On The Rocks (42 page)

But Naima wasn’t on his six. Instead, she
gasped like she’d discovered a new planet. “That’s her, ain’t it?
Xander’s secret woman?
She’s
Metis?” A soft chuckle. “When
our man steps in it, he
really
steps in it, dun’he?”

Stepping in it was worth it though, pending
you found somebody worth stepping in it for.

Instead of responding, Phil focused his
attention back to the issue at hand. They had a couple of levels
and a stretch of driveway to traverse before they could get to the
car. And god knew how many of Abrahan’s goons between here and
there.

“I don’t think I can kick
her
arse…”
she said, hooking her fingers into the waistband of his slacks.
“We’re leavin’ him?”

“Yeah,” he said, repeated, “My six.”

Xander would give his life to get Kizzie
out.

Now it was Phil’s duty to do the same for
Naima.

Footfalls raced by outside the door, and
then the steady staccato as dress shoes clacked down the
stairway.

After two beats, Phil eased the door open
and peered down the hallway.

Empty.

Guns up, he stepped out with Naima right
behind him. They hit the stairwell and started to climb.

26

ON THE NORTH end of the house, Sanzio rushed
two levels up the main staircase, fuming all the while.

Music pounded the walls, some form of
electronica blaring from Abrahan’s surround sound. The kind of
pulse-pounding bass and high-pitched tones that went with laser
lights and fog machines.

Sanzio had been in enough clubs to picture
the atmosphere up there, all those sweaty bodies grinding on each
other. The slick press of hands and hips and chests. He’d been
drawn to that life like the proverbial moth, spending night after
night dancing his troubles away. Sometimes when he got home, his
blood would be so polluted with alcohol he ended up face-down on
the floor, sleeping off the hangover. Those had been good
times.

Boom…Boom…Boom…

The rhythmic base pumped in time with his
revving heart. Pounded in his skull, keeping tempo with his
anger.

Pop…Pop…Pop…

The crowd screamed.

God! Couldn’t someone turn that shit off?
There was so much noise he couldn’t
think!

Bypassing his bedroom, he stomped down the
hallway, pushing aside the excitement and fun. Let his rage focus
him.

All he’d wanted his entire life was for
Abrahan to respect him. For him to say “Good job,
maninho,
I
knew I could count on you.
”

Not once had his brother given him that. Not
when Sanzio was a runner for
Os Cães,
and not as a partner
in their current enterprise.

No, all Abrahan ever did was point out
Sanzio’s errors. Point out all the ways Sanzio wasn’t good enough.
All the ways
he
was better. Here Abrahan was, living like a
king in the belly, keeping the lion’s share of the spoils earned
from work they’d done
together
. Meanwhile, Sanzio had only
his apartment in Belém to show for it.

That was Abrahan’s way. Always embarrassing
Sanzio to make himself look better. Always the first to do
everything, to have everything. Only tossing the scraps to Sanzio
and expecting him to make do.

Tonight was the final straw. Sanzio could
ignore it no more.

“The
forasteiro
was a more trusted
partner than me,” he muttered.

How could Abrahan do that? How could his big
brother put someone before him? Have no faith in him when it was
Sanzio who had warned him about the outsider all along?

Fine. Abrahan didn’t think he had the stones
to succeed at anything? He’d take the one prize his brother didn’t
even know they were competing over.

“Sabine?” He rapped on Abrahan’s bedroom
door and then pushed his way inside. “
Fava
?”

Across the wide expanse, Sabine sat on the
king-size bed, staring out the wall of glass that mirrored the one
down in her husband’s office. Her gorgeous white gown was gone.
Instead, she was dressed in all black— something he’d never seen
before, and honestly didn’t care for.

She turned to him slowly, a pensive look on
her beautiful face.

“I thought you wouldn’t come,” she breathed.
“I thought you’d changed— What’s wrong?”

“We must go. Now,” he snapped. “Where are
your bags?”

“Sanzio, tell me, what has happened?” She
pushed from the bed and came to him. Her delicate fingers curled
over his biceps and she held him gently. “What is it?”

