Author: Pandora Pine
Category: LGBT
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Marco shook his head, looking as if he didn’t understand Dragonni’s rationale either. “People talked in prison. Apparently, Vito was housed with a lot of men that Abruzzi and your husband had put in jail. Dragonni marketed himself as a fixer, so inmates came to him with their problems. It’s a good way to gather intelligence on the inside. We kept hearing the name Abruzzi and one of the older guys recognized his face as a former member of the family from way back. When Vito realized he’d been played, he wanted payback.”
Ten had a feeling the explanation was something like that, but it was still completely ridiculous. If he’d been thinking he was going to end up spending the rest of his life in jail only to be given the gift of a second chance. He sure as hell wouldn’t ruin it by going on a revenge bender. “Thanks.” He turned around and put his hands behind his back. As the cold cuffs circled his wrists and the metal locks engaged, Ten prayed that he would find some way out of this mess.
25
Ronan
“Dragonni murdered your brother?” Ronan was stunned. He stood staring at Cruz Clemente. The FBI agent was looking a bit more human at the moment.
Cruz nodded. “Rodrigo was five years older than me. All I wanted to do was be just like him. He was the quarterback of our high school football team and when he graduated, he went to UMass Amherst on a football scholarship. I remember walking around on campus for the first time and thinking this is what I wanted to do too, even though there weren’t very many other brown faces like ours there.”
Ronan felt his brow furrow. “How did the story go from that day to Rodrigo ending up dead?” He pulled away from towering over the agent and sat back down in his seat. He had to admit the story had him rattled.
Cruz cleared his throat. “He graduated from UMass with a business degree and started an entry level job at a marketing firm in the city.” He paused to take a deep breath, his eyes had gone glassy. “It was like him to work late. Some nights he wouldn’t come home until past 10pm. Rodrigo had one hell of a work ethic. My mother was always on him to eat healthy. That night he went down to the little bodega across the street from his building, instead of the McDonald’s next door. Dragonni’s goons were there to kill someone and Rodrigo tried to stop it, so they killed him too.” A lone tear tracked down Cruz’s cheek. “The men left him bleeding on the floor of the shop. He managed to call 911, but had bled to death by the time help arrived.”
Ronan sat staring at the FBI agent who was responsible for them all sitting here right now. He felt his own emotions stirring within him. He knew what it was like to lose a man who was so close to him that he’d felt like a brother in every way but blood. He had to admit he was deeply moved by the story.
Taking a deep breath, Cruz leveled his dark eyes at Ronan. “I was a senior in high school at the time. All I wanted to do was get a gun off the street and find Dragonni and cap his ass myself. There was one day when I was halfway out the door bent on doing that very thing, when my mother grabbed me and hauled my ass back inside the house.” He paused, looking around the table. “She sat me down at the dining room table and told me she couldn’t bear to bury another son. It would kill her, for sure. Then, she said something that kind of rocked my world.”
“What was that?” Ronan couldn’t help asking. He’d been totally drawn into the story.
“She said she understood my need for vengeance, but if I was going to get it, I needed to do it the right way. The legal way. Then she got up from the table. I remember sitting there wondering if she’d lost her mind. When she came back a minute later, she was carrying a folder which she set down in front of me.”
“What was in it?” Carson asked. He leaned forward to get closer to Cruz as he kept speaking.
“College brochures for criminal justice programs all over the country. Some of them had those sticky tabs on them, red, white and blue, for the programs with the top rankings in the country.” Cruz shook his head at the memory. “While I’d been sitting in my room plotting these different ways to gun the bastard down on the street, not giving a fuck about the consequences, she’d been looking for a way for me to not only avenge my brother, but to make me a better man in the process.”
Ronan sat for a moment with the story, absorbing all of the words that Cruz had said and more importantly the words he hadn’t said. “So, you’re Ahab and Dragonni is your white whale.” It wasn’t a question. He could see so clearly what was going on here and the roles everyone was playing in this drama. Clemente had been so hellbent on avenging Rodrigo that he hadn’t cared who the hell got trampled under his boots in the process.
