Whatever You Need: (A Chicago Mafia Syndicate) (Castaletta Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 6

Edward

"These seem to be doing their job." I reached up and adjusted one of the cameras at Madam Gizelle's place as I balanced on a rickety old ladder. Workers comp wasn't part of the deal thanks to us not having an official business. I chuckled at the thought.

"Good." She smiled as I glanced down at her. "What's so funny, good looking?"

"Just being comical in my own head. It's the only way to survive in this serious bunch of thugs." I climbed down the ladder and wagged my eyebrows at her. "You know I'm a good boy."

"Please. I know you like to pretend you are, but don't wear the mask so long that you forget who you really are." She reached toward me and tugged at the front of my shirt. "Let's go into my office and check to make sure that the camera is pointed in the exact spot you want, in order to get a good view of the cars that pull up to get the girls."

"Alright." I glanced down the street. "We need to check this one and number eight, which is on that light pole up there." I pointed toward it. "It should give us a perfect view of the license plate number."

"Good. That'll be handy, unless the asshole doing this uses a different car each time, or doesn't have the car registered in his name."

"That's for sure going to happen. These guys, or guy is slick. We're just starting to look for him after three girls have been assaulted." I followed her back into the house, unable to help myself from taking in just how fucking hot she looked in her slick blue dress. I'd have paid double the going rate to watch her take it off slowly before she-

"Edward? Did you hear me?" She glanced over her shoulder.

"Oh yeah. Just imagining you naked." I winked at her, giving my best boy-like charm. Izzy might have my heart, but the rarity of me getting her body left me wanted a few other play-dates during the week.

She opened the door to her office and walked in, not responding to me. For a moment, I worried that I'd offended her. Could you really offend the Capo of a whore house?

"Maybe you'll get lucky once we catch this guy." She licked at her lips and sat down, leaving my heart racing at the thought.

"Are you still a call girl, or just the Capo now?" I took the seat next to me, trying hard not to trip over myself. I felt like a nerdy kid who was dressed for the science fair all of a sudden. She looked like a goddess with her dark red hair and perfectly applied makeup.

"I'm whatever I need to be." She smiled. "Stop drooling and let's check out this camera."

"Right." I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and winked at her again. "The code is 8-70-225."

I leaned back and watched her as she pulled up the two different cameras. She turned her computer screen toward me and pointed to each of them.

"This what you wanted?"

I left my flirtatious comments dancing around my sick head and nodded. "Yep. That should work really well. I wish we had someone that could go under cover with the guy for us, but Izzy is strapped with a hundred other issues she's having to deal with."

"I would go, but I'm pretty sure the guy knows who I am. Everyone seems to know me."

"If he's connected with another mafia, by chance, then yeah, he's totally going to know who you are. He's an idiot if he doesn't."

"So we've ruled out the idea of him being a standalone perv with maniac intentions?"

"I think so." I turned my gaze back to the screen. "I wonder if Izzy's new pet at the police station has someone that might be able to help us."

"No. The last thing we need is a cop helping us. You know as well as I do that once this guy is caught, they would turn around and shut us down." Sandra stood up and brushed her hands down her shapely sides. "I'm not having that happen. Joe trusts me to keep this business alive and growing, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Alright." I stood up and tapped the desk. "Let me work on the phones for a little while. You think about whether you have a girl in the house that might be tough enough to help us. I hate to put anyone in danger, but we need a tracker to find this guy, Sandra."

She walked around the desk and paused by her door. "I might have someone. Let me go talk with her."

"Alright." I moved around to her side of the desk and sat down, letting my eyes move across the various view we had of the place. None of the bedrooms were tapped, but it would have been fucking amazing if they had been. My raging hard-on over Sandra wouldn't have been lost on nothing. I smirked at the thought.

Twenty minutes of implanting the phone with a device that could help track where calls were coming from, and I was done. I stood up about the time the door to the office opened.

"Hi." A beautiful blond with big blue eyes and perfect tits opened the door and leaned against the frame. Her tight tank top and high-waisted shorts had my body hardening all over again.

"Hey there. Sandra just walked down the hall if you're looking for her." I gave her a kind smile and glanced back down at the phone. I'd give Sandra some shit about being hot, but there was no way in hell I was going to tease any of the girls that didn't know that I was kidding around. It wasn't professional, and I liked my job. And my balls.

"This is Audrey, Eddy. She's the only girl who might be up for the task." Sandra walked around the girl and stopped beside me as I turned to face her. "She learned self-defense when she was younger, and she looks sweet, but she's a tough cookie, right, Audrey?"

