Five Wrong Moves Page 2

  3

  Adeleigh

  By the time I led the movers back into the apartment, Andy was looking extremely peeved.

  “What the hell took you so long?” he asked the second he saw me.

  I frowned. “I wasn’t gone that long.”

  “You were gone longer than it takes to run downstairs and let movers in,” he snapped, as he shot daggers at the movers who were behind me, wheeling in dollies full of boxes.

  “You are in the worst mood. I didn’t need you here if you didn’t want to help. Besides, I’m not sure what kind of hell hole you moved me into, anyways, with all these scary-ass men around.”

  Andy raised his eyebrows at me. “Adeleigh, what are you talking about? What scary-ass men?”

  “At the elevator, I ran into this scary ass dude who blocked my path.” The minute the words left my mouth, I knew they were completely the wrong thing to say.

  Andy crossed his arms as he faced where I stood.

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get all alpha. Nothing happened to me. He was just a big guy with lots of ink up and down his arms. I was only thrown off because I wasn’t expecting someone like him to come out of the elevator. Considering mister money bags own this place, I honestly thought the people living here would be different.”

  Andy gave me a disapproving look, but I kept going. “Look, I don’t want you to panic because I was thinking of taking a selfdefense class, anyways. I’m single now and living on my own. It would make me feel better, and probably both you and Ma too.”

  “What did you say this guy looked like?” Andy asked as he turned his attention to the movers.

  “He was huge. Not huge as in fat, but tall with very defined arms and wide shoulders. And he had tattoos everywhere. I’ve never seen so many before in my life.”

  Andy turned to look at me.

  I continued my rant, “And he was intense. Like so intense… If intensity were a person, it would be that guy. He scared the shit out of me. I’m not sure your friend knows he has men, who look like they hide bodies, living in his building. You should probably give him a heads up.”

  Sure enough, panic etches its way across Andy’s face. Clearly, he too was now concerned about where he was moving me into.

  “Eventually, I made it safely to the lobby to let the movers up.”

  Andy quickly uncrossed his arms and took a step towards me. “Addie, stop talking.”

  “Let’s just hope I can sleep tonight without moving a dresser in front of the door to block any forced entry.”

  “Addie, shut the fuck up!”

  I closed my mouth. Now, what had I done?

  “Hold up, Andy. Don’t stop her. I want to hear more about this intensely scary dude she saw in the hallway. You know, the one who hides bodies.” A deep voice came from the direction of the kitchen.

  Expecting it to be one of the movers, I turned around.

  I was wrong. So, very wrong.

  Wall of ink. In my doorway with two opened bottles of beer clutched in his big hands.

  For just a second, my mind went fuzzy. A sudden image of those hands running over my skin popped into my head.

  Coughing, I stepped backward and crashed into Andy’s chest.

  “Addie, watch it.” Andy’s arm wrapped around my shoulders to steady me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked, giving me a squeeze.

  I looked up at him. “Do we know him?” I whispered.

  “I have a question,” the guy said after taking a sip from one of the opened beer bottles. “Are these bodies dead or alive? I am going to assume dead, right?”

  Not knowing what else to do, I nodded, causing Andy to squeeze me again. “Pixie Dust!” He used the nickname bestowed on me as a child. It was really only used affectionately, or if I was in deep shit. Right now, definitely deep shit.

  Andy released me and addressed the man as he took one of the bottles of beer from his hands. “Man, I’m so, so sorry. Ma tried to install manners in her, but I swear, her ass of an ex interfered.” He turns to me, pointing at Mr. Wall of Ink. “Addie, this is Bo Donavan. My friend and our new business partner.” Andy slightly shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe I was his sister.

  I stood up straighter. This was Bo Donavan? This wasn’t who I was expecting at all.

  With a frown on his face, Bo moved toward me for the second time today. I forced my feet to stand still, instead of backing away like they wanted, and prepared for the worst. He was bound to be more than angry at me for being judgmental. Maybe he would even use a few choice words to put me in my place.

  What I didn’t expect was for him to place a finger under my chin and tip my head up, forcing me to meet those dark eyes.

  What the hell was he doing?

  I was just about to jerk my chin from his grip and tell him to stop staring at me when a loud crash sounded from behind us. We all turned to face the movers.

  “Sorry,” one of the guys grunted, picking up a box he dropped.

  “What do you have in these boxes that make them so heavy?” he asked, glaring at me.

  “Books,” Andy answered for me.

  “Books?” The mover wiped sweat from his face with an arm. “Who reads this much?” he asked the other mover next to him, who was setting down another stack of boxes.

  “Homebodies,” the other mover responded.

  My face burned bright red. Then, it dawned on me: I had treated Bo the same way. Based on the way he looked, I assumed he was someone much worse than a rich man coming to save the day.

  Pressing a hand to my chest, I took a deep breath. I needed some fresh air, immediately. “Andy, I’m going to go step outside a minute and see what else is in the moving truck,” I said, as I headed to the door of the apartment.

  Numerous sets of eyes followed my retreat, including those piercing ones.

