I knew the route he was taking and where it led. He'd sent me there plenty of times to meet the marks he wanted me to kill, people that thought they would be meeting him instead. It would have been better, though no safer if he'd thought to meet up somewhere more public. If he was meeting who I suspected he was, it was likely neither wanted to be associated with the other publicly.
I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling he would be stopping at the exact same spot, or around there. I had to ditch the car at some point before I got caught, and go the rest of the way on foot. If I was wrong, I would lose Greco, and I'd have to find some other way to get to him at a different time. I didn’t relish the wait.
Luck seemed to be with me, though.
I managed to follow Greco and saw him talking to the General. Their cars were parked a bit of a distance from each other, and they were meeting in the middle. Neither had men with them, except their drivers.
At least I knew what Elda said was true. I'd kept in contact, and I at least knew where she was staying, though I didn’t let her know that.
But I pushed all thoughts of her out of my head, as I watched the man I'd been looking for, ever since I learned what he'd done to my family. A man that I had looked up to and followed into dangerous situations once upon a time.
He and Greco deserved each other, really.
I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were talking about, but I could have imagined it. The General would have only one reason to be hanging around a notorious mafia boss. I didn’t know how they met, nor did I particularly care, but seeing them there, talking casually, probably about my demise, made something in me snap.
I found an opportunity to kill the General and took it.
Initially, I wanted to do this with him right in front of me, so I'd know he knew who was doing him in in the end. I'd thought of it plenty of times, and it would give me the most satisfaction. I couldn’t just storm up to them, though, not and still do what I wanted to. No doubt their drivers were armed and knew how to handle guns. It wasn’t quite so dark that I'd get away with it.
The alternative was taking a distance shot, catching him by surprise. I'd take a kill shot because there was no way I would risk him living through it. It would be quick, he wouldn’t see it coming, and that thought wasn’t as satisfying as the first.
I decided I could live with the disappointment.
Just take the stupid shot already. He's so close…
I had my own cache of weapons that I never let onto the island. I'd amassed them once I was in the country, and I'd had to move around with them and hide them along with my meager belongings. I didn’t always rely on Greco to arm me with something I'd want or need, though I sometimes went to him for weapons and returned them afterward. In this distance, a simple handgun wouldn’t be as effective. The distance was too great, and though I was confident in my aim, if I missed, they'd be on their guard and I might miss my chance.
The standard issue sniper rifle hadn't exactly been mine, I couldn’t even say I purchased it legally or otherwise. But I got it from a man I killed back when I was still working freelance before I met with Greco and he and I came to an agreement. It would have been the best to use if I had some higher advantage, but I just knelt on the ground so I wouldn’t be so conspicuous, looking at them around a corner.
Putting it together, from where I had the pieces stored in a bag I'd had thrown over my shoulder, took me less than a minute, as quietly as I could. I held the sniper's butt up to my shoulder, looked out through the scope. Before I took the shot, I could feel a grin spread on my face.
I wondered, idly, if I could see the smile, whether I would recognize myself. I'd been after this so long, I had let it take over my life. The only thing I had outside of thinking of this man dead was the work I did for Greco, who also happened to be there. It had been my life for too long, but once I pulled the trigger, it would be over, and I would go back to drifting.
I can live with that, too.
I took aim, held my breath, and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 22
Elda
"Dammit."
I was sitting alone in the small hotel room I was renting while I was in the country. It was within walking distance of the docks, though it was a bit far, and it was cheap. I paid in cash and no one asked questions. I was waiting on some information.
I'd gotten quite a bit more once I'd come in, including that tidbit about the man selling Luke out. I couldn’t get a name, not even from the friend of the family I was already speaking with, the one I'd gotten close to that gave me the personal information about the family.
But everything seemed to have dried out.
Greco had holed himself on his island since the last party. It hadn't been that long in the grander scheme of things, but I almost regretted missing the chance to get on his island and have him in my sights. There was no way I would have come out of that situation alive, but I still regretted not taking it.
I received news he was heading out, though, finally. I didn’t know where he would go, but I could catch him when he got back to the docks later. I wasn’t sure of the exact time, but since he was getting out after dark, I was planning to go over by midnight. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have made it back, and I would have time to find the best hiding spot to wait for him.
I'd just have to find the right place to hide. I could always have gotten on a boat and gone to the island, at any time in the past few days. It wouldn’t have been safe, but it would have gotten me there. The man himself had given me an invitation, after all, I’d just have to call it in. In all honesty, though, I was waiting for Luke to contact me, but he'd only called me once the day after the party to tell me he'd skipped.
But I was getting tired of waiting. I was ready to go and kill Greco once and for all. The man had been a thorn in my side for four years before I even got to see a picture of his face. For the sake of my dead mother, the grandparents I wasn’t allowed to grow up knowing all because of that bastard, I wanted him dead and gone.
