Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way) (2 page)

Of course I couldn't be here without being interrupted so the knock at the door fifteen minutes later was no big surprise.

"Come in." I barely took my eyes off of what I was doing as one of my day managers came in. Starling was supermodel beautiful with the looks and the body to make it on any runway in the world but preferred to have the life she led working for me during the day and being at home with her husband and kids at night.

"What's up Star?"

"You flew the coop again didn't you Hanky?"

I wish she'd stop calling me that shit; she's the only one who does and no matter how much I threatened her with termination and all manner of bodily harm she refused to relent. I chose to ignore her disrespect and focused instead on her cryptic question, the girl’s nuts so who knew what the hell she was talking about.

"What're you talking about now?"

She rolled her eyes at me and huffed, which seemed to be her trademark move when dealing with yours truly.

"Your latest cuckoo puff, she's been making the rounds because Sabra and Annette already called to complain about her behavior; now me, I just told the nut that I'm not your damn answering service and that was the end of that but the others aren't nearly as brave as I am so they've been suffering through her bullshit."

"I guess we're talking about Mara here?"

"Yep, so what did you do this time, the bracelet, the watch, the necklace what?"

"None of the above; I've just been really busy lately, now what's going on with my business?"

"You're cold dude, straight up icicle, anyway then on to more important things. Apparently; let's see, sales are good, business is booming in spite of the recession. Mostly bored debutantes with daddy's platinum card burning a hole in their pockets sipping on thirty-dollar martinis and nibbling on twenty-dollar veggie wraps. That about sums it up, oh and I need a raise." She grinned at me.

" I just gave your ass an undeserved raise two months ago and your disdain is showing again." For someone who was once a debutante herself she sure didn't feel any love for her fellow ilk, she positively abhorred women of a certain class including her own mother on occasion. According to her, they were all bubble headed nymphets; that could be due to her mother divorcing her father when she was thirteen years old to marry up.

"Meehh! Whatever! Anyway, you need to deal with the beer distributors; people are complaining about the beer on tap, they say it's a bit watered-down. We checked the pressure and everything's fine there so the only thing we can deduce is that it's a problem originating from the company. I've been hearing whispers from other places in the city that seems to be having the same issue so I'm thinking you might want to jump on that right quick." She fiddled with the stuff on my desk until I rapped her knuckles with my Mont Blanc.

I hope for their sakes they weren't trying to screw me over, I pay top dollar for premium beer because that’s what the people who come into my places expect, if I find that my distributor was playing me that would mean finding another reputable one, this fucking recession was turning everyone into fucking criminals, I hate shoddy business dealings, fuck; but it’s part of the world sadly, see, that’s why I can’t stand people, fucking dishonest assholes.

"Sure anything else?"

"Nope that's about it the numbers are on the spreadsheet; I don't know if you want to deal with orders since you're here otherwise I've got it covered."

"You do that; what about the floor any problems in house?"

"Nah, we're cruising along just fine we don't ever really have any problems there except for when one of the newbies get a look at you and fall for your piercing eyes and your handsome self, then it takes a few months for them to get over the heartbreak when they realize you don't shit where you eat and never will."

"Go to work Star I don't know how my brother puts up with that mouth of yours."

"He loves it." She grinned at me again, always full of piss and vinegar this one.

"Spare me please; one of you better call mama, she's on the warpath again, something about not seeing her grand kids lately and you know the deal."

"Must be Jaxx and Sabra, Adrien and I were just over there like two nights ago before he left town."

"Well you know how she is, she needs daily if not hourly contact the woman is relentless, I'd appreciate it if the rest of you could keep her off my ass with this grand kids shit, you’d think after the fifty or so you and Adrien and Sabra and Jaxx gave her she’d be satisfied but no."

“Uh huh, Mara not the motherly type?"

"Out!" She laughed her ass off as she left; I checked my watch, I still had a few hours left before my first meet. I got the books in order. I’ll be able to pay the mortgage for the next little while at least. That was a running joke between me and the boys whenever we made another couple hundred grand or so. Shit, the way things were going; we might not be too far off the mark. Man has totally fucked shit up; we were headed for a collision course with imminent disaster and still people didn’t learn, didn’t stop in their tracks and say ‘hey what can I do to make this shit better’?

Glancing over at the security monitor I caught sight of my brother Jaxxon entering the place; we didn't have any plans for today as far as I knew so something must be up.

He came in and eyed me like I'd done something wrong, which wasn't anything new, my brothers were always giving me the gimlet eye, they claimed my line of work made their lives unnecessarily difficult, they wanted me to take it easy on their peers but I refused to, I was having way too much fun keeping them on their toes.

"You gonna say something or just stand there and give me the stink eye?"

Jaxx ran his hand through his shaggy dark brown hair which he wore to his shoulders these days, that’ll last until mama got after him about his grooming habits as she calls it and to please her he’ll lop most of it off.

“Well little brother, don’t’ you have criminals to catch? FBI having an off day or some shit?”

Chapter 2

 “Nice to see you too brother."

"What's up lil brother I didn't know we had plans today did I miss something?"

"Nah I just wanted to come by and give you a heads up about something."

"Fuck your boss on my ass again now too, I thought after the last time it'd take him at least another three months before he ventured back into the ring again."

"Very funny bro, you sure you don't want to retire early? Take that boat of yours on an around the world cruise or something?"

"Nah I'm having too much fun; so what is it this time?"

"Listen seriously bro they're putting someone new on you, of course I've not been privy to the details but Adrien overheard something on his end and passed it on so I could give you a heads up. He's still out of town or he would've told you himself but no one can ever get ahold of you."

"Who is it this time another profiler, those fucks still profiling my ass?"

"Nah I think they've pretty much figured out that you're mentally fucked already, it is a profiler only I’m not sure what angle they’re playing with this one."

