Mine to Hold (29 page)

“Fuck,” he ground out in frustration.

“Sometimes,” Jack offered, “the best defense is a good offense.”

“I was just thinking that. I’ve got to go after this dirtbag where he lives and breathes. Without the flash drive, Del is trying to remember all the pertinent facts so she’ll know where to start, but I’ve got to figure something out fast. They’re going to come after her. Or Seth.”

“Seth is perfectly fine. Put that worry out of your head. He and Caleb are becoming fast friends, except when Chloe is in the room. Then it’s an all-out battle to keep the pretty girl happy.”

Despite the tension, Tyler laughed. Chloe was such a girly-girl, already well versed in batting her eyelashes to get her way. Or like her mother, she toughed things out until she got what she wanted. If this trend continued, his son and Deke’s would spend years bowing and scraping to the princess.

From across the hall, he heard a soft sob, and Del’s murmurings, as if she were giving herself a pep talk. Reality intruded.

“We’ve got to catch this fucker. We’re running out of time. I can feel it.”

“Agreed,” Jack said. “Deke has been talking to some of his contacts at the FBI. Apparently someone over there has got a file on Carlson, but we have no idea what’s in it yet. Xander has a hundred bankers who will bend over backward to get or keep his business. He’s looking into any money trail. Carlson’s wife and brother both seem to deal with large sums of money periodically, but no details yet.”

“Fuck. No one who has that much shit going on around them can possibly smell sweet.”

“As soon as we get anything solid, we’ll call you.”

“Make it fast.” Tyler started the laptop on the desk with a heavy sigh. “Del is reeling from her so-called friend’s murder. But that won’t last long. Soon, she’ll go on a rampage, all furious about what’s happened to her life, Seth’s life, her friend, the community . . . you name it. I’ll have a hard time restraining her then.”

“I recommend nylon cords securing her to your headboard and a swift spanking. It might not stop her for long, but it will get her attention.”

Tyler was beginning to see the wisdom of that. Despite the hours he’d just spent inside Del, his dick stood up at the suggestion.

“Sounds good. I’ll ring you if anything happens.”

He ended the call just before Del entered the room, chin held high, all that mahogany hair swirling around her shoulders. She didn’t wear anything enticing, just a pair of jeans and a gray tank top. But Tyler had the sudden urge to tear all that off, tie her to the bed, spank her ass red, just like Jack suggested. Then get deep inside her—stay inside her—until the danger passed.

God, he should have been sated, but instead, he only felt hungrier. The difference between lusting after a woman and truly loving them, he guessed. Whatever it was, he liked it and refused to let go.

“It’ll take me another few minutes to install Skype.”

Del nodded, then held up her prepaid cell. “I’ve thought about the case. I know a few people I can call to start recreating my evidence. When I talked to them a few weeks ago, several were really interested in taking Carlson down.”

Tyler nodded. “Why don’t you give me all the background on the case before you go jumping in? What do you remember being able to truly verify and what were you still working on?”

“Yeah, I think this conversation is probably overdue.” She sighed. “What I’d been able to piece together was that Carlson had struck a deal with Double T, who runs the 18th Street gang. He’d look the other way when their cases came to trial. Felony possession would only be entered as a misdemeanor, and sentences that should have ensured hard time ended with probation or community service. In one particular case, a street dealer got pissed at a customer who tried to stiff him. He shot and killed both the customer and a four-year-old playing in the yard next door. Community outrage didn’t seem to mean a damn thing. The guy stayed in jail while his case came to trial. He was found guilty, but only given three months. As soon as the verdict was read, he was released for time already served and given a small fine. That’s it! Earlier this year, a similar situation with an MS-13 member netted the assailant a sentence of over three hundred years. In the case of the 18th Street gang, the guy trying to buy the drugs didn’t have a weapon. The kid certainly didn’t, either. What should have been two counts of at least second-degree murder was reduced to involuntary manslaughter and given the lightest sentence I’ve ever seen.”

“Shit.” Tyler didn’t like the way any of that sounded. There’d be danger at every turn, both from authority and in the streets. The gang would protect Carlson and their livelihood using their brand of violence. The scum ADA’s reach was far longer than he liked.

“I’ve also heard that some arrests that should be made aren’t,” she said.

Tyler’s head snapped up. “You think Carlson’s got dirty cops on his side, too?”

“Yeah. I had a source just before the car bomb who was ready to talk to me and name names. Lobato Loco is from the 18th Street gang, second in command. He was trying to convince Double T to break the deal with Carlson. Lobato Loco thought that Carlson wanted too much money for his protection. Double T refused to end the agreement. Lobato Loco was pissed.”

“And willing to talk. Let’s start there. Call this guy. See if he’s still willing to name names.”

Del nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. I’m just not sure I still have his number. I’m afraid it blew up with my notes, or I’d have been on the phone with him days ago.”

Tyler glanced at her and bit back a curse. She looked exhausted, nearly ready to fall down. He hit a few keys on the computer. “Call Seth. Let me find something for us to eat, then we’ll get back to work.”

“I’m not hungry.” She moved to the computer eagerly, already putting his suggestion out of her mind.

He slammed the laptop lid shut. “I didn’t ask; I’m telling you. This case is going to be ugly, and it’s going to take a lot out of you. It already is. Eat a meal. Keep up your strength.”

“You’re being bossy.” She glared at him.

“Get used to it. I’m also right.”

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, but he saw a hint of a smile there. She might rebel against his care for show, but she liked it.

He prowled toward the kitchen on bare feet and was scrounging through the refrigerator when his phone rang.
PRIVATE CALLER
displayed again.

“What’s up, Xander?”

“You two lovebirds settling in?”

“We’re fine.”

“Am I interrupting anything?” He sounded almost hopeful.

