“Unless you care less about this bitch than I care about my partner, I’d suggest you drop the gun,” Skinny said.
Nico looked up, caught sight of Angel with the gun to her head, and dropped the weapon.
Beefy straightened, messaging his arm, and took the gun back from Nico, then cracked it hard across Nico’s face. A cut opened up over his eye, and blood streamed down his cheek.
“Now that wasn’t polite,” Skinny said. “We were just having a conversation.”
“Didn’t look like that was the direction things were going,” Nico said, blotting at the gash on his forehead with the hem of his T-shirt.
“Please let me kill this son-of-a-bitch,” Beefy said, pointing the gun at Nico.
“Sean wouldn’t like it,” Skinny said.
Sean? The men were sent by Sean Murdock, software engineer extraordinaire?
“Fuck,” Beefy muttered.
“Just tell us why you were talking to McDermott,” Skinny said to Nico.
“Raneiro Donati wanted to offer him a job,” Nico said.
The last name triggered a flicker of recognition on the faces of Skinny and Beefy. Sean Murdock might own Dublin, but Rome belonged to Raneiro Donati.
She tried to keep her face impassive. Would Sean Murdock check their story? Would it cause trouble for Raneiro? Negate the deal they had with him? She didn't know, but it’s not like they had a choice. It was as good a story as any she could have come up with.
Skinny looked confused. “What kind of job?”
“Fuck if I know,” Nico said. “I’m just the errand boy. Donati heard McDermott was out of a job with Murdock. Asked me to feel him out. Maybe he’s looking for some brains to add to his brawn.”
“What did McDermott say?” Beefy asked.
“Said he was still under contract with Sean Murdock,” Nico answered.
“That’s it?” Beefy asked.
“That’s it,” Nico said.
They lowered their weapons. “Then I suggest you get out of town,” Beefy said. “Sean doesn’t like anyone sniffing around his people. Makes him nervous.”
Nico nodded. “On our way out first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Tell Donati to find his own talent.”
Nico nodded as they shoved past him to the door.
22
They took the first flight to London the next morning. Angel had slept fitfully, half listening for any strange sound. Nico didn’t seem to do any better; every time she looked at him, his eyes were open, his posture making it clear that he was on alert. They were exhausted by the time they reached the apartment they’d rented in London,, and they collapsed into bed with hardly a word.
They woke nearly twenty four hours later, the weak London sun spilling gray light into the one-bedroom flat. They threw on clothes and stopped for breakfast on their way to the market where they bought food for the apartment. Angel had no idea how long they’d be in London — Nico said it depended on how things went with Farrell Black — but they were well supplied for a few days at least.
When they got back to the apartment, Nico pulled out two new Tracphones. He kept one for himself and handed one to Angel.
“Call David while you can.”
“What are you doing with that one?” she asked, looking at the phone in his hand.
“Calling Luca,” he said. “I don’t want to approach Farrell Black without him.”
“Are you sure we can trust Farrell?” she asked.
He seemed to think about it. “No one can trust Farrell. He’s only loyal to his own cause. It’s not ideal, but it makes him a better bet than the soldiers who are willing to die for Raneiro.”
“I’m still not clear how Farrell can help us,” Angel said. “It’s our job to get the Darknet file for Raneiro. Won’t he be pissed if we enlist Farrell’s help?”
“We’re not enlisting Farrell’s help with the file.”
“We’re not?”
He shook his head. “We need supplies — weapons, surveillance and communications equipment, transportation. It will take too long to put it together myself, and Farrell will have a better idea how to get it all in place in Dublin.”
“So we’re asking him for logistical support?”
“Farrell doesn’t do anything for free,” he said. “We’re hiring him for logistical support. Assuming he wants to be hired.”
She thought about the massive man she’d met the last time they’d been in London, when she was still trying to figure out the truth about her father. The air around Farrell Black had been charged with danger, like the atmosphere before an electrical storm. Until then, she’d thought Nico was the most dangerous man she’d ever met. Being around Farrell showed her there were levels to violence that she couldn't yet fathom and was in no hurry to discover. She didn’t love the idea of telling him their plans, but they weren’t exactly overflowing with possibilities.
Nico went into the bedroom to call Luca, and Angel dialed the house in Maine. It rang twice before Sara picked up. Angel caught the tail end of her laughter before she spoke.
“Hello?”
“Sara, it’s Angel.”
“Angel!” She could almost see Sara’s smile. “How are you? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” she said into the phone. “I just wanted to check in, see how you and David are getting along.”
“Well, he’s kicking my ass in chess,” she said. “But other than that, we’re doing great.”
“She beat me in checkers,” David shouted in the background.
Sara laughed. “A dubious honor.”
Angel smiled. Hearing David’s voice made her aware of the ocean between them, and she suddenly missed him like crazy.
“Is he taking his meds?” she asked.
“Hold on,” Sara said. She heard Sara’s footsteps and knew she was moving to another room where she could speak freely. “He’s doing really well, Angel. Really well. Taking his meds. Eating. Sleeping. Even talking some about what happened.”
