Legal Briefs

“You’re the Fox!” Gab said.

“No. I am vith Russian mafia. He is correct that Moretti has gotten arrogant, but it vill not be the Yakuza that holds power. Give me the flash drive.”

“Unfortunately, it won’t be either one of ya’s,” a voice slurred from the kitchen. We all turned to look. It was Donna! And she had a gun pointed at Yuri. Donna armed was scarier than the other two put together. God only knew what she would hit.

“Cougar mafia?” Adam asked.

“Ha! You should definitely keep that one around, Lil. Not only is he making you holler real good, but he’s f**kin’ hilarious.”

“Are you the Fox?” Gab asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“No. I once was a fox, though. Back when I was Miss Philly Cheesesteak, Sal Moretti couldn’t keep his paws offa me. He was my boyfriend until he threw me over for some young slut. I want revenge. Now hand over the flash drive.”

“Not so fast.” We all turned toward the door, where Ray Nardo stood, pointing a gun at Donna.

“And why do you want it?” Adam asked.

“Because I’m the Fox.”

“See!” I said to Mark. “I told you he seemed like a criminal.”

“You seem like a criminal to us,” Scratch said, pulling his own gun and coming up behind Nardo. “Now!” he said, and suddenly a group of guys wearing body armor that said ‘FBI’ came flooding through the door and quickly disarmed everyone present. Scratch took out a badge. “Mike Kazinski, FBI. All clear, Jake.” With that, in strode Jacob, looking as cocky as usual.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Our guests had all gone home. Well, at least the ones who weren’t arrested. I noticed that Vixen and Herb left together. That was an interesting pairing. Our friends had also headed out, with our assurances that we would contact them as soon as possible to let them know what happened. Now Adam and I sat listening to Jacob fill us in on all the missing details. He had an interesting story to tell.

“Special agent Kazinski was placed in this building to watch Ukita Hu and Yuri Ivanovich, both of whom were known to be associated with organized criminal factions. We didn’t think it was a coincidence that they had both picked this building to live in, especially since this isn’t their part of town.”

“And you weren’t at all worried about Lily being here?” Adam asked.

“I didn’t know she was here at first. The apartment is listed to somebody else,” Jacob replied, sounding uncharacteristically tense.

“My landlord never does anything quickly. He probably just never bothered to update the information,” I explained.

“And besides, we didn’t even know what was going on. We just figured it was possible it had something to do with Moretti, since this is Moretti’s part of town. He had tried to upset the balance of power, which made him very unpopular with both the Asians and the Russians.”

“They did have an agent on the inside,” I reminded Adam, who still seemed angry.

“We’ve also been watching this building from across the street for months.”

“So I wasn’t imagining it that night. I thought I saw someone watching the building.”

“Kazinski was working the streets, and he got wind of a hit that was supposed to go down on one of our witnesses against Moretti. The shooter was somebody called the Fox, but nobody knew who he was. We got a warrant for a wiretap, and we sent in one of our surveillance experts.”

“Dan McGuire,” Adam said.

“Yeah,” Jacob replied, looking very unhappy. “We got a message from McGuire Saturday afternoon, saying that somebody had made him, and that they were right behind him, but that he had critical information. He mentioned two flash drives. Before he could say anything else, he was cut off.”

“Why was he at Inferno?” I asked, apprehensively.

“Probably because he knew that if he tried to come in, they would take him down immediately, and that you were his best chance. He had worked a joint case with the county, and we think he recognized Adam,” Jacob paused before going on, and I could see that all of this was affecting him. “We think he stashed one drive in your apartment and held onto the other, and then he went to go find you.”

“How did he know where I would be?” I asked, suspecting that I already knew the answer, and tensing up in preparation.

“Every apartment is wired, Lily,” Jacob answered simply. He at least had the courtesy to look embarrassed, I noted.

“Oh my God,” I said, looking away as my stomach roiled. I felt so violated and mortified. I wondered if Jacob himself had actually listened to Adam and I having sex, admitting we loved each other, experiencing all of our most private, intimate moments together.

“We think they tried to take him down as soon as he got there,” Jacob went on, “but that he managed to elude them temporarily. When they did eventually succeed, he probably still had the drive on him, since you didn’t have it. We figured that would make them less interested in you, especially if you didn’t immediately vanish.”

“So you let her stay here, because that would be safer for her?” Adam asked, sounding like he didn’t believe him.

“I didn’t want …” Jacob began, voice filled with tension. He let out a deep breath and seemed to collect himself before he went on. “It wasn’t my decision. I wanted to move Lily into witness protection even then, but I was informed that because agent Kazinski was still inside, and the building was still being watched, that she would be safe.”

“Guess they were wrong, huh?” Adam asked sarcastically, and I saw Jacob look up at him with eyes flashing, and his jaw working like he was gritting teeth.

“She wasn’t pursued at home. She was pursued at work and after the incident at the law library I got permission for her to go into protection,” he reminded Adam, angrily, “but she didn’t want to go, presumably, because she didn’t want to leave you. I could have gotten a material witness subpoena and forced her, but I didn’t want to do that to her.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly as that sunk in. Jacob had put my happiness ahead of everything. Maybe I had underestimated him.

“You’re welcome.” He was talking to me, but he was glaring at Adam. “So, we pulled strings to get her into the DA’s office, and since you were willing to stay with her, we figured you could keep your eyes open for us. And you did a good job, Roth. Thanks to your little party plans, we now have the Fox safely in custody, along with three other undesirables.”