Clemente’s mouth dropped open. He blinked at Ronan, but stayed silent.
“Jesus Christ, Ronan, Cruz makes a confession like that and all you can do is slam him?” Faulkner looked like he was about to take a swing at him.
“That’s not what I’m doing at all, Faulk. I’m pointing out the fact that Cruz is single-minded in his obsession. That makes him not only dangerous, but reckless. He didn’t hesitate to threaten Tennyson with jail time over a made-up infraction to keep Tony from me because it served his purpose. He didn’t care that it was destroying our marriage because it was bringing him one step closer to justice for Rodrigo. That’s how narrow his focus is. When we find out where Tony is being kept, all that he is going to be thinking about is Dragonni, not Tony and Carlie Abruzzi, not the U.S. Marshalls who are guarding him, not Tennyson who is going to lead the goons who grabbed him to that location and not us who are going to be on the front lines with him.” Ronan knew how dangerous it would be working with Clemente. He needed everyone else sitting at the table to know it too.
“You’ve been in this job for too long, Ronan!” Faulkner accused. “You’re jaded. Who’s to say you’re not going to be the same way? Only out for Tennyson and fuck the rest of us? Huh?”
“I never put anyone above my duty!” Ronan fired back. Yes, he would be out there to find his husband and get him back safely, but it would not be at the expense of anyone else.
“I can attest to that,” Jude added quietly.
Cruz held up a hand. “Ronan’s right,” he said softly amidst the shouting. “I am only in this to take Dragonni down. I said whatever I had to say to Tennyson to get him to keep the secret that Tony was alive. I knew Dragonni’s men would be watching all of you. If Ronan was too happy or carefree, they’d know Tony was alive and they’d start hunting for him. Not only that, but it would give Dragonni’s defense team time to prepare for what Tony could testify to. I couldn’t risk that, so I tricked an innocent man.” Cruz looked up at Ronan. “I turned your unborn daughter into a weapon because I knew Tennyson would choose her over you. It was all written in his eyes. I could see his love for you, Ronan.” Clemente held his hands about a foot apart, “but his love for that little girl,” his hands stretched apart as far as they would go. “Like taking candy from a baby.” Those last words were whispered, Clemente’s voice tinged with shame.
All Ronan could do was stare at Cruz. He looked so broken. Whether that had to do with actual guilt over what he’d done to Ronan’s family or over the fact that Dragonni had escaped on his watch, was still up for debate. “That was a touching story, Clemente. Now’s where the rubber meets the road though. That son-of-a-bitch is on his own quest for the white whale. The only difference is that Dragonni is going to kill everyone who stands between him and Tony Abruzzi. You need to be at the top of your game here or you’re useless to me. Are we understood?”
Clemente nodded. “Tell me what you need from me.”
“Find where the U.S. Marshalls are keeping Tony Abruzzi. We need to get there now. I know Tennyson is going to do everything he can to stall the process, but he’s eventually going to have to lead Dragonni’s men to Tony, unless…” Ronan turned to Carson.
“I don’t know where he is, Ronan. I haven’t heard a peep out of him since he went silent a few hours ago.” Carson exchanged an uneasy look with Cole.
“Do whatever you both have to do h
ere. Find Bertha. Find my mother. Reach out to Mark Abruzzi if you can. We need all hands on deck here to find Tennyson. Call out to Aurora Fitzgibbon and Everly if you have to, guys.” Ronan could feel his own emotions starting to fray just by saying the names of his and Kevin’s unborn daughters. Aurora had saved her father’s life a few months back, maybe her spirit would be willing to step in and do the same thing for her uncle-to-be.
“Ronan, a word?” Fitzgibbon was motioning him out into the hall.
“Please, guys. Do what you can. Hit all your sources.” Ronan looked around the room at everyone before following Kevin out into the hall.
Fitzgibbon didn’t say a word. He kept walking all the way back to his office, shutting the door once Ronan was inside.
