The Hitwoman and the Family Jewels (2 page)

I wasn’t sure I believed him. I’d read too many stories about his exploits in the newspaper. Still, I kept my mouth shut.

“This guy is like you.”

I cringed. I would have liked to argue with him, but I knew in my heart he was probably right. I was a paid killer, no better than this dirty cop he was talking about. The thought made me sick to my stomach, and I pushed away the remainder of the chocolate pudding.

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.” Delveccio reached across the table and covered my hand with his. The cold gold of his massive pinky ring branded me. “I just meant he works on a per-contract basis. He doesn’t have your standards, but he does meet your conditions. I can’t think of anyone else to give this job to…not after the work you did on Garcia.”

That’s the drug dealer he thinks I killed, but I really didn’t. I probably shouldn’t have taken the credit for whacking him, but I hadn’t been able to turn down the payday. Not with Katie’s medical bills multiplying faster than bunny rabbits.

“I don’t think—”

He held up a finger in front of my face to silence me. “I’d consider it a
personal
favor if you did this one.”

I swallowed hard, suddenly getting the impression I was on very thin ice. “Does that mean you’re not planning on paying me?”

Delveccio leaned back in his seat, observing me through narrowed eyes. “You are one ballsy broad.”

“I thought that’s why you like me.”

“That and because you’re damn good at what you do.”

I smiled tightly, knowing he meant it as a compliment. I’m not proud of my work. I consider it to be a necessary evil, but I don’t enjoy any aspect of it…except for being able to pay for my niece’s care.

“You’ll get paid.”

“So the personal favor part?”

“Means you can’t refuse the request.” Folding his arms over his chest, he tilted his head toward his bodyguard who was engrossed in the study of his bulging bicep. “Otherwise I might have to let Vinnie convince you to do me the favor.”

A chill skittered down my spine that had nothing to do with the hospital’s overzealous use of air conditioning. “So tell me about this cop you want me to kill.”

He glanced at his Rolex. “Visiting hours just started.” He pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet. “Our mutual friend will give you all the details you need. I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding.”

He ambled away leaving me with a half-eaten pudding on the table and a terrible knot in my stomach. I’d been in some pretty sticky situations since meeting the Deadly Don, but this was the first time I’d actually been afraid of the man.

After a few minutes, feeling utterly demoralized by the situation I found myself stuck in, I dragged my way to Katie’s room. I made sure not to make eye contact with Vinnie who was doing push-ups against the wall outside the room Delveccio’s grandson was in.

Katie wasn’t alone in her room. Aunt Loretta and her fiancée Templeton the Rat (okay, not his real name, but he is rodent-like) were playing gin at the end of her bed.

“Hello, Maggie.” Loretta tilted her cheek toward me expecting a kiss.

“Who’s winning?” I asked, pressing my lips into a quarter-inch of face powder. Look up “vain” in the dictionary and you’ll probably find a picture of my aunt. She thinks she’s a sex kitten, but closing in on sixty, she just looks like someone who’s trying too hard.

Blinking her false eyelashes at her opponent/lover, she cooed, “I hope to be soon. But first I have to use the little girl’s room.”

Her stilettoes click-clacked across the floor as she tottered out of the room.

Walking up to the head of the bed, I stroked Katie’s cheek with the back of two fingers. The evidence of the accident, scratches and bruises and an awful skull cast, that had marred her face were now gone. She looked like a four-year-old who was taking a nap. “Wake up, Baby Girl. Aunt Maggie’s here.”

Her eyes snapped open and stared at me, but there was no emotion in her gaze, no recognition.

I did my best to smile down at her. A lump stuck in my throat, preventing me from speaking for a moment. Every day she’d remained in a coma, I’d worried I’d never see her baby blues again. Now I dreaded the possibility that I might never see her smile, or hear her laugh again.

“Damndest thing, that.” Templeton put his cards down on the bed and stood to get a better look. “She didn’t react when Loretta came in or when the nurse was fixing her pillows.”

“Really?” I didn’t believe most of what came out of Templeton’s mouth, but I was intrigued by his observation.

