“What do you have for me?”
“You not like. Team I hire dead. They went for LaSalle’s son first. No success,” he says as he hangs his head.
I growl and swipe at glass on counter, knocking to floor. Glass shatter as it hits floor beside my feet. Balling my fist, I try to calm as my chest heaves. Killing little boys shouldn’t be so hard.
They are not like parents. They can’t fight back. Failure is last thing I expect to hear. It is unacceptable.
I palm my head as headache returns with vengeance. It barely started to go away. Now feels like drums play in head.
“Why can’t anyone get job done? LaSalle has little boys and oldest is far from problem.”
“I did not get full story. No one survived to tell what happened,” he murmurs.
“What now?” I bite out.
“You want a son from each of them, da? May I make suggestion?”
I sigh heavily. “Da, go on.”
“I call in favor. I have a friend who knows Ne Nash. Kiyoshi Matsumara-Nash’s only son. He one of them.
“Friend can get close and take him out. I work on finding new crew to handle your other request. I have someone soon. I did not spend everything on last hit.”
“Da, da. This is good. Go with plan. And that bitch, how soon will you bring her to me?”
“She is on run. I don’t have as many men as I used to. It’s taking time to get to her.”
I growl, getting pissed off and frustrated all over again. None of this is what I want to hear. Every day I am reminded of all I have lost—because of her, because of bullshit.
I should have made them all pay sooner. I never should have let that bitch get away. None of those mistakes will happen again.
“Find her and bring her to me. Take another million for search. I want her found.”
“Save your money. I have a better idea when it comes to her,” Miroslav says.
“Oh really? And what is that?”
“You know her poison. Dangle what she can’t resist in her face and she will come.”
A smile slowly comes to my face. I should have thought of this myself. I take a deep, cleansing breath to relax and think. He is right.
“Da, you are right. I haven’t lost yet. We do this, but we do on my time. I will go to handle this one on my own.”
“I figured you would say that. I will make arrangements for when it is time.”
Tasha
“You look good.I was getting worried about you,” Val says as she pulls me into her embrace.
I pull away with a smile on my face, then run a hand through my new haircut. I had it cut into a bob that stops just below my chin. It now looks healthy and is full of body.
Today I have it curled to show off all the body, layers, and bounce. I’m wearing one of LaSalle’s white dress shirts with a belt around the waist and thigh-high black leather heeled boots that made the man growl in my ear with promises of a steamy evening once our children are in bed tonight.
I smile at the thought as I reply to Val. “Girl, that spa day saved my life.”
“Uri told me about that. I love that boy more with each passing day. Uri was tickled when he asked him to help plan that day for you and LaSalle.”
“You guys are the ones who helped him? I was wondering about that.”