“Cap, I’m sorry to bring Aurora into this, I-” Ronan didn’t have a chance to finish what he was about to say. Fitzgibbon pulled him into a tight hug. Ronan hugged him back. It was the last thing he expected, but the thing he needed most.
Kevin stepped back and practically fell into one of the chairs in front of his desk. “I have to hand it to you, Ronan. If someone had Jace, I wouldn’t be half as calm as you’re being right now. After the way you were acting yesterday, I…”
Ronan slumped into the seat next to his boss. “Didn’t think I’d give a shit about my husband being kidnapped by the mob?” If he hadn’t expected the hug, he sure as hell didn’t expect these words to be coming out his boss’s mouth.
“No.” Kevin shook his head. “You were a mess yesterday, angry and feeling betrayed. Don’t get me wrong. I would have been in the same boat with you. Then today, you come home feeling like an asshole for the way you reacted, only to find that your husband had been taken. You’re handling it much better than I would be in your shoes.”
Ronan took a breath. “I’m Tennyson’s only hope. I know Carson and Cole are doing everything they can to track him down, but we both know this whole thing is going to come down to me being able to keep my shit together long enough to figure a way out of this. Ten is going to need my level head to save him.”
“You need that level head to save yourself too. Spoiler alert, Moby Dick kills Ahab at the end. Everyone else, with the exception of Ishmael, died too. Don’t let your need to save Tennyson cause everyone else to go down with the ship.”
Ronan snorted. “Do you think we’ve beaten Moby Dick to death yet? I haven’t talked this much classic literature since Greeley insisted we all read Dickens last year.”
Kevin smiled fondly at the memory. “You’re right to worry about Clemente. I’ve worked with cops like him before and they’re sometimes more dangerous than the perps you’re out there trying to apprehend. I’m going to keep Faulk with him.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that.” Ronan knew full well that Clemente should be back in the hospital recovering from his gunshot wound. He also knew that if he were in Cruz’s shoes, he wouldn’t let a shot to the shoulder keep him from finding and stopping Dragonni either.
“Does Clemente’s confession about his brother change how you feel about what he did to Tennyson?” Fitzgibbon rubbed a hand over his chin.
Ronan knew what Fitzgibbon was doing, trying to give him something else to occupy his mind while Tennyson was out there being held captive by Dragonni’s men who were using him as their own missing person detector. “I don’t know, Cap. People do things for all kinds of reasons. He’s one of those people who prefer begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission. Time wasn’t really of the essence. We had Dragonni in custody. His men were scattered to the wind. There were a couple of hours available to make better decisions than the ones that were made.” He shrugged. “It’s easy to say that now in hindsight. I know.”
Fitzgibbon’s face unexpectedly bloomed into a smile.
“What?” Ronan studied Kevin for a minute wondering what on earth could be making him smile like he’d just won the lottery.
“That’s the kind of thing I’d expect to hear from Cold Case Sergeant, Ronan O’Mara.” Kevin looked pleased to be dropping this bit of news.
Ronan blinked a couple of times at Kevin, not quite sure he’d heard the words correctly. “Sergeant?”
“Yeah, I got official word yesterday afternoon after I got back from court. I wasn’t sure how or even when to tell you, but now felt like the right time.” Kevin reached out to set a hand on Ronan’s shoulder. “I know you and Ten talked about keeping you in the office more and out of the line of fire. We both know you’re always going to be the kind of man who runs headlong into danger thinking of yourself second.”
“That’s true,” Ronan agreed easily.
“I’m here to tell you that’s going to change the day your daughter is born. You might not want it to change, Ronan, but it needs to. We’re all going to be here for you both to support you and Ten in any way that you need, but the first change has to come from you. That fiery Irish temper has served you well in some ways, but in others, it’s been your greatest weakness.”
“You’re right. It could cost me Tennyson in more ways than one. Even if we get him back from Dragonni, he might not want me after the way I treated him yesterday.” Ronan had been mulling that very thought over in his mind on the way home from Jude’s house this morning before everything had gone to hell.
