AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uh…Mr. Black?”
I blink as I refocus on her. “Yeah.”
“I was saying, Mr. Carveli would like to have dinner with you. Tomorrow night at eight, at Keens Steakhouse.”
“Do we know what this is about?” Gabriel asks.
Katerina shakes her head. “His assistant said Mr. Carveli just wanted to catch up.” She raises an eyebrow at me. “Is that a no, or shall I call back and confirm?”
“Can I talk to you in private for a minute?” Gabriel grunts at me.
“In a second.” I glance back to Katerina. “Go ahead and confirm. Thanks, Katerina.”
When she’s gone, Gabriel fixes me with a despairing look.
“What? I’ll be fine.”
“You’re shacked up with the man’s wife, Alistair,” he growls. “Exactly how is this going to be fine?”
“He doesn’t know,” I shoot back.
“And if he does?”
“Don’t you have to go study?”
“I do, but I’d like to clarify that my brother isn’t going to do something stupid and get himself killed at dinner.”
“It’s Keens Steakhouse, not a warehouse out in Bushwick,” I say flatly. “Massimo’s psycho, but I don’t think he’s quite psycho enough to stab me over a porterhouse and a glass of fucking Chianti.”
“You willing to bet your life on that?”
“I’m willing to bet a meal at Keens on that.”
He sighs. “Just…be careful.”
“You know me.”
“Precisely what worries me,” he sighs. Then he frowns. “You sure you’re good?”
“I’m great.”
Except, I’m not.
Not really.
It’s not that I feel bad at all for killing Rocco. But it is…weighing on me. Sending people that I’ve beaten pretty badly to hospital is one thing. Taking a life with my bare hands is apparently not something I’m mentally prepared for, even though I know in my blood I’d do it again, if the scenario were to repeat itself.
Normally, my siblings are good sounding boards when something’s bothering me. Or Taylor. But there’s no way in hell I’m burdening them with this shit. With Tempest, it’s that I don’t want to see the look in her eye when she realizes I’m a killer. Gabriel could take something like that. I think Taylor could, too. But I’m not putting the burden of criminal liability that comes with knowing about my crime on any of them.
So for now, it’s just inside me.
Gnawing at me.
Putting me on edge.
That’s the state I’m in when Katerina gently reminds me that my one o’clock has arrived. I don’t even glance at my schedule to see who it is. I just float down there in a daze.
Which is why it hits me so abruptly when I open the door to Conference Room B and find Ansel fucking Albrecht sitting at the table, smiling at me.
