AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My phone rang. It was Jerome.
"Hey, Jer—how's it going?"
"We've got a problem, Cass." Jerome sounded out of breath. "I just came out of a department meeting, and Winters is after your job."
"What?"
"Apparently, he caught heat for letting you take leave at all, considering he'd placed you on suspension. He got placed under performance review as floor supervisor, and he's taking you down with him. He's saying he was threatened."
I groaned. "You’ve got to be kidding me.”
"Just calm down. That's not the problem, I got them to chalk it up as a misunderstanding. The big problem is, they want you back at work. Today. Winters is supposed to call you, but we both know he's not going to do that. He's hoping you won't show and will get fired, anyway."
"That’s not fair!” I sputtered. “Winters has had it out for me ever since my transfer.”
"Yeah, we can agree on that, but Cass, you've got to get down here." Jerome sounded like he was seconds away from an aneurysm. "I don't know what this whole marriage things about, and I'm not sure I want to know, but if you want to keep your job, you'll get your ass down here asap."
"Okay." My head was reeling. "Okay. I'll be there in thirty."
I hung up the phone, not having a clue how I was going to get that done. There was no way in hell Connor was going to let me leave, not after that drive by. But I'd worked way too hard to let my residency slip out of my fingers just because of his paranoia. I was going to have to think of something.
And like baby-faced cherub swooping in to save me, Grady appeared with the solution. "Hey, Mrs. McTiernan, I was going to order lunch from Mickey's across the street, do you want anything?"
He was leaning in the open doorway, his face so helpful and earnest I could just about hug him. If I were the hugging kind, of course.
"That sounds great! And please, I keep telling you, you can call me Cassidy." I smiled at him, hoping I wasn't over-selling it. "I'll take a turkey club on whole wheat when you order, but first, do you think you could give me a hand in the library. I want to move the piano closer to the window, but there's a bookcase that's going to have to be moved, first."
"Sure thing, Cassidy."
He hopped up and dutifully followed me into the library. I waited until he started moving the items around, and then I faked having to use the bathroom.
“Be right back!” I called.
I heard him grunt a reply as I quietly slipped out the front door. He seemed like a nice guy and I felt a little bad about deceiving him, but not bad enough to risk losing my job.
Down the hall and into the stairwell, I took the steps two at a time. I ducked out the service entrance at the rear of the building, and I was free.
Grinning excitedly, I pulled out my phone as I blended in with the City Point foot traffic.
“Jerome? Hey—I’m on my way.”
15
Connor
“Well,that’llteachthebastard to bring a knife to a gunfight,” Alfie said as he prodded the corpse at his feet with his toe. “Fucker came out of nowhere.”
I crouched and started stripping the body of anything useful. “It wouldn’t have been a gunfight if you would’ve cleared the room like you were supposed to. Check that other guy.”
Alfie’s grin flattened, and he rolled the second body over. There was a neat round hole in the forehead. Blood dripped onto the floor, splashing on Alfie’s beloved shoes, but for once he didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t the first time a shakedown had ended with bodies on the floor, but not a cock up like this. These guys had been violent, knowingly playing both sides and trying to leverage the Italians against us. I had been on high alert as soon as we entered the dump of an apartment, but Alfie had been moody and distracted all afternoon. “Where the hell was your head at, man?”
“Just got distracted, is all. Won’t happen again,” Alfie shrugged. He still wore the shiner Sloane had given him.
“What’s going on with you?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “Nothing.”