He nodded. “She never opens her eyes when we’re here. Frankly, the sisters have started to wonder if maybe you made up the change in her condition.”

“Sisters plural? Or Aunt Susan?”

He shrugged and looked away. He didn’t need to confirm my suspicion. Aunt Susan had made it clear that she was concerned I was taking after my mother and was losing my mind. She based her assumption on the fact I’ve adopted Doomsday. (She hates dogs.) I was a bit worried that she might not be wrong…after all, I was conversing with animals and going around killing men.

“Are you sure you don’t need help moving in?”

“No thanks.” This was the last night I’d be sleeping in my own bed for a while. The next day I’d be calling my aunts’ bed and breakfast my official residence. “I’m not bringing that much stuff with me.”

“I’m sure Paul would be happy to help you.”

I narrowed my eyes at the man standing on the other side of my niece’s bed. “You’re more of a matchmaker than Loretta is.”

He smiled. “When someone is in love, they want the whole world to be in love too.”

Loretta came back in. “Who’s in love?”

Templeton hurried to her side and wrapped his arms around her. “We are, honeybunch.”

My gag reflex kicked in. I turned away before I retched in their faces.

“Oh, I thought maybe Maggie was in love. You know dear, Paul could help you move in tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s been suggested.”

“And shot down,” Templeton said. “Let’s give these two a little time together, ‘Retta.”

“But we just got here.”

“And it’s Maggie’s day off. Let her get her visit in so the poor girl has the rest of her day free to live her life.”

I mouthed “thank you” to Templeton as he led my aunt away.

Maybe he wasn’t all that bad.

And he was right, I did have plans for the rest of the day, but they had nothing to do with living my life. Rather they were about how to take someone else’s.

“Bring the dog.”

That’s what Patrick Mulligan had told me when we’d arranged our meeting. I wasn’t quite sure why he wanted Doomsday there, and I almost left her at home just to prove I had a say in what happened in our meetings, but I caved and brought her anyway.

When I’d told God I was bringing the mutt to the rendezvous with my murder-mentor, he’d wanted to come along. I’d refused, explaining that when I finished with Patrick, I’d be heading to the B&B to unload some of the garbage bags full of my belongings. The lizard accused me of abandoning him. I told him to quit whining or I wouldn’t leave the television on for him when I left. He sulked and hid and didn’t even say good-bye when I headed out, balancing a box full of shoes under one arm, while hanging onto Doomsday’s leash with the other.

Apprehensive about seeing Patrick again after his rejection in Atlantic City, I circled the mall twice before pulling into the parking lot, arriving fifteen minutes late. He pulled up in yet another car I’d never seen before and motioned for Doomsday and me to hop in. I’ve asked him where his never-ending supply of vehicles comes from, but he’s always evasive.

I double-checked to make sure my vehicle was locked. There was no telling who might want to steal the box of smelly, used shoes I’d stowed on the floor of the front passenger seat.

Then I opened the door to the backseat of Patrick’s car du jour and Doomsday bounded in. She greeted the redheaded cop/hitman with kisses. Since the headrest separated them, she basically licked the back of his right ear.

I climbed into the passenger seat, taking care not to make eye contact with him. “DeeDee, stop that!” I swatted at her, but she ignored me.

“She’s just excited is all.” He lowered the rear window halfway, effectively distracting the pooch. She immediately stuck her nose through the opening and sniffed the air, which I assumed smelled of the rancid grease from the food court.

“Everything okay?” Putting the car into drive, he pulled away from mall. “It’s not like you to show up late.”

“I had things to do,” I murmured, staring out the window.

“I’m sorry I haven’t called.”

I shrugged. “You’ve been busy. I’ve been busy.”

He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “How are you, Mags?”

“Fine, and you?” I delivered the response with just the right amount of cool civility…just like I’d practiced in front of my mirror, having predetermined I wasn’t going to make a fool of myself. Again.

Tension filled the car as we both avoided the fiasco that had been our trip to Atlantic City. I’d practically thrown myself at Patrick and he’d politely rebuffed my advances. The memory of my mortification made my cheeks burn.

He glanced sideways at me. “You’re okay with Delveccio’s personal favor?”

