JETT
York pulled up outside my building in the city after we dropped Ebony off. After I’d taken ownership of the asylum once my father had died, I’d turned it into a functional institution. Many of the people I’d deemed death to be an easy out for now resided within those walls with no way out. It was their personal hell for what they had made me go through over the years.
Police cars were everywhere outside my apartment building with cops on the stairs leading up to the doors.
This was just perfect.
“Want to head to the cabin?” York asked me, slowly edging past the building.
“No, I have to meet the guys soon. We have nothing to hide. Go to the club, I’ll meet you there.”
York pulled up, and I stepped outside the car heading toward the mass of cops that had accumulated waiting for me to arrive. As I walked past them, many of the rookies seized in fear knowing how easy it would be for me to hurt them. Some of the older guys, who I’d dealt with before, watched me as I proceeded past them but did nothing.
“Mr. Black,” one of the older ones came up to me. “We have a warrant to search your premises.”
He held out a little slip of paper for me to take. I looked at it before looking back up into his eyes. They didn’t hold fear. He knew he had nothing to fear from me, being one of my police informants.
“I believe you. I don’t need to read it.”
“Sir?”
“Well, you wouldn’t be searching my residence without a good reason. Especially not without a valid warrant, would you?” I moved past him and into my building. He followed close by waiting until we were out of earshot of others.
“Sudden warrant was granted, requested by Jenkins.”
The damn police commissioner was requesting my place to be searched now? What the hell hold did Giordy have over Jenkins—one of the only men who wasn’t on my payroll in this city?
I nodded, dismissing him and walked over to the window. Giordy stood on the opposite side of the street smirking up at me with a smug look on his face.
All of this was for Ebony. I just knew it—what was he scared she would tell me?
I continued to watch him until someone ran up to him whispering in his ear. His demeanor suddenly changed, and he jumped into a car speeding off. All of them were leaving including the cops.
“Apologies for the intrusion, Mr. Black.”
“Didn’t find what you were looking for?”
“No, it doesn’t appear she’s here.”
“She?” I feigned innocence.
“Yes… a lady named…,” he looked down at the warrant in his hand, “… Ebony Caine.”
“Well, I could have told you that.”
He left and closed the door behind him. I took my cell out of my pocket and dialed York. When he answered, the only thing I needed to say was my request. We’d never been good at hellos or goodbyes.
“Find everything you can on Ebony Caine.”
“Did you say Caine?”
A question?
York never questioned me. He simply got the job done.
“Problem?”
“No, not that I can think of.”
A lie. Was York lying to me now?
Who the hell was Ebony Caine, and how did York know her?
I hung up, trying not to think too much about who she was and why or how York knew her. He hadn’t reacted when I told him what I was going to do to her, never once had he tried to stop me. If he knew her, he would have reacted by now, which meant it wasn’t her he knew, but the name.
I thought back to her in that asylum, seeing her so scared had me hard as a rock. I knew how bad that asylum could be. In fact, I’d made it that bad for a good reason. They’d break her without even putting her name on the register. Then I’d know everything about Giordy and his plans without anyone interfering with her. She was mine—well, until I got my answers.
Obviously, she knew something Giordy couldn’t afford to get out. But he also knew something the Commissioner was keeping quiet. Why else would he do anything Giordy asked? This was a fucked situation, and it was going to rain corpses before Giordy conceded defeat to me. What the hell would Ebony know that has Giordy so scared he’s willing to start a war with me?
One thing at a time, and right now I needed to face my men and put a plan into action for retaliation against Giordy and his restaurant—again. Even though I owned most of the clubs in the city, I didn’t need the money from the loss of one establishment. But that wasn’t the point. This was about respect, and I’d lost all respect for Giordy Torelli a long time ago.
War had erupted, and I was going to claim victory, one way or another.
✽✽✽
The boys had assembled from all over the city. I usually kept a few of them working for me in the clubs, running them since I didn’t have the care factor for doing it myself. Most of them were great and because of that, I paid them well. I had a total of eleven clubs in the city, and all of them did exceedingly well compared to the Torelli businesses. I think that’s why Luca hated that I’d made a name for myself because he’d failed where I had succeeded, and I was still young.
“Sit.”
They all sat down at the table, and I took the head seat. My mind was reeling; Ebony knew something that Giordy didn’t want me to know. That just fuelled my desire to find out what it was.
“The fire lit by Giordy Torelli had completely burnt out the club building. It’s a no-go zone according to the marshals.”
The men groaned and argued with each other over what they wanted to do to Giordy. That kind of anger made me happy, but I was on limited time so I couldn’t let it play out like I usually did.
“We need to infiltrate his ranks, get in where it’s going to hurt him the most.”
Duncan put his hand up. “I could do it.”
“He knows you’re close to me.”
He shrugged and pointed to a man up the back I didn’t know well. “Chris is pretty good at manipulation.”
“How so?”
Chris stood up. “I know how to get people to trust me.”
“You do realize he’s going to be suspicious of people joining his ranks right now. We have to make it believable.”
Chris’ eyes narrowed. He knew exactly what I was saying, and a small part of me felt good about that.
“Whatever it takes.”
I nodded to Duncan to brief him, taking him away from the table so he couldn’t hear the next part.
“Giordy has something over Jenkins. I don’t know what it is, but I need to know how it’s going to affect us.”
“I have a contact in the Commissioner’s Office… his assistant.”
A chorus of wolf whistles went up in the air as one of the men, Leo, from the side of the room came forward.
“Who is she?”
“My ex. Well, we still fuck. We never could get our act together.”
“And she’ll divulge information to you?”
“Yeah… she has no idea I work for you.”
I nodded. “Good, make it happen. Any news about Giordy Torelli and I need to know, you hear?”
Everyone agreed, and I excused them. Walking toward the car, I spotted York smoking while talking to a woman. Never had I seen him even remotely interested in anyone. I was about to walk over and see who she was when I saw her reach up and slap him across the face, hard, his cigarette flying from his lips. He smiled, laughing as she made her way off the street and into a shop.
“Something I should know about?”
“Nah,” he responded, opening my door for me. “Just a piece of fun I was bored with.”
Smiling, I liked seeing this side of him. He got in the car and took off back to my apartment. The fire had bothered me. It wasn’t Giordy’s style to do something so flippant.
Something was up.
“What did you find out about Ebony?”
“A lot. She’s been out of prison for a few years.”
“What for?”
“Boosting cars and shoplifting from what I could read, the rest has been redacted.”
He tossed the file to me, and I opened the folder to a photo of a very disheveled Ebony in a mugshot. She looked young, but those black eyes were just as penetrating from that damn photo as they were in life.
Her mother reported her. No wonder there’s hatred there. That was good. I could use that to break her.
“Jesus, this list goes on for days. When did she start?”
“About the time her dad was sentenced to prison for life.”
Interesting. She did tell me he was a killer, but to be imprisoned for life and not death, that’s strange. I don’t know why, but I needed to find out what had happened to her.
“How long was she in prison?”
“She went back a few times. The last stint was for a year, though.”
“She said she didn’t have a lot to do with Giordy. So why would he be so worried about what she knows?”
“Last pages.”
I flipped to the back of the file for a summarized report on her. After I had read through it, I realized just how fucked up her life was. I looked down at the officer-in-charge of her report and saw the connection.
Jenkins.
Commissioner was protecting Giordy because of a fuck up when he was a cop. This was just too perfect.
I laughed, putting the file on the seat next to me. “York, take me home. I’ve got a lot of planning to do.”