Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 34

Arwen considered she needed a vacation as her alarm chimed at six in the morning and she knew she'd only had an hour and a half of sleep. She had fallen asleep almost as quickly as Addy had but it hadn't felt near enough rest for her body. Her watch's beeping was making her grumble as she slapped her wrist and then pulled a pillow over her head. The rhythmic heavy breathing behind her made her stiffen as she realized Addy was still there. She had fully expected when she woke, when her alarm went off, he would have been long gone. Yet, the weight of his arm over her waist and leg intertwined with hers told her she had been wrong in her assumption.

He knew. She hadn't confirmed it, but he knew, and he'd stayed. In fact, he'd appeared more concerned with the bullet which had buzzed him than the one she'd put in his father's head. Jesse had said the same thing she thought as a smile curved her lips. Her friend and her cousin were eerily similar, no matter how much they tried to say otherwise.

She tried to extricate herself from Addy's embrace with the intent of hitting the shower. She really should be heading to her gym, but she was too tired today. Truthfully, she needed to escape before he woke up and realized he'd made a mistake and stayed with her. As she slid her legs forward and nudged her hips away, she felt herself pulled backwards into strong arms.

"Where are you going?" His voice warm and his accent thick against her ear.

"It's six," she said quietly suddenly embarrassed. This was her first time waking up with a man in her bed. It was strange.

"You've been in bed barely two hours." He chastised as he nuzzled her neck. "You need rest. Your week has been terribly busy."

"No rest for the wicked," she quipped and moved again but he tightened his arms around her middle. "Addy, I need to start my day. I have clients I need to assess today before coming home for Deidre's dinner."

"Five more minutes," he complained grumbling as she laughed at him. His lips pressed against her shoulder. "Please? I'm still tired."

"Fine, five minutes." She giggled as he nipped her shoulder gripping her hips tight. She groaned as she felt his hardness pressing against her a*s. "Part of you is wide awake."

"Not all of me though," his head was burrowing almost under her shoulder.

"Are you not a morning person?" she asked curiously as she turned in his arms to look at him.

"Stop talking," he complained as he shoved his face between her breasts and sighed contentedly. "What are you doing?" she laughed as he was burying his face in her flesh.

"Hiding from the daylight." He moaned, "I run casinos Arwen. It requires me to be a vampire."

"I've seen you out in the daytime multiple times," she threaded her hands through his hair and cuddled him to her. It felt too good to have him nestled where he was. Posted by Narugi.com; visit us for more free novels. "I've been working constantly and playing catch-up. I need more sleep than just a nap. Can't we play hooky today? I will spend the day tucked happily in your boobs."

This was a side to Addy she hadn't known existed. Gone was tough, in command, domineering alpha-male type and it was replaced with a whiney, sleep-deprived, and goofy man. It was, in all honesty, cute as hell. "Addy, I have to get up. I have a business to run."

"No," his voice was muffled in her cleavage, "we can both quit our jobs, move to my island, and live off the interest in my accounts and hide from the feds."

"As tempting as the offer is," she said dryly, "I like working."

"What about when we have babies?"

She guffawed at his comment. "I agree with you."

"You do?" he sat up suddenly, his hair in a spiky mess around his head and his eyes narrowed and sleepy.

"Yes, you need more sleep because you are not thinking straight."

He flipped her on her back and pinned her to the pillows, his elbows on either side of her head demonstrating he was far more awake than he'd let on. "I am thinking straight. Don't you -"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a notification on her wrist and she scowled, "someone's ringing my doorbell."

"At six fifteen in the morning?" he lifted an eyebrow watching as she snaked an arm through his bent elbow to grab her phone. She turned the app on for her security camera and noted the men in uniform on her front porch. "FBI. s**t, I need to answer the door before Dee does. I don't want them notifying her of his death before I do it."

