I thought about Jeanette all through my lunch meeting in Detroit. And by lunch meeting I meant that Eddie and I stood around the table looking intimidating while Chaz ate and entertained his guests.

Maybe intimidating wasn't the right word.

Eddie is Chaz's gunman. His personal protection. There is nothing scary looking about Eddie except for maybe how shockingly bright red his hair and freckles are. He kept it short, but it still shone like a stop sign in a headlight and his goatee made a rusty stain across his naturally pale face. He was pretty thin, nothing much to look at, but he wore his gun holster on the outside of his pants and that's as menacing as some people needed to be to get their point across. Eddie always stands right next to Chaz. Even if Chaz is sitting, like he was at the moment, Eddie was always standing nearby, like an accessory, ready to pull the trigger. We didn't call him Fast Eddie, or any other kind of nickname, but make no mistake, Eddie was fast enough when he needed to be.

Gordon was positioned on the other side of the closed door, kind of keeping tabs on anyone coming in or out of the room. The guests didn't bring in any muscle with them, which was either ballsy or smart depending on how you wanted to look at it. Gordon had graying hair and a receding hairline. He looked like someone's damn grandpa. Like he had a golden retriever that fetched his paper for him every morning and he liked to fly fish in the country on the weekends. I don't know what the hell Gordon liked to do for fun, but I'd seen the guy drop a body without blinking, just because Chaz showed him the appropriate amount of dollars. Gordon was probably the scariest guy I had ever met, mostly because he was just so damn nice all the time. He was the same way with killing. Ask a person how's the weather and then blow out the back of their head. He was definitely a man to keep track of after my deals were done.

It was my job to keep an eye on everybody. To be quiet. To just watch. Chaz liked me because I kept my cool. I wasn't prone to emotional outbursts and I didn't interrupt or try to voice my opinion. All the qualities of a good underling. Also, qualities of a good spy, but Chaz didn't need to know that. The whole point of me going undercover in his operation was to find out why he was sweating my grandma's restaurant so bad. It was just an upscale Italian place. We loved it because it was ours, but why would a guy like Chaz care about it? He went after my family like the building was on an untapped cache of oil or something.

There had to be a reason, but I hadn't found it yet. The best I could do right now was make sure I was the guy sent to hassle the family – and protect them from whatever the hell Chaz was planning on throwing their way. I just hoped they could keep from blowing my cover until it was all over, and not completely hate me by the time that happened.

I would have liked nothing more than to focus on the reason I was standing in the corner playing wise guy for Chaz Malone in the first place, but I couldn't help thinking of Jeanette and her runaway bride routine as I stared across the table at the guy who had spooked her in the first place. Was it some kind of coincidence? Not in my line of work. I let my gaze roam around the room like I was supposed to, but I never let that pasty-faced doughboy out of my sight. Fresh-faced and eager, he was definitely the sidekick. I knew he was the sidekick because he kept eating while Chaz and the other guy talked. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the kid, he ate his fucking pasta salad with his hands. Just picked away at it – a little piece of tomato, a piece of rotini. Did they not have forks in bum fuck New York, or whatever upstate country town they came from? What the hell were they even doing here?

As gross as his eating habits were, I shouldn’t have been concerned for him, his boss was the real trouble. He was the type of guy who was used to being in control. I could tell by his posture as he sat perfectly straight in his chair, seemingly relaxed but still on guard. He was casually taking in everything around the room, making special note of Eddie, and also myself. As his gaze passed over me I met his stare unflinchingly. Alpha to alpha.

I already didn’t like this guy.

It didn’t surprise me when he said he was a cop. I knew a lot of cops, some of them good and some of them less good. I had never had one walk into a meeting with a crime boss and straight announce their profession like he was listing a/s/l in an online chat.

He was super fucking proud of it too.

