Knowing Ito was back was one thing. Finding him and his brother in a city the size of Houston without any starting point was another. It would take time he and Shelly didn’t have to waste.
He needed the Bureau. They wanted Ito. But who could he trust? Charlie was his best friend. For sure he could trust Charlie. But once one agent knew, they would all know, and it seemed pretty obvious that someone there was leaking secrets.
And then it hit him. He could sic the Bureau onto Ito anyway by sending them this information about his whereabouts on a flash drive. They didn’t have to know where it came from or who sent it.
He dug through his stuff for an empty flash drive and, when he found one, uploaded the file that had been sent to him and dropped the flash drive in his pocket on the way out the door.
A quick ride down to an office supply netted him a small padded envelope that he addressed to Special Agent Charlie Morris, then he added the word Confidential. He wiped his fingerprints off the flash drive and sealed the envelope. The next stop was Houston’s Courier, a service he’d used before. It was all the way over on Alabama Street, but he wanted this delivered today and trusted them to do it.
It took almost an hour through traffic to reach the courier office, and when he got off his bike, he tucked his helmet under his arm and kept his sunglasses on. He walked in and slipped into the shortest line, patiently waiting his turn.
One man kept changing his mind.
The next customer couldn’t find the address in her purse.
Jack was trying not to fidget, and finally patience won out.
“Next,” the clerk said, and Jack moved up to the counter.
“This is a rush, as in within the next hour,” Jack said.
The clerk glanced at the address, quoted a price and then said nothing when Jack counted out three hundred dollars in twenties.
“A little something extra for the courier,” Jack said. “And I’ll know if it doesn’t get there on time, so don’t screw this up.”
The clerk paled. “No, sir, we wouldn’t do that. I’ll instruct the courier myself.”
Jack nodded, then turned around and walked out.
* * *
Morning arrived before Adam was through sleeping, but there was too much to do to give in to the urge to sleep all day. Yuki was still asleep when he got up, but after he walked into the kitchen, he remembered they hadn’t shopped for food, and there was nothing for their breakfast, not even tea or coffee.
He grumbled beneath his breath about what Judd Wayne had cost him in lifestyle and respect, but before they went out to eat, he needed to call the go-between who always set up the arms deals. He knew people. He had connections. He would also have the answers Adam wanted, but he wasn’t sure if he would divulge them. Selling arms was one thing. Selling out a specific man was another. He pulled up the number on his phone and hit Dial, then waited for someone to answer. When the man did answer, it was with shock.
“Are you kidding me?”
Adam’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to hello?”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I want the mole...the spy...the man who gave me up. He called himself Judd Wayne, but we both know that wasn’t his real name. I want to know what it was, and where he’s at.”
“You mistake my presence within our deals as someone who works for you, and we both know I don’t, so don’t go there. Why would you assume I would have that kind of knowledge?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. We both know why. I want his name.”
“That’s not part of our deal.”
“It is now,” Adam said. “It’s up to you. If I can’t have him, then I’m coming after you and yours, so don’t lie to me about anything, because I can find you far faster than I can find Judd Wayne.” The silence was long and telling. “Are you still there? No matter... I’ll just invite myself over to dinner one night. It’ll be a surprise. Is your wife a good cook? Oh...wait...here’s a thought. Just give me the real name of Judd Wayne, and give me the address of his wife. I’ll dine with her instead,” Adam said, and then waited. When the man spoke, the rage in his voice was unmistakable.
“You are despicable,” he whispered.
Adam smiled. Now he was getting somewhere. “Well, yes, I know that, but it’s obvious you’ve been kidding yourself about your part in our business association. This is not my country, it’s yours, and you sold her out.”
“Get a pen and paper. I’m only going to say this once.”
Adam grinned. “Start talking. I have a good memory.” He listened intently as his go-between unloaded. “Is that all?” he asked.
The man hung up on him.
His smile grew. “I guess it is.”
But now that he had the information, he needed coffee.
It took an hour for Adam to get Yuki up and dressed before they went to get breakfast.
Yuki wasn’t picky. He just wanted food. Adam chose an IHOP because he liked waffles, then Googled the closest one and put the address in the GPS on his phone. After all the years of having a chauffeur, and a few white-knuckle moments in Houston traffic, Adam was proud of himself when he drove straight to it.
Just before they entered, Adam glanced at his brother. He was so nervous he was shaking.
“Calm down. You won’t be on anyone’s radar. Just be yourself,” Adam said, and as they went inside and approached the hostess stand, he yanked the cap from his head and waited for her to look up.
“Good morning,” she said. “Is it just the two of you?”
“Yes,” Adam said softly.
“Follow me, please,” she said, and grabbed a couple of menus on her way toward their table. “Enjoy,” she said, and laid the menus on the table as they slid into the booth.