“Metis is here.”

Her eyes widened. Then her brows drew down
low and tight over them and her voice lost its whimsy for something
rougher. “Are you certain?”

He’d said it, hadn’t’ he? Why did everyone
question his abilities?

Enough already. It was time he took a stand
for himself. He would no longer have to tolerate Abrahan’s abuses,
and he absolutely wouldn’t take any from Sabine.

“You will watch you mouth or I will smack
you in it.”

She pulled back.

Good. Now she understood he meant
business.

“I’m just trying to understand, my love,”
she said in that quiet way of hers.

“Where are your bags?” he asked roughly.

Sabine spun away, digging into the tote he’d
seen her carry so often. She pulled out a cell phone and thumbed
over the screen.

“What…? Who are you calling?”

She didn’t respond, and he marched
closer.

“Sabine,” he said sharply. He snatched the
phone away. Glanced at the display.

In the small rectangle, Abrahan’s office was
clear as day. His brother was at his desk, pecking frantically at
the computer.

His head snapped up. “
You
? You’ve
been spying on my brother?”

How could she betray Abrahan like this?
Betray
him
like this?

“Please, Sanzio,” she begged. Tears filled
her eyes and her chin trembled. “You don’t understand. I
had
to. They made me! It was the only way we could be together.”
Sabine’s rapid-fire words choked off on a sob.

Backing away, Sanzio shook his head. He
could never forgive her for this. And he had a feeling his brother
wouldn’t either.

Abrahan would be pleased when Sanzio brought
him this information.

He spun on his heel and hurried to the
door.

He had to tell his brother. Had to expose
the leak in their operation.

See, Abrahan
did
need him,
could
count on—

Pop… Pop… Pop…

Sanzio jerked forward, body doing an
uncoordinated dance to music he couldn’t hear.

Then, the floor was rushing up way too fast.
His face smashed the marble hard and bounced—

Boom…Boom…Boom….

He really wanted to take a nap.

And he hadn’t even had a drink.

SABINE LOWERED THE pistol and eyed her
handiwork.

Hmm… Pretty close to center mass. Not bad
for being six months out of practice. With the music, she didn’t
even bother with the sound suppressor. Made shoving the gun into
her travel bag all the easier.

Glancing around the room, she double-checked
that she had everything she needed. All her clothes hung in the
closet, just the black jeans, tee shirt, and hoodie until she got
to her next destination. Kind of a bummer too. She’d been pretty
proud of the wardrobe she’d accumulated with Abrahan’s help. The
man was meticulous about clothing, and nothing made a girl happier
than an amazing wardrobe.

Except for rocks.

Huge, glittery,
really
expensive,
diamond rocks.

Unable to resist, she dug a hand into her
tote, pushed aside a few stacks of cash, and pulled out the blue
velvet pouch. She untied the strings and peered into the deep
bowl.

The stones inside clicked together, catching
only the gentle light coming from the overhead halogens. Still,
their subtle winks were a sight to behold. She couldn’t keep them
—they weren’t hers, after all— well,
maybe
she'd pilfer one
or two— but, man, was it nice to have all those sparklies in her
bag.

More important matters to deal with, Sabine
tied the pouch off and returned it to her tote.

She prized her phone from Sanzio’s grip and
pressed two fingers to his neck. His pulse was faint. He’d bleed
out soon enough.

A shame, really. The guy couldn’t kiss worth
shit, but he had a decent stroke on him…

Eyeing the phone she confirmed the woman
posing as Metis was still in with Abrahan. She was supposed to off
him, too, but by the looks of things, the hubbie would be occupied
for a while. So she could leave this place.

Finally.

Went on too long if you asked her, not that
anybody would. That's not how the Delegation worked. She went where
they told her, for as long as they told her, and didn’t ask a
question in return.

A swipe and a few icon taps later, a blue
dot appeared on the screen. The target appeared to be a couple
miles away. One more stop and then it was out of Italy for
good.

