Page 10 of Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way)

“So I’m new to the city and a friend recommended this place I’m very interested in possibly having some kind of promotional type thing here and I was wondering if the owner might be around?”

“Well maybe I can get you a manager….”

“No no no I prefer dealing with owners as opposed to management when talking these kind of numbers you understand!”

“Sure let me see what I can do ma’am.” She took my order for another glass of wine before turning away; I watched her from the corner of my eye as she approached him and saw when the bastard shook his head and handed her his card to give to me.

Son of a …She returned with my drink and the proffered card.

” I spoke with Mr. Mancini who happens to be here tonight and he said I should pass on his business card since he prefers not to handle any business dealings this evening; but if you’d like you can call him between eight and five tomorrow.” I think she smirked at me when she said that and I felt my ire rise; how dare he try to brush me off as if I were nothing? He hadn’t even bothered to look at me when he did it the bastard. I swear I’m going to make him pay for that slight. And on that note you need to calm down girlie, what the hell happened to you? You’re acting like a jilted lover and not at all like the special agent who has been assigned to bring down a master criminal. If just one look at the man in the flesh was going to cause this much turmoil this was going to be an uphill battle. You need to calm down and start thinking like the federal agent that landed in New York this morning and not some lovesick teenybopper. That little pep talk helped to smooth my ruffled feathers just barely and I sat back in my chair as I thought of my next move, what I really wanted to do was march over there and give him a piece of my mind, insufferable jerk.

Mancini

Ball’s back in your court Cierra now what are you going to do? There was only one thing left for her to do she’d already played her hand so she couldn’t back down now, either she’d wait until tomorrow which I was pretty sure she wouldn’t do or she’d find her way to me before the night was over under this made-up guise. I could practically feel her pique from across the room she didn’t like being thwarted but too bad; if she thought I was going to be easy prey then she really hadn’t done her homework very well. I’m almost certain she did though because the bureau knew better than to send an inferior after me; each time I’d sent one of theirs back to them with his ass handed to him they’d brought out the big guns. I think I’ve been through all their best in the last eight years or so.

There was one glaring problem now though; I’ve never wanted to fuck my antagonist before. And is that all you want Hank? I ignored the annoying little voice in my head for now, whatever was going on here was going to have to wait until our business was done, until she was no longer hunting me, I hoped I could hold out for that long, something told me I was about to meet my match in more ways than one.

Here we go I guess she’s decided to make her play; let’s see how well she played the game, it could mean the difference in how things played out between us in the personal arena. I hope I wasn’t going to have to be too hard on her; I’ll just have to curtail my natural propensity for destroying anything to do with law enforcement.

“Good evening Mr. Mancini, mind if I have word?”

“Sure have a seat.”

Magnificent up close she was a natural beauty what could be mistaken for artificial enhancements from afar is actually the beauty of unblemished skin with nothing more than moisturizer I’m guessing. I let my eyes feed on her boldly, after all she was a beautiful woman she might find it strange if a player like I’ve been rumored to be didn’t show at least a minute interest. She took the chair across from me and folded her arms on the table in front of her. “So, what can I do for you Miss….?”

“Stone, Cierra Stone.”

“A name as beautiful as its owner; so tell me Miss Cierra Stone to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

“I’m not sure if your employee explained my needs to you…”

“She did; and I explained to her that I’m not interested in discussing business at this time however…”

“Yes I heard, tomorrow is better for you tell me Hank, I may call you Hank yes?”

I inclined my head and hid my smile; the little cat was showing her claws already she really didn’t like being put off.

“As I was about to say do you always disregard such lucrative business deals? If so then I don’t see how you’ve amassed your reputed wealth with such lax business practices.”

“Is that right? Okay Ms. Stone you’ve peaked my interest exactly what did you have in mind?”

I could see that threw her since she wasn’t expecting me to capitulate that easily. It was easy to since I had no plans on letting this farce go much farther but it was nice putting her through her paces.

“I’m interested in renting out your space maybe having a private party for a hundred people or so.”

I looked at her for a minute before answering, let her sweat.

“Sorry not interested.”

“Pardon?”

Oh that ruffled your feathers did it sweetheart?

“It wouldn’t be cost-effective for me to do that; I make more money in one hour than I would by renting you the space for such a small number, unless you were willing to pay the premium plus overhead, plus the fee per person not to mention the liquor charge. So you see your little venture really doesn’t hold any appeal for me.”

Chew on that agent Stone let’s see what else you have in that bag of tricks of yours, her eyes smoldered for just a second before she got it under control.

Fuck, I think the boys in Virginia had finally come up with something worthwhile, who knew they could attract such beauty? The fact that my dick was paying attention didn’t sway me though I’m going to make her work for every tidbit she took back to them.

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