FORBIDDEN LOVE (15 page)

He’d spied the old wino as he left the pier and tossed a bill at him. The man would now spend the rest of the day and night in the bottom of a bottle. Which bought him time to set up the next scene a little more carefully. Time to gather some evidence that would draw Julian further into the investigation. Junior turning up had been an added bonus.

Detective Danielle Delacroiux hadn’t gone for it. She’d investigated Hawk just as she had every other lead, but from the very beginning she hadn’t bought Charbonnet Junior as a suspect. Which meant the investigation had barely brushed against Julian Senior.

He wanted Charbonnet wrapped up with a bow and delivered to prison by Christmas. Which meant he needed to do something now.

Killing Beaker and the wino meant less than nothing. They were examples of worthless human lives. Killing the cop would bother him a good deal more. Then again, righteous cops fell every day in the battle of good versus evil. Dani Delacroiux would be one more victim in that war, and her death would not be meaningless. He vowed to make it count and to make Julian pay for her murder.

****

When the food was finally on the table at the diner, Nicolette set the recorder between them and pressed play. Constantine’s voice came out in crisp military tone of a man used to commanding his troops.

“Bottom line, Hawk, I want in on Renaissance Towers and your waterfront development. In exchange, I’ll make available an additional ten million in cash for your development purposes. I don’t require my name on any part of the public face of the company. In fact, I would prefer to remain a silent partner.”

Dani closed her eyes, picturing the scene in Constantine’s sitting room where Nicolette had hidden the recorder. She could just see Costa, standing, as he often did when conversing with others, especially those he wanted to intimidate. Hawk would likely have been sitting, arms stretched across the back of the couch, his legs crossed, with his foot doing a slow tap the only sign of his annoyance.

“I’m not interested in a partner, Constantine. If you had told me on the phone that was what this was about, I could have saved us both a bit of trouble.”

“Not so fast, Hawk,” Constantine said.

The sound of paper rustling was interrupted by Hawk’s voice. “For God’s sake, Constantine! Did you think some pictures of Danielle and I together would be enough to give you any type of leverage over me? Yes, you caught us having a meal together. I confess. It’s true; we have shared a few meals together.”

“Don’t be disrespectful, Hawk. You should know better than to underestimate me.” There was the sound of something else hitting the table. “I know Julian, Hawk. He wouldn’t approve of you sleeping with the enemy. For that matter, neither would Richard Delacroiux. Given the animosity between your fathers, if these pictures were to fall into her daddy’s hands…I think life would get infuriatingly difficult for both you and Detective Delacroiux.”

Hawk’s laughter barked out. “Do you know how I started out, Constantine? Ah, I can see by your face that you think you have some idea. Let me make it clear for you. Despite being Julian Charbonnet’s son, I made my fortune on my own, without any help from my father. I started with gambling, Constantine. Oh, I see that surprises you.” Hawk used his Texas accent as he did when he wanted to either slow the pace of the conversation or fool the listener into underestimating him.

“Now, if I were still a gamblin’ man, I would bet that this here’s a bluff designed to push me into a profitable deal for you. You must see me as a weak opponent, Costa. That’s where you made your error. When I said I made my start-up money in gamblin’, it was true, but we both know, gamblin’s a sucker’s game.

“I wasn’t the gambler, old man, I was the
house
. When you bet against the house, you always lose in the end.
You lose, Constantine
. I don’t care if you shout from the rooftops that I was with Dani for a night. To put it crudely, Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass. She’s not even worth cultivating as an informant because she is nothing but a drone detective. She satisfied a momentary itch, and nothing more. You want to tell my father I fucked a cop? Go ahead.

“That makes your threat a complete waste of time, because I don’t do business with blackmailers,” Hawk finished.

Nicolette stopped the recorder and with tear-filled eyes, she looked at Dani. “I’m sorry, Dani.”

Never betraying an emotion, Dani said, “Thanks, Nic. You did good. Do you mind if I keep that?”

Grabbing the recorder, she threw some bills on the table and walked out into the night, alone.

