Page 81 of Shark Bait

The bootsteps pause, but then continue even faster.

“Shark!” I shout. I know he heard me, and he’s leaving without saying goodbye. But I have things I want to say to him. Like I want to tell him I love him and that I’ll marry him when he comes back from the mission. And I also want to tell him to say hi to Denver for me and tell my brother I’m okay and explain why I can’t see him even though I love him too. And my parents need to know I’m okay, and they need to know I’m sending love too.

I make it to the top and follow the chopper noise to a door at the end of the hallway. When I swing it open, Alessio is facing me and blocking my way. I try to move him, but that’s not gonna happen, and I’m too pregnant to squeeze past him, so I ball my hands into fists and hit him in the chest. Once, twice, three times.

The third time, he traps my hands by the wrists. I struggle against him as the chopper lifts off.

“Shark, you bastard. You can’t leave like this! You hear me? Shark! Shark!Miro!”

TWENTY-EIGHT

LA FALENA

SHARK

La Falena, or the Moth, manages one of the most prominent hotel chains on this side of Europe, which gives him the luxury of living in said hotels where the staff and customers constantly move in and out of his vicinity. This creates human traffic high enough that nobody really remembers anybody. It means that even if people had seen Troy, they wouldn’t have suspected a thing.

Since the hotels host many events for wealthy people who value their privacy above all else, the staff at the hotels prioritize privacy. If they violate it, they risk their jobs and sometimes even a chance at getting hired anywhere else in the industry.

This is because Venice, while a large city, is also a village where drama spreads quickly. With social media and artificial intelligence invading our privacy now more than ever, it’s easier for con artists and kidnappers to hide victims from sight in places where privacy is a priority. They can hide people in upscale hotels because most guests demand secrecy.

While I’m certain the hotel staff saw Troy when she stayed at the hotel, they are sworn to protect guest privacy. They probably thought she was the man’s girlfriend or, at the very least, a younger sister sharing an apartment with him.

Fearing for her life, Troy never said a word, kept her head down, kept being compliant, and that’s how she survived. The message ofNothing to see herewas loud and clear.

During my ordeal earlier in my life, I survived much the same way as she has. The difference between her and me is that I knew from the start I was biding my time until God or the universe sent me a sign. Alessio arrived as my avenging angel. All I’m doing now is paying forward the favor that karma bestowed upon me when she sent Alessio.

But I’m no angel. Not even an avenging one. On the contrary, I’m aware of where I’m going after this life, which is precisely why I need to ensure those who wronged me and mine are already waiting for me down in hell.

La Falena will wait for me there.

I don’t have time for a thorough study of my target, nor do I have time for an elaborate stakeout so I can note the patterns of others around him. It would take me a day to find the best building across from the hotel and another day to secure a room. I also don’t plan to walk into the hotel as a guest or a plumber or some similar guise I’ve used in the past.

I’m going in as myself.

I couldn’t learn the details of his routine, if he has any, but while I prepared for the mission, Alessio gathered some data from whatever sources he could uncover on short notice.

La Falena arrives in the room from working all day at around six in the afternoon. Usually, he rests until about nine, at which point he starts to get restless, looking for his fix. It arrives in the form of a hired human, a woman or a man, sometimes both.

But he’s not always in the mood for sex.

Sometimes, he likes to drown his body in alcohol the same way a frat boy might during college rush week. The man ends up hugging the toilet by the end of the night.

On weekends, he snorts powder.

Gambles when he feels like it too.

Every night, this man indulges in pleasure. His vice changes, but the need for it stays the same. I couldn’t predict La Falena’s choice this evening. If I could, I would deliver it and walk in on him that way.

Sneaking inside such a busy place is difficult but Alessio tapped into the intelligence network. You guessed it, Alessio collects intelligence, but it wasn’t always this way. We started out with Alessio’s knack for finance and set up the money laundering business while I eliminated liabilities.

Quickly, we realized knowledge pays well, so we started to pay people for what they knew. Then we hired assets, like Tatiana, and like the security guard walking down the hallway of the last floor of the hotel, the same hallway La Falena will use to arrive at his room.

The guard (name’s Igor, if you must know) has two wives. One local and the other from my old country. I bumped into him in Sweden when he was looking for a job. He seemed desperate enough to accept my offer to work in Naples on the docks when some shipments came that I needed quietly unloaded.

During his stay in Naples, he met wife number two and got her pregnant, which means he stayed with her for the next few years, only visiting with the first one who, to this day, doesn’t know her husband lives a double life.

But he knows I know about his wives, and he’s happy to do me a favor for my silence, so when I asked him to reach for his wallet and “accidentally” drop an all-access room card on the floor, Igor didn’t hesitate.

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