Page 64 of Surrender

I nod anyway and lean in for a kiss. Our lips meet in what is probably our sweetest, most chaste kiss ever. I want to deepen it; I want to entice him to fuck me over the hood of the car and forget this stupid plan.

We’d probably get shot in the process, our pants around our ankles as we bled out.

I pull away and breathe deeply. “Okay. I’ll let you know once I’m ready.” I get out of the car and pop the trunk to retrieve my rifle—and various other weapons, just in case. It’s not my favorite rifle, but I’d lost that one in the warehouse explosion.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous about a mission before. Usually Corbin set things up, telling me where to go and the best place to set up for the shot. He told me the target. He handled the money.

Fuck, I’d really just trusted him with everything.

What choice did I have?

When this is all over, I’ll have to go through all the files on his computer to figure out where all the money is and if there were any open assignments and…

And maybe I’ll get up the nerve to find out who hired him to take out my family.

Maybe I’ll get up the nerve to figure out who my family was.

I push all those thoughts away as I enter the under-construction building. The fact that Silvano chose a place like this… fine, he’d chosen the Cresci docks across the street, but he must be feeling really damn secure to pick a location with an obvious sniper setup.

Either that or he wanted to be able to dump Cristiano’s body into the bay as quickly as possible.

The elevator doesn’t work yet, but the stairs are already in place, and I peek into each floor to make sure it’s empty before going on to the next one. I don’t really need to get ambushed by somebody who heard me going up.

When I’m finally as high as I want to be, I slowly walk across the floor toward the window facing the docks. As expected, it doesn’t open, but I have a glass cutter for just this reason.

I set up the rifle on its tripod and look through the scope to find the meeting spot. It’s a wide enough area that I won’t be able to easily cover all of it. I need to hope nobody starts shooting before I can take aim properly.

Fuck. It’s all going to go wrong. I can feel it.

I contact Cristiano just the same. “I’m in place, Daddy. Please stay away from the extremely exposed areas.”

“Everything is extremely exposed,” he points out in a low voice so the subvocal mic can pick up the sound.

“Yeah, well. There’s an overhang on one of the buildings that will semi-shield your head, at least.” As long as the bullet doesn’t go through the overhang, as long as the shooter isn’t angled in a way that makes Cristiano’s body an easy target.

Who am I kidding? It doesn’t even have to be a sniper. Silvano could whip out a gun and shoot him point blank.

I should shoot Silvano first, Cristiano’s preferences be damned.

I watch as Silvano’s car pulls up to the dock, and Silvano and a guard get out. I doubt that’s the entirety of their contingent, though. I’m really not happy that Peter Boyce isn’t with them.

I scan the surrounding area, trying to figure out where else I’d set up to snipe somebody on the docks. Cristiano arrives, and of course the first thing that happens is that everybody pulls out their guns.

“I can still shoot Silvano,” I say to Cristiano. I aim my rifle at Silvano. “Just get him to stand a little farther away from the other guy.”

“No,” Cristiano says, much to my continued frustration. I don’t know why he insists on going through with this. It’s not like mob men value honor and loyalty like he seems to think they do. But he won’t budge on this.

I make a frustrated sound and take aim again. If I get rid of the guard—

Wait. I spot movement on top of one of the nearby shipping containers, behind Cristiano. The guy’s got a perfect shot from there, and he’s got a gun big enough to hit.

I don’t even think. I reangle my rifle and take the shot.

The guy’s head explodes in red and falls forward.

“What the fuck?” Cristiano says. I don’t hear what else is said, but I see Cristiano diving out of the way to avoid a bullet from the guard.

I curse under my breath and re-angle the sniper rifle, but I can’t get a clean shot while Cristiano and the guard are grappling with each other. Maybe if I go for Silvano instead…

---