Besides that, I was trying to figure out Luke.
I'd searched around for him, and found nothing. There was an existing record, I'd been surprised to find, but it was British and the man pictured may have been close to Luke's specs, but the face wasn’t similar, beyond the beard. The name was obviously an alias, and it pretty much cemented everything for me.
I wondered if Luke was even his real name.
More than that, I wondered about him. I'd guessed he was Irish, and he hadn't refuted it. I wondered about where he grew up, how he ended up where he did working for Greco of all people. He was an Italian mafia boss, I was sure there was Irish mafia in the US and he could have easily found a group to work for. Unless he was running from something, something he didn’t want people he shared an ancestry with knowing.
But there was no way for me to find out about any of it. Maybe a picture would have gotten me something, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be handing out pictures of him, anyway. Not only was it dangerous for me, it could potentially drag me into whatever he was escaping, but it felt like a betrayal just thinking of it.
Those thoughts were muddy and complicated because they kept running over each other with broken theories. What I knew I needed, was money. I had enough to get by, but I always needed more, especially with the traveling I was doing. Since I really had only one devotion left in life, getting the cash wasn’t so simple. I worked a couple of jobs to save something, but nothing that would take over my schedule. I needed the money so I could get next to Greco, beyond that, it didn’t really hold much meaning for me, not for the moment.
At some point, I would have to build some life for myself after my vendetta was taken care of. But until then, I was going to keep my focus. The mission came above everything; I'd been working toward it for the past four years after all, instead of completing my college education. When I was a young girl, at twenty-one, trying to go to my classes, then finding out a lot of harsh truths about my family, my past, was more than I could imagine or handle.
That was when the fire that lit within me after I digested it all, and the vow I made.
Chapter 15
Luke
I confronted Greco.
It wasn’t something I'd ever really had the need to do before, but I needed answers, and he was where all my information was coming from anyway.
"I don’t see the problem."
I stopped my pacing to send him an incredulous look. I was sure I'd explained myself well unless he just wasn’t listening? But he didn’t say more, just stared back at me, and I took a deep breath.
"I've been working for you for a while. Not every mission goes well, but I've never had it this bad before."
"Isn't it just two, though?"
"Two in a row and the one that I just barely completed. There might have been a witness but I'm almost sure he was armed and he didn’t get to see my face. Out of pure luck because the idiot was incompetent enough I could hear him coming. I'm not exactly careless. This many flukes worries me."
He still wasn’t saying anything.
Why wasn’t he saying anything?
I started pacing again, my nerves getting the better of me. I would have held myself still no matter if it killed me if there were any other people in the room, but Greco had made the decision to excuse everyone else when I walked into the room. It was one of the parlors in the mansion, with large windows that had the curtains drawn even though it was dark outside. It had a good view of the water, especially during the day, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the view just then.
"So, what exactly are you suggesting? That I'm giving you false information?"
I froze in place, facing away from him. The thought had crossed my mind, of course, only I couldn’t think of why he'd lead me into these situations on purpose. Usually, he sent me after people he wanted dead enough to hire a hit on them, which didn’t happen often, surprisingly.
I only killed people that tread on Greco's toes or were starting to get out of line. No nice, innocent people would do that to a mafia boss, so I never minded taking the jobs. Usually, he told me the reason, or I heard from one of his men, or the people I was sent to kill when I had to get up close and personal. I liked being undercover, and I loved my job as a hitman, strange as it would seem to many.
But I knew better than to tell him I was suspicious of him, even for a second. Greco was a stickler for loyalty; he would not appreciate it.
"If I thought that, I wouldn’t have come to ask you. I was thinking more of a leak somewhere. I know even in the tightest organization there is a possibility, and it’s the only thing I can come up with. Because lately, it's starting to look as if my marks are expecting me, even waiting for me."
Except for this last one, because he was most certainly surprised. But I remembered, he hadn't tried to run off exactly, just glanced around like he was looking for someone. It was possible I moved too fast for them and that was why because I hadn’t taken the time to fake an alibi like Greco wanted most of the time. And the guy I got to drive me, I'd had to drag him along with me instead of waiting for him to do whatever the hell else he wanted. But it only gave me a minimal head start, so I wouldn’t bank on it being useful all the time.
"Only three people know when I'm going to have someone offed, two of them are in this room, and the other is a man I would trust with my life, he's been with me longest in this business. Maybe the guys I'm sending you after know they've done something wrong and they've heard about all the other people I've worked with that ended up dead after they… crossed me."
I slowed my pacing as I thought it through. It was actually very plausible. Most of them were kept hush hush, but I was sure news traveled in the underground circuits. Most of these guys had hands in several pies so that kind of news couldn’t be kept hidden for long.
"Maybe you're right," I said slowly. "But what do I do about it? If I meet my mark and I think the situation can be compromised, can I turn away and go after them later after some recon? Like with the other two, I've been keeping an eye on them for the next chance I get."
