Legal Briefs (Lawyers in Love) (32 page)

Gabrielle set her music on auto-play and went over to talk to Regina, thus allowing Bruce to make his own escape and head for the kitchen, which seemed to have become some sort of sanctuary.

Nardo stalked out a second later and sat down in a chair with a glass of something and just glared at everyone. Yuri came over to sit near Nardo a moment later. The two of them might hit it off actually. They were both such warm, friendly guys. I wondered what in the hell Mario could be talking about with Braden.

Mark made it to the kitchen safely. Mario finally left Braden a moment later, and went over to join his wife. Gabrielle and Braden, in turn, both headed our way. They had just joined us when Bruce came out of the kitchen holding a drink with a paper parasol in it. Where did he get
that
? As soon as he got into the room, he sniffed the air, started making a gagging noise, and staggered dramatically toward us.

“Lily, I can’t bear that horrible perfume any longer. You
must
turn on your ceiling fan whether it’s November or not,” he hissed at me.

“Fine,” I said and went over to hit the switch. The fan started turning and slowly picked up speed. A minute later, something flew down and hit the floor. Gab, who was standing closest, went over to pick it up.

“It’s a flash drive!” she said excitedly. Suddenly, all conversation stopped and everyone turned to look at her.

“Go to your fan,” I said to Adam, repeating what the note in my wallet had instructed.

“Your fan was on when you got in,” he replied. “Probably to see if something taped to it would stay up there. Maybe he forgot, or got interrupted and that’s why he didn’t turn it off.”

“I’ll take that, thanks,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. Everyone turned toward it at once. It was U. Hu and he had a gun! Braden immediately pulled Gabrielle into his arms to shield her.

“It was you!” she said triumphantly from the protection of her husband’s embrace. “You’re the Fox!”

“No, sorry, but I’m not The Fox. I’m the Yakuza. The Morettis have gotten too powerful in this town, and it’s time they remembered that they are only one group of many.”

“I thought the Yakuza was the Japanese mafia,” Mark said. “Aren’t you Chinese?”

“My father is Chinese. My mother is Japanese. Now hand over the flash drive.”

“You can hand it over to me instead.” Everyone turned to look again. This was like a tennis match. It was Yuri, this time, who also had a gun, and it was pointed at U. Hu.

“You’re the Fox!” Gab said.

“No. I am vith Russian mafia. He is correct that Moretti has gotten arrogant, but it vill not be the Yakuza that holds power. Give me the flash drive.”

“Unfortunately, it won’t be either one of ya’s,” a voice slurred from the kitchen. We all turned to look. It was Donna! And she had a gun pointed at Yuri. Donna armed was scarier than the other two put together. God only knew what
she
would hit.

“Cougar mafia?” Adam asked.

“Ha! You should definitely keep that one around, Lil. Not only is he making you holler real good, but he’s fuckin’ hilarious.”

“Are you the Fox?” Gab asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“No. I once was
a
fox, though. Back when I was Miss Philly Cheesesteak, Sal Moretti couldn’t keep his paws offa me. He was my boyfriend until he threw me over for some young slut. I want revenge. Now hand over the flash drive.”

“Not so fast.” We all turned toward the door, where Ray Nardo stood, pointing a gun at Donna.

“And why do you want it?” Adam asked.

“Because I’m the Fox.”

“See!” I said to Mark. “I told you he seemed like a criminal.”

“You seem like a criminal to us,” Scratch said, pulling his own gun and coming up behind Nardo. “Now!” he said, and suddenly a group of guys wearing body armor that said ‘FBI’ came flooding through the door and quickly disarmed everyone present. Scratch took out a badge. “Mike Kazinski, FBI. All clear, Jake.” With that, in strode Jacob, looking as cocky as usual.

Our guests had all gone home. Well, at least the ones who weren’t arrested. I noticed that Vixen and Herb left together. That was an interesting pairing. Our friends had also headed out, with our assurances that we would contact them as soon as possible to let them know what happened. Now Adam and I sat listening to Jacob fill us in on all the missing details. He had an interesting story to tell.

“Special agent Kazinski was placed in this building to watch Ukita Hu and Yuri Ivanovich, both of whom were known to be associated with organized criminal factions. We didn’t think it was a coincidence that they had both picked this building to live in, especially since this isn’t their part of town.”

“And you weren’t at all worried about Lily being here?” Adam asked.

“I didn’t know she was here at first. The apartment is listed to somebody else,” Jacob replied, sounding uncharacteristically tense.

“My landlord never does anything quickly. He probably just never bothered to update the information,” I explained.

“And besides, we didn’t even know what was going on. We just figured it was possible it had something to do with Moretti, since this
is
Moretti’s part of town. He had tried to upset the balance of power, which made him very unpopular with both the Asians and the Russians.”

“They did have an agent on the inside,” I reminded Adam, who still seemed angry.

“We’ve also been watching this building from across the street for months.”

“So I wasn’t imagining it that night. I thought I saw someone watching the building.”

“Kazinski was working the streets, and he got wind of a hit that was supposed to go down on one of our witnesses against Moretti. The shooter was somebody called the Fox, but nobody knew who he was. We got a warrant for a wiretap, and we sent in one of our surveillance experts.”

“Dan McGuire,” Adam said.