Adam glanced up, furtively checking out the customers before he decided they were of no consequence.
His waitress appeared. “Y’all want coffee?” she asked.
Yuki started to order hot tea, then saw his brother choose the coffee, so he did, as well. He watched apprehensively as she filled his cup so full that he knew it would slosh when he picked it up.
“Do you need a few minutes more with the menu?” the waitress asked.
Adam shook his head no. “Belgian waffle and bacon.”
“I will have the same,” Yuki said.
“Comin’ up,” she said, and went to turn in their orders.
Adam was breathing easy as he waited for his coffee to cool a bit, then happened to glance out the window and saw two police cruisers pulling up at the same time. Both officers got out and walked into the restaurant with such purpose that it immediately unsettled him. To his relief, they had only come to pick up to-go orders and were back in their cars and gone in under five minutes. Adam relaxed and reached for his coffee. It was finally cool enough to drink. A couple of minutes later their food was delivered, and they settled in to eat. The waitress came by, refilled their coffee cups and left the ticket.
“Thank you,” he said.
She smiled and then surprised him with a wink.
He buttered his waffles, taking delight in the butter melting into the crusty little square pockets, then chose straight maple syrup and poured until the butter floated up and pooled on top. His first bite was nothing short of ecstasy.
Yuki wolfed his down, then sat watching the precise way in which Adam cut the waffle so that each bite consisted of two squares.
“Hey, Adam?”
Adam frowned. “Do not call me by that name.”
“Sorry,” Yuki whispered.
“So what do you want?” Adam asked.
“It was nothing,” Yuki said in a soft, quiet voice.
“No...ask. We’re brothers,” Adam said.
“I guess I was going to ask what gives you pleasure. I watch the precise way in which you prepare a bite and wonder if you are as controlled in everything you do. Is there never a time when you give yourself permission to let go and enjoy?”
Adam thought about it a few moments. “I think the proper answer would be that I enjoy being in control. Can you understand that?”
Yuki nodded, still watching as Adam cut another bite, then swished it through the syrup in his plate two times before popping it into his mouth.
“Do you ever think why we are so different?” Yuki asked.
Adam shrugged. “No.”
“I do,” Yuki said. “You are handsome. I have the features of a peasant.”
Adam glanced up, studied his brother’s eyes, the big jaw and wide nostrils, and his ears—so tiny against his big head they seemed as if they would be incapable of aiding him in hearing.
“You look like our grandfather,” Adam said.
“I look nothing like him!” Yuki argued.
“I mean our mother’s father. He died before you were born. I barely remember him, but you look like him.”
Yuki smiled, showing tiny, even white teeth. “I do?”
Adam nodded and took another bite.
Yuki sighed. “I used to think I was a foundling that our parents took in. I didn’t see myself in either of them.”
Adam was shocked. “Why didn’t you ever say something?”
Yuki shrugged. “I was afraid of the answer.”
Adam sighed. The eight-year difference in their ages had probably caused part of his brother’s feeling of not belonging. He had never paid much attention to Yuki other than acknowledging him as family.
“I am sorry you have felt this way,” Adam said. “We are brothers. We will stick together, no matter what.”
The vow made Yuki happy. He needed to belong.
Adam finally finished eating, and when he got up to go pay, he left a ten-dollar tip.
Once inside his car, he entered the address of the McCann residence into the phone’s GPS. He didn’t have a clue where that was and pulled up a city map of Houston. When he found it, he frowned.
“This is a very long way from here, and I suddenly realize I should have asked if the wife had a job. I would hate to drive all that way to find her not at home,” Adam muttered.
Yuki glanced at his older brother. “If I had a laptop, I could find out where she works,” he said.
“How?” Adam asked.
“A simple search will probably do it,” Yuki said. “This sort of information isn’t difficult to track down online.”
“I have a computer back in the apartment,” Adam said.
“Then we go there first. Be wise with our time.”
Adam couldn’t disagree, even though he wanted to.
“Then we go back,” he said. “Better safe than sorry.”
Yuki gave him an odd look.
Adam shrugged. “It is an American expression.”
“I understood the meaning,” Yuki said.
Adam frowned. “Then what was that look about?”
“I have no wish to involve a woman. I do not like this side of the business.”
“She means nothing to us. Her husband does. Whatever happens makes her collateral damage.”
“What if this Jack McCann is truly already dead? What do we do with her?”
“Leave the body behind and go home.”
Yuki’s eyes widened. He didn’t want any part of killing, especially a woman. And going home? What was Adam thinking?
“But we are forbidden,” he said.
Adam turned on him in rage. “They disowned us. We are no longer bound by their orders.”
Yuki had seen that look on his brother’s face too many times not to recognize the danger.
“Then if we go home, what do we do?”
“We take them down, one by one, beginning with our father.”
Yuki sighed. “Do you really intend to kill our father?”
