AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The last word sliced through the room. My stomach plummeted. He knew. Fuck.
But could he prove it?
“But to whom else would D’Agostino entrust such an important job?” Ravazzani asked. “There is no one. So we searched for you. A ghost, impossible to find, they said. So I used the one clue I had at my disposal.”
Fausto slowly opened his desk drawer and set a glass vial on the desk. Inside was a bullet. My specially made bullet.
No, it was impossible.
I could feel everything I’d hoped for, everything I’d dreamed of, disappearing like tendrils of smoke. I couldn’t breathe. Blood rushed in my ears as I quietly waited for the blade to drop and chop off my head.
He gestured to the vial. “One man knew that bullet. Crafted by hand in Germany to exact specifications. Your specifications, Alessandro.”
I stared at him, barely blinking. Why had I come here with Giulio? I should’ve known this secret wouldn’t stay buried.
Now I would lose him.
But Ravazzani wasn’t finished. Leaning forward, his voice turned soft, threaded with violence. “I also know you were hired to assassinate Guilio. So tell me how a man who nearly killed me and accepted a hit on my son is welcome in my home? Around my fucking family?”
He was shouting by the time he finished speaking, his fury a terrifying thing.
With the rope tightening around my neck, I had nothing to lose. I needed to plead my case. “I saved your son’s life. I helped him kill the Sicilians responsible for the car bomb. They came to Scotland to kill him.”
“Are you honestly so stupid as to think this balances the scales, stronzo?”
No. I knew it was unforgivable, and I would lose Giulio the instant he learned of it. Which would be soon.
“I’m an assassin for hire. You were just a job, just a target,” I said. “Nothing more, nothing less. And I can’t change what happened.”
“So why accept the job to assassinate my son?”
I couldn’t answer. D’Agostino had forced me into the hit on Giulio, but I would honor our agreement. Even if it no longer benefitted me.
And it didn’t matter why. I’d gone after Giulio with the intention of killing him. Hunted him through various cities, watched his every move. I couldn’t deny it.
“I had my reasons,” I said.
Fausto exchanged an undecipherable look with Marco. The consigliere turned to me, his eyes hard with loathing. “It would be wise for you to tell us everything, sniper. Including who you were working for.”
I didn’t back down. “I never reveal the identity of a client.”
The moment stretched. Fausto and Marco didn’t speak, just continued to watch me. It was an old interrogation tactic, sweating out your opponent, but I wouldn’t break.
I focused on Ravazzani and counted my breaths. Squeezed the armrests of the chair. Pressed my toes into the carpet. Concentrating on these small details kept me grounded and calm.
Finally, Ravazzani spoke. “We searched for you for years. But you were gone. Poof. Then you trail my son from Málaga to Santorini to Scotland. Now you’re here. In my home. And I am supposed to believe you no longer wish to kill him, that you no longer wish to kill me? Do you take us for fools?”
“I love Giulio. I would rather cut off my arm than hurt him.”
“Careful, sniper,” Marco said. “You might be asked to undergo just such a test.”
I didn’t take my eyes off Giulio’s father. “I love him, Don Ravazzani. More than anything.”
“I have no doubt. He is the heir to a great fortune, no? An empire worthy of a king.”
He thought I was after Giulio because of his money? I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “I have more money than I could spend in ten lifetimes. I don’t want Giulio’s money.”
“And I should believe anything you say? A man with no allegiances, no loyalty to anyone but himself.”
