Justice: A Billionaire Romance (5 page)

Later, lying in his arms and now happily devoid of my blouse, I touched his swollen lower lip. I hadn't broken the skin, but he'd be sporting a pretty epic bruise the next day. "Does it hurt?"

He shook his head lightly and smiled. I was curled against his chest, my head in the crook of his elbow. "Does it hurt when I paddle you?"

I shook my head. "Never. Well, I mean yeah, but then again, it's a good hurt. Kind of like when you and I spar on the mats."

"I think that's why our parents stopped us sparring together," Carter said with a laugh, thinking back to a year prior. It had been soon after we’d 'come out' to them about our attraction and desire to date, and Patrick had walked into the gym to find his son and I engaged in some sparring maneuvers that were certainly not taught to us by any of our parents. "Thankfully, we've got plenty of partners there to work with."

"Hmm, I still think I kicked your butt more than you admit," I teased, tracing my finger down the line between his pecs. "Or maybe you just like it when I kick your ass."

"Hmmm, maybe," Carter said. We were both sexually satiated, and didn't need to engage in more physical intimacy while we recovered. "So do you think Riley and Janet are doing the same thing?"

I shrugged. "I don't know if it's tonight, but based off of the looks they were giving each other, I'd say it's only a matter of time. Kind of weird, part of me was somewhat hoping that he and Barb would hook up the way the two of us did."

Carter thought about it, then shook his head. "Nah, they're too much alike, it'd never work out. You and I, we compliment each other's weaknesses and strengths.”

He kissed me on the forehead, then looked me in the eyes again. "So, after the wedding, we're going to have to discuss making sure we stay professional on patrol, you know?"

I nodded. "Yep. I could always just work with Riley. Or go solo?”

Carter shook his head. We made a good team, and while we were both effective on our own, there were times it was better to team up. Besides, there was nobody in the world I would trust to have my back better, and he felt the same way. "I love you, and can't think of anyone better along side me. That is, until we have our own family.” He paused, then smiled. "Just think, a baby between us."

"Based off of the floor plan our parents gave us and the four bedrooms, I think they want at least three."

"All the better."

"
W
e've got
to find out more about this Mr. Clean," I said, looking over the crime reports that Dad had brought home from City Hall. "Even with the increased patrols that Riley, Andi and I are doing, the number of assaults and gang related violence is exploding. Especially near the Docks and in Filmore Heights."

"Every time something new happens in town, it comes through those areas," Mark commented. "Nearly three decades of digging, and we still don't have the roots out in those communities. Then again, for quite a few years I helped deepen those roots, but still . . . it's been a long road."

"There's always going to be areas where the poor people live, and those areas are going to breed crime," I commented. It was one of the areas that Mark and I approached things differently, but we had the same goals. Mark, with his self-obtained education in business and a practical life education as a former criminal hitman, he knew the nuts and bolts of the way poverty and corruption worked hand-in-hand. He'd grown up in the bad side of town, where the difference between doing crime or not was the difference between eating or going hungry.

I didn't. After all, by the time I was born MJT was already working magic in the city, the Confederation was broken, and some of the biggest wars on crime were done. I grew up surrounded not so much by ostentatious wealth, but by the security that comes with wealth. My family could have lost ninety percent of our money and still been able to afford to put good food on the table and clothes on my back, without even touching the 'escape fund' that Mark had put together to make sure all six of us could escape if our vigilante activities came to public light. I knew all of that intellectually, but without literally giving up my money and going around as a poor person for years, I would never understand the same way Mark did. Even then, I knew it wasn't the same. One mention of who I was, and I'd be able to draw on a line of credit world-wide.

All of this meant that when Mark and I discussed things, I would often make comments from an intellectual point of view that afterwards I knew left Mark resisting rolling his eyes. Still, he didn't talk down to me or denigrate my ignorance, he knew that I would fight just as much as he did. "Unfortunately you're right. When the carrot doesn't work though, sometimes you have to apply the stick."

"Intimidation alone isn't working?" I asked.

Mark shook his head. "The police are still stretched thin, the recession-based layoffs means the department is ten percent understrength. Your Dad is trying to talk to the council about freeing up funds, but until the crime numbers are a lot higher than what they are, the council isn't going to do anything."