I wanted to know what the hell this meeting was about, but as a lackey it wasn’t my place to ask questions. It wasn’t even my place to speak unless Chaz asked me to. My job was to be a fucking piece of furniture and observe everything. Funny thing though, the cop in the chair seemed to be super interested in observing me. And nobody was saying shit until lunch was over, but the only person still eating was the dufus sidekick who was still picking at his plate like he had the manners of a monkey. He didn’t even seem to notice that he was the only one still hoovering the deli platter until he looked up and saw four pairs of eyes staring at him like he was a museum display.

Without having the intelligence to even look embarrassed he pushed his plate forward on the table and prissily dabbed at his mouth with a paper napkin. Fuck, finally.

Chaz was the first to speak.

“So what did I do to deserve the honor of having an officer of the law request a meeting with me? Detroit, Michigan is quite the ways away from Bethel, New York isn’t it? I would think you would find us a bit…urban for your liking.”

Yikes, Chaz started off by pretty much calling the new guy a country bumpkin. I’d never even heard of Bethel, but the way Chaz said it, you would think it was settled right smack in between “The hills” and “over yonder.”

The blonde giant in the chair didn’t flinch, didn’t change his posture, and didn’t let on in any way that he knew Chaz had just insulted him. He just smiled a friendly smile, and when he did, alarm bells went off in my head. Nobody is that cool in a meeting with a crime boss. No one is that dumb. This guy knows exactly what he is doing. What is his game?

“As you know, my name is David Ashley, and I am a Sullivan County Sherriff. However, not only am I quite far out of my jurisdiction, I’m not here in a professional capacity at all. My needs are more of a personal nature.” He inclined his head conspiratorially, as if just that statement would let us in on his little secret. This guy was a colossal douche, and I wondered what Chaz made of him, but as I looked over at Chaz, he just looked back at David, unblinking, resting his chin on the tips of his tented fingers, looking politely interested. Clearly Chaz was waiting for the man to continue.

David continued, unperturbed by the silent tension in the room. Maybe not tension, more like curiosity. Who was the cop with the balls big enough to waltz into the office of a legit bad guy and demand his attention? Good guys didn’t do that. Bad guys who thought they were tough shit did. I hated dirty cops.

I glanced at Eddie who didn’t look at me, but I saw him shift his weight from one foot to the other and saw the muscles in his right arm drawn up tight, like he wasn’t sure if he was going to have to draw or not. So Eddie didn’t like this guy either, huh?

“I’m looking for a missing person. Not just a person, my fiancée.” David looked around the room, gauging the reaction. I don’t know if he expected Chaz to have some sort of reaction to his revelation, but Chaz didn’t move. Just kept looking at the guy across the table from him. I knew what was happening. Chaz was getting that “man in charge” vibe from him too, and it grated his nerves. Chaz didn’t do well with other alphas. Chaz was the boss. He liked having me around because I did the work, kept my mouth shut and answered him with a “Yes sir,” like all good little bitch boys should. And I would continue to do so until I got the answers I needed about Affini’s and why he was so hot to wreck things for my Non.

This David guy though, he didn’t get the way the hierarchy worked. He wasn’t disrespectful with his words, but his posture and his tone of voice all screamed out “I’m bigger than you and I’m better than you.” It was quite the interesting combination. Interesting and dangerous.

“Gabriella Hensley disappeared a little over six years ago. I followed her trail but came up to a dead-end somewhere in Buffalo County, Nebraska. I found her car, abandoned at a bus station but no record of her buying a ticket anywhere. I don’t suspect foul play, but she has a mental condition and could be confused. It’s possible she wouldn’t remember who she is, and that’s why she hasn’t been able to make her way home. Without her medication she tends to live in a bit of a fantasy world - delusions if you will, and it is possible she has fabricated an entirely new identity. I’d given up hope of ever finding her again, but by some miracle my associate here, Justin, happened to be at an auction in Toledo and swears he saw someone that looks remarkably like her, even though admittedly there were some differences.”

