“I’m Coco Baldini. I need to access my safety deposit box.”
“Certainly, Ms. Baldini,” the federal agent said. She’d recognized him right away when she’d entered the bank. She’d also noticed only one teller was a real bank employee. All others were agents and unfortunately, they looked like agents.
Maybe Juan was too greedy to notice. So far he’d proven himself an exceptionally stupid criminal. And to think he was on a most wanted list.
She followed the acting branch manager to the secure area where they both used their keys to access her safety deposit box. Juan looked surprised by the small box so Coco quickly turned to the agent. “I need to access all these, please.” She nodded at the row of boxes, all of which belonged to the Baldini sisters.
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
She feigned a smile and waited until the agent stepped out of the vault. Understanding Juan hadn’t entered the bank with a weapon, she flung open the safety deposit box and retrieved her forty-five, releasing the safety and cocking it at the same time.
“You stupid, stupid girl!” Juan screamed out his rage. “Do you honestly think you can pull a gun on me and live to tell about it!”
“I will walk out of here,” Coco said, determination in her bones, rage in her veins.
“I don’t think so. If I’m not back in my car in thirty minutes, my men are well informed and know precisely where to go and what to do. Would you like for me to tell you how the next Blaziers will meet their deserved endings?”
“I don’t want to waste time,” Coco said, seriously considering pulling the trigger. “If your men are expecting your body back in their car within a half hour, we need to get the blood and guts part of this duty behind us so I can make sure we don’t disappoint them.”
“You think you can kill me?”
“I know I can kill you,” she said, never batting an eyelash but acknowledging the agents now coming through the front doors of the bank as well as swarming Juan’s getaway car. She lowered her weapon as the agents came in with their guns drawn. “But I’d rather see you rot in prison for what you did to my family.”
“Do you think you can get by with this? Do you realize who I am!”
“Yes, I do. You’re Juan Jahno and your name means nothing to me except that you’re the man who killed my family, a man who killed his own sons for money and power.” Coco slid her safety deposit box back in its appropriate place, deciding to keep her weapon on her all things considered. A woman never really knew when she might need to protect herself.
“You will not get away with this!” Juan screamed like a lunatic as federal agents took him into custody, which by the looks of things was no easy task.
Feeling vindicated for once in her life, Coco pushed her hands against the front glass of the bank doors and made her way to freedom. The Blazier vehicles peeled into the parking lot with barking tires and squealing wheels, but the men leaving those SUVs and dually trucks made far more noise as they yelled for her behind the strewn yellow crime scene tape.
Apparently the local cops had anticipated the worst.
It was then when she fully grasped what had been taken from her, from them. Before she ran to greet them, she turned around and marched back to the man responsible for tearing their family apart way too soon, to the one still yelling his obscenities and asking if she knew who she had double-crossed.
“You’re the one who didn’t get away with such a senseless killing.” She swung her arm and pointed at the men behind her. “Look at them. You take a long, hard, look. Your boys—your biological sons—they were part of that. You never were. They were happy and healthy and loving boys and so much a part of a family that loved them and you stripped them away from us!” She marched forward then, afraid of what she might do, realizing then she was in another frame of mind.
Behind her she heard Brandon and Liam calling out to her. Somehow, Kurt had made it through the barricade of local officers, detectives, and agents. He ran toward her, screaming out to her, apparently under the impression that she had lost her will to concentrate, to focus clearly.
“Just a minute,” she said, throwing her index finger up in the air as she thought of something else she wanted to say.
“Wait! Coco! Listen to me!” Kurt caught up to her and grabbed hold of her waist, struggling to hold down her arm as if he thought she could actually fire a gun and take someone’s life.
She was insanely furious and she wanted revenge. Oh yes, she could taste it. Instead, she would trust the legal system one more time and pray they’d get it right this time.
Coco convinced Kurt she was sane enough to make one final statement. Standing in front of the man who had taken so much from those she loved, she screamed at Juan Jahno. “I am my father’s daughter! But your sons? They were never their father’s boys! They were too good, too pure. They were like the father who raised them. They were Blaziers!”
Epilogue
A week later
“It’s not quite a hundred million, but I think we’ll be okay if we live smart and stick to a budget,” Brandon said, pushing the business checkbook to the center of the table.
“Been nice to have a hundred million though,” Hales teased, giving Coco a quick wink. “Where did you come up with that amount anyway?”
“Your mother. She once told me this story about a man she knew who thought she was worth a lot of money.” She smiled as she thought of Geraldine and the bea
utiful tale she’d told her, one about love and romance and someone who had meant so much to her, a man who had given her two beautiful sons but in return only wanted one thing—her money.