A Beautiful Funeral: A Novel (Maddox Brothers Book 5) (2 page)

I touched my cheek to Stella’s soft hair. She was so innocent and vulnerable, and Liis knew as well as I did just how much evil was in the world we’d brought her in to. It was our responsibility to keep her safe.

I looked over at my sleeping girlfriend and then over at my sports jacket that covered my shoulder holster. Two standard-issue Sig Sauer 9mms were snugly hidden away, ready for anything. I knew Liis had one tucked into Stella’s baby bag, too. I swayed back and forth, resting my head and trying to let the tight muscles in my neck relax. Even after Stella had settled down and I had lain her in the bassinet, I couldn’t stop my ears from cataloging every sound from the hall—the soda machine, the elevators, the nurses checking on patients in the other rooms. Babies crying, the agents murmuring, and the vent kicking on. Unlike Liis, even when I wanted to sleep, I couldn’t.

I reached for Liis’s pitcher of water and poured myself a cup. I would sleep when she woke. Too much was at stake. Not even the agents outside would protect Stella as fiercely, so one of us had to be awake at all times.

Raindrops spattered against the window as I triple checked the baby’s bag and readied the car seat while Liis signed the discharge papers. The nurse watched us with careful curiosity, likely hearing gossip about the armed agents standing guard outside our room all night and the fresh pair of agents assigned to escort us home that morning.

Liis cradled Stella in one arm while signing the various documents. She’d been a mother for less than forty-eight hours and was already an expert. I smiled at her until she motioned for me to take Stella. I walked over, trying not to show my excitement at my turn to hold the tiny, soft human we’d created.

I lifted Stella into my arms and then walked the few steps to the car seat that sat on the floor. “Shit,” I hissed, trying to maneuver the baby under the handlebar and into the small space like a puzzle piece. Stella didn’t stir while I struggled with the five-point harness and fussed over the padding that covered the shoulder straps and the pillow around her head.

“Thomas,” Liis said with a small laugh. “It’s perfect. If she wasn’t comfortable, she would tell you.”

“You sure?” I asked, glancing back at Liis. With every milestone of our relationship, I continued to be in awe that just when I thought she couldn’t be more beautiful, she was. The day we moved in together in San Diego, the day she told me we were having Stella, the day I finally moved to Virginia, and every day I noticed her belly was a little bit rounder and her cheeks a little fuller—I felt like a con for somehow misleading her into marrying me. While she labored, and then when she gave birth, and now, sitting up and looking tired but gloriously happy in the morning sun, the mother of my child was once again the most beautiful I’d ever seen her.

Liis breathed out a laugh. “What?”

“You know what.” I stood, carefully bringing the car seat with me. “Ready?”

Once Liis nodded, the nurse pushed the wheelchair next to her bed. Liis stood, unhappy about being fussed over while she moved over to her next mode of transport, but it was hospital policy, and Liis had always liked to pick her battles.

Wearing a blue button-down and gray maternity pants, Liis let the nurse push her toward the door. I opened it and nodded to the agents, Brubaker and Hyde.

Liis couldn’t restrain her smug smile, recognizing both agents were female. “You know what I’m thinking, right?” she asked me.

“That women are better drivers and better with a gun, so you’re happy about our escorts?”

“Correct,” Liis said.

Brubaker smiled too.

After I secured Stella into her car seat and helped Liis into the backseat of our Suburban, I slid behind the wheel, signaling to the agents to move forward. Brubaker was ahead of us in a black Tahoe, and Hyde was behind in an identical vehicle. I rolled my eyes. “Are they trying to announce our exit, or do they think the mafia is stupid?”

“I don’t know,” Liis said, leaning forward to see into the side mirror.

“All clear?” I asked.

“So far.”

“What is it?” I asked, seeing the concern in Liis’s eyes.

“I don’t know that yet, either.”

I reached back to pat her knee. “It’s going to be okay, Mommy.”