Chaz broke his silence for the first time. “What does any of this have to do with me?” I was wondering the same fucking thing but seeing that Justin kid at the table just a few days after he scared the shit out of Jeanette was giving me a twisted feeling in my gut. This could very well be a coincidence, but puzzle pieces were starting to click together, and I didn't like the big picture.

Six years ago. Jeanette had been with Gabe about six years. He met her somewhere out west on some assignment. Nebraska was almost a straight shot between New York and Oregon, the perfect place to ditch a ride and get a new one. The perfect place to throw someone off your scent if you were trying to ditch them. Well, that was all speculation there, but the timeline was damned suspicious. Gabe had always been really protective of Jeanette. I wondered if he had picked her up as an amnesiac somewhere. Still, what did any of this have to do with Chaz?

“Honestly, I’ve exhausted all of my legal resources. And let’s be realistic, getting information on the underground is much easier than getting it from regular sources. She hasn’t so much as blipped on the radar in all these years. Not a petty crime, not a hospital stay, nothing. I’ve been searching and searching. It would never even occur to me that she would be in Northwest Ohio and if it weren’t for Justin running into that girl at the event last week, I still wouldn’t have thought it possible. It was complete serendipity that he happened to move out of state and take a job in Bedford.”

David turned and focused his laser blue stare at the guy sitting next to him, who seemed to finally lose his oblivious attitude and seemed to shrink back from his gaze. “I always thought you were a bit of a whiny shit for quitting the force and taking a desk job, but it seems that this has worked out in my favor.” David smiled at Justin, and the much younger man beamed in response, desperate for the kind word of his former superior officer. Hero worship. Gross.

He slid a picture across the table at Chaz, who picked it up and glanced at it, then set it back down, zero recognition on his face. David continued, unperturbed by Chaz’s nonchalant attitude. “Truly, if Justin hadn’t been in the right place at the right time, he never would have seen her. From what I understand she looks a bit different than that photo, but time can change a lot of things about a person, especially someone who might not remember who she really is.”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with me, or why you are wasting my time with this bullshit story, because I could give a rat’s ass about some woman that took off after you had a lover’s spat.”

“Gabriella and I did not have spats.” David said the words like they tasted like hot garbage in his mouth. “She is just very codependent, and if not properly looked after tends to wander off. I looked after her the best I could, when having an episode, she really needed almost constant supervision.” He looked at Justin to confirm his statement and the lackey nodded his head in agreement.

“I wasn’t really close with Gabriella, considering by the time I got on the force she was pretty much a shut-in and didn’t associate with the guys much. But I remember what she looks like.” The younger man wrinkled his brows and his pudgy jowls wiggled as he shook his head. “I’m not sure what it was about that girl I saw, but sometimes it’s not about a look. It could be an expression, posture, I dunno. It was something. Enough of a likeness for me to call the boss and let him know. No stone left unturned, yeah?”

“The reasons this concerns you, Mr. Malone, is because the person she was with at the party was one of your employees.” David Ashley swung his gaze over to me and Chaz’s followed suit. Oh shit, here we go. I wasn’t planning on telling Chaz that I took Jeanette to that party. I was supposed to be getting in good with Vanessa and creating havoc for the Affini’s in general. That’s all I needed was for someone to tell Chaz that he saw us being all chummy at the auction. Shit shit.

“And how did you come by that information?” Chaz wanted to know who had his name in their mouth, I could tell by the hard edge in his voice.

“I asked the pretty dark-haired broad he’d been chatting up earlier.” The New York was coming out in Justin’s speech, he must have been getting comfortable. Who the hell actually says broad anymore when talking about a female?

“Actually, I believe her words were, ‘That piece of shit jackass works for Chaz Malone. And they can both fuck off and die.’”

Damn Vanessa. Part of me cringed inwardly at being called a piece of shit by my sister, but the other half of me was proud of her for not blowing my cover, even though she was angry enough at me that she could have. That wasn’t anything new though, Vanessa had pretty much grown up angry at me. Angry for being the son of a woman other than her mother. Of being that “thing” that kept her from her perfect happy family. What was one more reason for her to be angry? I couldn’t blame her much, our family life was fucked up.

