“So, from spook to mercenary?”
“Yes. My father arranged my first job. It was supposed to be a favor. I did too good a job. After that, Don Piero suggested I make it a career. My father lost his shit. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen him give Don Piero even a disagreeable look, let alone speak out against him. The money’s amazing. It feeds the adrenaline junkie I guess I’ve become. And I get to keep traveling.”
“Don’t lie to me, Vita.”
“I’m not.”
“Omissions are still lies.”
“You’re one to talk. You’ll omit plenty of shit when we talk. You’ll lie to my face and behind my back.”
“To keep you safe. To keep my family safe. To keep the people who work for us safe. Do you think I want to keep things fromyou? That any of us hide things from our women for shits and giggles? It’s not like we’re fucking every pussy we see. We’re not lying to cover up infidelity, being an addict, or being a gambler. I will never lie about how I feel about you. I will never jeopardize your safety by omitting details that can keep you alive. But yeah, I will lie about the things I do as that monster I warned you about. You know it’s not the same fucking thing. Why did you become a mercenary?”
“To fucking kill the piece of shit who killed my baby brother. I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance, but I took the job when I heard about it. Someone paid me to get the revenge I’d wanted for five years. I did that for my mother and father. They deserved their son being avenged. Six months later, I killed the man who stabbed my older brother and left him to bleed. That was a year-and-a-half ago.”
“Who were the men?”
She hesitates to tell me. I know she’s weighing her options.
“Radek Jankovic, the Serbian oligarch, killed my younger brother, Beniamino.”
When she pauses, I feel like she’s trying to brace me for what’s coming next rather than finding the nerve to tell me. I already know I won’t like it.
“Filippo was murdered by Rafael De Santos Rúiz.”
She leans away and watches me.
“You murdered my cousin.”
Chapter Fourteen
Vita
“I killed your second cousin once removed who you met twice as a toddler.”
He radiates anger, so I try to rise from his cock and his lap. His arms become a vise.
“Oh, no you don’t. You don’t drop that little bomb and run away from the explosion. My family knew it was a hit, but no one knew why. What did he have to do with your brother?”
“He was a fucking sore loser in Monte Carlo. He thought he was James Bond at the baccarat table. My brother laughed at someone’s joke about the upcoming Grand Prix and how some driver needed to pray before hitting the Circuit de Monaco. Rafael thought Filippo was laughing at him for his loss. Apparently, my brother tried to smooth things over and even left the table. But that wasn’t enough for Rafael. He followed my brother into a restroom and killed him. Your piece of shit relative fled that night and went back to Colombia to hide. Since there’s no specific extradition treaty, your government wouldn’t hand him over. It could’ve fallen under the UN Conventionagainst Transnational Organized Crime. Neither country wanted the attention. Turns out, neither did I.”
I don’t disguise the disdain I feel for Alejandro’s relative. He got what he motherfucking deserved.
I sigh, waiting for Alejandro’s condemnation, waiting for the thin thread of trust we created to snap. Instead, he runs one hand up and down my back while the other sweeps up and down my leg from knee to hip. He strokes over my ass, and it’s insanely soothing. My anger isn’t gone. It never is when I think about how I became an only child. It settles into the pit of my stomach where it can quietly fester.
“Is that why you accepted this assignment? Because I’m Raf’s relative?”
“No. That was about the money and the accomplishment.”
“What was I to you? Your white rhino?”
“Something like that.”
“You’d never be able to claim the clout in public.”
“I don’t need to. Private satisfaction is stronger than public validation for me.”
God, how I wanted to scream from the rooftops when I took out those two murderers.
