Spy Catcher: The J.J. McCall Novels (Books 1-3) (The FBI Espionage Series) (61 page)

Santino stiffened. Her words went from sugar to shanks. He’d warned her to watch her tone. Apparently, she still hadn’t gotten the hint.

“What the fuck did you say to me?!” Santino snapped. In their time together, he’d never seen her go quite this far off the bitch cliff and he’d prefer never to see it again. “Threaten me and you’ll be snacking on your fucking teeth for dinner, you cunt,” Santino snapped.

“It’s not a threat,” she said in a softer tone. She glanced down at the rifle and back up again, expression softened, her voice calmed. “As long as you pull that trigger like I’m paying you to do, I’ll call you whatever you want. I don’t want to fight you.”

Santino looked down at the knapsack and nodded. “Okay.” He shrugged and then threw his hands up with open palms of capitulation facing her. “Whatever you say. It’s your show.”

“Thank you, my darling.” She flashed a tentative smile and kissed his expressionless face. “Just give me a couple of minutes. I’ve got something to say to her. When I raise my hand, you fire.”

“Got it,” he said. “You raise your hand, I’ll fire.” A reluctant grin sliced through his lips and he nodded once more.

As she descended down the steps and headed outside, Santino cracked the window just wide enough to accommodate the barrel. His mind churned over her words and his conversation with Tony. Blood might be thicker than water, but without the money, blood was of no consequence because he was dead. No, he couldn’t leave without the money. He could take the shot, or he could get shot. There were no other choices.

He grabbed the knapsack, unzipped the main compartment, and counted out 20 stacks of $100 bills. It was all there. He’d been paid. Now, there was only one thing left to do.

He moved back into position, lifting the rifle and preparing to aim.

Katherine was there, standing between two cars on the near side of the street. After an angry exchange, she took off her jacket. Everyone went silent. He positioned the butt against this shoulder and aimed the barrel through the crack. He locked his eyes on Tony, who after scanning the street, looked toward Santino.

Tony’s mouth fell open, as if he was ready to yell. The black broad scanned the street and found Santino’s window. She aimed her gun directly at Santino…before Tony saw her and forced his body in front of her. Santino’s stomach tightened. He couldn’t believe what Tony did.

Then the old man from across the street ran out.

Santino peered through the sight, pressed his finger against the trigger, and fired—twice.

Two silenced shots; his target was struck.

He’d done what he needed to do.

He dismantled the rifle with a soldier’s speed, preparing for his escape before the police arrived. With the woman’s screams and bodies sprawled on the ground, someone would call the police soon.

He returned his rifle to the case and quickly searched her dresser. He needed to ensure no evidence had been left behind before running out the back door. One after the other, he pulled the drawers open and shut.

Nothing.

He was almost out the bedroom door before he had the second thought to check the closet. The space was empty with the exception of a few hangers. He ran his hand along the top shelf and his fingers were stopped by a small stack of papers. He pulled them down and gasped.

“That fucking cunt!”

The stack contained page after page of background information about him, several news articles covering Rosa’s accident and the suspicion surrounding Cappi Merendino’s death, his home address and those of the other guys in his crew, everything the cops would need to find him, right there on her closet shelf. She’d been playing him like a fuckin’ violin in a string quartet all along. He stuffed the papers in the knapsack and dashed out the bedroom. As he started down the stairs to head out the back door, he was stopped by an unexpected presence.

Santino’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve got some fucking nerve showing up here!” 

Chapter 60

Sunday – Irving Street

J.J. stared down the barrel of her gun, waiting for Lana to make the move that would end her life.

“Gimme a break. Your aim was never that good,” Lana scoffed. “Besides, I’m not armed.” Lana took off her jacket and let it fall to the ground. She lifted her shirt to expose her waist and spun around. She pulled her pant legs toward the knee and exposing her bare foreleg. Then she approached the middle of the street palms out.

“Oh, don’t worry about that! We keep a .45 in the car,” J.J. said, mockingly. “If you force me pull this trigger, trust me, you’ll be armed by the time the police get here whether you brought it or not.”

Although it was clear Lana had no weapons, J.J. still felt uneasy, as if they were standing in a trap.

She suddenly remembered Cartwright’s letter and Lana’s words—“
American arrogance astonishes me. So smug that you cannot see the thief who waves hello with one hand while picking your pocket with the other.”

J.J. felt her pocket being picked.

She scanned the street left and right, up and down. Rooftops and open windows. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. “Six, check the cars. I’m not getting the warm and fuzzies here.”

