Above and Beyond Read online

  Elliott stared after the walking wall and actually smiled to himself. At least it was better than being called rabbit or bunny or some such nonsense.

  He went back to work, and it wasn’t until he was serving the next round of drinks that it hit him. Salvatore thought he was cute.

  “LAST CALL” rang through the club, and when the next song ended, the music stopped and the lights came up. Thankfully not too much, but enough to tell the remaining patrons that it was time for them to go home. Elliott settled all his remaining tabs, got everything squared up at the registers, and slipped his tips into his pocket. Then he got to work wiping down the tables and chairs, stacking them up as he went.

  “Elliott,” Salvatore said as he was finishing up. “There’s a guy out front looking for you. He says he’s here to take you home.”

  The blood seemed to drain from his head, and for a second, Elliott thought he might pass out. “What did he look like?” Somehow he managed to get the words out.

  “About thirty, with a military haircut, dressed in a suit.” Salvatore didn’t seem too concerned.

  “Was he packing?” Elliott asked, and Salvatore’s posture changed completely. “Did he look like he was?”

  “Shit…,” Salvatore swore under his breath. “I didn’t let him in, so I didn’t think to check. Why?”

  “Ask him for ID because it’s after hours. Then say that I’m finishing up and you can’t let anyone else inside because it’s after last call and it’s against the law or something. Make something up.” His breathing came in short pants, and Elliott wondered how in the hell he was going to get out of here without being seen. It was probably too late for Salvatore to just say that he had already left. “And once he leaves, get Bull.” It was all he could think of, and Elliott found himself hoping that what Bull had said earlier was true, that the people here had his back.

  “Why?” Salvatore asked.

  Elliott closed his eyes and dropped his rag on the floor. “Because it looks like I’m going to have to leave.” And try to get out of here so he could disappear once again. Maybe this time he’d try a bigger city, where he could get lost in the millions of people. He had been stupid to think that he could come to this area and start over. It was too small and there weren’t enough places for him to hide. Still, he couldn’t figure out how they had found him in the first place, and he needed to know so he didn’t make the same mistake again.

  Chapter 2

  “LEAVE? OF course. If you have to go, I can let Bull know. That’s not an issue. From the look of things, you’re about done, and I can help you out. I mean, if there’s a family emergency or something.” Salvatore paused to listen to what he’d just said. The guy out front had said that he had come to take Elliott home, and Elliott’s first question was if the guy was packing. What the hell kind of family was this kid from? Elliott couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three at the very most, and while he was cute, the guy was also running scared and jumpy. That was for damned certain.

  “Not that kind of leave,” Elliott said. “I need to give my notice to Bull and figure out how to get out of here without the guy out front seeing me.” He was nervous as hell, shifting his weight from foot to foot, biting his lower lip so hard that it was already red and a little swollen. Salvatore wanted to soothe the abused skin with his finger, but didn’t.

  “Okay. I’ll find Bull, but you need to stay here and don’t go anywhere. Promise me.” Salvatore made Elliott promise and then hurried to the back. “Bull, I need your help.”

  “What is it?” Bull asked, looking up from his seat at the desk in the office, where he was preparing the receipts for the night.

  “Okay….” Salvatore wasn’t sure where to start. “There’s guy out front who said he’s here to pick up the server Elliott. Said he was going to take him home. I told Elliott, and he went pale, looked like he was going to faint, and then asked me if he was packing. That isn’t like any family I know of. Now Elliott is trying to figure out how to give his notice so he can sneak out the back and disappear. This stinks like week-old garbage.”

  “Sounds like something right up your alley,” Harry, Bull’s partner in the business, said with a half smile, like this was a normal occurrence.

  “Yup. Come on. Let’s go have a chat with this guy and see what’s up.” Bull pushed back the chair and left the office, with Salvatore following right behind. “Elliott,” he said as soon as he saw him hovering by the bar.

  “I need to go.”

