full-blown hellhound in the blink of an eye.
Seeing him upset like that only further confirmed how different he and his father were. Instead of having cold, dead eyes, Josh’s had been a blazing inferno, the promise of retribution burning so bright that even my youngest, snarkiest cousin had realized the danger and rushed to apologize.
Junior set his coffee down and lifted his gaze to mine. “Brad’s car was a few blocks away,” he said. “We were able to get in while it was still dark without setting the alarm off. One of our guys drove it to a chop shop we own, where it’ll get broken down into parts and sold in pieces.”
I blinked, impressed. The cops would have a hell of a time trying to run that down.
Josh sat forward beside me. “Aren’t you worried about door cameras from nearby houses?”
Junior shrugged. “Not really. Brad parked in an area between streetlights so he wouldn’t be noticed, which meant our guys benefited from it, too. Given how far he went to cover his tracks coming here, I’m sure he had his mask on the second he got out of his car, so if any cameras did catch him walking by, it’d be nearly impossible to ID him. And at the end of the day, the cops would have to know Brad was in the area to subpoena people’s door cam footage.”
I nodded. “Which is why we need to get to Brad’s computer.”
Junior held up a finger. “Which is why your boyfriend needs to. You’re not leaving the van.”
I glared at him. “I know that, dipshit.”
Junior sniffed. “Uncalled for.”
Josh popped another piece of popcorn into his mouth, grinning as he chewed. “This is fun for me.”
I rolled my eyes at him and fixed my gaze on my cousin. “What about Brad’s body?”
Junior’s expression shut down. “Nope. That’s the one piece of information we don’t get to have.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Junior shrugged. “Dad has two guys who deal with this stuff that he trusts with his life.”
“You mean those goons who came and got Brad while the car was cleaned?” I asked, remembering the men who’d grabbed the body-filled bag out of Josh’s trunk and disappeared without so much as a hello. They’d been middle-aged, trim, and dressed in nondescript clothes. Nothing about them stood out – to the point that I didn’t think I could pick them out of a lineup, which was probably their aim. Get in, get out, be forgotten.
“Those are the ones,” Junior said. “Only they know what happened to Brad, but I can tell you from experience that you don’t need to worry. No one has ever found someone after those two disappeared them.”
I shifted in my seat and shared a glance with Josh. His amusement had faded, and he didn’t look pleased with this news either.
“Isn’t it better we know what happened?” I asked.
Junior shook his head. “No. This way, if the worst does come to pass, you can’t tell the cops where the body is. No body, no evidence of a murder. Pretty hard to convict on circumstantial evidence alone when you have mob lawyers representing you. They’ve gotten some of our people out of much worse charges.”
“I still don’t like it,” I said.
Junior huffed out a laugh. “You’ll get used to it.”
I highly doubted that.
He twirled his coffee absentmindedly and glanced past me, his gaze turning troubled and distant like he wasn’t seeing my house anymore but some buried memory. “And trust me when I say that sometimes you’re better off not knowing things.”
I grimaced. God only knew what he’d seen with a dad like his. As far as I knew, Nico wasn’t as bad as Josh’s, but it had to be close. Nico’s outward eccentricities and charm didn’t fool me because I’d never forget the haunted looks my parents and grandparents shared when someone brought him up. Family didn’t fear family for no reason, especially not someone like my mom, who’d feared almost nothing in life.
“Oh,” Junior said. “I almost forgot. Dad wants you to come over for dinner.”
I stiffened in my seat. “Um…no thank you?”
Junior shook his head. “You don’t have a choice, kid.”
“I absolutely do,” I told him. “And I’m not a kid.”
His expression turned to pity. “You owe him a favor, remember? His payment for all this is dinner once a month with the family.”