“He was willing to kill us,” Adam snapped.
“What about our mother?”
Adam shrugged. “More collateral damage, and we do not discuss this again.”
The drive back to their apartment was in silence.
Yuki felt like he was living a nightmare. He wanted so desperately to wake up. His brother was a monster—like their father—like the rest of the cartel. He wanted out but was now aware that would never happen. Adam would no sooner let him go than he was going to forgive their parents. The breakfast they’d just eaten felt like it was going to come up.
As for Adam, he had come back for one thing and one thing only. He didn’t know if Jack McCann was alive or not, but snatching his wife would drastically shorten the search.
Once the Ito brothers got back to their apartment, Yuki began searching sites.
Adam was pacing the floor behind him to the point that it was making Yuki nervous. He kept glancing over his shoulder, thinking Adam would get the hint, but all he did was move closer until he was literally breathing over his shoulder. Finally, Yuki shoved his chair back in anger as he spun around.
“What’s the matter with you? Do you know how to do this?” he yelled.
“No, but—”
Yuki poked a finger in Adam’s chest. “Then get off my back. I can’t concentrate with you hovering.”
“Fine,” Adam said, and he reached for the TV remote.
Yuki sat back down and resumed his search. About an hour later, he shoved the chair back again, but this time calmly.
“Shelly McCann is an accountant at Bates and Davis Accounting Firm. I have an address in downtown Houston.”
Adam glanced at the clock. It was almost 4:00 p.m. He pulled up the home address his snitch had given him and entered it into the phone’s GPS system.
“Are we going to her house now?” Yuki asked.
“Yes. We will take her as she arrives.”
They went out the door and were soon back in traffic and heading for the 610 Loop.
* * *
Charlie had some personal business to attend to after he left home. He’d missed a couple of car payments because he’d been out of the city on a case and simply forgot. He went to the bank to pay in person and explain what had happened, which got him to work a couple of hours late, but instead of an apology, he walked into the office whistling. “Who wants to see baby pictures?” he asked.
Fred Ray was the first to get up. “I do.”
Charlie pulled them up on his phone and then began flipping through a good two dozen, explaining something about each one. Fred just nodded and smiled, because the only differences were the colors of the blankets. The baby was asleep in all of them.
“Alicia says he looks like me,” Charlie said.
Fred grinned and patted him on the back. “Congrats again, Charlie. I better get back to work. I’m still sorting mail.”
Charlie’s partner, Nolan Warren, was at his desk.
“I better see those pictures so I can check out my new partner. Maybe I’ll get to train him before I retire.”
Charlie laughed. The thought of his son following in his footsteps made him proud. He went through the photos over and over as the other agents came to see. A couple of them even had the good sense to ask about Alicia.
“They’re both doing great!” Charlie said. “I am one lucky man.” Then he glanced up at the clock. “Looks like I need to get busy. The morning is going to be over before I even get started.”
The agents scattered, some leaving to work on cases and others, like Charlie, were catching up on paperwork.
Charlie had just pulled up the case on Jack McCann’s disappearance, when Fred came over to his desk and handed him an envelope.
“This was couriered here to you,” he said, and went back to his desk.
The first thing Charlie noticed was no return address. He felt the padded envelope and knew within seconds that it was a flash drive or something like it inside. He opened it carefully and, as suspected, a flash drive slid out onto his desk. He looked inside for a note of explanation, but there was nothing. He put the flash drive into a USB port in his computer and then pulled up the file. When the photo popped up on his screen, his heart skipped a beat.
From the signs in the picture, it was obviously at a Mexico/Texas border crossing. People were leaving Mexico and crossing the border in Laredo, Texas. Then he focused in on two men caught in the image taken from the security camera and realized he was looking at Adam Ito. He saw the time and date on the bottom of the photo, then frowned as he pulled up the second picture, which was a screenshot of the passports. Ito was traveling under the name Lee Tanaka and the other man was Soshi Yamada. They didn’t look alike, but Charlie wondered if he was the younger brother from Japan.
“Nolan! Come look at this,” Charlie said.
Nolan got up, grinning as he walked over. “Are you on that porn site again?”
Charlie snorted. “Be serious for a second, will you? Who does that look like to you?”
Nolan leaned closer. “Oh hell! That’s Adam Ito, isn’t it? Who’s the dude with him?”
Charlie clicked on the next picture that showed their passports.
Nolan’s eyes widened. “Those documents look forged to me. He has a brother, right?”
“In Japan. Maybe that’s where he went. But why come back?”
“My first guess would be revenge...or to make sure the man he knew as Judd Wayne is dead.”
“I’m showing this to Wainwright,” Charlie said, and grabbed the flash drive as he headed for the boss’s office.
