Trained To Kill (21 page)

“
Will he be able to
question him?”

“
I don’t know. He might
only get as far as DeCarlo’s lawyers.”

Alex got up to pace. There was a soft
tap outside the office door and Isa took a few steps toward the
door to see what it was. The door burst open and two men with guns
rushed in. Alex and Isa froze with their hands halfway raised. Alex
was standing by the desk, and Isa was between him and the door. She
didn’t want to him to catch a stray bullet, but she could take them
out. She acted quickly, kicking out with her left leg. She
connected with the right gunman’s hand. Using the momentum to swing
around, her roundhouse kick left other gunman’s hand empty,
effectively unarming both in seconds flat. They stood stunned for a
few heartbeats but they recovered, diving to grab their guns. Isa
went after the one on the left; Alex moved quickly to stop the one
on the right. He had his gun out in a flash.

“
Stop! Right now, I’m the
police. I’ll fucking shoot both of you, if you so much as twitch.”
Alex waited until they complied. “Against the wall. Move! On your
knees.”

They did as he said. He only had one
pair of cuffs, so he used them on the one staring death rays at
Isa.

“
Iz, get my phone call
Johnny. You,” he said to the uncuffed gunman, “on your stomach,
hands behind your head. Now!” The man moved to obey
slowly.

Isa found Johnny in Alex’s contact
list and quickly relayed the situation to him. “He’s turning
around. Sending uniforms. He said to hold tight.”

“
Yea, not much of a
choice.”

Isa put the guns on the desk and stood
with Alex, making sure they didn’t try to run. They waited without
speaking, and the two gunmen were equally as quiet, which was odd.
No pleading, no bargaining, no threats or demands. Johnny came
quickly, followed by two cops in uniform.

“
What the
hell?”

“
We have no idea. They
haven’t said a word.”

“
They didn’t say anything
when they came in?”

“
Nothing.”

“
Were they going to just
kill you?”

Alex and Isa looked at each other.
“They stopped when they came in, almost as if they were taken by
surprise and then Isa disarmed them before they could
shoot.”

“
Isa did?”

Alex and Isa nodded.

Johnny gave Isa an assessing look,
“Impressive.”

Isa gave him a small smile.

The two uniforms that came with Johnny
had hauled the two gunmen up and away in their cruiser. Johnny once
again closed his notebook and took his leave. Isa and Alex left as
well, not wanting to linger. It was starting to feel like the place
was bad luck.

“
Did you get their names?”
Isa asked.

“
No,” Alex answered. “But
I can get them once Johnny has them.

“
I can do a search on them
once we have it.”

“
Right.”

“
Something occurred to
me.”

“
Yea?”

“
What if they were a rival
gang and not DeCarlo’s men? Maybe they killed Malone
too.”

“
It could be. But it’s
just as likely DeCarlo killed Malone for his fuck-up, and those men
came to kill me for infiltrating Malone’s gang.”

“
So, back to square
one.”

“
Pretty much.”

…
..

Johnny had given Alex the names of the
two gunmen in her office, and Isa set about tracking them down. She
had a full dossier on each of them by lunch, which she emailed to
Alex. Isa heard the doorbell and went down to investigate before
Renée could. She opened the door to Rafael.

“
Don’t you work?” she
asked without so much as a hello.

“
All the time.”

She lifted an eyebrow in question, “So
this is a work visit?”

“
In a way.”

She said she wouldn’t let him in
without telling Alex, but when he showed up out of the blue it was
hard to be rude and shut the door in his face. “Come
in.”

Renée was standing in the den with a
small frown.

“
Tea please, Renée.” Renée
turned without a word and went back to the kitchen.

“
Thank you. I need to
discuss something with you that is of a delicate
nature.”

“
Delicate in what
way?”

“
In a Life or Death way.”
He paused. “Your life or death.”

Isa paused halfway to sitting in the
chair and looked up at him.

“
No no,” Rafael waved his
hand at her. “You are in no danger from me bella. But others would
harm you because of me.” He sat in the same pace as last time. Isa
didn’t want it to become a habit, but for some reason she never got
bad vibes off him, not once, and she was usually right about these
things. Which was why he was currently sitting in her living room
sipping tea and not out on his ass in the cold. She briefly
wondered how to explain it to Alex.

“
So,” Isa asked. “Who
wants me dead because of you?”

“
Carmine
Deplores.”

“
Never heard of
him.”

Rafael stopped to gather his thoughts.
“Carmine is not a nice man. He is a drug runner and gun runner. He
is not a huge player right now, but he is gaining headway. He
mainly works out of Philadelphia, but our cross paths occasionally
and, ah, let us just say there is no love lost between
us.”

“
Where do I come
in.”

“
He has vowed revenge on
me and somehow, I do not know how but believe me I will find out,
he has found out about you, about my inclination toward
you.”

Carmine wanted to use her to get to
him.

Isa didn’t speak because she didn’t
know what to say. She looked at him sitting on her sofa in all
Italian Godlike glory in his expertly cut black Armani suit with
worry and contrition in his eyes and she wanted to hate him, but
she couldn’t. God help her, he was growing on her and she didn’t
know how to stop it.

“
Well,” Isa finally said
when it was clear Rafael wasn’t continuing, “that’s an interesting
problem. How do you plan on handling it? Wait, no I don’t want to
know. Just tell me you are going to handle it, because if you
don’t, I’ll have to.”

“
I will handle it, but
that is not all I wanted to tell you.” Rafael paused again, setting
his tea down and shifting forward, his elbows on his knees. “You
asked me about Malone and Inferno?”