The ground fog blanketed the street in patches of light and shadow, hiding cars here, revealing a mailbox there. Dani stretched her legs and walked briskly away from the diner toward the foggiest end of the block. She needed a few minutes to sort through what she’d heard. Tolley knew her well enough to give her some time, but she knew him well enough to know it wouldn’t be as much time as she wanted. She’d walk to the end of the block and back, then she and Tolley would talk.

“Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass.”

Christ, it played over and over in her head. She wanted to think it through, but she couldn’t get past the hurt. The same voice that told her he loved her had only hours earlier called her a piece of ass.

Hawk’s words cut through her. Betrayed to a man who didn’t respect her, by a man whose reputation, whose life, she’d been trying to save.

“Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass,”
Dani repeated under her breath, the words bitter on her tongue.

She should have known better. Men like Demetrios and Charbonnet were the privileged few, members of the richest families in this part of Louisiana. They expected everyone, law enforcement included, to kowtow to their wishes.

How had she expected Hawk to be any different? He hadn’t even been raised in Généreux, didn’t have a clue about the working class and the poor. He was born with a silver spoon up his ass. Charbonnet Sugar, Charbonnet Oil, all of fucking Charbonnet Enterprises. He’d been parceled out to live with his mother and then to other rich relatives in Houston. He would never know what it was like to have to work for a living, to struggle to make ends meet.

Anger coursed red hot through her blood while her thoughts turned ice cold. She refused to be sidetracked by the callus remarks of a spoiled Daddy’s boy who didn’t have the
cojones
to admit what he really thought of her.

This investigation started because someone took the life of one of her informants. One. Of. Hers. It didn’t matter to her if the victim came from a rich and powerful family or only had a daughter who couldn’t care less about her father’s death. There would be answers. There would be closure.

“Crease Martin will have justice or my name isn’t Danielle Delacroiux,” she muttered.

Tell me, Danielle. Tell me again…Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass.

Angrily, she pushed at the words. They didn’t fit. Something about them just wasn’t right. A well-aimed kick sent a crumpled beer can skittering across the asphalt. She blew out a breath. Timing. Look at the timing. From what Nicolette had said, this recording would have been made shortly after they’d left Julian’s place. Which meant Hawk went from Julian’s to Constantine’s. In his mind, it would have been one threat following the other.

Hello, Danielle Delacroiux.

Danielle Delacroiux. Danielle. Hawk always called her Danielle, not Dani.
Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass.

A little light began to flicker bravely against the darkness that had been forming in her mind.

Hawk was afraid for her. He’d left her a note, begging her to let him explain about Julian. He hadn’t expected her to show up at his place ready to make love. Hawk had wanted to talk, to tell her something important.

Dani Delacroiux was a piece of ass.
When Hawk spoke to Demetrios, he’d called her Dani. He was separating his true feelings from the lie. Hawk must have decided that distancing himself from her in front of Constantine was the way to play it. He must believe that Costa was a danger to her and that denying the true nature of their relationship would protect her. If she wanted Hawk to trust her cop instincts, she knew she needed to trust his as well.

Dani thought over what they’d done before Beau and Espinoza showed up. She wasn’t a piece of ass to Hawk. She wasn’t wrong…It
had
been love they’d made. It didn’t matter that his father was Julian Charbonnet or that she was a Delacroiux. Their families might have been at war for decades, but it wasn’t
their
war.

It didn’t matter they barely knew each other. Knowing someone took a lifetime, loving, only an instant.
She knew she loved him
. She knew it was the same for Hawk. It was in his every touch, every look, every kiss. She couldn’t breathe when Hawk touched her and she couldn’t breathe without him. For better or worse, Dani Delacroiux was in love with Hawk Charbonnet.

The bands around her heart loosened, and her breath came more easily. A smile touched her lips. The footsteps behind her let her know her alone time was up. Tolley was there to pick up the pieces if necessary. Just as he always was.

