* * * *
“Baletti is working for Carlotto, and they both have men here in Treasure Town. I just spoke with a detective there working with the feds in an anti-crime unit,” Buddy told Turbo. Jake stood next to him, eyes wide, face bright red, appearing pretty upset.
“Okay, so how do we connect Gloria’s murder to them and the threats to the club owners?” Turbo asked.
“Turbo, there’s more. The feds and this detective unit have been trying to track down a woman of interest. It’s Francesca,” Buddy told Turbo.
“Francesca?” Turbo asked and stood up from the desk.
Buddy lowered his voice.
“There is a major fucking investigation going on. Francesca was involved with a cop.” Buddy paused.
Turbo nodded. “He was dirty, involved with some illegal stuff. She said she was running from him after he wound up in jail.”
“Yeah, well, he’s out, and the investigators say he’s in the vicinity.”
“Oh God, we have to find Frankie. We have to get to her.”
“Make the call, but there’s more. We have investigators and some federal agents on their way here,” Buddy told him.
He dialed Mike’s number, knowing that Frankie was with him. She was going to have lunch with Cassidy first, and Mike was right down the block at Sullivan’s. They planned on all meeting at the house for dinner.
The cell phone kept ringing, and Mike didn’t pick up.
“Turbo, the feds have wire taps. Phone conversations with Carlotto and Baletti’s plans. Carlotto wants Francesca. She was running away from him, too.”
Turbo felt his chest tighten and his stomach ache. Mike answered his phone call and sounded frantic.
“Holy shit, Turbo. There’s been some kind of shooting. People are screaming. Two guys are on the ground in the middle of Luana Highway.”
“What the hell do you mean two bodies?” Turbo asked as Jake’s phone and Buddy’s phone both rang.
“We have to go. Ask him where Francesca is,” Jake said.
“Mike, where is Francesca? Tell me she’s with you.”
“I’m headed to the café she and Cassidy were at. I’m just trying to get through the crowd.”
“Mike, her ex is in town. He works for the Carlotto and Baletti, the men we think murdered Gloria, threatened Chester and Brian, and set fire to the Beach House. Carlotto is after Frankie,” Turbo explained as he ran alongside Buddy and Jake. Other officers were on route to the location.
“Oh shit. Oh God. I see Cassidy but not Frankie.”
“Find her, Mike. I’m on my way.”
Turbo called his brothers and told them to meet him.
“Maybe she’s fine. Maybe she went to the ladies room at the café or something,” Jake said to Turbo.
“I don’t believe this. She told us about her ex and mentioned some other guy threatening her and wanting her and that was why she took off. She never gave us any names. She didn’t recognize Baletti or the other guys at the club the other night. She just said some guys creeped her out and she thought one of them took her picture.”
“It was probably to send to Carlotto to confirm her identity,” Buddy said from the back seat.
“The ex was in jail. If he, at one time, worked for Carlotto and knew Carlotto was interested in Frankie, then why would he grab her and bring her back to Chicago?” Turbo asked.
“We’re assuming that’s what’s going on, but we don’t have any facts,” Buddy said as Jake pulled up on the scene.
Jake’s men already had the area taped off and people away from the crime scene. Sure enough, there were two dead bodies, gunshot wounds to the backs of their heads, lying in the middle of the right-hand lane in front of a major intersection.
Turbo spotted Mike and Cassidy. Cassidy was crying, and Pete was running toward her with his partner, Todd.
“Where is she? Where the fuck is Frankie?” Turbo yelled.
Mike cursed and ran his hand through his hair.
“We can’t find her,” Mike said.
“We were having lunch and talking. Reggie called, and Frankie got up to use the ladies’ room to give me some privacy. Then a few minutes later I heard screaming then sirens. Someone said a black SUV with tinted windows was stopped at the light. Two men were shot and shoved out of the SUV, and then the driver took off.”
“You checked the ladies’ room, the entire restaurant?” Turbo asked Mike, and Mike nodded.
