I should have remained in my car.I’d be able to watch it better from there.
“Fuck.”Did something move behind the fence?I couldn’t tell.And I couldn’t just stroll over there without Ellie noticing.What I really needed was to be in her home, guarding her personally.
Don Manca was right.I was too emotionally close to this.Because my first thoughts after forming the desire to be inside with Ellie were not about protection at all.
Which meant I should leave.I should call for reinforcements to put on Ellie and focus on the business that brought me here.
But honestly?Business wasn’t why I came.Damn Conti, his dying wish or his stupid photo—not even all the money in the world was enough to drag me here.
Killing Ellie’s ex?Well… I should be doing that, not watching her like some pervert.My justification was simple.She’d draw him out.Sooner or later, Johnny Pornstach would want closure.Any man who fell in love with Ellie Jacobs would.It was inevitable, like the ocean tides, or death.
I smiled.He’d die all right.As I waited for the right diversion to slip out of the hiding spot I’d chosen, I plotted at least a hundred ways to murder the man who’d broken promises to my Ellie.
My heart sped up.MyEllie?
When had I claimed her?She wasn’t mine.In fact, she flew seventy-three thousand kilometers to get away from me.She cut her vacation short by three days to not see my face.
Yet, from the moment I first saw her, drunk, jilted, and belligerent, I claimed her.
There was something that sparked deep inside my chest that pushed aside every other thought and took notice.I’d been working a complicated mission.Save Mario, my best friend, from dying.That was easiest if I were the man charged with killing him.I could eliminate all the competition if I was racing for the payout.The target wouldn’t be on me.Yet being close enough to stab him was the perfect spot to trap others attempting to make the same mistake.
And then Ellie happened.She wore that damn glittery wedding gown.Its design was guaranteed to catch the eye and tantalize the senses with little glimpses of flesh.Its purpose was to scintillate a man into madness with the way it pushed her creamy breasts up to form two perfect spheres of temptation.
I blew out a breath.The nose of the black car was still in place.Whoever it was must be freezing their nuts off.March in Chicago was like a roulette wheel of weather choices.One moment sunny and mild, the next it would be icy rain driven by bitter winds.Even the nights were capricious.
The sedan’s lights came on and it pulled away.
I slipped out of the blind and circled the block to check the alley.The plows had piled up a stubborn bank of snow that had deflated into a mass of gray and black ice clinging to the wooden privacy fence.There were footprints grooved deep from tenants climbing it to reach the far corners of the bins.I ignored those.The fresher ones weren’t deep because they hadn’t had time to melt.Two stood out because they pointed the wrong way.I couldn’t gauge the size because the snow melted into ice pellets— only the shallow shape of a work shoe was visible.
The shoe-wearer’s attention wasn’t focused on the dumpsters, but instead pointed toward Ellie’s bedroom window.
My imagination placed Johnny into those indents.His beguiling baby face peeking above the slats.His spindly arms clinging to the fence in a vain attempt to pull his body over.
What the hell did she see in him?
My hand closed, imagining the knife I’d cut his throat with.Generally, I didn’t hate my targets.They were a job, nothing more.The means to a very final end.
I followed the twisted trail of marks to the pavement.One drying footprint pointed out of the alley to the street.
He’d circled the block the same way I’d come, peeked into Ellie’s bedroom window, then got in his car and left.
I stood on the mark, and angled my body to see the world from his view.Something was off.A man obsessed wouldn’t exit cleanly.Especially not one twisted enough to peek over a fence into a bedroom window.I took a second and third look at the evidence and came up with more questions than answers.
Even the answers I could form pointed toward the conclusion that this man wasn’t stalking Ellie for the obvious emotional reasons.It was too…
Professional.
Damn it.
Now I really needed to plant myself at her side.I hadn’t gotten a good look at the driver.And the car was deliberately common.Nice enough to be out of the price range of street criminals, but not ostentatious, which would attract attention.That attention to detail was something Mario would appreciate.
Johnny didn’t possess that subtlety.
I crept away and made a choice.I was damned, so I might as well enjoy the trip to Hell.
Fifteen minutes later, a car pulled into the lot.I got a message on my phone informing me of the delivery.I met the driver at the door to Ellie’s building and tipped him in cash.
Yes, that would stand out.But I wasn’t hiding anymore.I couldn’t.
