“Don’t worry about maintaining a low profile in this bar. Worry about it when you’re out there walking the fucking streets. How many times has Alex seen you?”
He takes a long pull on the bottle of beer to make me wait. “I don’t know and I don’t care. If your girlfriend is feeling the heat, then she’s got good fucking reason to. She’s getting impatient.”
He’s referring to Princess Amica growing impatient waiting for me to get Alex out of the picture. “I don’t give a fuck if she’s getting impatient. I have to do this my way.”
He chuckles. “And your way is to have a go at her first? Fuck her body and her mind then kill her. Is that it?”
“You don’t know enough about my strategies to question me.”
“I know your strategies don’t always work.”
I should crack his skull for that comment, but I can’t. I need to keep Crow close, where I can keep an eye on him. I’ll take his snide comments about how I fucked up my last job. But once I have Alex back, safe in my arms, he’s on his own.
This is a not a business for making and keeping friends. Crow and I stumbled upon a friendship when I passed up a job due to a booked schedule. I’d been taking out marks for more than a year and my services were in high demand. It was Crow’s second job, and he came to me asking for advice. Two years younger than I was and thirsty for blood after a tour in Iraq, it was difficult not to feel sorry for him.
I took him under my wing and brought him along on my last two jobs. I owe him my life for getting me out of that London apartment when I was too stunned to move. But he’s the one who screwed this up with Alex. He had to throw that fucking cigarette butt onto the street when he was following Alex on Hope Street. If she hadn’t found that, she wouldn’t have found out about her father so soon. And I might have had a chance to tell her when she was ready.
Crow knows he fucked up, which is the only reason he refused to take the job off my hands when Amica wanted to hand it over to him. Now he thinks I’m trying to prove myself, but I have nothing to prove to him or Amica. Alex is the only person I need to prove something to.
“What is her schedule like? Is she going to the Billionaire Club next week?”
Crow looks at me sideways as if he knows what I’m thinking. “Don’t think of throwing away this payday for that girl, Daimon.”
“I can’t tell you what I’m planning. But it has nothing to do with that fucking $20 million. What I have in mind will be much more lucrative, for both of us.”
“Both of us meaning… you and me or you and the girl?”
“You and me. I just need to get that fucking bounty hunter out of the way without raising any red flags with the local law enforcement. It will be done soon.”
He downs the rest of his beer, but he still holds it close to his chest as he contemplates this. “She’s giving you three days to make it happen. And so am I.” He lets go of the beer bottle and slides off the barstool. “This better be good.”
I smile as I realize he doesn’t know about Alex and Nicolas’s plans to fly to Monaco in less than two days. Typical Crow. Always one step behind when he thinks he’s one step ahead.
The bartender brings me another beer, as if he can sense that I need it. I sip it slowly as I contemplate my options here. I need her to start believing me and questioning her parents, otherwise she may try to kill me again. And I’m done underestimating her.
I’m through underestimating everyone.
I never imagined that Princess Amica had hired me to kill her own biological daughter. But I should have known that there was something far more mysterious about Alex from the moment I stepped inside her adoptive parents’ home. Which brings me to my other predicament: Keeping Alex’s mother, Lisa, alive.
I had Crow watching over her when we were in L.A. But now that we’re both here in La Palma, I had to hire another man to keep watch over her.
Lisa Carmichael is surviving in the basement of their home, just the way they made my Alex live for eighteen years. The plan was to have both Lisa and Joe down there, to get Joe out of the picture so I could get to know Alex and see if I could indeed go through with the hit. But Joe refused to be confined. Then he escaped. In my fucking Mercedes.
A girl in a blue tube top and white shorts sidles up next to me at the bar and asks for a draft beer. She smiles at me and I turn back to my bottle. Downing the rest of the beer, I slam it down on the bar and head for the exit. If these girls knew Alex, they wouldn’t bother. If they knew the kind of woman they were competing with, they’d cower at her feet.
No one can compare to my Alex. There is no way I could ever enjoy being with another woman now that I’ve had a woman like her. And for a man like me to swear off all women for one girl, I’d have to be insane or in love. Or both.
I step outside into the warm island air, smiling as I gaze at the stars. By this time tomorrow night, I’ll know whether Alex and I are going to spend the rest of our lives together or kill each other.
Chapter Eleven
I take my time packing all my clothes. Though I’ll probably leave all my luggage and belongings behind after we land in Monaco and I kill the royals, I’m savoring this alone time while Nick and I are apart. He’s in his cottage packing. He’s not around to watch as I sniff the pieces of clothing that still smell like Daimon, one by one before I lay them down in my suitcase.
When I’m done, I zip up my luggage and look around the bedroom. I walk to the window and push aside the sheer curtains to look outside. I can see my neighbor Ignacio working on a wooden worktable in his backyard. He’s loading his shotgun and preparing his ferrets to go rabbit hunting. He looks up briefly and I take the opportunity to wave at him. He smiles and waves vigorously, then his gaze slides off to the side. I move forward to look outside, but I hit my head on the glass. I look up and Ignacio’s wife, Noemia, appears at his side. She squints at me for a moment, then she waves. I’ll miss the Spanish music and delicious smells that wafted out of their window as Noemia cooked.
“Are you ready?”
I whip my head around and I let out a sigh of relief. “You scared me. Your voice sounded different.”
Nick smiles and holds out his hand, his other hand tucked behind his back. “Come. I have a very special surprise for our last day in La Palma.”
He’s wearing a nice pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up. This is a very good look for him.
“Did you say goodbye to your family?” I ask, taking his hand and leaning back to try to peek at whatever he’s hiding.
“Yes. And they’re very pleased to know that I’m leaving the island with you. They are very fond of you.”
Very special surprise… very pleased to know… very fond of you…. Either he’s buttering me up for something he’s not sure I’m going to enjoy or he’s actually nervous. I’m pretty sure it’s the former and not the latter.
“What are you hiding back there?”
He pulls his hand out from behind his back, brandishing a bottle of red wine. “My great-uncle gave me this for us to celebrate our last night in La Palma. It’s a gran reserva rioja from his vineyard. Twenty-three years old and at its peak.”
“Wow… Sounds like I should be impressed.”
He lets go of my hand and opens the front door for us to exit. “Tonight, we dine like royalty.” My smile evaporates into the humid evening air and he quickly realizes his gaffe. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure I’ll have all the guys vying for my hand now that I’m a princess. You’ll have to work a lot harder to impress me after tonight.”
“I accept the challenge, your highness,” he says, getting down on one knee and bowing his head dramatically.