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Archer’s voice came down the phone line. “Does this sister know anything?”
“I don’t think so. She seems completely clueless, to be honest. She came to Venice because someone sent her a cryptic note telling her to come if she wanted to know about her birth family.”
Archer sighed. “Like the notes that Alicia received.”
“Yes. Only Alicia was a member of the Society so we could protect her.”
“That didn’t help her much, though. She still ended up dead.” Archer’s matter-of-fact tone was a gut punch. Cash had been responsible for keeping Alicia safe and he’d failed.
Archer sighed as if tired of the whole topic. “It wasn’t your fault. Alicia thought she had the world by the tail. She had no idea what she was doing and despite all our warnings, she did what she wanted, and it got her killed. You need to let this go. I don’t have time for one of my men to be distracted. I want you on your game.”
“I’m fine. Not distracted but it still rankles.” He knew he should feel something for Alicia, mourn her death maybe a little. But mostly what he felt was pissed off because someone killed her on his watch.
“Yes, it annoys me as well, but she eschewed our protection. She knew she was vulnerable but she went out alone and unprotected anyway. Alicia was a beautiful but egotistical woman. She was a narcissist who always thought she was the smartest woman in the room. She wasn’t. Her hubris got her killed.”
Cash knew Archer was right, but knowing wasn’t going to bring Alicia back, and didn’t absolve the feeling that he’d failed. He did not want to fail with Riss.
“Tell me about Larissa Day,” Archer said, his voice tired.
“She goes by Riss. She is…the polar opposite of Alicia in a lot of ways. She is much more open and vulnerable. She still has that leap before you look streak that Alicia lived by but it’s more because she doesn’t know what she’s looking for honestly.”
Archer cursed. “In other words, she’s a walking victim.”
Cash barely resisted tapping a finger on the end of his nose. “Yeah, that about sums it up. I already had to haul her out of a canal and then save her from getting slashed.”
“Jesus, how long has this been going on?” Archer’s voice was quiet but cold. He didn’t yell but there was no mistaking that he was annoyed that he wasn’t being kept in the loop.
Archer ran a very tight ship and didn’t tolerate mistakes. He was called the Devil by some, and Cash and the rest of his team were the man’s monster wranglers. Even he and his teammates didn’t necessarily want to deal with him at times. They’d been known to go to great lengths to avoid their boss if he was in a mood. Being a stone-cold son of a bitch himself, Cash could hold his own and unlike most people, Archer Gray didn’t scare him. Nothing did. Not even death.
Cash snorted. “It all happened in the last twenty-four hours.”
Archer went silent for a beat. “Then whatever is going on is speeding up.”
“Agreed.” Cash stared as raindrops hit the windowpane. “I should tell you I saw someone watching the villa last night which is how I bumped into Riss.”
“Explain,” Archer demanded.
“There was a guy hanging in the alley across the canal and he was watching the place. I was too far away to see his features. He was pretty good at being subtle but after a while it became obvious. I went out to confront him but by the time I got there, he was gone. He was big and built. Unfortunately, I’d be hard pressed to ID the son of a bitch.”
“Was he involved in sending Riss into the canal?”
“No. The guy who did that was one of Allesio Umberti’s men. He went up the bridge and skateboarded across the top scaring the hell out of Riss and sending her backward off the bridge. She went into the water, and when I shouted, Umberti’s guy disappeared into the fog. I had planned on going after him, but Riss didn’t surface so I went in after her. I had no idea who she was until after I dragged her from the canal and was checking for a pulse. Then I noticed her resemblance to Alicia. She has the same violet eyes.”
Archer’s voice was measured but Cash knew him well enough to know he was angry. “Was Umberti’s man trying to kill her?”
Cash thought about it for a beat. “No, I don’t think so. There are easier ways to do it than on a skateboard. In that fog, it would have been a breeze to stab her and then disappear. I think he was after her purse, but she moved unexpectedly, and he didn’t see her until he was too close to avoid her. One stroke of luck was that I found her purse. I cloned her cell.”
Archer commented, “Glad to see you’re still using your brain.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Cash asked slightly offended.
“You and Alicia were lovers. It did give me pause.”
Cash ground his teeth. Why was he not surprised that Archer knew that little nugget of information? He was all-knowing. “To be clear, Alicia and I had sex. Lovers implies there was some kind of emotional entanglement. I can assure you it was merely a physical arrangement on both sides. Alicia did not care about anyone but herself as far as I could tell. Sleeping with her gave me access.”
It was a bald-faced truth. She found him attractive, and he knew he could keep better tabs on her if he slept with her. Cold, for sure, but she wanted something from him as well, she wanted his focus on her. They were only together twice but it was enough to solidify his assessment of her and the situation. Archer was not wrong. She was narcissistic and thought the world should revolve around her. In the end that was the thing that caused her death, and he carried guilt about it.
“What is your plan to deal with Ms. Day?” Archer asked. “I assume sleeping with her is out of the question.”