“So you asked for this meeting so you could ask Dino some questions?” Chaz spoke softly, which was a direct indication that his patience was wearing thin and David Ashley as well as Justin Some-fucking-Nobody had better tread carefully. This reeked of a waste of his time. It was not good to waste Chaz’s time. He set Gordon after people for lesser offenses.

“Of course not,” David covered smoothly. “I can do that on my own time, without wasting any of yours. I need to check this woman’s background first, but then, if it turns out that this woman is my Gabriella, then it might,” he paused as if searching for the correct term, “get messy.”

“I might need some help from some of your associates. I wouldn’t dream of involving them without your permission.” David smiled, and this time it wasn’t a friendly smile. It wasn’t an easy smile. It was the calculated smile of a man who knew exactly how to grease the proper wheels to make the machine run smoothly. “I would compensate you appropriately for their time, of course.”

Ok, so this made more sense. This David guy was looking for a woman for a reason, but bad enough that he was willing to pay Chaz to farm us out as hired help. He didn’t go to the local police, and throw his weight around there, and that raised a shit ton of red flags for me. As a cop, you would think he would lean on the blue buddy network, but he didn’t want to do that. Why?

“Dino, come here and take a look at this picture. You recognize this girl? She the chick who he says you were out with last week?” There was no harm in looking.

The picture was a candid photo of a young woman with dark, shoulder-length hair cut in a curly stacked bob. The kind that is cut higher in the back than it is in the front. There was a blue stripe in one of her face-framing layers and it accentuated the brown of her eyes. She wore a black figure-hugging shirt with the shoulders cut out and dark red lipstick. She was laughing at something outside of the camera frame and I vaguely wondered what it could be that would bring that joyful expression to a young woman’s face. She looked wild, carefree and untamed.

So unlike Jeanette Clary.

I handed the picture back to Chaz. In my honest opinion, there was a bit of a resemblance, but the things that were different were too different. I could have been looking at a pic of a cousin, or even a little sister, but Jeanette? Something inside was urging me to be cautious. I didn’t think this girl was Jeanette, but between this guy, and her reaction at the auction last week, something wasn’t adding up. I wasn’t about to give this asshole anything though.

“She doesn’t look anything like her to me, but that’s all I can tell you. This Gabriella girl is way curvier, her chest looks like two handfuls while Jeanette’s is…” I let myself trail off. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything negative about Jeanette’s admittedly smaller chest. Not when I’d seen her in that second skin dress and fantasized about peeling it off of her so I could feast on what was underneath.

“Aside from the photo, and I agree there can be things that can change in a person’s appearance,” David added, “but she also has a tattoo on her left wrist that says “David,” she got it done shortly after we got engaged.” That smug look showed exactly how much he liked having his name on someone else’s body. A form of ownership, probably.

“I can’t say I have ever seen a tattoo on Jeanette at all.” Not that I had ever had the chance to look for one, but the wrist is usually something that would stand out.

There’s a small resemblance,” I continued, “but I can’t say I think you have the right girl.” I ignored David, and addressed Chaz, further imprinting on the room that Chaz was the boss, the one in charge. The only one I answered to. “Also, I think you should know, Jeanette works for Gabe Anderson.”

It was the barest twitch of his right eye, but I knew my words hit home. Money was very important to Chaz Malone, and Gabe Anderson had a lot of it. It wasn’t too long ago that Chaz had gotten his hands on Gabe’s girlfriend Angel, and he had paid an ass load of cash to get her back. Even paid an extra chunk just to make sure Chaz stayed the fuck out of Gabe and Angel’s business. Jeanette may not have fallen directly into those parameters, but she was close enough that Chaz was going to think twice about jumping into that with both feet.

He eyed me thoughtfully. “You close with this Jeanette?”