  Bull shook his head. “You need to stay right here. Who is this man and what does he want with you?”

  Elliott blinked like a deer caught in headlights, taking a step back. “It’s best if you just let me go and I can get out of here and disappear again. You don’t need to get involved in this.”

  “What?” Bull asked.

  “My family. No one deserves to get on their bad side. Just get me out with no one seeing and I’ll be out of your hair.”

  Bull once again shook his head. “That isn’t how things work around here.” He turned to Salvatore. “Let’s go see what we have, shall we?” Bull strode to the front door like he owned the world, unlocked it, and stepped outside. “Can I help you?” he asked with a slight smile.

  “I’m here to take Elliott home, and I don’t appreciate you keeping me waiting.” The man stepped forward, but of course Bull wasn’t going to be intimidated.

  “He doesn’t seem to want to go with you.” Bull drew himself up, and Salvatore stood right behind Bull, off to the side. “And it’s his choice where he wants to go and with whom. I think it’s best if you go and let Elliott decide what he wants to do.”

  “Look. Elliott’s father wants him to come home, so that’s what I’m going to do, and I’m willing to go through you to get to him. Why don’t you just step aside and send Elliott out so we can take him home and that can be the end of this? No harm, no foul. Otherwise….” He left the threat hanging in the air and unfastened his coat. It was a classic intimidation move.

  “I see,” Bull said.

  Salvatore saw a flash of metal, and before he realized what was happening, Bull had the gun in his hand, ready to wield it like a club.

  “Call the police and have them come down here now. Unless this man has a license to carry a concealed weapon here in PA, I say we let the police deal with him.” Bull stepped closer. “I’m not someone you or anyone else wants to mess with. I eat little punks like you for breakfast, and you do not get to come near my place and threaten any of the people who work for me. If you do again, you’ll feel pain in ways none of you can imagine. And you tell Elliott’s father that if he wants his son to come home, that he can use the damned phone and talk to him.”

  “This isn’t going to end well….”

  “For you, maybe,” Bull told him, and Salvatore was damned impressed. Bull didn’t even break a sweat with this guy.

  Salvatore got out his phone, called the police, and explained the situation. “They’re on their way.” He put his phone back in his pocket.

  “Good. Now, you sit down, or I’ll use this gun as a hammer and thump your skull so damned hard, you won’t be able to fucking remember your own mother’s name. That is, if you recover at all. And just so you know, it will all be self-defense. I have plenty of witnesses that you can’t see and have no idea have been watching you. So, ass on the pavement, now.”

  The guy didn’t move and glared at Bull. Salvatore was ready to act, but Bull swept the guy’s feet out from under him with one quick leg movement, sending him sprawling to the concrete sidewalk.

  “Jesus.”

  “He isn’t going to help you.” Bull pressed his knee to the guy’s back. “You decided to do this the hard, painful way.” He added additional pressure so his spine stayed right there.

  “You’re hurting me,” the man growled. “You’ll pay.”

  “Actually, I’m fully within my rights. You threatened me with a gun. I disarmed you, and now I’m making sure you can’t
hurt me or my colleague any further. I could smash your head into the pavement a few times for you.” Bull didn’t, and they waited as sirens grew closer and then flashing lights pulled up to the curb.

  “What do you have, Bull?” the police officer said as he got out of the car.

  “Someone that might be interesting to you, Tom. He came here demanding that one of my servers go with him. He threatened me and was carrying concealed. Salvatore can verify my facts for me. You might want to check that he has a permit. He’s claiming that he was sent here by the guy’s father. What kind of fucking family sends an enforcer to get their son?” Bull set the gun on the pavement a good distance away.

  “Did you disarm him?” Officer Tom asked.

  “It was a piece of cake,” Bull said, and Salvatore figured he was just rubbing it in. “The guy is all intimidation on the outside, with little to back up his mouth.”

  “We’ll take it from here,” Officer Tom told him, and took custody of the guy. “You want to give us a name?”

