Finding Gary (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 4) (13 page)

“I’ll testify,” Gary said.

If it were possible, her eyes got even bigger.  She looked over her shoulder, waited for the candid camera, and when none came, she shot her astonished eyes back to him.  “Am I dreaming?”

“I killed the Blacks, and Victor King made it go away.  I know how he erased the trail.  I know why Val’s face is on that mug shot and not mine.  I know who altered the streetlight footage.  I know where the car was crushed and dumped.”

Jessica blubbered.  She couldn’t process that the two informants she’d been salivating over for the last month had both caved—and both within twenty-four hours of each other.  It was difficult to believe it was a coincidence, especially since she didn’t believe in that word, but Jessica was too excited to question it.  She wouldn’t ruin a good thing with her big mouth.

Her next words, however, she couldn’t stifle.  “I’m proud of you, Gary.”

“The charges against me will be dropped?”

“Yes.  You scratch our backs, we scratch yours.”

“I want immunity for my entire family.  My father especially.  He’ll need it most.”

“Absolutely.  It’s already a done deal, just like I promised you.”

“I want to see it in writing.”

“Done.  As soon as I get home, I’ll send you the email.”

Gary’s eyes fell.  He played his fingers together.

“Hey…” Jessica waited until his eyes came back to her.  “I’m going to get you your family back.   If it’s the last thing I do, Gary.  I’m going to get them back for you.”

Gary’s eyes searched hers, but even as her words sank in, the emptiness in his gaze didn’t waver. 

11

“Gary, as lead prosecutor on this case, it’s imperative that you don’t keep anything from me.  Not even the things you think will hurt you.  That’s for me to decide.  I can’t illuminate the good when I’m ignorant to the bad, and I can’t hide what I don’t know.  If I know you’re withholding something, the jury will know it too.  So it’s vital, Gary, that you never lie to me.  Do you understand that?”

“I do.”

“Great.”  Federal Prosecutor, Jack Almeida, fell back in his seat, shooting Gary his perpetually annoyed deep brown eyes.  “Now that we agree, I’d love to know when you’re planning on telling me the rest of this story.”

The color drained from Gary’s face. His green eyes shifted to the large windows of Jack’s office.  Nestled into the corner of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lower Manhattan, with wall-to-wall windows, Jack had a view of the Statue of Liberty that had grabbed Gary from the moment he’d walked in and sat down across the desk from him.  As Gary found himself entranced by the Hudson River, his voice began to drift off.  

“That is the whole story, man.  I got in the car, I put the pedal to the floor, and hit two people before I was able to stop.”

“Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a great story.  Really.  Riveting.”  Jack raised his eyebrows.  “But it’s not the whole story.”

Gary met his eyes, ran his hand through his curls, and then went to speak.

“And before you open your mouth to lie to me,
again
,” Jack said.  “Please know that I can smell them coming from a mile away.”

Gary ran a hand through his hair.  “I’ve told you everything that happened that night, okay?  What the hell do you want from me?”

Jack frowned at his notes.  “Why were you driving so fast?”

“I told you.  Reggie and I liked to drag race.  At that time of night, our neighborhood street was usually pretty empty.”

“You also said, before the night of the accident, the two of you frequented a different location when you went racing.  One where pedestrians were rare.  You had the foresight to think about the lives of other people every night before, but on this night…” Jack tapped the butt of his pen on his notes.  “The night of the Blacks’ death, you suddenly decided to speed through a residential neighborhood?  Where anyone could step into the street, at any moment, including small children?  Why were you suddenly so reckless with the lives of others, on this night, when you’d been going out of your way to avoid it every night before that?”

“I don’t have whatever it is you’re reaching for, okay?”  Gary shoved his hand through his hair.  “Like I said, I’ve already told you everything.”

Jack let the room remain quiet just long enough for Gary to run his fingers through his hair again.  He watched his fingers slice through his curls and smiled.

“Okay,” Jack said, the dimples on his jaw appearing as he stood and offered Gary his hand.

Gary stood with him and shook it before heading for the door with a scoff.

“Pain in the ass,” Jack grumbled, once Gary was gone.  He’d just gotten to work organizing his papers when Jessica Borgia came into the office, minutes later.

“Just ran into Gary in the hallway.  He was in a rush, so I didn’t have time to ask how it went?” Jessica asked Jack, stepping inside his office and closing the door.  “Are we looking at a landslide victory against King, or what?”

