Chapter Nine
Christine
The bun I had swept my hair into was too tight, but I forced myself to leave it alone. I wanted to draw as little attention to myself as possible. I shoved open the door of the bar and left the daylight behind. Inside the bar was dimly lit by small, porthole windows that were mostly covered by old neon signs. The jukebox had been unplugged, and the television turned up so the scattered regulars could finish watching some game.
I couldn't even look. I was too nervous. Then I spotted Dena.
She was sitting on the fifth bar stool, just as she told me she would. Her white-blond pixie hair was hidden under a bright red wig. It would have been laughable, except as I watched a middle-aged man claimed the stool next to her and offered her another drink.
I was supposed to head directly to the back of the bar but I paused as the man gave her a lurid look.
"Let me guess, you like sweet drinks, don't you, sugar? How about you let me buy you one?" He licked his lips.
"Maybe next time," the undercover DA said.
The man gave her a grin. "So there'll be a next time?"
"No." Dena was relieved to see me and immediately called the bartender to settle her bill.
I did as she had told me and headed back to the short hallway and the bathrooms. I jumped half a foot in the air when a thin man appeared from the shadows. He had been leaning on the wall where the old pay phone used to be, but now he pushed off and walked past me, still chatting away on his cell phone.
I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the women's bathroom. Inside, I immediately gripped my purse strap. I did not want to touch anything in the vile bathroom. Green paint the color of fungus was covered in patches by a different shade that only partially covered the lewd graffiti underneath. Clearly the bar didn't get a lot of women, and Dena was right, it was the perfect place for an 'off the books' meeting. Trying to be brave, I peeked in the first stall, then had to smother a scream. Aaron had appeared behind me without a sound.
My mind screamed, I don't want to die in this disgusting bathroom.
"The DA will be here any second," I squeaked out instead.
Aaron nodded and didn't say a word. Though I could tell by his stiff movements, he felt the same way I did about the meeting space.
"Please tell me I am never going to have to have another meeting like this," Dena said as she swung into the bathroom. "It's going to take three scalding showers to get rid of this place."
Aaron's lips quirked up, a terrifying mimicry of a smile, and Dena stopped short.
"Dena, this is Aaron. He's the one I told you about," I said.
"Nice to meet you." Dena extended a hand and Aaron blinked at it before giving her a quick shake.
"I'm sorry to call you and make you do this but I didn't know any other way. He can't get caught, and I don't know the first thing about wires and—"
Dena held up a hand and stopped me. "If you really think you can get Balducci to talk about it, then I'm all for it. Just remember, no whips, no spanking, no duress this time."
"Balducci trusts me," Aaron said.
"But does he talk to you?" Dena asked. "Because you don't strike me as a chatty kind of guy."
Aaron shook his head. "That's why I need Christine."
"And that's where I start to hate this plan," Dena said. "You know you don't have to do this, right? We'll get him one way or another."
"No," I said. "I've let this take over and I need it to be finished. I want to go back to living."
Dena gave me a faint smile. "All right. Fine. I'll give you the wire as soon as you tell me your contingency plan. How are you going to get out of there if everything goes wrong?"
Aaron straightened his narrow shoulders and spoke in a cold tone. "She said she'd help me. I'll die for her."
Dena suppressed a shudder. "That is terrifying but convincing. I'm going to take that as a promise."
I took the wire and handed it to Aaron. He turned toward the grimy mirror and started taping it in place.
"Thanks, Dena. I know this is crazy, but it feels like the only way," I said.
"What about Slade? Didn't you say he had some scheme cooking?" Dena asked.
Aaron's pale face watched me from the mirror. "Slade has to stay away."
He finished buttoning up his white shirt and shrugged his suit coat back into place. There was nothing left to do except go. My hands were shaking but I nodded. "All right. I'm ready."
"One block over," Aaron said and left the bathroom without a sound.
Dena grabbed my shoulder. "You can't be serious about this. That man is cold killer. The police have a file on him two inches thick but no one can ever get anything to stick. How can you trust him?"
I gave her a grim smile. "We made a deal. He wants out but that will never happen with Balducci still around. Once he's in jail, Aaron can finally disappear."
"Guys like him don't just retire," Dena said.
"I'm sorry, Dena, I know I've put you in a terrible position."
She shook her head. "No, you're right. Balducci is the bigger fish and this is our best chance. Good luck."
I left the bar quickly and headed the direction Aaron had pointed. On the corner, I paused long enough to see a redhead emerge from the dark bar. Then Aaron's arm slipped around my neck, and I saw the flash of a short knife.
A car drove up onto the curb in front of us, and the back door flew open. "That's her. The boss will be happy. He wants us to bring her to the office."
"Get in," Aaron said.