“She’s not in the restaurant. She’s in the SUV. There were witnesses sitting on the benches by the corner. Two of them said they heard the gunshot and watched some guy shove a body out of the passenger seat. They saw a woman with her hands tied to the back headrest of the seat. She was screaming and crying.” Buddy then walked back over to the policeman that had detained witnesses.
Sirens continued to blare in the distance. Crowds of people were gathering around the crime scene and the restaurant to get a closer look. It was total chaos.
Turbo ran his fingers through his hair. “He has her. Her fucking ex has her, and he’s going to hand her over to Carlotto.”
“Her ex? You mean the guy she ran from?” Mike asked in a panic.
“Yes. What are we going to do?” Turbo asked Jake.
Jake looked around at the chaos. “We have a description of the vehicle. We have all these witnesses and the feds on their way here. We have to find that SUV.” Jake ran over to the car and to Buddy as Mike spoke to Jake.
“I shouldn’t have left her. If I hadn’t left her, he couldn’t have grabbed her.”
“He probably would have killed you, Mike, just like he killed those other two guys like it was nothing. She’s probably so scared right now.”
“Turbo, we got a sighting on the SUV. It’s heading out of Treasure Town. That’s all we have. That investigator and some federal agents are ten minutes from here. We need to head back to the Station and set up a command center. Buddy has them issuing roadblocks with the state police in every direction. They won’t be able to get off the island or out of the four surrounding towns. Let’s move.”
Chapter 13
He knew the whole area. He seemed to have a plan as he maneuvered through side streets she would never be able to get through without getting lost. He was a street cop from Chicago. Resourceful, tough, a planner. His strategic abilities had kept him out of jail for years, working under the radar, playing both a cop and criminal.
She was shaking and cold now that they were in some sort of warehouse with old boats and smelly garbage.
How long had he been watching her? Were Mike, Turbo, Nate, and Rye okay, or had he done something to hurt them, too? She couldn’t stop the shaking.
He was talking on his cell phone. Yelling then speaking calmly, demanding a time. A time for what? There seemed to be police everywhere, and was that a helicopter she heard in the distance?
She wished she had her gun, but her purse was in the SUV. It didn’t look as though Kevin was planning on going anywhere else in the vehicle.
He disconnected the call and looked down at her. His hand on his hip, he paced a moment then turned.
“Did you sleep with Carlotto before you took off?”
She gulped and shook her head. He stomped toward her and grabbed her by her blouse, ripping the material. “Don’t fucking lie to me. I know you’re fucking five guys, so don’t for one minute think you can lie to me about fucking Carlotto, too.”
“No. I didn’t. I took off so he couldn’t touch me. I had to leave my job, my home, and disappear because of him and because of you.”
The strike across her mouth was so sudden she wasn’t sure what stunned her more. The fact that he’d hit her or the pain that radiated along her jaw and split her lip.
He got down low, stared at her face, and shook her.
“They’re dead. All five of them are dead. It’s just you and me. Do you understand?”
She wondered if he was lying. How could he have killed her men, her lovers? Then again, she wouldn’t know because she’d been at the café enjoying lunch with Cassidy instead of with them in their bed.
She shook her head as the tears rolled down her cheek.
“You didn’t. You didn’t kill them.”
He smirked then grabbed her throat and held her snugly. “Oh yes I did. They’re gone forever. You’ll pay for fucking them. You’ll pay for the rest of your life. I’m taking us away from here. No one will ever find us, not even Carlotto.”
He shoved her back, and her head hit the concrete wall she leaned against.
She was going to die. There was no way she would let him take her away and have his way with her. She would rather die. There wasn’t anything to live for anyway, not with her men dead. She sobbed uncontrollably. She loved them so much.
“Shut up. We leave in ten minutes.”
* * * *
“It’s been two hours since she was taken. The SUV hasn’t been seen anywhere, and every street with access in and out of the surrounding towns is covered by State Police. Where the hell could he have taken her?” Turbo asked as they all gathered around the main meeting room at the sheriff’s department.
Three federal agents were there, two detectives from Chicago, Detective Rick Smothers and Detective Roger Prentice, along with Jake, Buddy, Nate, Rye, and Mike. Turbo was pissed off and losing his patience.