“We would be,” Jack said.  “If he’d stop lying to me.”

She closed the door and crossed her arms.  “How do you know he’s lying?”

Jack stopped gathering his things and stood tall.  “I came here straight from lunch with my wife.  We had Italian.  Onions and garlic for days.  When I got back, I saw Gary waiting for me in my office.  He didn’t see me.  I saw him reach into his pocket and take out a pack of gum.  He had two slices left.  He took one out and put the other back in his pocket.  I came into the room five minutes later and asked for a slice of gum because I didn’t want to annihilate him with my garlic breath.  He looked me in the eye and said he didn’t have any gum, and then he ran his fingers through his hair.”

Jessica cocked her lip and shrugged.  “So? Gum is expensive, you miserable gum snatcher.  I wouldn’t have given you my last piece either.  Buy your own fucking gum.”

Jack let her finish, his eyes hooded.  “When he told me he didn’t have any gum, he ran his fingers through his hair.  And every time he lied to me during our meeting this afternoon, he ran his fingers through his hair then, too.”

Jessica cursed.  “He has a tell.”

“He doesn’t realize he’s doing it.  Just like you don’t realize that you massage the underside of your chin whenever you tell a lie.”

Jessica’s mouth fell open.

“You’re welcome,” Jack winked.  “Most people never learn what their tells are.  Now you’re one step ahead of the game.”

Jessica sputtered.

“Speak to Gary about why good boys shouldn’t tell lies.  A grand jury has already agreed to hear his testimony, so I can’t imagine why he’s still lying.  Convince him that we’re on his side, and I’ll prep him again before the trial.  If I can tell he’s lying, the jury will be able to tell, too.  I have Zoey and Val penciled in for tomorrow.” Jack finished gathering his things and crossed the room to the door.  “Have a good night, Jessica.”

“Wait!”  Jessica went into the pocket of her jeans. “I came here to give you the audio Reggie got us on Victor King.  I should have pictures and a full mechanic workup of the Cadillac by morning.”

Jack hesitated in the doorway, holding his hand out for the USB drive.

Jessica pressed it into his hand.  “So Val and Zoey tomorrow?  I’m guessing that means the subpoenas have gone out?”

“Every member of the family has been served.”

Jessica grinned manically.

“Every member but Roman,” Jack said, taking Jessica’s delight right back and replacing it with a guttural groan from deep in her throat.

“Why do you do that?” Jessica cringed.  “Why do you start off a sentence with the illusion of good news, only to pummel me with the bad?”

Jack shrugged.  “For funsies.”

Jessica heard the rare smile in his voice, but for the first time, she wasn’t in the right mindset to celebrate it.  “Well, where the fuck is Roman?”

“Jessica, I’m an attorney, not a goddamn babysitter. That’s your job.  Goodnight.”

Jessica didn’t stop him when he turned to leave this time, knowing she was moments from cussing him out.

Frowning out of this office window, the Statue of Liberty flirting with her from the Hudson, Jessica whispered under her breath.   “Where the hell are you, Roman Romanovsky?”

***

Gary thought agreeing to testify would be the hardest part. That was before Jessica had introduced him to Jack Almeida. As he tried to navigate the never-ending, winding hallways of the US District Attorney’s Office, Gary wondered how Jack had known he wasn’t telling him the whole story.  Was he that bad a liar?

Gary sighed as the struggle to exit the building intensified with each hallway he turned down.  He tried to remember the route he’d taken in but was drawing a blank.  Ten minutes later, after finding himself at a dead end of a long hallway, Gary turned on his heel.

When he caught sight of Reggie King lingering at the end of the long hallway, brown eyes boring into his, Gary reared backward, cursing under his breath.

Reggie approached; hands in the pockets of his navy blue suit.

Gary couldn’t stop his chest from rising and falling with more ferocity.  His palms drenched with sweat.  It must’ve been moisture that had vacated his lips because they were suddenly dry to the bone.

He licked them, backing away when Reggie came close—so close Gary could see where Reggie’s chocolate irises melted into the jet-black pupils.  Reggie came so close; Gary even saw them expanding.

“Gary,” Reggie said, raising his eyebrows.  “Will you please stop this nonsense and listen to me?”

Gary’s back hit the wall at the end of the hallway.  He flattened his palms to the plaster.  The cuts and wounds on his face had begun to heal, but they weren’t completely gone.  He felt Reggie’s wounded eyes lingering on every last one.

