Worcester Nights - The Boxed Set (16 page)

My brow creased with worry. “What should I say?”

His gaze held mine. “As much as possible, the truth. We don’t know what they saw or heard. For Evan, he stopped by to chat about Thanksgiving.”

I nodded, and he clicked the phone back to life. “Yes, she’s awake. As long as you keep it short. The doctor said she should rest.”

It seemed only minutes later before Seamus and Jimmy were pulling chairs over to the side of the bed, their eyes dark and serious. Jimmy patted my hand. “We’ll get the focking bastards,” he swore, his brogue coming on heavier than usual. “We’ll string the Cubes up by their balls.”

Seamus pinned me with his gaze. “You tell us exactly what happened, from the beginning. Everything you can remember.”

And so I did. I told them about being in the back lot, and how Raul had hit me with something. I told them about the office where the Most Interesting Man in the World looked me over. I explained how Aymee had tended to me. And, with Sean holding my hand, I described how Raul had almost raped me.

Jimmy and Seamus were silent through it all, letting me tell my story at my own pace. Their gaze darkened as I went, and by the end I could see the anger tightening their jaws.

Seamus looked over at Sean. “I’ll have my sister come and sit with her. The three of us need to talk about what happens next.”

Sean turned to me. “Will you be all right?”

I nodded. “I’m sleepy anyway. I wouldn’t even know you’re here. You do what you need to do.”

He leant forward to kiss me on the cheek. “You get some sleep.”

I didn’t need a second urging – it seemed that the moment I closed my eyes, darkness sucked me in.

Chapter 9

I
sat at the table, enjoying my final bite of the chocolate chip pancakes. “These are delicious.”

His mouth quirked up in a smile. “Evan said they were your favorite.”

I chuckled. “Seems like you two hit it off.”

His gaze shadowed. “I wouldn’t say he’s too pleased with me,” he countered, “but we have an agreement. He’ll come by tomorrow evening to bring you down to your mother’s, once you’re up for the drive.”

I shook my head, and, thankfully, the pain of the past two days had faded, due in equal parts to the rest and the Tylenol I’d been taking. “I’m feeling fine, really. And my mom is busy enough, getting all her final exams and grading done before the Thanksgiving holiday. The last thing she needs is me underfoot right now.”

He took my hands in his. “Kay, you really should go.”

I squeezed his fingers, then stood, picking up my plate and cutlery and moving to the sink. “I’m fine, and I’m staying.” I grinned at him. “You’ll find that I can be quite stubborn when I want to be.” I rinsed off the items and put them into the dishwasher.

He came over next to me. “But I need to go in to the bar and –”

“And I’m going with you,” I finished up for him. “I’m fine. Really. I can certainly stand behind a bar and pour drinks. It’s not the Sago coal mines.”

His brow furrowed. “The doctor said rest.”

I nodded. “I can put a chair behind the bar. At least you’ll be there to talk to. If I stay here, I’ll be all alone. Didn’t the doctor say someone should be with me for the next few days?”

He pressed his lips together, but at last he nodded. “We’ll get Ethan to take us over. I don’t want you on the bike right now, until you’re fully healed.”

I sighed, but took the concession. “I’ll be ready in a half hour.”

When I walked into the bar, you’d have thought I’d been gone for years on a death-defying mission to defuse land mines in Burundi. Everyone crowded around me, talking at once, offering me hugs and support. It was a few minutes before I could take my place behind the bar, sitting on one of the stools.

Jimmy and Seamus came out of the back room, and Seamus shook his head. “You should be home, resting.”

Jimmy clapped me heartily on the shoulder. “She’s a fighter, this one,” he praised. “Tough as nails.”

Seamus looked over to Jimmy. “In any case, we’ll delve into this later. You come by the house after you lock up, and we’ll figure it out.”

Sean looked up. “You want me to come by?”

Seamus shook his head. “You keep an eye on Kate. Get her home safely.”

