Page 54 of Blood in the Water
Only when he was out of the vicinity did the other Italian soldiers start to move. While I was still stuck hiding in the side room, the rest of the Italians worked quickly to move the drugs. I grabbed a few more pictures to prove that they did have possession of my client’s missing supply. But if I didn’t get out of here soon, I would be trapped in a blazing inferno.
All too soon, I caught the smell of smoke.
At least they didn’t set explosives.
20
WYNN
When she pulled open the door to let me in, a wave of relief washed over me. I hadn’t noticed how tense I’d been the entire day until the second I saw her face.
“Hey,” she murmured as she closed the door.
“Hello.” I pushed my hair back from my eyes before shoving my hands into my pockets. They itched to touch her, and the pockets kept them secure.
“Been busy?” she asked, almost pointedly avoiding my eyes. What was wrong? Where was Caspian? I would have expected him to be breathing down my neck by now. She awkwardly picked up some plates in the living room and carried them to the kitchen. Something was… off.
“Not so much,” I responded as I followed her.
I had been busy, though. After I’d helped Ciel with his contract for the Russians, Obi had called to check-in. I’d given him the full report on my interactions with Leona—minus the attraction, of course—including her bid for a contract against Volpe. He hadn’t seemed the slightest bit surprised. I could never presume to guess what went through that man’s head, but my brotheralwaysknew more than the rest of us. He worked behind the scenes, so much so that I often wondered if he wasthe player and we were all his chess pieces moving around his board. Sometimes, it bothered me that he rarely told us as much as he expected us to tell him.
When I asked if we would take her on as a client, even if she couldn’t pay our full fee, he paused before stating that it would be up to the group’s unanimous vote.
This filled me with trepidation. As our leader, I had hoped that Obi would make the final decision. I could have convinced him, especially if he met her face to face. Obi was a strong leader. Fair. He was the most experienced of all of us, and he had the final say in our contracts. I believed he would see her plight and want to help.
But if we all needed to agree, there might be an issue.
After I hung up with him, I reached out to Ciel again, but with his contract work, he hadn’t responded yet. That wasn’t unusual, but we always returned each other’s messages within a few hours.
Ryuji, on the other hand, was going to be a problem. He was the most disagreeable of all of us. He did whatever the hell he wanted to do, and he was a stubborn bastard who cared only about money. Nobody could make Ryuji agree to something he didn’t want, not even Obi, and Ryuji would never lower our fee unless he got something out of it.
After I’d explained that this would help her and we’d be doing a good thing for a change, Ryuji had barked out a laugh, told me to go fuck myself, and then hung up the phone.
Asshole.
He would be the hardest to win over.
But we all had to agree to this if it would work, and seeing Leona’s face only made me double down on the fact that helping her was the right thing to do. And if we were blessed with this much power, why couldn’t we help someone whose power had been taken from her?
I grabbed the plates from her hands and placed them in the sink. Her eyes widened when I shoved up the sleeves of my black shirt and grabbed the sponge.
“What?”
The corner of her mouth pulled up. “Never seen an assassin do dishes before.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I eat food. I don’t like mess. Ergo, dishes.”
She leaned her hip against the counter. “Yeah, I guess you just give off such an otherworldly vibe. Platinum hair, pale skin, you almost look angelic. I forgot you still have all the same needs as a normal human.”
All the same needs indeed.I watched her from the corner of my eye as she picked at her nails and bit her lip. Lips I very much wanted to become acquainted with. Once again, I was surprised with how she made me feel. These thoughts were foreign but becoming more welcome. I needed to touch her, to understand what she made me feel. “Is everything alright? Where’s Caspian?”
When I arrived, I thought I saw a suspicious car leaving the neighborhood, but I did another loop around the block, and it was gone.
“Oh. Yeah, everything’s fine.” She hesitated momentarily, and I had seen that hesitation enough times in my targets to know she was trying to decide what to tell me. “He’ll be back soon.”
I washed the soap off the plates and sat them on the rack. “So then, why are you so anxious?”
She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you talk to the other Shadows?”