  Picking up the pace, I reached for the door handle, just as I overheard Andy apologizing for my behavior. “Bo, I’m so sorry, man. It pisses me off that she can be so judgmental. It really was that asshole she lived with for the past six years. He fucked with her in so many ways.”

  Tears instantly welled up in my eyes as I slammed the door behind me.

  I didn’t want to hear whatever else Andy was going to say or Bo’s response, because even though I deserved it, I also knew I couldn’t stomach it.

  So, I did the only thing anyone can ever really do.

  I left.

  4

  Bo

  The minute the elevator doors slid open, I saw her standing in front of me. I knew who she was. It hadn’t mattered that I had never seen her. I sensed it, and my gut was usually right.

  Her long, straight, brownish-blonde hair was the same color as Andy’s. Thick, dark eyelashes framed large caramel-colored eyes—eyes that looked confused as they stared at me with one hand pressed to her forehead.

  She hadn’t seen me at first, which made no sense since I was blocking her path. It had only taken half a minute for awareness to blossom across her face. That was when her eyes roamed over my arms and up to my neck, searching, I wasn’t sure for what exactly, but she lit my skin on fire. Burning under her gaze.

  I let her do her thing while I waited for her to make eye contact. I was eager to see what was reflected in her eyes once she had taken me in. Except, when she lifted her chin and I finally got a look, I wished I had never made contact.

  All I saw was fear.

  It didn’t surprise me. She had a clear image of what was written on my soul.

  She was more intuitive than I thought she would be, but I didn’t want her to be afraid. I had been friends with her brother before she was even born. Best friends. For that reason alone, I wanted her to like me.

  Andy and I had met on the first day of preschool, thanks to some bullies who thought the dress pants and button-down shirt my mother had made me wear was odd. It was normal wear for me, mainly because my father held a high-ranking position with my grandfather’s company. My family had money, passed do
wn from one generation to the next. Because of it, my life was both a privilege and a curse.

  As a child, I had never given any of it a thought. Even when my grandfather sat me on his knee and told me I was special. It wasn’t until I attended school that I realized my grandfather may have been right. I was different. At that time, I thought he had been referring to my clothes. I didn’t look the same as all the other children who were dressed in T-shirts, jeans, or shorts.

  Not feeling like I fit in, I had isolated myself when the class went to the playground for lunch. I had been trying to eat when another boy snatched up my sandwich and threw it into the dirt. Not knowing what to do, I stood to pick it up. That was when a different boy shoved me to the ground.

  Sitting in the dirt, tears filled my eyes. Andrew Moreson appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. He had on the brightest green T-shirt with a dinosaur printed on the front that I immediately thought was the coolest shirt ever.

  He took one look at the boy standing over me, laughing, and shoved him hard, knocking him on his ass. When the boy started crying, a teacher ran up and scolded Andy, to which he just rolled his eyes. While she bent down, checking the bully, Andy smiled at me and offered an outstretched hand.

  Taking his hand changed my childhood for good.

  “My name is Andy. Come on, you can eat lunch with my friends and me,” he had said. And that was that. We became inseparable, and although the Moreson family was different, our parents were close friends. It was great until we turned seven. Andy unexpectedly lost his father a month after baby his sister was born, and my father quit the family business, packed us up, and moved my mom and I to New Jersey.

  Andy and I eventually lost touch. Actually, my family lost touch with everyone, including my grandfather, which didn’t seem to bother my parents at all. They were happy with their new lives, for a while at least.

  Now I was back in Chicago And one of the first things I did when I moved into the penthouse of the building I had inherited was look up Andrew Moreson.

  We agreed to meet for lunch, and although it had been years, it was as if no time had passed. He let me into his life, telling me how he was financially struggling and the issues his younger sister was dealing with due to an asshole ex-boyfriend who she had lived with.

  I took everything Andy said as a sign. I needed to get involved, for his sake and for mine. And all the while, he would be doing me a favor without even realizing that he was.

  However, the look on his younger sister’s face as she stared at me outside the elevator door was enough to make me want to abort my mission and exit all their lives before I took them down with me.

  But I couldn’t. I had made promises I needed to follow through with. I owed my family at least that much.

  So instead, I let Adeleigh escape into the elevator. She wanted away from me, and that was fine, for now. Besides, I already knew she wasn’t a fan that I had appeared. I heard every word of her complaints to Andy the day before, as I made a mental note to keep my voice down because the office walls were thin.

  She had assumed I was dangerous from the get-go.

  Little did she know she wasn’t that far off. In fact, it was now living under the same roof she resided in.

  5

  Adeleigh

  I had spent the first night in my new home, being haunted by a nightmare that left me shaken to my core. In it, the room was pitch black, making it unable for me to see anything. I kept reaching out, trying to grasp whatever my hands touched. Everything they came into contact with slipped out of my grip. Whatever my fingertips touched felt like cold, wet skin. Silent screams went off in my head, causing my eyes to fly open, only to find my nightshirt soaked underneath my breasts.

  I might be coming down with something: a cold, the flu, a fever. I tried to shake it off as I got ready for work, but I felt worse as I drove in a severe thunderstorm that seemed to match my mood.

