Chapter Four

LEON

As soon as the words leave my mouth, the room goes still. Everyone looks at me like I’ve lost it. Shit. Maybe I have.

Ivy is the person to break the silence. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

She stands up and starts to pace around the room. “You want to play bodyguard to the daughter of the man you’ve wanted to kill since you were a child?”

Dante exhales. “I can’t lie, that’s dangerous. A lot of things could go wrong.”

“I said we needed a way in. This is it. She’s the key. If I’m around her, I’ll know everything about Tomaso. Where he goes, who he talks to, the people he trusts the most,” I say, looking around at their faces.

“We’ve never been able to penetrate him. His men are loyal to a fault, and he’s the only target we’ve never been able to get an inside man on his team to feed us information. So I’ll be the inside man.”

“That makes sense,” Kai says with a nod. “It’s not the worst plan. It’s actually smart.”

“Smart?” Ivy scoffs. “It could get him killed.” She turns to me. “What if he recognizes you?”

I grit my teeth as painful memories flash through my mind. “He can’t. He doesn’t even know I exist.”

“Fine,” Dante runs a hand through his hair. “How exactly do you plan to go about this?”

Ivy whips her head to look at him. “You’re in support of this? Really?”

Dante shrugs. “Seems like the best option we have now. We know how Tomaso is. He’s either going to double her security or send her back to…wherever he’s hidden her for twenty years. This is the only opening we have to get in.”

I exhale a small breath. I was starting to think my idea was crazy, not that I’ve never done anything crazy, but hearing my team support me is a relief.

I’m not the only crazy one.

“Fine,” Ivy huffs. “Answer Dante’s question. How do you plan to go about this? You can’t just walk up to Tomaso and say, ‘Hey, you don’t know me, but I somehow found out that you have a daughter and she almost got killed, and you’re looking for a bodyguard for her. I’m your best bet!’ Not suspicious at all.”

Kai chuckles but quickly sobers up when no one else laughs along.

“I already have someone in mind,” I say, and they all look at me.

“Salvatore.”

Ivy frowns. “The Salvatore? The one who keeps trying to recruit us?”

“Yeah.”

Salvatore runs one of the biggest private protection agencies in the city. On paper, he has a security agency that protects politicians, billionaires, and dirty people with dirty money. But under the surface, he’s got a side business that’s way bloodier. He runs an assassin agency that deals with the enemies of whoever brings him the biggest check. He doesn’t take sides. He just sells protection…or death to the highest bidder.

He’s wanted us to join his agency ever since we’d coincidentally been on the same mission to kill one target. Our mission was personal. The man we were out to kill was one of the biggest human traffickers that exported women and children from East New York and the Lower East Side to Italy. Salvatore was there to kill the same man, a rival to his client. We happened to face opposition from our target’s men, and I happened to save Salvatore from getting shot.

After the successful mission, he wanted to know more about us and offered to join his team. We refused. We’ve never wanted to tie ourselves to any superior. We choose our clients and targets. We don’t take orders from just anyone.

But now, I need him.

“I saved his life once. He owes me,” I say. “If Tomaso plans to get a bodyguard for his daughter, Salvatore is the man he’ll reach out to. They all go to him, and he always delivers,” I say through gritted teeth. “Salvatore can lie and say I’m one of his men.”

“What if he doesn’t reach out to Salvatore?” Ivy asks.

My heart thuds against my chest. She has a point.

“He will,” I say. “Tomaso has an ego problem. He won’t take his daughter back less than a month after letting her into the world. That would mean he’s incapable of protecting her. If his enemies get a whiff of that knowledge, it’ll only signal to them that he’s not as powerful as everyone thinks he is. Powerful men always have to maintain to the public that they are powerful. If not, well, they’ll have double the enemies.”

Kai snaps his fingers. “I can build a fake identity for you that ties you to Salvatore’s agency on record. Training, assignments, clearances, and fake references.”

“So, go make the call,” Dante says.

I nod and glance at Ivy. She looks like she wants to argue, but instead, she sighs and rubs her temples. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“No.”

“Fine,” she mutters. “Then let’s do it right.”

I head over to my room to make the call.

Salvatore picks up on the first ring. “Leon. I was just thinking about you.”

“You’re always thinking about me,” I try to joke, but my voice sounds deadpan.

That alone seems to amuse him. “Don’t say it like that.”

“I need a favor.”

“Wow,” he chuckles. “The almighty Leon, leader of The Strays, needs a favor from me. What could that be?”

I ignore his obvious gloating.

“Tomaso Rosetti has a daughter, but I assume you already know that. Also, I assume he already reached out to you for your protection services.”

He’s silent for a bit, then he repeats, “Wow,” in a more serious tone.

“How did you know that?” He asks.

“I didn’t. You just confirmed it to me.”

He laughs. “You sure your tech guy didn’t hack into our database or something? I keep telling you I need you and your guys—and lady—on my team.”

“I want you to recommend me as one of your men to work as her bodyguard,” I cut him off.

“You know why I like you, Leon?” He asks after a beat of silence. “You’re smart, and you’ve got guts. It takes being stupid to have the kind of guts you do, but somehow, even without being stupid, you manage to make it work.”

He pauses for dramatic effect before continuing. “Tomaso is a dangerous man. I don’t know anyone that has succeeded in outsmarting him.”

“Are you scared you’ll get caught?” I taunt him.

“Of course not,” he snorts. “I’m equally as dangerous. You know what makes you dangerous, Leon? Making yourself important. Some of them might hate me, but they can’t deny they need me. And if anything happens to me, or if anyone tries to mess with me, well…they’re fucked.”

When I don’t say anything, he continues.

“I know you have some…history with him. Whatever you’re planning, be careful.”

Despite my sullen mood, I can’t help but crack a smirk. “So you’ll help me.”

It’s not a question and he knows.

“If you didn’t think I’d help you, you wouldn’t call me. Besides, I like you. You remind me of myself when I was younger.”

“I’m better than you were when you were younger,” I say and he laughs for the umpteenth time.

Surely, I’m not that funny.

“You’re right,” he says, but in a more serious tone, he speaks again. “I’m alive today because of you. I might be an evil person, but I will never forget the person that saved my life.”

“Thank you,” I breathe.

“Alright. I’ll make the call. And don’t worry, I’ll tell him you’re one of my best. Trained well, loyal, discreet, and expensive.”

For Salvatore, everything eventually boils down to money.

“Whatever he pays me is yours.”

That quiets him. “You don’t want his money?”

“I want something else.”

I want him dead.