Dani turned, the smile on her face wiped clean in an instant as something slammed into her chest. She was already falling, already heading toward unconsciousness before the sound of the second shot echoed through the night.

****

Goddamn! It was like fate. He’d barely decided to kill Dani, when there she was walking alone at night in one of the worst parts of the waterfront district. He didn’t even stop to think, because his cause was righteous.
This was proof.
Dani Delacroiux was right where and when he needed her. He took two quick shots before turning to slip back into the fog.

Now the real work began. He needed to tie the shooting to Charbonnet. He knew he could get the gun into the desk in Julian’s living room. Maybe there was something in the desk he could use to plant more evidence.

Think, think
. Julian wouldn’t do this himself, he would use one of his idiot thugs. Okay, that was what it needed to look like, a hit ordered by Julian. Maybe he could do a little creative splicing of the audiotapes from the surveillance. Might get caught with that, so he needed to make it look as if it was Hawk or…better yet! He would make it look as if Dani herself was behind the bug. Yeah, Dani running the rogue operation would be perfect. He could plant all the evidence he wanted and make it look as if Dani had been a little overeager in her investigation, and Julian killed her because she got too close.

He slipped into his car and circled back. The best way to plant evidence was to be in on the case from the beginning. He needed to be there when they searched her apartment. He needed to turn the evidence around.

He pulled his car up behind the black and whites, clipped his badge to the front of his jeans, and grabbed the distinctive windbreaker from the back of his car. Oozing confidence, he stalked to the officer now guarding the perimeter and flipped open his identification.

“Special Agent Tony Espinoza, FBI. Who’s in charge of this scene?”

****

“Mind if I make a quick pot of coffee before I go back downstairs? It’s been a long night already,” Deuce said.

Hawk took a good look at his friend. His normally neatly trimmed black hair was shaggy and curled around his ears and onto his neck, his jaw line was blue-black with the day’s growth, and there were shadows around his eyes.

“Are you all right?” Hawk asked.

“Just tired. I’ll be all right.”

“Are you really working the security desk tonight? I thought we hired people for that,” Hawk said.

“We have a full staff, but I put extra crew on tomorrow for the Grand Opening ceremony, so I took the shift tonight.” Deuce shrugged his broad shoulders. “I needed the time to make some final adjustments to the security system. Are you ready for tomorrow? Got your speech all prettified?”

“Christ, I haven’t even thought about the speech,” Hawk said. “I suppose the public affairs folks have it mostly composed. I’ll make the final adjustments in the morning. I feel as if we’ve been in stealth mode so far. Tomorrow, people and businesses will begin moving in. With the announcement of the Pier District renovations, everything around here is going to heat up. Andrea will be inundated with employment requests, and the realtors will have the office and residential queries to sort through.”

Deuce nodded. “I still want a shot at every application before a job offer, office rental, or sale goes through. Beyond the standard credit report. This isn’t like your operations in Houston or even London. This is far more complex, more diversified. Not to mention we’re in Julian’s backyard. How long until he comes after you?”

“I don’t know, but he will,” Hawk said. “At least I hope he will. I’m more afraid he’ll go after Danielle, as a way to get to me. He’ll look for something that will bend me to his will. His ultimate goal will be to make me return to Charbonnet Enterprises, return home, and give him control over Resurgence. All wrapped up in the ‘good of the family’ spiel, of course.” Hawk added wearily, “He already tried earlier today.”

“What? Hawk, what happened?” Deuce sat up straight, his hands tightened into fists.

Hawk felt the tension seep back into him as he recounted the situation with his father.

“What the
fuck
, Hawk? He has pictures of Dani alone? Someone is clearly following her and you let her go out tonight to meet a witness?” Deuce exploded from his chair. “What in the hell are you thinking? I should have been informed immediately!”

“Tolley went with her. It’s the most I can do until I explain the circumstances to her. Even then, she may not let me do more.”

“She wouldn’t even know I was there. Goddamn it, Hawk. This woman has you thinking with your little head,” Deuce said, already dialing the phone. He turned away from Hawk, held a muttered conversation. When he turned back, all the blood had drained from his face.

