Risk Capital

Prologue

PROLOGUE

Alessio

In retrospect, her perfume should’ve clued me in.

She smelled like a gardenia blossom, the scent I associate with beauty, innocence, and playfulness, which boldly demands I pay attention. She smelled too good to be true, but I couldn’t resist. From my position in the middle of the vacant bar, I looked up from my third glass of whiskey and watched her walk toward the ladies’ room.

Short, curly hair barely reached her shoulders and allowed a full view of her back, which had been sunburned sometime during her vacation. She was a tourist. I can tell them apart from locals right away. Even if I didn’t know every local on my island, the white, open-back bathing suit, jean shorts, and simple rubber flip-flops would have been a dead giveaway.

At this hour, local women arriving at the high-end bar of this luxury island hotel would have worn a seductive evening outfit because they would be here for a reason other than to use the bathroom.

After the tourist entered the ladies’, my gaze fell back on my whiskey. I swirled it, pondering whether I should break my two-whiskey-maximum rule. Three drinks impair my judgment.

There’s never been a time in my life when I didn’t need good judgment. Or restraint. Perhaps now more than ever. Which, in retrospect, was precisely why fucking her that night changed everything.

And why, right now, I’m standing in front of an abandoned warehouse under a flickering streetlight with a bloody machete in my hand.

Blood drips from a cut on my forehead. I blink, then wipe it away from my eyes so I can see the lights from the incoming law enforcement, whose sirens I already hear. They’re coming for me. Now I must decide if I’ll stay or run.

Although I run daily, I’m not a runner .

Perhaps I’ll stay.