“Damn it, Gary. I swear on my mother’s grave.  I swear to God; I didn’t do this.  I would never do this to you.”  Reggie checked over his shoulder to make sure they were still alone, then turned back and planted his hands against the wall, on either side of Gary’s head.  He leaned in, his eyes drinking in Gary’s lips.  “Gary, I love you.  I fucking love you.  That has to count for something.”

“Since when?”

Reggie faltered.  “Things are different now.”

“Now that
you’ve
decided.  Because we’re all at the mercy of your whims.  Your feelings.  Your timetable.”  Gary didn’t know he’d been holding his breath until the fury forced him to expel it in one big gasp.  He felt his eyes expanding in time with his burning lungs and heated heart.  “I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t blame you.  But it has to mean something that I snitched on my own father.  That I just spent an hour in a meeting with a prosecutor, coaching me on what to say when I’m on the stand in the trial that’s meant to destroy him.  That has to count for something…”

Gary’s eyes fell to his lips.

Reggie leaned closer, brushing the tips of their noses.  “Doesn’t it?”

Breathing in hard, Gary cradled his trembling fingers on Reggie’s chest.  Then, his face curled with fury, and he shoved Reggie away.

Unprepared, Reggie stumbled back.  He stabilized himself against the opposite wall, pressing his tie against his chest while looking across the hall at Gary in shock.

“You destroyed me,” Gary whispered.  “You destroyed me.”

“You think I don’t regret it every day?  I regret it every day, Gary…”

When a woman came out of her office a few feet away, Gary and Reggie both straightened, attempting to pull themselves together.

Sensing the tone of the room, the woman gave them both a hesitant smile.  Her eyes lingered on Gary’s battered face for a just a moment longer than Reggie’s.  Then, she turned and made her way down the hall.  Not until she was out of sight did Reggie meet Gary’s eyes again.

“Not a single day, minute, second has gone by since that night that I didn’t think about it,” Reggie continued.  “About you.”

“And while you were doing all that thinking and regretting, you still found the tenacity to go after my brother’s company.  To scare him to goddamn death with threats of telling Zoey the truth.  To hurt the only people on Earth who ever tried to protect you.”

“Gary, I’m human.  I was lost…” Reggie held his hands out, his eyes dashing back and forth as he tried to think up the right words.  “You had a father,” he finally said, his eyes filling.

Gary lifted his chin.  He licked his teeth.

Reggie’s teeth chattered.  “You had a father who cared enough to kiss your cheek when you got out of bed every morning.  Who propped you up after your failures.  Celebrated your successes.  Gave a shit when you got straight A’s.  Gave a shit when you flunked out.  You had a father who only knew how to love you unconditionally, regardless of whether you were winning or losing.  A father who loved you with all his heart, and never hesitated to say the words.”

Gary looked away.

“You have no idea what it’s like, Gary, to have a father who resents your very existence.  A father is supposed to love you, just for existing.  Yours did.  Mine… Mine did everything he could to show me how much he loathed me.  How little I mattered.  How little he cared.”

Gary cut a look at him.

“You have no idea what it’s like to crave the love of a father who will never, ever show it back.  Who wishes you were dead.  Who blames you for the loss of the mother you never knew.  So, yes, I tried to bring down Novsky.  To bring down Val.  To bring down your family.  I only did it because I wanted him to love me…” Reggie gnawed his teeth, his eyes falling as he made claws at his chest.  “So badly… I would’ve died for it.”

Gary watched as his shoulders slowly sank, along with his eyes.

“With you, the other night?” Reggie met his eyes.  “I felt it.”

Gary stood taller when Reggie crossed the hallway again, cupping his face.

“Thinking back on the night we made love?  It’s the only thing keeping me going right now.”  Reggie ran the beds of his thumbs over Gary’s face, spending a little extra time on the bruises and welts that were slowly healing.  “After I testify… I’m going to drive to our old spot…” He swallowed.  “You remember that spot?”

Gary avoided his eyes, but the lump that moved down his own throat was answer enough.

“I’ll stay there for as long as I have to,” Reggie said.  “I’ll stay until the sun comes up.  If you love me like I love you… You’ll meet me there.”

Gary kept his eyes lowered, and only when the absence of Reggie’s warm fingers left his cheeks cold, his woodsy scent left his nostrils wanting, and the nearness of his body left his heart churning, did Gary lift his eyes, again.

He looked down the hallway just in time to see Reggie turn the corner and disappear from sight.