“It sure is,” Pa answered.
“Great, so why should I work for you?” Mr. Gorgeous asked.
It was safe to say he had everyone’s attention.
Pa chuckled. “Boy, either you’re not very bright or you have a death wish.”
“I wasn’t aware there was any sort of threat here.” He threw back returning the smile and I knew I shouldn’t allow the beauty in his smile to do anything to me but I couldn’t help it.
Pa laughed louder. “We have ourselves a comedian here, people. A comedian I’m starting to like. If you don’t see me as a threat, then that’s good for you, but you may be wary of the poison. You should be aware that you have roughly two and a half minutes before you die like the others.”
“Thanks for the info, that’s sufficient time to establish whether or not I want to work for you. So tell me the job specs. Do I get a company car, vacation leave, stuff like that?”
“Vacation leave?”
“I play golf, and I have a cat who likes the beach,” Mr. Gorgeous answered as simply as that.
I almost laughed. There were a few snickers across the room.
“You get twenty five days and a company car.”
“Perfect.” He walked up to Armand and did that shuffle thing again.
This time he reminded me of Gambit from X-Men. My cousin Donny watched it religiously every day after school when we were kids.
This guy looked like the character with his mad card skills.
Once he shuffled the deck he gave it to Armand and walked right up to Pa.
I gasped and a ripple of whispers fluttered over the room when he reached into the pocket on Pa’s jacket and pulled out the three red queens.
“Here you go Sir, here are your queens.”
Everyone was stunned. I didn’t know how he knew.
Pa nodded and stunned everyone further by clapping.
“So, when can I start?” Mr. Gorgeous asked.
“Tomorrow at eight,” Pa answered and handed him a little white pill he pulled from his pocket.
Mr. Gorgeous took it, tossed it in his mouth and gave Pa a lopsided grin. “Cool, see you then.”
Before he left his gaze shifted to me, but only for a split second.
A split second, but heat washed over me.
All that time and I still didn’t know his name.
Who was he?
Chapter Seven
Xander
Considering I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about her, I wasn’t doing a very good job.
Jia hadn’t left my damn mind.
Never mind the part about being totally taken by her beauty but I was as unprepared to see her last night as her father had been.
She really shouldn’t have been there and if I were him I would have done more to get her out of the place before the show began.
Fucking Ethan, forgot to tell me Giovanni was crazy.
I’d heard Giovanni had some unsavory habits, that he could be unpredictable. Last night however, was something else.
Even I had to admit that last night was of the inhumane variety.
It was clear Giovanni had no intention of showing Jia or anybody else any sympathy. I just chose to be the one to do it, giving her the compassion he should have shown.
Tonight was round two. A bigger night than last night for it being my first night on the job.
To make sure I went in with a level head I’d decided on having dinner with Wes first.
I watched him cut into his steak and pop a slice into his mouth. He held up a finger and nodded with satisfaction.
“This is so good. Oh, so good. Better than what we would have gotten in Rio and better than sex,” he stated.
I shook my head at him. Wes and steak. I’d never known anybody to love steak as much as him.
“Man if you think a piece of steak can be better than sex, there’s something you aren’t doing right.”
He wagged his finger and blinked several times at me. “Nah man, I treat my ladies just right and I know what I’m talking about. This steak is divine.”
“God, you are something else Wes.”
I continued to watch him tucking into his meal.
I couldn’t blame him, it felt like days since we’d had anything decent. Even I was happy for the steak we were eating in the five star restaurant my best friend had chosen.
It was my treat for the shit we’d landed ourselves in.
I had to call it shit because, damn it to hell, what else could it be called with Giovanni’s crazy ass?
I’d never been in a situation like last night before, and thank God I’d developed a good stomach over the years to counteract the fucking poison I’d drunk.
Thank fuck I had, because I would have at least turned pale or green like one of the other guys.
The years of eating whatever I could in the desert and building up an immunity had made me hard. Would have still killed me within the four minutes though if I didn’t get the antidote. I could feel it starting to shut me down, but I put on a good show of playing Mr. Cool.
“You know what…I’ve been thinking about this whole mission,” Wes stated, cutting into my thoughts. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Great, he seemed to be working overtime to rattle me. “Nothing ever feels right Wes.”
He leaned forward and set down his utensils. “Xander, it just feels like a big mess and I hate that there are no specifics. What about the bigger picture?” He frowned.
“Bigger picture?” I asked. I knew where he was going with this because I’d considered it myself. I just thought I had enough on my plate and wanted to focus on one thing at a time. Especially since I had just got my foot through the door with Giovanni.
“Yeah.” He leaned closer and whispered. “Like knowing who Giovanni is working for. I know Ethan has people working on figuring that out, but I hate the lack of information. We don’t have a time scale. We just know we have to work fast. It’s not good enough.” He shrugged.
“Wes, it’s not ideal but the way the unit works is to identify a problem and nip it straight away. That eliminates the bigger picture. I get the prints and there is no big picture.”
That was true. Which was why I was focusing on the parts I needed to.
“Just like that? And intel? Intel can be wrong you know.”
I nodded. “Yes, intel can definitely be wrong but we have to go with what we know.”
“And, that’s the problem I have. It feels like we don’t know enough. Come on Xander if this was you and me we’d be looking at people like The Chameleon? Get to the head and see what the rest of the body is doing.”
He wasn’t wrong but it didn’t work that way. This was my world. Working with the unknown and filling in the blanks. It was different.
“Everything you’re saying makes sense. You are right, but in all my time I’ve never known anyone to be successful in locating The Chameleon for more than five minutes in any location. Ethan is going with what can be localized and contained.”
“I hear you but there’s gonna be a point where things start moving along and you won’t know what’s happening because we don’t know the bigger picture.”
This was all going to be hard.
“I just have to focus.”