Page 69 of Assassin's Heart
Leah’s father had the original chip, hidden in a secret safe deposit box, but Eli had already set up a mass e-mail list with copies.
I leaned closer. “Of course, you would be facing those charges alone, since every member of your family would be dead before you could blink. Don’t think we could do it?” I shook my head. “Neither did your team in Atlanta. Or your security here. Think about that.”
Fiori’s eyes closed tight. I should’ve been pleased with the frustration on his face, the realization that he was out of options. I wasn’t. I wanted to kill the fucker, but Levi was right—the mob was a hydra; cut off one head and three more popped up. No, the only way to keep Fiori from retaliating against Leah’s family was to hold something over his head.
When this night was a distant memory? That’s when I would get what I truly wanted, when it could no longer be tied to Leah.
“So what do you say, Sonny?” I nodded toward the woman in his bed. “Want to keep up your whoring and drug dealing and money laundering and, I don’t know,living? Or should we take care of this now?” I brought the knife to his fat neck and waited.
Fiori pressed himself back into the headboard, shaking his head vigorously.
“No?” I wagged the knife at him. “Is that no deal, no, you don’t want to keep living?” The tip of the KA-BAR tapped the man’s cheek. “Or no, don’t kill me here and now, before we slit your throat?”
“Don’t forget the castrating,” Levi threw in.
“Who would want to forget that?” I cocked a brow at our captive. “What’s your answer?”
Fiori dipped his eyes down, indicating the gag. Sliding the knife under the cloth where it lay on his cheek, I tugged. The knife cut through the gag like it was butter.
Fiori choked. “Don’t hurt me. Don’t.”
“So we have a deal?”
He nodded jerkily, eyes on the knife. “We have a deal.”
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Leah—
Dad had turned the scraps of a napkin from the coffee supplies into a match game. Brooke was currently studying the blank squares, tongue peeking from between her lips, trying to determine which scrap to turn over to match the star she’d already found. My father’s gaze was riveted on her. Was he remembering all the times we’d sat around the kitchen table after dinner and played games just like that? Half of our family was gone now, half of the people who’d sat around that table and shared their lives, their joy. Watching my family now, I felt my chest go tight and tears prick the backs of my eyes.
“She’s really taken to him,” Elliot said, coming up beside me. The team didn’t know everything about my past, but they did know my dad had met Brooke for the first time only a couple of days ago.
“She has.” I glanced to the far end of the suite where King, Saint, and Dain were packing up the team’s equipment. “I can’t thank you all enough for keeping her safe for me.”
Elliot grinned. “For me, with Sydney at home, this was a tame assignment. For them”—she gestured to the men—“it was good practice. Dain’s baby will be here in, like, six weeks. He needed some kid exposure. The other two needed practice babysitting.”
I hadn’t realized Dain’s wife was pregnant. As the team lead and the oldest of the four, I’d have figured he was past the baby-making stage, but then again, the man’s dark, sexy eyes had the kind of intensity that could probably impregnate a woman from fifty yards away, so...
Remi was twenty-nine, he’d said. How did he feel about having kids in his thirties or forties? How did I feel?
Was I really thinking about having more kids, with an assassin?
A hand sneaked around my waist, making me jump. Remi. I knew the second his warmth hit me, his scent filled my nose. I’d been too involved in my thoughts to notice his approach. I’d love to blame my lack of sleep last night, but no—I’d been that enthralled with thoughts of babies and Remi whirling in my head.
“Okay?” he asked.
Of course he didn’t look preoccupied. Or tired. He’d slept in the armchair in the corner of the bedroom for the early part of the evening last night, but I had awakened after midnight to the closing of our door. Knowing where he was going, I hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep until hours later when he’d snuck back in. He’d been dozing in the chair when Brooke got up at the crack of dawn. Without blinking he’d urged her into the living area, telling me to close my eyes again, but my efforts to do just that had been fruitless. There was too much I didn’t know, too much uncertainty going forward for me to relax.
Which meant I probably looked like death warmed over right now, unlike Mr. Capable.
“I’m fine.”
Remi opened his mouth, but Dain’s arrival forestalled any response he could make. Probably a good thing.
Dain indicated their equipment. “We’re ready to head out when you are. Saint has confirmed the plane is on the tarmac, prepped and waiting. Just say the word.”