Sean nodded. “Of course.” I could see in his eyes that he was frustrated by the exclusion, but he quickly brought on a smile to hide that.

Seamus gave Jimmy a final glance, and then he turned and left. Jimmy took a seat at the bar. Without being asked I turned, grabbed the bottle, and poured him his drink.

His brow creased as he looked at it. “I guess you can’t have any, at least for this week. Jesus, Katie, to think of what those bastards did to you.”

I looked again at Sean for a moment. Maybe I could be some help in drawing out what Seamus and Jimmy were up to. I leant forward to Jimmy. “I did go through a lot,” I murmured in a low voice. “It was Hell. So I want to know what you and Seamus are planning.”

Jimmy glanced around. “I’m not really supposed to –”

I gripped his arm. “Jimmy, that bastard nearly raped me. I deserve to know.”

He held my gaze for a moment, and at last he nodded. He drank down his whiskey, and I poured him a fresh glass. “You’re right. You’re the one who suffered, and you deserve to know what we’re going to do about it.”

He drew his head in closer, and Sean and I matched his move. His voice was low. “When Javier contacted Seamus with the ransom demands, he was … precise … in the business arrangements he wanted to set up with us. Too precise. It didn’t make sense. We need to figure out how they got that information.”

My brow creased. “You think they have someone spying on you?”

Jimmy shrugged. “We don’t know. But we need to figure that out.” His gaze darkened. “And, of course, we need to teach them a lesson. Apparently our previous one wasn’t strong enough.”

My brow creased. “Aymee was kind to me. I wouldn’t want to see her hurt.”

He smiled, patting my hand. “You have a good heart, Katie. Don’t you worry about any of that. We’ll take care of it. We’ll get them to stop.”

Joey’s voice called from his stool. “Some Bushmills, please?”

Sean began to stand, but I waved him down. “I’ve got this,” I assured him. “My legs were beginning to cramp anyway.” I stood and reached for the full bottle of whiskey.

The world tilted, twirled like the Sugar-Plum Fairy on a Sugar-Plum High, and the bottle went flying. It smashed into the far wall, missing the TV by mere inches, and whiskey and glass showered the room.

I fell against the bar, holding on for dear life.

Sean was around at my side in an instant. “Kay! Are you all right?”

I shook my head, carefully standing up again. The spinning settled down, and I looked across at the mess I had created. “I’m so sorry! Is everyone OK?”

The men stood, shaking themselves off, picking bits of glass off of shirts. One by one they indicated that they were fine.

I turned to Jimmy. “I’ll clean it up. I can’t believe I did that. I could have really hurt someone.”

He smiled reassuringly at me. “It’s just a spilled bottle. I’ll get Trai Hok and his wife to come right over. Hand me the phone.”

I passed it over, and sure enough within fifteen minutes the pair of middle-aged Vietnamese were carefully gathering up the glass shards with gloved hands. The woman used a spray bottle on the wall, the scent brightening the room. Trai brought in a floor cleaning machine which looked sort of like the popcorn-push-toy I had as a toddler – a circular base with a long stick. They cleared the tables and chairs to the side of the pool table, and then he began methodically doing passes on the wood floor, the whirr-thump soothing me.

Jimmy patted my hand. “It’ll all be fine, Katie. Just you wait and see.”

Chapter 10

B
rrrring!

I dove my head deeper under the covers. Good God Almighty. If they were going to call early, at least they could wait until it was light out. There wasn’t even the glimmer of morning yet coming through the windows. What time was it?

Sean groaned, then climbed out of bed, padding his way over to his jeans. He pulled the phone from his pocket and put it to his ear. “Yeah?”

He listened for a minute, and when he spoke again, his voice was sharp, attentive. “Sure thing. Be there in ten minutes.”

I looked over. “What is it?”

