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Damian moved beside me, his voice low as he said, “A party, eh? Too bad we’re not invited.”
“A party celebrating him and Rocco might be the only way to catch them off-guard,” I said as I folded my arms over my chest. “We’ll grab our target from right under everyone’s nose.” A sigh left me. “I need to talk to Luca.”
“That boy ain’t gonna be happy about your plan. He may hate his daddy for what his daddy did to you, but being okay with what you plan on doing to him… that’s a different story.”
“It’s a good thing it isn’t up to Luca then, isn’t it?” I moved away from Damian as I pulled out my phone. I’d call Luca first, then the man who would make or break this particular plan of mine.
Luca picked up on the second ring, “Hey.”
“Hey,” I said, fighting the way his voice made me want to smile. Would this ruin our relationship? I didn’t know. Luca had said he wanted to kill his father for the things he’d done to me, but did he mean it? And would he be all right with someone else doing the job? “You’re going to get invited to a Black Hand party later. I need you to make sure you and your father go.”
“Oh, uh, okay. Sure thing.” When I didn’t say anything else, Luca added, “Is something wrong?”
A heavy kernel of anxiety had formed in my stomach, a ball of stress. I’d started to care for Luca, so I didn’t want this to be our breaking point. “Are you alone right now?”
“I am, why? What’s… what’s this really about?”
“Let’s just say Rocco’s on borrowed time, and once he’s gone, you’ll take his place on the Hand. Miguel will try to—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean? What are you…” It must’ve hit him right then. “You’re planning something, something at the party. You’re not going to be there, are you? I don’t think it’s smart of you to—”
“It’s not going to be me. It’s going to be someone else.”
“Cade?” Logically, he went to the guy whose family was full of assassins.
“Not Cade.”
Luca was silent for a while, and I wished I could see his face so I could better know what he was thinking. If he was upset, if he was mad, or if he was accepting of what was going to happen. “Is it going to be fast?”
Was Rocco’s death going to be quick and painless? We both knew the answer to that, and that was why I whispered, “What do you want me to say?”
“Lie to me.”
“Yes, it’s going to be fast. It’ll happen so fast he won’t even know it’s happening. It’ll be like going to sleep, quick and painless.”
Luca listened to me go on and on, not once daring to interrupt my extravagant lie. It was only when I was finished that he whispered, “Liar.” His response caused a smile to spread on my face, and it was as if he knew it, because he went on, “Do what you have to do, but beyond this, for this part at least, I don’t want to know any more.”
When it came to Miguel, he’d help, but when it came to his father he’d turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it. I could respect his decision. Even though Rocco was a dick of massive proportions, he was still his father.
“I understand. I’ll talk to you later, Luca.” When I ended the call, Damian was behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Can you not sneak around like… like a—” I couldn’t think of something that sneaks.
Damian ignored me and moved around me, heading to the living room, where he threw himself down onto the couch. “Your boy took that reasonably well, I’d say.” He picked up his feet and laid them on the coffee table. “Who’s next? Wait, lemme guess: that priest. He’s good at what he does, I’ll give him that. I still don’t know what he did with the bodies of my two guys.”
I still detected a hint of annoyance; Damian did not like letting Ezekiel get away with killing two of his men, but for me, he was working on it.
He wasn’t wrong, though. Ezekiel was good at what he did. He was the best I had, too—at least for this job. I had an assassin in Cade, but Ezekiel had a way inside, being the Black Hand’s priest. He’d be able to get Rocco alone, make the man put down his guard.
And then he’d strike.
I called Ezekiel next. It rang and rang, and just when I started to think he wasn’t going to answer, I heard his smooth voice on the other line, “What can I do for you?” As if he knew I wouldn’t call him just to talk.
I… I supposed we usually were straight to business. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. A man like Ezekiel did not beat around the bush.
Taking a page out of his book, I didn’t waste any more time. I told him exactly what I wanted him to do for me, where to do it, and even gave some suggestions how he could pull it off.
What I was asking of him, it wasn’t an easy task. Downright impossible, for most people. But Ezekiel was on his own level, and he’d once told me all I’d have to do was ask for his help, and he would do everything in his power to help me.
Well, here I was, asking for his help, and when I was done, Ezekiel said three words. Just three words, and yet they filled me with such warmth.
