Page 23 of Lovely Venom
“Spying on the mafia who traffics drugs, gambling, and whores is a master-class education,” I say proudly.
“No, we’re not killing Griffin,” Noel informs me. “I have no direct conflict with him. It’s his brother, Connor Quinlan, his second-in-command, who needs to die. Unlike every othersanemob boss, who, like you pointed out, wouldn’t kill a leader, Connor Quinlan is so fuckingpsycho and unhinged, he killed your father.”
I processkilled your father,waiting to feel something about this. Nothing. Other than palace intrigue, and wondering why a mob capo would kill a rival don without expecting retaliation.
Your father. Your father.“What happened to Levin, my father?” The words scrape from my throat.
Noel takes a seat next to me and pushes the portfolio papers away. “Your father was doing what he does best. He went to negotiate with a nightclub owner for protection money. That’s the last I saw of him alive. A few days later, we found him in the city morgue riddled with hollow points. Heandhis guards. This club is tied to the Quinlans. We assumed one of them did it.” His fingers tap the glass surface of the table. “Only Connor Quinlan is crazy enough to put a bullet in your father’s head. We don’t need proof. It adds up. We know how they operate.”
Connor Quinlan. Psycho and unhinged.
“They also blamed the Italians in a weapons deal that went horribly wrong last year and got us mixed up in an unintended war with the Vitales for months,” Valdrin adds. “It forced us to torch our armory.”
I school my expression to hide the horror churning in my stomach. “You wantmeto take outConnorQuinlan?”
Noel’s smile melts into pure satisfaction. “Who better? You’re trained. Stealth, weapons, discipline. It’s in yourblood.Your father’s blood. You have a legitimate reason for revenge.”
Dread pools in my stomach. They want me to kill one guy. A capo. It’s too easy.
“Are you lacking in hitmen?” I lean against the back of the chair. “Take him out yourself.”
“He’s elusive. Heavily guarded.” Noel returns to his side of the table.
It hits me like a bullet to the chest.
La Femme Nikita.
The Russian Sparrows.
I’m a woman.
They think I can get close to Connor in a way no one else can. But do I really want to kill a man for a father I never met? A man that my mother said was so dangerous that she hid me from him.
Even if Levin Berisha is my blood, I consider what will happen in this city if an Irish Mob capo turns up dead. The Albanians don’t hold the same clout as other families, being new and seen as interlopers.
All hell might break loose. Do I want to watch the city crack open with chaos?
Clearing my throat, I say, “And what happens after I kill Connor?”
Noel waves his hand around the penthouse. “This will be yours. I will see to it that you inherit everything. The power, the money, the title.” He lifts one brow at me. “You’ll be aprincess.”
Hearing that word again with more reality attached to it makes my head spin. “If it’s mine, why do I have to earn it?”
Noel sends a look to Valdrin, who stands off to the side, hands in his pockets.
“You have to prove you are strong enough to keep it,” Valdrin answers.
I glance around. “And with one death, this place will be mine?”
“Andmine,” Noel says in a sinister tone.
“Wait. What?”
Thekyreeyes me with daggers. “You will live here with me.”
Finally, the scam is revealed.
I’ll send you one thousand dollars if you send me a fifty-dollar gift card.
