Trained To Kill (18 page)

“
Ms. La Beau.” His voice
was like every Italian she’d ever heard. Smooth, cultured and
oozing sex. “I’m afraid I don’t know about harassment. I would
never harass a lady such as yourself.”

“
Only ladies unlike
myself?”

“
Precisely,” he laughed.
Isa was surprised by the laughter. She hadn’t expected him to be
jovial.

“
May I call you
Isadora?”

“
Sure.”

“
Isadora,” he said again.
“I have wanted to meet with you, that is all. I have much to
discuss with you.”

“
About?”

“
Well…” he hedged, “let us
say it is all about the past and perhaps the future.”

Isa was deadly quiet. The past could
only mean one thing to a man like DeCarlo. Roger Thorn.

“
I have nothing to discuss
about the past with you Mr. Santinez, and I sincerely doubt we have
any future together.”

“
You will be surprised at
what will share together in the future. I can guarantee
it.”

“
So speak.”

“
I prefer to meet in
person.”

“
I’m sure you do.” Isa
calculated the time. “Fine. Cafe Renato 30 minutes.

“
Make it 20. I have a
meeting later.”

“
Whatever you say.” Isa
hung up. Now came the hard part. Did she tell Alex or not? She
decided not. If he wanted to talk about Thorn and not Inferno, it
didn’t matter if Alex was there or not.

She hurried to get there, 20 minutes
was sometimes 40 in Manhattan. She made good time though arriving
first as far as she could tell, although the man in the back booth
was probably a scout for DeCarlo.

She sat with her back to a wall and
waited. He came in alone five minutes later. Wearing a black coat
made of cashmere, leather gloves, no hat, and a black scarf wrapped
tight around his neck. The jeans threw her as did the combat
boots.

He was Italy incarnate. Black eyes,
black hair, olive skin, cheekbones that could cut glass, and a
full, sensual mouth. He was probably what had inspired
Michelangelo.

His hair was messier than she thought
it would be. She had imagined slicked back and perfect like the
Godfather, but it was as if the wind had played with it, or
someone’s fingers.

She saw this when she had stolen his
file from the FBI, but what a picture could not convey was the
humor that danced in his eyes and the power behind them. Or the way
he carried himself with confidence and a slight dance in his step
as if he was listening to an inner music.

He spotted her immediately and smiled.
It could have melted glass. Isa watched several heads turn toward
him, and not all of them female.

He stopped at her booth and she did
not get up. “Isadora.”

“
Santinez.”

“
May I sit?”

“
Be my guest.”

He slid in gracefully across from her.
Isa saw one of his men standing outside just under the awning
smoking a cigarette, it was Skinny. DeCarlo stared at Isa
unabashedly, hungrily devouring her face with his eyes. If she
wasn’t entirely mistaken, he found her attractive.

“
I’ve been looking forward
to this meeting for a long time.”

“
Explain.” Isa demanded.
He obviously knew of her and that was alarming to her. This man was
the King of the Mafia for the whole North East. The waitress came
before he could speak again. Isa ordered coffee and DeCarlo ordered
strong, black tea.

Neither wanted food to distract from
the conversation. He didn’t speak yet, but waited for their orders,
taking the time to continue studying her face.

Finally he said, “I’ve known about you
since you were a teenager.”

Isa leaned back in her seat,
deceptively casual. She wanted to reach across and ram her coffee
cup into his eye socket. She knew exactly where this was going and
she didn’t want to hear it, but she didn’t stop him.

“
You knew
Thorn?”

“
Yes. I was just starting
out then. He offered advice and…other things,” he looked at her in
a way so that she couldn’t mistake what he was saying.

“
Me.”

He nodded briefly and looked away as
if ashamed.

“
You didn’t accept.” It
wasn’t a question. She knew he hadn’t.

“
I did not. It was
unappealing to me. I’ve not that particular taste. But I saw you
there that day and I never quite forgot about you. When I heard
about what happened, when you were injured, I was glad you had
escaped him. Truly.”

Isa was mute. She didn’t know how to
respond.

“
I have been watching over
you since then.”

Isa raised her eyebrows. She wanted
him to think this was news to her. But, it still threw her a bit.
He was good. He was very good.

“
Oh nothing obtrusive I
assure you. Simply where you were in general. How you were
doing.”

Isa cleared her throat before she
could speak. “And why is that?”

“
I felt like I owed you. I
felt responsible for you. I saw you in that house and I did
nothing. I didn’t help you. I still feel that way.” Isa saw his jaw
clench and his fingers tighten on his cup.

Isa waited. When he was silent she
asked, “Why on Earth would you feel that way? It had nothing to do
with you. In fact if what you say is true you were one of the few,
the very few, who didn’t take him up on his offer.”

“
Because I was tempted,”
he said in a low voice. “You were so beautiful. You still are,” he
said with a smile that slowly faded as he looked out the window.
“You were so young and filled with sorrow. I could see it even from
a distance. But I didn’t know how to help you. I wasn’t strong
enough then.” He looked back at Isa with his head slightly lowered
as if penitent. “I want to make it up to you now.”

Isa was perplexed. Her curiosity
outweighed her caution. “How exactly would you do that?”

“
By taking revenge on
those that did not resist as I did. I know you have taken care of a
few yourself already. But I offer my services for the rest. Whoever
you want. However you want.”

“
How…” Isa had to clear
her throat again, “how do you know that?”

He smiled somewhat sad, which was
quite terrifying.

