Innocent as Sin

48

Chandler Mall

Sunday

Andre Bertone’s hands were locked around the wheel of his parked car hard enough to leave dents. They’d been that way since he’d seen Kayla walk into the Cheesecake Factory with a man who looked like a cowboy and moved like a bodyguard.

The headphones he wore kept bringing him news that went from bad to worse. Part of Bertone admired Kayla’s brass.

Most of him just wanted to kill her. Then Foley.

Slowly.

What a putz.

But a useful one. Until that changed, Foley would live.

Mother of God, he didn’t even ask for Jerry’s last name. She could have told him everything!

Not that it mattered. The snipers could kill two as easily as one. It was just that Bertone hated incompetence. He’d killed men simply because they were too stupid to live.

Foley was shaping up to head the Must Die list.

Bertone forced himself to unclamp his fingers from the wheel. No matter how delightful Foley’s neck would feel crushed between Bertone’s hands, the banker was necessary. It would take time to cultivate another bank, another banker, all the messy details needed to launder money safely.

In the meantime…

Bertone punched a number on his speed dial.

“Bueno.”

“Nothing good about it,” Bertone snarled to Gabriel. “There’s a man with the Shaw woman. Tall. Jeans and a black shirt. Cowboy hat. You kill him. Tell Uri to take Kayla.”

“Sí.”

Bertone hung up and waited for two dead people to walk out of the restaurant.