She craned her neck. “Please let’s not be that couple who calls each other Daddy and Mommy.”

I frowned. “How else will Stella learn what to call us?”

Liis sighed, a rare concession. “Fine. Just … only do it around her, but not in public.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said with an amused grin.

Liis leaned back, appearing relaxed, but I knew better. She continued to periodically lean over to glance in the rearview mirror and then down at Stella.

“How’s she doing?” I asked.

“We need one of those mirrors that sits above the car seat so you can see her in the rearview,” Liis said. “What if one of us is in the car with her alone? We’ll need some way to check on her.”

“Making a mental note now,” I assured her.

She closed her eyes for half a second before they popped open again to look at the side mirror. She gave it a second glance and instantly metamorphosed from tired new mother to FBI agent. “White sedan, four back. Left lane.”

I glanced back. “Got it.” I touched the radio on my lapel. “We’ve got a tail. White sedan. Left lane.”

“Copy that,” Hyde said.

Brubaker radioed in, and we barely drove two miles before receiving word that more vehicles were on the way. Just before they arrived on-scene, the sedan took an exit.

“Make sure someone follows,” Liis said.

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to remain calm. “They’re all over it.”

Liis swallowed, struggling to keep her cool. Being parents was an added security issue we couldn’t plan for. I knew part of her wanted to follow the sedan, to catch them and question them, and lock them away from our fragile new family. As urgent as her commitment was to being an agent, her need to protect our daughter was stronger.

We drove the remaining fifteen minutes home without event but were unable to enjoy our trip with our new addition as other new parents would. As we unhitched the car seat, the agents stood guard. Hyde and Brubaker glanced around, occasionally speaking into the small radios in their ears while Liis and I took our daughter to the porch. We waved to the neighbors and then walked up the stairs to the front door. Under the shade of the porch, I dug for my keys and then touched one to the lock.

Hyde gently touched my forearm. “Sir, I’d like to take a look around first, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” I said, stepping aside.

Just two days ago, I would have been the one to sweep the house. I would have left Liis with the agents while I checked each room, closet, behind every door, and under every bed before I let my pregnant girlfriend enter. But now, my place was to stand next to her, protecting our daughter. Everything had changed in less than forty-eight hours.

Hyde unlocked the door and then drew her weapon. She held her Glock like it was an extension of her arm, walking through the front room so stealthily I couldn’t hear her footsteps.

“Was I that good?” Liis asked.

“Better,” I said.

“Don’t bullshit me, Maddox.”

“Never, Agent Lindy.”

After a few minutes, Hyde returned, holstering her sidearm. “All clear, sir.”

“Thank you,” I said, following Liis inside.

Liis took a deep breath as she crossed the threshold, already feeling more at ease. I carried Stella’s car seat into the nursery, setting it gently on the floor. Liis had decorated in grays, blue-grays, tans, and coral with not a bow or ballerina in sight. Liis was determined to keep Stella as gender-neutral as possible, even before she was born. An ivory upholstered rocking chair was in the corner next to the crib, a square pillow of a fox outlined in blue in the center.

I unbuckled Stella, lifted her limp body into my arms, and then lay her on her back in the crib. She looked so tiny within the walls of her brand-new bed.

Everything was new—the carpet, the Santa Fe-style rug, the five-by-seven portrait of a cartoon fox on the side table, the curtains, the paint on the walls. Until that moment, the room had been beautiful and pristine but empty. Now, it was filled with our love for the brand-new baby for whom the room belonged.

After staring at Stella for a moment, Liis and I traded glances.

“Now what?” she whispered.

I adjusted the nursery camera and signaled for Liis to follow me out into the hall. I shrugged.

She shrugged too. “What does”—she shrugged again—“this mean?”

“It means I don’t know. I was expecting chaos and crying when we got home. You know … all the horrible things you see in the movies.”

Liis smiled and leaned against the doorjamb. “She’s perfect, isn’t she?”

“I’ll reserve judgment until two o’clock this morning, or the first time she shits in my hand.”