I slipped into the car and tried to hold it together as we sped off down the street. "Think the boss will be happy when I tell him about the knife at my throat?" I snapped.
The two men in the front seats chuckled but Aaron said nothing. His co-workers, clearly accustomed to his silence, chatted about possible rewards. Then the driver took a sharp detour and stopped in front of a warehouse loading door. The passenger sprang out, hauled open the doors, and waved us in.
"This is Balducci's office?" I asked.
"Multi-purpose," the driver chuckled. He drove to the far end of the warehouse and turned the car off.
Aaron motioned with the knife and I climbed carefully out of the backseat. Balducci was descending a metal staircase like a Roman emperor with his hands outstretched.
"Christine, dear, glad you could make it. Better get ready, boys, security cameras say she's got a shadow," Balducci said.
Aaron stiffened and brought the knife closer to my throat. I couldn't turn my head to look but I heard the crash. A cement block broke through a window and suddenly Slade was charging across the wide expanse of the warehouse. Two men met him but they were down in a few punches. Three more charged Slade and it took another two men before they could subdue him.
Balducci laughed the entire time until Slade was zip-tied to the metal staircase below him. Then he cleared his throat loudly. "Well, Aaron. Whaddya say? Slade just went and made your work a hell of a lot easier."
Aaron surprised everyone by saying, "Thank you."
While the men laughed, I caught Slade's eye. He was furiously chafing the plastic zip-tie along the rough metal banister, but he stopped when he saw me. "I'm sorry, Christine. I'll get you out of this, I promise."
I was too angry to speak. He was going to mess everything up and get himself killed in the middle of it!
"Sounds to me like Christine is making her choice." Balducci strolled down the last few steps and swaggered across the warehouse floor to me. "Ready to negotiate?"
"You don't have anything I want," I said.
He waved back a reluctant Aaron. "You mean to tell me you've let it all go? Mourning period over? No more questions about your sister's murder? What a shame. Because I brought someone I thought you wanted to meet."
Slade started swearing as Darren was hauled out of a side room by Balducci's bruised men.
"Sorry, Slade, but everyone here knows this is all your fault. You thought you could quit and move on. No one leaves this organization unless it's in a body bag," Balducci said. "I can't have exceptions to the rule, because it encourages people like poor Darren here to try the same thing."
"What are you going to do to him?" I cried.
Balducci swung back to me with a wide grin. "Oh, so I might have something you're interested in after all."
I smoothed my hair down and hoped no one saw my hand shaking. "If you let him go, we can finally talk business. You know that I'm your key to a whole new world. You want out of your old territory, and I can make sure you fit in on our block."
Balducci waved one of his men over and took a knife from his belt. Then he twirled it around, catching his own smile in the reflection. "I thought about that and, you know. The whole move is going to change everything, the way we operate. Made me nostalgic for the old ways."
I wanted to run to Slade but Aaron stepped closer and laid a cold arm on my arm.
"See, I need to make sure my men understand that the changes don't mean I'm weak. Same rules apply. Once you're in, you stay in. No one gets out," Balducci said.
"You really think you can kill us both and no one will notice?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. We might have business together again, down the line, neighbor. What I'm going to do is a little housekeeping. Slade is going to get rid of Darren here, and then he's going away to jail for a long time."
I wrenched my arm away from Aaron. "And why would Slade do that?"
"Because if he doesn't, Aaron will make you suffer," Balducci said.
Aaron's hand caught me and squeezed hard. My heart stumbled as his knife slid up to my throat again. What if I had been wrong about everything? My sister had always warned me that my bravado made me trust the wrong people.
Aaron squeezed my arm again, and I remembered this was what we had been waiting for. "Is that what happened to my sister?" I cried out.
Balducci grinned. "See? I told you she was quick. She's already figured out how the game is rigged."
"Is that why you murdered my sister?" I lunged at Darren, bringing Aaron and I to center stage. "He threatened you so you killed her to save yourself?"
"No," Darren yelped before the man on his left delivered a punishing blow to his jaw.
"It was so easy to make him say 'yes,'" Balducci continued. "The poor schmuck was in love with your sister. They were planning to run away together. Darren had a choice, in the end. Either he killed the girl or he would watch her suffer more. Aaron might not say much, but he's a maestro with a knife."
Slade ripped free of his restraints and lunged at Aaron. I screamed, sure that all our careful planning had just been torn apart. The two men grappled but suddenly Slade went limp.
"No, you didn't!" I screamed at Aaron and dropped to the ground next to Slade, checking for knife wounds.
Slade was untouched. In one swift move, he stood up, shielding me from Balducci's men. "I'll come back," he said through clenched teeth. "If I see Christine walk out of here safe, I'll come back and work for you again."
"Your life for hers?" Balducci asked. "Done."