Making Angel (Mariani Crime Family Book 1) (38 page)

Excited to finally meet him, I leaned against the retinal scanner and waited.

“You sure about this?” Bones asked.

The scanner beeped and the door unlocked with a click.

I nodded, turning the handle. “Yeah. I need you on the street. If I find them, I want you to be the first one there. I can’t trust anyone else. Text me when you get to Ari’s. Maybe the two of you can figure out where Markie would hide. Drive around. You search your way, I’ll search mine, and maybe one of us will get lucky.”

I could tell my friend wanted to argue, but I didn’t have time for it. I pulled open the heavy iron door and walked into every geek’s wet dream. Over one hundred square security camera feeds were projected onto the white wall to my left. I froze and took it all in, hearing the door close and lock behind me. Tech’s messy blond mop peeked over the top of a high-backed desk chair, positioned in front of the wall. Keyboard keys clicked, and then the images on the wall rotated.

Wondering if he realized I was there, I cleared my throat and stepped forward.

“Take a seat.” Tech directed me to the empty chair beside him. “I’m dividing the screen in half, and you have a keyboard and a mouse to control the feeds on your side. If you have any… wait a second. What do we have here?”

My gaze shifted to the feed he was studying. Blonde woman, two small children. Thinking he’d found them, I ignored the chair and rushed to his side. He zoomed in until we got a clear view of the faces. Not Markie, and not the twins. His only reaction was to switch to a different feed.

“You shouldn’t have any questions. DOS commands, it’s self-explanatory.” Then Tech seemed to realize I was standing right beside him. He leaned away and looked up at me over dark-framed glasses. “Angel.”

“Tech.” I nodded.

His gaze shifted to the limited space between us. Right. I was too close. Who knew when he’d last had someone in his office? I slipped away, eased into my own seat, and looked around. Tech’s workspace was immaculate. He had a yellow smiley-faced stress ball in front of his keyboard, but that was the only decorative element. Everything else was functional. Coffeepot, phones, computers, screens.

“So this is the Tech cave, huh?” Obviously. It was a stupid question, but I was strangely nervous.

He turned and gave me a smirk. “Yep. This is where I watch the world.” He was somewhere in his midforties, wearing a black-and-white checkered button-up shirt, and black joggers tucked into classic red Chuck Taylors like some wannabe hipster.

“I’m sending you a feed. It should populate right in the center.”

A second later, the back of my father’s house filled the middle of the screen. Markie and the kids slipped from a hidden door and into the bushes. I tracked their movement to the fence and then lost them. Moments later, Pelino’s goons filled the backyard.

“This one’s from the end of the block,” Tech said.

Another feed populated. Markie and the twins were still running. Luciana was lagging behind. Markie slowed long enough to scoop up my little sister. Cradling Luciana in her arms, Markie said something to Georgio. He nodded and broke into a sprint. Still carrying Luciana, Markie followed. Once again, Pelino’s goons were right behind them. They pointed in the direction Markie and the twins had headed.

“Those are the only two confirmed sightings we have of the twins. The Pelino family is still scouring the city for them.” He clicked a few more keys and several of my feeds were highlighted. I watched as grown men hunted for Markie and my siblings.

“I also have the facial recognition software scanning, so it may highlight a feed from time to time. Let me know if you see something,” Tech said, resetting the feeds.

I watched the wall for a while. My phone buzzed. Hoping for correspondence from Markie, I checked it to find a text from Bones. He’d picked Ariana up from work and the two went to her apartment. There was no sign of, or word from, Markie. He and Ariana were going to go look for her, but they planned to circle back by the apartment periodically just in case she showed up there. I thanked him, and then turned my attention back to the screens.

I’d always known Tech had access to most of the city, but I didn’t grasp the extent of his reach until I shuffled through the feeds, populating my half of the wall. It was like watching all of Las Vegas at once. I saw the fountain Markie and Ariana had sat on, and the High Roller we’d rode on. Someone jumped from the tower of the Stratosphere.

Markie, where are you?
I wondered while scanning faces of strangers.
Maybe they checked into a hotel?
Only they couldn’t have, because her purse was in the Hummer. We’d found her phone in pieces in the hidden passageway of my father’s house. No credit cards, no phone. It was getting dark. I rotated the feeds again. Hours passed in a blur of energy drinks, snacks, and staggered bathroom breaks. Still no sign of them. It was as if they’d vanished from the street.

The sun was beginning to rise by the time my phone rang again.

“Hello?” I couldn’t answer it fast enough.

“Rachele’s out of surgery and in recovery,” Father replied. “Any word on the twins?”

“We’re still looking. The good news is so are the Pelinos.”

He took a deep breath. “Those bastards still haven’t given up, huh? Sounds like they need something to do. I’ve got just the thing.”

He disconnected, and I returned my attention to the screens, wondering what the old man was up to. Tech’s phone rang. He answered it and changed feeds as he listened. The right side of his screen populated with what looked like GPS readouts. He pulled addresses from the screens and sent them to the GPS readouts. I watched in awe as he worked, amazed by the speed in which he had six of my father’s SUVs en route.

I continued to watch for Markie and the twins until activity on one of my feeds drew my attention. An SUV pulled into an alley behind the strip. The doors opened, spilling out men with semi-automatics. They gunned down a group of Pelino’s men who’d been searching the area.