This picture was taken a couple of days ago and proof that Ito was back in Texas. He didn’t know who sent it, and right now it didn’t matter. They just needed Ito behind bars or dead. The choice would be up to Ito once they ran him down.
Within the hour, the scramble was on. Snitches were on alert. Agents were calling in favors. All they needed was a starting point.
Agent Fred Ray was at his desk pulling up all property in the city that was registered under both Adam Ito’s name and the import/export business. Once he had the list, he sent the file to Charlie, who was lead on the case. From that point on, they had locations to search.
* * *
Jack rode past Shelly’s place of work to make sure she was there. Once he spotted her car in the parking lot, he knew she’d be safe until quitting time. He would just hang around this area and make sure to follow her home, and he trusted she would reset the security alarm once she was inside. Now that he’d alerted the Bureau to Ito’s presence, he felt confident they would be after Ito, which would leave him free to focus on nothing but keeping Shelly safe.
* * *
Unaware of the danger she was in, Shelly clocked out as usual and headed for the elevator. Mitzi was right behind her on her phone, and from the sounds of the conversation, she was in an argument with one of her two teenagers.
“You heard me,” Mitzi said. “You will not be leaving the house tonight and we’ll discuss your punishment at dinner...What are we having? Oh, I don’t know what the rest of us are having, but you’re eating crow!...What? You have to be joking! Oh! Although you’re the one who had the wreck, got the ticket and put an elderly woman in the hospital, you hate me? Ha! Just wait until your father gets home. I’m going to be your next best friend.”
Mitzi rolled her eyes and dropped her phone back in her purse as they reached the elevator.
Shelly pressed the button and then turned around and leaned against the wall as they waited for the car to arrive.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Sounds like dinner will be interesting tonight.”
“Don’t ever have children,” Mitzi muttered.
Shelly wanted to laugh, but it wouldn’t fit in with being a newly grieving widow. Then she could tell by the look on Mitzi’s face, she’d just realized what she’d said.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about anything but my dumb-ass daughter. Today, because she was texting and driving, she put a woman in the hospital. Thank God the hubster has full coverage on all of our vehicles. If we’re sued, we’re still protected. We may never be able to afford food again when the rates go up, but oh well.”
The door opened. A man got off, nodded at them in passing as Shelly and Mitzi got on.
“Is your daughter hurt?” Shelly asked.
Mitzi’s eyes welled. “Not yet,” she said.
Shelly gave Mitzi a quick hug.
“I’m sorry, honey!”
Mitzi sighed. “Thank you. You just never know, do you?”
“No, you don’t,” Shelly said, then picked her things back up and moved aside as another half-dozen people got on.
Two more stops and they were finally at the ground floor. They walked outside together, and then Shelly went one way and Mitzi another to get to their cars.
Shelly thought about Mitzi as she drove. It wasn’t just about a wreck. Her daughter had been at fault and a woman was injured. That was very serious business. She said a quick prayer for the injured woman’s healing and then took the on-ramp onto the 610 Loop, so ready to be home.
* * *
Jack was sitting on the Indian less than a block away from Shelly’s workplace, waiting for her to exit the building. He had eyes on both the exit and her car, so he knew he wouldn’t miss her. And when he finally saw her walking out beside Mitzi, his heart skipped a beat.
“Love you so much,” he said softly, and then put his helmet on and started up the bike.
When Shelly left the parking lot, Jack was four cars behind her. He followed her up the on-ramp to the 610 Loop, then got in another lane to keep a better eye on her.
They’d been on the loop for a good twenty minutes and were less than a mile from their exit when the driver of the car just behind Shelly suddenly swerved into the lane to his left, colliding with the car beside him and shoving it over another lane. Jack was frantically weaving his way through traffic to get to the other side of the road before he got nailed, too. Cars behind the initial wreck were all slamming on their brakes as the chain reaction grew and grew. He had one last glimpse of Shelly driving safely away, while he got stuck on the other side of the freeway, blocked in by wrecked cars and smoking debris as he rode his bike to a halt.
The man in the truck in front of him was climbing down from the cab. He had a small cut on his forehead as he turned around and looked behind them, and then looked at Jack.
“Ain’t this a fuckin’ mess! What do you want to bet someone was texting?”
“The odds are that you’re likely correct, so I’ll pass on that bet. Did you call this in?”
The trucker blinked. “I didn’t even think about it.”
“911 is probably getting dozens of calls, but I’m not going to assume. I’ll call it in, too, and then I’ve got to find a way out of here.”
“Good luck,” the trucker said, eyeing the motorcycle. “You have the best chance, that’s for sure.”
Jack called 911, reported the accident and the location and then started his bike back up and began slowly winding his way through the piled-up cars until he reached the exit and took it. He wasn’t all that far behind Shelly, but the fact that he’d lost sight of her made him nervous. He wouldn’t rest easy until he knew for sure she was safe inside their house.