She shot him a warm smile, her toes curling inside her boots. “Done deal.”
Gripping her hand, he pulled her back inside and they were traversing the long hallway again when she heard Nina yelp, “That son of a motherfucking bitch!”
Cormac and Teddy exchanged glances as they followed the sound of the television to the family room, where everyone had gathered.
Sectional couches in plush fabric were scattered throughout the wide room, where the focal point was an eighty-inch flat screen.
With both she and Cormac’s faces flashing on it in vivid colors.
“What the hell is going on now?” Teddy almost shrieked.
“I’ll tell you what the hell,” Nina said from clenched teeth. “That fuck-knuckle Carmine Ragusi went on live friggin’ TV and accused the two of you of murder.”
Chapter 12
The hits just kept on comin’, was Teddy’s first thought, second only to the sheer terror a murder charge with she and Cormac’s names attached to it brought.
“Murder?” Cormac thundered, dropping her hand and moving closer to the television as the reporter was just wrapping up the story.
“That’s what I said—murder,” Nina groused, rewinding the broadcast so they could watch for themselves.
As the reporter replayed the interview with that lying sack of smelly shit Arty, aka Carmine Ragusi, her knees threated to give out.
Carl came up behind her, driving his hands around her waist and squeezing her. “You are niii…ce.”
She shuddered out a breath and gripped his hands, fighting a sting of tears at how sensitive he was to everyone around him. His hands were cold, but they were comforting just the same.
So now the story was Carmine Ragusi believed his partner had something on Cormac and Teddy, and Carmine had some kind of evidence to prove they’d killed his partner? Without a body?
Whoa. Her head was spinning.
Teddy’s mouth went dry when she was finally able to speak. “How?” she managed to push out.
Wanda was on her feet in an instant, tucking her light sweater around her waist and approaching Teddy with worried eyes. “We think that’s who was murdered the night Toni found Stas and Andre standing next to a dead guy. He was Carmine Ragusi’s partner at the precinct. He needs someone to take the fall for his dead partner.”
“That’s insane.” Cormac’s jaw had gone stiff, his fist balled into a wad of anger.
Marty buzzed about them, too, her wheels spinning, her hands waving. “We have a theory. Carmine’s partner, whose name was Mauricio Benneducci, by the way, caught Carmine in the thick of this Russian mob thing and they took him out to keep his mouth shut. I’d bet all my lip gloss Carmine was at the dealership that night and he was the one who killed Mauricio. Toni may not have seen him there. Maybe he left. Or maybe he was hiding and waiting to kill Toni when she showed her face. Thank God she got away when she did. But I’d also bet Stas ordered Carmine to kill his partner because in this nut Stas’s mind, Carmine was to blame for his partner finding out he was on the take. Stas and Carmine had to be worried about how much Cormac knew after finding Toni with him. Cormac being a loose end like that is bad for Stas. So, Teddy, you were probably right when you said Carmine just needed you to find Cormac and the plan all along was to kill you, too. No one was supposed to know anything about Cormac or Toni to begin with. Eliminating you, and probably your brothers, would have shut that right down.”
“Hold on,” Cormac interjected. “There were no deaths or murders reported on the night Toni witnessed the murder at the dealership, or even in the vicinity, and not a single word of one from that night since this all happened. I’ve gone over the blotters for every single arrest hundreds of times. If Ragusi killed his partner—a cop, no less—why wasn’t there some kind of all-out manhunt? He was a cop, for Christ’s sake! Cops stick together, don’t they?”
Marty pressed a hand to Cormac’s arm and nodded, her logical tone a small consolation in this mess. “Here’s what we think. Yes, the cops would have let loose the hounds of hell to find who killed one of their own, but that’s only if they thought Mauricio was dead. Maybe Carmine somehow managed to make them believe there was suspicion surrounding his partner’s mental health or whatever. Sure, they’d look high and low for him, but you weren’t looking for a missing cop, Cormac. You were looking for dead bodies.”