Heart Lies & Alibis (30 page)

"Now who the fuck are you, Amigo?" He shook his head, "This party already had enough assholes without you trying to add a few more."

The man looked at Malachy. "Yes, that is clear. However, I have some business here. My name is Emiliano Ortiz, and I work for the Lazcano Cartel." He let the information do its work on the room before continuing. Declan and I exchanged another look while Linc turned pale and nervous. Poor Roosevelt simply looked confused. Malachy remained nearly unfazed as I had come to learn was his near constant state of being.

Again, Rose failed to read the situation to know when to keep his mouth shut. He burst out "Hey, weren't we supposed to meet you guys at that bar? What the fuck man? This really screws things up." Captain Obvious he was not.

Ortiz had identified the power structure of the room, quickly, and he recognized Malachy as his biggest threat. After Rose spoke, Ortiz turned his head only slightly from focusing on Malachy to look at the snorting man.

I had seen people give a cockroach a better look than the one Ortiz bestowed on Rose in that moment. "And who are you exactly?"

His question deflated Rose's bravado a bit. He frowned. "I'm Roosevelt Dixon and that's my brother Lincoln. We're the ones who were making the deal with you for these two." He finished with a gesture at Declan and me.

The situation was proving to be too out of control for Lincoln. He chose to remain silent as his angry eyes darted between his imbecile brother and the newest threat in the room. Things couldn't have been going much worse for them right now and I knew from experience he was overwhelmed to the point of being immobile.

Malachy laughed, the harsh sound crashing around the room, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "Now this all makes sense. I know who the hell you two are and now I know exactly what it was you were hoping to do with those two." He shook his head, in amusement. "I read about you boys in that file we got from Hayes. You guys are the ones from the lovely lady's past who she got in all that trouble with back in some shit kicker state when she was a kid." His goons laughed at the snide comment. Rose and Linc glared at him from across the room. Their Kentucky pride ran deep even at a time like this.

Malachy shrugged in indifference before he returned his attention to Ortiz. "Now let me make sure I understand the situation we find ourselves in at this particular moment in time. The shit kickers over there were planning to do what? Sell you guys the love birds? But then we interrupted their day and for some reason you all showed up here. Now big boy over there" he gestured dismissively at Rose "mentioned something about a pre-arranged meeting at a bar. So what changed your plan and brought you here instead?" He perched on the edge of a chair, his gun still leveled at Ortiz. He had also recognized the most pressing enemy was the drug cartel lieutenant and hadn't moved his gun once from pointing at Ortiz. He appeared genuinely curious about what the Cartel had planned. Just one criminal asshole sharing tips with another.

"Yes I believe your assessment of the situation is correct. We had planned to exchange some money for a chance at a private conversation with Mrs. McCallister. We needed some information to rectify some problems we unfortunately encountered with our business dealings with her late husband. We planned to use her friend, Mr. O'Shea as, how do you say, an insurance policy in order to guarantee her complete cooperation during questioning." Of course. Thanks Thad for continuing to mess up my life even from the grave.

Ortiz never wavered his gun from Malachy as he continued. "As to why we changed the meeting and showed up here without an invitation that is another problem. Let us just say it is a complicated matter and it involves discovering Mr. O'Shea is not who we believed he was when we made the original plans with the Brothers Dixon." Ortiz was matching Malachy in maintaining his cool. These two should have been lawyers. They would have killed it in court.

Malachy nodded, his demeanor becoming more shrewd business man than cold blooded gun for hire. He seemed to appreciate the decision Ortiz had made and was not at all upset at the change to his own plans. This meeting was just becoming stranger and stranger by the passing second. "That seems fair enough. So what is it you found out about, I'm sorry, what was the name you used? Oh yes, Mr. O'Shea." Using the name made him smirk again. I wondered why.