Liis playfully elbowed me. I kissed her temple.

“I think I’ll lie down for a bit,” Liis said, reaching for the monitor.

I swiped it off the dresser first. “I’ve got it. You rest.”

She pushed up on the balls of her feet, kissed the corner of my mouth, and then touched my cheek. “I’m so happy, Thomas. I never thought I could feel like this. It’s hard to explain.”

I smiled down at her. “You don’t have to. I know just how you feel.”

Liis ambled down the hall to our bedroom, leaving the door cracked open about three inches.

I chuckled to myself as I headed to the kitchen, opening the dishwasher to unload the dishes Liis had just started when her water broke.

My cell phone buzzed in my pants pocket, and I fished it out, holding it to my ear. “Maddox.” I listened, walked over to the window, and moved the curtains to the side. My heart sank.

“You’re not serious,” I said. I listened as the director gave me instructions that made my blood run cold. “The plan is to let them shoot at me?”

“They’ve already taken a shot at Travis.”

“What? Is he okay?” I asked, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

“Just grazed his shoulder and he’s a little banged up. They ran his car off the road.” The director cleared his throat, uncomfortable having to say his next words. “It was meant for Abby.”

I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat. “How do you know?”

“Travis was driving her SUV. Surveillance of all soft targets was in the shooter’s vehicle, including Abby.”

“By soft targets, you mean …”

“The members of your family, Thomas. I’m very sorry.”

I blew out a breath, trying to remain calm. If they had surveillance photos, the Carlisis had Travis figured out for a while. They’d been watching my family; close enough to photograph. That explained Travis’s interrogation in Vegas. What we thought was Travis somehow blowing his cover leading to an impromptu kidnapping and beating while they tried to get more intel was actually planned. “Have they been located?”

The director paused. “Travis’s SUV hit a tree at a high rate of speed. They came back to finish it, but they didn’t walk away. The Carlisi family is now three made men down. Bobby the Fish. Nikko the Mule. Vito Carlisi.”

“Benny’s son. That means the Carlisis only have two possible successors left.” Benny had seven children but only three sons. The oldest, Angelo, was the underboss, with the other two in line for the job. Benny was old school, and he’d passed onto his children and his crime family that only men could inherit his illicit empire. I was hopeful that if their attempts left them without a Carlisi underboss, everything Benny built would fall apart.

“Travis took care of it,” the director said.

“Of course, he did.” My muscles relaxed. What could have been a huge clusterfuck was actually falling in our favor. I should have known. Once someone takes a swing at Travis, he always made sure they wouldn’t do it again. Even if they were three of the Carlisi family’s best hitmen.

“The youngest of the Carlisi boys, Vincenzo, and two soldiers have been traced to a silver Nissan Altima. They’re headed your way now. They are likely aware of Vito’s death by now.”

“Coming here? Now?” I asked, looking back toward Stella’s nursery. “What about stray bullets? Ricochets? We’re going to let them do a drive-by in front of my home with my wife and daughter inside? This seems sloppy, sir.”

“Can you think of another plan in the next eight minutes?”

I frowned. “No, sir.”

“Hyde will have Liis and Stella secured in the back of the home with vests. This is our one chance. It’s up to you, of course, but—”

“Understood, sir.”

“You’re sure?”

“You’re right. It has to happen this way. It’ll buy us time.”

“Thank you, Agent Maddox.”

“Thank you, Director.”

The bedroom door cracked open, and from my peripheral, I could see Liis leaning against the doorjamb, holding her cell phone to her ear. They had called her, too.

“But we just … they can’t possibly know—” She sighed. “I understand. Of course, and I agree, but … yes, sir. I understand, sir.” She looked at me with tears in her eyes, clearing her throat before speaking again. “Consider it done, sir.”

The phone fell from her hand to the floor, and her eyes lost focus. I rushed across the room to cradle her in my arms. I meant to be gentle, but I knew I was holding her too tight.