Page 33 of Auctioned to the Mafia Don
“I know.”
“She is emotionally tied to the children. She knows Leon. She has Raven West and the Bureau looking for her. She is trained, angry, reckless when the twins are involved, and far too comfortable testing men who by all rights should scare her.”
“I don’t know that comfortable is the word I would use.”
Omar’s stare hardens. “She’s a loose cannon, and she’s toying with you.”
I smile faintly. “Perhaps.”
His mouth tightens. There it is. The real irritation. Not that Maya touched me. Not even that I allowed it. Omar is angry because he saw the same thing I did. She keeps attempting to gain control. Not in ways blatant enough to be obvious to anyone besides the two of us. Just enough to be dangerous.
“She should be dead,” he says.
I look at him over the peak of my hands, elbows resting on my desk. Omar doesn’t look away. He’s one of the few who will tell me the truth. And truth is only useful when a man has the spine to stand behind it.
“You asked me to say it if I thought it needed to be said,” he adds.
“I did.”
“She should have been dead once you knew she was a federal agent; that would have been the cleanest choice.”
“Clean is for men who require excuses for their actions, Omar.”
“Clean is for men who don’t want unnecessary complications in the middle of an operation like ours. She is a risk you don’t need.”
“Maya is not unnecessary.”
“She was a night ago.”
No.
She was inconvenient a night ago. Unknown. Uninvited. A federal blade hidden beneath auction silk. But unnecessary? No. I knew that the moment she looked at me from the stage.
Not because of her face, though she is beautiful enough to make weaker men stupid. Not because of the dress they put her in or the performance of fear she wore for the room. It was the contempt beneath it. Controlled. Buried. Sharp enough that I saw it from the back of the hall while every other man mistook her lowered eyes for surrender.
She was lying better than anyone else in that room. Then she saw me, and for one second, the lie broke. I wanted her before she became useful. Now, I just want her.
“She is useful.”
“All the same,” Omar exhales through his nose. “That doesn’t mean this is wise.”
“Explain.”
He hates when I do that. When I invite the argument and make him build the gallows for himself.
“She knows too much already. She will learn more. She will test every door, every guard, every gap in the plan. She will look for the twins. She will look for a phone. She will try to reach her people the first second she thinks she can do it without costing those children's safety.”
“Probably.”
“And you are giving her access.”
“Theoretically, you and Dolores are supposed to be controlling her access.”
“You are letting her believe that she has freedom, choices, some control over the situation.”
I smile faintly. “Yes.”
Omar’s eyes narrow. “This is not a game, Stefano.”
