Caress (26 page)

“She was his girlfriend?”

“Of sorts. We don’t even know how she got involved with Mandolesi. The girl was soft-spoken, sweet, mature. She was so kind, it was just hard to believe. But yes, she was Rinaldo’s number one girl, kept like his favorite pet.”

“And El was fast rising in Mandolesi’s organization.”

“Yes.”

“Not smart.”

“It gets worse. From my understanding, they were hardly ever apart. It was like El was so drawn to her calm and her quietness because it wasn’t like anything he’d ever known. When he found it within her, all he talked about was leaving the streets behind. In some ways, he didn’t feel worthy because she loved him so selflessly and he hadn’t done anything with his life. He didn’t think he had anything to offer.”

“But she was in the game, too.”

“Yeah, she was. And, I think in some ways that kept him locked to it. He wanted to get what he could get, as fast as he could get it, and as long as she was living that same lifestyle, she didn’t pressure him to get out. She wanted him to, I know she did, but Dina wasn’t a hypocrite. She was a lot of things, but a hypocrite was not one of them. He changed his appearance to look more conservative, lost his accent, and—at least on the surface—seemed to be a more mature person. He stopped running the streets. But, Michael, it didn’t take long for us to figure out he was in deeper than ever. He would swear to us all the time that he was going to get out of the game as soon as he could and settle down.”

“But he didn’t need the money.”

Nya made an expression trapped between a smile and a wince. “It’s hard to explain. El’s mother and my mother came from the same neighborhood, grew up next door to each other. Neither one of them had much to start with, but their lives took very different paths. They were close, but not close in a way. When they finished school, my mother went on to college and met my father. El’s mother started working in a hotel and never left the neighborhood. When El was born, his father took off and my dad stepped in to help with him. At first El clung to him, but as he got older, there was this barrier between them. It turned into both love and resentment after El’s mother passed when we were adolescents. My father took him in, educated him, guided him and offered him a job every chance he could get. But El said he didn’t want anything from him. He rebelled against my father.”

“Like you do.”

“I don’t. I
don’t
. Not like El. He’s complicated.” Nya stood and paced the kitchen. “He loved my dad, but he always remembered that my dad wasn’t really his father. It’s like it hung over him all the time.” She took a deep breath and came to stand in front of Michael. He rose and looped his arms around her. “Anyway, El eventually asked her to marry him.”

“She was still with Mandolesi? El still on the sneak?”

Nya nodded against his chest.

Michael pulled back to study her face. “Did the man have a death wish?”

“He said he had it all figured out. Of course she said no, and I think she thought that was the end of it. What’s crazy is that he let Dina think that. He and I both knew if she thought he was going to do something stupid, she would break it off to protect him. I told him that I would tell her he was planning something, if he didn’t. He said he just needed a little more time. I guess I shouldn’t have listened, and I’ll regret that I didn’t until I die, but I never said anything to her. Never.” Nya swallowed and turned her head.

Michael walked her into the den and sat with her on the couch. He could see the turmoil she was going through as she told the story.

“As I said El was still up to old tricks, but the stakes were higher. At the worst, he was running merchandise, so to speak, for Rinaldo Mandolesi.” She heard Michael gasp and knew that he understood completely the magnitude of what she said. She took a deep breath, her throat closing against her as she spoke. “I didn’t know how far he had gone until it was over, or I would have done something.”

“There was nothing you could have done.”

She swallowed and continued. “So he had planned one last deal. It was a big operation, using an old sub bought from Columbia to make a big run up past the Florida coast, all the way to Carolinas.”

“I remember that story. I remember something about Mandolesi being implicated.”

“Yeah, well, El had planned to take the money he made from expediting that deal and run off with Dina. When he finally told her what he was doing, Dina asked him not to take the deal, said they didn’t need the money. El told her that he wouldn’t.”

“But he lied?”

Nya nodded. “So what we didn’t know was that there were a few things Dina wasn’t telling any of us, either. On the night the big deal was supposed to go down, the DEA raided the warehouse and the pier where the deal was supposed to happen.” Michael sucked in his breath. “It turned out that Dina had a plan of her own to get them out.”

“She informed?”

“Yeah. She did. But, Mandolesi had his own eyes and ears out there, too. He’d been alerted about the job, and he and Elphonse were nowhere near when the DEA raided the place. Instead, they were at one of Rinaldo’s compounds on a neighboring island. He was filling El in on the foiled raid when one of his henchmen dragged Dina into the room with them. She must have been surprised, too, because she hesitated.” Nya’s voice was choked with tears. “Rinaldo knew she’d been seeing El on the side and he knew she had been the one to turn him in.”

“No,” Michael whispered, seeming to anticipate what was coming next.

“Mandolesi shot her in the head right in front of El.”

“Jesus,” Michael gasped.

“El didn’t even have time to react. Immediately after that, they were subdued and taken to a federal holding cell. Nobody trusted our police to keep them.”

“But Mandolesi still got off?” It was more a statement of fact than a question.

Nya nodded her head. “He got off because the other guy who was there, the one who kidnapped Dina, took the charge for him. El said that he had even taken the gun and shot Dina once before he was subdued to protect Rinaldo.”

“Elphonse didn’t testify against him?”

“Our lawyers told him it wouldn’t matter. He was facing his own charges.”

“But he got off, too?”

“Yeah. We have excellent lawyers. They called it entrapment.”

“And now they’re working together again,” Michael sneered disgustedly.

“No, Michael, you don’t understand. He loved her. He was devastated when she died, and he blamed himself.”