"I'm happy to help if it means keeping the other girls safe." She walked into the room as I glanced over at her. Something about her swagger said that Sandra was right... she might look like a blond pixie that had come to service your naughtiest of dreams, but she wasn't at all what she appeared to be. My cock ached at the idea of finding out what she was hiding... particularly below her slutty outfit.

"Awesome. We can talk about it and then I'll run it by Joe and get his thoughts." I forced a tight facade in place and turned back to Sandra. "The phones are ready to go. D wants us to try and pull the calls from the dates and times that we think the guy called last. So if Jessica came back to you last Thursday, pull the caller log from the day before. He wants to see if we can pin down when this asshole called last and hopefully we can lock down the sound of his voice. The program on the phones should allow for that. Just pull the dates and I'll work on the technology later today."

"Will do." She reached out and brushed her hand over my shoulder and down my arm. "Go talk with Audrey and see if you're comfortable with her helping us."

"Are you?"

"Yes. I believe in her." She glanced from me to the girl by the door.

"Alright." I picked up the trash I had laying around, threw it away and walked past the door, barreling into Daniel. "There you are. Shit, I'm done now."

"Sorry man. I had a meeting that didn't go as planned this morning." The slick Italian bastard had a five o'clock shadow and looked like he hadn't slept in three days.

"It's alright. Come on, Sandra wants us to talk with Audrey about going undercover to help us locate the asshole who's hitting on the girls."

"Audrey?" He glanced behind us and smiled. "Oh hey. We met last time I was out here."

I ignored them as they made small talk and worked my way down the hall to the kitchen. The girls lounging around the living room gave me hell for looking so cute in my jeans, but it was all part of their charm.

Daniel walked to the fridge as I sat down across from Audrey and tried hard not to eye-fuck the poor girl. She was exquisite. Soft alabaster skin and big blue eyes with long black eyelashes and full red lips. I could see why she was a call-girl. She had to bring in top dollar.

"How long have you been working for Madam Gizelle?" I pressed my forearms to the table and half expected her to say she was brand new. I'd never seen her around before.

"It'll be a year this summer." She played with a packet of sugar and kept her eyes adverted from me.

"What? Seriously? I've never seen you around here." I wanted to reach out and squeeze her hands, to give her a little bit of comfort, but it would have been weird. My mother always said I had a thing with touching people too much.

"I've seen you." Daniel smiled and sat down beside the girl. "She's played my girlfriend a few times at large events for arms dealers."

"Large events?" I snorted. "You guys sell illegal products to the black market and you have events? What sort of events? Conferences and shit?" I laughed as Daniel smiled like a tomcat.

"Something like that." He glanced over at Audrey. They'd fucked before. I would have put money on it. Such a shame really... She didn't seem the type to go for a slick Italian.

"I wanna help." She glanced from Daniel toward me, never playing into his flirting or my strain of questions.

"Good. Let me check with Joe and I'll let you know if we're moving forward with it." I got up and turned toward the living room, waving playfully at Lizzy, a blond that could suck a dick like nothing I'd ever seen in my life before.

"What exactly are we asking her to do?" Daniel was a little more defensive than he should have been. Did he have feelings for the girl?

I glanced over my shoulder and focused on him. "We're asking her to go undercover with the guy. I'll get a couple of tracker pills from D and she can swallow one before she goes anywhere. We'll be here when she goes and will keep a good eye on her." I turned around and pressed my hands to the table, putting my attention back on her. "You just have to be ready to fight should he tie you up. You down for that?"

She nodded. "Absolutely. Do you guys have help at the police station?"

"Maybe. Why?" I tilted my head to the side a little. There was something about her that screamed high-class. Why that bothered me was a mystery. She'd been with Sandra for a damn year... she was a call-girl. Obviously.

"Because, I'll engage in the fight and scratch him. If I can get a little bit of skin under my nails, then you can have it analyzed. That's the best way to see who we're dealing with."

"True, but I'd rather just track you and show up when he gets you inside. I don't want you hurt, and trying to fight this guy off must be a chore, otherwise the other three girls who've been hurt by him would have done the same."

"Maybe. Maybe not." She shrugged and stood up, walking past me into the living room. "Just let me know."

"Alright." I let out a long sigh and glanced toward Danny. "You fuck her?"

"Nope. I wish. My mother is psycho about me saving myself until I marry." He shrugged like it was no big deal that he was what... a virgin?

"Awesome." I let it go. No fucking way was I diving into that conversation so early in the morning. "Let me show you the cameras and walk you through what they do so that you're not behind when we come over here for surveillance."

"Alright, and you need to call D, not Joe. I know you guys have your differences, but he's the underboss of the organization. You and I both answer to him."