“Yeah,” Jacob replied, looking very unhappy. “We got a message from McGuire Saturday afternoon, saying that somebody had made him, and that they were right behind him, but that he had critical information. He mentioned two flash drives. Before he could say anything else, he was cut off.”

“Why was he at Inferno?” I asked, apprehensively.

“Probably because he knew that if he tried to come in, they would take him down immediately, and that you were his best chance. He had worked a joint case with the county, and we think he recognized Adam,” Jacob paused before going on, and I could see that all of this was affecting him. “We think he stashed one drive in your apartment and held onto the other, and then he went to go find you.”

“How did he know where I would be?” I asked, suspecting that I already knew the answer, and tensing up in preparation.

“Every apartment is wired, Lily,” Jacob answered simply. He at least had the courtesy to look embarrassed, I noted.

“Oh my God,” I said, looking away as my stomach roiled. I felt so violated and mortified. I wondered if Jacob himself had actually listened to Adam and I having sex, admitting we loved each other, experiencing all of our most private, intimate moments together.

“We think they tried to take him down as soon as he got there,” Jacob went on, “but that he managed to elude them temporarily. When they did eventually succeed, he probably still had the drive on him, since you didn’t have it. We figured that would make them less interested in you, especially if you didn’t immediately vanish.”

“So you let her stay here, because that would be
safer
for her?” Adam asked, sounding like he didn’t believe him.

“I didn’t want …” Jacob began, voice filled with tension. He let out a deep breath and seemed to collect himself before he went on. “It wasn’t my decision. I wanted to move Lily into witness protection even then, but I was informed that because agent Kazinski was still inside, and the building was still being watched, that she would be safe.”

“Guess they were wrong, huh?” Adam asked sarcastically, and I saw Jacob look up at him with eyes flashing, and his jaw working like he was gritting teeth.

“She wasn’t pursued at home. She was pursued at work and after the incident at the law library I got permission for her to go into protection,” he reminded Adam, angrily, “but she didn’t
want
to go, presumably, because she didn’t want to leave you. I could have gotten a material witness subpoena and forced her, but I didn’t want to do that to her.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly as that sunk in. Jacob had put my happiness ahead of everything. Maybe I had underestimated him.

“You’re welcome.” He was talking to me, but he was glaring at Adam. “So, we pulled strings to get her into the DA’s office, and since you were willing to stay with her, we figured you could keep your eyes open for us. And you did a good job, Roth. Thanks to your little party plans, we now have the Fox safely in custody, along with three other undesirables.”

“How did Kazinski know to have you waiting on standby?” Adam asked.

“He suspected you were up to something because he didn’t believe anybody would just throw a party for your crazy neighbors.”

“What was up with U. Hu and that clock?” I asked curiously.

“We think that Hu had decided to try to bug the place himself. The clock he placed on the wall was wired.”

“What was going on in McGuire’s apartment when they were all in there?” Adam asked.

“They had all probably figured out that McGuire was gone for good. After he disappeared, we placed surveillance cameras in there in case anyone tried to break in, but nobody had actually tried yet.”

“I’ll bet that was the night you saw them in the hall, listening at his door,” I said to Adam. “They heard someone installing the equipment.”

“The cameras showed each one of them hiding when the next came in. So Hu saw all three, Nardo saw Ivanovich and Diego, Ivanovich only saw Diego and Diego just stole some booze and left.”

“So, what happens now?” I asked.

“Now we put Moretti on trial and try to put him away. Because Adam helped out the U.S. Attorney’s office in a very important case, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s offered a position. You can probably return to law library if you want, Lily, and the two of you won’t have to live together anymore obviously. You can have your old life back.”

Why did it feel like I had just been punched in the gut? I could go back to my former life, working in the library with Jane and Rochelle, writing my books at night, alone at night. Alone again. Of course, Adam and I would still be together, but he had said himself that he had always loved his freedom. He would want to go back to his place. We would see each other on weekends, maybe the occasional weeknight, but I wouldn’t be reading to him in bed regularly and I wouldn’t go to sleep feeling him snuggled up against me every night. We wouldn’t be fighting over garlic presses, or the bathroom, or tic tacs though. That was a good thing, right? So why did I feel like I was going to cry, yet again?

“Okay, if you don’t mind, it’s been a long night,” Adam said, throwing Jacob an obvious hint.

“Before I go, there’s one other thing. I’m withdrawing the motion for removal on the DiBono case. I looked at it again, and you’re right, it’s more appropriately tried in Common Pleas.”

My mouth literally popped open. It was so unlike Jacob to do something like that. He wasn’t one to walk away from a battle. In fact, I could see how much he had been enjoying it. Still, it wouldn’t necessarily affect anything, so it could be a meaningless gesture.

“Good luck trying to convince my mom,” I said with a weak smile.

“She’s not on the case anymore,” he said, stunning me again. “She decided it was a conflict after all. He’s got local counsel now.”

My breath caught. My mother had never stepped aside before. By doing so on this one, she had made a statement that she cared more about me than about a court case. I didn’t have to go any further. I had already stood up and fought. Not only did I believe in myself, my mother had actually shown me some respect. More than that, she had found a way to tell me she cared.

“Thanks,” I said hoarsely, feeling emotional.

He got up to leave but paused. “So, in case I don’t get a chance to talk to you, it was good seeing you again, Lily.” He gave me a look I couldn’t really decipher, and then turned and walked out without a backward glance.