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When I don’t answer, Mia’s laughter ends. “Valentina?”
“It’s not a date… but I am going out on a job tonight.”
“A job? Since when do you take jobs without talking to me about them first?”
While she is technically correct, we do talk through all of our jobs with each other, she isn’t my boss or my mother.
“It came out of nowhere,” I answer. “I just didn’t have time to dial you in is all.” I do my best to hold back my agitation at her assumption I somehow have to get her approval.
“Val…” I don’t like the censure I hear in her voice as I fumble with putting on my earrings while still holding the phone. I’m about to say my goodbyes when she adds, “Please tell me you aren’t going to the charity gala tonight being held at the Rasmussen Mansion.”
Her correct assumption alarms me and I drop an earring. “How the hell did you know I was going there? What have you heard?”
My heart rate picks up, trying to think through what we’d done wrong. Atlas and I had been so careful, not talking about the job even at The Rooftop where there were prying eyes and ears. Instead, Dex had loaned us the boardroom on the thirteenth floor to work out of so we could have privacy in a room that didn’t have a bed in it. I’d been stupid enough to think that the lack of a bed would fend off Atlas’s sexual advances. Instead, he’d just insisted on fucking me on the table and bent over the office furniture instead.
I blush remembering the sordid details, but Mia’s growing anger does a good job of dousing the memories.
“I didn’t hear shit about you, but I heard a lot about Atlas and his father.”
“What about them?” I ask with a growing sense of dread. Did someone know we were targeting the event tonight?
“Only that both men would be attending the gala and it would be the perfect opportunity to take them both out at the same time,” Mia said.
I’d been so caught up in the planning for the night I’d almost forgotten the previous threat against their lives. Atlas had poo-pooed the idea each time I’d brought it up and he’d somehow convinced me that the information Mia had heard had been wrong at best and exaggerated at worst.
“Where did you hear this?” I probe, trying to think through all of the implications this new news has.
“The same source as last time. The cybercafe,” she says with a defensive tone.
“If you heard more about the hit, why didn’t you call me sooner to warn me?”
“Why would I do that? So, you could run off and warn them like you did last time?”
I’d never told her I’d warned them.
“Mia…”
“I’m not stupid, Val. I have no idea what the ancient history between you two is, but I’m smart enough to recognize there is something holding you loyal to him.”
I bite my tongue, knowing I can’t share that the history isn’t so ancient anymore.
When I say nothing, she continues with her warnings. “You absolutely cannot go to the gala tonight. It would be more dangerous than taking the casino job. They are two dead men walking and if you are with them, you’ll just end up in a body bag next to them as collateral damage.”
I try to rally some of the bravado Atlas had convinced me with. “No one would be stupid enough to take a hit out against Dex Cohen’s best friend.”
Dex has deep connections in the NYC crime community. After seeing how things had turned out for the Luciano family when they’d crossed Dex and his right-hand-man, Z, anyone would be crazy to cross him.
“They are too big a fish to be taken down,” I add.
“Don’t be naive, Val. It’s not a good look for you. There is no such thing as too big of a fish. More like, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
I look down at my watch. I’m already running late, but if what Mia is saying is true, I’ll need to phone Atlas. I need to warn him off.
As if she was in my head, Mia’s voice taunts me. “Dammit, this is why I didn’t tell you about this. You’re going to warn him, aren’t you?” When I don’t reply, she adds. “Listen to me, Val. You need to stay home—stay as far away from them and that gala as possible.”
Panic I don’t really understand consumes me. “I need to go…” I grind out, preparing to hang up.
I hear Mia shouting at me as I push the button to end the call.
For a split second I think through my options and while I have many, one alternative that I know isn’t on my list of options is doing nothing. My feelings for Atlas may be muddled, but I know I don’t want him dead.
