Chasing Thunder (20 page)

“We want the same thing here, M.J. We’re on the same side. At some point you’re going to have to start trusting somebody.”

She laughed. “Right. So why not start with some cop who’s trying to blackmail me for information?”

“That’s the offer,” he shrugged. “Take it or leave it. But our last known witness just bit the dust, so you better make up your mind fast. I’ll take responsibility for Todd. The next one is all on you.”

She thought about Baby with a knot in her throat. Finally she said, “You don’t need me, Harris. The biggest clue has been under your nose this whole time.”

He held up the matchbook. “Slick.”

“Gentleman’s club by day, brothel by night. The entire second floor, except for the owner’s office, is devoted to prostitution, and my guess is they’re all underage.”

“Why?”

She took a deep breath. It went against every fiber of her being to cooperate with a cop. “The owner is a man named Dominic Isbecky. On paper he’s a reputed businessman with a lot of high-powered friends. In person, especially alone in his office, he’s intimidating and threatening. Those girls in that photo? He wants to know the whereabouts to only one, the one allegedly seen with me in Hollywood.”

“When you offed one of his hoods in the alley.” She neither confirmed nor denied. “So where’s your girl now?”

Another shrug. “Who knows? Like with the rest of my kids, my first priority was getting her the hell out of Dodge. Bottom line, he wants to find her. And he’ll do anything to make that happen.”

“Why?”

“It can’t be good. Maybe she saw him commit a crime. Maybe she knows a little bit about his illegitimate businesses. Either way she’s a threat to him, otherwise he wouldn’t be so desperate to find her.”

“And kill anyone who refuses to help him.” She nodded. He gestured to the bag. “So what’s this stuff for, really?”

There was a long pause before she answered him. “I’m going to Slick. I’m going to break into the second floor. And I’m going to try and find the other girl from the photo.”

“You really think she’s there?”

She shrugged. “The best place to hide her is right under everyone’s nose. No one would expect it, and he’s arrogant enough to do it. Even if by some stroke of luck you start sniffing around his trail, he’s counting on the police abiding by the law and getting proper search warrants, which would give him plenty of time to cover his tracks.”

Kelly filled in the rest. “He uses the law to his advantage, likely bribing someone on the inside somewhere to know when a possible raid could occur.”

She nodded. “So arrest me if you have to. But if you go by the book on this one, you’re going to have another dead kid on your hands. I guarantee it.”

He was silent for a long moment before he finally stood. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”

For a second she panicked. Was he really going to take her to jail after all she had told him? “Where?”

He tossed the matchbook on her table, upturned to Slick’s address. She shook her head. “I work alone.”

He grabbed the bag and headed for the door. “You used to.”

It took her a moment to gather her wits enough to chase after him.

13. SWEET EMOTION

S
nake was juggling two pizza boxes and three plastic bags when he walked through the door that night. Baby was quick to fetch the pizzas, and Kid rifled through the bags, grabbing sodas. They sat around the table to eat, a tradition only observed when other people were in the house. When it was just Snake and Kid, they ate separately in different rooms, often at different times.

After Kid had turned fifteen, he’d been far more interested in his video games than in being bossed around by his brother. So he did all the chores before Snake got home and had the rest of the night to himself. Now that they were all together, filling in some of the missing leaves on their family tree, there seemed to be a reason to congregate again.

Snake had never realized how much he missed it.

He reached for the last bag, withdrawing a small box. He slid it over to Baby. It was a new smartphone, and she could tell from the box it was a fancy one at that. “What’s this?”

“With you coming to the shop now, I just thought you could use a phone.”

She laughed. “Thanks, but I have no clue who I would call.”

“Maybe you and Kid could text from across the table. Roll your eyes at how lame I’m being. That’s the thing now, right?” The kids laughed. Snake leaned toward Baby and his voice softened. “Or whoever you want to call. Or need to call. Now you have the option.”

She immediately felt grateful. He was giving her freedom with that phone, and she knew that meant he trusted her. That meant she was one of them. “Thanks, Snake.”

“What’s the good of having a family plan without a family?” he asked gently.

She gave him a mischievous smile. “Wait here,” she instructed before she darted to her room. When she returned, she had a gift of her own for Snake. It was a drawing of him and M.J. on his bike. How she’d even put it together was a mystery to him. She caught every detail: the mechanics of the bike, the curve of M.J.’s smile, even the tattoos that were showing. It seemed such an impossible task in the short time they’d known each other.

“Wow,” he breathed. “This is incredible. When did you have the time to do this?”

She beamed under his praise. “I draw when I can’t sleep.”

He chuckled as his eyes scanned the drawing. “Let’s hear it for insomnia.” His eyes were gentle as they met hers. “Thank you, Baby.”

She rewarded him with a big smile and an even bigger hug. She wasn’t used to being praised for her work, and Snake seemed genuinely impressed.

He ended up leaving Kid to program her phone and headed toward his room to take a shower. He felt grimier than usual, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the piece he had concealed under his jacket had a lot to do with that. He began stripping the moment he shut the bedroom door behind him. He was naked by the time he reached the bathroom, and he set the temperature of his shower to near scalding. As he straightened, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. He had tattoos covering his body. They detracted attention from the scars that had been permanently etched there. He touched the skin over a tiny oblong scar on his abdomen that was a shade redder than the rest of his bronzed skin. His hand slid across the trail of hair along his lower abdomen, resting on a long gash along his leg.

He turned around to look at the black-and-red king cobra tattoo that coiled all the way from his lower back to his shoulders. It was a stunning piece of art. But all he could see was the scarred skin from a bullet that had grazed him right between his torso and his arm.