Sabine stepped over Sanzio’s body and
hurried down the hallway. She mounted the steps that would take her
to ground level and then jogged the distance over to the
garage.

At the valet box she paused, a new problem
on her mind.

Should she take the Tesla or the
McLaren?

27

JUDGING BY THE clock on the wall, Kizzie had
about five minutes left to live. Abrahan had plugged that ring in
roughly two minutes back, and if Xander's hack took as long as her
manual one would have, five minutes was a pretty good
estimation.

Of course, judging by the shade of red
spreading across Abrahan's face, she'd be cookies in about one.

She knew the moment she got Xander and his
wife out of here this would be her fate. And, honestly, she wasn't
sad about it. Felt kinda good knowing she did what needed to be
done. Saved some lives.

Saved
his
life.

Or at least she hoped she had. No way to be
certain. But one thing was for sure.

“I'm gonna haunt the
shit
out of
Lennox,” she muttered.

Did St. Peter hand out chains? 'Cause she
was
sooo
gonna be one of those ghosts that carried around a
chain.

Assuming, of course, she was headed up.

But just in case, who in The Hell handled
chain distribution? She needed one as soon as she crossed over and
got her toesies all warm…

Abrahan snapped his head around and stabbed
his evil gaze through her head. “The money has been
transferred.”

She smiled. “Then I believe this concludes
our transaction. I'll just be on my way.” She took a step forward
but the enforcer who owed her dinner and a movie was on her ass in
a heartbeat. Can't blame a girl for trying.

He stomped his foot behind her knee and she
buckled, slamming the caps down hard on the marble floor for the
second time this evening. A hand in her hair, he yanked back hard
enough to make her scalp scream. Then he had her arms in his hands
and there was no breaking out of the fleshy cuffs.

Kizzie searched her brain for a move. Being
at peace with dying didn't mean she actually wanted to. But there
wasn't enough fast talk in the world to get her out of this
jam.

Abrahan stalked over from his desk, blade in
hand, unfastening his cuff links. He stopped before her, fancy
shoes scuffing against the floor, and dropped into a crouch.

“This is going to be loud, and it’s going to
be messy,” he assured with a wicked smile. He massaged the delicate
shell of her ear between his fingers, then tugged it away from her
head sharply.

Kizzie hissed.

“And I am going to make it hurt.”

She tried to squirm away from him. The man
behind her held her firmly, both arms pulled behind her back so
tightly her shoulders ached.

Abrahan continued with his threats. “You are
going to think you were dead, the pain will be so intense. And just
when the fire stops on this side and you adjust to your muted
hearing, we’ll start again with the other.”

Awesome. She’d have her own built-in
bullshit filter.

“But don’t you worry.” His hard eyes met
hers straight on. “I won’t feel a thing.”

He addressed someone she couldn’t see. “Open
the doors. I don’t want to hear her screams.”

The whir of a motor started up, and then the
room took on a chill that rivaled the one already inching down her
spine. Death was one thing. Torture
and then
death?
Overkill.

She actually laughed in her head at the
pun.

Which let her know she was bordering on
delirious. The training manual instructed agents to keep calm in
situations such as this, but the training manual wasn’t about to
have its pages ripped out by a crazy fucker with a ‘let’s-be-twins’
fetish.

Abrahan moved back into her line of sight,
the sleeves of his fine shirt rolled up revealing thick forearms
covered in dark hair. Different guy, different situation, that
sight might’ve been a turn on. But, yeah, that knife and the
prospect of losing an ear threw that completely out the window.

Speaking of which, Kizzie was pretty sure
those walls hadn’t been popped open just to cover her screams. It
was cold out, but not windy, so the only sound was the steady,
rhythmic lap of water on the rocks way down below. Pretty safe bet
that after she no longer needed her earring collection she was
going to get to see gravity at work in a very painful, very
permanent kind of way.

Huh. Turned out, when properly motivated,
she was afraid of heights after all…

Abrahan palmed her ear once more, and this
time he pulled so damn hard he wouldn’t need the knife to peel it
free of her head. Fear flooded into her belly and her breath
tripped in her chest.