“Really?” Angel said. “What about it?”
“Nothing specific,” Sara said. “Just… you know, working through it. I think it’s good for him to be here.”
Angel leaned her head against the glass door leading onto the balcony. And good to be away from me probably, she thought.
She tried not to feel bitter. It was bound to be harder for David to talk to her about everything that had happened. She had been so deeply entrenched in the Syndicate’s Boston operation, in seeking revenge for what had happened to Nico and David. Maybe David just need to talk to someone who didn’t have all that baggage.
“I’m glad you’re there for him, Sara,” she said. “Thank you.”
She meant it. David was the most important person in the world to her. She needed him to be okay. However that happened was all right with her.
“It’s my pleasure,” she said. “You want to talk to him?”
“Please.”
“Hold on.” She heard a shuffling sound on the other end of the phone, and a moment later David’s voice came over the receiver.
“Hey, sis.”
“Hey, loser.”
He laughed. “Where are you?”
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” she said.
“Got it. But you’re okay?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “I just miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“Really,” he said. “Sara’s really great. I’m taking care of myself, figuring some things out.”
“Yeah?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good. You guys have everything you need?”
“Ed brought fresh supplies last night ahead of schedule,” he said. “We’re all set.”
“I’m glad.” She turned as Nico came back into the room. “Well, I better go. It’s nice to hear your voice.”
“You too, Ange. I love you
.”
“Love you, too. I’ll call as soon as I can.”
She hung up, took a deep breath against the sudden loss in her chest. Nico crossed the room and pulled her into his arms, like he sensed her melancholy.
“They okay?” he asked.
“They’re good.”
“You okay?”
She looked up at him and tried to smile. “I’m good.”
He touched a finger to her temple, traced it down her cheek to her lips, then lowered his mouth to kiss her gently. It stole her breath, and she felt the tug between her legs that was her body’s call to him. It didn’t matter what was happening — she always wanted him. Always needed him.
He pulled away, ran his thumb along her lower lip, smiled. “Luca can’t be here for a couple of days.”
“What will we do until then?” she asked, looking up at him.
He grinned. “We’ll think of something.”
23
“I got Sean’s compound on Google maps,” Angel said.
Nico came back into the room and set two cups of coffee on the nightstand. Angel was sitting on the bed, dressed in one of his shirts with only a couple buttons done, her delicious body visible between the folds of crisp cotton, lithe legs stretched out in front of her. He slid behind her so she they could both see the iPad while she rested against his chest. Her almost bare ass brushed against his cock. He was hard less than five seconds later.
She squirmed, twisting to look at him with a devilish grin. “Already?”
He grabbed her hips, pulled her back against him so he was nestled between the cheeks of her ass. “Always.”
“Work first, play later,” she said.
And it’s not like they hadn’t played. He’d fucked her senseless in the twenty-four hours they’d been in London. Now that the initial danger had passed, he couldn’t get enough of her. He’d wanted to embed himself on her skin, brand her with his touch, make her his so completely that nothing would ever separate them again. He’d done all that and more, licking and driving and tasting and kissing and thrusting until there wasn’t an inch of her he hadn’t occupied. And still, it wasn’t enough. He was finally starting to accept that it would never be enough.
“Too bad we can’t see what kind of security he has there,” Nico said, peering at the aerial image on the screen. Trying to focus on their mission with Angel between his legs was no easy task.
She tabbed over to another web page. “I did find this article on the house in Architectural Digest,” Angel said. “It mentions a study. The journalist called it ‘Murdock’s private lair’.”
“That sounds promising.”
“Let’s hope so,” Angel said. “The house is twenty-five thousand square feet. It’s going to take a long time to find every computer if it’s not in his study.”
“Did the article say anything about security?” he asked.
“No, but that’s not unusual. AD is a high-end style magazine. Can Luca find out about security?” she asked.
“Doubtful,” Nico said.
“So how will we know what we’re up against when we try to get in?”
“I don’t know.” It pained him to admit it, but it was true. He didn’t have enough information to plan their infiltration of Sean’s compound. Not yet anyway. They were flying blind. It wasn’t how he liked to work, but the old rules didn’t apply. Now they had to be flexible, use the resources they had, even when it didn’t seem like enough. “We’ll get what we can from Farrell, head to Dublin, find a way in.”
“Are we even sure the file is there?” she asked.
“No, but McDermott said anything that’s important to Sean will be in Dublin. It’s all we’ve got.”
“How long until Luca gets here?” Angel asked.
“Sometime tomorrow,” Nico said.
“What do you want to do until then?”
He took the tablet from her hand and set it on the nightstand, then pulled her onto his lap.
“You mean keeping you my prisoner in bed isn’t an option?” he asked, nuzzling her neck until she giggled.
“We’ve been in bed a whole day already,” she said. “I think we could both use some fresh air.”
He didn’t want fresh air. He just wanted her in his bed, her body moving under his while he made her come. But he saw her point.