“
I told you bella, I have
been watching over you.” Isa felt her vision shrink, she only felt
this way when she was ready to do violence. He was all she saw at
the moment. She could kill him with the spoon sitting next to her
coffee cup before his man in the booth could blink.

He saw the look on her face and
straightened in his seat, wary now. Isa kept very still, her hands
in her lap so she wasn’t tempted to reach for it. After a minute,
she calmed down and the sounds of the café came rushing back.
DeCarlo relaxed slightly, sensing her change.

“
I apologize if I’ve
offended you.”

“
Offended?” Isa asked
softly. “You’ve been watching me, following me, tried to have me
kidnapped and now you offer to kill for me.” Isa paused and lifted
her eyes from the spoon on the table to his. “I’m not sure offended
is the right word.”

“
In any case. My offer
stands, but you don’t have to accept.”

“
You will stop any and all
surveillance on me.”

“
Of course.”

Somehow she didn’t believe him and she
let it show on her face.

“
I will,” he grinned, “if
you promise to meet with me occasionally.”

“
For what
purpose?”

“
To discuss your
future.”

“
Why would I discuss my
future with you?”

He gave her a quiet, assessing look.
“You could be so much more than this you know.”

“
Than what?”

“
You own half of two
businesses, correct? You could do so much more with your time. With
your skills? You could run the Eastern Seaboard.”

“
Run? As in…?”

“
Don’t be deliberately
coy, you know what I mean.”

“
I would never do
that.”

“
Why? Because of Thorn? He
was trash. I’m talking about business.”

“
And does this business
include hurting innocent people? Ruining their lives or killing
them?”

He didn’t answer, which was all the
answer she needed.

“
It’s a business, that’s
all,” he finally said. He reached into his jacket and pulled out
his wallet, putting some cash on the table, he reached over and
caught her hand. “Bella, when you’re tired of playing detective
come and see me.” He slowly lifted her hand and kissed her
knuckles, staring into her eyes. He left without looking
back.

Isa sat and nursed another coffee for
awhile, thinking about everything he had said. They hadn’t
discussed Malone or Inferno. He had never directly said he would
kill for her. There was nothing she or Alex could use against him.
Pushing aside her cup she stood and made her way out of the café.
She walked slowly back to her car still lost in thought.

Two men. She had discussed what she
never spoke of with two men in so many days. One was in love with
her; the other offered her the mafia underworld. Cosa fare? She
thought in Italian. What to do?

Chapter 23

Two days later, Isa met Alex at his
apartment. He was in a bad mood. Malone’s lawyers had been blocking
him from re-interviewing him. He had evidence against him for using
Inferno as a front and it was looking like that would have to be
enough according to the ADA.

He had nothing on DeCarlo and Johnny
had nothing on Pruitt’s murder tying it to Malone or DeCarlo. This
was the part that Alex hated, having to settle on pleas and deals
and bad guys roamed free. But he believed in the law. Without it a
lot of innocent people would suffer. It wasn’t perfect, but it was
all they had. He was pacing in his small room, explaining things to
Isa as she sat on his bed. He was talking it out more for his own
benefit than hers. He needed to vent.

“
And the men I chased down
in that van that was following me have completely shut down. They
refuse to answer any questions. Whoever sent them must be
terrifying for them not to roll over for a deal.”

“
So, what happens
now?”

“
Now? Now I turn it over
to the ADA and my part is done until they need me to testify at the
trial.”

“
So, the case is closed
for you?”

“
Essentially. I still need
to try and track down how my cover was blown.”

They were both thinking the same
thing. Now there was nothing in Alex’s way. One of them was scared,
the other was terrified that the other was scared. Neither spoke,
but Alex crawled up the bed and sat bedside Isa, their legs
stretched out and crossed at the ankles and their hands folded over
their stomachs.

Alex gently nudged her with his foot,
“Hey.”

Isa smiled. “Hey.”

“
You wanna go to
dinner?”

“
I have a date with
James.”

Alex said nothing, but sighed with
frustration.

She hadn’t told him about DeCarlo yet
other than a quick ‘He didn’t said anything incriminating,’ when
Alex had asked. She hadn’t wanted to distract him from work, but
now that things were mostly settled she probably should.

Isa wondered how to begin. “Alex, I
need to tell you about DeCarlo. A least I think I should tell
you.”

“
What about him? You said
he didn’t incriminate himself,” he asked, distracted.

“
He didn’t. He knew me
when I was a teenager. He knew Roger Thorn.”

Alex saw red. “Did he…?”

“
No,” Isa said quickly.
“No, he never touched me. I never even met him.”

“
Oh.” Alex blew out a
quick breath to reign in his temper. “Ok, good.”

“
Anyway, he said he was
ashamed of knowing what I was going through and never helping me.
He said he has been keeping tabs on me through the years, and he
offered to kill the men that hurt me.” She said the last quickly to
get it over with.

Alex was dangerously quiet. "And?"
Alex paused. "What did you say?"

Isa thought for a minute, panicking.
Oh God what had I said? Her mind went blank.

"I don't think I said anything. I was
trying hard not to reach across the table and kill him."

Alex held up a hand to stop her.
"Table? You met with him?"

"I did. He wouldn't talk on the
phone."

"Alone?"

"Well, yes."

Alex got up off the bed, staring at
Isa with disbelief. "Are you not getting the picture
here?"

When Isa shook her head, he sighed and
rubbed his eyes. "You met with the most dangerous criminal in the
North East alone. No help, no back-up."

"Oh," Isa laughed briefly. "Alex, I
can handle myself."