“Well, you should know we’re being watched and I’m not moving. This meal is too good.” He smiled and nodded.
I stifled a groan.
The fact that he knew we were being watched and I hadn’t even sensed it was not good. I had to be at the hotel in an hour to meet my new boss. This was supposed to be my time to gather my thoughts before I left.
“We’re not leaving,” I agreed. I hadn’t even eaten yet.
“Well I’m glad to hear that blondie.”
“Where are they?”
“Two guys to the far left. Don’t look, you’ll look obvious. They’re Giovanni’s guys.”
I cut into my steak and started eating. Once I’d swallowed, I took a sip of my wine and rested my hands on the table before me.
“I guess they’re still impressed by last night.” I could be a real show off when I wanted to be and last night I didn’t hold back.
Attention to detail was me. I damn well paid attention to everything and saw the slight outline of the cards in Giovanni’s pocket.
I was only half certain that was where he was keeping them, then got it confirmed when I watched one guy look through nearly his whole deck of cards before the poison took him. I knew then there wouldn’t be any red queens in the stacks.
Like my childhood games, it was a game of chance. Risk. I took it and seized the chance to shine. That was why these guys were here.
“I can’t say I’m loving my new job.”
Wes shook his head. “Me neither friend, but I’m here. It gets to me that I can’t do more to help.”
“I’ll be okay.”
The most Wes could do was listen in. I was going in with a virtually undetectable wire. A state of the art flesh colored spec of a device no bigger than the nib of a pen that molded to the back of my ear. It switched on and off with the tap of my finger.
Giovanni’s people would not have been able to detect it. It was something far more high tech than what Wes and I used on the usual run of the mill. Definitely impressive and most appreciated since I would have hated to get caught with something that would blow my cover. The first thing Giovanni would think was that I was a cop or a fed come to spy on him. He wouldn’t know that I was so much worse than that.
“Just gotta figure out what I need to,” I added.
Wes nodded then a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “And the girl? You mentioned she was there last night, but you didn’t elaborate.”
How observant of him. I had my reasons for not elaborating last night, or the night before and I still had them now.
Off limits…
That was what she was. Off limits to me and I needed to keep that at the forefront of my damn mind.
“Nothing to elaborate on,” I answered when he intensified his stare.
He frowned. “The woman is hot. Don’t lie to me and tell me you don’t think so. Your face the other night said different.”
Didn’t matter what my damn face looked like, she was off limits.
“Wes, drop it. Seriously, what do you think is gonna happen? I need to focus on her father.” I nodded and he pressed his lips together.
This was hard enough as it was. No point making it harder.
I knew just how hard this job could get in the sense that I might have to kill Giovanni.
I might have to kill her father and I’d already gotten more involved than I would have wanted to by showing her compassion.
I read people very well and I could see she cared deeply for him. Even though she also saw he was a cold-hearted sadistic son of a bitch.
Love always complicated things.
I got to The Grand Marchesi and was searched on entry.
Once the guards were satisfied I wasn’t carrying anything and I wasn’t any kind of threat, I was taken up to a meeting room on the tenth floor. The floor above the casino.
The room held a view of the casino through the floor to ceiling glass wall.
Great view for sure, except the woman in the room was a much better view.
Jia Marchesi wore red tonight.
Blood red. The dress she had on looked more businesslike than last night’s dress of seduction. Tonight’s dress still clung to that body of hers all the same, like it was painted on her.
With her hair pulled back into a ponytail all the attention was drawn to her high exotic cheekbones and the fan of thick black lashes cast a shadow over them as she looked me over.
The men left me inside with her and quite honestly I was a little thrown by her presence. Didn’t expect to see her at all.
She straightened up and I noticed the tray on the table with the teapot, teabags, and sachets of sugar set out invitingly.
“My father likes to have tea at this time before a meeting,” she explained.
“Really?” It was hard to imagine a man like Giovanni sitting down to drink tea.
“Yeah. It’s Earl Grey. He asked me to bring enough for you too, in case you wanted some.” She kept eye contact with me the whole time she spoke. It was a sign of confidence.
I knew I shouldn’t like that but I did.
“I’m not a tea drinker,” I replied.
The corners of her full red glossy lips tipped with the beginning of a smile. “Okay. What do you drink?”
I didn’t miss the spark of curiosity in her eyes.
“Water.”
“That’s good. People should drink more water.” She bit back a smile.
I walked closer to the table, shrugged out of my jacket and set it on the back of the chair.
She continued to watch me, observing. “Do you really play golf?” she asked.
“Yes.” I might not have played in a while but I played when I could. It was something I’d picked up over the years as a distraction.
“And do you even have a cat? You don’t look like a cat person.”
I chuckled. “What does a cat person look like?”
“Not like you. I figured you more for a low maintenance pet. Like some kind of reptile. Maybe a lizard like an iguana, or an insect like a praying mantis. Not something you’d take vacation leave for.”
“I used to have a cat.” When I was a boy I’d picked up a stray cat that reminded me of myself. I called it Winks because something was wrong with her eye. It made her wink a lot. I had her for three years until she ran away and I never found her. In my head sometimes I’m still that kid with his cat. Last night I used the reference more as a joke.
“How did you do what you did last night?”
I raised my shoulders into a shrug. “Attention to detail.”
She shook her head. “That was some off the charts attention to detail and you would have known the cards were in my father’s pocket when you drank the poison, yet you still drank it… Why’d you do that?”
“Rules of the game. Besides, I didn’t think it would go down well to go rogue on simple instructions in a job interview.”
“That wasn’t a job interview.” Darkness and dread filled her eyes and that desperation called out to me again.
It was how she’d looked last night. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she wasn’t used to the violence.
“It was to me,” I stated.
“Are you used to that sort of interview? Where you could die if you don’t get the tasks right?” She raised her brows and rested her hands on the back of the chair nearest her.