Page 25 of Taking Care of the Target

“We both made it, but barely.” Vince shot another glare at Sal, satisfaction pumping through him when the twerp flinched. “Did you really think a noisy drive-by in a nice neighborhood wouldn’t go unnoticed? You just put unneeded attention on all of us.”

The muscles in Carlo’s jaw tightened, and he gave Sal a deadly look that made Vince’s blood freeze in place, so he could only imagine the impact on Sal. “You and I are going to have a talk in a few minutes.” He turned to Vince. “So what’s the status with Cassie?”

“I think it’s best to talk about this withouthim”—Vince tilted his head toward Sal—“here. He’s already screwed it up once.”

Carlo pressed his lips together and tapped a finger to them. This would be so much easier without anyone else chiming in on the situation. Vince silently urged him to tell Sal to leave.

“Don’t go far,” Carlo said, not even bothering to look at Sal.

As Sal started past, Vince stepped into his path. He spoke in a low, make-no-mistake voice. “Cross me again, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Sal managed a weak sneer and then left the office, head hanging like a scolded dog.Perfect.

“So if they didn’t kill her,” Carlo said, using a similar no-threat tone, “why didn’t you finish the job?”

Where to start? It’d help if Cassie’s face would stop flashing into his mind, making it hard to stay detached. He couldn’t look weak right now, but at the same time, he needed to appeal to Carlo’s sympathetic side. “I found out her accident erased her memory. She doesn’t remember the incident behind the restaurant, or even working here. Remember how Sal said she looked right at him but acted like she didn’t know him? She did the same thing to me.

“I watched her for a couple of days, and all she ever did was go between work and her new place—which I found out she’d already planned on moving into before the accident.” That’d taken a bit of digging at her old place. “I approached her, and when it was clear she didn’t know who I was, I struck up a conversation. I was walking her home so I could find out more about her condition. No one’s following her, either—no cops, no feds.” He gritted his teeth. “Just Sal’s idiots, who were incompetent enough to report the job as done.”

Vince hoped that wouldn’t compel Carlo to send more qualified people, because the truth was, if he’d spotted that gun even a second later, he and Cassie would’ve died there on the sidewalk.

Carlo tapped his fingers on his desk. “She doesn’t remember anything?”

Vince shook his head. “Not about New Jersey. Not about us. Look, you said it before. You liked her—we all liked her. She’s just twenty-four years old, with her whole life ahead of her. There’s no reason to kill her now.”

Carlo stroked his goatee, his eyes softening a fraction. “You’re sure she’s not acting?”

“I was there in the alley that day. Sheneverwould’ve talked to me if she remembered who I was, and we talked for a while. Then she left with me. No amount of acting could keep her calm that long, and like I said, I’ve been watching her closely for a couple of days.” He purposely left out the fact that someone else might’ve been watching her, too.

“Isn’t it possible for people with amnesia to suddenly remember? What did the doctor tell her—do you know?”

“He said it’s unlikely. If they don’t come back right after, they’re usually gone for good.” Now he was just talking out of his ass, hoping it sounded legit.

“What percentage did he give her? Because even if it’s five percent, that five percent means prison for me.” Carlo let out a sigh and shook his head. “I don’t think I can risk it. If you’re not able to do the job, I understand, but I’ll have to get someone else.”

His gut clenched, alarm screeching through his veins. “Look, she trusts me. I’ll stick close to her. If she remembers anything, I’ll finish the job.”

Carlo went back to stroking his goatee, and Vince searched for another way to get him on board with this plan.

“Killing her right now would actually be more of a risk. Say the police look into her disappearance. Where are they going to go for answers? They’ll see she used to be employed at Rossi’s and come charging in here with a warrant—they’ve had a hard-on for a reason to search this place for years.”

Carlo’s hand stilled. Clearly, that struck a chord.

“This is why you have me taking care of this. You want it done right, not sloppy. I think things through, where your other goons…” Vince let it hang in the air, hoping to drive the point home without pissing him off. “Well, I’ll handle itwithoutadding a dozen more problems to the pile.”

A nostalgic gleam flickered through Carlo’s eyes, and one corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “You’re so much like your dad. When you’re in front of me, talking like this, it’s like I have him back.”

Even though he didn’t want to feel so proud over the comparison, Vince couldn’t help it. Dad got things done. People respected him. He’d been his hero for most of his life, and until the day he’d been proven wrong, Vince thought he was untouchable.

“You think long term, too, just like he did,” Carlo continued. “You’d make a helluva number two. I never promoted anyone to Underboss after your father, telling the guys the position was unnecessary. But the truth is, I never trusted anyone else enough, and I always wanted to keep it in the family.”

Vince knew it was only a matter of time before Carlo brought it up. In another week or so, his uncle would casually mention Bobby to give him more incentive.Just when I think I’m out,he thought wryly. “I’ll think about it.”

Carlo nodded, a smug curve to his lips, and then smacked the top of his desk with an open palm. “The restaurant’s running fine without you, so you just stick close to that girl for a while.”

No doubt his uncle thought adding that jab would help sway him into accepting the offered position. But he’d seen the things that’d been forgotten on his way back to the office—he’d just been too bloodthirsty thinking about Sal to stop and tell the employees to fix them.

“I’ll reiterate to my guys that Cassie’s not to be touched, but, Vince…” Carlo leaned forward in his chair, his good-humored mood fading in an instant. “If she remembersanything, you kill her and hide the body so she’s never found.Capisce?”

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