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“This violence against innocent women seems to be going around,” he muttered as he finished his last shot after several minutes of silence.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m going to a very small town in Colorado to find out.”
That caught my interest. The contract I wouldn’t touch. “The librarian?”
“Who the fuck wants to kill a librarian?” Michael ground out.
“Maybe she saw something she wasn’t meant to see.”
He shook his head. “No. Not this. There’s too much money involved. And if it’s mob related, they could have hired anyone. They don’t usually use the circuit.”
“True. But I don’t see you taking this.” If he did, he wasn’t the man I thought he was.
“No, I won’t, but my curiosity is piqued. I’m going to Leadville to find out what the big mystery is. Something about it... intrigues me.”
“You’re going to settle your curiosity? That’s not like you, either.”
“Let’s just say I’ve had enough of watching innocent women pay the price for something some other fucker did.”
I raised my glass to him. “On that we agree.”
He looked out the window with an expression I was beginning to recognize - reluctance. Something had happened and Michael Bianchin was beginning to doubt everything he believed in.Fuck. He wasn’t the only one.
“Did you end up taking the Romano contract?” I needed to change the subject as much for my benefit as for his.
“No. Too close to home. Were you interested?”
“Not at all. While I don’t condone what he did, there’s worse people in the world.”
Michael nodded. “I agree with you on that, also. They found his body in a burned-out car, you know.”
I shrugged. The fate of a mafia don who’d ratted on the entire New York underworld was a conversational distraction, but I didn’t care about his fate. Not when Noemi’s hung in the balance. Not when—Fuck!
Wide eyes stared at me from the doorway. It was my fault. I was sloppy... again.
Michael and I sat in his office with the door wide open like we were shooting the breeze after a cold beer. I let my guard down and talked to Michael as naturally as if we were discussing the weather. I thought I told her I’d come to get her. I thought she’d stay in her room. I thought... It didn’t fucking matter what I thought.
My blood pounded through my veins as a torrent of emotions washed through me. Emotions I didn’t know what to do with. My chest tightened. I don’t know how much she heard, but if she heard anything it was more than enough. Put together with what she’d already seen...
Michael stood up to leave.
“No, we’ll go.” I intercepted him in the doorway.
Frowning, he turned to Noemi.
“Stay here. I’m leaving the island shortly anyway, and I still need to pack. It was nice to meet you, Noemi.”
He took her hand, raised it to his lips then smirked at me when I couldn’t control the rumble that reverberated through my chest.
“If you need anything during your stay,” he added more seriously, “please don’t hesitate to ask Phillipe. He’ll take care of you.”
He said the last words while looking straight at me. “Dante.”
He nodded at me then left the room.
That son of a bitch. He thought I would hurt her? Fuck, I didn’t know. Was I going to hurt her? If anyone else had eavesdropped on our conversation, they wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale, but how many times in the last few days had I faced the realization that no matter what happened, Noemi would make it through this alive. She wouldn’t die by my hand or anyone else’s...
But that was before she heard a conversation that was never meant for her ears.
