Page 29 of Dishonored

She didn’t even flinch when she heard the clack of a handgun being racked back.

“Say that again,” Mario urged.

Gangsters were predictable.

One had a gun, the other had a gun.

One pulled a gun, the other pulled a gun.

One threatened, and the other answered.

“Bad move, man,” Caesar said.

She had heard enough guns being fired in her lifetime that it wasn’t even a blip on her radar. Her footsteps didn’t stumble even as she reached the car at the same time she heard Mario’s dead body hit the ground with a sickening thump.

One fool gone.

Another part of her plan down.

Closer to the goal.

Aria slid into the passenger seat, and peered beyond the rim of her hat still keeping her face hidden. Mario lay dead about twenty feet away—she would have to call someone to come in quickly and grab the body, or just let the officials handle it. She certainly wouldn’t be tied to his death in anyway.

Mario didn’t really interest her.

It was the man standing with his arms crossed as he loomed above Mario’s body that drew in her attention. He didn’t looked bothered in the least, and in fact, wore the sexiest smirk she had ever seen on a man.

Arrogant asshole.

Caesar wore the look well.

She made sure to lighten her voice with a bit of air as she spoke, although she still saw how Caesar’s gaze narrowed like she sounded familiar to him, and made a careful effort to keep her hat in place as to not show her face.

“You’re going to have to answer for that, Accardo.”

“Oh? Good—I look forward to it, Aria.”

He took a step forward, and so did his friend right behind him. Aria closed the passenger door before he could come any closer, and Nico’s foot hit the gas to take them further away from the dangerously sinful man, and the problem he had just gotten rid of for them.

“At least Mario won’t be reporting back on you, now,” Nico murmured from behind the wheel.

Aria nodded, pulled off her hat, and tossed it into the backseat. “Yes, another problem gone.”

“Aren’t you concerned you’re playing with fire there?”

“How so?”

“Too many people start dying and Raffe might cut his business in Italy short to come home.”

She hid how that suggested affected her in the worst kind of way. Fear, and dread, and heaviness in her blood.

“He thinks we have this whole issue here under control—and we do.”

“Except he’s going to learn his wife’s guard was killed today with his wife nearby.”

Aria shrugged. “So we lie and say Mario was out on an errand. Crappy circumstances, and nothing more. He won’t know the difference.”

“He’ll replace your guard.”