“There’s been a shooting—an officer down call just went out. Pier District.”

****

Tony looked around the briefing room. A scant six hours after the shooting and he’d made it onto the team, no questions asked. Généreux might be a backwater version of New Orleans, but the cops here did one thing right. A cop gets shot, everybody was in on the manhunt. He sipped his coffee, pleased to note his hand wasn’t even shaking.

He had a couple more of the handy little bugs and the micro-cassette of Julian’s threat in his pocket. Once he
discovered
them at Dani’s apartment, he could begin
proving
she was illegally recording Julian’s conversations. He still needed to plant the gun somewhere on the Charbonnet estate by tonight and then justice would be rolling. All he’d have to do would be to sit back and watch.

Up until now, he’d not had an official role to play. That dick-sucker Tollefson had taken charge of the scene and wouldn’t let anyone near the body except Beau and the medical examiner. He supposed it made some sense, since Dani was Beau’s niece and he probably wanted to preserve her privacy. It didn’t matter. Beau had sought him out at the scene, had asked him to help with the investigation.

It was the perfect set up. Dani was out to get Julian. No one would blame her, given her family history with the bastard. No one would be surprised that Charbonnet had targeted another Delacroiux either. Hell, even Junior heard his father threaten Dani, and she had the tape. With just a little creative record keeping, Tony planned to toss in the discovery of the evidence from the earlier murders and wrap them all up and put them squarely on Julian’s doorstep.

Slam dunk. Still, it was a shame about the cop. He’d make sure that Julian paid.

Richard and Beau Delacroiux stepped to the podium, and the cops in the room got quiet. One look at Richard’s face told the story of a father in grief. He was pale, deep lines etched his face, and there was a visible tremor to his hands.

“I want to thank you all for being here,” he began, his voice tight. “We are…we…” He twisted his head away, and Beau took over.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen. You know why we’re here. To catch a cop killer. It’s still early; I’ll brief the next shift when they roll in. For now, look around the room; this is our core investigative team. And we are in complete media blackout. If any word leaks, we know it came from someone in this room. If that happens, I won’t rest until I have you off the force. I know it’s going to stay with us, with family. That’s why you’re here. You’re all people I trust. There’s only one new face—Tony, you want to stand up?

“Folks, this here is Special Agent Espinoza of the FBI. He offered his services to help us clear up what happened to Dani.” Beau stopped talking then and shifted his eyes to the side, looking as though he was trying to regain his composure.

“Tony, I’d appreciate it if you would oversee the search of Dani’s place. We can’t get into Charbonnet Hall just yet, although I know a lot of us have our suspicions about Julian. I’ve got a friendly judge standing by, but we need to find some link to tie Charbonnet in order to get a search warrant.

“Tolley, you supervise the collection of all evidence. People, that means if you stumble across the murder weapon or any other piece of physical evidence when you’re out on canvass, you radio Tolley. Am I clear? Wait for Tolley to collect it. You secure the scene and wait.

“For now, Tolley, I want you at Dani’s place”—he paused, cleared his throat—“at your place. With Special Agent Espinoza. I’ll meet you there, shortly.”

****

Hawk paced his luxurious office, blind to the view, deaf to the pleas of his personal assistant, and cursed Deuce soundly for leaving him hanging.

“Andrea, try his cell again!” Hawk yelled at his assistant for at least the tenth time in the past hour. Andrea was a beautiful, dark skinned woman who’d worked for Hawk for over five years, and he knew she was proud of the changes he’d made in his life. He also knew she was right, and he needed to listen to her today if he wanted to survive this next hour.
Christ, why hasn’t Deuce called? Where are Danielle and Tolley? What the fuck is going on?

“Hawk, you know Deuce will call as soon as he can,” Andrea assured him. “You need to get downstairs. The stage is all set up, the press is out, and the mayor will be arriving shortly. You have to be down there before he gets here. God, you look like shit. Here, put this shirt on.” She handed him a soft lavender shirt and stood over him while he changed.