AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She waves her hand dismissively. “Not Daddy. One of his foot soldiers.” She grins to herself. “He was one of the braver ones. Anyway, he kept whining that he was going to get run over on the routes.”
That made no sense. “Can you be more specific?” I prompt. “Do they do it on foot?”
She shakes her head. “No, they definitely used cars. A lot of them, constantly switching them out.” Lucia gets closer, leaning against my shoulder, and points to one portion of the map. “That’s I-95, right? They get on the highway, just to get off it again a few miles later. A bit of misdirection, sure, but that doesn’t explain why it takes them so long to go that short distance.”
“How did you…” But I notice the time stamps on the two vids I have open, and she’s right. What should have been a 5-minute leg of the journey takes them closer to 20 minutes. “They dawdle on the highway… is there a handoff there?”
“Yeah, I think that’s what it was.” She nods and pushes herself closer to me, shivering a bit. I guess the thin blanket isn’t enough to keep her warm down here. “I remember now. He complained about somebody speeding past when he got out of the car and nearly taking the door off. You’d think he’d be smart enough not to open the traffic-side door.”
“Do you know who runs the routes?” I ask, opening up a document.
“Um… Not really. I know a few, but not many.”
“If you see them, can you name them?” I pull one of the videos up to the forefront of the screen.
“Yeah, probably.”
I back the footage up a few minutes, letting it play until I reach the part where the car we’d tracked goes past a spot we’d tagged. I pause it. The quality isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the grainy shit that a lot of people are stuck using. We don’t skimp when it comes to surveillance.
She frowns. “I can’t make out the driver, but… Weird. I didn’t know Al went on runs. When was this?”
“Yesterday. Al who?” I ask, blowing up the image of the man exhaling from his cigarette.
“Al Capone,” Lucia says, rolling her eyes. “Well. Alfonso Ricci, but he thinks he’s hot shit.”
I freeze. “Alfonso Ricci? You’re sure?”
She looks puzzled at my strong reaction, but she nods. “Yeah, that’s his ugly face, all right. I didn’t even know he was in town.” Her expression darkens. “He doesn’t come to town unless there’s trouble. I wonder if Daddy called him in to help out with… this whole situation.”
I can’t believe it. I quickly take a screencap of the still frame and save it in a separate folder. I need to tell Victor about this. I need to tell Angel, except I don’t want to be the one to break the news to him. He’s going to flip out, and I don’t want to be the one who has to hold him back.
Fuck. All my afternoon plans are ruined now. I look at Lucia, who’s staring up at me intently, her lips practically begging to be kissed. But if I sit on this information and Victor finds out…
I set my laptop aside and pull Lucia into my lap anyway. She squeaks briefly, but she doesn’t resist when I press my lips against hers.Just for a few minutes, I tell myself. My hands roam over her body, and I can feel her shiver at my touch. She presses in close, and while I’m not enough of a moron to think it’s because she really wantsmewhen she’s so cold, I’m willing to pretend as long as she is.
Five more minutes won’t make that much of a difference, will it? If he’s really in town to help Bellini, he’s not going anywhere. Granted, we need to get eyes on him as soon as possible. The last thing we need is a shot to the head when we’re least expecting it, but I’m not eager to see Angel’s reaction to finding out his brother’s killer is in town.
She kisses me sweetly, and her nipples are hard where they press against my chest. I reluctantly start to shoo her off my lap. Victor’s not going to be thrilled anyway, and there’s no sense in setting him off more.
“You’re leaving already?” she asks, her hands going to my shoulders. “I was finally starting to get warm…”
“Yeah, this is important.” I pick up my laptop. I need to get up, but her cute pout is begging for another kiss, and I can’t help myself. Just a short one, though, and she’s still pouting when I pull away. “I’ll be back later.”
I get up, only for Lucia to wrap her arms around my leg. She looks so forlorn as I look down at her.
“Wait!” she says. “Please, I need to use the bathroom. And I’m filthy. And hungry.”
I hesitate. “I don’t have time to bathe you right now,” I tell her, with no small amount of regret in my voice. “You’ll have to wait a little while.”
“You don’t need to bathe me,” she says, her eyes locking onto mine. “Just take me upstairs and I can bathe myself. You can lock me in.”
I’m torn. If she’s bathing, I want to be the one to clean her. I remember just how soft and pliant she was under my touch. On the other hand, she did help me a lot, and she deserves a reward.
I make a quick decision. “Fine. Come on, get up. Leave the blanket though.”
Lucia reluctantly unwraps it from around herself and tosses it onto the mattress, getting to her feet. Every time I see her, she seems to get a little more comfortable with her nudity, but she was never all that prudish from the start. It seems more and more ridiculous that we ever thought she was anything close to virginal.
I glance over to the corner of the room, where she’s tossed the pretty pink collar, but I’m not going to push that right now. “Let’s go.”
