Retribution (eBook)

Book Three

Marina Cox (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018 | 1. Auflage
441 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-7328094-0-6 (ISBN)

Infos

In Vendetta; Book 2, Charlie Vega revealed a shocking family secret, that dramatically changed everyone's lives! Now in Retribution; Book 3, new evidence surfaces that makes them question everything they'd just been told! Everything happens for a reason... When the US military raid an infamous Pirate's lair off the coast of Africa, the FBI discovers horrifying evidence that proves the thieves had collected more than just material possessions. Sometimes deep dark secrets don't stay hidden... News Anchor and Correspondent, Courtney Curwin, has had no time to process her newfound family drama before being plunged into the Somalia camp nightmare. While on location and covering the legendary story, she notices something in one of the huts, that not only sends chills down her spine but has her working up a theory that is just too incomprehensible to believe! When you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves... The notorious mob boss, Victor Rocha, was so consumed in his quest to wipe out Everett Calhoun and his bloodline, that his careless actions landed him in a federal prison, where he was shanked to death a few months later. With the mobster dead and his irrational daughter behind bars for life, everything should go back to normal, right? Just when you think it's all over, that will be the beginning...

Textauszug

+One

Charlie Vega stared out onto the bustling city of LA, from the rooftop of his office building. He puffed steadily on a cigar as he leaned on the ledge and studied the early evening traffic on the streets, three stories below. For some, the work day was over. But for an elite few, it was just beginning.

The six-lane street that ran north and south in front of his agency, were already congested and almost at a standstill. Somewhere in the distance, the shrill sound of brakes rose above the racket and car horns blared. Loud radio music reached his ears and the smell of exhaust fumes invaded his space, even this far up.

The jam-packed sidewalks were equally full of people, weaving in and out of each other, like an orgy of ants. Most of them either had cell phones glued to their ears, gabbing a mile a minute or they were pecking and swiping on the screen, without even looking up.

Charlie sighed and puffed again on his cigar. A lot had changed from when he’d first purchased this building, over thirty years ago. The storefronts facing him below, used to house mom-and-pop businesses, up and down the strip. The boulevard was always clean and safe— day or night—with the typical California palm trees spread out along the medians, their tops gently blowing in the breeze. Streetlights had been diligently maintained and lit up just about every inch of the sidewalks. It was an invite for couples to stroll to and from the diners, shops or the movie theatre on the corner. Hell, life in LA was so different then, he and Jack had kept a spare key hidden in the fountain outside the back door, without so much as a second thought.

Now the buildings contained cheap thrift stores, pawn shops and greasy food joints. Neon signs cheapened the windows of every storefront by blinking and advertising their specialties, instead of creatively displaying their goods. The city’s talented graffiti artists had long ago covered their ground-level walls, with a mesh-mash of drawings, in an intense rainbow of expression. And the billboard signs above them, obscured the skyline, advertising boldly of ambulance-chasing lawyers and eager plastic surgeons. The once-thriving theater on the corner, now had its windows boarded up, with a badly deteriorating marquee sign that hung lopsided above its door. At the moment two thugs stood under the shadows of its eaves, hands in pockets, looking around at the activity in the streets.

The smog that LA was famous for, had begun to settle heavy in the air. It made the concrete below look dark and dirty and the cracks on the sidewalks appeared deeper and wider.

Due to the spike of crime in the area, Charlie had been forced to upgrade the security on his building a long time ago. The agency was now lit up like Fort Knox, with motion and sensor detectors completely surrounding the entire structure. Sure he had thought about moving his business to a better part of town, the more this one seemed to decline. But for now, Charlie did not feel threatened enough to rush that into the present. Sometimes he wondered why his gut had him procrastinating. Other times he figured it was because he wasn’t that far away from real retirement and found it ridiculous to uproot this close to the end.

Someone yelled below and Charlie glanced toward the street, just in time to see a beefy fist swinging in the air, from an open car window. A bicycle messenger darting in and out of the traffic jam, was his obvious intended target. He glanced further to the right and noticed a homeless man sitting against the wall of the pawn shop across the street. He was begging for some spare change from a woman, dressed all in white, who was walking quickly by. She blatantly ignored him as she jumped into the back of a taxi, waiting at the curb.

