Atonement, page 13
We all sit down. Tosca never even stood. She glances at her nails and picks at an invisible cuticle, like this type of conversation is just par for the course.
“Perhaps we can barter services. Master Enterprises has the most reputable name you’ll find in the Northeast.”
He nods. “While I’m disappointed I can’t have you, Violet, I thank you.” He gets to his feet with a bored yawn. “And thank you for your offer to barter. I will tell you only this. Yes, I knew your mother. Her eyes were unforgettable. She worked for us for a time until her demise several decades ago. We suspect we know who was responsible for her death, but unfortunately, I can’t give you that name since you’re an outsider. I do wish you the best with your endeavors.”
“But I—” It isn’t enough. We need more.
He inclines his head. The door to the room opens and Skylar, looking a bit disheveled but wearing a shit-eating grin, comes in with Mario. The men nod at each other, and Romeo leaves.
“So sorry you couldn’t get what you came for,” Tosca says. She places a well-manicured hand on Cain’s shoulder. I want to slap her so badly my fingers tingle. How dare she touch him?
Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter!
“Do come again?”
Cain bends and kisses her cheek. “Thank you for your hospitality. And we will.”
I clamp my jaw when I realize it’s unhinged. I’m staring at him as if he’s sprouted a second head. How could he kiss her cheek like that? With me standing right here?
I look to Cain. Is that it, then? We just leave without getting what we came for?
“Thank you,” he says, turning his back to me and heading for the door. “Please tell your husband I said hello.”
She freezes. “I will, thank you.”
We make it to the truck before I lose my shit. “How could you… just… leave?” I nearly scream at him. “We came here for a reason. And you promised me!”
“Hush, Violet,” Cain says in that stern voice I normally heed. “Get in the truck.”
“Fucking no,” I hiss. “I need answers. I’m not leaving here until I get them. I didn’t come here for a cup of fucking tea and a trip to what feels like a damn escape room or obstacle course. I swear we just left a goddamn insane asylum.”
“Get in the truck, Violet, or I will pick you up and strap you in myself,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Babe,” Skylar says pleadingly, her eyes wide. “Please. Do what he says, okay? Just this one time then you can ignore him for eternity.”
It’s then that I realize every one of the Rossi guards stands in a semi-circle, their hands on their weapons, waiting for us to go.
I get in the truck and close my eyes. It’s all gone to shit. Everything. Everything.
Chapter Thirteen
Cain
I hate the way Violet looks at me, somewhere between fury and hurt; it makes me sick to my stomach. I hate the attitude she’s giving me, though I freely admit I deserve it. Hell, earned it even.
We have a job to do, and I can’t think about us right now.
“Violet, we left because the Rossis asked us to, and when Romeo Rossi asks you to do something, you’d better have a goddamn good reason if you don’t. We also left because I’m confident that Skylar has exactly what we need.”
“So, folks,” Skylar says. She props her feet up on the dash with a wicked grin. I know she’s got intel for us. “I do indeedy.”
Violet blinks. “Go on, then.”
“Your mother was hired by the Rossis for a variety of hits over the course of a decade.” Violet nods. I wish I could read her expression, but her face is a mask. “It was before Mario’s time, but the family has secret records, and he was able to access all of them. For a price,” she says with a nod. “But it was not a hard price to pay, believe you me. He has this thing where he—”
“Skylar.” Violet and I both say in unison. She looks at me briefly, then flips her head away so she doesn’t have to look me in the eyes.
“Okay, right. You guys don’t like to think about sex even though you’ve probably christened every single place in that entire mansion of yours but whatever. So anyway, he says that there was a priest or minister or something by the name of Descamps who got into big trouble with a rival mafia group, the Castellanos. As a favor to Descamps, Rossi hired your mother to do this hit. Rival mafia group found out, paid back the Rossi family with a hit of their own, but then tortured one of the cousins until he gave them your mom’s name…” her voice trails off until she finishes in a voice that hints at a whisper. “And the rest is history.”
“Castellano,” I mutter to myself. “Castellano.” I know I’ve heard it before, I just don’t know where. “Where have I heard that before? I know I’ve seen it. Read it, even… and something tells me we need to know more about this.”
“Babe,” Cain says, then shakes his head. “Violet. How did you discover that your mother was an assassin?”
“She had this book…. That I keep. The one I gave Henri just now. It’s partially a diary, but she also had all sorts of things scribbled and scrawled into it. She liked to draw and color little doodles and things like that. I took it with me that day you took me from my place and brought me to yours.”
Ah, right. She distracted me and asked me to take something she never used out of the drawer in her bedside table and didn’t think I saw her take a book out of the closet and tuck it into her bag. My job is to not miss details. I rarely do.
“Right.”
“And in the book… well, she has a few strange things. Like she has pictures she drew of me as a baby, sitting by a crib, sitting in a highchair, eating baby food. But then there’s one with my eyes colored violet, and next to it she’s written in cursive, Violet Price. It’s why I took that name…” her voice trails off.
“I gave it to Henri and gave him my theory on the names and payouts. She’s mentioned Greenlief, Whittier, and Whitman.”