She shrugged into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt mumbling how it was too early in the morning for this s**t before she pulled her bedroom door open just in time to see Deidre come out of her room rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Who in the hell is ringing the doorbell?" Deidre complained. She looked into Arwen's bedroom and saw Addy lounging in the bed and grinned. "Did you have a sleepover?" She gave him a thumbs up as Arwen slapped at her hands and Addy laughed aloud. "It's the FBI on the porch," Arwen held up her phone. "Stay upstairs Dee. I don't know what Agent Croft is up to now." She looked to Addy hoping he read her face they needed to act surprised.

"God, I hate him," she complained as she watched Arwen pull the door to her own bedroom shut behind her before motioning for Deidre to get back in her room. "He's always in our shit."

Arwen opened the door and folded her arms over her chest angrily, "what is the FBI doing on my doorstep at six in the morning?"

"My name is Agent O'Malley. We wanted to speak to Mr. Cavallaro. We know he's here."

"Do you have a warrant to enter my home?" she stared angrily.

"No ma'am. It's just a conversation."

"Then f**k off," Arwen said with a glare. She was playing it up for the camera. If she had to be snarky and defensive instead of calm, cool and collected, she could do it with ease. She was simply picking up where Addy had helped her the night before. "One of our men was killed last night," the man said seriously, "and we feel he may be involved. We are worried for your safety Ms. Beddoe."

"Really? Were you worried for my safety this morning when Agent Croft was standing in my driveway screaming at me how he loved me and my cousin? He was unhinged and maniacal. Where were you then when I needed to be protected from one of your own?" Her words were delivered bluntly.

"Agent Croft was here?" Agent O'Malley frowned in confusion. "When?"

"Are you stupid?" Arwen glared, "at three thirty-ish in the morning. It's on my security camera footage, I'm certain of it. The same camera recording you right this minute." She pointed overhead. "Your agents have stalked me for too long. I don't trust any of you, especially him."

"Ms. Beddoe, he died a few hours ago. He crashed his car. Our preliminary investigation shows he was driving towards his place in Jersey and at four-twenty this morning he suddenly swerved his vehicle into a telephone pole. It looks like he had a heart attack." The man spoke softly as if trying to cushion a blow.

"Am I supposed to be sad?" she said bitterly. "He stalked me for the last twelve years while being paid to do it. He harassed me. He knew my home address and on more than one occasion, I had to have him escorted away by NYPD. Last night was the first time he came screaming at me in the middle of the night though, which tells me his behaviour is escalating and he's dangerous and yet, you just keep covering up for him. I'm glad he crashed his car." She paused, "is this why you're here? You think Mr. Cavallaro had something to do with it?"

The man shook his head as if stunned by her cold response, "no, it's evident Croft had a heart attack. We checked surveillance cameras and for nearly twenty minutes he was driving on quiet streets. We had no idea he was coming from here." "Then why are you here?"

"Another agent investigating Mr. Cavallaro was found beaten and shot to death."

The pounding of footsteps on the stairs behind her made her look over her shoulder, "they think you killed an FBI agent. Oh, and Croft had a heart attack and crashed his car, and they think it's weird I'm not sad."

"Really?" his voice was dry as he pulled the door wider and matched Arwen's stance with his arms folded over his chest. He was making the same facial expression he had the night before. Arwen looked him up and down and noted he was wearing the clothes he'd worn the night before. He hadn't brought in a change of clothes when they'd left his car. She wondered if he had truly intended to spend the night with her when he'd brought her home.

"Can we come in and chat?" Agent O'Malley asked much too politely for an FBI agent.

"No," Arwen negated his request. "I told you. I don't trust the FBI. You allow your agents to stalk me. How do I know you're not just switching tactics now? I let you in my house and you'll plant bugs and tap my phone. Am I supposed to believe it's purely coincidental Croft started harassing me again as soon as I started dating Mr. Cavallaro?"

"You keep calling him Mr. Cavallaro," the agent stared at her. "Kind of weird for an intimate relationship."

Arwen stared at him, "what's weird is three grown men standing on my front porch just after six in the morning wearing sunglasses when the sun is barely up. Are we done?"

"We would like to talk to Mr. Cavallaro about Agent Tower."

