No Stone Unturned: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Eleven Read online

  He blinked as if making sure he was actually lucid, then stood up. He touched his ribs and flinched. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. You’re the one who’s banged up. Let’s go home. There are, like, twenty neighbors crammed into Nonna’s house, helping her out and hopefully the police are on the way. I left a gun for her, just in case.”

  “You left Nonna with a gun?”

  “Are you going to repeat everything I say and put it into a question?” It wasn’t like we had a lot of time here. The bad guys were getting away.

  “I might. How did you find me?”

  “Nonna said you went to the market. The car was in the driveway, so I knew you went on foot. I didn’t know what was happening to you, so I ran all the way here to find you. I heard some yelling, so I came to investigate and that’s when I saw you.”

  “You came to my rescue all by yourself?”

  “Of course. They attacked you, me and Nonna in one day. For what? To steal your DNA so they can find out who your father is? What the heck is wrong with these people? They are going down, Slash. I mean it.”

  He looked at me with a faintly amused expression. “You’re scaring me with that tone.”

  “Good, because I’m completely serious. This has to stop. I don’t care if the entire future of the Vatican is at stake. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  He pulled me into a one-armed hug. “I’m better than okay.”

  I willed myself to calm down. “We’re going to crush him, Slash. Lazo, his allies and whoever else is in his camp. I don’t care if he’s the president of the Vatican or president of the universe. The gauntlet has been thrown. A line drawn in the sand. You get what I’m saying, right?”

  “I’m clear on the analogies, and, si, we’re going to end this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. He punched several numbers, hit send and returned the cell to his pocket.

  “What was that all about?”

  “I’m telling the team reviewing my vital signs that I’m not under duress and not to stop my heart.” He tapped his chest with a grin.

  I pressed my hand against my mouth. Oh my God. I had totally forgotten about that. “How can you live like that?”

  “Very carefully. Come on, let’s go home.”

  I shook my head. “Unfortunately, there won’t be any lunch.”

  “I’m sure Nonna can remedy that.” He walked over to a spot where he’d dropped a couple of bags of groceries and picked them up. “Good thing I went to the market.”

  I took one of the bags from him as we started to jog back toward Nonna’s. “Maybe we can get some information from the two guys Nonna and I knocked unconscious.”

  “Maybe. My guess is they won’t talk.”

  “Then we’ll have to give them incentive to do so.” I narrowed my eyes.

  Slash put a hand in the small of her back, moving her forward. “Good thinking.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Father Julian Koenhein

  Julian entered the office of the cardinal, relieved he could finally relate some good news. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good, but he was definitely starting with the good and hoping it would balance the bad. Just in case, he offered up a little prayer.

  “Your Eminence, the DNA evidence has been secured,” he said as the cardinal looked up. “I just got a call. They took it directly off him. It’s on the way to the lab with expedited service.”

  The cardinal’s face broke into a huge smile and Julian felt a rush of relief.

  “Finally. But it better not be from a dog,” the cardinal warned.

  “I assure you it’s not. But while we were successful in securing a hair sample, there was a tiny mishap.”

  “Tiny mishap? What does that mean?”

  Julian shifted slightly closer to the door. Once, when Julian had shown him an online news article in which the cardinal had been referred to in unflattering terms, Cardinal Lazo had thrown a paperweight at him.

  “Two members of the team entered his grandmother’s house, looking for Slash, but he wasn’t there,” Julian said. “I guess he’d left early to go somewhere. When they breached the door, they encountered just the fiancée and the grandmother.”

  The cardinal folded his hands atop of the papers. “Okay? So what happened?”

  “The women wouldn’t say where Slash had gone. They resisted, so two of our guys got hurt.”

  Julian cringed at the disbelieving look that crossed the cardinal’s face. “They got hurt? How?”

  “The women attacked them. Viciously.”

  Color was rising in the cardinal’s cheeks, a sure sign that he was getting angry. “You’re telling me that two trained security operatives got hurt by women, one of them elderly?”

  “Yes, sir. Apparently there was a cat, too. It scratched up Cinelli pretty bad.”

  “A cat?” The cardinal stared at him.

  Julian rushed to explain. “Obviously, Cinelli and Tucci didn’t want to hurt the women, or the cat, so they treated them gently and as a result, they got hurt.”

  The cardinal’s tone turned chilly. “Explain exactly how they got hurt.”

  “Cinelli and Tucci were knocked out somehow. The good news is their injuries are not permanent. They’re at the police station in Sperlonga now. Their story is they accidentally wandered into the house and the women attacked them. I’m working to get them released as quietly as possible.”

  The cardinal’s face had turned as red as his zucchetto, a sure sign that his blood pressure was skyrocketing. Julian couldn’t decide if he should dash out for cardinal’s medicine, which he kept in a locked cabinet in the outer office, or whether that would be considered disrespectful to disappear in the middle of a conversation.