  “Go to hell,” the guy swore.

  Officer Tom simply shrugged. “We’ll take him in and find him a really nice cell. Let him think things over with some friends.” Tom was clearly enjoying this.

  “Thanks.” Bull stood, and Officer Tom marched the suspect out to the curb as another car arrived. They got him in the back of the car that arrived, and then Officer Tom approached Bull. “I need to speak to your server and find out what’s going on. I suspect this is a pretty hardened guy, and from what you’ve told me….” He groaned.

  “Yeah, I know. I don’t like the sound of this at all,” Bull said, leading the way inside. Hank and Grant sat with an obviously nervous Elliott. His leg bounced, and he wrung his hands in addition to punishing his lip.

  They pulled over chairs, and Salvatore sat next to Elliott, keeping an eye on him to try to help keep him calm. “It’s okay. We all want to try to help you,” he told him gently.

  Elliott shook his head and seemed to withdraw further.

  “He’s right,” Officer Tom said. “We have the man in custody on a weapons charge for now. But do you know his name?”

  “Roderick Young,” Elliott said. “He works for my father. Does the kind of jobs that my father will only trust to him.” He sounded small and frightened, his voice quivering a little. “He isn’t going to tell you anything, and I suspect that there will be a lawyer at your station within the hour.” Elliott sighed. “I thought I had managed to get away from him.”

  “Your father?” Salvatore asked.

  “Yes.” The others all turned to him. Elliott seemed to respond to his questions. “Well, my stepfather, anyway.” Elliott shivered.

  “Why does he want you to come home so badly that he’d send an armed man to get you?”

  Elliott sighed and didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at each person around him. “I don’t want to put all of you in the line of fire, okay? This is a fight between the two of us, and I moved here to get away from him. I didn’t tell anyone, and I don’t use anything electronic. My phone is one of those you can get at Walmart and have to load minutes on. I do it in cash. I don’t have credit cards or even a bank account. Everything is cash.”

  “But your name? You used your name.”

  Elliott blushed a little. “I had to use a fake last name. When I decided to try to disappear, I got a new identity. My father isn’t the only one who knows people who will do just about anything for a little money. And then I disappeared and came here to try to start over. I needed a chance to have a life of my own.” Elliott swallowed. “For all your sakes, just let me go and I’ll disappear once again.”

  “How?” Salvatore asked quietly.

  “You think I only got one identity? Why get one when you can get two for the same price?” So Elliott had a sense of humor under all that fear. He turned to Grant. “You all have been nice to me and gave me a chance. I’m sorry I’ve been as jumpy as a cat and all, but it’s best if you all just go on with your lives, let me go, don’t ask too many questions, and forget you ever saw or knew me. You can tell Roderick that I did a rabbit, and he’ll go back to my stepfather and they can try to find me again.” He sighed. “At least all of you will be safe.”

  Bull stepped forward, stopping Elliott with a glare. “I think it’s time you quit your running and told us all what’s going on. This isn’t helping you or anyone.”

  “Who is your stepfather?” Officer Tom asked.

  Elliott sighed loudly. “Antonio Losquaro.”

  The name meant nothing to Salvatore, and it didn’t seem to register with Bull either. Officer Tom seemed confused. “Should we know him?”

  “No. That’s the issue. My stepfather controls a lot of things in Pittsburgh, including trucking and garbage collection, stuff like that. He also has his hands in real estate, ladies of the evening, drug distribution, and God knows that else. But no one knows about it. He hides behind a number of associates and entities. Like a modern-day gangster, but with corporate shells and holding companies that make following his path nearly impossible.” Elliott stood.

  “That doesn’t explain why he is so interested in you,” Salvatore pointed out.

  Elliott paled and clammed up tight.

  “Okay,” Bull said. “We aren’t going to make you say what you don’t want to. But know this. Running and hiding isn’t the answer, not to something like this. You can go where you want, but if he can find you once, he’ll do it again. He obviously has his ways. His associate is in jail, and Tom here is going to do what he can to see that he stays there.”

