Page 97 of Dangerous King
Stephano's father, Gustave, is a bit more old-school. I don't think he's a fan of human trafficking, but as long as he doesn't have his fingers in it, he doesn't mind the payout. Now, I'm not sure that if hedidorder the hit, that Stephano would necessarily tell us… but that's another bridge to cross.
"I don't think Carlos is smart enough to pull something like that off." Marcello's purposeful reference to his father by his first name doesn't escape my notice; I expect he's trying to make the obvious rift between them clear to us. "He's too busy trying to save his own hide from going to jail. But I'll check into it."
"Someone with deep pockets, motive, and opportunity, not only hired Ledyanoy Prizrak to kill Kingsley, but also to take my sister and make it look like Giovanni was responsible. They were smart enough to know that I would kill Giovanni for it." I theorize. "They were going to blame a dead man for the fallout of a dead senator."
"There's one flaw in this." Marcello points out. I look at him questioningly, and he continues, "Your sister was takenbeforeKingsley was killed."
Stephano disagrees, "Maybe Ledyanoy Prizrak was going to finish the job on Kingsley that night, or the next day, but having Kingsley detained by you," he grins at me, "put a little damper into their plans."
"Possible," Marcello agrees. "Plausible enough not to disregard it just yet. Either way, this is way too sophisticated for my old man to pull off. Besides, he wouldn't pay a billion dollars for a hit; he would order one of our enforcers to do it. No matter how messy."
"Plus, he's still trying to win Edoardo's favor back," Stephano agrees, "he wouldn't risk another fallout so soon after killing Jacomo."
I contemplate telling them that for the same reason, Toni is out. He wouldn't want to incur Edoardo's or La Famiglia's wrath right now, not while he's waiting for an opportunity to take Carlos out. I decide against it. For now. I might bring it up if they start contemplating Toni.
"Why Giovanni though?" Marcello's eyes move back to Kingsley without seeing him.
"What do you mean?" Stephano asks.
I get Marcello's drift. "Whoever ordered this could have picked anybody in our family. My dad, your dad," I look at Stephano, "hell, they could have blamed it on Toni or Carlos."
"For Edoardo or Toni, it would have been easier to blame Carlos," Marcello nods.
"Someone in the Giordano family, then." Stephano looks at Marcello and me, and all three of us have the same thought.
"Roberto."
As the heir to the Giordano family, he has the most to gain. He would be the capo, and he wouldn't lose his revenue if Kingsley were dead."
"Possible." I nod.
"Let's not lose sight of how hard it is to hire Ledyanoy Prizrak.Someone needs a lot of connections to get him to do a job." Stephano points out.
Marcello curses under his breath. "What the fuck have we stumbled into?"
"Not stumbled," I say. "They want something. And they're using us to get it."
Marcello mutters, "Shit. I hate chess."
Stephano lets out a slow, harsh breath. "And now Ledyanoy Prizrak came back to finish the job to kill Kingsley."
Marcello rubs his face once, then gestures toward Kingsley, who's now pacing in muttering circles. "The bastard used an EMP. The chaos of not having any communication brought Kingsley's bodyguards together. A grenade took them out and opened the door to the penthouse for him. My men were in the other suite; as soon as the commotion started, they came out. They startled Ledyanoy Prizrak enough that they had time to open fire before he made it into Kingsley's suite. He got two of my men before he finally turned tail. You want to know how?"
The expression on Marcello's face is filled with admiration and rage, raising my curiosity. He's shaking his head, as if he still can't believe it. "He used a fucking glass breaker charge."
Since arms distribution falls into my specialty, I know exactly what aglass breaker chargeis and that it is only used by Special Forces. "Fuck!" I exclaim, looking at Stephano.
"I'm already on it. If this bastard was Special Forces for any nationality. I'll find him."
"Then he jumped out of a fifty-first-floor window using a fucking parachute," Marcello finishes fuming.
"Like some fucking action flick move," Stephano adds, not even hiding his admiration for the assassin.
Marcello glares at the floor. "He went there to take Kingsley down."
I pull out my phone and march over to Kingsley, grabbing him by his pretentious ascot and shoving the phone with Ledyanoy Prizrak's image in his face. "Who is this?"
"The fuck? Get off me," Kingsley declares.
