Chapter 32
Geneva
Iwatched through his open door as Rick paced back and forth in his office. I had seen him agitated before, but this was something else entirely. The air in the place practically hummed with tension, and not the good kind, either.
Rick gave me a long, appraising look before nodding, waving me inside.
I closed the door behind me. He’d had me wait outside his office when he’d brought me back, though I had no idea why. “Before I tell you what I need, you have to promise me that you’ll do exactly as I say, no matter what.”
I nodded eagerly. “I promise.”
“Okay. Here’s the deal. There is a man, Marko Salazzo is his name. And Nantes needs me to neutralize him. Somehow. It’s not going to be pretty, and if I’m going to have any chance at this, I have to get something on him. I need your help gathering intel on this asshole. Anything you can find.”
Shit.
I hadn’t a clue where I’d even start doing such a thing. “You want me to… spy on him? I’m just an intern…”
He scratched his jaw, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “It’s the only way we’re going to have a chance at taking him down. I need you to find me something. And quickly.”
“How?”
“I’ll give you a start.”
“I can do it,” I said, a conviction in my voice I didn’t actually feel. But I wanted to reassure him. “But how do I gather information on him?”
He opened a couple of drawers in his desk, pulling a file out of the second one. He handed it to me. “This is everything we know about him. His businesses, his associates, his routines. Thankfully, Vi already had a rudimentary profile on him.”
“Who’s Vi?”
I couldn’t help the quick burst of jealousy, no matter how irrational it might have been.
You don’t own him, Genie. Don’t be stupid.
His voice lowered half an octave. “Vi is an associate of mine. Trusted.”
“Why doesn’t she look into it then? Wouldn’t she be a better choice to dig into this?”
“She would be—but I’ve got her doing other things right now. So, you’re it. Go through all of it—then go through it again. I want patterns. Ways he’s being lazy. Anything I might be able to exploit.”
I flipped through the file, not really reading it, at arm’s length, scowling. “How the fuck am I supposed to know how to do that?”
He glared at me, stabbing a finger toward me across the desk. “Because aside from being a royal pain in my fucking ass, you listen. You notice things. You have attention to detail.”
“Look, anybody could?—”
“Shut up and listen. Do you want to help or not?” His dark gaze played over me for the briefest of moments. “You don’t understand. Most people wouldn’t know how to listen. They wouldn’t notice things if you paid them to. Ask me how I know.”
“What? I?—”
He waved a hand. “Never mind. The important thing is that I need someone sharp, another brain. Because if I don’t find a weakness, an angle, something I can use… then I’m fucked.” He ran his fingers through his thick hair. “And if that happens, then that means I just go straight after him. The front door, so to speak.”
“What’s wrong with the… front door?” I asked it even as I began to scan the contents of the file.
“The front door gets men killed. My men. Good men.”
That sobered me. I looked up at him. “I… I didn’t realize. Sorry.”
“Just take that and go. I’ll call you later. We can talk more then.”
“Uh, okay.” A hint of heat bloomed on my cheeks, but I wasn’t sure why. “See you soon?”
“Get going,” he muttered, already fishing his cell out of his desk drawer. “I have a car on the way for you.”
I was almost all the way out the door, when he stopped me, phone pressed to his ear. “One last thing. Nobody knows about this. Nobody.”
I nodded, swallowing against a suddenly dry mouth.
Interesting that other parts of you are very far from dry.
Apparently, just being in his presence had begun to have an effect on me. Then I slipped out of the sun-drenched office.
It should have been a happy, exciting moment, being dispatched to help him like that.
But that last look on Rick’s face as he’d dialed that number said something else entirely.