Skylar frowns. “You know Greenlief Whittier’s a private bank in Salem?”
Violet blinks. “No, I didn’t know that.”
Skylar whips out her phone and starts typing away. “Whoa. Babe. We need to go there next.”
“Why?”
“The CEO of the bank’s name is Whitman. He knows something, Vi. He knows something big.”
“Hit the GPS, Sky.”
“Are they following us?” Violet looks out the rearview mirror, and I follow her gaze. About thirty yards back, a sleek black Town Car’s behind us. I frown and take a quick left then a right, and half a minute later, the Town Car’s behind us again.
“Oh yeah.”
“From the Rossis?”
“No… I don’t think so. But let’s keep an eye on them.”
“God, I hope someone attacks us. I would kill to beat the shit out of someone right about now. All this pent-up energy.”
“Same,” I mutter. She frowns.
“We’re five minutes out, but I don’t trust this guy following us,” Sky says. “Anyone got a weapon for me just in case?”
“Yeah, you can borrow this.” Violet reaches into her bra and pulls out her tiniest throwing blade. “Remember how I taught you to throw it at the jugular to kill, side of the neck to injure and incapacitate.”
Skylar squeals like Violet just gave her a box of her favorite chocolates. “Oooh, you didn’t have to. Thank you! Can you teach me—”
Violet shakes her head. “No, Sky. Not now. I’ll be moving out once this is finished.”
My gut clenches.
Skylar nods, her face downcast like a girl who just lost her dog.
The bank sits on the corner of Oak Street and Institution Drive, a stately-looking building complete with red brick walls. The cold of autumn’s struck the tree branches bare, but a few brown and orange leaves have fluttered to the ground around us as we enter the bank.
Violet looks at the names on the walls. “Ah, there he is. And look, the little indicator says he’s here today.” I look to where she points, to a red and green lighted workstation indicating who’s in today and their hours. He’s in.
“You two go outside,” Violet says. “I need to do this alone.”
“Like hell you’ll—”
“I mean it,” she says in that voice that means business. “Don’t you dare try to patronize me or help me. It’s important that I do this.”
I nod. I understand. Skylar’s jaw drops, and she starts shaking her head. “Skylar,” I say warningly. Skylar sighs. “Alright, alright.”
Violet continues in as we step back outside. We watch as Violet approaches an elderly man sitting at a desk, tapping away on his keyboard. She stands in his doorway and says something, and he looks up at her.
“Wish I could hear them from here,” I mutter. “Can’t hear a damn thing.”
Skylar groans. “Same. I wanna know what the hell is going on in there.”
“You’re just as nosy as I am.”
She snorts. “Hardly. Okay, so listen. While she’s in there, you have to listen to me.”
I nod.
Skylar continues, “I saw the videos. You know I did. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her so I let you do that dirty work. You spied on her, huh?”
I nod, still watching Violet. The man at the desk pushes himself to standing and reaches for something. I feel myself tensing. I want to go in there and protect her so badly, my body aches from the tension.
I release a breath when he reaches for an envelope and pushes a button, then gestures for her to come with him.
“Stand down, Cain,” Skylar warns. “Stand. Down.” She squints and looks over my shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she says, shaking her head. “Thought I saw something just now. Huh. Okay, so listen. You fucked up, dude. Big time. You watched her on video and I’m gonna guess you didn’t tell her about those.”
“You’d guess correctly.” Like I want to stand here and listen to my younger sister lecture me about relationships? Hell no. The thought of Violet leaving… and she always does what she says she will… I can’t.
I watch the door close behind Violet.
Looks like he recognized her. He didn’t send her back out here. Therefore… something’s going on in there.
“Aw, man, Cain. The most important thing in the world to Violet is trust. You know that.”
“I do, it’s why I feel like an ass and really don’t need reminding of this.” I don’t want to talk to my sister about relationships. Instead, I’m watching everything in the bank, my mind roving over the name again. Castellano. Castellano…
“So how’d you get her to come here, then, if she didn’t know you were tracking her?”
With a grimace, I tell her everything that matters. By the time I get to the end, her head’s buried in her hands. “Nooooo,” she moans. “You didn’t.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Ugh. Where the fuck are they?
“Alright, then. There’s nothing left for it but to grovel, brother.”
“Grovel?”
“Ohhh, yeah. You have to pull out all the stops. Like all of them. She doesn’t want you to buy her things, but that monster truck she’s been eying might be nice, and perhaps a wee mini pit bull puppy would also be great. Maybe some of those killer high-heeled boots she’s wanted…”
She’ll have all of them by the time we’re back. I’m texting Joe now. I’m not sure it’ll make a damn difference.
“Noted.”
“Now, none of those things will actually get her to forgive you, though, you know that right? It’s just like an act of goodwill.”
“Right. So how do I get her to forgive me?”
She frowns. “This might be harder than I thought.” She taps her chin thoughtfully.
“I believe in you,” I mutter.
“Well… Violet really needs to know she can trust you, so I think the single best way for you to establish that trust?”
“Yeah?”
“Back off and let her handle this. You don’t need to swoop in and save her, no matter how tempting that is. Okay?”
I groan. “Okay.”
