“Yes?”
“She had two sisters, a brother, and a fiancé. Her name is Lauren Michael. She likes cheese pizza and can eat more than any of us guys, but she’s a tiny little thing. She reads romance novels, but is still tougher than sin, and handles a gun better than most men. Oh, and her father was killed by a drugged-up dude on the street for the twenty bucks he had in his pocket. Bring her home, Luke.” The line went dead.
Luke held the phone to his forehead. Damn it. Damn it to hell. Think man. Think your way out of this. He cut a sideways look at Julie, an ache in his heart just looking at her. She trusted him to keep her safe and he couldn’t fail.
“Mister?”
Luke looked up to find a kid not more the twelve standing beside him. The kid shoved an envelope at him. Luke accepted it. “Who’s it from.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know him but he gave me a hundred bucks.” He took off for the door.
Luke ripped open the card.
If you want to work with me, you need to know the price of crossing me. I can get to you, or your playmate, or your brothers, or anyone I damn well please, any time, any place. Be at the Staten Island Ferry waiting for pick-up at eight sharp and bring Ms. Harrison.
Luke inhaled deeply, the sound of Julie’s voice as she and her client stood up and shook hands catching his attention. He slid the note into his briefcase and shut his computer.
She walked over to him and sat down, hanging her briefcase on the chair. “Did you hear the news? About the two dead teenagers?”
With grim acceptance of where this was leading, he gave a nod. “I heard.”
“I have to go with you,” she said. “I have to.”
Luke knew he’d been backed into a corner, that he had a choice to make and make quickly. He could kidnap her and hide her away someplace safe. She’d hate him, but she wouldn’t be dead. Or he could do something that might also make her hate him, but would keep her alive, as well.
“I got a call today,” he said. “I’m to be at the Staten Island Ferry at eight tonight, alone. Seems Arel didn’t agree with the judge’s guest list.”
She studied him long and hard, seeing way too much. “You’re trying to protect me, aren’t you?”
Her cell phone rang in her hand and she sighed. “It’s Gina. It might be about my meeting that I pray is cancelled.” She answered the call and listened a moment.
“Okay,” she finally said. “I’ll swing by there. I’m close anyway. Tell the partners I might be a few minutes late to the meeting.” She hung up. “Gina’s purse was stolen. She has a key to my apartment from cat-sitting and thought I should have my locks changed. I’m only two blocks from here. I want to swing by and check on things and tell the doorman.”
***
Luke’s bad feeling got worse when they arrived at Julie’s building to find the power was off, and the doorman had his hands full calming tenants and trying to get answers.
He and Julie walked the stairs and when they got to her floor, he took her key and unlocked the door. He held her back and shoved the door open. Everything she owned had been destroyed. The walls were spray-painted, her couches shredded.
“Oh God,” Julie gasped, holding onto the wall. “Who would do this?”
“Call the police,” Luke said, pulling his gun from his pants and heading inside. “I’ll look around.”
Luke found her bedroom in the same shape as the rest of the place but what really struck him as odd was her clothes had been all cut up.
He headed back to the hallway to find Julie just hanging up with the police. “They’re on their way.”
“Everything you own is shredded,” he said. “Even your clothes.”
She took a deep breath and leaned on the wall. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’d say what happened in there was out of hatred, and that Gina is a good suspect, but that seems too obvious.”
“What are you saying?”
“Someone might want that journal,” he said. “And if they know Gina hates you, then she’s a perfect cover.”
“I didn’t even know she hated me,” she argued.
“Which means it has to be someone intimate with Gina. And someone smart enough to cut the power so the cameras wouldn’t be working.”
“The judge, maybe?” Julie asked.
“Maybe.”
“But haven’t you been watching him?”
“We have him under surveillance,” he said. “But we could have missed something before we were fully operational. Calls could be made from disposable phones or lines we don’t have access to. There are three people we know of that would want the journal. The judge, this Dragonfly person, and Arel, if he knows it exists.”
“You think he does?”
“You never underestimate a man like Arel.” Which was why Luke wasn’t taking Julie with him to the party.
“There’s no way out of this, is there?” she asked. “We’re in too deep with too many bad people.”
“Hey now,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. “That’s not true. They want the journal, not you.”
“They tried to kill us by the pizza place, Luke. They think I – we – know what’s in it, and we do.”
“We’ll take down the judge and we’ll get Dragonfly,” he promised.
“You don’t even know who Dragonfly is.”