Tyler didn’t know whether to laugh or beat the guy’s face in. “Not at the moment.”

“Damn, I usually have better timing.”

“How’s Javier?” That ought to stick in his craw.

Xander’s sudden silence bled across the line. “The same, with his head still mostly fermented. So I’ve been spending my time more productively, digging for shit on Carlson. This is interesting. I obtained all of his financials about two hours ago—”

“How?” Bank records were notoriously hard to get unless you were law enforcement. Granted, Xander had contacts, but . . .

“Easily. I would have had them sooner if I hadn’t had to rip a bottle out of Javier’s hands and send him off for a sobering shower. Dumb ass. Anyway, besides being an ADA, which doesn’t pay for a family of three to live in the kind of luxury he does, he also has a business called Communications Redirect. It’s supposedly a multimillion-dollar-a-year business and the source of most of his income. Their website talks about the latest in personal communications, so I stopped by their ‘corporate headquarters.’”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a storefront in a strip mall in a lousy part of town,” Xander said. “Know what they sell? Beepers. When was the last time you saw a beeper?”

“God, ten years ago, at least. No cell phones or mobile hotspots?”

“Nothing of the sort. And this corporate headquarters had one employee. She barely lifted her head at me enough to say that they weren’t taking on new customers at this time.”

“What? Who the fuck says that to a potential customer, especially in these economic times?” Tyler sighed as the truth hit him. “Unless your business isn’t legitimate.”

“That’s my thought, too. Nor can you make millions and millions of dollars a year selling old technology to no one.”

“So he uses the business to launder the money he gets from his scam with the 18th Street gang.”

“Precisely. I’ll fax you over all the financials I’ve got. I also had my driver take some discreet pictures of Communications Redirect. It won’t prove anything except that something odd is going on, but it’s a start.”

“That’s more than we had. Thanks, man.”

“My pleasure. If I get more, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, take care of that pretty girl. You never know how valuable she is until you don’t have one.”

Did he speak from experience, or in riddles, just to piss him off? Tyler shoved the question aside. He had bigger fish to fry.

“Believe me, I know exactly how valuable she is.”

“Damn, I was hoping you were stupid,” Xander teased.

Or was he teasing at all?

“I appreciate all your help. Now leave us the hell alone.” Tyler hung up, grabbed a few things from the kitchen, and headed back to the office down the hall.

As he got closer, he heard Del’s high-pitched, singsong conversation with their son. Her baby talk did something to his heart. She loved that boy and didn’t try to hide it in the least. That amount of loyalty and love was somehow a huge turn-on.

Seth gurgled something back, and Del waved. Tyler stepped behind the computer to see Luc bouncing Seth on his lap, Alyssa bustled around in the background with Chloe.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Great,” Luc responded. “Your boy is a healthy eater.”

“So I’ve heard.” Tyler turned his attention to Seth. “Hey, little man.”

Seth smiled wide, like he understood, then shoved part of a crumbling biscuit in his mouth.

The exchange opened up his chest and poured more love in. Shit, he wanted to be with Seth right now, able to pluck the little boy into his lap and tickle him or talk to him. He had to start finding ways to ingrain himself in the toddler’s life because he intended to be a father—and a damn good one.

“You want to talk to him for a bit?” Del asked.

“Yeah.” He almost choked on the word.

“I’ll go in the other room to start making my phone calls.”

Tyler nodded as she said good-bye to Seth, then walked out. He turned his attention to the little screen in front of him. “So my boy is being good?”

“Yeah. He’s really fun. A little temperamental.”

“I wonder who he gets that from?” Alyssa called out with a grin from the background.

When Seth looked away for a moment, Tyler gave her the one-fingered salute.

“Our biggest problem is getting him to sleep,” Luc admitted.

“Is he ready for bed now?”

“Yep. Fresh diaper, full belly, the whole nine yards.”

An idea crossed Tyler’s mind. When he’d been a little guy himself, he’d spent a few precious weeks a year with his grandmother. Unlike his own mom, she wasn’t displeased with her lot in life, didn’t smoke all the time, and hadn’t preferred party life to parenthood. And he remembered one thing that had comforted him more than anything else.

“Put him in his playpen and set the laptop just outside, at eye level, will you?”

Luc frowned and groused about the amount of work Tyler was causing him, but he complied. There was a lot of bouncing and muffled sounds as Luc dragged the laptop through the house and into a guest bedroom. With a brush of a soft hand over Seth’s hair, Luc laid him down in the playpen. Seth started wailing immediately.

The chef set the laptop on a little stool and leaned down in view of the webcam. “Are you sure about this?”

No, but he had to try. “Sure.”

With a shrug, Luc got out of the way and pointed the built-in webcam at Seth’s little face, currently turning red from all his exertions.

Tyler did the only thing he could think of. He began to sing.

***

DEL
paced the kitchen, grabbing a few spare grapes from the refrigerator. She was so tempted to call her boss, Preston, and find out what he knew about Lisa’s murder. But she didn’t dare. At this point, she didn’t know who she could trust, and she had to focus on tracking down people would could help her implicate Carlson and make all this go away.

Eric might be a source of information, but no way was she going there again. She didn’t hate him for what he’d done; in a weird way, she understood. He’d always had a lot of pride, and she’d trampled over his by being “unfaithful” and enjoying Tyler’s lovemaking so much. He’d always been a golden boy and didn’t know how to process such a slight. But his hungry ego wasn’t her problem, and no matter how badly she needed some phone numbers to get started on her quest, she’d have to start somewhere else.

Just before the car bomb had destroyed her phone and all her contact information, she’d received a voice mail from Lobato Loco. Maybe she’d saved it. The phone was gone, and it was a long shot, but the only possibility she had at the moment.