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“Put them away,” a voice chastised, authority oozing from it in waves.
Walking into the room was the last man Vincent would have expected.
The man standing in the doorway to James’ office was the head of the mafia.Thetop man. Not even Vincent had met him in person.
He holstered his gun immediately, staring at the man wordlessly.
“I have places to be,” the man said, leading the conversation as he sealed the door behind him, “so this will need to be quick. You know why I’m here?”
Vincent couldn’t know for sure, but he had an idea. With Krill still on the loose, the threat to the mafia grew each day. But admitting he didn’t know would show a weakness he couldn’t afford, so he nodded once.
“Good. So why has the target not been acquired and taken out?”
Excuses were the only things that Vincent could offer, so he remained silent.
“There is no good reason, then,” the man chastised, seemingly pleased with the direction of the one-sided conversation as he approached the side of the desk, standing between James and Vincent in a position they could easily use to harm him. The lack of regard for his safety, though, showed the man’s authority over the situation.
Despite recognizing his face, the fact that Vincent didn’t even know the man’s name showed even more power.
“James Nolan,” he trailed, leaning into the desk and turning his back entirely on Vincent. Another power move, it seemed. “How are you?
“I’m good, sir,” he replied evenly.
“And I expect you can explain what Mr. Rossi cannot?”
James didn’t speak.
“Were you even made aware of this mission, Mr. Nolan?” The man’s voice lowered.
James looked over the graying man’s shoulder, met Vincent’s eyes, and exchanged something like an apology before speaking to the man in charge. “No, sir.”
The man made a noise of contemplation and turned to Vincent, scanning him up and down. “You are a man with little to lose, it seems. It makes incentivizing this situation much more difficult for my men and me, but everybody has something. Your new toy will have to do.”
The head of the mafia spoke the words with such indifference that Vincent immediately envisioned his car or one of his new home purchases, but when the photo of Kiera—his Kiera—fell on the desk beside him, the world fell out of focus for a brief moment.
The man’s voice hardened. “We found a bomb that would have killed many of our people, and he’s just getting started.If anything happens—if he’s successful next time—she will be collateral damage. And when you get another whore, expect her to be taken as a payment, too.” The nonchalance with which he spoke every other word made the blatant and brutal threat a surprise. “End this, Mr. Rossi.”
Vincent wanted to end the man’s life for threatening her, but he concealed his thick rage behind the mask that had always hidden his emotions from those around him.
All except, perhaps, Kiera, who saw straight through the mask he’d thought impenetrable. Her painting demonstrated as much. Maybe it was another reason he’d found himself incapable of withstanding her pull. Whatever the case, the head of the mafia walked out James’ door and left them alone, leaving Vincent to contemplate two things.
First, he needed to figure out how to end the mission quickly.
Then, he needed to plan how best to end the life of the man who threatened what was his.
11
Talia clicked her tongue as she stared down at the carpet, arms crossed and brows lifted in curiosity. Kiera bit her lip as Talia looked between her and the rug.
Stains covered the entire area where Vincent had taken Kiera. Repeatedly. One part, if she looked hard enough, seemed to be a perfect outline of her body from when he flipped her onto her stomach, wrapped a handful of her hair around his large, powerful hand, and…
“Now, Iknowthat Jacey didn’t get paint all over our rug,” Talia said, “so would you mind explaining yourself?”
Kiera shook her head slowly, wishing she would have left a little earlier than expected to meet Vincent. Admitting to Talia, of all people, that she’d taken an interest in a mafia man—a much older one—would ruin all the effort she’d put into convincing Talia not to do the same.
“I saw the man from the grocery store—the older one—walking out of the building when I got home,” Jacey added, not bothering to lift her nose from the book she analyzed, highlighter sticking out of her mouth.
“Jacey,” Kiera chastised, her attention darting back to Talia.
