Back To Me (23 page)

              “Ready?”

              Lauren’s eyes were wide as she nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m right behind ya.”

              I chuckled nervously as I cautiously removed the tissue paper. A
teddy bear?
Who in the hell would send a
teddy bear
of all things. Reacting like a child, I grabbed the soft and cuddly animal to my neck, squeezed it tightly and gave it a kiss.

              “Isn’t it adorable? But, wh…..Why in the world would someone send this?” I questioned.

              “I have no idea. Seems a bit odd,” Lauren agreed.

              “Definitely not from Raul,” I surmised. “It’s not his style.”

              “What are you going to do?” she questioned.

              “I don’t know,” I offered. “I have no idea what the hell it means.”

              As if I had been struck by lightning, it suddenly hit me why it was
so
personal. This furry little stuffed animal was the exact replica of the one I had when I was a child. My father had given it to me the night before he left, never to return. I had slept with that damn bear every night thereafter while I cried myself to sleep, praying that he’d come home. Nothing was ever right again.

              I threw the bear back into the box and put the lid on it. Shoving it in Lauren’s direction I said, “Here. Take this to Sam. She can have it.”

              I pushed my way around her and ran down the hallway, letting my tears fall. Who could have known about
that
particular bear and what did it mean? Why was I receiving it now?
My father
?

              “You okay, sweetie?” Lauren’s voice was sincere as she rubbed her hand gently over my back.

              “Yeah,” I assured. “Just got to me, you know?”

              “I can imagine. Seems creepy if you ask me. Do you have any idea who would do something like this or why?”

              “No. I don’t. Well…..” I proceeded to tell Lauren the story of my father; how he’d deserted me and my mom. How I had always longed to know where he was, but too afraid of the rejection I’d feel if I ever found him. He hadn’t wanted me all those years ago; I didn’t imagine that had changed.

30

Billy

              I had about twenty minutes left to get to the meeting with Blake. I was on edge as it was and the three cups of coffee I’d drunk with breakfast weren’t helping. I was jittery; my legs bounced and my fingers drummed the steering wheel as the radio blared some lame-ass bubble gum pop song. I didn’t pay much attention to the words, as I was too worked up to care.

              I didn’t feel good about leaving Heather alone. I could make the hour long trip to get back to her in thirty minutes if I had to, but that still gave someone an awful lot of opportune time. She’d sworn that she wouldn’t leave the house; not even open the door and I prayed she would keep her word.

              I turned onto the gravel lane and followed it up the hill and away from the interstate. No one even knew this place existed and that made it all the more perfect. It was a little secluded spot off a stretch of the highway that had been abandoned years ago, and it was far away from prying eyes and ears. I felt my blood pressure rising as I took the last turn and dipped just before topping the last hill. Blake was there waiting for me; once again looking completely at ease as he leaned up against the side of his Harley.

              I cut the engine to my truck and tossed my sunglasses on the seat. Time to get this shit over with and get back to my angel.

              “What’s up, man? How’s it going?” Blake called to me.

              “Peachy,” I deadpanned. “Let’s get this done. I need to get back.”

              Blake cocked his head to the side and gave me a puzzled look.

              “Heather. She’s alone and I don’t want her to be by herself for longer than necessary. You know, with the whole ‘someone’s been screwing around at my house’ thing.”

              “Yeah. I think I might be able to shed some light on that for ya.”

              “What the hell do you know?” I demanded.

              “Calm your wad, princess,” a low voice said. Out from behind the shade trees stepped a beastly figure. I took a cautious step backwards before realizing who it was.

              “George?” I was stunned. Really and truly flabbergasted.

              “In the flesh,” he answered with a grin. “Long time, no see, son. How’s it been going?”

              I chuckled and looked away. That was a bullshit question. He knew
exactly
how it was going. He apparently knew a helluva lot more than I did.

              “You tell me, George.” I waited for an answer that I was positive I didn’t really want.

              “I think you’d better sit down for this,” Blake suggested.

              There was a dilapidated picnic table that sat over to the side of the gravel lot. Looked like as good a spot as any. I turned towards it and began moving, never once looking to see if they would follow. I knew they were.

              “Okay, spill it.”

              “Billy, I think this might work best if we took baby steps here. There’s some pretty bi….”

              “Stop the bullshit!” I threatened. “You’re wasting my time. Tell. Me. What. You. Know.”

              I got in George’s face; completely ignoring Blake, who was doing his damnedest to get me to calm down.

              “You
will
stand down, and that’s an order.” George’s voice was calm but his demeanor was extremely callous. He wasn’t a man you wanted to tango with, despite the fact he was much older than me.

              “Now, I’ll tell ya everything you wanna know, Billy, but this shit,” he paused, pointing in my general direction, “has to stop. Get yourself in check, or you can get in your truck and drive away. I’m trying to help you, but you gotta calm the hell down.”

              I blew out an exasperated huff, but agreed. “I’m good. Sorry.”

              “Alright then, what I’m gonna tell you, Billy, stays between us. You go off playing the hero and all this hard work gets shot to hell for nothing. Got it? So let me finish what I have to say before you start throwing punches, or whatever the hell you’re gonna do.” Blake took a deep breath and then looked at George. George nodded his head, communicating for him to spill the beans. This was it. The moment of truth. Do or die. Shit or get off the pot. I was ready.

