Exposure

robbery. Talk had even turned to whether the mob was involved. Did Giordano have any connections? Dom had insisted to his friend the Lucchese family had nothing to do with the heist.

“The cops can’t link Giordano to me,” Nico told Dom — not that he had to answer to any of his soldiers. “No way.”

“Sure, sure.”

“You hear anything about what the wife’s tellin’ the cops?”

“She ain’t tellin’ ’em nothin’. Said she was lyin’ on the bed with her little girl when she heard the shots. Then she was afraid to come out of the bedroom. She and the kid hid in the closet.”

So she hadn’t seen him. Or if she had, she wasn’t talking. “Thanks, man.”

“You bet.”

Nico hung up the phone and started pacing, trying to get his head on straight. You didn’t mess up with this much cash on the line and pay nothing. But he could still take care of things. Once the money was out of that rental, there’d be no way at all to prove a connection between him and Giordano.

He’d be okay with Bear. He’d be okay. As long as the boss didn’t start playing with the scar on his face. Nico had seen him do that maybe a dozen times. Every time somebody wound up whacked. A few times Nico had been sent to do the job.

The phone rang again. Nico knew who it was before he picked up.

“I want to see you,” Bear growled. The line clicked.

At the underboss’s house Nico did the only thing he could. He stuffed his rage at Giordano down in his gut and tried to play it cool.

“What’d you do?” Bear planted himself behind the massive cherry wood desk in his office. His arms were folded, the gray brows meeting over his eyes like one long thundercloud. On the wall behind him spread a leopard skin. Nico had never asked where he got it.

“He came at me, I had to shoot.”

“What, you can’t control your own guy?”

“My gun was out and he jumped me. I was still going to put him in the car and clean up, but I saw a cop car out the window and thought they were coming to question Giordano. I had to get outta there.”

“So now our money’s parked at a crime scene.”

Nico shook his head. “Don’t worry, the cops’ll be outta there tomorr — ”

“Don’t tell me what to worry about!” Bear smacked his palm on the desk. He pointed a thick finger at Nico. “I wondered about this guy from the beginning, but you vouched for him. Then you come back to me whinin’ he’s no good and how you’re gonna take care of it. I tell you how to do that. But you don’t listen.”

Nico clenched his jaw. Bear wasn’t hearing a thing he said. One mistake in all his years. One time —

“You got something to say, Nico?”

“I tried to do what you said. Sometimes things happen.”

“No. No. Things don’t just ‘happen.’ You did this. That short temper of yours — that’s what did it.”

Nico bit back his answer.

Bear glared at him. “What about the wife and kid? How’d you expect to get Giordano outta there without them seeing you?”

“He told me they were gone.”

“And you just believed him.”

“He had too much money ridin’ on it to cross me.”

“Apparently he didn’t get the message.”

Nico said nothing.

Bear knocked his knuckles against the desk. “The wife — can she finger you?”

“Never saw me. She was busy with the kid.”

“You hope so.”

“That’s what she told the cops.”

Bear’s hard eyes drilled into Nico. He slid a hand to his face. One finger traced the scar along his jaw line.

Nico went cold.

“Listen to me good, Nico. I don’t want you thinkin’ with that mule head of yours. I just want you to do what I tell you. Got it?”

“Yeah.”

“When you leave here, go home. Stay there. Tell your friends on the force to keep their ears out for any more word from the detectives on the case. We gotta be sure that crime scene opens up by tonight. When you hear it’s clear, call me. I want the money outta there long before dawn. Go at one a.m.”

“Where you want me to take it?” Nico tried to keep his eyes from that trailing finger.

“I’ll let you know. Right now I don’t care if we have to bury it in my backyard. I just want it out of there.”

“Okay.”

“Nothin’ goes wrong. Nothin’. We get the money. The cops and G-men stay clueless about the robbery and Giordano.”

“It’s done. I guarantee you. It’s done.”

Bear dropped his hand, but his gaze was cold. “You done a lot for the family, Nico. I’m givin’ you this chance to make things right. You understand?”

Nico swallowed. “Yeah. I understand.”

“Go.”

As Nico left the room he could feel Bear’s eyes shooting daggers at his back.

TWENTY-SIX

Kaycee closed her kitchen door and tested the lock.

They were out there somewhere. Watching.

Weight descended upon her, as if the sky bulged down. The staring eyes lasered holes in her back. She spun around and cast wild looks over the yard.

Her gaze fell on the storage shed. Had Hannah crept in there sometime this morning, now too afraid to show herself? Kids could be like that. They did stupid things when they were scared.

Like adults.

She headed over to the shed, hearing the grass swish under her feet, feeling the sun on her head. Her chin lifted, and she drew in a long exploring breath through her nose. No smell of blood. That sense hadn’t returned since she’d been on the stairs . . .

At the shed Kaycee pulled back the creaky door. Its musty, dirt-drenched odor leaked out.

Empty.

She let the door fall shut and headed for the garage. Twice she stopped to look behind her.

The small garage was dim. Kaycee hit the button to open the rollup door. Eyes flicking in all directions, she passed around the front of her PT Cruiser and got in. She pulled the car key out of her purse and tossed the handbag on the passenger seat. Buckled her seatbelt.

Backing out the driveway, she reached for the remote button clipped to her visor to shut the garage door. Her fingers slid over the top of the visor — and hit a slick edge. What was that? Kaycee snatched her hand away and braked. The visor snapped down.

A photo slipped out and into her lap. A five-by-seven of the dead man on the dark yellow floor. One side of