My phone rings. Joe. “Yeah?”
“Boss, my tracking says Violet’s in the GWW bank.”
“She is. I’m outside.”
“I see that as well.”
“Something I need to know, Joe, or you just miss me?”
“That bank’s owned by the Castellanos.”
There they are again. Motherfucker.
“Tell me again why that name means something.”
“Castellano—Armand’s mother’s maiden name, sir.”
I look sharply at the bank, willing Violet to emerge. “Fuck. You guys find him?”
“No, sir.”
“I’m going in. Spot me.”
“On it.”
Skylar’s opening the door, her eyes sparking. She hasn’t trained to my satisfaction but damn it if I don’t need a second pair of eyes and hands right about now. As we enter, a mother with two little kids sucking on lollipops exits, and Skylar nearly loses her balance. The bank’s crowded, people milling about in line and at various windows. It’s hard to get a read on where Violet is.
“Where is she?” I ask Sky on a whisper. “Do you see his room at all?”
She shakes her head, frowning. Nothing. I feel the tension in the air, and I know we’re being watched. Armand… fucking Armand. He’s behind this, but to what extent? For how long? And what does his mother’s family have to do with this?
“I see her,” Skylar hisses, jerking her chin to the far-right corner of the room. Violet has emerged from an opening door, her chin held high and a glimmer of a smile on her lips. I half-expect someone to come up with a pistol, an alarm to go off… but everything’s remarkably calm. Eerily calm, even. I see one teller look at another, then look my way. In the corner, a security guard talks on a walkie-talkie. Classical music plays in the background.
Skylar frowns, as Violet walks toward us.
“You look down. Why?”
“I wanted a shoot-out,” she says. “In on the action.”
A few people look our way. I roll my eyes and take her hand to tug her toward the exit where we meet Violet. “It’s overrated,” I mutter.
“You look as happy as a lark,” I say to Violet. “Good news?”
“Wait and seeeee,” she sings happily, and for one brief moment it looks like the old Violet’s back. The fierce, independent, indefatigable woman I fell in love with. I’m still in love with.
I have to let her go.
The door to the bank shuts behind me, and I follow the girls to our truck. Still, no one comes riding in with a semi, no one follows us with a gun. Someone’s watching us, though. I know it.
On the street behind the bank, another sleek black car slowly drives by. I catch Skylar’s eye. She saw them, too.
We climb back into our ride.
“Spill,” Skylar orders Violet.
“Got the money,” Violet says with a triumphant grin. “He knew who I was when I went in and showed him my I.D. I told him that I was the daughter of Russell and Anya Bates, and that I had reason to believe they’d stored their money here, at this bank. And voilà.” She shows me a small gold key with a flourish, and a bank statement.
I blow out a whistle. “Wow, baby. That’s a shit ton of money.” Violet will literally never need for a thing. I can’t feel elated, though.
“Why do you look worried?” she asks curiously. “Why isn’t this something to celebrate?”
“Didn’t say that it wasn’t.”
“Ah, right,” she says with that gleam in her eyes that tells me she’s pissed. If we were down by the training field, she’d grab a cudgel right about now. “You’re not pissed, yet you’re not happy, and it doesn’t take a brainiac to figure that one out.”
My own anger simmers. “Oh yeah? You figured me out before I figured myself out, did you?”
“Yeah. You want to be wanted. You need to be needed. And the idea of me being independent and not needing your money makes you insecure.”
“Jesus, no,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s not that at all.”
Why would my mind even go there, knowing that she’s leaving me?
“Then what is it?” she asks, arms crossed on her chest.
“It was too easy. Too damn easy.” I shake my head.
“What was?”
“Going in. Claiming the money. You have to jump through hoops to get any amount of money that is rightfully yours, never mind money you have to prove belongs to you.”
She sputters. “Are you implying that it doesn’t belong to me?”
“God, no. That’s not what I’m saying.”
I’ve never wanted to turn her over my knee so badly.
“You two stop!” Skylar puts her hands up like she’s a ref at a football game. If she had a whistle around her neck, I’d be deaf right now.
“For God’s sake, you’re so fucked up over arguing with each other and this whole breakup thing you don’t see the forest for the trees, do you?”
I turn down the road that takes us home.
“Spit it out, Skylar.”
“The bank’s owned by the Castellanos. They made a note on that account to alert them when the daughter of their enemies came to collect their money. Why? I dunno. But we know that Armand was following you, he’s got an ax to grind, and there’s a good possibility he worked for them. Yes?”
“Yes.” We both nod in unison, then glare at each other when we realize we’re agreeing.
“Go on,” I tell her.
“So you have to draw Armand out. The guys haven’t found him yet, but you know that he’s lying in wait, just biding his time for a chance to come and ruin everything. Right?”
“Right,” Violet says, warily. “Hard to do when everything’s already ruined,” she mutters under her breath.
I grip the steering wheel even tighter.
“Listen to me. Armand’s a coward, right? That’s like his trademark, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“So what will make this easier for him? What would a coward do? Cain, what does he have that he can use against you?”
I swallow hard. I don’t want to say it out loud. “Cain,” Skylar prods. “C’mon.”
