“No more hits. Not for you, not for anyone. You want someone dead, do it yourself.”
My father was malleable, easily used by whichever criminal was willing to pay him most. He built himself a monopoly on the private aviation market. If anyone rich, anyone important was flying anywhere, my father knew about it.
If Rocco Morello wanted someone off the face of the earth, my father would make it happen, tidy it up with a fake story and an NDA.He had a heart attack just before takeoff; he tried to hijack the aircraft—we had to shoot him; he never showed up for the flight.
For the right price, Cain Green would do anything anyone wanted.
It’s a legacy I do not intend to continue.
“No deal. It’s not about doing it myself. It’s about getting multiple important people in the same place at the same time. A helicopter is a sitting duck.”
“No. More. Hits.”
“You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Alex.”
It’s true, but for the first time, he doesn’t want to make an enemy of me, either. Temporary or not, I’m as rich as he is. Betterconnected than he is. More reputable, believable,trustworthythan he is. He has power, but so do I.
“I can’t think of another airline that’d be willing to ferry you and your men around all day, willing to splash as much cash as Green does on covering your tracks from the Russians.”
He narrows his eyes. “Why are you doing this? For the woman?”
“For the woman.”
“I warned you about women,” he growls, temper fraying. “They make a mess of it all.”
“I’m scrubbing Green clean. I shouldn’t even be partnering with you, Rocco, but I’m willing to continue. But no more hits.”
“I’m saying no.”
“I’m saying you have no choice.”
He huffs out a laugh. “You have nothing over me.”
I bite down my smile, glancing down at the watch that hugs my wrist: 9:01 a.m. The news will be live. I type a quick search into my phone, standing to put the device on the coffee table.
Green Aviation Acquires New York Based Cybersecurity Firm Synx in $540 Million Deal.
Synx covers every digital trace Rocco leaves. It encrypts his messages, buries his finances, and hides his illegal business behind his legitimate one. It’s also averyprofitable company.
“Would be a shame if your security company turned evidence in to the Feds.”
Rocco looks the same color as the ugly chartreuse curtains he let his wife put up in the Morello mansion last Christmas. His fists clench and unclench over the expensive wool of his slacks. “You’re losing your mind over a piece of ass, Corbeau.”
“Call her that again and see where it gets you.” And that ass issuchan ass. Couldn’t have picked a better one to lose my mind over.
“You hold far too much loyalty for a girl who plotted against you.”
“Didn’t Francesca blow up your car two weeks before you got married?”
A fond affection joins the venom in his eyes. Rocco and Francesca Morello might be the only reason I still believe in true love. “She’s a firecracker, that one. She did me a favor, really. Car needed replacing.”
“As did my father.”
His snort of amusement tells me we’re back on safer ground. He had a profitable arrangement with my father, but he never really liked him, didn’t really like the way he treated my mother the last few years.
Abruptly, he slams a giant fist down on the coffee table and curses. It’s easy to step on a land mine with Rocco. If Jacqueline comes in with an instant coffee, God himself wouldn’t be able to save her. “You’re not scrubbing shit clean,coglione, you’re blackmailing just like he did.”
“For the right reasons. For my sisters, for my mother. No more hits, Rocco.”