"Which will be too late," I said. "You know, a stitch in time and all that."

Mark nodded. He had been my mentor and primary teacher for my entire life, the man who'd shown me how a surgical application of pressure can create a ripple effect in almost any area of life. Precise surgical investment by MJT had helped vast swaths of the city, and precise use of political pressure had allowed Dad to climb all the way to Mayor. And of course, precise application of pressure on the streets had allowed us to take the city most of the way back from those who had been taking advantage of it for so long. "The council doesn't think like we do. Which means that you, Andi and Riley are going to have to be the tip of the spear. I've already talked with Sophie, and she's going to be getting herself back into shape if it is necessary. I'm doing the same."

I shook my head. "When we're talking about you two getting out on the streets, things have certainly gone into the realm of the weird. No offense, but you're too old for this shit."

Mark shrugged. "I'm a generation behind and don't have your skill with the new tech that you have, but I've got a little bit left in this body."

"That can be better used in City Hall than on the rooftops of Filmore Heights," I retorted. “You know that one-on-one in the dojo you can still hang with me, and you could probably take Riley for the next few weeks until he's back in top condition, but that's different than an alley fight."

"I know," Mark said, frustrated. "Sometimes though, it's appealing. Trust me, the real rats are still in City Hall, even if the rat catcher is now in charge."

"So how do we get information on Mr. Clean?" I asked, changing the subject back to the matter at hand. It wouldn't help Mark or me to let our attention drift to matters that we couldn't control. "They're not scared enough of Andi and I to give up the information we need."

"Or you're just not applying the pressure to the right people," Mark replied. "In the old days, I had the advantage of already knowing the entire system of the Confederation and Owen Lynch before I started my war. I was able to cut the head off the snake quickly. But later on, when the Yakuza tried to infiltrate again in the remains of the old Han network, I had to start at the lower ranks again and chase my way up the chain. It's harder, it's uglier, and it's more dangerous."

"So where do we start?" I asked. "The only thing we know for sure is that they want the pharmacies shut down for some reason, and that they're most likely bringing in a new drug. The obvious areas for application would be observation on the pharmacies in Filmore and the Playground, and monitor the Docks. With increased gang activity in that area, it’s most likely that they'd try to bring in their product over the ocean."

Mark thought, then shook his head. "That's good, but I've got a gut feeling that the Docks are a feint. Something about the way this Mr. Clean has operated so far, he knows what he’s doing. I'd put more surveillance and resources on the airport instead."

I nodded. Mark didn't override my ideas often, and usually they were the result of one of his gut feelings, but he was almost always right. "So how can we coordinate this with the police to cover the gaps?"

"I'm going to talk with Patrick today," Mark said. "He'll talk with the Police Commissioner, get the cops out on the streets covering the Playground more. With Andi's actions there a few days ago, it'll play easy. Also, the crime numbers in the Docks means we can get that area covered more. A little coordination with the Customs people at the Docks will help cover that too. Think you three can cover Filmore Heights and the airport?"

I nodded. "It's been a while since I've been out to the airport. Maybe a trip out there would be fun."

"If you do that, send Riley and Andi up to Filmore," Mark said. "And you limit your work at the airport to just intelligence gathering."

I chuckled. Even though we'd discussed it just the night before, the truth was Andi and Riley never did work well together on patrols, bickering like the siblings they were. Andi had two more years street experience than Riley, who chafed at having to follow his big sister's orders. "That'll be fun. Who gets to handle coms on that one?"

"I think I'll talk to Sophie about it," Mark said. "The presence of their mother should keep those two in line."

Mark and I finished our morning routine, and I left the room to find Andrea in the gym, doing her morning workout. "Interns don't have to go in every day," she explained. "So I decided to use the chance to take it easy this morning. How'd the meeting with Dad go?"

"He wants you and Riley to patrol Filmore Heights tonight while I get to check out the airport," I said. "Think you're up for it?"

Andrea nodded, jumping up to grab the pull up bar above her head. "You sure Riley is okay with it? After bringing Janet to dinner last night, I figured he'd be anxious to see her again."

Andrea started doing her pull ups, making sure to stop at the bottom of each one, pausing to let her muscles stretch and to make the lift as hard as possible. I knew she was taking it easy, knowing now that she'd be on patrol later. After completing her first set, she dropped to the ground and went over to the wall, where the first of the weight vests she'd use was hanging.

