Page 43 of Stolen Touches

Someone knocks on the door. Milene quickly turns her head away and looks back at the laptop screen.

“Enter,” I say and remove my hand from under her skirt.

Nino walks in but falters when he sees Milene sitting on my lap. I motion for him to come, and he takes a chair on the opposite side of the desk.

“We have a new development regarding the snitch,” he says. “Leaking the info worked.”

“Do you know who it is?”

“No. But he was in the group of five men.”

“Their phones are clean?” I ask.

“Yup. No way to discover who it was unless someone confesses.”

“Take all five to the old safe house and lock them in a room under video surveillance. All together. No guards inside. No food, no water.” I lean back in my chair, pulling Milene with me. “But before you do that, take the one who’s least likely to be the snitch and tell him what’s happening. Let it be known that if no one confesses by morning, all five will be dead in a ditch.”

Milene’s body tenses. Maybe I shouldn’t discuss such things in front of her. “We’ll continue tomorrow, Milene.”

She looks at Nino, then back at me before getting up and leaving the office and I can’t help but notice how pale her face is. When she closes the door behind her, I turn back to Nino.

“At least one of them must have seen the rat using thewrong phone or acting strangely, but they’ll need the incentive to remember. Put two of your men to monitor the feed. Let’s see whether they start accusing each other. The culprit might float to the surface.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“As I said, kill all five of them. There will be no rats on this ship.”

“Consider it done.”

“Tell me about Fitzgerald. Anything new on that?”

Nino’s giving me updates on Fitzgerald’s whereabouts when the phone on my desk rings loudly. I glance at the caller ID and see that it’s the security desk downstairs. For a moment I consider ignoring it, but then decide to take the call after all.

“Mr. Ajello, I wanted to inform you that your wife has just left the building.”

“What?” I spring up from the chair. “Alone?”

“Yes. I . . . should I have stopped her?”

I squeeze the receiver in my hand. “Is she still downstairs?”

“No, she successfully hailed a cab and left.”

“If you’re still there when I get down,” I sneer, “I will fucking shoot you in the head, Steven.”

I grab my phone and car keys off the desk, and head toward the door.

“Boss?” Nino calls, hurrying behind me. “What happened?”

“My wife happened,” I snap, get into the elevator with Nino on my heels, and call Milene.

“Yes?”

“Where the fuck did you go without a security detail?” I yell.

“You said you had work to do. I’m heading to Pippa’s for coffee. I’ll be home in two hours.”

“Tell the driver to turn around and get back to your bodyguards. Now, Milene!”