Ortiz seemed as confused by the amusement the name brought to Malachy as I was and stared at him for a brief moment but didn't ask Malachy to explain. "We discovered Mr. O'Shea is actually a man named Michael Donnelly from Boston and that he is currently in the United Stated Witness Protection Program. However, as I tell you this, I am quickly realizing this is likely not shocking news to you, based of course only on your own interesting accent. I can only assume you are also from Boston and also have some business with Mr. O'Shea?"

Malachy looked at Ortiz again, a mutual respect growing between the two men as their negotiation continued. Malachy appeared to appreciate the precise nature with which Ortiz conducted business. "I do believe you have a good ear for accents, my amigo. Yes, I'm here on behalf of Paddy O'Bannion to collect some long overdue justice from Mr. O'Shea." He stood and started to pace, less concerned now with keeping the gun trained on Ortiz than with making his feelings known to the room.

Ortiz nodded. "I see. I have heard of your boss, Mr. O'Bannion, and I know vaguely of the incident with his son. I trust this is why you would like to speak with Mr. O'Shea?"

Malachy stopped abruptly and looked at Ortiz. "Exactly. You see Paddy feels, and justifiably so I would argue, that Mr. O'Shea should receive some very harsh consequences for his deplorable behavior and his disloyalty to his community." Malachy looked at Declan but Declan only stared right through him.

Ortiz considered this for a moment and then offered one nod of his head. Apparently he found the justification Malachy had for why he was planning to kill Declan to be acceptable. "And our business with Mrs. McCallister has to do with her husband also being less than honorable. Though all the details are not necessary at this time, we shall say Mr. McCallister made some business promises to my employer which he failed to fulfill and which caused Mr. Lazcano to lose a great deal of money." This was all news to me. But also not as surprising as it should have been.

"Alas, as you know, we had to deal with Mr. McCallister in a more timely manner." Oh my god. They were the ones who killed Thad. "And thanks to a mutual friend of the McCallisters, we were able to turn all attention to Mrs. McCallister for the murder." He smiled and my blood ran cold.

A mutual friend? What the hell was he talking about? Before I could stop myself, I blurted the same question aloud. "Who helped you frame me?"

All male eyes in the room turned to me. I stared straight at Ortiz. I didn't care what happened now. I needed to know the answer before I died.

"I think I have a right to know, especially because you are planning to kill me as well. Who helped you?" My voice shook with more anger than fear now.

Ortiz turned so his body faced me instead of Malachy now, a small smile warming the chiseled features of his cold face. "I must say, your husband always said you were a spirited woman and I see now he was correct. I do believe you do have a right to demand to know who you can offer thanks to for your current predicament." The smile became more sinister. "Although I may have misspoke when I said this individual was a friend of both you and your husband. I believe the reality was she was much closer with Thad. Much, much closer."

And then I knew. "Amberly Jones." I whispered the name but everyone heard it. How could I have been so blind to that conniving little bitch?

The mention of her name brought a new glint to Ortiz's eyes and I had to wonder who she was to him? "Very good, Mrs. McCallister. Yes, Ms. Jones has worked for our organization for some time now through a connection we have with her father." I knew Amberly's dad had been a lawyer in Houston for many years but had no idea he worked with the Lazcanos. "Ms. Jones volunteered to get close to Mr. McCallister for us, to keep an eye on our investment as it were. Your husband was far more eager for her company than we had anticipated, though, and so things became somewhat complicated very fast."

I was trying to understand everything he was saying but my head was spinning with all the new information. Amberly was responsible for my nightmare of a life. Not only had she broken up my marriage she had helped frame me for murder too. How had I not seen this coming?

Ortiz paused, studying me for a few moments before continuing with his explanation. "I must say, I was somewhat surprised at the success Ms. Jones had in seducing your husband. Although a pretty young lady, I do believe, you are a far superior woman in brains and beauty. Your husband should have felt very lucky to have you in his bed. What is that American saying though? Ah yes, there is no accounting for taste sometimes."

