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He holds my stare. “Yes.”
I regard him quietly. You can tell a lot by a man in how they react under stress, and from what I can see, this man has been put through quite a bit lately. Still, I push a little more. “Are you willing to stake the lives of your sons on it?”
Something flashes in his eyes. Fear? Trepidation? Guilt? None of it matters to me, only that I can use it. “My sons are in agreement,” he finally tells me.
I arch a brow. “Your sons are barely grown, and you think they are ready to end their lives for their mother? Because that will happen once Seamus finds out about your deceit.”
“My boys loved their mother and know the risks,” he says through clenched teeth.
I think he is a foolish man leading his children and legacy to slaughter, but that’s none of my concern. “And how am I to be certain that you don’t have a change of heart and inform Seamus of our meeting?”
“I doubt you would have stayed if you thought that,” Eion replies evenly, holding my stare. “Though if you want a show of faith, name your price.”
Seamus and his men are big on shows of faith to prove loyalty, but considering that Eion isn’t honoring his, it wouldn’t mean much. Instead I give him a cold smile and say, “My price is if you decide to double cross me, your sons will die. All of them. And don’t make the mistake of thinking you can hide them because we both know I have far more resources to find them than you do to send them away. And then I’ll come for you, and your death will be far worse than what your wife suffered. So I will ask you one more time, are you ready for your sons to die for your revenge?”
He doesn’t react to my words, he just stares.
I glance at Dante who gives a barely indiscerptible movement of his head. Looks like he believes him, though a man like me can never be too cautious. “Fine,” I announce, as I stand, “But know I will have my men watching, Eion. Double cross me, and your days will be numbered and far more painful than anything you can imagine. Give the details to Dante on the shipment, and be ready for my call for anything else.”
Eion nods and I head for the door, satisfaction burning in my blood knowing I’m about to deliver a blow to Seamus Gallo, the damn Irish bastard. He’s always been power hungry, and he wants to be top dog. Something he will never be. I own the majority of this city, and I’m not having anyone take it away from me.
I follow Davide out the hallway and back to the shop. Davide grabs a box of pastries and a coffee without much pause, before we head out the door. Nice to know he was meticulous with this plan. As far as anyone is concerned, we grabbed a few things from the bakery. As we head for the car, I stop when someone bumps into me again. But before I can snarl at them, the scent hits me and I realize who it is.
I look down at the same little terrified mouse, who babbles out another apology and stumbles away from me, glancing back at me once before walking down the street.
I’m not a believer in fate, but that little woman bumped into me twice today and I refuse to believe it is a coincidence. I look over at Tommaso as he says, “She never so much as moved from one spot in the library reading a book. No phone, no laptop, and no one approached her. She tried to blend in and be unseen.”
Interesting. “Follow her and find out all you can about her,” I order. He goes after her without a word.
I climb into the SUV and ponder briefly what is it about this woman? She’s caught my attention, and I have this inexplicable urge to go after her myself. Is she a plant, someone who is supposed to put a tracker on me? A fed? A cop? Something is nagging at me that it’s not that simple. No, there’s something more to the little mouse and I want to know what it is.
Everyone has a secret. Something you can exploit in the right circumstances. But mostly I want to know why she makes me so damn curious. A dangerous thing for a man like me. And even more dangerous for a woman like her.
She’s caught my attention, and I’m sure she’ll come to regret being in that library after all.
CHAPTER3
Nico
I sitin my car and watch her, this obsession with her driving me insane. It pisses me off, and makes me feel things I have no desire to feel. But my little mouse has decided to infiltrate my every thought for the past two weeks. Burying in and making herself at home, until I want to kill her to get her out. Something makes me wonder if that would only make it worse. Because she’s a puzzle that I can’t solve.
My men have not been able to discover who she is. It’s like she’s a ghost, and that pisses me off yet intrigues me. They know where she lives, and that she has the same routine every day to the letter. She never speaks to anyone, never deviates from her routine, other than an odd day here or there when she doesn't venture out at all. She doesn’t appear to work, and she doesn’t leave to get groceries, instead having them and anything else she needs delivered.
My men can’t even figure out her name. She’s not listed on the building directory, and the name on her unit is bogus. And seeing as it’s one of the few buildings in this area that I don’t own, I have no one on the inside to find out for me. Does she live with a man? Is that why she’s so fearful? Does he abuse her and make her fearful to be out? Or perhaps, she is cautious and knows being a woman in this world isn’t for the weak. Still, I have my men continuing to try and find out who she is, and in the meantime, I find myself drawn to her. Craving her.
She’s a mystery, and one that I intend to solve. No one can hide forever. Even rats and mice who try to hide their little hidey holes can be found.
Rats and mice are vermin. Meant to be eradicated. Or caught and released if you’re a gentle soul. I’m neither. I will happily stomp on a rat should they dare to cross my path and not feel an inkling of guilt. Some might call me heartless. A monster. I call myself an exterminator and do the work that needs to be done. So when a rat crosses my path, I remove it. Permanently.
Except her. The innocent mouse that caught my attention. I wish she would have stayed in her hole because I don’t want to give her my attention, but now she has it.
I can’t decide if I want to stomp her out of my way, or if I want to capture then release her. I have seen many find a mouse in their home and capture it with a container, place a piece of paper under it and then release them to be free to scurry into another’s unsuspecting home. And I can’t help but wonder what my little mouse would do if I caught her and put her in a clear cage. One I could look in and see her any time I wanted instead of stalking her. Ruining my concentration and my day.
Would she cower in terror? Crying and simpering? Would she fight? Scratching, clawing and biting her way out? Or would she wait and watch? For that moment when I relax and open the cage, and then try to escape. I can’t decide what she would do, but I want to find out, and that stirs emotions in me.
Curiosity. Confusion. Desire. Possession. Anger. Even a small sprinkling of hate. Hate that stems from her distracting me. Something I don’t allow. Something my enemies could use against me.
So now I have a choice to make. Do I let my little mouse continue to run free and forget she exists? Or do I take what I want and fuck the consequences?
