off him.”
Austin reached behind my back and I heard a click. He took the cuffs away and took a seat near the elevators and the exit to the stairwell.
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot,” Jace continued. “I was wondering if you’re loyal to them, or if you might be convinced to work for me. After what happened today, I know you ain’t loyal to them, but you say you don’t want to work for me either.”
I watched him with dead eyes.
“So, let me lay out my benefits package for you to consider. Believe it or not, I know what you’re going through. I saw my own mother get killed by… well, not these fucks, but fucks a lot like them. I made it my mission in life to take them down. First, I took Port Magnus from the Picollis, then we took New Ashby from the Bertolinis. After that, it became apparent that all these old mafia families are one and the same, interconnected. The only way to make sure they don’t grow back is to fucking kill them all. I had to make sure my next move hit them in the biggest single money-making operation any of them had, and that’s you and your F. They buried you deep. They’re not exactly like the other mafia families where you can sneak into their house and steal their fucking Rolodex. My guy Dan here,” he gestured at the man at the computer, who waved without looking, “can hack anything from anywhere, but in the end it was easier to buy this building right across the road from Trafford Tower, so we could get mainline access to the data cabling under the street.”
I looked at the windows, which were covered by vertical Venetian blinds. “We’re…?”
Jace nodded. “Right across the street. Anyway, the benefits package. The first thing I’ll promise you is that, if you work for me, I’ll make sure you get all the revenge you can handle. You will make them hurt on a daily basis, and I’m not just talking about in the wallet. I’m talking about every kind of pain that you’ve felt today, and more. Nothing will bring her back, and I can’t promise any amount of revenge will even the score in your mind.”
I dropped my eyes from Jace and leaned forward so that my elbows were resting on my knees. “I’m listening.”
“Second. Consider it a signing bonus. You might have noticed two guys in the back of the van with you? These are the guys who killed your mother. We didn’t get there in time to stop them… but we got there in time to pick them up. They are my unconditional gift. To you. They are your property. I have some places, and some tools, you might like to use if you want to… talk to them.”
Every beat of my heart was like the worst cramp I’d ever felt. I felt hot flushes and my hands bunched up into tight fists, shaking with anger. To know that the two men that killed my mother had been so close, they had been my makeshift mattress, really, was overwhelming.
The dreams I’d been having about that peaceful future on some nameless tropical island with Sarina, my mother living out her golden years in a nearby mansion… that was falling to the ground around me like a shattered window. There could never be peace, but there could be vengeance.
“What do you need from me?”
“You’re gonna have to relocate someplace where nobody knows you if you want to live a life any better than the chains the Acardis thought they were going to put you in tonight. I’ll set you up with a new lab, new staff, new accommodation. I’ll match what the Acardis were paying you and, if you don’t fuck around with me, I’ll give you the respect a man of your expertise deserves. That’s true, isn’t it, Dan?”
“All good, boss,” said Dan, not taking his eyes from the screens.
“So, do we have a deal?” Jace asked.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat, the grief for the life that could never happen, and cleared my throat. My mother was dead. Sarina… maybe dead too. “Yeah. Yeah, I think we do. You said the Acardis were going down tonight. How?”
I walked to the window, peeking between the blinds at the Acardi building across the street. Jace stood next to me.
“We’ve got the locations of about half the Acardis’ upper hierarchy in the city and nearby suburbs