Trained To Kill (22 page)

“
I’ll just tell him
later.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Fine.” Isa looked briefly
at Alex who shrugged minutely, letting her know he
understood.

“
Carmine è in città, e
avrò un incontro con lui stasera.” (Carmine is in town, and I will
have a meeting with him tonight.)

“
Un incontro? È tutto?” (A
meeting? That's all?)

“
Sì.” He shrugged that
continental gesture that meant everything and nothing. “Se si
tratta di colpi, vedremo chi esce vincitore.” (Yes. If it comes to
blows, we'll see who comes out the winner.)

“
Si prevede di?” (You
expect to?)

“
Se non recede. Sì. Il
fantasma può essere molto convincente quando mostra il suo lavoro,”
Rafael gestured to his man, “e abbiamo lavorato su uno dei suoi
uomini per tutta la mattina.” (If he does not back off. Yes. The
Ghost can be very convincing when he shows his work, and we worked
on one of his men all morning.)

Isa lifted her eyebrows, glancing at
Alex. Shit. She didn’t want to tell him a man had been tortured all
morning.

“
Lasciamo la povera anima
andare mezz'ora fa. Dovrebbe possiate avere Carmine consapevoli
ormai.” (We let the poor soul go a half hour ago. He should have
informed Carmine by now.)

Isa nodded to show she had heard him
but said nothing, so DeCarlo continued. “Mi fermo davanti a nulla
per mantenere al sicuro.” (I will stop at nothing to keep you
safe.)

Isa couldn’t help herself. “Perché?”
(Why?)

Rafael smiled and said “Bella , ti
amo. Ho sempre fatto.” (Beautiful, I love you. I always
have.)

Alex wasn’t a complete idiot. He could
hear the words ‘ti amo’, ‘I love you’.

“
You love her?” he asked
DeCarlo.

Rafael turned to him in surprise. He
considered whether or not to answer but he said, “I do.”

Alex simply nodded. Confused was not
the word Isa wanted, but it was all she could think of at the
moment.

Clearing her throat Isa said, “Rafael,
I’m not your sister and I don’t need your protection.”

“
I understand, but that
has nothing to do with how I feel about you or what I will do for
you. What I’m willing to do for you.”

“
I haven’t asked you to do
anything for me.”

“
No you haven’t. But I’ll
do it just the same. To keep you safe.”

Alex suddenly relaxed, placing his
elbows on the table before him, and looked back and forth between
them. “If I caught the gist, you’re meeting Carmine? To what? Kill
him?”

“
Of course not, Sergeant.
We’ll talk.”

“
And if he doesn’t agree
to leave Isa alone?”

Rafael smiled a very unpleasantly, “I
can be very convincing.”

Alex nodded again, “I bet.” His change
in attitude made Isa nervous.

She lifted her eyebrows in a question
at him, he simply winked at her. She made a face and turned back to
Rafael.

“
Look I appreciate the
thought, but I can take care of myself.”

“
I’m aware of that. But
this is happening because of me, and I will fix it.” His tone
brooked no argument, not that Isa gave a damn, but she subsided.
She wasn’t going to change his mind.

“
That was one of the
strangest lunches I have ever had,” Alex said as he and Isa walked
back to their cars.

“
What was that at the end?
Are you ok with him now?”

“
No,” he answered
thoughtfully. “But I can understand where he’s coming from, and I
can hope that he’ll protect you if you or I can’t for some reason.”
He continued on, “It just sort of put me at ease, knowing he would
do that for you.”

“
You want him to kill for
me?”

Alex stopped and turned her toward
him, the people walking by changed their trajectory to avoid them.
“No, of course not. It’s just a nice safety net that’s
all.”

Isa was still skeptical but she let it
go. She could sort of see what he meant. If there was someone out
there willing to go that far to protect Renée or Alex it would
probably put her at ease too.

“
So what exactly was that
conversation?”

Isa retold the conversation word for
word.

“
They tortured
someone?”

“
Apparently.”

“
Oh wonderful. Now that
Rueben isn’t sitting well.” Alex rubbed is stomach. “This is going
to give me ulcers.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Hey no,” Alex pulled her
closer. “This is not your fault. We’re just going to have to make
the best of a fucked up situation.”

“
You’re right but I’m
still glad I sent Renée away.”

“
Ah, damn.”

“
What?”

“
She was going to make me
Crawfish Étouffée.”

Isa laughed.

“
I have to get back to
work.”

“
I know. How’s everything
going? Are you going to transfer?”

“
I think so. Captain put
in my papers this morning. Now I just have to wait to see if I get
accepted.”

Isa smiled, she could see he was
nervous about it. “You will definitely get it.”

He smiled back. “You’re right,” he
laughed. “I am a good cop.”

“
Will you get a
partner?”

“
For awhile at least,
until I get the hang of the department. After that, I guess it’s up
to my new Captain if we stay partners,” Alex shrugged.

March had come. It was still cold but
not as brutal as February had been. Isa was glad of that. After the
heat of Louisiana, it was hard to adjust to winter in New York. It
didn’t seem to bother Alex as much as her, but then he was used to
it.

“
Well, let me know how it
goes.”

“
I will.” Alex hesitated
before getting in his car. “Are you going to see James
again?”

“
Yes.”

Alex nodded and looked at her,
studying her eyes. He gave one final nod and left.

The frigid wind he had been shielding
her from hit her, and she shivered from the sudden
blast.

Chapter 27

The warehouse was dark, dank and cold.
The broken windows at the top made Rafael scowl. He hated such
dirty surroundings, but dirty deeds and all that. Coltello scouted
the area. They had arrived before Carmine, which was how Rafael
preferred it. Coltello would wait in the shadows; it was where he
was most comfortable.