He shrugged, looking entirely unconcerned for a man that paid me a lot of money for each mark he gave me. "Do whatever, so long as you get the job done. You haven't disappointed me yet and I know you don’t plan to. I'll tell you when one of the names I have for you is someone I need to be taken out quickly, but other than that." He shrugged again, leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs. "You can make them sweat for all I care. It would serve the bastards right."
I knew better than to say anything to that, nodding along. It was the best I was going to get out of Greco, any more and I might begin to annoy him, I could tell just by looking at him.
While talking to him, I started to think about the woman that I saw at the wedding. Elda, my mind supplied helpfully. It had been over a month since the day, and I found myself thinking of her often. Usually, I was alone, and I shoved the thoughts away because there was no use thinking of someone I would likely never see again.
But the more I looked at Greco…
"There was a woman at the wedding…" I started without thinking.
His eyebrows arched, surprised at the sudden change in topic, but looking blandly interested. He waited for me to go on.
"There was a woman at the wedding that had the same eyes as you. I was just wondering if she was from back in Italy."
Because her accent had been more obvious than mine, and it was easy to pinpoint, seeing as how I was subjected to it a lot around my boss. I didn’t know if he was originally from Italy and just moved to the US, or if his parents had been old-fashioned enough to make him learn the language and the accent was just there, but I was sure he'd gone there on at least a couple of occasions, though I'd never been.
I also didn’t make the habit of asking my boss about his personal life, beyond what he wanted me to know when he introduced me to his family, as an afterthought, while telling them I was new security joining the ranks.
"H
mm." His brow furrowed lightly. "What woman exactly?"
"She was in a black dress, brown hair and eyes. I don’t know when she left, but she was still there when I went out."
She wasn’t with the rest of the guests, but I didn’t clarify that for him. I peered at his eyes, trying not to show the extent of my interest.
So, that was where the feeling came from.
I remembered thinking her eyes looked familiar. Brown eyes were very common, I had them even though mine were darker than hers, but I was sure, the more I looked at him, the more that familiar feeling came back to me. I had perfect memory; I could remember perfectly how her eyes looked like.
"Do you mean one of my cousins?" he mused, more to himself than truly talking to me. "I have to admit, I have more than I know all that well, and quite a few of them were there with my other relatives." He shrugged again. "I met them before at my eldest son's wedding. It's not something you should be overly concerned about."
I read it for what it was, a warning to keep away from his family, even though he didn’t know the why of my question. I let it drop, anyway, my mind going off on a distracted tangent.
Who exactly was this woman?
Chapter 16
Elda
I made my way through dark, mostly empty streets. I didn’t live in a particularly nice neighborhood, but no one bothered me. The few people outside barely paid me any attention. I hurried to my small, rented room and let myself inside, locking the door behind me. I pulled the large envelope out from under my coat, dropping it on the tiny table, then taking off my coat and going to the bathroom.
It was all simply just one room, with a separate bathroom, and that was it. I washed the makeup off my face at the tiny sink, thankful the water was clean, and I wiped my face as I got back to the other room, pulling at the ties and pins in my hair, letting the mass fall around my shoulders. I didn’t bother changing clothes before going back to the tiny table, sitting in the only seat around, and staring at the envelope.
I already knew what I would find in it. I'd gotten info of the contents from my contact before I chose to pick it up.
I got an offer to be Greco's hit woman.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement.
I wasn’t banking on Greco finding out about me, and for a different reason than the one I expected. I was Italian, and he'd heard about me from his associates that I'd worked for, in and outside of the country, and suddenly decided he wanted me to join his ranks.
In a way, it was ironic. He didn’t know what I looked like, he couldn’t have. I didn’t even know how he knew where to send a message to get it to me. He shouldn’t have, and that he did, disturbed me greatly.
On the one hand, it would be an easy way to get close to him. I knew how close he was to Luke, and if I could get that, my goal would be so much easier to get to. I was so tempted to try just for that reason, but I knew he would never let me get so close. The second he saw me, he would know, and I would be screwed.
Or maybe he wouldn’t, and that would sincerely annoy me more than if he'd forgotten about everything that happened between us when it was all I could think of for months after I heard it all. But it was more than just that.
Even more of a surprise was the offer came because he needed to get rid of his existing one.
I found that terribly suspicious.
I didn’t know Luke, but I had the suspicion he was loyal to Greco. He'd stuck to me that night at the wedding, and though I was sure part of that was desire, I knew he'd been suspicious of me the whole night. He made sure I wasn’t threatening his boss when he could have focused more on having a good time.
That kind of loyalty, even in the mafia, tended to be rewarded. There was no reason, that I heard, for Greco to want to stab Luke in the back. He could have no motive at all, he was a dangerous man after all, and he didn’t need a reason for everything he did. But there was the slightest possibility that there was a reason behind it. It got me curious.