I was already dressed, just wondering how I was going to walk around with weapons on me. I didn’t like carrying around anything bulky, which left me walking around with a clutch purse, but considering the distance from the docks where I could hide, would I even get a shot?
A knock on the door distracted me, and I growled to myself. I glanced around to make sure I didn’t have anything incriminating out. But just in case, I took my gun with me, holding it behind me. It was too late for it to be someone from the hotel, and I hadn't told anyone my whereabouts. There really wasn’t anyone to tell, and Luke hadn't asked.
I took a breath, unlocked the door and grabbed the handle. I pulled the door open, but the smile on my face froze when I saw who was on the other side.
"Luke?"
He was dressed casually for the first time since I'd met him, dark jeans, a T-shirt, and hoodie, sneakers on his feet. The hood was pulled up over his head, but I didn’t have my shoes on yet, so I was looking up into his face. For a moment, I was frozen, but I snapped out of it quickly.
I stepped back, opening the door wider and letting the hand with the gun fall to my side. He caught sight of it and his eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t say anything. He stepped inside, and I closed the door and locked it. I turned back, leaning against it, staring at him as he walked a little further into the space, tugging the hood of his jacket down. He glanced around the room, and then finally turned to look at me.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, for lack of anything better to say.
He smirked. "At a hotel, or specifically in your hotel room?"
"I didn’t tell you where I was staying."
"Well, no, but you gave me your number, and I assumed you'd stick around. It wasn’t that hard to find you."
I wanted to ask just how he'd done that. Did he just go around asking about my description until he got a hit, or what? Before I got a chance to ask, he spoke.
"You don’t have to go."
/> I paused, mouth still open, and arched my eyebrows at that. I titled my head, showing my confusion. He waved his hand to encompass the whole of me and then pointed at the gun I still held in my hand. I locked the door behind me, made sure the safety was on and set the gun on the small table. It put me a little closer to him in the small room, but he had moved far enough that there was still some distance between us.
"You look dressed to head out. I can only imagine what for." He shrugged. "I just thought you should know that you don’t have to, anymore. I've done the job already," he added.
That last bit cleared my confusion. Instead, I became suspicious.
"You don’t know what I really came here for, though. Or what I was about to go out and do."
He smirked. "True, but if your goal was to kill Greco, it's been taken care of."
I blinked at him, wondering if I'd heard him right. But he didn’t retract his statement, and I wanted to open my mouth and tell him to repeat it. But I was looking right at his eyes, and I could see the truth in them. His body looked relaxed, but his eyes were still on edge. The look in them reminded me of how my own eyes looked a few hours after I did a job.
He wasn’t lying to me, or joking.
It took me a moment for that to sink in, and then I felt myself sway a little. His eyes narrowed, lips pursing in sudden concern, but I shook my head to let him know I was fine.
"He's…"
I couldn’t continue that thread of thought, but Luke knew what I wanted. He took a step closer to me, nodding.
"He's gone, Elda. I don’t know what he did to you, or what you wanted from him. You were right, your intel. He was dumb enough to meet up with the General a week after I stood him up." He finished that last bit with a wry twist of his lips. "I guess he thought I would play loyal dog till the end."
"And they're both…"
"Dead," he finished, taking a step closer.
The man I'd been after for the past four years, and he was gone without me being there, after all the effort I put into it. I was glad he was gone, that was the end goal and I was glad, though I probably shouldn’t be quite so happy that a man was dead.
But Luke could have at least told me he'd be there.
Chapter 23
Luke
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. I'd just told Elda, point blank, that I killed two old men, and she looked put out more than anything, her lower lip sticking out a little in a pout.
Any other person would have been even the tiniest bit scared. There was no remorse in my voice because I had none. I spoke of it casually because there was no other way for me to talk about it. The two were a nuisance; I was there to kill the general, but Greco just happened to be there, and he was a bastard anyway.
But Elda wasn’t exactly someone normal. In a lot of ways, she was like me.
"Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were going to move? I gave you my number for a reason." She complained.
"You're this upset because I got your kill?" I let my tone tell her I was amused.
Though I had to admit to some relief. I hadn't been sure how she'd take it. The opposite, her being disgusted with me, would have been worse. There was just no way to be positive what her exact plans for Greco were. But she'd said she was a hit woman, meaning she was in the same boat as me, so she must have made some kills herself, so I'd made an educated guess. If all she wanted was to talk, she could have found a way at the wedding, but she hadn't.
"Well, you had whatever you had with the general, and I had my own beef with Greco. Yes, Luke, I would have been grateful if you'd told me and not taken my kill."
She didn’t sound mad, just a little irked. I took another step closer.
It felt like it had been ages since I'd seen her, even though it had only been a week. She was dressed simply in black pants and a black T-shirt that molded to her form. Her feet were bare against the floor, with her hands, neck and face, the only skin showing in her outfit.