“
All clear.” His voice was
completely neutral, no inflection, only a trace of their Italian
accent. If Rafael didn’t know him so well the man would give him
the creeps.

Rafael nodded his approval. Coltello
was one of the few that knew his real name as Isadora did, and now
Sergeant Jackson, he assumed. She was going to be the end of him.
He could see it. He had been doomed the moment he laid eyes on her
in that ostentatious mansion in New Orleans. He had been thoroughly
disgusted by Roger Thorn and was supremely grateful the man hadn’t
cared that Rafael didn’t want to work with him.

But Isadora…he had been struck by her
beauty. Her blonde hair and green eyes had been so different than
the women he was used to in Italy. She had been so sad, making her
beauty all the more real. She had affected him in more ways than
one, and he hadn’t even spoken to her. When Thorn had used her in
his bargaining, Rafael had let his disgust show, but it hadn’t
phased Thorn. Not a bit. He had just laughed and said, “Don’t knock
it till you’ve tried it brother.” But when Rafael had still
refused, Thorn just shrugged. That man had been a mystery. Rafael
had plenty of power back in Naples, but it would take some time to
establish himself in the U.S., and he knew he couldn’t go up
against Thorn to rescue Isadora. Rafael had left her there, with no
help and no chance of escape, until she had killed Thorn, but at
what cost?

He had thought of her every day since
that day he saw her in the courtyard. Every single day. She had
become an obsession to him. Seeing her and speaking to her was
incredible. He felt such as strong protective instinct toward her.
He didn’t think his career would be a deterrent to her, not after
her past and what he knew she was capable of. The men she had
killed for raping her was proof of that. He knew the details of
their death. What she had done to them was sheer poetry.

Now here he was insisting he go to
battle for her like some half-cocked hero. What was he thinking? Of
course Carmine wouldn’t be bothering her if not for him, so he did
owe her. Still, going after his competition over this could make
things worse. It could send a signal to them that Isadora was a
vulnerable spot, or it could send a message that he wouldn’t even
put up with any shit anywhere near his general vicinity. But no
matter what, he wouldn’t let Carmine near her again. He knew
Carmine had sent those men to kill her in her office. Alex’s
presence may have saved her life, because they had hesitated to
kill a cop. They hadn’t been entirely stupid. So, Rafael was
grateful to that Poliziotto for that.

Rafael paced back and forth waiting
for Carmine. When he heard doors slam outside, he stilled.
Showtime.

This he could handle. Isadora La Beau?
He wasn’t so sure.

Chapter 28

Alex knew keeping up with her training
was essential to Isa. That Ghost man had been bothering her. She
hadn’t known he was in her kitchen with her much loved housekeeper,
and she couldn’t let that happen again. Renée had said he had been
polite if a little creepy, but Isa still couldn’t stop thinking
about it.

So she stepped up her routine. The
practice schedule she set for herself was always challenging, but
she concentrated on awareness of surroundings and she went back
over the espionage training she had received from an ex-South
Korean military agent. It was particularly brutal. When Alex came
in and watched her step out of her workout room covered in sweat,
he asked what on Earth she had been doing. When she told him, he
had been intrigued and she found herself in the unlikely position
of teacher.

He wanted to know some of what she
knew so she took him through some easy exercises that he passed
with high marks, especially on the physical parts. But he had
faltered on gathering Intel. He was a good investigator, but he
wasn’t willing to hurt a person for the answers, which was a good
thing, she kept assuring him. He was a cop after all.

“
I know. I just really
hate to lose.”

Isa laughed, “It’s not a competition.
It’s training, learning. Now you know how far you’re willing to go.
It’s a good thing to know.”

Alex blew out a breath and guzzled
some water. They had been sparring and Isa had won. Again. What he
had learned was that he had a lot to learn. Isa was an amazing
instructor. She was so patient with him, teaching him things he had
never even dreamed about, like gathering Intel and how to sense how
many people there were in the room while blindfolded, or throwing
knives. Little things like that he had never really thought about
before; they don’t teach that in the Academy. He was surprisingly
good at it too, or at least he thought he was. Isa said he was a
fast learner.

“
It’s only been a few
weeks Alex. Relax.”

“
So how did it go today?”
They were eating dinner in her office after training, which they
both seemed to prefer over the dining room table, especially since
Renée couldn’t come back yet. Before he could answer, the doorbell
rang. They both went to answer it.

Isa wasn’t very shocked to see DeCarlo
at the door.

“
Rafael.”

“
Isadora.
Sergeant.”

Alex and Isa exchanged a look, and
stepped aside to let him in. Rafael had his arm in a sling and what
looked like stitches in his hair line.

“
What happened to
you?”

“
Carmine,
unfortunately.”

“
Do we want to hear this
DeCarlo?”

“
I won’t go into details
Sergeant, but I will tell you Carmine may be a bigger problem than
I first thought. Apparently he has some very high-power friends I
did not know about.”

“
What friends?”

Rafael looked at Alex like he was an
imbecile. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that.”

“
You’re going to protect
him after what he did to Isa, to you,” Alex gestured to Rafael’s
arm.

“
I am not protecting him,
but there are certain things I do not do, and talking to the police
about my business is one of those things, Sergeant.”

Alex just stood there considering him.
He wasn’t angry, but he was frustrated. He wanted to help with
Carmine. He wanted to participate in Isa’s protection. He
absolutely hated having to wait around relying on Rafael
DeCarlo.

Isa stepped in, “Come with
me.”

Rafael followed Isa into the kitchen
and Isa gave Alex a one minute finger. Alex paced in front of the
fire place, feeling like an idiot for feeling left out. Isa was
right; he would talk to her but not with Alex there. Still, it
burned his ass that he was in there alone with Isa.