“As well he should have,” Michael retorted. “Entrapment? She warned him to stay away.”

“I understand, but if he hadn’t done it, he would have gone to prison. Don’t you understand? He had no choice.”

“I understand that now he does have a choice and he’s choosing the wrong thing. Maybe he should have gone to prison, Nya, have you considered that?”

“Michael,” she protested.

“No, Nya. You think about it. Who does Deklerk really love, based on the evidence? Deklerk.”

She turned away from him to stare out of the window. Everything he said made sense, but still, she didn’t want to believe it. It hurt so much. If Elphonse really was working with Mandolesi, he didn’t have a heart anymore. And there was no other explanation she could think of; it all just fit too well. She felt Michael’s hand entwine with her own. She squeezed back.

“How did El get out? If what you say is true and he didn’t roll on Mandolesi, how did he manage to walk the straight and narrow afterward? You don’t just walk away from the kind of organization he was in.”

“I don’t know.”

She could practically see the thoughts and permutations running through Michael’s head. Before she could ask what he was planning, her phone rang. “Good morning, Lysette?”

“Good morning, chick. Where’d you go last night?”

“I ah… had to get away. It was just stifling in there and… ah…”

“Do you know who you’re talking to? You can’t lie to me. Everybody was worried, and I heard you and Michael were talking to undercovers in the parking garage.”

“How would anybody know if we were talking to ‘undercovers,’ as you say?”

“Is it true?”

“Yeah, we were talking about the case.”

“Then I’m going to need you to fill me in after I tell you this.”

“What’s that?”

“You know my last day was Friday, right?”

“Yes, and you couldn’t be happier.”

“Right! So I went in this morning to clear some things up. I didn’t want to leave a mess. Anyway, I went through those boxes for you and—”

Michael held up her empty coffee mug and pointed to it.

“Yeah, I’ll have some more,” she whispered.

“Who are you talking to? Oh, my God! Is Michael Harrison in your house this early in the morning?”

Nya cleared her throat. “Yes. We’ll talk about that later. For now, can you tell me what you found.”

“The rest of the shipment.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The
rest
of the shipment. There was supposed to be another Bernard French piece in that group you found. It wasn’t there because El—I have his signature right here—asked that a couple of pieces be held back.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes?”

“Where are the crates now?”

“I don’t know. Based on the tracking, they’re still in the warehouse in St. Pete.”

“Send everything to my phone. Everything.”

“So now will you tell me—”

“ ’Sette, I can’t talk right now. I promise I’ll call you later.”

Immediately she was dialing again to make arrangements for the jet to take her to St. Thomas as soon as possible.

“You’re not going alone. I don’t know what you intend to do, but you won’t do it alone.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Michael.”

He tilted her face up to his, forcing her to hear what he said. “If it has to do with you, it has everything to do with me. We’re also going to have to report everything we know as soon as we land and check those crates. I don’t want to say anything yet, because we can’t run the risk of someone beating us to them.”

“But El already knows.”

“So we have to hope we beat him to them. He’s in Birmingham right now.”

Nya crumpled. Tears again were flowing. “Please, God, don’t let El have anything to do with this.”

“Damn it, you could have killed her, Rinaldo!” Elphonse yelled into his phone.

“That was the plan.”

“That was not the plan,” Elphonse ground out.

“Maybe it wasn’t yours. She’s gotten in the way too many times. In Norfolk she got in the way, and if she saw those photographs…”

“I told you she didn’t. I got them for you, didn’t I?”

“If she saw those photographs, she’s still in the way. So I’m eliminating that problem all together. Or at least I will. A pity I didn’t send a more skilled driver. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

“Me? Of, of course not. Well at least…at least…” Elphonse didn’t know how to handle this new twist; things were getting too hot. Then it came to him. “Let me do it.”

“Hmmmm?” He could hear Rinaldo’s doubt through the phone. Then he was laughing. “I like your style, Deklerk, I really do. However, I’m not so sure you mean it.”

“Oh, I mean it.”

“Do you?” The question pulsed with calculated menace. And then in an almost cheerful voice he said, “Okay, have it your way. You kill pretty little Nya, and I will watch you perform the illustrious act.”

“B-b-but…I…” Elphonse stammered nervously.

“You have a problem with that?”

Deklerk recovered. “No, it’s just that we’re stateside. It would be suspicious if you went also.”

“No, I don’t think so, although I appreciate your concern. You see, Ms. Seymour is on her way here.”

“To Charlotte Amalie?”

“Yes,” Rinaldo Mandolesi said with satisfaction. “And when she arrives. I will ensure that the problem is resolved.”

Elphonse was silent for a moment, stunned. “Leave it until I get there, Rinaldo. What’s another twenty-four hours?”

h

Once they arrived at the airport, Michael couldn’t help the feelings that welled up inside him as Nya walked beside him. She was so much the woman he’d wanted from very first sight, and much more. And when she looked up at him and smiled, it nearly broke his heart. He knew that this woman was the only woman who would ever make him feel this way. She was the only woman he would ever love.

“What are you thinking about, Michael?”

“I’ll tell you someday,” he answered, grinning as he retrieved their luggage and called for a taxi. A driver hopped out of his vehicle and immediately began to help Michael with the luggage.

Nya surprised them both by saying loudly and quite adamantly, “We are not going to ride in this taxi with that man.”

Michael turned to look at the driver suspiciously, wondering why Nya didn’t like the man. He was older and small and looked harmless enough. That is to say, Michael was sure he could take him.