Page 41 of Perfect Vengeance

“Do you have PC to plant one in the house tonight?” Margo asked.

“Yes. And with the info from that bug, hopefully I can get PC to install devices at Franco’s and Tino’s and record evidence good enough for an indictment. That’s how the FBI nailed Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano back in the eighties.”

Anna scrunched her eyebrows. “How so?”

“FBI agents planted a device in Castellano’s kitchen. Using those recorded conversations, Castellano was indicted for extortion, theft, prostitution, drug trafficking, and multiple murders.”

“How much jail time did he get?” Kinsey asked.

“None. Before we had a chance to convict him, he and his underboss were gunned down outside a Manhattan steak house.”

“Who did it?” Margo asked.

“The way the story goes, it was set up by Castellano’s own capo, John Gotti, aka the Dapper Don, and Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a Gambino Crime Family hit man.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “So all that work for nothing?”

“Not really. As a result of that case, we learned more about the Mafia than we knew before.” Including those rare, secret meetings held by the Commission.

Margo pinned him with shrewd eyes. “You hope to get the big fish by first reeling in the little fish.”

“Exactly.” The grandfather clock chimed once, and Jack glanced at his watch. Eight thirty. “You need to get ready while I outfit Gina with the com microphone and transmitter.”

As he set up the earpiece, Margo and Anna went down the hallway and disappeared into another room. Kinsey padded into the foyer and opened a closet filled with coats.

Gina unzipped her jacket, revealing the skintight suit that made every article of clothing in the Victoria’s Secret catalog seem grandmotherly in comparison.

Focus, brain cells.

When he looked up, her eyes were twinkling. She wasn’t making this easy on him. Knowing her, she was playing with him.

“You’re going to have to help me out here,” he said.

“Ya think?” Grinning, she shrugged out of her warm-up jacket and tossed it onto the sofa. Next, she unzipped her catsuit down to her waist and spread the fabric by placing her hands on her hips.

She did not just do that. He actually had to squeeze his eyes shut for a second. When he reopened them, the view was the same. Creamy swells of the most perfect breasts peeked out of the laciest, sexiest black bra he’d ever laid eyes on.

His heart beat a little faster, and he prayed he didn’t get a colossal boner. Adding to his discomfort, that intoxicating scent of hers mingling with her natural body heat was like a warm vanilla-sugar bath. One he was on the brink of drowning in.

“What?” At her question, he snapped his eyes from her chest to her face. “I don’t have any pockets on this thing.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I see that.”

From the hallway, Kinsey snickered. Way too much amusement at his expense.

With the unsteady fingers of his good hand, he gently pressed the com kit’s power supply box against Gina’s taut abdomen. Heat from her bare skin seared his fingertips as he adjusted the box to fit into the hollow beneath her rib cage. “Hold that.” His voice sounded like someone had rubbed his vocal cords with sandpaper.

She held the box in place while he tugged her zipper up. With each tug, he had to reach inside her suit with his injured hand to keep threading the ear wire out the top of the material so it would reach to her ear. With every touch of his fingers on her soft skin, his body temp went up a degree. The same way it had yesterday when he’d gotten a good view of her shapely legs…those same legs that made him dream about dragging those incredible stockings off them with his teeth.

With a final tug, he yanked the zipper up to her neck and began hooking the earpiece around her ear. More sweat beaded on his forehead. If things got any hotter, his Glock would go off on its own. The woman didn’t seem to notice the torture she was inflicting on him. Or maybe she did, and that was part of her diabolical plan to exact revenge.

When he finished draping the ear wire beneath her thick hair, her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed, and her pink lips parted. With every breath, her chest rose and fell a little too fast. The same way his was doing.

“You two really should get a room.” Kinsey’s voice sliced into his consciousness. He and Gina practically jumped apart. “Merely an observation.” She giggled and winked over her shoulder as she returned to the hallway.

As Gina shrugged back into her warm-up jacket, her lips pressed together tightly.

“You okay?” When she didn’t answer, he rested his hands on her shoulders. “You can do this. The mission might have changed, but the tactics are no different from the rips you’ve been doing.”