I shrugged, secretly glad he wasn’t going to rehash the embarrassing incident.

“Mags?”

“What?”

“I asked you a question.”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot you were watching the road and not me.”

“So…?”

“I don’t see that I have a choice. He threatened to sic Vinnie on me if I don’t do what he asked.”

“Who’s Vinnie?”

“You know, his bodyguard. Big muscle-head guy with the IQ of a gorilla…which, no offense to gorillas, he sort of reminds me of.”

“He didn’t tell you who the target is?”

Patrick’s tone was so deliberately bland it made me grind my teeth. “Let’s say what we’re really talking about here. We’re talking about killing a cop.”

“How’s your niece?”

His abrupt change of topic made my head spin. “What?”

“Katie. How’s she doing?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“Can’t get anything past you, Mags.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to get into an argument with you while we’re trapped inside a car.”

“Who said we’re going to argue?”

He didn’t say anything, just stared straight ahead at the road in front of him. We sat like that, in frosty silence, for a couple of minutes.

Grudgingly, I finally answered his question. “Her condition hasn’t improved much since she opened her eyes. No decline. She just isn’t getting better.”

“That must be frustrating for you.”

Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhaled through pursed lips. “Life is frustrating for me. I hate my job and I really, really,
really
don’t want to move back in with my aunts, but it’s the best chance I’ve got to hold on to Katie.”

Hearing my litany of woes, Doomsday pulled her head back into the vehicle and licked the back of my neck. I reached back and patted her head, grateful for the canine’s comfort.

“Dogs can sense when someone’s upset,” Patrick said.

“She’d better get used to this being my permanent state.”

Taking his right hand off the steering wheel, my murder mentor patted my knee. “You’re not alone in this.”

Plucking his hand off my knee, I dropped it back in his lap. He’d made his feelings clear in Atlantic City and I wasn’t going to repeat the mistake of mixing business with pleasure. “Where are we going?”

“The barn.”

“More shooting lessons?” Not long after we’d met, Patrick had taught me how to use a gun at the barn. Even though it had only been a couple of months, it felt like a lifetime ago.

“Hand-to-hand combat.”

My stomach fluttered. The last time we’d been at the barn I’d entertained a roll in the hay with him. Of course that had been before I’d discovered he was married…to two women. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea.”

“It’s a great idea. You need the training, the mutt can run around in the field, and it’ll give you the excuse to hit something.”

“Grass DeeDee!” the dog whined from the back seat.

“Easy, girl.” Patrick reached back to rub her snout. “We’re almost there.”

“I don’t need to hit anything,” I told him.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Uh huh. Are you giving up your apartment?”

“No. My lease is good for another six months. I’m not moving any of my furniture or anything out. Just my clothes.”

“So if you lose custody, you can move out of your aunts’ place.”

“I won’t lose.” I couldn’t. Not after everything I’d done to provide the best for Katie. Not after who I’d become…a woman who killed people for money.

“Okay. Okay.” He turned the car down an unpaved lane.

We were almost there.

“So tell me about this cop I’m supposed to kill.”

Patrick’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, turning his knuckles white.

“Do you know him?”

“In passing.”

“And do you think Delveccio is right about him? Do you believe he’s a contract killer who goes around murdering innocent witnesses?”

His nod was so tight it was almost imperceptible. Pulling to a stop outside the barn, Patrick practically leapt out of the car. Opening the rear door, he told Doomsday, “Okay, DeeDee. You can go run, but be a good girl and come back when we call you.”

“Grass! Grass!” the Doberman panted and then took off.

I got out of the car and walked around to the trunk knowing that my favorite hitman would have bags of supplies for us to carry into the barn. Patrick was watching the dog bound away. Once she was out of sight he turned to face me.

Cupping his fingers beneath my chin, he gently tilted my head back so he could get a better look at me. For a second I got lost in his green gaze.

“You look like hell, Mags.” He whispered the words, but they felt like a slap across the face.

Cheeks burning, I jerked free of his grip, and spun away from him. Unwilling to tell him how much his rejection in Atlantic City had stung.

“When’s the last time you got a decent night’s sleep?”