Dark Time: Mortal Path Read Online Free PDF Page A

even for him.”
    She shook her head. She never bothered to explain whom she was working for, or anything else about herself. No one would believe it.
    “You’re probably lying. What do you care? I’m going to be dead in a minute. But you tell Tenaglia that Kate and the girls are untouchable. You hear that? He so much as breathes in their direction and lightning is gonna strike his family, especially that rat’s ass son of his. Old man Amoretti’s taking care of my family. You tell him that.”
    Do it and get out.
    Her hands played out the motions of knife throwing in muscle memory while the blades remained perfectly still in her palms.
    “Why did you turn yourself in?” She wanted to hear it from him, hear him say that he loved his family more than his life.
    Ledger frowned. “What does that matter to you? Get it over with, Ghost.”
    Susannah retreated enough to check the hallway, then walked over to him, moving as quietly as a hunting cat, the throwing knives her claws. Although he hunkered down a little, he knew he had nowhere to go and didn’t stand a chance against her. Placing a sharp tip over his heart, she leaned in close to the man’s ear and said, “I’m curious. Indulge me.”
    Ledger, who’d been holding his breath waiting for the knife to plunge into his chest, exhaled warmly into her face. He smelled unmistakably of chicken soup.
    “I turned forty. My predecessor retired at forty-two. Bullet in the back of the head. Accountants know way too much. They get so they’re holding too many secrets and somebody gets antsy. So I figured I’d get out early and make the best deal I could for my family.”
    A tear slid down Ledger’s cheek. “Lately that’s all that matters to me,” he whispered. “You know.
    You were in the house.”
    Years ago, Susannah would have killed him and slipped away. His story of family love would have bounced off her heart. But she’d seen what he had at stake.
    Pajamas with sheep…dancing ballerina jewelry box…black hair on a pillow…a baby girl in a crib.
    A family that could have been mine.
    The knife eased away from Ledger’s chest.
    She thought about Rabishu’s order: The man Lorenzo DiNina must not be allowed to testify against Adamo Tenaglia. Susannah slipped the knives back into their sheaths. When Ledger saw her unarmed, he tried a last, desperate attempt to save his life. He came at her, fists ineffectually flying. She pinned his arms behind his back.
    “Cut it out. I’m helping you.”
    What the hell? I’m helping?
    No time to mull things over. “You’re going to have to do what I say to get out of here alive,” she said.
    “Alive? I thought you were sent to kill me.”
    Susannah spun him around and firmly gripped him by the shoulders, alert for any muscle tell that would indicate he was going to lash out at her.
    “I need to stop you from testifying. You don’t have to be dead to do that. You made a deal with the Feds: your testimony for safe passage for your family. I’m offering you another deal. Keep your mouth shut and I’ll take you to your family.”
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    They’ll get Tenaglia some other way. They got Capone on tax evasion.
    Ledger blinked several times, an ocular Morse code, as he processed this. Then narrowed eyes betrayed suspicion. “What’s in it for you? I’m not wealthy, you know. I can’t pay much.”
    Not wealthy, my ass. Only an accountant would haggle at this point.
    Susannah shook her head. “I haven’t figured out what’s in it for me. Listen, we’re out of time here.
    Yes or no?”
    “I’d be a fool not to take the chance. Even if it’s just a joke you’re playing on me. Yes. I say yes.”
    His chin jutted out in an attempt to shore up his courage.
    Echoes of her first conversation with Rabishu so many years ago flitted through her mind. She’d chosen life; so had Ledger, even with the hope of it surely seeming small to him.
    The smell of smoke, of burning flesh, impossibly slipped into