"Yeah, I'm good with that." I turned and walked through the living room, tickling girls as I went and joking with them like we were old friends. I'd slept with most of them and hated the fact that they sold their bodies for money, but I wasn't one to judge. Hell, I was paying for sex most days of the week to keep from having a relationship just in case Izzy finally accepted my subtle pushing.

"You really think Freddy is involved in this shit?" Danny moved up beside me as we walked out onto the porch. "You've been closer to the Castaletta family for much longer than I have. What do you think?"

"I don't know. I can't imagine Freddy being able to tie his shoes without help, but you never know. I hope for Joe and Izzy's sake that he's not involved. They don't need that kind of shit after losing Vivian." I brushed my fingers down my face and pointed up to the first camera. I'd talk to D later that day about Audrey. I couldn't imagine him or anyone else rejecting the idea of having help from the inside.

Chapter 7

Audrey

"Hey." Edward stopped just inside the kitchen about the time I lifted my sandwich to my lips.

I paused. "What?"

He smiled, which was dangerous. If he wasn't such a childish frat boy, sleeping with every girl in the whore house, I might have been inclined to think he was hot. I forced myself not to see him or any of the other men in the Castaletta family as anything but a means to an end.

"I spoke with Demetri. He validated that you have been here a year. You'll have to forgive me. I thought I knew everyone here at the house."

I took a bite of my sandwich and shrugged like it was irrelevant, because honestly, it was. "Awesome. I'm not a liar. Score a point for me?"

He chuckled and walked toward the table. "He's good with you going undercover, but wants to remind you that your safety is much more important than you helping us catch this guy. If something doesn't seem right, get out of there."

"I'll be fine. I grew up on the streets." I took another bite of my sandwich. I'd grown accustom to lying so much over the last year that it had become second nature at this point. Twelve months in the whore house and not once had I opened my legs for a man. I'd drugged a lot of them, but never had I been forced to push myself to give up
everything
for the job.

"Right. Well, anyway... I'll be in touch soon." He watched me eat my sandwich for a few more seconds, the poor guy not realizing how creepy he could be when he wasn't trying. He reminded me of every rich asshole I'd dated in high school and college. His type were a dime a dozen, and yet he was serving the largest syndicate in North America. How? Why?

"Great. Thanks for giving me a chance." I adverted my eyes and waited until he was gone to let out the breath that I was holding in tightly. Life was getting more and more complicated. I could only hope that after we caught the asshole harming the girls around me that we would be ready to shut the Castaletta's down. I had enough evidence stored up at my apartment to blow a million holes in their lovely operation.

It was almost time.

I finished my sandwich and got up, walking up the stairs to my room. Jenny reached out and grabbed at my hand with a smile on her face as I reached the top of the stairs and almost bumped into her.

"There you are. I came by your room to see if you wanted to go to a movie with some of us this afternoon." The bruises on her pretty face were faded a little, but the blackness had been replaced with a sickly yellow. My stomach turned and heart ached for her.

I wouldn't push forward with the evidence I had until the girls were safe. All of them would be dragged through the mud as well for participating in prostitution, but life after prison would be better. It was a new start for all of them trapped in the kind of life that did nothing but offer brokenness. The Castaletta's had ridden their way to the top on too many lost souls. It was time to destroy the foundation that held them together. Time to save everyone that served them like slaves.

"I would love that, but I need to meet my brother for a late lunch. He's finally in town and I promised him I wouldn't cancel this time." I gave her a silly look and squeezed her hands as they held mine. "You guys be careful, okay?"

"Yeah, we will. We're all going together." She shrugged, looking as innocent as she should have at nineteen.

I reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear before giving her a quick hug. "I'll see you later tonight."

"Okay. Be safe!" She bounded down the stairs, almost too happy for a girl who had almost lost her life the week before and serviced all sorts of men each night of the week. Was I missing something? No. She was just delusional to believe that the Castaletta's cared about her. They didn't... couldn't... There was no way in hell they would.

I closed the door behind me and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, throwing my tight shorts and tank top across the room in disgust. I knew
why
I was chosen as the plant in the whore house a year ago, but it didn't make the job any easier. My skin crawling had become a way of life. The things I'd seen and had pretended to do.

My gag reflex work up, causing my stomach to tighten and the air to seem to hard to breathe. I was fighting a battle I wouldn't come close to losing, but it tore at me nevertheless. I hated the idea of being a whore, and yet sex was something I craved, wanted desperately. To live among a colony of whores for a year and not have a man on the side to keep me steady, I was struggling. The best parts of me were in constant battle with the worst.

"Stop it," I grumbled at myself and tied my tennis shoes before pulling my hair into a ponytail and walking back out into the hall. I waved at the girls that bid me goodbye and walked out into the sunny spring afternoon. It was Sunday, and the city streets of Chicago would be more silent than usual because of the false sense of respect for the holy day. It was duty far more than faith.

