In the Arms of the Law by Deborah Fletcher Mello

Author:Deborah Fletcher Mello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-09-06T17:42:22+00:00

Chapter 9

Ellington wasn’t sure how to feel about having a doppelganger randomly roaming the streets with his face. He found the thought ludicrous at best and, under different circumstances, would have been amused by the idea. But Angela’s insistence that he had an identical twin stranger who’d been randomly spying on him and his father was suddenly unnerving.

“It was eerie!” Angela was saying. “He looked like he could be related to you except he was white-white with auburn-red hair.”

“White-white?”

She rolled her eyes skyward. “You know what I mean. He wasn’t biracial and definitely not African-American. But he was your mirror image. He could have stood between you, Parker and Mingus and been mistaken for another brother, or maybe a cousin. But definitely related. The resemblance was that deep.”

“You never know,” Ellington said with a shrug. Although his tone was jovial, he was only half kidding. “My father and my uncle were rolling stones back in the day, most especially my uncle, my father’s half brother.”

Ellington blew a soft sigh as he navigated his car back to the office. He suddenly drifted into thoughts about the man who they had recently discovered was kin to them. Alexander Balducci was renowned on the streets of Chicago, his philanthropic efforts belied by his criminal enterprises. The Balducci name was synonymous with every felonious element in the city. One of the oldest crime families in Chicago history, the Balduccis were notorious. His father and Alexander had a longtime friendship that many didn’t understand. For years, the two had walked on opposite sides of the law. Their children also had a lengthy toe-to-toe history with fatal outcomes. His brother Armstrong had gone up against Alexander’s two sons and both Balduccis had lost. One his freedom and the other his life. But through it all, Jerome had maintained a relationship with the man others publicly distanced themselves from. Their long-standing alliance was why many questioned the police superintendent’s credibility, assuming he had to be a dirty cop. Only their respective families knew the truth of their kinship—that they were brothers who shared the same father and both men wanted to keep it that way.

Ellington shot Angela a look. “My uncle has children only he knows about. You never know when they might show up for a family reunion.”

“And your father?” Angela asked, her brow raised and curiosity dancing across her expression.

“As of today, he’s only claimed the seven of us. Tomorrow may be another story!”

The two chuckled. Ellington would have previously found such a thought absurd but with so much having happened with his family in the last year, he didn’t think there was anything at all that could surprise him now.

He pulled his car into his reserved parking space. It had been a long afternoon and he was ready for the workday to end. Unfortunately, he knew there was a pile of folders stacked a mile high on his desk needing his attention. But something felt unsettled deep down in his core. He couldn’t put his finger on it or find the words to describe the feeling, but it had him out of sorts.

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