             
Oh hell, I so was not ready…..

             
“First things first,” Blake said, “We’ve found a link between Tom and Raul. The trail ended right after you were shot, but it’s picked back up.”

              “When?” I demanded, though I already knew the answer.

              Blake fidgeted. “When you came for Heather,” he mumbled under his breath.

              “Shit!”

              “Quite,” George agreed. “I have most everything from the case six years ago, but there is definitely some stuff that doesn’t add up. For starters, surveillance footage and recorded conversations are missing. I
know
they were turned into evidence, but they’ve mysteriously disappeared. I’ve checked the log books, Billy. Only the things that were processed directly through Tom are missing. That can’t be a coincidence.”

              “No. I’m sure it’s not. Obviously he’s been paid well, but he has to know it will eventually catch up to him.”

              George and Blake looked to one another, and then everywhere but at me.

              “You guys are stalling here. Either tell me what you know, or I’ll beat the information out of Tom myself,” I warned.

              “Billy, it’s not so cut and dry. There are things that even
my
boss is looking into. This goes way up the chain,” George replied.

              “When you got shot, I figured it was just Raul being Raul,” Blake interjected. “I saw how Victor reacted to him at the warehouse, and I saw the hatred in his eyes for you. It really set him off when Victor put him in his place, and he sure as hell didn’t like being overlooked for someone like you.”

              I gave Blake a puzzled look, but I knew what he meant.
Sometimes Victor had seemed to show partiality towards me over his own son. I’d never understood it, but I’d seen Raul fume more than once when Victor had ignored him to carry on a conversation with me.

              “The way I figure it,” George continued, “Blake was just a decoy. They used him to lure you to that warehouse. Victor and Raul knew the two of you were close, working most of their deals together. They knew you’d come for him.”

              “That doesn’t make any sense,” I argued. “They
brought
me to him. I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

              “Yes, but if Tom gave them the heads up… if he ousted the two of you for his own personal gain, then it’s not too farfetched to believe he set this up.”

              “But why? Why would Tom give us up? We were working for the same side.”

              “Billy, there’s one more thing you don’t know about Tom.”

              Both of the men standing before me went white as ghosts; something you don’t see in a trained agent. You don’t show emotion and you sure as hell don’t let on that whatever you’re about to reveal has made you sick to your stomach.

              “I’m listening,” I urged.

              “Billy, we’ve connected Tom to Heather.”

              “As in together,
together?”
I was beginning to feel nauseous.

              “No, but they do go back a ways,” George uttered.

              “Will one of you, please! For the love of God, just tell me what the hell is going on!” My patience had been running thin throughout this whole conversation, but I was seriously about to lose my shit!

              “Billy, Tom is Heather’s father.”

              I saw the ground coming towards me, threatening to swallow me whole, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I was dying. I was never coming back from this, and I knew Heather wouldn’t either.

              I awoke to someone slapping the side of my face. “C’mon, big guy. Wakey! Wakey!”

              “Blake, would you please stop smacking me! I’m fine!”

              I scooted back and shuffled my body around until I was in a sitting position. My hands were scraped from the rough pavement that had broken my fall.

              “What the hell? How is that possible? Heather told me about her dad leaving when she was just a little girl. She had no idea where he went, or why, and it’s devastated her all these years. She can barely talk about it. How can she handle this? I mean, shit, she’s already got Raul after her….”

“Billy, you’re rambling,” George scolded. “She’ll handle it fine. And in response to your many questions, we aren’t sure yet just how deeply Tom and Raul are involved, or who is master-minding the current events. What we do know is that apparently Tom has been playing both sides. It’s getting more and more obvious that he is working with Raul. Maybe for years. No doubt Raul has known who the two of you are for a long time. Obviously they have a deal worked out.”

              “What kind of deal?”

              “The deal where I got the shit beat outta me and you got shot,” Blake offered.

              “Oh. What about you?” I questioned Blake. “How’d you get back in if Tom ratted you out? Why would Raul want you snooping around?”

              “I’ve wondered that myself. Time and time again I’ve thought about it and I think we’ve come up with a reasonable explanation.”

              “Okay, so shoot,” I urged.

              “Planting Blake in Raul’s operation was a smart move on Tom’s part. He knew Blake would follow orders to the letter and would always be loyal to him; never giving any evidence, or reports to anyone but Tom.  As bad as it sounds, Blake, Tom almost made you a part of Raul’s ring; unbeknownst to you, of course. He’s made sure Raul kept one step ahead of the law,” George interjected.

              I thought about all they’d said, trying to quietly work it out in my head. It was a lot to take in, but it
did
make sense. As much as I wanted to believe otherwise, I was slowly starting to come to terms with the fact that Tom had been in on this all along. My boss.
My friend
. A man that I had given specific details to about the love of my life, his
daughter.

              “You okay, man?” Blake asked.

              “Yeah, just trying to sort all this shit out,” I remarked. “So, Tom and Raul started working together, and what? Raul was paying Tom off to ‘misplace’ things that could take them down?”

              “Looks that way. We don’t believe Victor was involved, however. He wouldn’t have taken kindly to Raul doing business behind his back. We have a strong suspicion that this all ties into Victor’s murder. Never could pin Raul directly to it, but we believe he’s the one responsible for pulling the trigger.”