Asolomission.
Foreign words drifted around me as I looped through the heart of the Cosa Nostra. I adjusted the sleeves on my catering outfit and stepped into the shadows of the Amato family’s brownstone.
If I ever doubted the Pakhan wanted me dead, this mission had erased all doubts.
The Pakhan had ordered me to kill Selene Amato, the wife of the most prominent mafia don in the city. According to the rumors, Selene’s husband Sebastiano had tortured his own brother, andsmiledwhile he watched him choke on his own blood. All because Sebastiano’s brother had dared to hurt his wife.
If Sebastiano did that to his own family, I shivered to think what his retribution would be if he caught a whiff of what I was planning. And it wasn’t like his wife was some pushover, she’d murdered plenty of people herself.
Of course, the Pakhan hadn’t ordered me to take her out in a neutral area where I could flee. No, he’d sent me into a den of lions who would trap me the moment they realized the Italian mafioso’s wife was in danger.
It’d take a miracle for me to survive the night…
And the Pakhan had made it clear that to fail this mission meant a prolonged death at his men’s hands.
It was a relief that Dmitri had been assigned to a separate mission. At least, one of us had a chance at surviving this competition.
Okay, let’s be real, Dmitri wasdefinitelysurviving his own mission. When it came to him, I couldn’t think of a single weakness. He probably was already done with it, boredly waiting for everyone else to finish up.
While subtly eying the exits I doubted I’d have the chance to use, I followed behind someone else wearing an identical catering outfit. When we entered the formal dining room, I fingered the poison in my pocket that I was planning to sneak into Selene’s dinner.
When I spotted Selene and Sebastiano Amato sitting at the head of the table, I nearly cracked the vial in half. But it wasn’t Sebastiano’s alert expression as he skimmed the room that alarmed me.
No, what was constricting my throat was the sight of Selene cradling her swollen belly.
My target was pregnant.
Verypregnant.
I bit down hard on my cheek as I realized I’d been sent on a truly impossible assignment. In my entire life, I’d only ever failed one important mission. The one that had resulted in my brother’s death….
Breathe.
I could hear Dmitri’s commanding tone in my mind, and somehow it calmed me. More than anything, I wished Dmitri was actually here. That he could tug me in close, and I’d listen to his steady breaths until it was all I could hear.
But I was on my own.
I followed another caterer further into this monstrously vast house.
“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked with a forced smile.
“There’s one in there,” he said.
He nodded towards the ajar door of a guest bedroom, and I forced one foot in front of another.
I locked myself in the room’s en-suite bathroom then laid my head against the cool marble tiles encompassing the walls.
Breathe.
Even though I desperately needed to stay focused on the present, memories of the last assignment before my brother died turned the room dim.
Two Years Ago
A toddler with a wide gap between his baby teeth was giggling as he hid in the department store from his mother. She was too busy checking her phone to even notice he’d left her side.
“Alisa,” my brother’s voice reverberated into my microscopic earpiece. “This is your opportunity. His mom isn’t even paying attention.”
Nausea burned my stomach as I stared at the boy. In my lifetime, I’d killed a lot of people and had eventually become numb to it.