He nodded and proceeded to jog down the sidewalk, closely eyeing the passenger-side windows up and down the block.

“What the fuck are you doing here? What do you want?” J.J. asked, her eyes darting around the area looking for any unusual movement. There was nothing. The street was still.

“I’m tired of running,” Lana said, her voice cracking with manufactured emotion. “I’m gonna turn myself in, but first I have a question I need to ask you.”

Tony and J.J. looked at each other skeptically before the crotch itch struck. The piercing sting caused her legs to buckle for a moment, but she quickly recovered.

It was clear Lana was lying. J.J. didn’t know if she had some sadistic plan or accomplices hunkering nearby, but a lie could mean nothing but trouble. J.J. lowered her aim from Lana’s head to her chest so Lana would think she believed her. “What is it?”

“Do you remember Jake? Does the vision of him lying in his own blood haunt you at night?”

A rush of emotion shook her. God knows she’d been haunted every day and every night. The mere thought caused her mouth to water for Belvedere. Not a single day had passed that she didn’t want to forgo her newfound sobriety to wash the pain away. “He was my friend. I didn’t want to kill him. He gave me no choice.”

“Oh, you had a choice. You just chose to save your precious Tony. With friends like you, who needs friends?”

Six ran up beside J.J. and flanked her on the side opposite Tony.

“All’s clear,” he said, slightly out of breath.

“Will you get the fuck on with it, Lana?” Tony barked. “We’ve got some place to be.”

Lana’s voice trembled as she started to cry, stunning J.J. into silence. She didn’t know witches cried. “You robbed me of everything, my future, my life. It’s over,” she swiped her sleeve over her eye and clenched her teeth. “And now I’m going to return the favor. Take a look at your precious Tony,” she said, an evil grin slicing her lips. “This is the last time you’ll ever see him alive!”

She slowly raised her hand in the air, sending J.J. into a wave of confusion. Her eyes darted door to door, window to window, searching the area.

Then she saw it.

The blinds moved in the upstairs room of Mr. O’Leary’s house. When the glimmer of the barrel protruded from the window, her eyes widened. She pointed her gun to the window and glanced at Lana, whose eyes widened to the size of milk saucers.

“What’s going on here?!” Max’s voice called from behind her.

J.J. turned to look over her shoulder and saw him walking toward the steps. “Dad get in the house…now!” she yelled.

She turned back to the window and aimed once again before Tony looked at her with a panicked expression and screamed “Get down!” as he threw his body in front of J.J.’s.

Two barely audible shots sounded. Within seconds, her body collided against the ground under a heavy weight. A limp body.

She got off one shot before her arm lost its aim.

A second later, her head exploded. A sharp pain bolted into her temple like the fiery sting of a lightning strike.

Her eyes lost the light and into darkness she fell.  

Chapter 61

Sunday – Irving Street

“Tony?” J.J. whispered, buried face down under the weight of the body covering her. She felt a stream of liquid drift from her forehead down the curve of her cheek. She had no idea whether he was still alive, sending a wave of panic through her entire being.

He’d thrown his body in front of her, to protect her with the ultimate sacrifice—his life. He loved her in a way that no other man had, except perhaps her father and brother. He loved her.

She huffed, gasping to draw air into her lungs. Everything happened so fast. Seconds passed in double time. Her heart raced as she attempted to push him off, but he was too heavy. “Tony? Six?” She grunted as she tried to shift under the leaded mass. Finally, a movement.

“Tony?”

“Shhhh…” He rolled off of her and whispered, “don’t move. Don’t make a sound until I give you the all clear.”

“Okay,” she whispered back. Her every sense was heightened. She could smell smoke in the air from a wood-burning fireplace. Harried footsteps padded around her, but she could see nothing. She patted her hand until she felt the cool grip of her Glock against her fingers.

On all fours, Tony crawled to the edge of his car bumper and scanned the area. “Looks clear. Shooter’s gone. You okay?”

“I think so.” She pressed her fingers against her face and felt a warm ooze emanating from her temple. Her fingertips dripped with blood. “Gash in my head, but I’m okay.”

Tony jumped to his feet, pulled his gun from the holster, and ran toward the sprawled body.

Six, who had stood beside J.J. only moments before the shots were fired, was now in the street. He knelt beside Lana and checked for a pulse. “She’s dead.”

“You stay here. Call 911 then Washington Field,” Tony said to Six. “I’m goin’ after the shooter.”

J.J. jumped up to her feet, casting a callous glance at Lana before hurrying to reach Tony, who was already half way up Mr. O’Leary’s steps.

