Sins of the Flesh (25 page)

The layout of the loft was basic: living and dining areas, kitchen, bedroom. The furniture, utilitarian—a spartan residence empty of any personal touches.

He rifled through the kitchen cabinets and the drawers of all the furniture, but found nothing of interest. He returned to the office, where there were a few cabinets filled with what appeared to be old case files. No computer anywhere. Too hard to secure, so Mick probably took it with him wherever he went. That’s what he would do.

And that’s probably where Mick had any of the kind of information that would lead Mad Dog to where his old colleague might be hiding.

There was nothing in the apartment to tip him off.

No bills or mail. Everything probably went to a P.O. box somewhere. No personal papers of any kind.

Begrudgingly Mad Dog admitted that Mick was damned good at what he did, but Mick wouldn’t be able to play hide and seek much longer.

Disgusted, Mad Dog plopped onto the leather chair by Mick’s desk. As he did so, he noticed the paper shredder sitting on the garbage can beneath the desk.

He tossed off the shredder and pulled out the long, thin paper shreds, placing them on top of the desk. Carefully he began to sift through the pieces and discovered bits of color in all the boring business white.

He pulled those soft pinkish shreds out of the pile. They were of a heavier weight, likely from an envelope. Unfortunately, most of the pieces were too small, except…

Mad Dog pulled one larger piece from the pile where the cross-cut shredder had failed to do its job. Printed on the pale pink corner was the start of an address. He rummaged through some more of the colorful shreds and found another few strips that he pieced together.

From one set he got part of a word: Brad.

From another just a “ch.”

Not enough yet, he thought, perusing the strip of paper from what had likely been a personal letter. He hadn’t realized Mick had any liabilities, but now he had a possible lead to the name of a place where there might be someone of interest to his old colleague.

Someone who would end up dead if Mick didn’t hand over Shaw.

He rose from the desk and did another search of Mick’s apartment and the office.

Nothing else provided any useful information.

As he was about to leave the office, he noticed the security camera tucked up into one corner of the room where
it would provide a view of everything and everyone who entered the space.

He walked up close to the camera, wanting to make sure there was no doubt about who had paid a visit. Smiling into the camera, he slashed his hand across his throat, his message clear.

With that broad, satisfied smile on his face, Mad Dog left behind the mess he had created, certain that the small bit of the address from the envelope would point him in the right direction.

Mick had been in a number of dangerous places, but none more dangerous than this.

In her arms.

He hadn’t expected the peace and contentment that had followed the sex. Amazing, satisfying, mind-blowing sex.

Each time had been different and possibly more satisfying than the first.

Because of the danger of remaining in her arms, and possibly finding the strength to do it yet again, he was trying to muster the will to leave. She must have sensed it.

Caterina propped her head on her arm and glanced at Mick as he lay on his back beside her. She had been resting against him, her head pillowed on his chest.

“I’d understand if you want to go,” she said and made no motion that contradicted that statement. No touch or caress. No little pout of those full and incredibly mobile lips. Nothing like what he was used to from other women he’d taken to bed.

Which only confused him more and had him about
to protest her statement when the angry buzz of his cell phone alerted him to a security breach.

“Shit,” Mick swore as he rolled off the bed, reaching for the cell phone with one hand while grabbing his weapon with the other.

The code buzzing on the cell phone indicated the breach was at his office/apartment and not at one of the perimeter points surrounding the house.

“Stay put,” he ordered and rushed to access his laptop so he could find out who had broken into his apartment.

He jerked on his sweatpants and raced out of the room and to his office. With a flick of his finger across the touchpad, the laptop sprang to life to display the feeds from the house, office space, and apartment on the three monitors sitting on the desktop.

The view of the loft area was empty of any intruders, but clearly someone had gone through his things. Clothes and other items littered the floor of the apartment.

He caught a flash of motion from the camera trained on his office. Someone leaving the area? he wondered as Liliana and Caterina walked into the room.

Liliana took one look at his half-naked state and another at Caterina’s in his robe and immediately put two and two together. She narrowed her eyes, assessing the situation, but kept silent about it. Instead she focused on the computer screen and asked, “Trouble?”

Caterina walked over to him, tightening the belt on the robe as she did so. She laid a hand on his bare shoulder. That touch alone was enough to awaken need in him.

He slipped behind the protection of the desk and sat down. Worked on recovering the stored video feed to see
what had happened and said to the two women, “Someone broke into my place in Philly.”

Liliana came to stand beside Caterina. Both of them had a view of the monitors as Mick replayed the video, from the moment Mad Dog had entered the location to the last few minutes when he slashed his hand across his throat.

Liliana tucked her arms tight against her midsection and glanced down at Mick. “Is he serious or is this some kind of game he plays?”

Mick tucked his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. “Mad Dog loves to play sick games and he is nothing but serious when he’s on an assignment.”

Surging back toward his laptop, Mick rewound to the point where Mad Dog had finished piecing together the shreds of paper, captured that screen shot and sent it to the printer. He picked up the photo and stared at it, recalled the pale pink envelope that had come from his mother, together with a letter and family photo. The photo was in his wallet, but the envelope and letter…

Those shreds were the only things in his Philly place that had anything to tie him to anyone outside of his life as a hired gun. He had been so careful to separate his two lives to avoid the violence of one spilling over into the other. Now the smallest trace of his personal life may have changed what might happen next, and not for the good.

He said nothing as he handed the screen shot print to his sister, who examined it and said, “It’s just some paper.”

