Which is exactly why I’m not going to turn him down. I can’t. It is high risk, yes. But that means it will also be high reward when I succeed.
“I’m intrigued,” I answer. “I’d like to hear more—understand exactly what I’m getting myself into.”
“Of course, but you also know that I’m not going to share too many more details without some kind of assurance from you that you’ll take the job. After all, these are private matters.”
“Understood,” I say, noticing the driver had just pulled up in front of Mia’s apartment building. “I’m afraid I have another meeting that I can’t be late for right now. Can we perhaps meet tomorrow sometime?”
I leave off the part about how I need tonight to research everything I can find about Frank Angelino, Jar Omar, and Atlantic City casino security.
“Of course. I’ll have my driver pick you up at eleven. We can chat over brunch.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a business card, handing it to me.
“Have a nice evening, Ms. Key. I very much look forward to doing business with you,” he says with a gleam I don’t like in his eyes.
“Good night, Mr. Omar, and thank you for the ride.”
Chapter Seven
VALENTINA
“Hey, what took you so long? I expected you a half hour ago.” Mia greets me at the door after I’ve walked up the four flights of stairs to her apartment.
I’m grateful I hit the gym at least four days a week or I’d be out of breath.
“I took an interesting little detour,” I say, hedging my answer. I’m still thinking through all I’d learned in the car ride across town. “You have something to drink?”
I’m not really thirsty, but I want to change the subject.
After she returns from her kitchenette with two bottles of cheap beer, I go on offense in an attempt to keep her from criticizing me again for losing the tiara to Atlas the week before.
“So, what is this big news you needed to tell me in person?”
“I was at that cybercafe in Times Square doing some work today.”
“Okay, but you go there pretty often. I know the server farm you like to leverage is hidden there. Does your secret have something to do with cyber theft?”
If so, I had no idea why she’d called me into the job since she was much stronger at breaking through cyber security firewalls than I was.
“Naw, in fact…it isn’t even about one of our kind of jobs.”
She isn’t making any sense.
“Our kind of jobs? What other kinds of jobs are there you’d be interested in?”
“Wet work.”
“Wet work?” It comes out like a question, but I know what it is. What I don’t know is why Mia is talking to someone about killing people for money.
She must have sensed my confusion because she added. “I was sitting alone in the back booth where I always do my work, minding my own business, working on my laptop. I usually have my earbuds in to listen to music, but I’d forgotten them at home today.
“Then a couple security goons came in, casing the joint just before they escorted some big-wig guy in. They didn’t take a seat in the cafe, but instead walked straight to the back toward the kitchen, which just happens to be right behind where I was sitting.”
Mia pauses long enough to take a swig of beer before continuing with her story.
“At first, things were quiet enough that I couldn’t hear anything, but then the shouting started. I couldn’t see who was saying what or even who else was back there in the kitchen, but what I heard was them talking about how they demanded revenge for having their property destroyed.”
She takes a long enough break that I interject. “As riveting as this story is, I don’t understand…”
“That was when I heard the man shouting how he wanted Sebastian Rossi and his son Atlas Giannopoulos to pay. He wants them to suffer. To die.”
Okay, now she has my attention.
“People say shit like that when they’re mad. Hell, I threatened him myself when I went to confront him at The Whitney,” I reason.
“This was different. Once he’d stopped shouting, it got harder for me to hear everything, but I’m sure I heard them talking about how much it would cost to kill both of them. They even talked about how they wanted it done—in public or private—and how much the buyer wanted to make it hurt before the assassin ended them.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My mind races with the implications of what she’s told me.
Mia gets animated. “This is good news, Val. Just think about how awesome it would be to have our biggest competitors taken out. And the best part is we don’t have to pay a dime or get our hands dirty. All we need to do is sit back, keep our distance, and let things play out. Then we swoop in and reap the rewards.”