Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,77

and smoothed it over his hair. She’d unsettled him.

Then Jesse realized what she had really done. She had raised Barbieri’s suspicion about Einaudi. It was she who had pushed Barbieri into taking care of the jeweler.

Sickness swirled in her gut. This was what Veris meant about time twisting back to bite at you.

Beyond the closed doors behind her, Jesse heard thudding and raised voices. The men in the room shifted again, their attention caught. The commotion was coming closer.

Barbieri spoke fast Italian. Two of the men pulled out their handguns and aimed at the door.

Now was not the moment to act, not when there were two weapons already out and ready to fire, even though everyone in the room had forgotten about her. Even Stinky’s grip on her arm had loosened.

Scuffling sounded just outside the door. The doors opened—burst open, really—and three men staggered into the room.

Aran was the man in the middle. His arms were hiked up high, in the hands of the two on either side of him. They’d split his lip and his chin was bloody.

The two dropped Aran on the carpet before Barbieri’s desk. One drew a gun and rested it against the back of Aran’s head.

Jesse drew in a hard breath, squashing down the flare of panic.

Barbieri was on his feet, but he clawed back his dignity and considered Aran while stroking his chin. “You are a difficult man to find, Mr. Gallagher. I have been anxious to speak to you for some time now.”

“I can’t say the same, Barbieri.” Aran’s voice was rough. He couldn’t raise his head because of the gun pushed against the back of it.

“Your wife has informed me of something that I was not aware of,” Barbieri continued, as if Aran had not spoken. “If you can confirm that it is true in a way that can be demonstrated, then I may be moved to consider the matter that lies between us as concluded. Do you understand?”

Aran didn’t move.

Barbieri snapped something in Italian and the man with the gun stepped back a half-pace, taking the gun off the back of Aran’s head and letting him lift his head, so he could look at Barbieri.

Aran straightened and put his hands on his worsted-covered thighs. The fingers were together. He looked Barbieri in the eye.

Jesse kept her gaze on Aran’s hands. Her heart rate elevated. The moment was coming.

“Tell me about the jeweler,” Barbieri demanded of Aran. “Is it true that he has been stealing from me?”

Aran considered Barbieri. He showed zero surprise. No fear or wariness was in his face or body language. He might have been sitting across the dining table from the mobster, instead of being on his knees with a gun to his head. “Stealing?” He gave a soft laugh. “Einaudi has been skimming from you in so many different ways, a prostitute would blush because she didn’t think of it herself.” And the three outer fingers of his right hand shifted away from the forefinger and thumb.

Jesse wanted to roll her eyes. Three of them? There were five men in the room, plus Barbieri, and she was the one no one was watching. It should be four and two, with her taking the four, including Barbieri. She wasn’t in a position to argue, though. Aran couldn’t look at her, so he had to call the shots.

Barbieri’s face turned red. He didn’t wave his hands or scream, or bite his knuckles, the way they did in the movies. He just buttoned his jacket with slow, deliberate movements. “How can I establish that this is true, Mr. Gallagher?”

Jesse shifted her feet, centering her weight. Preparing.

Aran’s jaw worked. Then he leaned forward and spat a wad of blood upon the carpet in front of the desk. He straightened up once more. “There’s two sets of books,” he told Barbieri. “He keeps the real set inside the potted plant on the table where he deals with customers. The round table at the back.”

The one where she had drunk tea.

“The plant lifts out,” Aran continued. “The journals are underneath the false bottom. I found them one day, while he was in the back. I knocked my knuckle against the bottom of the pot and it sounded hollow, which made me look closer.” He shrugged.

Jesse knew the last part was false. Aran didn’t accidentally find the second set of books at all. He would have been looking for them because he already knew Einaudi was a crook.

Barbieri’s face grew thunderous. Everyone watched their