  “Two trained team members wandered into a house by accident, got knocked out by two women, one of them elderly, and now they are at the police station?” he said, repeating the story as if he hadn’t heard it correctly. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

  “They went after Slash and found him alone and on foot coming back from town. They’d just taken him down and were obtaining the sample when the fiancée showed up with a gun.”

  “Excuse me? The girl, who took down one, or possibly two, of our men came after the team by herself? With a gun?”

  Julian hoped the expression on his face was calm and serene because inside his heart pounded against his chest. “Yes, sir. The gun she took off of Tucci.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Father Lazo exploded. He reached across his desk and picked up the heavy paperweight from atop some papers. “Did she bring the cat, too?”

  Julian flinched and stood his ground, but he prepared to duck, just in case. “No, sir, she didn’t. Anyway, the good news is, the team got away with a viable DNA sample, which was the primary objective. The sample is on the way to the lab. We should have results in less than forty-eight hours. What do you want me to do about Cinelli and Tucci?”

  The cardinal glared at him, but thankfully returned the paperweight to the desk. “Call the police chief in Rome and patch him through to me. I’ll work that angle. You clean up the rest of your mess, Julian, and do it quickly. I want those DNA results the second the come in.”

  Julian murmured a small prayer of thanks the cardinal had controlled his temper this day. Only by the grace of God was he spared.

  “Yes, Your Eminence.” He bowed his head deferentially. “The very second.”

  Slash

  “Nonna!” Slash shouted as he dashed into the house followed closely by Lexi.

  Relief blasted through him as he saw Nonna sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by several of their neighbors, seemingly fine. There was also a policeman who appeared to be interviewing some of the neighbors. The kitchen looked like a war zone, with glass and dishes and food everywhere. There was no sign o
f the intruders.

  He quickly identified himself to the policeman and crouched down to check on Nonna.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. When she nodded, he gently pulled her frail form into a hug. Mio Dio. If anything had happened to her, that would have been on him. He should have never come here and put her in danger.

  “I’m fine, chierchetto,” she said, looking more angry than scared that her house had been invaded. “Lexi did most of the work dispatching the intruders. How are you?” She touched his bruised jaw and split lip, shaking her head at him in exasperation. “Trouble finds you, Romeo.”

  “I know, Nonna, but I’m fine. Barely a scratch. I’m just glad you’re safe.”

  “I’m always safe with you around.” She glanced over at Lexi. “And now with her, too. That girl of yours is worth keeping, and you know I don’t say things like that lightly.”

  “I know, Nonna.” He thanked God for her safety, but inwardly his anger ran hot and furious. Lazo would not come out of this unscathed.

  He rose to his feet, looked around. “What happened to the intruders?” he asked the policeman.

  “They were taken away,” he replied. “They’ll be checked in at the station and arraigned shortly.” He tipped his head toward Lexi. “Can she speak Italian?”

  “No, that’s my fiancée. She’s American. I’ll translate for you.”

  The policeman asked her several questions and Lexi answered them truthfully. Slash occasionally tweaked her answers when he translated, not wanting to implicate Lazo quite yet, especially when he wasn’t ready with the evidence. By the time they finished, the policeman had come to the conclusion that it was a home invasion and Slash didn’t correct him on that. Yet.

  Eventually the policeman and all the neighbors left. Slash helped Nonna up to her room to rest while Lexi began the task of cleaning the kitchen. Once Nonna had settled, he returned to the kitchen help her.

  She was emptying some debris into the trash. When she turned around, he set aside the broom and dustpan and pulled her into his arms.

  “Thank you, cara,” he murmured.

  “For what?”

  “For protecting Nonna. For being here for me. For everything.”

  She pulled back so she could study his face. “Is Nonna okay? Really?”

  “Si. She’s doing remarkably well considering what she’s been through today. She’s tough, perhaps the toughest woman I know, other than you.”

  He could see the words pleased her, but she still didn’t want to take all the credit. “Nonna stood up to those guys without a second thought, Slash. She was amazing. From this point on, Nonna is my definition of a badass.”

  He managed a smile as he released her and took the broom, sweeping the pieces of a broken dish into a pile. “She said you were pretty badass yourself, jumping on one of the guy’s back after he put his hands on her.”

  “That was my threshold for violence.” She still had no idea how much it meant to him that she had protected Nonna. “I jumped on his back and attacked him with a wooden spoon aimed at a vulnerable spot on his body—in this case, his eyes—just like you told me to do.”

  “That training is paying off,” he said, tossing Lexi a roll of paper towels. “It will continue.”

  “That’s a good idea.” She started to scrub the wall. “At first I thought you were crazy, but you were right. There are ways all of us—regardless of size, gender or strength—can protect ourselves.”

  “True. You’re a good pupil, cara.”

  She threw him a glance over her shoulder and he felt a hard jolt of affection. Yeah, he had it bad for her.

  “I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I’m being taught by the best either,” she said.

  Just like that, the tension in his gut eased. Proof that with her around he was likely to live a lot longer.

  They worked side by side until they had the kitchen as spotless as possible. It took them nearly three hours. After he changed clothes, he left Lexi at home to watch Nonna while he went to the police station to find out what had happened to the two intruders.

