Page 27 of Beautiful Villain
“Was she alone?”I asked.
Leo took a moment to think before he responded.
“She was.Until she got hit by a car.The car stopped,” he went on.“It was a black one.Real fancy.Didn’t make much noise.”
My blood went cold, sliding somewhere unpleasant behind my ribs.
“Who was in it?”I asked carefully.
Leo shrugged, already chewing through his future dental bills with the gum.“I didn’t see faces.But the driver looked Italian.”
“And then what happened?”I pressed.
“They put her in the car,” Leo said.“And then they drove off.”
I straightened slowly, every piece of the puzzle clicking into place with a sound I didn’t like.
“You didn’t happen to catch a license plate, did you, kid?”I asked, already bracing myself for disappointment.
Leo blinked up at me.Once.Twice.His face was blank.
“What’s a license plate?”
I stared at him.Really stared.
The kid was eleven—twelve at a stretch.Old enough to ride a bike unsupervised, old enough to negotiate bribes with alarming efficiency, and apparently old enough to witness a felony—but somehow unfamiliar with the basic concept of identifying a car.
I narrowed my eyes.“The numbers,” I said slowly, enunciating like I was explaining fire.“On the back of the vehicle.”
“Oh.”His face brightened.“You mean the metal rectangle?”
I closed my eyes for a brief, centering moment.
“Did you see it?”I asked.
He shook his head, entirely unbothered.“Nah.I was watching the bride.She was way more interesting.”
Of course she was.
I exhaled through my nose and made a second mental note—not only was this child a rat, he was also useless under pressure.A dangerous combination.
10
Gianni
“I’ll be well enough to leave in a few days,” she said.“So I need to know what happens after that.”
I took a sip of water, buying myself a second I didn’t need.
“You leave,” I said.“If that’s what you want.”
She stilled.Not relaxed, but alert.Like she knew better than to trust the quiet.
“I don’t trust you.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said.“But you should listen to me anyway.”
Her jaw tightened.She shifted on the couch, careful, controlled—then winced a fraction too late to hide it.The pain was still bad.She hated that I’d noticed.
