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Well, didn’t this feel like déjà vu? Visions of Heidi hang-dropping her ass from the roof sprung to mind. Attempt number two? Really? She was probably right that a fall from that height wouldn’t exactly be fatal, but did the woman have to be so persistent?
“There’s a man at the gate,Signor,” Giovanni said, directing his attention to me. “He says he wishes to speak with you.”
Was it too much to hope Bianchi had walked himself right up to my home? That would be an aggressive move, if ever there was one. More than enough justification to put that asshole in the ground.
“Mi scusi,” I said to my father as I stood up, then followed Giovanni out of the office and down two doors to the surveillance room.
The footage from the camera at the front gate had been moved to the large center screen that was surrounded by half a dozen other smaller ones. And in the middle of the screen was one of the men from Belemonte’s bar, the good-looking one who’d been more agreeable than the others.
Maybe he had a death wish.
“Let him in, Giovanni,” I said, then headed for the front door. I nodded to Vito on my way past the office, and he followed me out onto the stone front porch.
The guy with the death wish pulled up to the top of the drive a moment later. He was driving a BMW 230i Coupe, so he wasn’t hard up for cash, but neither was he rolling in it.
He stepped out of the car and held up his hands, away from his body, meeting my eyes dead-on.
“Do I need to have Vito check you for weapons?” I asked as Vito and I descended the stairs.
“No,Signor,” he said, shaking his head. “But he’s welcome to.” He held up his arms a little higher.
I nodded to Vito, who proceeded to pat the guy down. He shook his head when he was finished and took a step back, putting himself on the opposite side of the guy so that we’d pretty much boxed him in.
“You do remember what I told you would happen if I saw you again?” I asked.
He swallowed. Nodded.
“And yet, you come to myhome?”
He lowered his arms to half-mast. Rather brave of him, in my opinion.
“I’ve come here because I want to work for you,Signor.”
I laughed. Maybe the guy was dumb as fuck, but he certainly had balls. “I don’t recall putting out a want ad.”
He lowered his arms the rest of the way, watching me warily. With Vito positioned on the other side, he couldn’t keep his eyes on us both.
“I know that,Signor.”
“I can refer you to our HR department,” I said, nodding to Vito, “but he’s not nearly as amicable as I am. I don’t think you’d enjoy the ‘interview’ process.”
Vito smiled, all teeth. All ice.
The guy’s gaze flickered to him, then back. It was a testament to his mettle that he didn’t piss his pants.
“I know this isn’t the way things are usually done,Signor,but I’m here to do whatever it takes.”
Persistent son of a bitch. “What’s your name?”
“Antonio Verdi. I grew up in Del Rio, Texas, right off the Mexican border, with my mother, my sister, and my grandmother,” he went on without pause. “When I was twelve, my mother and sister were taken—my sister was fourteen years old.”
An uncomfortable sensation writhed in my gut. I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was headed. “I can’t say I’ve spent much time in Del Rio,amico.”
The guy nodded distractedly. “The man who took them, he sold my sister. My mother was too old for that, which meant he took her for the hell of it.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked. It wasn’t that I was actually as heartless as I sounded, but the scenario he was describing was a hopeless one.
“You killed him,Signor.”
