Page 73 of Avenging Kelly

Firemen and police crowded the streets with their flashing lights, making the night-vision goggles worthless, so we took them off, along with the masks we were wearing, and watched like nosy citizens as more people came out the doors on all sides.

A shrill whistle cut through the noise, and when I looked at the direction it came from, I saw Duke on the move behind a tall man in a blue parka and shorts scuffing along in house slippers. I ran to get ahead, and when I saw him coming, I knew something was up. His coat was bulky, but it was moving.

“Is one of them fat?” I asked Austin, having never seen the guy before.

“Negative.”

“Okay, we’ve got a possible. I have eyes on a guy I believe to be Tony Ricci walking your way. I think he’s wearing a harness under the navy coat with the baby in it or he’s smuggling live minks,” I stated as I started following the guy up the block. His head was on a swivel as he made his way toward North End Avenue.

“I’ve got Frankie. You want me to take him out while—”

Dominic interrupted from nearby because he didn’t have an earwig. “Only Uncle Giuseppe can make that call. Let’s just get the baby and get the hell out of here.”

I motioned for Duke, who went one way, and I went the other. What neither of us was prepared to see was Ace stumbling around the building like a drunk and right into Tony Ricci, nearly knocking him down.

I grabbed Ricci on one side and Duke grabbed him on the other, as we dragged him across the street and into a doorway. Duke put a gun to his ear while I unzipped his coat, surprised to see a squirming Labrador puppy.

“You motherfucker,” Duke said as he punched the guy in the face. Ricci only laughed.

“My good friend Duke. It’s good to see you.” Duke punched him in the face again.

“Get to Frankie. He’s got the package,” I stated through the comm to Austin.

He came back a few seconds later. “Package secured.” I let out a sigh. We were halfway home.

“Shit! Cops. Eleven o’clock,” Dom yelled.

Smokey caught up to us and glanced at me with a look of confusion. “What’s up with the puppy?” I asked Ricci. Smokey took the dog from Ricci while Duke still held his gun on the asshole.

“For the grandkids. We were told they love animals.”

Smokey stepped out of the way with the dog, but I didn’t wait for Duke to move. I head-butted Ricci, and he hit the bricks with blood gushing down his face. The three of us then took off like we were running a race.

“Meet us at the Victorian,” I told Austin before I flagged a cab for us. It all happened so damn fast, if felt like it only took a minute.

* * *

We arrived at the office and came in through the back door, the lights flickering as usual. The puppy began yipping, so Duke and Ace took it outside to do its business.

I stepped into the bunker where Kelly was sitting on a stool at a countertop. Ritchfield was sleeping, and Kelly was watching something on a cell phone as he wrote on a yellow legal pad.

“Austin, Dom, and Ace have your niece and are on the way. You get everything you needed?” I asked as I motioned my head toward the woman.

“Yeah. This is huge, babe. She went down the line on each piece of this fucked up pie. On the Jackpot side, there’s Tensley, a few lesser colonels, two senators, her brother—the former Vice President who she claims rallied the others. I can’t fathom how we prove those players are involved, much less guilty.” He looked worried, which had me worried, too.

“And how about the people she was in the baby brokering business with? Did she give you all of those assholes?” I asked as I took his hand and brought him with me into the gym.

“Nothing too surprising. Frances, Devaney, Fleming, Trudeau, and his wife. Montero was just the muscle, and his little brother had lured Mia away,” Kelly explained. God, if only things could have been different. It nearly brought tears to my eyes as I thought about it.

“The couple who thinks they bought Daisy? Hang onto your hair. It’s Ainsley Spires and her husband, Alden Bloom, Jr., Anna Bloom’s father.” Yeah, hang onto your hair, all right.

“How the fuck?” I asked him.

“According to what Ritchfield said, which is third-party information from Trudeau, Alden got snipped after Anna was born, and he and Anna’s mother broke up. He got custody of Anna and then turned her over to his father and stepmom to raise so he could join the Marines, which is where he met Trudeau.”

“Lord, when does this shit end?” I asked. Kelly leaned forward and offered a quick kiss before he continued.

“After Bloom got out, he lived the party life in Vegas and worked for his father, not really seeing Anna much at all because he never wanted to be a father. He lived in one of the family’s casino penthouses in Henderson until he met Ainsley at a New Year’s party. They had a whirlwind romance and got married in Vegas a year ago. Fast forward, Ainsley wants a baby but doesn’t want to be pregnant, and Bloom won’t get his procedure reversed, anyway, so Bloom tells Ainsley he knows someone who can get them a baby, and Daddy Randolph Spires contracts to buy baby Daisy from Trudeau. What a cluster fuck,” Kelly stated. Well said.

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