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I sink into the pillows as exhaustion creeps in.
What a night. I went to bed after eating pizza, glad because I was starting to feel I was on the right track with my personal investigation, and then I woke up on the floor with a strange yet very good-looking man on top of me. And a bullet on my bed.
Cain’s right. I should report the shooting. That’s the right thing to do. Still, if I do that, my brothers will find out and they’ll worry. Janine will find out, too, and she’ll ask questions. She might suspect what I’m doing and tell me to stop.
I don’t want to stop. Not now. The fact that I’ve become a target confirms that I’m on the right track. And that I’m close.
I’m not stopping.
So I won’t report the shooting. No harm done, anyway. Just that broken window, which I can have someone replace. I’ll have someone clean up the bedroom, too. And maybe the whole house. It needs cleaning anyway.
In the meantime, I’ll stay at a hotel and I’ll continue working on my case.
I stand up and stretch my arms above my head.
I’ll continue working. Alone. Like I’ve always done. I can do this.
Still, I can’t help but wonder after that conversation with Cain what it would be like to have a partner. On the case, I mean. He did seem like a good man to have around even if we didn’t see eye to eye on everything. Sharp mind. Quick reflexes. Gorgeous body. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get that image of him in those tight-fitting dark clothes unstuck from my mind.
Someone experienced and skilled, that’s how he described himself. I’m not too keen on learning about the experiences, but I’m curious to find out what other skills he has in his arsenal.
I guess I’ll never know.
Chapter Four
Cain
“You want to know who tried to kill the person Orso sent you to kill?” Andrea asks me with an amused expression as he leans back on the park bench.
He’s making fun of me. I know it. Normally, I’d just ignore him and walk away, but I can’t right now. If I didn’t need answers, I wouldn’t have asked him to meet me in the first place.
“Wait.” I look at him with furrowed eyebrows as something dawns on me. “You know Orso gave me an assignment?”
I thought he told me not to tell anyone.
Andrea shrugs. “Who do you think took a picture of your target, Al Chandler?”
My eyebrows go up slightly. “That was you?”
“Si.”
“You prepared the file?”
“Right again.”
“So you know everything there is to know about Al Chandler?”
“Yes. A fine young man.”
I manage to hold back a snort, but Andrea notices me grinning.
“What?” He gives me a puzzled look. “He is fine. It’s not my fault you can only see beauty in women.”
I swallow. “It’s not that.”
Andrea holds up a finger. “And by the way, just because I find someone beautiful doesn’t mean I want to fuck them. Well, not always. Not in this case. As broad as my tastes are, I have no interest in corpses.”
I clear my throat. “Good to know.”
“But you said Al Chandler is not yet a corpse?” Andrea asks. “Why not? Yes, he is an FBI agent, and he’s a good one, but he’s no match for you. He’s shorter. He’s lighter. He – ”
“Is a woman,” I finish the sentence for him. “Al is short for Alyssa.”
She prefers to be called Allie, though.
For a moment, Andrea just looks at me with wide eyes. Then he bursts out laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him laugh like this before. Not sober, anyway. I’d laugh, too, except I don’t find anything funny about my predicament.
I shake my head. “I can’t believe you didn’t figure it out.”
I thought his eyesight and his instincts were better than mine.
Andrea holds his hand against his chest as he tries to rein in his laughter. “You saw the picture. It was of a man, wasn’t it?”
“Maybe she was undercover when you took it,” I suggest.
That’s the only logical explanation I’ve been able to come up with.
Andrea shrugs. “Maybe.”
Whatever the reason, Allie got a lucky break. If Orso had known she was a woman, he would never have sent me to her house and that other killer would have had a clean shot. A fatal shot.
The thought of Allie lying on her bed with a hole between her eyes sends an unexpected chill down my spine.
If I had been just a few seconds late, I would have found her like that.
“So you can’t eliminate the target?” Andrea asks me, his expression completely somber now.
“No,” I answer without a shred of hesitation. “You know I don’t kill women.”
“Right. You don’t fuck men. You don’t kill women. You don’t make children cry.”
I frown at his mockery but say nothing.