  When he got to the police station, the men were already gone.

  His irritation rose. “Gone? Where are they?” he asked the detective in charge.

  “They were transferred to Rome about an hour ago.”

  “On whose authority?”

  “On the authority of the police chief in Rome himself. Don’t worry, sir, they will be handled appropriately. We’ll keep you informed as to what happens to them.”

  In his opinion, their sudden disappearance to Rome, summoned by the police chief himself, did not bode well for justice being served. But that wasn’t a matter to be addressed by this detective, and he knew it.

  “Can you provide the names of the men who broke into the house?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry, sir. We’ve been told to put a lid on the investigation, as it’s being handled in Rome. It seems a bit odd, but perhaps they are involved in something else. They’ve promised to report back to us, so we can update you on all developments.”

  There was nothing more to be learned here. He thanked the detective and returned home. When he told Lexi and Nonna the news, Lexi was furious.

  “They transferred them?” she said. “Already? They can’t do that, can they?”

  “They can and they did. It won’t stop us. We’ll hack into the police department after dinner and get their names.”

  “Definitely,” she said.

  He and Nonna prepared a light dinner of focaccia and paired it with a variety of cheeses, honey, grapes and olive oil. Lexi chose a Lambrusco wine to go with the dinner.

  Nonna said something to her and Slash translated. “She said you made an excellent choice for dinner. She’s impressed.”

  “It’s hard to make a mistake with Italian wine when it’s all excellent, but tell her I appreciate her confidence in me,” she said.

  Nonna retired for the evening after dinner while he and Lexi went to work hacking into the Sperlonga police station. It was easy. Within twenty minutes, they had the two names of the guys.

  “Both guys are former military,” Slash mused, transferring the information to his hard drive. “Both are also officially unemployed at the moment. Mercenaries-for-hire is my best guess. Lazo will take care of them now they’re in Rome. They’ll be released shortly, if they haven’t been already, and then will vanish. Problem solved...for him.”

  “I’m starting to intensely dislike this Lazo guy,” Lexi said.

  “That makes two of us.” Slash leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs. They’d set up their laptops in the sewing room. He wasn’t planning on leaving tonight. He’d be damned if he’d sleep one more night without her. She must have sensed his resolve, because she didn’t protest too much. After brushing their teeth, they cuddled together on the lumpy couch. She curled up against his side while he stroked her hair and stared up at the ceiling, thinking.

  “What are you thinking about?” she finally asked.

  “How soon I can buy Nonna a new couch.”

  “Oh, thank God.”

  He chuckled and then winced. “Ouch.”

  She lifted his shirt and took a look at the bruises on the left side of his rib cage. “Oh, Slash. This looks like it hurts.”

  “It’s tender. One of them was wearing military issue boots. Those boots connected with my ribs a couple of times after I went down.”

  “I should have come earlier.”

  “You shouldn’t have come at all, but I appreciate it.” He turned over his bandaged hands and flexed his fingers a couple of times to see how it felt. “At least our hands are healing.”

  Her hand brushed against the gold cross he always wore around his neck, but this time she captured it between her fingers and flipped it over, examining it more closely.

  “It has a red
cross with pointed, not squared, corners engraved on the back.” She looked up. “What does it signify?”

  “It was given to me upon my induction to the sodalitium pianum.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really?” She studied him quizzically and he wondered what she was thinking. “You never take it off.”

  “It’s a reminder,” he said, gently taking it from her fingers and pulling her close, her cheek resting against his. “To make amends.”

  He felt her sigh against his skin, but she didn’t bring it up. Instead she stroked his bruised jaw and lip. “Is there anywhere you aren’t hurt?

  He thought about it and pointed to his stomach.

  “Your belly button?”

  He nipped at her ear. “You asked me where it didn’t hurt.”

  She laughed, lowered her head, then kissed it. “There. Feeling better?”

  He pretended to think it over and then shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Apparently I require additional ministrations.”

  Her hair brushed against his stomach and his abs clenched. “Did you get into a fight so I would do this?” she asked.

  He hadn’t, but if it got him this kind of attention, he’d sure as hell consider it. “I’m sorry, but that’s an operational secret.”

  “So is this.” She reached over him and pulled the chain on the lamp, plunging them into darkness.

  An hour later, he could say with great certainty, he was feeling a lot better.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Lexi

  When I woke, light was streaming in through the window. I sat up and glanced at the clock next to the sewing machine. Nearly eight o’clock. Slash was missing, which was normal since he was an early riser. He’d probably gone to do tai chi or something, even with burned hands and sore ribs. I burrowed back in the sheets intending to sleep some more, when I realized there was a foul smell in the room.

  I bolted upright in the bed, wrinkling my nose and looking around. Then I saw it at the foot of the couch—the carcass of a dead rat.

  I opened my mouth to scream, but my voice was frozen in my throat. Panicked, I tried to scramble away, but my foot got caught in the sheets. I rolled off the couch, bringing the sheets and the dead rat with me.