“Stand by!” he said as he busted the glass with the butt of his gun, reached in, and twisted the doorknob. Then he stepped away from the door’s opening in case the gunman fired. After a soundless few seconds passed, Tony led the way inside, J.J. on his heels. He gripped the butt with both hands and pointed the barrel upward as he headed up the stairs. No sooner than his foot hit the riser did a familiar face appear at the landing.

“You have some nerve showing up here,” Santino barked, clearly ready to run.

“The fuck are you still doing here?” Tony said, lowering his weapon. His chest rose and fell at a rapid pace. “Thought you skipped town.”

J.J.’s head volleyed between the two, her expression reflecting the confusion “You know him?” J.J. asked.

Tony looked at J.J. and nodded. “Yeah. He’s my cousin. Works with my old man.”

“Suzy Googotz out there offered me twenty-five Gs to put a couple in the back of your head…this one, too,” he said, jutting his head toward J.J.

“Hmph,” J.J. said. “That explains why she approached me unarmed.”

“Safe to say, the only thing she’s hittin’ now is the bottom of a fuckin’ six foot pit. I mean, you may not be ‘family’…but you’re still
family
,” Santino said. “Now unless you’re plannin’ to throw me a ticker tape parade, I need to get the fuck outta here before the cops come.”

“I
am
the cops,” Tony reminded him.

“You know what the hell I meant. You takin’ me in or what?”

J.J. glanced at Tony, his expression asking a question she was unsure of how to answer. She thought for a moment and shrugged. “We’re FBI agents and we have jobs to do, but we should maybe ask ourselves what Freeman would do to a man who saved the lives of two FBI agents and took America’s most wanted agent killer off the streets?”

Tony motioned his head toward the back door. “You get pinched, you’re on your own.”

“Once a fed, always a fed. Don’t loyalty mean anything to you?”

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” Tony said. “Yeah, it means somethin’ to me. That’s why you’re
running
out the
back
door…and not doing a
perp walk
in handcuffs out the front. Now get the fuck outta here before I change my mind.”

J.J. and Tony stepped aside and turned their backs as Santino disappeared into the rear of the house and a door slammed. Before Tony could grab the doorknob, sirens blared. J.J. and Tony looked at one another curiously and ran into the street where an ambulance arrived, followed shortly by an unmarked FBI car.

J.J. could see Kyle and Hopper inside.

“Looks like the cavalry’s arriving. You better call in a BOLO on Santino, so our story looks legit,” she said, referring to a be-on-the-lookout alert to notify law enforcement that a subject was on the run. “We’re going to have enough questions to answers as it is.” 

“I’m on it,” Tony said, as Kyle and Hopper approached. He stepped out of earshot, leaving J.J. to handle the impending inquisition.

Kyle glanced down at Lana as the EMTs checked her lifeless, soulless form and prepared it for the body bag. “We get her?”

J.J. shook her head no. “She got got—but unfortunately the pleasure wasn’t mine. A sniper took two shots from up there,” she pointed to Mr. O’Leary’s upstairs window. “The one on the right. Both struck Lana—two in the back. He must’ve run out the back door. By the time we ensured the area was clear and got inside, the shooter was gone.”

Kyle turned toward Hopper. “You think it was Castellano?”

J.J.’s eyebrows popped up before she could catch herself. “Castellano?”

“Yeah, he picked up Lana’s fake passport today,” Kyle said. “From the looks of things, something went wrong. My guess is Lana’s mouth. I always told her it’d get her killed one day.”

“Well, he made tracks pretty quickly. Left it clean. But we’ve called ERT in to collect evidence and Tony’s calling in a BOLO right now. If he’s still in D.C. we’ll get him,” J.J. said.

“Left it clean, huh?” Kyle said with more than a hint of doubt in his voice. “Sunnie tells me he’s related to Donato.”

“Yeah.” Her stomach sank as she attempted to improvise. “Cousins. From what I understand, they went to school together, but since Tony split from the family, he hasn’t exactly been welcomed with open arms. He can’t go within a hundred miles of New York or Jersey without risking his life.”

“Apparently. Gotta love family,” Kyle said.

“Tony spoke to him yesterday, but he said he was skipping town. He had no idea all this was going down.”

“Well, there’s plenty of time to find out what Tony knew and didn’t know. In the meantime, we need to draw straws on who’s gonna go brief the director first thing in the morning. We’re going to have a late night cleaning up this scene.”

“Oh, please. Let me do the honor,” J.J. said. “Nothing could make me happier than informing him in person that the wicked witch is dead.”