"I think Riley will do fine," I said. "I'll talk to him before going in to MJT. Unless you want to?"

Andrea laughed, shaking her head. "No thanks. I learned not to walk in on my sleeping brother during his teenage years."

"All right, I'll go take care of Riley," I said laughing. "Maybe he can use the patrol as a reason to get out of bed early, have a lunch date with Janet or something."

I
found
Mom in her office, reading over some reports. MJT had certainly moved from its original location, the building in the warehouse area that was now in fact the strike base Riley and Andi would be using that evening. After the collapse of the Confederation and Owen Lynch's syndicate, MJT was able to in fact purchase the entire Hamilton Building. Now occupying the top three floors, the Building was still one of the financial hubs of the city. "Hey Mom, how's it going?"

Even though she was my mother, my admiration for Tabby McCaffery was genuine. She called it luck, and maybe there was a bit of it in the way that her relationship with Sophie had led to her meeting Mark. But the growth of MJT was as much due to her hard work and genius as Mark's. More than once she'd made decisions and done things that she hadn't consulted Mark on, and she was almost invariably right. Her actions had saved or made MJT hundreds of millions over the course of the years, to the point that Mark had merely turned over everything except his personal stock market work to Mom and let her consult with him when she needed it. That was during the time we all jokingly called him the World's Richest Groundskeeper.

Mom looked up from her desk and smiled. "Good morning honey. How was the house?"

"Things are fine. I had to tell Riley he needs to reschedule his date with Janet, Mark needs our help with some work tonight," I said. We never spoke directly about vigilante work outside of the house, although we'd get around it at times using euphemisms. "Wish Dad didn't have to go up to the capitol to talk with the governor, but it happens."

I sat down at my desk. Officially, I was Mom's executive assistant, although the reality was, I was learning how to be an executive in the company. Mom knew that part of the reason MJT had been able to be successful for so long was that she was able to harness the ambitiousness of youth to keep it ahead of companies being run by so-called older and wiser heads. She wanted fresh blood in the executive chairs as quickly as possible, and that meant me. Andi was more interested in Dad and Mark's work at City Hall, Riley was still in school, and while Barbara was overseas, she’d be unavailable in general. "So what can I help you with today?"

"First I'm going to need you to review the contracts with that charitable group you were working on," Mom said, "then get tickets for Saturday night. I just heard that the Philharmonic is doing a special with Hans Zimmer, and I thought Sophie and Mark would like to go."

"And if Mark says he's too busy?" I asked. "You know how he gets."

"Then I'll tell Sophie to tie him down to the bed," Mom said with a grin. "Although he might like that too much."

We went to work, Mom on her projects while I worked on mine. Mom preferred to have an open setup to her office instead of closed cubicles, so even though I was technically her assistant, I shared the space with her and her other assistant, a quiet but very competent girl named Alicia who handled a lot of the day to day correspondence and stuff like that. She was a product of the MJT community centers, second generation in fact. Her mother had been part of the first wave of job trainees at the MJT centers, getting her and her two kids off of welfare. Alicia followed suit and had actually gotten into college with the training she'd gotten at the centers, and for three years had been Mom's assistant. She was twenty-six now, and made Mom's work at MJT as stress-free as possible.

After reviewing the contracts, I called up the Philharmonic. MJT was a diamond patron of the Phil, and as such, we could land tickets even on short notice. "Hi, this is Carter McCaffery from MJT Holdings."

The names McCaffery and MJT swing weight in certain areas of the city, and I reflected that I was glad that I had my night work. If I didn't, I'd actually start thinking I was somehow more important than other people. The way the person on the other end of the line practically kowtowed over a phone line was evidence of this sort of treatment. "Of course, Mr. McCaffery. How can we help you?"

"Yes, I'd like to get two tickets to your performance Saturday night. Do you have any prime seats left?"

While floor seats were sold out, the Phil did have a luxury box available, which I booked. It was the price of four tickets, but I didn't think Mom would mind. It was for Sophie and Mark, after all. Hanging up the phone, I flashed Mom a thumbs up. "Luxury box, Saturday night. I'll leave the rest to you."