“Team one was successful,” Tech confirmed into his phone.

Only seconds later another SUV pulled up in front of a hotel. But this time, the Pelino soldiers seemed to expect the attack. They pulled their guns and opened fire before the SUV full of my father’s soldiers had even rolled to a stop. The feed disappeared.

“Team two, successful,” Tech said.

Successful?
I searched for the feed, but it was gone.

“Team three, successful,” Tech said.

Team three? Where the hell is team three?

Tech’s police scanner pealed in the background, reporting the shootings. All of my feeds were rotated, removing the Pelino goons from my view. I tried to bring them back, but those feeds disappeared, too. He had to be blocking my access.

“Team four, five, and six—all successful.”

I glanced at his screens, searching for the battles, but saw nothing.

He looked at me and asked, “Have you found them?”

I startled. “No. Still looking.” I went back to my feeds, wondering what the hell was going on. Tech had been loyal to my family for as long as I could remember. He was the best at what he did, yet someone had hacked into his system to break into my father’s house. Had someone hacked him again to get the jump on the attacks?

No, not that fast. Impossible. And he told Father the attacks were successful. Why?

Tension crept up my shoulders, stiffening my back. I kept one eye on Tech and the other on the feeds.

“Angel, I know you saw that,” Tech said, watching me.

“Saw what?” I feigned. “Did you find them?”

His forehead scrunched up in response. “You know what I’m talking about.”

He was on to me. “You tipped them off, didn’t you?” I asked.

Tech pulled out a pistol and trained it on me.

Hell of a confirmation. He was a traitor. It explained so much and made me feel so stupid. How had I not seen it before? I raised my hands in the air. My gun was in the pocket of my jacket, hanging in the closet. The only weapon on me was a knife strapped around my ankle, and there was no way I could get to it before he got a shot off.

“I want out, Angel.”

“Out?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. Out of everything.”

“Okay. I can understand that.”

“I knew you’d get it. That’s why I had Bruno approach you. This is the chance for both of us. We can get out.”

I couldn’t get out. I had to find Markie and the twins. Then I needed a doctor who could fix her. Even if I could get out, I’d never trust the Pelinos to make it happen. Besides, there was one more little matter… “You want me to turn on my father?”

“Some father,” Tech spat. “Manipulative bastard. He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about any of us. He deserves whatever he gets.”

I loved my old man, but I couldn’t exactly argue. “What about the rest of my family? The people you’re helping are hunting down the twins, Tech. They’re just little kids.”

“I’ve kept their location hidden.”

Red spots dotted my vision. Tech—my friend and mentor—had known where Markie and the twins were and he’d kept it from me, knowing I was going out of my mind with worry. “Where are they? I swear to God, if you’ve hurt them …”

He raised his hands. “Calm down, Angel, I haven’t done a damn thing with them. That girl of yours has led them to safety. She’s smart.”

She led them to safety.

I wanted to feel relieved, but was having a hard time trusting him. “You expect me to believe you? After you turned on my family?”

“I didn’t turn on your family, they turned on me.” Gun still in his hand, Tech stood. “Fifteen years, and do you know how many vacations I’ve gotten?”

I stared at him, shocked.
This is about vacations?

“Zero! You know why? Because I’m not a person to him, Angel. I’m an asset. You’re an asset. We’re all assets… pieces of this game he plays. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”

“I do understand. I just… he’s my father.”

Tech shook his head. “And so he can be an asshole and still deserves your loyalty? Because of blood?”

He was pointing a gun at me, so I didn’t answer.

“Disappointing, Angel.” He steadied the gun. “You should have come with me.”

There was a finality to his tone that left me no time to think. I lunged forward, ducking low. A shot rang out. My shoulders connected with Tech’s stomach, knocking him back. He fell over his chair, taking me with him. We bounced, and then slid to the cement floor. I grappled for the gun on the way down. Impact relaxed his grasp and the gun slid away. Rather than go for it, I pressed my arm against his neck until he blacked out. Then I stood, retrieved his gun, and called my father.

“Tech’s dirty,” I said, glaring at my former friend and mentor.

“Is he dead?” Father asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I need to go find the twins and I don’t have time for this shit. You want him dead? Send someone else to do it,” I growled.

It was brazen and stupid to speak to my father in such a way, but I was pissed.

“Did he tell you where the twins are?” Father sounded hopeful, ignoring my outburst.

“No, and he’s out of commission right now. I have an idea, though.” I grabbed my jacket from the closet.

“Take Bones,” Father ordered. “Do not go alone.”

We disconnected, and I called Bones as I exited through the secure doors.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Angel

T
ECH’S OFFICE WAS well-hidden beneath a self-storage building toward the north end of Las Vegas. I sneaked out of the warehouse and crept into the shadows of nearby buildings to hide and wait for Bones. Before long, a hunter-green Honda Civic with darkened windows pulled into the neighborhood. It slowed and idled at the corner. I kept Tech’s Glock in my left pocket and pulled out my Desert Eagle. I switched off the safety and watched the car. The driver’s side window rolled down. Bones stuck his head out and looked up and down the road. Relieved, I flipped the safety back on and hurried out to greet my friend.

“Whose ride is this?” I asked, sliding into the small backseat.