“
Yes.”

“
It was Carmine that
orchestrated that.”

“
So Carmine is killing
people to cover his tracks?” Isa thought for a few minutes. “Is he
working out of New York right now?”

“
I believe so. He divides
his time between here and Philadelphia.” Rafael looked into her
face with such earnestness, that Isa was taken aback. “I am truly
sorry for causing you any trouble. I never meant for you to become
entangled in my business this way.”

“
You said I would be
perfect for your business.”

“
Not like this. You are in
danger because of me, not because of your own dealings and that I
will not have.”

Isa saw in his eyes what made him the
man Rafael was. At that moment, she knew Carmine had better run
fast and far. There was power in his eyes that came from somewhere
dark, and Isa wasn’t sure she wanted to see any more of it. Her
heart started to thud harder. She didn’t know what that was all
about, and she didn’t want to. And yet, here he was trying to
protect her, pleading for her understanding and forgiveness. He
didn’t make sense to her.

Isa cleared her throat. “Well, it’s
done. I’ll take the necessary precautions against him. Do you think
he’ll come after me directly, or continue to mess with
me?”

Rafael weighed her questions before
answering, which made her satisfied he was taking this seriously,
and not just using it as an excuse to see her. “He would continue
the cat and mouse game for awhile; he likes games, but I will put a
stop to it now.” He looked at her again, but this time there was an
emotion in his eyes she didn’t want to deal with.

“
Isadora…”

“
Rafael, wait.” Isa held
up her hand. “If you’re going to talk about what I think you are,
just save it.” Isa stood up and waited for him to do the same. “I’m
not interested in hearing it,” she said with a finality in her
voice she hoped would deter him but it didn’t have the effect she
had hoped.

He laughed shortly and took a few
steps closer to her so she was forced to look up slightly, but she
refused to step back. He tilted his head and regarded her
thoughtfully for a moment. She stared him down, but his eyes moved
over her face, “Do you think I’m declaring my love for you? I’m
not. I feel like a brother to you.”

“
Then what did you want to
say?”

He simply smiled at her. “I need to
go. I will deal with Carmine but keep her eyes open,
yes?”

“
Always do.” He gave her
shoulder a light squeeze as he left.

She locked up after him and went up to
her office. She dialed Alex and waited; no answer. She text him,
telling him she had something to tell him. Fifteen minutes later he
responded with a lunch request, time and place. Good. She wanted to
talk to him in person.

Chapter 26

Alex walked in and he lit up the room.
He was so big and handsome. He radiated warmth and confidence. He
wore jeans and a black sweater with his leather jacket. Lust came
from nowhere, and it startled her. She hadn’t ever had that feeling
towards someone. Sex wasn’t exactly part of her world. She had a
third date with James and wondered if he would be reaping the
benefits of her feelings toward Alex that she refused to act on.
Not that she didn’t like James in his own way.

“
What’s up Izzy?” Isa had
ordered for them and he started eating his Reuben, waiting for her
to talk. She liked that about him. He wasn’t pushy. He was
patient.

“
DeCarlo came to my house
again this morning.”

He stopped eating in mid-bite. “Did
you let him in?”

“
Yes.” She held up a hand
to let her finish and he subsided, putting his sandwich down. “He
said he knew who was messing with The Inferno and who killed
Malone. Carmine Deplores.”

“
Carmine Deplores.” Alex
frowned. “I know him. He’s a thug, does some drug
running.”

“
He does more than that,
according to DeCarlo, and it sounds like he’s becoming a bigger
threat, and that he’s targeting me because of DeCarlo.”

“
Because of him? What do
you mean?”

“
Because DeCarlo has
feelings for me, so Deplores wants to hurt me to get to
him.”

Alex said nothing. He just stared at
her, processing what she had said. “He told you he has feelings for
you?”

“
In a way.”

“
In what way?” Alex
demanded.

Isa thought back to their
conversation. “He said he feels like a brother to me.”

“
A brother,” Alex threw
his pickle on his plate. “Do you believe him?”

“
Yes.”

Alex looked at her sideways out of the
corner of his eye, as he sat back and crossed his arms.

“
Well is this not
cozy.”

Alex was slightly startled, but Isa
had been aware of the approaching footsteps. She wasn’t going to
let her guard down now that she knew the threat was all too real
and if she was a target that meant Alex was too. Isa had sent Renée
away this afternoon. She was off to Louisiana to visit her family
until this got sorted out. Isa hadn’t taken her eyes off of Alex as
he spoke, but Alex’s hardening muscles and narrowing eyes told her
all she needed to know.

“
Rafael,” Isa spoke, still
looking at Alex. “Why are you here?”

“
I wanted to give you an
update.”

She finally tore her eyes off of
Alex’s face to see Rafael sliding into the booth across from them.
She could see The Ghost over to their right keeping his boss in his
sights, but not intruding. She narrowed her eyes at him, “I have a
phone you know.”

“
Yes, well I prefer to
discuss things in person whenever possible.”

Alex and Rafael were staring at each
other. “I see you told your poliziotto about our conversation. I
wish you hadn’t done that. The police should not be
involved.”

“
I didn’t involve the
police, I involved my friend.”

He acknowledged that with a small bob
of his head as his eyes left Alex and found hers. “Very well. But I
can’t speak freely in front of him.”

“
Then leave.”

He lifted an eyebrow as if considering
it, but stayed. He smiled blindingly and laughed. “Tu sei
qualcos'altro.” (You are something else.)

“
Si vuole parlare in
Italiano?” (You want to speak in Italian?)

“
Sì.” (Yes.)