Sean was pulling on his jeans. “Sounds like they’re nailing down the details of what they’re going to do to the Cubans. I need to be there.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

He pulled on his shirt, then came over to kiss me. “You’ll be safe enough in here. Keep the door locked, and don’t leave until I get back. I shouldn’t be too long.”

I smiled at him. “I’ll keep the bed warm for you.”

His gaze kindled, and he ran his fingers down my face. “You feeling ready for that kind of activity?”

My grin widened. “If we take it slow.”

He chuckled. “I can do slow.”

My body warmed at the thought. “Hurry back, then.”

He gave me another kiss, and then he was out the door. Sleep swept back in on me.

The sun was strong and warm by the time I awoke again. I made myself a fried egg and bacon, enjoying it with coffee while I surfed the web on Sean’s laptop. Then I added the mug and plate to the dishwasher and started it up.

I was reading how nine applicants were attempting to open pot dispensaries in Worcester when an odd thumping noise began coming from the dishwasher. I went over and opened it up. One of the spatulas had turned into an angled position and was interfering with the spinning water jet. I rearranged the spatula and reset it, and it went back to its usual low hum.

Thumping.

I remembered, suddenly, my first night at the Cuban place. How I had fallen to sleep to the whirr-thump of the cleaners scrubbing my bloody tracks from the office below. The sounds were overlaid with the whirr-thump of Trai Hok’s machine as he undid the aftermath of the exploding Bushmills bottle.

Could Trai Hok be the mole that was passing information to the Cubans?

The man certainly had access to the full run of the bar, and could spend as much time as he wanted in Jimmy’s office without causing any suspicion. I would bet he was also the one they used to clean the warehouse.

I googled “floor cleaning machine” and quickly found the one I was after – blue base, long silver handle. There were several videos on YouTube of the scrubber in motion. In every video the sound of the machine was smooth, even, and without any thumps.

It had to be Hok. His machine was old, worn down, and had some sort of a mechanical flaw.

Was his wife involved, too?

I thought again of her cleaning the walls with that spray – it was fresh and lemony-spearminty. Just like the scent in the bedroom I’d been held in. Chances seemed slim that both of those fairly unique traits – the specific aroma and the unusual sound – would be in both locations together like that.

I reached for my phone, pushing Sean’s icon, and my heart pounded as I waited for him to pick up. The phone rang … rang …

“You’ve reached the phone of -”

I hung up in frustration. I needed to warn him. For all I knew, Trok was there at the warehouse, “innocently” cleaning while the plans were made. The Cubans could lay an ambush which would seriously hurt Sean – or worse.

I scrolled through my icons and pressed the one for Ethan. He picked up on the second ring. “Hey there, Kate. Need a ride?”

“Yes, to the warehouse. When can you be here?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Great, see you soon.”

I threw on some clothes and was down waiting for him by the time he pulled up. The ride over to the warehouse seemed to take forever, and I already had the money in my hands by the time he pulled up.

He waved me off. “No need, Kate. Jimmy covers my tab for you, including tips.”

I didn’t waste time arguing. “All right, then. Thanks!” I hopped out and strode over to the door. I rapped sharply on it.

It was about a half minute before Jimmy pulled it open. He shook his head, looking at me. “Ethan said you were coming. Seamus wants me to turn you away, but I think you’re strong enough to take it. You’ve got a feistiness to you, Katie. So I’m going to let you in.”

I nodded, following in behind him. Undoubtedly there was filming going on today, and he didn’t want me to be shocked by the goings on. I readied myself to show the appropriate amount of surprise at the scene. Indeed, the lights were set up and lit at the far end of the warehouse.

Jimmy walked along at my side. He put his arm around my waist, not in a suggestive way, but in the way a paramedic would support someone who was near collapse. “This might be tough to see, Katie. I’m here for you. You know that, right?”

My brow creased. Jimmy seemed awfully concerned. A twisting sickness ran through me. Did they have young girls involved in the filming today? Was that why Jimmy was so worried? I fervently hoped not.