Page 61 of Dark Breaker

Fuck.

“I hear the Jackal is open-minded,” Gina coos. “And would be willing to throw his support behind another candidate, if the price was right. And where he goes, Alderman Pietro follows, along with all the other political figures on the Jackal’s payroll.”

“You make it sound like the Jackal has paid off more politicians than the D’Alimontes,” I tell her.

“Maybe he has,” Gina taunts. “All that protection money has to go somewhere, right?” She pauses. “So. Want to meet with him yet?”

“What’s the price?” I ask. Everything with her has a price.

“Oh, I don’t want money,” she says.

I lean forward, planting my palms on the countertop in front of me so that my forearms cord. “Then what do you want?”

“You,” she replies.

I stare at her incredulously. “Me?”

She nods. “I can’t believe you married this girl of yours for anything other than convenience. You’re not the marrying type. I go away for two months and what do you do? You go and tie the knot. I never intended to stay with Pietro forever. He was just a tool. Someone to pass the time. I like playing with powerful people. As you know. I always meant to come back to you.”

I shake my head. “You can’t just press a pause button and think you can hop back into my life months or years later, and expect things to be exactly like they were before between us. That’s not how relationships work.”

“It was only two months,” she insists.

“I don’t care,” I tell her. “You can’t have me.”

She give me a petulant look. “Why not? You want the Jackal, don’t you?”

“Who says I do?” I ask her. “I already have people negotiating with the Tunisians.”

“Wouldn’t you rather do the negotiating yourself?” she purrs. “Face to face with your enemy? That way you can give the Jackal the choice between agreeing to your terms or a bullet to the head?”

I shrug. “If I really want to meet him, maybe I’ll just pay a visit to Alderman Pietro myself and extract the Jackal’s location from him directly.”

“He doesn’t know,” Gina insists. “I said he canarrangea meeting.”

“Then I’ll get him to arrange a fucking meeting,” I tell her angrily.

She flinches, then smoothes her features. “Well, you can certainly try. But, you should know, he’s under the Jackal’s personal protection now. And the Jackal isn’t the only mafia don protecting him.”

“Really?” I say, finding it hard to believe her. “Why has Pietro become so popular among the mafia families all of a sudden?”

She gives me a knowing smile. “The Jackal has been making alliances, too. The Sciaras and Villafratis are in his pocket. You hurt Pietro, you go to war with not only the Jackal, but them, too.”

Double fuck.

“Let me be your mistress,” Gina says. “Come on, I know you like fucking me.”

“I don’t,” I tell her.

“Then why were you shouting my name so loudly two months ago?” she asks. “I can tell you want me right now, even. That’s why you’re hiding behind the countertop.” She giggles. “You don’t want me to see how stiff your cock is.”

She’s actually wrong, but I don’t feel the need to prove it to her.

“Get out, Gina,” I order her. “I won’t tell you again. Leave your key.”

She stares at me for a moment longer. The desire on her face suddenly shifts, and I see a flash of scorn for moment, but it’s quickly gone. She gives me a final smile—it still doesn’t reach her eyes—then stands up and sets her key on the countertop. She flicks it over to me.

I catch the key before it slides off the counter.