Fitzgibbon nodded. “Yeah. You know I think of you like a brother, but I have to tell you, Ronan, there were a couple of times yesterday that I wanted to punch your lights out. It was an enormous shock seeing Tony walk into that courtroom. I saw how tanned and fucking relaxed he looked. Then, I turned to you and Tennyson. Jesus, Ronan, you barely got off the couch for six weeks and your husband has barely been sleeping or eating. Just that difference alone was night and day. Trust me, I get why that would piss you off, but instead of uniting with your husband against the system that set this up, you turned on him.” Kevin held up a hand. “I know you’re going to say that he lied to you for all of those months, and yeah, he did, but he paid the price, Ronan. One look at him and you can clearly see that he suffered through this secret every day.”
It was true. All Ronan had been able to see last night was Tennyson’s face. Not just the destroyed look on it yesterday in the courthouse and then at the kitchen table last night when he said he was leaving, but Ronan had traced Tennyson all the way back to the night Tony “died.” He’d been able to follow the progression of his husband’s downfall, for lack of a better word. Ten went from grieving friend to a ghost of himself.
He’d been flipping back through pictures of them on his phone. There were selfies Ten had taken on Ronan’s phone the day before the shit went down with Dragonni finding out they were being kept at the Ritz Carlton. The smiling Tennyson in those pics didn’t look anything like the man Ronan walked away from at their table last night. “You’re right. He did pay the price. All I did was make his sacrifice seem in vain.”
Fitzgibbon nodded. “I would agree with that. Like I said yesterday, I’m sure his emotions were all over the place that day at the hospital. Without you there with him, his options were limited and with Cruz telling him these are your two choices, Ten did the best he could with the information he was being given.”
“Know one thing, Kevin, sergeant or not, when this thing is over and my husband is safe and Dragonni has been dealt with, I’m dealing with Clemente.” Ronan hadn’t made up his mind how yet.
“So long as I’m not there as a potential material witness…” Kevin held both of his hands up, a ghost of a smile quirked his lips.
A knock at the office door stopped Ronan’s next words. He yanked the door open. Carson was standing there twisting his hands together. His blue eyes were storm-tossed. “You need to come now.”
Not wasting a second to question Tennyson’s best friend, Ronan ran from the room, his heart beating frantically in his chest.
26
Tennyson
It was darker than Tennyson thought it would be in the trunk of the car. Not that he’d ever been in the
trunk of a car before. His only experience with such things was movies and TV. The lighting always seemed so much better, but that was probably just to showcase the star locked inside, to her best advantage.
Once he heard the car doors slam and the engine turn over, he went to work easing his cuffed hands down over his ass and then the back of his thighs. Thank God for yoga, Ten thought, for what had to be the thousandth time since he’d started going to the classes with Truman and Fitzgibbon. He managed to wiggle his bound hands past his feet, and let out a giant sigh of relief. At least now his hands were in front of his body instead of behind him.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Bertha Craig cackled from six inches in front of his face.
“Absolutely, Bertha. This is the perfect little love nest back here.” Ten let out a breath. “I’ve never been happier to see you in my life.” Tennyson meant every word. If anyone could help get him out of this mess, it was Bertha Craig.
“I know, Tenny. I’ve been doing my best to get to you, but your signal is spotty.” She set a hand against the side of his face.
“I think I’ve got a bit of a concussion. Those two bastards hit me twice and I’m feeling a bit loopy.” Ten was glad to see Bertha. At least she’d be able to relay a message to Ronan. If he wanted to hear it, that was.
“I agree. You are a bit loopy if you think that Ronan doesn’t want to hear from you. I have news.” Bertha offered him a smile.
Ten nodded. It sounded like Bertha was gearing up for one of her tough love speeches which always seemed to end with her saying I told you so, without actually having to say those words.
“It seems your husband spent a sleepless night going over and over what an absolute ass he was yesterday. Ronan got a pretty good talking to by Jude, of all people. Ronan was on his way home to talk things over with you, but you weren’t there when he got home. A few minutes after he arrived, Kevin showed up with more bad news.”