Page 38 of The Shadows We Keep

“Bad meeting?” He looks down at the paper and then up at me.

“I’ve got some work to do. Drop me back at my place. Where is she?”

He shifts the car into drive and takes off toward my apartment. “She’s still at home. All’s quiet. But…” He pauses, looking at the clock on the radio.

“But, what!” I snap.

“Nothing about her. She’s good. But Marco, I did a background check after your brief run-in this afternoon. You won’t like who his father is.”

“James, I swear to God, if you don’t spit it out right now,” I snipe through clenched teeth.

“Angelo Dentico is Marco’s father.” He waits for me to understand, but the name isn’t ringing any bells.

“And who’s, Angelo Dentico.”

His eyes shoot to me, a stunned expression crossing his face.

“You mean to tell me you moved into this neighborhood and didn’t realize whose neighborhood you were moving into? I thought you were smarter than that.”

His huff of impatience is wearing mine thin. I’d heard whispering around the block, but I never put any stock in it. It’s the 21stcentury, not the 1920’s.

“He’s got ties to the Italian mob. He’s not high up, but I’d bet money that pizza shop’s a place to clean money.”

I slam my hand against the dash over and over. This day is just one piece of bad news after the other. It’s complete shit.

“Is she roped in with them?”

“I don’t know, Boss. There wasn’t a lot of time. I got lucky with Marco because the idiot’s got an arrest record the length of a CVS receipt.”

“Send it to me.”

“Already waiting for ya.” The car pulls up in front of the building and I hop out, pausing before I make my way inside.

“Hey, James?”

“Yeah.”

“Keep your cell just in case she calls you for a ride.”

His nod is all the agreement I need before I make my way up to my apartment.

Once I hit enter,the program fills the screen. The search parameters scanning through hundreds of websites at a time. Pushing away from my desk, I retreat to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. It’s going to be a long night if I want to understand Marco’s connection. James gave me a starting point, but I need to know her connection to them. I should have caught this before, but all my concentration was focused onher. Not the people who owned the damn building.

Maybe she’s only a tenant, but the way he reacted this afternoon, there’s not a bone in my body that isn’t telling me something is up—at least with him.

On top of that, now I have to deal with this lot of account numbers. But I won’t hand them over without all the information. They want the locations. I plan on finding out who they belong to first. That meeting was shady as hell.

Thinking back on it causes a memory to filter through my mind.

Men in expensively tailored suits gathered in my father’s office. Thick Italian accents and raised voices. One of the men turned in the direction of the cracked door I thought I was hiding behind, out of sight. But even with the hallway dark and deserted for the night, he still saw me.

I didn’t have time to turn and run before the door swung open. I expected it to be my dad standing over me pissed at my curiosity, but it wasn’t him. This man was shorter and rounder, a lot rounder than my father. His jet-black hair slicked back and his eyes, his eyes haunted me for months afterward.

I’d never seen eyes as dark as this, not even on the blackest of nights when the stars refused to light up the sky or when I’d played hide and seek with my nanny’s son and hid in the back of my parent’s closet. No, this was the definition of the absence of color, no light reflected. They were the color of death.

He leaned down to me, dropping his voice so no one behind him could hear. “You know what happens to little boys who put their noses where they don’t belong?” He asked in his broken English. My body trembled, but my head shook just an inch in answer. “They never see their families again.” And then he grinned, stepped back, and slammed the door in my face.

I shake the memory from my thoughts when the coffee pot timer goes off. Filling my mug, I take in a gulp to bring myself back to the right headspace.

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