"So...who is it, anyone I might know?"

"Nope, she's a newbie, Cierra Stone."

"A chick? They're putting a chick on me? What, did I come down on the most wanted list or some shit who knocked me off?"

"Nah you still reign supreme but she's supposedly the best mind they've seen in twenty years."

"At least that's something; I still warrant the best."

"You're sick you know that?"

"So what does she look like?"

"Dog I don't know I just caught a glimpse of her freshman picture after Adrien mentioned it, she's young; still got that Quantico shine on her fresh off the farm."

"What's Durant thinking putting a little dove like that on me? He knows I'll eat her ass for breakfast, unless they've upped their game; she got great legs?"

"I already told you jackass, I don't know what she looks like she hasn't landed yet, sometime in the next day or two she'll be here, anyway that's all I've got so far I'll keep you in the loop if I learn anything else right now I gotta go bro I’ve got an asshole sneaking arms into my city from the Carolinas of all places, why the fuck these states can’t get together and have one governing law so jurisdiction bullshit does not apply I’ll never know, one fucking country and a hundred and ten differing laws, catch you later."

"Hey Jaxx...sorry." I didn’t have to explain; he knew exactly what I was getting at.

"Don't start that shit again Hank." He turned back at the door.

"I can't, I know they're holding you back because of your association with me..."

"And I told you before I don't care about that."

"But if you severed ties..."

"Fuck it Hank no, not gonna happen, we may not share blood but we're brothers in every way that counts and we're going to stay brothers."

"Yes I understand but it's holding you back." And that fucked with me, I had to do what I do, no doubt about it, it was one of those necessary evil type things, but the fact that it hindered my brothers in their chosen fields was something I struggled with on occasion. It was the only way law enforcement has been able to get to me thus far.

"I’m not having this conversation with you bro so just drop it family's family, they don't like my family, fuck them."

"Speaking of which how are my little sister and my niece and nephews?"

"The little terrors are running around driving us crazy and Sabra's hanging in there she did say you’re a hard task master and the first chance she gets she’s breaking a foot off in your ass."

"Whatever, your wife and your sister in law loves to bitch about everything then after they’ve implemented my ideas and see how much easier and smoother things run they want to coo at me, anyway I have to come by, I got some new shit for the boys."

"Oh no you don't, you're not bringing over any new gifts until I vet them first."

"What, what'd I do?"

"What did you do, drum sets? You gave a three and a four-year-old drum sets, the fuck you think has been going on in my house?"

I laughed my ass off.

"Get outta here, I'll be by sometime this week, I think lil Jeff said he wanted a python."

"I'll fucking kill you you do that shit bro, I'll be doing the bureau a favor."

"I'll tell ma you said that shit."

"Mean, just dog mean."

"Later lil brother."

"Later bro."

Fucking FBI, those fucks stay on me like a lion on a rhino's ass, one of these days they're gonna piss me the fuck off for real and I'll give their bitch asses something to cry about, dumb fucks. So far I’ve mostly been playing with the different agencies foreign and domestic that try keeping tabs on me, it was fun outwitting them at every turn but they’ve all learnt in some capacity or the other not to go too far. I valued my freedom too much to have them trampled by a bunch of blowhards who were sometimes almost as corrupt as the fucks they were supposed to be putting away.

I opened up my laptop and typed in the series of numbers needed to get me into the FBI data base undetected, these fucks were so busy hounding my every step that they'd left their left flank unprotected. It was comical how fucking easy it was to breach their security. I've been accessing most if not all of the delicate top-secret information of most government agencies for the better part of eight years ever since I'd learned the fine art of hacking from a master.

You see the thing with me is that I'm a one- man team I like working alone as much as possible when handling a job. If I needed information I would rather be able to get it myself as opposed to having to wait on someone else to get it for me. So I'd trained with the best and picked up some of my own tricks along the way. Now these days I’m better than my teacher but not only that since I'd mastered the art of hacking I'd learned how to safeguard myself against the same. It'd take them years to crack my codes and by then I would've changed them once more so they'd just have to start all over again. I'm sure it was a great source of frustration for them. Dumb fucks.

I went through the now familiar channels that I used whenever I was spying on them spying on me. Jaxxon had given me her name so it was no hardship finding her in their database. I felt the jolt but didn’t think anything of it, just a quick hit to the heart and gut that was too fleeting to really register.

"There she is, fuck me…come to daddy."

Chapter 3

Cierra

I made it; hard to believe after all the ups and downs and turmoil but I'm finally where I wanted to be. It's been an uphill battle but all worth it; now I can fight for justice for those who deserved it and fulfill a childhood promise made so long ago on a lonely hilltop in Maryland all at the same time. I pulled my thick black curls back and secured them at my nape, my hair is a bloody nuisance half the time but I could never go much shorter than shoulder length, maybe because that’s how I remember mom wearing hers when I was a kid, before she was taken so suddenly and horrifically from me.

"So what do you think Cierra is this our guy?" The voice breaking into my little trip down memory lane brought me back to the present and the task at hand. The room was close and just a little stuffy, as most rooms of its ilk tend to be, there were men scattered around a long table with computer screens up and running, papers scattered haphazardly over every available surface. The peeling walls really could do with a touch up and the floors were scuffed but for some reason this was my place of solace. It was in this room and others like it here on the farm where I got to hone my skills. This is where my dream of justice drew closer to reality.

Not many knew of my true purpose for being here, at least I hoped not and I wouldn’t want them to find out that might stand in my way, others might not understand and I couldn’t risk that. My mind is my greatest asset, my handlers have taken to calling it their secret weapon, I don’t know how or why it works the way it does I just know that it fits in perfectly with what I had to do, the one thing of importance in my otherwise bleak world.