LEROI
I leave Seraphine writhing on the bed, trembling with frustration. She glares at me, her face reddening with each passing moment. I can’t help but feel a sadistic thrill from working her to the brink of orgasm and then denying her release.
“Please,” she whispers, sounding as helpless as she did when I found her in the basement.
My steps falter, only for a second, before I remind myself that beneath that sweet and delicate exterior is a young woman who could slit a man’s throat for having the wrong friends or gouge his eye for leering.
Seraphine must be tamed.
I step out of her room, confident she won’t be able to release herself from the binder. Nor will she be able to get off with her hands secured behind her back.
My phone rings, and I stride to where I left it on the dining table. It’s a call from Rita, the firm’s coordinator, who informs me that an assassin we employ has completed a job out of state.
Rita has been in the firm since before Anton retired. She’s a sweet woman in her sixties who crochets while accepting phone calls on contract kills. She also handles customer satisfaction.
“Someone wants to open a contract to avenge Frederic Capello,” she adds.
My nostrils flare. No one I left alive should be able to afford our rates. Keeping my voice even, I reply, “Oh?”
“Did you hear that a gunman wiped out the entire family this week?”
“He wants revenge?”
“Seems that way,” she says. “He wants us to track down the killer and bring him to a specific place alive.”
I pause, my jaw hardening. “We’re not bounty hunters.”
“That’s what I told him.” She chuckles. “But he’s willing to pay a million to find the killer. That’s why I’m passing on the inquiry to you.”
Shit.
This is why I thought long and hard about striking at the Capellos. Whoever’s after their killer won’t give up if we refuse. He’ll just give the job to one of our competitors, and I’ll have another reason to watch my back.
“Did he leave a name?”
“Of course, not.”
“Send me all the details,” I say. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Will do.” Rita hangs up.
I open the surveillance app and scroll to the cameras in Seraphine’s room. She’s still wiggling from side to side, trying to create some friction, but it’s no use.
A frustrated scream sounds from behind her door, making me smile. I call Miko, who answers in one ring.
“Leroi?”
“Did you find anything useful in those files?”
He blows out a long breath. “Actually, there’s a lot.”
“I’m coming over.”
Less than half a minute later, I’m in the apartment next door. It has only one bedroom compared to the three I have in mine, and a smaller living area with an open-plan kitchen. Miko has covered every wall in bookcases laden with volumes of manga and action hero figurines.
“What did you find?” I cast my gaze over his twin desks, one with an oversized monitor for playing video games and the other laden with the stolen drives where he sits, surrounded by more monitors.
“Enzo Montesano was a predator.” He shudders. “I found video footage of him with underage girls.”
“Shit.” I rub the space between my brows, wondering how the hell Uncle Enzo could have kept something like that a secret. “How young?”
He shrugs. “Fifteen, sixteen. I didn’t look too closely.”
Enzo was my father’s first cousin, and I grew up seeing him almost every day. He wasn’t known for keeping secrets, which was why his wife yelled at him every day about his blonde mistress. Perhaps the woman was a cover-up for his true depravity.
“That explains how Capello took control of his empire. He blackmailed him.”
“True.” Miko spins around in his office chair. “I know you’re friends with his sons. Do you think they might also—”
“Roman, Cesare and Benito aren’t anything like their father,” I say. “Did you find anything on the DA or the judge?”
“Take a look.”
The monitor fills with clip after clip of the same man snorting coke, screwing hookers, and accepting a stack of bills from Capello.
“This is damning,” I say, my voice low. “What about the judge?”
“Here.” Miko opens a thumbnail, bringing up footage of an overweight man with gray hair. He’s naked, on his hands and knees, being spit roasted by two clothed men.
I jerk my head away from the sight. “Is he married?”
“Yes, but it gets worse.”
“How?”
“These guys.” Miko points at the two men, bringing my attention back to the clip. “They’re bank robbers who won their appeal in his court. Looks like they’re paying him off.”
“Fuck.” I shake my head. “Forward those clips of the judge and DA to Benito Montesano.”
With some dragging and dropping and a few clicks of a mouse, Miko sends the email. He turns to me and frowns. “What about the information Capello had on their father?”
“They don’t need to know that,” I say.
Miko’s frown deepens.
“Enzo is dead, and Capello framed one of his sons for murder and made the other two suffer enough. Telling them their father was a pervert helps no one. If you identify any of those girls, send me their names and addresses. I will use my share of what we earned from the Capello job to pay for their therapy.”