I got on my bicycle and peddled up toward the familiar cafe where I met up with my contact from time to time. The next meet up was ingrained in my thoughts. It was decision time. We were setting a firm date for me to be pulled out of the whore house and begin working on supporting evidence to crack Joe Castaletta wide open. Some part of me hated to bring pain and retribution on someone after losing their wife, but Joe was a demon from hell that had ruled our city for far too long. He deserved every ounce of pain and suffering that was inflicted on him.

I was grateful that I had to serve in one of the syndicates less visited rings and not be part of the main house. I had a tendency to fall in love with villains and justify their actions due to their circumstances. Being at the whore house kept me arm’s length away from the main players and left my objectivity intact. I wouldn't feel a thing the day we served them arrest warrants.

Nothing but pride. Nothing but peace for my revenge.

I shook away my thoughts and parked the bike on the side of the cafe, tying it up and walking languidly to the front door. Mike was seated at the back and stood as I approached.

"You're late. I was getting worried." His eyes were warm and smile tight. He was worried, but he always was where I was concerned. He had a daughter my age and had lectured me a thousand times on how to protect myself. I reminded him all the time that I'd graduated at the top of my class and could put his old ass on the floor before he could blink twice. He was the best partner they could have assigned me.

"You're always worried." I smiled and took the seat across from him. "I'm going undercover with them. They're close to catching the guy who's assaulting the girls at the house."

He handed me a menu. "Good. Once this is closed down, we're bringing you home. You need to start collecting the bugs you placed around the house."

"Will do." I glanced up as the waitress stopped beside us. "Can I get a lemonade and a turkey sandwich with fries?"

Mike chuckled. "That sounds awesome. I'll have the same."

"I thought you were going to try something new." I handed the girl the menu and turned my attention back to my partner.

"Naw. I'm good with getting what we always get." He pulled his napkin into his lap and glanced down. Something was wrong. Mike
never
broke eye contact. He was old school in that way. "Hey look..."

"Just tell me." My chest constricted tightly and the restaurant around us seemed so fucking small all of a sudden.

"Alright, but I don't have as much to tell as you'd like for me too, Audrey." He used my fake name, which was for the best. No reason to have anyone overhear us and believe I was anyone other than Audrey Jackson, a twenty-four year old hooker with an affinity for lemonade and anal sex. It was almost comical how close my cover up was to my true identity.

"Just tell me what you know, Mike." I braced myself. My older brother was the reason why I'd joined up with the Feds. He was the reason why I'd forced my way into working undercover in the most dangerous mafia syndicate in the world. He'd gotten involved with them somehow a few years ago, and paid off our mom's house, her debt and all of his back taxes. Where I was thrilled with him for helping everyone out, that kind of money comes at a price.

Ever since then, he'd been disappearing and showing up randomly, but he wasn't at all himself. Every time I saw him, he was terrified. Beyond terrified. He finally spilled to me eighteen months ago. He's borrowed money from Joe Castaletta under false pretenses and had spent all the money. Two million dollars. They were coming for him, but he wouldn't let me protect him. Sorry bastard.

"We've identified the dental records from the fire at the Sears Tower." He glanced down and took a shaky breath.

"Parker?" My whole world seemed to close in around me as tears burned my gaze. "Just tell me, Mike. Give me the details. I need to know. I deserve to."

"Yeah, Audrey. It was your brother. Someone shot him in the forehead and set him on fire after they killed him." He shook his head. "I'm sorry kid. I know you were doing this for him."

I swallowed my grief and nodded. "I need to go. I'll see you in a week and will try to keep you updated via text on the phone you gave me."

"No, don't go. I should have waited to tell you until we had lunch."

"You care too much about me to do that." I forced a tight smile. "I need some time to myself. Let's set a date to take these bastards down. I'll start pulling the evidence and you get me out of there when I tell you it's time."

"I'm waiting on you. I'll do anything you need me to, just make sure you have everything you need."

"I wish I could get to the big house for just a week or two. That's all I would need." I bit my lip and ignored the burning desire to melt into a puddle on the floor. My only sibling was dead. Murdered violently over money. How sick were these people? They had more money than God, but it wasn't about the money. It was about sending a message to anyone who would listen.

The Castaletta's played god, and if you fucked with them in any way, big or small, you were going to pay the piper. But that shit was almost over, and the city would rejoice to see the cancer that was Joe Castaletta routed up from the center of his fancy-ass mansion and dumped into the smallest cell I could find him.

"Then get in there. Don't blow your cover until you're ready, Audrey. You've worked too damn hard for it."

"True. Thanks old friend." I got up and turned as he called after me.

"Be careful. Please."

Me? Careful? Never.