Addy c****d his head and pursed his lips, "you think I had the guy investigating me killed? Tell me Agent, does anything in my file suggest to you I gave two shits whether or not he was investigating me? I've known for years his obsession with me and my family. Last week I sat and had coffee with him in my offices while we poured over the books. I am a simple businessman running a conglomerate of resorts and casinos. I pay my taxes and my employees are well taken care of. In his twenty years of investigating my family, Agent Tower has never made a charge stick because I am a legitimate businessman. I have no need to have a man murdered, especially a man from whom I have nothing to fear." His words were cocky and smug in only the way a man who had done nothing wrong could be.

"You filed a complaint." A man standing behind Agent Croft spoke out.

"I did file a complaint," Addy stared directly at the man. He pointed to Arwen, "Ms. Beddoe was being harassed by Agent Croft and Agent Croft told her point blank he was acting on information he obtained by Agent Tower. I had my legal team notify Croft's supervisor and made it clear, continued harassment of Ms. Beddoe would result in a lawsuit of which I would personally fund. I have infinitely more financial resources than Ms. Beddoe which is why I believe my complaints were taken seriously. I then called Agent Tower's supervisor since I have him on speed dial and let him know he provided falsified information which put a stalker back in my girlfriend's path and I wanted it stopped. Evidently it didn't work. Less then ten hours following my request to have his behaviour halted, he was in her driveway. It seems I may need to make good on my lawsuit. When Mr. Croft was here a few short hours ago, he was screaming at Arwen about how he loved her and demanded she call his boss and get him his job back."

"Excuse me?" Agent O'Malley asked quietly. "He asked you to do what?"

Arwen sighed and then pulled out her phone and began looking through the app and then pulled up the video. She stepped onto the porch and played the video. Crofts blustering and screaming, demanding she telephone his boss carried in the quiet of the night. "Your security system is quite detailed." The third agent spoke curiously as he glanced up at the camera.

"I'm good friends with a technology guru who has been worried about my safety for more than twelve years. If you read your file, you know who she is, and you know why I have top of the line security. Between two men who are still at large because Croft couldn't do his job and Croft himself stalking me, I need to keep my cousin safe, and my friend made sure I have state of the art equipment. Oddly enough, Agent Croft appeared to know where to wait for me to get home out of sight of the cameras. Makes me curious whether FBI resources were used to determine the security features of my home." She made a pointed glance at O'Malley, "but you wouldn't know about that, would you?"

"He seems really pissed off," the third agent spoke again interrupting O'Malley from speaking. "Seriously pissed off."

"According to him, he got fired." Arwen made a face, "and he incorrectly felt I could get him rehired."

She watched as the man rewatched the clip of Addy telling the man if he continued to harass Arwen, he would use his lawyers to make Croft back off. There was no threat of murder and mayhem and Arwen suddenly wondered whether he did have anything to do with Tower's death and if he had known the FBI would show up on her doorstep and this conversation would be part of his alibi. Did he use her? She looked at him inquisitively and he kept his face impassive.

"Had he been to your home before?" One of the agents asked curiously.

"Multiple times though this middle of the night thing is a first and he's never threatened me before," Arwen said angrily. "It's why I hate you all," she waved her fingers around the trio on her porch. "Just this week the son of a b***h met my flight coming in from Boston where I was meeting a new client and he was taking recordings of me. I was sick and my cousin was scared of him. Thankfully, Mr. Cavallaro was there to get us away from him before he did something perverse. I had sent a message just the day before to his supervisor asking him to make him stop sending me emails declaring his undying love and then he showed up." She folded her arms as she ripped her phone away. "Are we done because I want to go tell my cousin the man who has been stalking us for more than half of her life is dead."

"We do need to discuss Agent Tower with Mr. Cavallaro. Where were you last night Mr. Cavallaro between the hours of midnight and three a.m.?"

He stared at Agent O'Malley, "do I need my lawyer? Each time I try to play nice I end up in one of your holding cells. They aren't very comfortable. Last time I felt the need to be deloused."

