Page 30 of Assassin's Mark
How had he gotten informationon my father? I couldn’t imagine career politician Derrick Roslyn making the contact directly; it would be far too risky. “Were you surprised that a potential governor contacted you?”
Levi turned around but didn’t rejoin me at the table. “No.”
Considering what he did and the fact that powerful people invariably had enemies—or obstacles in their way—that was probably the truth.
“What surprisedme was the mark.”
“Why?”
“He was a nobody.” Levi leaned against the counter, his hands braced on the edges at his hips. What the position did for his broad, heavy chest threatened to derail my train of thought. “A trucker with no connections to organized crime, no connections to Roslyn…no connections to anything. Clean record. Liked by his employers. Just a hard-working, middle-class, strugglingtrucker. He had no family, nothing.”
“He could have hidden a crime.”
“Sure he could’ve”—Levi shook his head—“but he hadn’t. The man was squeaky clean. If someone is dirty, there’s always a hint somewhere, and I’m very good at finding it. Very good.”
“So this man wasn’t dirty. Why did my father want him dead, then?”
Another head shake. Levi stared across the room, his gray eyes unseeing. “Ididn’t know. Didn’t want to know. But I refused the contract.”
“Why?”
Levi shot me an expectant look.
Right. Never harm the innocent. A killer with a conscience. If it was true, Levi had more honor than my father had displayed in a lifetime.
“We both know how much Derrick Roslyn likes the word no.” A wry grin tilted Levi’s full mouth. “He set up a separate contract under a false name. Everyfirst meet, we always have backup. Remi was my backup.”
“And he was hit when my father tried to kill you.”
Christ. If I’d had any hope that Levi might change his mind, drop this crazy plan to ruin my father’s life, it shattered in that moment. Levi might not care about much, but his brothers? He’d die defending them—or avenging them.
My father didn’t stand a chance.
A sudden alarm blaringfrom the computer jerked Levi’s attention in that direction. Heart leaping into my throat, I stumbled out of my chair. “What? What’s that?”
Levi was already rounding the island on a run. “Fucking trouble.”
