AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My phone rings as I get to my feet. I get outside and walk toward the parking lot where I left my car. “Imelda,” I say down the line. “I got a feeling I’d be hearing from you.”
She sounds more angry than I’ve ever heard her before. “What the fuck are you doing, Jack?”
“My job.”
“Your job was to whack the girl, not come and talk to the uncle. I’ve just had my bosses on the line wanting to know what I’ve got to do with this shitshow and we’re both this close to losing our heads. So I’ll ask you again, what are you doing?”
“Your bosses care that she’s an untouchable?”
“They care about the Marino famiglia’s percentage that might be pulled if we don’t sort this shit out.”
“I knew it. This isn’t about what’s right. It’s about the funding. Fuck, Imelda, you said the quiet part loud there, didn’t you? They allowed a hit on an untouchable, so the new Don keeps paying them his percentage. Why not just admit that to me?”
“You know the rules, Jack. You cannot quit an assignment you’ve been given. You’ll be killed if you do. Why are you needling the uncle? What’s your game?”
“Wanted to know who gave out the assignment and seeing as you wouldn’t tell me, I thought I’d find out for myself.”
“You’re playing with fire.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“I hope you do. Fuck up and we’re both dead.”
“What do you know about the executor of the estate?”
“Stop this, Jack.”
“Stop what?”
“Dig up too many corpses and you might end up among them.”
“So you know he’s dead? Any idea what the Will said?”
“Not a clue. Outside my jurisdiction and yours.”
“I’m guessing the will says she got the lot. I’m guessing that’s why Vincenzo wants her dead, and I’m guessing you’re getting well paid to make it happen.”
“You want to go down that road? You’re getting paid too. You remember why, don’t you?”
I think of Isobel, her innocent face, caught up in things that are nothing to do with her. “That’s why I’m going to get the job done,” I say before hanging up.
She’s right, I know that. I either finish the assignment or I get killed. Where does that leave Isobel?
I have to kill Clarissa. The woman who made me feel things. I have to wipe her out or I die, leave my niece with no one in the world to care for her.
I wipe all emotions from my mind. I have a job to do. The dominoes are all standing up on end. All I have to do now is flick over the first one and watch the rest fall.
I head out for the airport. Time to go back to Grant’s Hollow. Time to knock over that first domino.
13
“What’s going on?”
Maddy sounds worried and I’m not surprised. I left her a note saying I’d be away for a night or two and that she should go stay at her mom’s place until I get back. Asked her to let Mrs McCain know.
She didn’t ring last night, and I got nervous, texting her to get her to reply. I hardly slept waiting for the response, but she finally called me just after six this morning. I’ve still heard nothing from Jack.
“Are you at your mom’s?” I ask, tension rising in me to think she might still be home. I get a vision of someone coming to kill me and finding her instead, not noticing until it’s too late.