Arwen felt his hand on her shoulder as she moved protectively to stand between him and the agent. The desire to punch the man's sunglasses off his face was huge. She remembered Addy telling her before she wasn't allowed to interfere in his business matters, but she really wanted to give this cocky son of a b***h a beat down. His fingers were massaging her shoulder gently as if reminding her to stay calm. Jesse was right. The desire to go a dark place for someone you cared about was strong. "It's an easy question Adrianu. No need for lawyers unless you have something to hide." O'Malley gave him a smirk.

"It's Mister Cavallaro to you." He spoke mockingly to the agent, "My love?" he squeezed her shoulder as if he could feel the tension rolling off her. "What do you think? Shall I tell him where I was during this time?"

"It's your business what you opt to share with one of these assholes. I'm not as nice as you are though Addy. Considering they made it plain as day they think you killed an agent of the FBI, I'd have already called my lawyer, demanded to see the evidence against me and sued them for harassment considering they had you in holding already once this week on trumped up bullshit." "Ms. Beddoe you are very antagonistic."

"I was just about to enjoy some morning wood when the FBI interrupted by knocking on my door at six in the morning. My s****l frustration is a bit high," she noted the younger of the three men blushed and looked away from her words. "Also, did I not mention I hate you all on principal because you failed to protect us from your own dickwad of an agent?"

"Gentleman, my girlfriend is clearly upset with you being here."

Arwen threw her hands up in mock surrender. "I called Mr. Cavallaro last night. I signed a new lucrative client this week and my girlfriends and I were celebrating. We had a lot to drink and one of them had it in their head they wanted gelato. I called him and asked him if he could get his friend to open the gelato shop for us and he did. We were eating gelato from midnight until three. I have nine other friends who are our alibis for the night and will attest to our whereabouts. From three until three-thirty we were traveling back here and then we encountered Agent Croft in my yard. We went to bed after making sure my cousin was safe and hadn't been harmed by one of yours."

Addy gave a nod, "video surveillance will show me leaving my hotel just after eleven when Ms. Beddoe called me. The gelato shop shows me arriving just shortly after my friend opened it for her. The timing will show I made no stops between my hotel and the shop." "You just run out and open ice cream shops for your girlfriend?"

"She asked," he gave a shrug. "She's, my girl. There isn't anything I would do for her."

"What about kill an agent of the FBI?"

Addy wagged his fingers, "tut, tut, Agent O'Malley. I am a businessman not a murderer. We just went over this."

"You just happened to know of an ice cream shop?"

"Gelato," he corrected, "and an old friend of my mother's family asked me for help a few years ago. I bought the entire block, and he rents his space from one of my buildings. The minute Giuseppe heard I wanted him to open his shop for a girl, he got right out of bed. He's a romantic." "What do you get in exchange? I can't imagine you just rent a space to an old man." O'Malley pushed.

"The knowledge the parents of the woman who was my mother's closest friend are safe and secure and able to support themselves in their old age." He looked to Arwen, "is it just me or do you feel these men have biases against me when they have never met me before today?"

"They are definitely biased. I happen to think you're the best man I've ever met but then I'm comparing you to FBI agents who stalk and terrify women and let bikers get away with murder."

"There is no bias, Mr. Cavallaro, just friendly conversation." O'Malley spoke sharply.

"Sounds like a fishing expedition to me. We told you where he was last night. You can leave now." Arwen retorted.

The ringing of a telephone signaled Agent O'Malley was receiving a call and looked at the display and turned away and stepped down the stairs and then groaned loudly. The four people on the porch watched as he kept his face averted before cursing loudly and kicking his foot impatiently, "you've got to be kidding me!" He looked back to Arwen and Addy on the steps and gave a wave at the other two men.

Arwen pushed a button on her watch as the three men huddled just out of ear shot and whispered. She was recording the conversation and she held a finger behind her back to Addy, praying he saw it and kept his mouth shut.

"Ms. Beddoe, Mr. Cavallaro, we're sorry to disrupt your morning. Have a nice day," without further ado the trio walked back to their car and climbed in.

Arwen raised her middle finger at the car backing down her driveway and grinned when the man driving frowned at her. "f**k I hate the FBI."