AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shane took off his sopping clothes and threw them in a basket by the bathroom door. He pulled on worn jeans, a white shirt, and a flannel, and he exchanged his wet Nikes for a pair of dry ones.
He went over to the window and pulled down a slat on the blinds, peering out into the street below. It was just after six in the morning and the traffic was light. There wouldn’t be anyone in the office for another couple of hours, but he planned to be long gone by then.
He sent his secretary an email letting her know he’d be out of the office for a few days on a case and to turn over any pressing matters to his second-in-command. Then he went to his safe and pulled out a stack of extra cash, two Glock .9mms, and a snub-nosed revolver to go in his ankle holster. He had plenty of ammunition. He put all of it into a black bag and went to a locked cabinet behind his desk. No matter how many handguns he owned, his true love was still a rifle.
He unlocked the cabinet and had just pulled out the M40 when he heard movement behind him. Rachel was silhouetted in the door, a halo of light shining behind her, with his sweatpants rolled up at the bottom and the sweatshirt hanging down to her knees.
His eyes roamed over her lazily, taking in her flushed cheeks and damp hair, and his body did a slow meltdown. He put the M40 down carefully on his desk.
“I need to leave the area as soon as possible,” she said. “And there’s still time for you to change your mind. You’ll become a target. Everyone and everything you care about will become a target.”
“I’ve been a target before,” he said. “In fact, there are certain countries there is still a hefty price on my head. This is the life I live. You’re not deterring me.”
She nodded and said, “My name is Rachel Valentine.”
Shane knew the name was familiar, but he couldn’t remember why.
“My father was Dominic Valentine.”
His eyes grew big at that bit of information and he muttered a short expletive.
“I see you’ve heard of him,” she said with a forced laugh.
If she knew how well he’d known the Valentine brothers she would have run screaming for the door. Shane had spent so much time trying to ignore her since she moved in that he hadn’t studied her features as carefully as he otherwise might have. But he recognized Rachel for who she was now. She’d only been about twenty the last time he’d seen her—her hair had been lighter, streaked with blond as if she’d just spent a few weeks on a tropical island somewhere. He’d been a rookie at the FBI then, and his first assignment had been the infamous mob family. It would probably be best if Rachel never knew how close Shane had come to killing her father.
He watched as she closed her eyes and tried to gather her composure. The woman was in big, big trouble. Dominic Valentine had been the head of the largest crime family still operating in the United States. They were based in Chicago, and Shane remembered reading that “Dom” as he was called by everyone, had gone missing just before he was supposed to testify in federal court.
“Why don’t we sit down,” Shane said, taking Rachel by the elbow and leading her over to a small love seat. “Take your time. Do you need some water?”
She hiccupped out a small laugh and shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I’m tougher than I look.”
He imagined she’d have to be to grow up in the Valentine family.
“I’m going to give you the short version, because I really need to get out of here. I feel like I’ve got a target on my forehead, and the itch at the back of my neck has been getting worse since we left the house.”
“Just give me enough to know what I’m dealing with,” Shane said.
“My father was ready to get out of the business. He hadn’t been the same since my mother was killed several years ago, and things got worse after my younger sister was killed last year.”
Shane remembered reading those bits of information in the newspaper and thinking that crime, most definitely, did not pay. Both of the Valentine women had been taken out with very sophisticated car bombs.
“I’m sorry,” he told her softly.
“He made the decision because of me. Because I was all he had left,” she said. “I know in my brain that my father was a criminal. He did bad things. Things that I will never be able to justify. But he was a good father, and for that he deserves my love and devotion as a daughter.”
“Nobody could fault you for loving your father,” Shane said.
“No, but I’m what you might think of as collateral damage. When I say my father wanted out of the business to keep me safe, I mean that he wanted all the way out. And if he had to do time in federal prison because of his crimes he said it was worth it to keep me alive.
“He met with an agent named Donald Culver and agreed to confess to all of his financial transgressions and compile a list of all active Mafia and their crimes if he and I could both be put in Witness Protection. You should have seen his face when he told me he was finished. He was so relieved. I didn’t realize how old he’d gotten until that moment.”
Shane let out a low whistle between his teeth. “That would be one hell of a list for someone who’s been around as long as Dom.”
“Yes, but after dad met with Agent Culver at the Federal Building in Chicago and turned over the list, he went missing.”
“When was the last time you spoke with him?”
“We spoke on the phone just after noon on the day he disappeared. He was scheduled to appear at the courthouse for a deposition and to meet with the district attorney. He knew they were going to arrest him, but he didn’t seem to care.”
