I took a deep breath. Didn’t matter if I was making this shit up on the fly or not. Never let anyone see that you weren’t in control.
Sofia pulled out the extending handle on the small suitcase and looked at me. Her skin was still ashen, and her eyes frightened, but she was on her feet and moving. I wasn’t going to have to drag her out of here. She hadn’t done anything stupid, either, like running or screaming or going for a phone. Or a knife.
I motioned her to lead the way and followed her out of the room. The penthouse was fancy-as-hell, almost to the point of overkill. It had extravagant rugs, herringbone floors, huge windows, recessed lighting, and furniture that you definitely didn’t screw together yourself.
This was the twenty-fifth floor. Even a jaded bastard like me was impressed by the views of Manhattan, the Hudson, and Riverside Park. A place like this must cost three or four million easy. More than a hired gun like me would ever see. It pissed me off that I needed to get my hands bloody for everything I had while princess here lived it up in her pricey royal suite.
“Keep your eyes straight ahead,” I warned her as we approached the kitchen. “Don’t look around.”
The corpses of the two men I’d killed were in the swanky kitchen with dark granite counters and frosted glass cabinets. They’d been eating gnocchi and bread before I shot them.
At least they hadn’t died hungry.
But so much for Sophia being good at following orders because she immediately looked in that direction. She drew in a sharp breath as she spotted the two bodies sprawled on the tile. There was no mistaking the sight of blood. I’d ventilated their skulls with two .45 ACP rounds each. It made a mess.
“You killed them?”
“Don’t play dumb. You knew they were dead the moment I stepped through your door with a gun.”
Sofia didn’t reply. She knew I was right. For guys like me, this was business, not personal. Those two Accardo soldiers wouldn’t have blinked at putting two bullets in my head, either.
Then again, this was probably the first time a princess like her had ever been so close to death. Even though her “dad” was involved in murder incorporated up to the knot of his necktie.
In the penthouse foyer, I wheeled on her and leveled a finger in her face, giving her my hardest stare and using my coldest voice. “Listen to me, Princess. Don’t try anything out there. I took care of the security cameras, but I don’t want you to try running. I don’t want screams. I don’t want fucking problems. Because I’ll makemyproblemsyourproblems. That clear?”
“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You could leave me here. I won’t say anything—”
“You seem smarter than I expected,” I said, cutting her off. I kept my voice heavy with unspoken threat. “So don’t waste my time with bullshit. You’re coming with me. You don’t have a choice. So let’s both keep this professional.”
She hesitated, then bit her lip and nodded. Her initial shock seemed to be fading, but deeper fear was flooding in to take its place.
I considered putting a hand on her shoulder to reassure her, but that would be doing the exact opposite of what I needed to do right now. The temptation to touch her caught me off guard—hell, it was goddamn disturbing—but the reality was simple and ugly. I needed her afraid so she would continue to obey. I was taking a huge risk. If she flipped out and tried to escape, or tried to get help, or tested my resolve, I was going to have my fucking hands full. Keeping her scared meant I wouldn’t have to hurt her.
So yeah, this was for the best.
Quickly, I slipped my pistol into one of the interior pockets of my overcoat. With this suit, I looked New York wealthy, but I couldn’t be strolling around with a gun out.
The hallway outside was just as luxurious as the penthouse interior. The walls were burgundy, the floors black parquet, and there were fancy metal urns with elaborate silk plants all over the place.
Sofia pulled her suitcase along behind her, the wheels rumbling on the hard floor. We walked side by side to the elevator. There were cameras on this level at the elevator doors and facing down the corridor. I’d already dealt with the lenses, covering them with cooking spray so the image was blurry but not black. I didn’t want a gung-ho security guard wandering up to find out why the CCTV image had gone dark. Blurry only implied out of focus, something best left to maintenance tomorrow morning.
Sofia’s breathing was quick and shallow. She walked stiffly, trying to keep as far from me as she could without risking my wrath.
“You’re fine,” I said coldly as we entered the freight elevator, not the fancy VIP elevator. The freight elevator led directly to the parking garage instead of the building lobby.
“You’re going to have to be more convincing than that,” she said, not looking at me. “You’d make a crappy politician with those lies.”
Great. She had a mouth on her. Never would’ve seen that coming.
I bumped the elevator call button with my elbow to avoid fingerprints. It looked stupid, but it worked. After the elevator arrived, I motioned her on first before stepping inside the lift myself. Then I inserted the key card given to me by Freddy, no doubt bought off someone who worked here, now or in the past.
The ride down twenty-four floors to the parking garage was tense and so quiet that the elevator motor seemed distractingly loud. Sofia edged away from me, clutching the handle of her small, carry-on suitcase so hard that her knuckles were white.
What kind of small talk did you make during an elevator ride with the woman you were kidnapping? Better yet, what did you say to the daughter of a mob boss who’d had your big brother iced?
I needed to keep that in mind. I couldn’t allow myself to be lured into complacency or kindness by those big, dark eyes on Sofia. Shit. What the fuck was I doing? Any other professional would’ve killed her already.
It was a relief when the ride finally ended. The freight elevator let us out on one side of an underground garage.