“Fine,” he said, hoisting her off his lap. “I’ll feed you and show you the town, and after, you let me ravish you all I want.”
She leaned back on her arms, rocked her knees open so he got the quickest glimpse of the paradise between her thighs. “After?”
He growled and pounced on the bed while she shrieked.
Two hours later they were showered and changed and on the streets of London. They started with crisp fish and chips and then took a double decker bus for a tour around the city. They’d both been to London — even before their ill-fated trip last fall — but everything felt different with Angel. He wanted to retrace his steps through life, do everything over again with her by his side. It was the height of luxury in their current circumstances; being silly, pretending they were like any other couple when the clock was ticking on their time together like it had been since the moment they met. He savored every smile, every touch of her hand, tried to memorize the shine in her eyes that she seemed to reserve just for him. Then he tried to tamp down the fear that rose in him at the thought of something happening to her. The fact that Raneiro wanted something from Sean Murdock meant that Murdock wasn’t just a businessman, something made even more obvious by the thugs who’d accosted them in their room in Rome. It would be dangerous, and if he thought he stood a chance in hell at convincing Angel to stay behind, he’d try.
He glanced at her as she walked next to him. She looked so young, so vulnerable with her long hair swept into a ponytail. He would do anything to protect her, but he also knew she wasn’t the same girl he’d kidnapped last year. For better or worse, she was stronger now, tougher. Maybe even too tough for her own good. And he’d recognized the light in her eyes when she’d talked about revenge. It was a light that had stared back at him from the mirror in the years following his parent’s murder, a light that wasn’t easily extinguished.
He would have to deal with that, reconcile it against their goal of getting out alive.
But this was precious time that they wouldn’t have again. Once Luca arrived, they would have to talk to Farrell Black and move onto Dublin, plan their breach of Sean Murdock’s computer. Until then, she was his, and he wanted to savor every second with her. Wanted to give her as much happiness as he could.
He pulled her toward the river. “Come on.”
She laughed. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
24
She let him pull her along. She enjoyed this happier, freer version of him, but it made her sad that she’d seen so little of it. He’d spent the two years after his parent’s murder focused on getting justice for them, and the year since he’d gotten it had been filled with worry about the family, about her, about Raneiro’s growing displeasure with the East Coast operation. She wondered how long it had been since he’d truly been free.
She stopped in her tracks when they reached the terminal for the London Eye, the gigantic ferris wheel looming above them over the Thames.
“Oh, no,” she said, backing up. “No way.”
“Come on,” he said, recapturing her hand. “People go up in it every day. It’s perfectly safe, and there’s no better view of London.”
He grinned under his sunglasses, and she knew she was doomed. She couldn’t resist him.
They bought tickets and waited in a short line to board. It was mid-week, and they reached the front of the line in less than ten minutes. She expected to be ushered into one of the enclosed capsules with a bunch of other people — that’s how it had been done it so far — but Nico gave the attendant a folded wad of cash, and he closed the door behind them, leaving them alone in a spacious pod surrounded by glass. A su
rfboard-shaped bench anchored the middle of the capsule, leaving the windows clear for anyone who wanted to stand.
She expected to lurch and sway as they rose into the air, but the motion was strangely smooth. She held onto a railing on the inside, and when she finally dared a look through the glass at the contraption, she saw that each capsule was welded into place so that only the wheel moved as it rotated, creating minimal movement in the pods.
They rose a little at a time, stopping every now and then as a fresh batch of passengers was loaded into the capsules below them. After a few minutes, she sat next to Nico on the bench, London spread out below them. There was Big Ben, Parliament, the many bridges over the Thames. It was all glorious and sparkling from up so high, the blue sky dotted with clouds that seemed to part for them as they moved higher.
“Gorgeous,” she breathed.
“Yes.”
His breath was close to her ear, and when she turned her head, his mouth touched her cheek. She closed her eyes, the feel of his lips causing goosebumps to rise on her skin. He wrapped her ponytail in his hand and tugged her head back. She gasped as he touched his tongue to her collarbone, the fabric of her skirt sliding upward as he moved his hand from her calf to her thigh, his touch electric against her skin.
She slipped a hand up his shirt, running her fingers along the swell of muscle on his back as he kissed his way up her throat. She was already wet, her panties sticking to her sex as his hand massaged her inner thigh, so close and not nearly close enough. She wiggled, sliding down a little, wanting his fingers inside her as he nipped at her earlobe. It didn’t matter that he’d fucked her countless times in the past twenty-four hours. She wanted him again. She always wanted him.
His chuckle was low and smooth. “Easy now.”
He kissed his way across her cheek, licking the corners of her lips. Her mouth parted of its own accord, ready and waiting for his tongue. He tugged at her lower lip with his teeth, and her core tightened between her legs as his hand moved farther up her thigh. He cupped the apex of her desire, teasing her pussy through the thin satin of her panties.
Lawless: Mob Boss Book Three Page 9