  “I better get back to the station so I can build a case fast. If a lawyer is already on the way, I need to have a case for a judge to deny him bail. He’s definitely a flight risk.”

  Elliott snickered. “As soon as you let him loose, he will be out of the state.”

  Tom smiled. “Good to know.” He backed away and pulled Bull aside. They talked softly, and then Officer Tom left the club and Bull returned.

  “Hank and Grant, you two go on home and get some rest.” They nodded. “And call when you get home so I know you’re safe.”

  “Will do,” Hank said, taking Grant’s arm, and the two of them left together.

  Bull pulled up a chair and sat right in front of Elliott. Salvatore moved closer to Elliott to show a little support.

  “I don’t want you to go, okay? Running isn’t going to help you, and what are you going to do when he finds you again… and again? Because he will and you know it.”

  “But what about all of you?” Elliott asked.

  “I’m not without my skills, and I’ve dealt with men like your stepfather before. Hell, I’ve dealt with men much worse than you could ever imagine. It’s part of my life from before that seems to keep making an appearance whenever I least expect it. The thing is that you are safer with us than you are alone.”

  Elliott bowed his head forward. “Why would you all want to help me? I’m just some kid off the street you hired less than a week ago. I’m not worth you all getting hurt over.”

  Bull placed one of his big hands on Elliott’s leg, and it took all Salvatore’s self-control not to swipe it away. He hated that Bull was touching him. It didn’t matter that it was not in any sexual way or that Bull was devoted to Zach; it sent a wave of irrational jealousy running through him. “Why don’t you let us decide what’s worth fighting for and what isn’t?” Bull nodded. “I’ve done things that your stepfather can’t possibly imagine, so I’m offering you this. If you want to stay, we’ll be here with you.”

  “Why?” Elliott asked, clearly not fathoming what was going on. “No one does something for nothing.”

  “Maybe where you come from. But here, in this club, and with me, I do things because they’re the right thing to do. For years I did things because I was ordered to, and I didn’t question it. When it got to be too much, I got the hell out through a miracle. I stopped following orders and followed my heart when I met Zach, and he made me want to do things because
they’re the right things to do.” Bull backed away. “The decision is yours and no one else’s.”

  Elliott didn’t move for quite a while, his head hung low. Salvatore hoped he decided to stay, but it seemed as though there was no more fight in him. All that he got from Elliott was the need to run and hide. His entire posture and demeanor screamed scared rabbit. Salvatore hated to see it, but there was nothing he or Bull could do to help someone like that. Bull knew it too, and he stood and put his chair away.

  Salvatore sat where he was, determined to wait until Elliott gave them some sort of answer. “What is it to be?” he asked quietly. He could almost see the moment Elliott made his decision.

  He took a deep breath and finally raised his gaze. “Okay. I’ll stay,” he said. “But you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

  Bull nodded. “Then tomorrow, before you start work, you and I need to have a talk in my office, and you can tell me exactly what it is you think we’re in for. No one can fight without information, and you’re going to have to tell us everything you can about your stepfather and his operations.”

  “Okay.” Elliott seemed resigned to it.

  “For tonight, you need a safe place that you can stay. Don’t think about going near your apartment. If your stepfather is as you say, that will be watched already.”

  “He can stay with me. I have the room at my place, and it isn’t like anyone is going to connect me with him,” Salvatore offered. “I live just up north in Italian Lake, and at this time of night, no one is around, so anyone following is going to stick out like a sore thumb.”

  Spook came in through the back to join them. He was one of Bull’s colleagues and also worked security at the club. “There are no tracking devices on any of the cars, and as near as I can tell, our visitor came alone.” Sometimes it was creepy just how much Spook knew, and yet he was rarely seen—hence the name. The man had superpowers. “I’ll make sure they get out of here with no one seeing, and then I’m going to go home.” He patted Bull on the shoulder and quietly left the room.