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I stand and roll my shoulders. The next twenty minutes are going to be busy.
I lift a hand holding my gun and point it to his forehead. His eyes cloud with terror, pupils dilated. His face is drained of color, a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead. “Please. Don’t do this. I can give?—”
The sound of a bullet being fired reverberates in the room, and that leaves me a few precious seconds before his men come for me. Well, then. Time to get to work.
Exactly ten minutes later, the three women crowd in a car and speed away, leaving me to watch the explosion blowing out bits of glass from the first and second floor, fire belching out.
The second I hear the sirens, I drive back home … home to Lila.
Mission accomplished.
Lila waitsoutside the house and watches me approach. Her beautiful face is tense and etched with concern. Her lips are pressed into a thin line, the muscles in her neck taut and visible.
The ends of her white dress flutter in the breeze, and she looks breathtaking. Well, except for the way she shifts her weight from one foot to the other, wringing her hands in front of her.
I haven’t fully gotten out of the car yet when she flings herself to me. “God, I was so worried, Luca. You told me you had an errand, but it’s been four hours.” She pulls back, scanning my face and touching a spot on my cheek. “You have blood here. Is this yours?”
“No.”
Shock ripples across her face, and she nods. “Then that’s good enough for me. Let’s go inside and get you cleaned up.”
The image of her worried sick as she waited for me to come home floats in my mind’s eye. I imagine her sitting anxiously, wondering if I’m going to step inside the door or if my handler will tell her where to pick up my body.
Jesus Christ.
I don’t want this for her. It was fine before since no one ever worried about me, and I didn’t worry about anyone else.
But things are different now. My life is about to head in a different direction with her. Of course, it’s with her. The only way I’m leaving my old life and trading it with a new one is if Lila’s with me.
She’s all that matters.
6
LILA
“Sweetheart, how are you?” Mom doesn’t look at me. Instead, she’s staring at the mirror beside her phone, applying her mascara.
“I’m fine, Mom.”
Luca and I agreed not to tell them about the intruders until the matter was resolved. That’s why it has taken only now to contact them via a video call. From the background noise and the way Mom tries to keep the phone steady, it seems like they’re in the middle of the ocean.
“Is Luca there? Was Dalton taken care of?” Phillip calls out from behind her, buttoning a white shirt.
Luca is beside me in an instant, his eyes flooding with anger. “What do you mean? You knew it was Dalton who sent the men to your house this whole time?”
None of them are looking at us. Mom continues to swipe her lips with red lipstick while Phillip fumbles with his tie. “Ah, so he did come through with his threat.”
“What do you mean?” Luca stresses each word, fury radiating off him in waves.
Phillip heaves a sigh and turns to us. “Why the hell do you think I ran like the devil was on my heels? The fucker sent me a death threat.”
“And you didn’t think to mention it before?”
Phillip taps Mom to make her scoot to the side so he can sit in front of the phone. “I know you make money off killing people, Luca, and that bodyguard gig was bullshit, and I knew if I asked for help, you wouldn’t give it to me.”
“You wanted me to kill someone you scammed?”
Phillip waves a hand. “That’s not honest money anyway.”
