Page 50 of Avenging Kelly

We flagged a cab driver and told him where to take us, and then we rode in silence. It felt like someone was trying to keep us from getting to the truth. Every time we had a lead of any kind, someone ended up dead.

We arrived at the hotel, and I tossed money over the seat to the cab driver as I was hopping out. I scanned the area to see if we were being followed, but nothing struck me as suspicious, though I still pushed Kelly in front of me. We went into the hotel and took the elevator up to our floor.

I let us inside the room to see it was empty. “Get your stuff together. I’m going to ask Casper to get us a flight home. Where’s the money I took off Fleming’s body?” I asked, my voice still a little cold as I went to pack up my shit.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Kelly grabbed the Sig from behind his back, and I pulled my Glock. “Who’s there?”

“Come on, asshole. I gotta piss.” It was my brother.

Dallas ran through the small kitchen area into the bathroom, slamming the door. I laughed at the ass and closed the room door, flipping the hinge for the deadbolt.

While Kelly was packing, I went back to the bedroom to get my shit together. He reached into his duffel and tossed the bag of money toward me.

“What were you going to do with it?” I could only guess what he planned to do, damn him, but I wanted to hear it from the horse’s ass’s mouth.

Kelly sat down on the side of the bed, his forearms resting on his thighs and head in his hands. “The Gambler said that a couple gave my sister fifty-grand for Daisy, which I don’t believe at all. I think Trudeau or the pimp took the money, because I saw no sign that my sister was livin’ the high life. Anyway, they want their money back or they want Daisy. I refuse to let them take my niece. I thought maybe if I gave their money back, they’d back off.”

“Did she say who it was?”

Kelly shook his head. “New York power players. She probably knows, but she wouldn’t tell me.”

That bitch—I didn’t trust her for anything. For reasons unknown to me, which might have a lot of trauma behind them, Ritchfield held a power over Kelly that had me worried… and pissed off.

“Did Sally tell you anything of worth before someone shot her? How’d that fucking happen?” I asked, sitting down on the bed to catch my fucking breath at the idea he could have been shot, too.

“We were talking and drinking. She told me about when Duke and Mateo took Mia and how Rick got fifty grand for Mia’s baby. That girl who we saved is having another of his babies that’s promised to someone else. Apparently, Phil’s wife thinks he’s a god or something, and one of the girl’s he’s raping is going to deliver the next coming of Christ, or so her crazy god is telling her. It’s absolutely insane, but she turns a blind eye when he has sex with underage girls, and then they sell their babies. We’ve gotta shut that shit down,” Kelly explained.

Dallas came out of the bathroom, rubbing his hands together as the scent of the tiny tube of hand lotion from the bathroom vanity wafted through the air. “What? My hands are dry. It’s still winter,” he complained, which made me laugh.

“Don’t want to chafe your dick, huh?”

My brother let out a hearty laugh and then said, “My dick is plenty fine. So, do you two clowns have ammo? I think you had a tail on the way back here because I saw someone get out of a cab and head to the back of the building. I’m guessing he’s loading up in the stairwell. Do we want to engage or get the fuck out?”

I was coming to realize that the hold that The Gambler had on Kelly was strong because she held the Poker Chips. I had to wonder what it would take to break it.

I turned to Kelly. “What do you want to do? I don’t think it’s in our best interests to have a shootout here, especially after the hospital thing, do you?”

Kelly shook his head and responded, “Let’s take the fight to New York, yeah?” He tossed a burner phone on the floor and stomped the fuck out of it, picking it up and tossing it in the trash.

I grabbed the sat phone and called Duke. “You wanna go back to New York with us? I assume you brought one of the company planes?”

“When you wanna leave?” Duke asked.

“ASAP.” I looked at Kelly, and he nodded.

“We’ll meet you at the airport,” I answered.

“Okay. We’re bringing Mom home with us.” Of course, I couldn’t blame Duke for wanting to be sure his mother was safe.

Who fucking knew how long they’d been following us? I damn well wanted to know who they were. If I found out, someone was gonna get their ass kicked.

21

KELLY

After our plane landed at LaGuardia, London—or Dimples as I’d started calling him because his smile was gorgeous—got us a rideshare to his apartment in Red Hook.

Dallas had left when we did, riding his bike back to Las Vegas where he lived, and Marianna was going to stay with Duke and his partners in Brooklyn. I hadn’t slept on the plane, my nervous energy at peak, so after Dimples was busy going through his mail, I changed into sweats and sneakers.

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