Mr. and Mrs. Rossi

Now we’re getting somewhere, she thought to herself. “What?”

“Your niece was at the same restaurant as me the other night. I am afraid she may have overheard me and a business partner.”

“Well, even if what you’re saying is true—”

“It’s true,” Christopher snapped, interrupting her. “There was no fate meeting between you and Dante Rossi. He’s been obsessed with my business partner for quite some time and has no business being here.”

Keep talking, she thought. “Are you in some sort of business the FBI wants? I mean, should I be afraid?”

“I am a legitimate business,” Christopher slid closer toward her. “And you have nothing to be afraid of when you’re with me.”

The car stopped moving. Several men leaned against the car, their backs turned toward them, “Is that why you’re so heavily guarded?”

Christopher’s chuckle echoed in the space between them. “The man I’m getting into business with may not be on the legal or sane side,” he slipped his finger down the slope of her nose, “and one can never be too careful. But I promise, you will be safe as long as you’re with me.”

“Is that why you took me from my friend?”

“Julio Torres?”

“How do you know the mayor?”

“I’ve approached him about bringing more business to this town, give it a nice Mexican touch, tu sabes?”

“I understand,” Harley smiled. “And would your Mexican touch have anything to do with my parent’s beach house getting blown up?”

Christopher held his hands up in surrender, “Again, this partner of mine isn’t playing with a full deck of cards. I wouldn’t hurt your niece or you.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“I saw something in you when you came with your pistol loaded.”

Harley forced herself to blush, or at least pretend to. She covered her face with both hands and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You must have thought I was crazy.”

“Only crazy when your husband stepped forward.”

“Oh, him.”

“How would you like to proceed with him?”

“What do you mean?” Harley dropped her hands and blinked all doe-eyed.

“I can help you divorce him or I can make you a widow.”

Chapter 12

The clock tower over City Hall rang at exactly midnight, just one ding but enough to set Dante’s feet in motion like a runner at a race. Go time. His fingers twitched by his side as the club doors opened. His eyes darted left and right for a familiar glance of the boy he met once.

“You seem agitated,” Tito glanced down at Dante’s fingers.

Dante realized his fingers hovered over the button on the holster strapped to his thigh. “I’m good.”

“I don’t think so,” said Tito.

The two men waited in the dark on the hood of Harley’s car. She’d left it in a prime parking space on the street giving them the perfect line of view for the doors to open at Vuelo. Had Dante gotten a head start, he would have chosen this spot as well. Once again their minds were on the same level. They both came here tonight to find Javier and they both kept their professions a secret. The difference is he did not think she was a douche for doing so. “You’re unfocused,” Tito went on. “Man, this is why I stay broad free.”

“She’s not just any broad,” Dante growled.

The Intel Dante received from Cole, albeit a day too late, Harley Tomasello was classified. Cole worked his people and learned she earned her stripes through the military straight out of high school and picked up by the government as soon as basic training ended. She’d never seen war overseas and worked as a homeland security agent for the terrorist unit. Their paths never crossed because she stayed stateside. All her missions had been in Florida and floated from coast to coast and from the tip of Key West all the way to the Florida/Alabama border. No surprise she had a one hundred percent arrest rate. She never let one slide—unlike he had with Leonardo.