Mancini's Way

I climbed into the back of my waiting car, another Breitling creation, after spotting the jackasses in a town car three doors down; and headed to my first stop of the day. Traffic was a little more sedate in my neighborhood on Central Park West, which would change just a few short streets over, where the hustle and bustle of the city began. I own clubs all over the city, as well as internationally, along with a few restaurants and one oil-company down in Texas. I have my fingers in a lot of pies yes, and it amazes me that I can control it all, with just the push of a button. Technology has gone a long way in making life easier for guys like me. I could sit in a pied-a-terre in Paris France and conduct business in Prague, gotta love it. Some business still needed to be handled the old fashioned way though, face to face; though I tried to keep those to a minimum, because people got on my fucking nerves. On the phone, or behind the computer screen, I could hang up or log o

Fucking FBI, those fucks stay on me like a lion on a rhino's ass. One of these days they're gonna piss me the fuck off for real, and I'll give their bitch asses something to cry about, dumb fucks. So far I've mostly been playing with the different agencies, foreign and domestic, that try keeping tabs on me. It was fun outwitting them at every turn, but they've all learnt in some capacity or the other not to go too far. I valued my freedom too much to have them trampled by a bunch of blowhards, who were sometimes almost as corrupt as the fucks they were supposed to be putting away. I opened up my laptop and typed in the series of numbers needed to get me into the FBI database undetected. These fucks were so busy hounding my every step that they'd left their left flank unprotected. It was comical how fucking easy it was to breach their security. I've been accessing most, if not all, of the delicate top-secret information of most government agencies, for the better part of eight

I gathered my thoughts collectively, once more pulling everything in. Frank Connell was a little odd yes, with his quiet unassuming manner, the way he seemed to always be trying desperately to disappear into himself. I'm sure many people found this strange; but being strange did not make you a mass murderer. It just meant you were weary of your fellow man and knowing some of the shit I did, who could blame him? "This is our guy." I pointed to the second screen, at the man who stood out for me. I knew there would be an outcry; my choice is an upstanding citizen. The CEO of a leading brokerage firm; everything about him looks great on paper, well his professional and public files anyway, but in interview I'd seen the taint on the shine. Though he'd been there, not as a suspect, but as a character witness for his nephew, something about him had just jumped out at me. It wasn't anything I could put into words, as always with me, it came from a place beyond my control. That

After Jace left, I had a few minutes downtime before I had to be on the move again. Always before walking into one of these things I cleared my head, using an ancient technique an old master had taught me long ago. It called for total concentration and nothing more, just focus on releasing everything from my thoughts one at a time, until the mind and psyche were clear of all white noise. Then replacing each parcel piece by piece. It was almost like washing the brain before restoring it with clean Intel. I couldn't afford to fuck up in this meeting, these guys had to buy what I was selling, hook line and sinker. Anything goes wrong and months of hard work goes down the drain. Though it was pretty much in the bag and things had already started moving, there was always that element of surprise. In this business, things changed from one moment to the next without warning, so it was never a good idea to take anything for granted. Thoughts of Cierra flitted through my mind s

Not only that, but the guy was a career ender. Quite a few of my colleagues had lost their jobs or positions after tussling with this guy, and I knew what my superiors expected of me as the only female to ever go up against this mastermind; they didn't just want me to use my mind, I was pretty sure they wanted me to use a lot more than that if push came to shove; that's how desperate they'd become. *** I needed a little downtime to get the stench of the last few days off of me, so I decided to relax by taking my boat out on the water for a little spin. One of my pleasures, sailing, in fact I like anything to do with leisure, yachting, racing boats, cars and bikes; I even enjoyed a little rock climbing every once in a while. Those things kept me sharp, because they involved staying very focused in order to avoid danger. Today, with the business of filth out of the way, my mind turned to more pleasant enticements; like the eyes of one Cierra Stone. I felt the tigh