They were his war wounds, his battle scars.

He sighed as he faced himself, naked and vulnerable. It wasn’t the lack of clothing that left him feeling so exposed. It was that he had been thrust into a corner he had hoped never to revisit. But since it was M.J. who needed him, he knew he would do it. He would barely think twice. His only concern had been Kid, but he was nearly grown now.

Snake was a stone’s throw from thirty, and about to face an empty nest.

He stepped into the shower, baptizing himself with the steaming hot spray. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the terrifying memories rising from where they had lain dormant in the unexplored corners of his psyche.

The last time he was shot it had been to save M.J. He had jumped in front of her, taking the bullet. It had entered his lower abdomen and he’d damn near bled to death. She’d stayed with him and nursed the wound, taking care of him night and day until he was fully recovered.

The very next night she was back out on the streets. They had the worst fight of their entire lives that night. He pulled her off the street, plopping her on his bike and forcefully removing her from her suicide mission to seek revenge on his shooter. He didn’t stop driving until they reached the desert, and the minute her feet touched the ground she gave him what for. She punched him square in the jaw, and he stared at her as blood poured down his chin and dripped off into the sand. The sun rose behind them. He issued an ultimatum. He wanted her off the streets. It didn’t matter how many fights they started (or ended), Joe was still dead and he wasn’t coming back.

“How many more people do you have to lose?” he asked her.

“No one asked you to come along,” she reminded him.

“That’s true,” he agreed. “But right now I’m asking you to stay. With me.”

She had paused. He gave her that. But in the end, the answer was still the same. The ring she had sworn her life to was her grandfather’s signet ring. There was no desire there to replace it with Snake’s wedding ring.

He leaned his head against the tiled wall of his shower. Despite being shot, stabbed, and beaten within an inch of his life, that moment hurt far worse than any of the others. It was the scar that would never heal.

She had rejected him time and again, but she had always come back. She always returned with that damnable look in those hazel-green eyes, and he’d melt like chocolate on her lips.

And now she was out there alone.

He turned off the shower, stepped onto the hunter-green rug and quickly toweled off. He was sliding into his jeans when Kid knocked on the door. “We’re about to start a movie,” he said after Snake allowed him in. “You wanna order Chinese or something?”

“I have to run an errand,” Snake muttered as he slipped into a clean black shirt. “Use the grocery jar and order for yourselves.”

Kid’s eyes widened as he watched Snake reach for his holster. Their eyes met. “It’s M.J., isn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” Snake said honestly. “But probably.”

“And it has something to do with Baby, doesn’t it?”

Snake took a deep breath and stared at his younger brother. As much as he had resisted Kid getting involved in his past, there seemed no way to avoid it now. He needed his help, man to man. “Baby’s photo was found in those belongings at the first murder site.”

Kid nodded. “Yeah. We know.”

“How?”

He shrugged. “Internet.”

“Of course. Well, M.J. is trying to find this guy before he finds Baby. And I’m not going to be able to sit here and wait this one out. Not when the stakes are this high.”

Kid nodded. He understood. “What do you need me to do?”

Snake stopped in front of him. “Take care of Baby. She needs you.” They shared a brief glance, then Snake reached out with his hand to affectionately grab Kid by the scruff of the neck in one of those brotherly non-hugs they had enjoyed all their lives. That strong hand finally landed on Kid’s shoulder, equal to equal. No words were necessary as the mantle of manhood was passed. Snake turned and trotted down the hallway. “Call me if you need me,” he said, and Kid knew that meant if there was any sign of danger.

As he watched his brother speed off on his bike, he locked every door and went on guard.

Around the time that a delivery boy was dropping off bags of Chinese food at the house in Pasadena, Snake was letting himself into M.J.’s apartment with his spare key. The dark room was sparse. There was nothing on the walls, no personal knickknacks on the shelves. There were no framed photos or even a collection of carefully selected books. Anyone could have inhabited the space, and that was the point. Even the furniture was mismatched. There was a small TV, a battered but comfortable couch and chair, and a 1950s dining room table under a bare light bulb. The bedroom had a double bed covered in dark sheets. There was a lamp on one side and a dresser in the corner. She kept the bare essentials here, even in the bathroom.

He went back into the kitchen, and he pieced together from the evidence that she had hardly eaten. In fact, her table was bare except for a small matchbook.

His brow furrowed as he walked closer. He picked it up. He didn’t recognize the name, but he knew the area. He opened it to find the spot for one missing match. Curious, he bent his head and sniffed the smoke residue on the cardboard.

He pocketed the matchbook and headed out the door.

14. P CONTROL

K
elly Harris and M.J. kept a low profile on the roof of the five-story building across the side street from Slick. Its height, and its location on the curved street catty-corner to the club, offered them the perfect 360-degree view of the premises. The darkened office building was also very discreet. They both wore dark clothing, so it was easy to slip into the shadows. Music thundered from the club as the big double doors opened to allow customers in through the purple-carpeted entrance, overseen by uniformed security. M.J. pulled her binoculars out and began scoping the exterior to find a point of entry.

Kelly chuckled, which made her give him a stern side glare. “What?”

“Just thinking that with all your training and skill, you could have made lieutenant by now.”

She scoffed as she turned back to her task. “The pay sucks. And cops are assholes. Present company included,” she added, and he could hardly argue. “So what’s your story anyway, Harris?”

He reached into his jacket for his own pair of compact binoculars. “Same old, same old. Poor kid without direction finds the police academy. Joined for the gunplay. Stayed for the pension. The end.”