  With the windshield wipers swiping frantically at the rain, I turned the car down the street, where the shopping center was located, and hit a traffic jam. A bit surprised, I impatiently drummed my fingers against the steering wheel as cars slowly crept forward.

  Traffic needed to hurry the hell up. I was in no mood to deal with slow-moving people. A restless uneasiness throbbed along my breast bone.

  As I rolled closer to the parking lot, I craned my head forward, trying to see around the line of cars in front of me. Red and blue flashing lights came from the area in front of Alan’s Air. Police cars, an ambulance, a couple of fire trucks were sporadically parked in front. Yellow caution tape was stretched all over the place.

  My heart began to strike against my rib cage. My hands shaking, I turned into the last driveway at the end of the lot and parked in the first open space. Telling myself to be calm, I exited the car and lifted the hoodie of my dark green rain jacket before tucking my handbag underneath my arm.

  I jogged toward Alan’s Air. Once I got a few feet away, a couple of men wearing FBI jackets let themselves in. I pushed my way through the doors and yelled, “Andy!”

  A multitude of heads spun in my direction and stared at me.

  Andy stepped around a couple of police officers and FBI agents and made his way toward me. “Addy, I want you to go home.” He pointed a finger in my direction. His light-hearted personality completely absent from his voice.

  “Why, what happened? Is everyone okay? Is Bo okay?” I asked on a rush of breath as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

  “Everyone is fine. I would just feel better if you would go home.” He placed a kiss on the top of my forehead.

  “I’m not leaving until you tell me what is going on.” My reply came out muffled as I spoke into his chest.

  “Andy, we have a couple of more questions for you if you don’t mind?”

  At the familiarity of the male voice, I lifted my head from my brother’s chest and saw Eric DeBoer, one of Andy’s best friends standing in front of us.

  “Adeleigh.” He greeted quickly before giving Andy a look. I could tell by his expression, and the way his colleagues were arranged behind him, that this was official FBI business.

  “That’s fine.” Andy tightened his arms around me. “Let me just walk Adeleigh back to her car, so I can send her home, and I’ll be right with you all.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not leaving. I want to know what happened.”

  “Adeleigh, I’m not going to fight with you about this right now. I told you I’m fine, but I want you home.”

  “No, I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Would you stop being stubborn and do what I’m asking, please?”

  I detangled myself from Andy’s arms and turned to face Eric and his agents. “What happened?”

  Eric stepped closer to where I stood. “Early this morning, a body was discovered on the premises.” When I said nothing, but stared at him with huge eyes, he continued, “At the Patio Furniture store.”

  “The Cernuto brother’s place?” I asked Eric.

  “Eric, please don’t tell her anything else. I just want to get her home,” Andy remarked, wincing.

  “It was Angel Cernuto. He had been stabbed twice in the chest. His brother, Tony, found his body this morning.”

  Holy shit. Someone killed Angel Cernuto. I placed a palm on Andy’s chest and looked around the room, not finding who I was looking for. Where the hell was Bo?

  There had been a total of four Cernuto brothers, Tony, Laylo, Miguel, and Angel. Angel was the youngest. They owned a furniture store next to the Mustard Seed. All around five-seven; they shared jet black hair, gleaming eyes, and slick smiles. So slick, you could see your reflection in their smirks. They were also mysteriously shady.

  For the most part, Andy and I were mainly on social terms with the two eldest, Tony and Laylo. Miguel and Angel would say the occasional ‘hello’ if we bumped into each other, but that was about it. I tried to keep my distance because all four of them gave me the creeps. It had something to do with the way they stared a
t me with dead, flat, lifeless eyes.

  Unfortunately, being in the same shopping center, I got to see more of them than I wanted, especially since I had to walk past their store to get to The Mustard Seed.

  “And the FBI is involved? I don’t understand. Why isn’t this a police matter?” I asked Eric.

  When no one bothered to answer my question, I tapped my fingers against Andy’s chest.

  Andy finally sighed and addressed the agents. “Go on and ask your questions.”

  Staying silent, I listened while Andy answered a series of basic questions Eric asked: How well did we know the Cernuto brothers? When was the last time we had seen them? If we did, which Cernuto was it? And had we spoken to them? Had we noticed anything unusual in the area? And on and on.

  The entire time Andy kept one arm protectively wrapped around my shoulders.

  I should have been paying closer attention to his answers. However, all I could think about was Bo. Why was he not at the store yet? It was only his second day, and he was massively late again.

  “If you or Addie remember anything else, please give me a call.” Eric made brief eye contact with me.

  Andy pulled me closer and shook his head, as if to say ‘no she won’t’.

  Eric’s eyes flicked to me once more before he nodded and walked out the door with his fellow agents following close behind.

  “Where is Bo?” I asked Andy again, as soon as everyone had cleared out.

  “Not sure. He called an hour ago to let me know he would be in later today.”

  “Seriously? It’s only his second day on the job as acting VP of Alan’s Air. All he really has to do is show up, and he apparently can’t even do that much.”

  Andy let go of my shoulders and crossed his arms. I could tell he wasn’t happy with my comment.