I felt sick, and angry, and so stupid. I had let Amberly take everything from me, and I had no way of retaliating. I could not believe this was where things would end.

"Let me understand exactly what happened. Amberly stole my knife at some point so you could use it to kill Thad and leave it at the murder scene as evidence. Did she also write the emails the police recovered which supposedly linked me to your organization?"

He smiled again and if he had not been a cold-blooded killer who conducted nefarious activities for a notorious crime family, I would have found him strikingly handsome. As it was he scared the living hell out of me. "You see, as I said, brains and beauty. Yes, Mrs. McCallister, again your assessment is absolutely correct. We instructed Ms. Jones to create those emails, to further secure your role as suspect number one for the police. We knew if they suspected you were working with our organization, it wouldn't have taken very much for you to commit murder. Of course, we also assumed she would be able to recover the other information we needed from your husband but that has proven harder than we first thought. As time is of the essence, we realized we had to rework our strategy and come at our problem with a different approach, which brings us to being here today. We have some questions we believe only you can answer and we would very much appreciate if you cooperated." He took a seat on a chair one of his men had just brought in from my kitchen. He crossed his legs, letting his gun hang casually at his knee. He was confident I understood his veiled threats and the reputation his organization's name carried.. He knew I would cooperate because I had no choice in the matter.

I stared at him, my mouth nearly falling open in shock. Was he serious? What the hell could he possibly think I knew about Thad's business dealings with him? I hadn't even know he was having an affair, how could I know anything else? "I have no idea what you can ask me about your business dealings with my husband. I didn't even know about the partnership in the first place so how the hell could I know anything else?" I was telling the truth but I knew with men like Ortiz that didn't really matter.

He nodded, considering my words. "Perhaps this is true. And perhaps you know far more about your dead husband's business dealings than you realize. We shall see momentarily."

Before he could continue explaining how he was going to extract this phantom information from me, Malachy spoke up.

"I do believe it appears we may be able to salvage this situation and make it beneficial to both of us after all. We originally had plans for Mrs. McCallister which would allow us to control Mr. O'Shea without a problem. You in turn had plans for Mr. O'Shea that were much the same. Perhaps we can spend some time in our mutual pursuits before we depart to deliver our cargo to our respective employers. What do you think Ortiz?" He was even more callous than the Dixon brothers.

My breath caught in my throat, my eyes wide and fixed on Malachy's face as he spoke each word. I felt Declan look at me and heard the chair groan as he lunged against the ropes holding him in place, his efforts continuing to be futile but his determination never waning.

Malachy also noticed Declan's unceasing attempts to get free. He trained his eyes back on Declan, only pausing long enough to smirk, before he started toward where Declan sat tied. "Does this conversation somehow offend you Mikey? You had to know we would come for you one day and that when we did, we would make whatever was important to you in this world suffer for you. You don't have much left in your life, except that pretty lady there. So it is her we will make suffer for your sins."

He turned his eyes to me, their green a shade softer than an emerald and cold. "Maybe you should have really thought through getting involved with someone again considering the precarious nature of your life Mikey. I can see the allure though, she is a fine specimen of womanhood." Malachy's talk was just adding pressure to the room, crowding it the more he talked, like he wanted the situation to blow up, plus he seemed to insist on using forty words when ten would suffice.

Declan looked up, pausing in his attempts to remove the unmovable ropes, and sneered at Malachy. "Let me out of these ropes and you and I can have a little talk. I kicked your ass when we were seventeen, I can't imagine it would be that hard now." His face was set and cold and the look of pure hate that filled it chilled me to my core.

But he also revealed some interesting information he had never mentioned before. Declan and Malachy had not only grown up together and had a history long before this nightmare day but Malachy was there the day Declan's father was killed. Declan was breathing hard but steady now and his eyes never wavered from Malachy's increasingly angrier face. They were men ready for battle and I knew the odds of winning were awful at best.