“With part of an address, I suspect,” he said, and watched as Caterina took the paper from his sister. She perused the photo with seemingly great care and said, “An address for here?”

He shook his head. “It was a letter from our mother, so it would be our parents’ address.”

Their home was several blocks away, but even just the name of the town was enough to provide Mad Dog with the information he needed to begin his search. A visit to town and some questions to the right locals and Mad Dog would know where to find his parents. And then possibly him.

“It won’t take much effort for Mad Dog to pinpoint an exact address. A little longer to connect the dots to us,” he warned and held out his hand so Caterina could return the screen shot.

“What do we do now?” Liliana asked.

“We’ve got a day or two at best before Mad Dog—”

“This Mad Dog is the one you warned me about before,” Liliana interjected.

He shot a glance at her and then Caterina, who stood there hugging herself, clearly in defensive mode.

“Yes, this is the man I warned you about. He’s quite dangerous. If we can’t settle this thing with Edwards soon—”

“I’ll turn myself over to the authorities,” Caterina jumped in, looking back and forth between him and Liliana. “If the police have me—”

Mick rose and laid a finger on her lips. “There’s no place you’ll be safe so long as Mad Dog is around.”

Caterina eased her hand into his, once again shaking his core with her simple touch. She raised her chin and cocked her head at a thoughtful angle. “I’m not worried about
my
safety. I’m worried about your family. They shouldn’t be at risk because of me.”

He was about to answer, but Liliana beat him to it. “The Carreras stick together, Cat.”

“We don’t leave anyone behind,” Mick added. His family
was as tight as any military unit in which he had ever served. He knew they would band together to protect each other and in this case, to protect her.

Caterina embraced Liliana in a hug and then leaned into Mick, encircling his waist with her arms, the gesture more telling than it should have been.

With Caterina’s arms around him, Mick met Liliana’s gaze over Caterina’s shoulder. He awkwardly returned Caterina’s embrace.

Caterina could feel the tension radiating from Mick. Stepping out of his arms, she looked from him to Liliana. She instantly recognized the concern in his sister’s eyes. “We had sex.
Just sex
. No commitments. No promises.” With that, Caterina fled the room, leaving Mick to avoid Liliana’s sisterly stare-down all alone.

He took up a spot at the laptop to start formulating his plan. Liliana stalked right to the edge of his desk and jammed her hands onto her ample hips. “Miguel de la Guadeloupe Roberto Carrera,” she began, but he raised his hand in the air to cut off a tirade that sounded too much like one his mother might give.

“It won’t happen again.”

“It’s not that, it’s just the wrong time for it to happen,” she chided. “She’s vulnerable. You’re… a bad boy. Dangerous. Women eat that up.”

Didn’t he know it, only…

He refused to acknowledge that it could be different with Caterina. How could it be, considering the playing field where they were starting their little game?

“I know she needs time to get her head straight. That’s why this won’t happen again,” he repeated, hoping to foreclose any further discussion.

It worked. With an annoyed huff, his sister stomped out of the room.

He turned to the laptop and considered calling Franklin to see if he had found out anything else. Given Franklin’s usual mode of operation, however, he knew his old friend would have phoned if he had any additional information to offer.

He didn’t even know if Mad Dog would reach out to Franklin, but suspected that when he did, it would be to flush out confirmation of something Mad Dog already suspected—like the address on the envelope.

Late as it was, he had to forewarn his friend about Mad Dog.

He dialed and when Franklin answered, he quickly provided him with an update on Mad Dog’s break-in, as well as the details on the Wardwell-Gates Genengineering merger.

Franklin emitted a low whistle and said, “No wonder he has the three of us after Shaw. That’s a lot of money to lose if the merger goes south.”

“It’s the kind of money people kill for, which is why he probably had Wells eliminated.”

There was hesitation on the line before his friend said, “You think Edwards did it and not Shaw?”

“I’d put my money on it not being Shaw, wherever she is.”

No sense admitting he knew just where Caterina was. That would only complicate things further if Mad Dog went after Franklin.

“I made some progress with the families of those two patients. They think their loved ones died from medical complications relating to their illnesses. I’ll keep on digging around, but if it’s getting too hot—”

“Pull out. You’ve got other obligations more important than this assignment. I’m five-by-five with that,” Mick offered, wanting to be square with his friend on what he expected.

“I’ll be back at you if anything comes up.”

Franklin hung up and Mick went back to work. Combined with information from an investigative service or a personal visit to the area, the security of his safe house would be compromised in no time. His family, with the exception of Roberta, who was serving a tour in Iraq, would be vulnerable.

Liliana was already aware, but Mick would remind her in the morning. He would talk to his parents and brother then as well, possibly suggest that they all take a vacation together somewhere for at least a week.

In the meantime, he picked up the phone and dialed Ramon to ask his cousin to see if he could arrange for some additional drivebys past the restaurant and his parents’ home. Even though he suspected Liliana wouldn’t like it, he mentioned her problems with Harrison also, eliciting a promise from Ramon that a discreet call would be placed to hospital security.

Mick needed to keep his family safe.

And he needed to reaffirm to Caterina that he intended to keep her safe.

S
weet music reached Mick’s ears as he neared the closed bedroom door. He assumed Caterina had the stereo turned up to help soothe her, but when he entered, Caterina was in the far corner of the room, eyes closed, playing his younger brother’s old beat-up cello. Clearly lost in the music as she played, her body swayed and shifted as her fingers and bow arm stroked emotion from the strings and wood.