Page 10 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
Then he tossed him the key fob and took out the remaining luggage.
“Oh, shit, he’s changing vehicles!”
“Good thing you put a second tracker on the cat,” Lily said as she watched his partner open the driver’s side of the Cadillac and jump in.
“You’re the one who said they wouldn’t leave the cat if something changed, so that’s a win for you. But I risked being clawed by the maniac cat for justice.”
“You get major points,” Lily said, watching as Robbie carted the luggage to the Suburban.
“You can buy me a drink when we finally get off our shift, Sunshine. My concern is that we have a police officer taking a car with an FBI tracking device on it to God knows where. We don’t want the South Boston cops to know we’re running this investigation.”
Lily winced. “There’s no reason to think anyone will find it.”
“That’s you being all sunshine again,” Sheila said with an edge to her voice. “We’d better hope so or this case could go up in our faces.”
Lily watched as the bald guy joined O’Connor. They stacked the girls’ suitcases in the back of the Suburban, which already had three duffel bags inside. O’Connor dropped the diaper bag inside, and then the brothers crossed back to the Cadillac and lugged over the four boxes from Costco. The bald guy appeared carrying the car seats and the cat in her carrier.
“That pussy just saved our life,” Sheila said with a wicked laugh.
Lily didn’t appreciate that word, even though she worked around very rough-talking people, men and women included. “I won’t have to follow so closely, which is good. Because God knows where they’re headed now.”
A loud meow tore through the parking lot, and the bald man’s disparaging swear word carried, earning him a quick rebuke from O’Connor, who pointed at the kids in the Suburban. Lily rather appreciated his desire to protect the kids from foul language.
The bald guy made clawlike hands in O’Connor’s direction before he disappeared from view into the green Suburban. Doors slammed on the passenger side. O’Connor stood alone by the driver’s side, watching as his partner followed the officer from Internal Affairs slowly out of the parking lot.
“He looks like he’s just lost his best friend,” Sheila said with a sigh. “I kinda feel for him. But I’m still withholding judgment until we find out if Roland turns in the money…and where his partner takes Tara’s new car.”
“They’re not dirty,” Lily said in a steely tone as she watched Robbie O’Connor’s hardened profile in the sunlight. “He’s turned the money over immediately and is taking off with some of his brothers to protect those sweet little girls—and his cousin, mind you.”
“Don’t make him into a knight yet,” her own partner wisely pointed out. “We need more—”
“Call our boss and tell him what we saw.” She put the car in drive. “Ask him for permission to follow the subject at a distance, even if they cross state lines. Tara O’Connor is going to reunite with her kids, and we want to be there to pick her up as a material witness when she does. She’s the key to bringing down the Kellys. I know it.”
She wasn’t going to back down from the biggest case of her life, and if she could keep watch over those precious little girls, knowing the kind of heat coming for them, then all the better.
CHAPTERTHREE
Robbie floppedonto the way too pristine white couch in the new rental house.
“I amnevergoing on another car trip again.”
He scrubbed his face as he thought of all the tough things he’d done today. Going to Internal Affairs for the first time in his life. Turning in Kelly mob money that had been in his favorite cousin’s possession, along with his personal and professional cell phones so no one could track them. Involving his partner in the ordeal. Lying to his supervisor and fellow cops about being on vacation. Taking an encrypted IA computer so he could receive secret messages from either Roland or Mickey on any updates on the case that was now open with his cousin’s name on it.
And he’d called his brother Danny and instructed him to buy their father an airplane ticket on the first flight out to Ireland so the Kellys couldn’t put the squeeze on him. His brother had wanted to ask questions, of course, but he hadn’t been able to provide details other than that Tara was in trouble, and he, Billie, and Tim were taking the girls to an undisclosed location. He’d also asked him to give the other O’Connor brothers a heads-up so they could watch out for each other.
Danny was a hard sell, always had been, but that hadn’t been the toughest part of his day. No siree. Try driving twelve hours to the Outer Banks until five o’clock in the morning with two babies, the children, and a pissed-off cat—the babies being his brothers. It had been enough to grind a man down to dust.
“Thank God the girls finally fell asleep and stayed that way through us carrying them inside,” he muttered, wanting to plant himself face down on the nearest bed and sleep until the nightmarish day was gone from his mind.
“You said it, brother.” Billie kicked at Robbie’s feet before dropping down next to him on the couch. “That was the car trip from hell. I’m done with kiddie cartoons and potty breaks. Don’t get me started on the diaper changing. Eight times is crazy. I still say Tim should change all the diapers since he does it in his regular job.”
Robbie snorted with laughter along with Billie as Tim walked back in with beers despite the early hour. “I know I shouldn’t be laughing since you both up and left everything when I called. Thanks, by the way.”
“It’s what family does,” Billie said, fist-bumping him.
“What Billie said.” Tim held out two opened beers. “And you really shouldn’t talk about people in retirement homes like that. They can’t help their incontinence. It hurts their pride.”
Tim’s response was exactly why Robbie had called him to come along, being a nurse and the only person in their family with a sensitive, caretaking streak. But Jesus, he must be tired, because when Billie started to laugh again, it kicked him off. “Tim, I know it’s not right,” Robbie said through laughter, “but I can’t seem to stop laughing.”
