Page 20 of Deception

Then again. Definitely knocking.

Who the fuck would be knocking on our door at 4:00 a.m.?

In the middle of the mountains. In the middle of a blizzard.

Grabbing a shard of the broken pot on the floor as a weapon, I creep toward the door, every muscle poised and ready to strike. At least, as well as I can with enough booze in me to knock out a horse.

The house tips slightly as I reach for the frame.

One more knock bangs against the wood, startling me. I yank it open a crack.

And there she is.

Standing on our porch with her arms wrapped around herself, shivering.

The beauty from the bar.

5

ISABELLA

“Adrink for the lovely lady?”

“No thank you, I'm fine.” I smile, shaking my head.

Another bar, another small town. This is the last one on my trip. Not only is it getting old, my funds are getting low.

Bankrolling my own private vendetta against the Diamantes is wearing me thin, but with the last tip I got placing Alessandro Diamante at that private airport in France, I couldn't resist. I pulled out all the stops, called in every favor I could.

My brother had contacts at Interpol, and his best friend Lucius was able to send me the photo of him at the airport. They’ve apparently been monitoring the Diamantes for a while, but without any real evidence, that’s all they can do.

Watch.

But an independent contractor, well, I can do things they can’t. Or won’t.

It only took a relatively heavy amount of guilt-tripping Lucius to give me the info.

Still, the trail kept running cold after I made it back into Italy, to a little town where I found clues in the public record of a holding dating back three generations to a cousin of Quinto Diamante, Alessandro’s great grandfather.

Two other little villages were contenders for my last-ditch effort, but this one seemed the most likely.

Now, it’s a matter of thinking I see him every time a tall, broad-shouldered, or remotely good-looking Italian man walks by me.

The two photos I have are decent but leave a lot to be desired for IDing someone.

How this guy has managed to go nearly his entire thirty-something years of life in the digital age without a fingerprint or current photo onlinesomewhereis beyond me. I guess that’s one of the benefits of being a member of one of the most powerful families in the world.

And a mob boss.

That little tidbit is still tied to a lot of speculation.

Lucius dropped another hint that a war is brewing between various players in the criminal underworld, and that they are on high alert. Mostly I think he was trying to warn me to steer clear of this situation, and to quit bugging him for info.

He’s not wrong.

I’m poking around in dangerous places, looking for dangerous people.

And I only have a vague idea of what I am going to do when I find him. My mother would absolutely kill me if she knew.

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