So, I started to question what was really going down. I had several contacts, and I was going to make use of every single one. Whatever Greco was planning, I knew I had to either get ahead or keep abreast of him to be ready for when he made his move.
Besides, it involved Luke, so I would have considered it anyway.
Chapter 17
Luke
I was having another of those bad days—or nights because I usually spent my days holed up somewhere.
The situation was getting past ridiculous, leaning toward annoying. After the last time, Greco and I had a chat, and he insisted there was no issue, things had gone well for a time. I suddenly had more marks than I ever had before, and a few times after that near-disastrous mission, everything had been carried out just fine.
And then today happened, when I was told this was someone I had to take out in the span of twenty-four hours. Everything had been going fine, as per the plan, I even got the guy, when I was practically ambushed. If not for the intense training I went through, all the missions I'd successfully undertaken, I wondered if I would have made it out alive.
I was starting to doubt Greco was being honest with me.
I stood in front of the man, giving him my report, holding perfect form even though I could feel the aches, and something wet trickling down my side. I hadn't had time to take stock of any injuries or to begin treating them. I came back to the island because it was, temporarily at least with my suspicions, the safest place I could end up, and he'd asked to see me as soon as I docked.
"So, you finished the job?"
"He was dispatched, no witnesses, just like you wanted."
He gave a nod, and I thought he looked pleased if a little surprised. I wasn’t sure whether to trust that expression. I'd known, in the beginning, not to trust him. He was a mafia boss, and the only relationship we had was a business arrangement that helped me as much as it did him, and I'd built on that. It wasn’t to say that I trusted him implicitly, but he rarely lied to me, just omitted things that I didn’t want to know anyway, so I never cared.
But this was going too far.
I was nearly killed again at this last job I’d done.
It had been a few weeks since something like it had happened after I last talked to Greco. I hadn't let myself grow lax, but last night had been close. I didn’t even get the chance to prepare the scene. I didn’t think the police would come knocking down my door just yet, but it was close. I survived this job because of the anonymity. Once I lost it, I'd have to go underground. There was no question of my records appearing in a police search if it was extensive enough research. Or, at the very least, tagging a few flags, and that was worse for me in the long run.
"You did a good job. I'll have the money for you by tomorrow."
Another reason why I was usually delayed, he paid for every mark beforehand. I'd held onto the money for the two I'd let go until I found a way to get to them later, but because this had been a rush job—I got the order off the island and decided to get right on it—there hadn't been time for that.
"Will you have any more work for me anytime soon?"
He looked thoughtful. "Maybe. Human stupidity knows no bounds, but let's hope they're at least smart enough not to get themselves caught."
I wouldn’t mind the time off. But lately, even before this, I'd been thinking of taking a permanent vacation. I loved my job, the power it gave me, but I wasn’t so big a megalomaniac I could ignore something like this.
I only took this job to kill the General's family, and the General himself. After what he did, it was the least he deserved, and I knew he had about as much family as I did. I left my home country, knowing there was nothing more for me there, but I never expected for the bastard to kill them, and have it flaunted on television by appearing for an interview on the murders and my disappearance from the unit. I hadn't been sure if it was a taunt, or a message, or what exactly. Even in the US, the news made headlines for a couple of weeks; news channels and papers. I came acro
ss it entirely by coincidence, but the twenty-first century being what it was, I could easily find all the information, plus all the interviews and quotes, recorded somewhere on the internet.
There was a message in his words that no one could understand, that no one else but the men from my old unit would have been able to even guess at. He basically told me he did it himself on national television, and once the international media got hold of the news as well as the entire globe, and I was the only one who knew that he could get away with it, no problem.
Like hell.
The only reason I had waited this long to move was because I didn’t know his location or the location of most of his family. He was smart, moving them around before he went after mine, but he couldn’t move them all. I waited to find all of them, and find his position, so he wouldn’t hinder me, get ahead in line before I'd finished them all off. I wanted him to suffer like I did, and that was why I was saving him for last. I didn’t really care what happened to me afterward.
I had been with Greco for years with that one goal in mind. He only partially knew my backstory; I couldn’t tell him most of it because it was classified. Even though I didn’t feel I owed any loyalty to the army, I couldn’t bring myself to shell out that kind of information to a civilian. Some of it I just didn’t want him to know. I'd thought about asking him for help once, but the General was a big man in a foreign army, anyone would be a little leery of trying something so risky, even Greco.
So, I kept it to myself and did my job as I was supposed to. And I was okay, not quite happy, but content to wait for—if necessary—my revenge. But it was never far from my mind, and as the years passed, I grew restless. After what happened today, me nearly dying when I was still nowhere near completing my goal, only brought it all home.
One Night With The Tycoon (Billionaire's One Night #1) Page 31