Vegas Moon

27.

“Under normal circumstances what would I charge to kill your husband? Or are you asking what I would charge you?”

“Both.”

“Under normal circumstances, that’s a hundred-thousand dollar hit.”

“And for me?”

“Is that what we’re doing here today? Making a contract?”

She gives me three short, quick kisses.

“God, I love your face!” she says.

I wait for her to answer my question. She finally says, “I don’t want you to kill Lucky.”

“No?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

“I’m trying to understand you.”

That surprises me. “In what way?”

“I’m trying to understand how you place a monetary value on other people’s lives.”

The woman lying on the bed with me today is far shrewder than the girl I met yesterday. Today’s woman is probably smarter than me, which is a plus, if we’re in a relationship. But right now we’re on a bed in a hotel room, and there’s fire in my pants. I want yesterday’s girl to put it out. I sigh, realizing today’s woman is waiting for me to answer her question about how I price my hits.

“There are a lot of factors that go into the equation,” I say.

“Such as?”

“His prominence, how hard it would be to kill him, if there was a specific time and place you needed it done, and if you require a specific method.”

“Of killing him?”

“Yes.”

“So it could cost more.”

“Or less.”

“Interesting.”

“How much to kill Carmine?”

“Excuse me?”

“Carmine Porrello, crime boss, western region.”

“I know who he is.”

“Would you take a contract that big?”

I shrug. “It’s what I do.”

“You could kill Carmine?”

She’s looking at me with bright, hopeful eyes.

I meet her gaze. When I speak, my words are clear and precise.

“I can kill anyone.”

The smile that spreads across her face says she likes my answer.

I say, “Anything else you want to ask?”

“Yes. Are you ever going to fuck me?”