He bows his head.
“Any problems?” I ask.
“We always go fishing after a big job.”
I suppress a sigh. “This one has come with an unexpected complication.”
He hesitates for several heartbeats, looking like he’s trying to muster up the courage to speak. “That girl you saved…”
“What about Seraphine?”
“Are you going to move her into an apartment like you did with me?”
“Eventually,” I say with a smile. “But she’s going to need a little extra help.”
He nods.
“Is there anything else?”
“I want to learn how to use a gun.”
“Why?”
“I’m tired of being behind the scenes. I want to help you out in the field.”
Pressure builds up behind my eyes, feeling like the beginnings of a headache. Letting him sift through those files was probably a mistake. Miko doesn’t have what it takes to look into a man’s eyes and pull the trigger.
“I brought you here because I wanted you to have a better life. Not to train you to become a killer.”
His gaze drops to the floor. “But I want to help.”
“You do. You’re the best hacker in the business, and you can put together explosives better than any demolition expert. Without your technical know-how, I would never have been able to complete the Capello job.”
“But I want to kill people,” he says. “Up close, like you.”
“Murder isn’t something to aspire to.”
He stares up at me, his blue eyes hardening. “You were doing it when you were younger than me.”
“I had no choice.”
Miko looks away, his jaw twitching. “Maybe if I killed my stepfather like you did, I’d be a hitman like you.”
My head pounds. Miko already knows my story. It’s not so different from his. We both had reckless mothers and abusive stepfathers, but I had a younger sister to protect. When I found that bastard on top of her, I grabbed his gun and shot him in the temple.
He didn’t die immediately. I left him to spend hours lying in a pool of his blood, gasping for air. When my mother finally sobered up, she called her cousin Anton and screamed at him to take me away.
Anton taught me never to miss. We practiced with paint pellets at first, and one day, without telling me, he switched the blanks to bullets.
That’s how I became Anton’s protégé and then his successor.
“You’re right,” I say. “Shooting my stepfather was my first step to becoming a murderer. But I don’t want the same life for you.”
“Isn’t that my decision?” he asks.
“Something happens to a person once they’ve made their first kill,” I say. “I don’t regret what I did to save my sister, but murdering strangers for money changes you, and not for the better.”
His posture slumps, and he stares straight ahead at the computer. “I just want to be useful.”
I place a hand on his shoulder. “If you want to work full time in the firm as an analyst, I can make that happen.”
The corner of his lips lifts into a smile. “You could?”
I nod. “Murder isn’t the only way to help us. If you’re that keen to learn how to use a gun, I can take you for target practice.”
“Sure,” Miko says, his eyes bright. “I want to be able to give back.”
“We’ve had this conversation before,” I say, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “The only thing I want from you is to be happy.”
He dips his head, his smile widening, and his cheeks turning pink. “I… Uh, finished the research you wanted on Capello’s guards. He’s been paying them out of the same account for decades, so I found the names of the recipients and cross-referenced their information with public records and with photos I downloaded from the DMV.”
“Can you filter the ones who were in his employment from six years ago until today?”
All traces of the shy young man vanish, replaced by the confident professional. “There’s twenty-four. Three are in prison, five died in the past five years, and seven died during our explosions.”
I nod. “Making twelve left alive?”
“Yeah.”
“Send me files on all twenty-four and identify the deceased.”
He makes a few clicks. “Done.”
“Excellent work.”
“Got a minute to play a game?” he asks.
My gaze flicks down to my phone. I’m tempted to check on Seraphine, but I shake my head. “Not tonight, Miko. Got my hands full.”
“Another time?” he asks, his voice flat.
“Definitely.” I rise to my feet and give him a pat on the back. “One more thing. Rita got a call from someone who wants a hit on the lone gunman who killed Capello.”
His head whips up. “Seriously?”
“He’s willing to pay a mill for the job.”
His jaw drops. “I hope she said no.”
“I accepted the mission,” I reply with a smirk. “As soon as the deposit clears, do what you can to research the person who wants me dead.”
“Of course,” Miko says, his voice trembling.
“Don’t worry. I plan on eliminating this new client before he knows what’s coming. Now, get some rest.”
I walk out of his apartment faster than normal, eager to know how Seraphine is coping with her punishment.