“I wouldn’t say close,” I lied smoothly. That was what I was good at, lying. Telling stories to deflect the truth. “I fucked her a couple of times, but we don’t really have what you would call a relationship.” Ugh, she would bust my ass for even saying it. I don’t think you can count “sexual tension” as fucking. One we had plenty of, and the second I had never even gotten close. I didn’t even like to think of her and that word. Jeanette was a damn lady and she was the type of woman you made love to, not a quickie in the dark. “She’s how I knew about Gabe, but we don’t really know that much else about each other. It was just sex.”

Don’t pump me for information you fuck sticks.

I happened to glance over at David right then, and I can’t explain why I did it, but I’ll never forget the look on his face. Rage. His good guy masked had slipped a bit, and while that small friendly smile was still pasted on, his eyes were full of homicidal promises. This was a fucking scary guy, if a person had a tendency to be afraid of others, which I did not. But I know batshit crazy when I see it, and I think that if it had just been him and I in that room, he would have cut my fucking throat for saying I had sex with Jeanette. Or Gabriella, or whomever he thought she was. Regardless of whether or not Jeanette was the person he was looking for, if she was in his line of sight, she was probably in danger. That raised my hackles, thinking of either of these guys putting their hands on Jeanette.

Chaz had been watching the situation carefully, a calculated gleam that I didn’t feel really good seeing in his eyes. He cleared his throat and rested his hands on the table, pushing his chair out from behind him as he stood. By standing, he signaled to the rest of us that the meeting was about to be over, everyone else seemed to get that except for the vacant-eyed lackey, Justin. David stood as well, waiting to hear Chaz’s final notes.

“Dino, I have a new assignment for you. Ease off the Affini’s for a bit, I want you to check into your friend, Jeannette. How long have you known her?”

“Probably about four or five years give or take?” I answered his question with a question. One, because I wasn’t sure of the exact answer myself without thinking back on it, and two, I didn’t want to lean too far in one direction with these guys. It was best to remain as impassive and unaffected as possible. Letting someone like Chaz Malone know you had a weakness or a soft spot for something was asking him to set it on fire in front of you to prove a point. Let him think I wasn’t really that worried about it. Shrug it off. And ease off the Affini’s? What was that about? I was so close to finding out what his issue was and he was just pausing it for the moment?

“David, for the right price I will put Dino on loan for you, however, he reports to me, not to you. I will decide any action regarding this woman should we confirm that she is who you are looking for, which, judging by what Dino says is highly unlikely. Now, you can give Dino any information that you have regarding this Gabriella Hensley, and he can do his comparisons and report back.” Chaz smiled his oily shark smile, the one that meant he was about to strike a very lucrative deal. "Now tell me, regarding compensation, how important is it to you that you find this girl?”

David’s mask slipped almost completely off then, and even Justin paled visibly in the chair next to him as he said in the most chilling voice I had ever heard, “She means more to me than anything. Than my money. Than my badge. Than the lives of everyone in this room.”

I held my breath while Chaz processed what sounded like a thinly veiled threat. Then he threw back his head and laughed, pleased about something, but I wasn’t sure what.

“Dino, here is her photo. You have her name. Do what you do best and get the information for David. Fuck it out of her if you have to. Let me know what you find out. David,” he said as he walked around the table to shake hands with the crazy cop, “let’s talk compensation.”

I knew when I had been dismissed. I knocked on the door, twice hard, once soft and Gordon opened the door.

“Party over?” he said amicably as I walked out and shut the door behind me.

“Just for me,” I replied, still thrown off by how a contract killer could look so much like a cookie cutter grandpa. “Got new orders from the boss, see you around, Gordon.” He just nodded at me as I walked down the hall and through the open warehouse of the storage facility that doubled as Chaz’s headquarters.

So he wanted me to lay off the Affini’s? Not fucking likely. I would never stop until I knew what his issue with my family and the Affini restaurant was. And even then, I still wouldn’t stop until I put an end to it. Until then it looked like I was pulling double duty.

Gabriella Hensley, huh? Just who was she and why was she being hunted?