She was too hard to resist.
I was also probably still riding on the adrenaline. But I could feel my body grow hot at having her near. I wanted her, badly, and the time apart hadn't changed that. If anything, it made me want her more.
I knew I had things to think about, to plan. I'd just killed two people. I'd gotten rid of the evidence, rushed but thorough. I wiped down the gun and passed by the police precinct, being sneaky about dropping it outside, then walking around for a bit to be sure I wasn’t getting tailed. I drove the car back to the owner's place, wiped down whatever I touched, and walked again for a while before getting a cab that dropped me off four blocks away, then walked to the hotel.
Shit was going to hit the fan when the two bodies were found and identified, and I had to be out of the area by then, get my shit packed and my ass on a plane out the country.
But all I had on my mind just then was her.
She seemed to notice my preoccupation, frowning at me.
"Is sex all you can think about?"
But she still didn’t sound annoyed.
Because Elda no longer needed to kill Greco, she was free, much like I was. We both had the time to spare.
My smirk just grew wider as I saw her the heat build in her eyes. I stepped forward at the same time she did, and we met each other in the middle. I wrapped my arms around her waist, hers going around my neck, our lips meeting and molding together. She sighed into my mouth as I kissed her softly, groaning and pushing into me when I hardened the kiss, slipping my tongue into her mouth, rolling it around hers, tasting the inside of her mouth.
I pulled back when we both had to breathe, and met her eyes.
"Well," she said breathlessly. "I guess you're a smarter man than I thought. Way to keep your priorities straight."
There was a hint of teasing in her tone, and I laughed, breathlessly.
"I try."
I reached for her clothes as she reached for mine. Getting undressed while we both tried to keep our mouths locked was a bit of an adventure, but we eventually managed. Then we were stumbling onto the bed. She pushed me back for a moment long enough to get some condoms from the nightstand.
"Planning for some company, baby?" I arched an eyebrow.
She just grinned back. "Well, I was hoping you'd call me before I left. I did leave you with my number for a reason. Do you want to use them, or not?"
I didn’t respond, just tugged her back and wrestled her under me. I kissed her mouth, then pulled away to kiss down her neck, onto her breasts. I took first one, then the other nipple in my mouth, teasing the peaked tip with my tongue, scraping the buds with my teeth, then sucking lightly. Elda just moaned and writhed under me, her hands in my hair directing me when she wanted attention on her other breast. Neither of us was in any hurry to get off, so we took our time.
But I wanted to taste her. Again. She'd gone down on me, and I wanted to reciprocate for her. Again. So, after a while, when her nipples were swollen dark and I felt they'd gotten enough attention, I teased down her stomach. I kissed her skin, added an occasional nip. I licked inside her navel, and she moaned and arched into me. I reached under her thighs, shouldering them apart and grabbing her by the hips. I stuck my nose in the curls at the juncture of her thighs, closing my eyes as I breathed in, deep. Her hands were still in my hair, nudging me lower.
"Please."
I pulled back, glanced up at her and met her eyes. I used the flat of my tongue, licked up the length of her sex, ending with the tip of my tongue pressing into her clit. I did it again, and then more, watching her come apart, reveling in it.
It got to me as much as it did her. I was hard, humping the mattress to get some friction on my hard dick, moving my hips slow so I wouldn't go overboard and come on the sheets. Then I stiffened my tongue, slid it inside her body, thrusting nice and slow. One finger, then two, joined my tongue, and I worked her slowly. I pulled my tongue out of her as I added a third finger, wrapping my lips around her clit and started a rhythmic sucking, matching
it to my fingers thrusting inside her, teasing her with the tip of my tongue.
She didn’t last.
I watched her orgasm hit, felt her inner walls clamp down on my fingers, her body shuddering as she cried out. I didn’t stop, letting her orgasm go on for as long as it could. I stopped when she slumped back into the bed, pulling my fingers out and licking at the wetness. I kissed her hip and then got up on my knees between her thighs.
Elda looked up at me with a satisfied expression that left me pleased and made me harder than granite. I reached for the condoms, removed one from the strip and tore at it with my teeth. I sat back on my heels, smoothing it down my cock. I gave a couple of strokes, just looking at her body, and then gripped around the base of my cock, pulled down on my balls, driving back the need to come. I didn’t release until I was sure I wouldn’t embarrass myself.
I lifted her hips, rested her ass on my thighs as I sat back on my heels, and then positioned the head of my cock at her entrance. I didn’t thrust inside her immediately, sliding my cock up her sex, teasing her clit with the head of my cock, then moving down only to do it again. I repeated the motions until she was squirming under me. Then I nudged the head at her entrance, moving until the tip was barely inside, then pulling back.
"Luke."
I shivered when she said my name on a moan, and my cock twitched.
"Fuck!"
Dirty Indiscretions: A Dark Mafia Romance Page 9