Page 5 of One Secret

I roll my eyes.

I can just imagine the kind of idiocies he's constructing in his head. Some kind of quaint, domestic setup, no doubt. With a homely, tempting woman, craving my presence.

Well, the call I'd been wanting was from a woman.

But "homely" is the last thing I'd call her.

And we aren't dating.

'But I say again, Alesi.' Jaime gets back to business. 'You sure I can't give you this job? I know you're busy with the Gabriel thing but I need someone on this and it could help tide you over...?'

I resist the urge to smile.

"Tide me over…"

As if I'm hurting for cash.

I settle more comfortably into my booth and scan the lounge. Deluxe leather padding and glossy black table tops. The frames on the walls, barely lit with the evening dim, all contain pricey fine art. Each bottle behind the bar costs half the annual paycheck of your average civilian. The VIP Lounge, of which I've commandeered a corner, isn't even open without an invitation.

Killing for a living might cost you your soul but, in all other areas, it's ludicrously profitable.

And when your soul is worth shit to begin with...

That's what they call a win-win.

'I'm not dry of work,' I say into the phone.

The Machellis, for whom Jaime is my new point of contact, are not my only clients. And, even if they were, the hunt for Gabriel has kept me busy enough.

Only two men on the planet are as intent on catching the elusive killer as much as I am. And both are part of the Machelli family.

Though, one of them did die two months ago.

That's how long it's fucking taken to catch this bastard.

Giovanni Carlos had gone to his grave finally convinced that Gabriel was responsible for his son's death but without the sweet justice of seeing him hang for it.

Then again, Giovanni was a bastard by most scales of measurement so perhaps he deserved the dissatisfaction.

'The boss thinks you're fixating,' Jaime's saying.

The boss. Leon Averna. Now the new head of the Machelli crime syndicate. The other man deeply invested in Gabriel's capture and probably one of the few people in the world I might go so far as to call "friend".

'I think he wants you to cool it on the hunt for a bit,' Jaime continues.

'No longer thirsty for the blood of his brother's killer?' I ask derisively. 'The little woman must be doing him right.'

I can hear Jaime's breath shallow and then a crackling noise on the line, like he's holding onto his cell too tightly. Absently, I wonder which bit offended the loyal lapdog more: the implication against the honor of a boss he'd die for, or the remark about the Machelli's new queen?

Leon Averna met his woman, Freya, a while back but it had taken over a year for him to bring her from America to Italy. I've not seen them personally since Leon was cleared of his brother's death but general chatter now says they're happily married. Whatever that's supposed to mean these days. Expecting a kid and everything. To cap it all, Freya has been making a name for herself amongst the family, winning hearts left, right, and center. Jaime in particular is rumored to be especially loyal to her.

Curious given that the last time I'd seen them together, she'd shot him.

Only pure incompetence had saved Jaime's ear. And his head.

'You know it's not like that, Alesi,' Jaime growls down the line. 'He just wants to make sure you're not driving yourself over a line you can't come back from. Obsessions leave you unfocused on everything else.' His voice drops in a warning. 'And the Machellis don't need an unfocused hitman on the books.'

Message received.

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