Two teenaged-boys on skateboards, sporting backpacks, began plowing through the crowds on the sidewalk, going in the opposite direction. In the process, they were pissing a trail of people off. The two youths’ response was to flip them all the middle finger! Typical! Kids today were totally out of control and had no respect, not for anyone— including themselves. Charlie shook his head in disgust. L.A. was very well-known for having its fair share of people with overblown egos. The eclectic mixes he mostly dealt with, were famous celebrities, musicians, head studio execs and the millionaires and billionaires who invested in them. Most everyone thought they were someone which caused all those ego-fueled personalities in one place, to either mesh or clash. Unless of course, you were Brad Pitt or Brandon Parrish! The two of them had blazed such a deep trail through the dense forest of Hollywood, that even their peers were as star-struck as the fans, when they were present at an event. Which was the reason why agents like Charlie never booked the two of them at the same time.

There wasn’t enough security available to handle it!

Charlie chuckled to himself out loud.

If any of those thugs down on the street had a clue that famous icons visited his building on a regular basis, he would have to immediately relocate. But he’d already thought about that a long time ago, when he began to collect an elite slew of famous clientele.

Any idiot knew that a parade of limos pulling up in front of a business was something that attracted a lot of unwanted attention. So Charlie had added a three-car garage on the back of the building, so his clients could depart from their limos, without being exposed. Once they were both safely inside the building, there was also a private elevator provided for them, that led up to the rear of his third-floor office. That way, any caliber of celebrity could come and go without being bothered by visitors or staff. It made his clients feel special and it kept the drama to a minimum, which was all Charlie cared about.

He took another strong draw off the cigar and began to lose interest in the comings and goings below, as he now settled his sight again, on the skyline. The sun was already halfway below the horizon and casting shadows on the adjoining buildings. His thoughts began to backtrack through his day. Thank God no serious contracts or meetings had been scheduled because it would have been an epic fail on Charlie’s part. His mind was too consumed with the fallout that transpired after they had left Margot’s.

Once he had unloaded the story on them all that night, Brandon’s attitude towards him, seemed to abruptly change. The lighthearted, humorous and playful side he often exhibited, seemed to vanish the next morning after Karly Driggers was arrested. Many times Charlie had wanted to tell Brandon everything so he would be prepared just in case a threat like her were to come along. But it was one of those situations where your dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t. In this case, he was currently just dammed no matter which way he looked at it. Charlie tried to tell himself not to take it personally. Brandon had been through a hell of lot in a very short time and he hoped eventually, the shock of it all would wear down and he would look at him the way he used to.

As for Sage, unlike her famous husband, she was smart enough to understand that all the fault did not lie at Charlie’s feet. Margot was flying almost solo on this one.

She had forbidden Charlie or Meg to have any contact with Sage after Frank died. Her leverage was the excuse that to do so, might put her life in danger. Charlie had believed it for a little while. Until the danger, in the form of Karly, had solely been brought on, by none other than Margot herself. He scrubbed his face with his hand and then shifted his weight on the brick ledge. An image of Courtney’s face briefly flashed across his mind. In Charlie’s opinion, she was the one who got the worse end of the deal. At least Sage knew who her father was, even though he had lived under an assumed identity, whereas Courtney would never know Everett personally, only the legendary stories he’d left in his wake. Charlie was sure, that learning she had been the love child of a secret affair, was going to take some time for her to adjust to, on her part. As one last effort of respect towards the man who’d saved his life, he would do whatever he could, to keep his only daughter safe. And no matter how many strings he had tried to pull on her behalf, the story of Courtney shooting Karly Driggers had been too big, to keep a lid on. He hoped in the long run, her innocent efforts to save them all, would not lead to exposing their true identities and connections to the notorious Victor Rocha.

A subtle noise from behind, interrupted Charlie’s thoughts. In a knee-jerk reaction, he spun around in defensive mode, his eyes darting to the lone access to the rooftop. Because he didn’t trust the automatic lock on the heavy door, Charlie had a habit of propping a brick in-between the threshold and the frame, to keep it ajar. It was the perfect way to ensure that he never got trapped on the rooftop. Getting locked out was a stupid phobia of his but a phobia nonetheless and obviously the source of the noise. As if right on cue, the door opened towards him slightly, catching in the draft and then it rested against the brick again, becoming still. He walked over to the front of the structure and looked down to the sidewalk below. Just like clockwork, he saw the top of a grey head as it disappeared inside the back seat of a bird-yellow taxi. The door closed and the car entered into the traffic from hell.

It was Peggy, his personal...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.10.2018
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-10: 1-7328094-0-2 / 1732809402
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7328094-0-6 / 9781732809406