Half Life (Russell's Attic Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

dents into the soft leather.
    I could kill her. It would be easy. Ducking her security on the way out would be laughable, and Arthur would disapprove, but that was a small price to pay for saving both him and Checker.
    Except that if I killed the woman of power in the Los Angeles Mafia, I’d be starting a timer on my own life. The Mob didn’t forgive, didn’t forget, and couldn’t be bought off. If I killed Mama Lorenzo, I’d have to disappear, and even halfway around the world I’d keep looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. And they might still come after Checker.
    Come to that—even if I managed to kill Mama Lorenzo in a way no one was able to trace back to me, the private army that was the American Mafia was vast and organized. No matter how many powerful people I took out, even I might not be able to stop this from happening.
    Mama Lorenzo rose. “I believe we are finished here, Miss Russell. As I said, Benito speaks highly of you, so I hope this incident will not disrupt your professional relationship with my family. I trust you have seen my points. It would be a shame if you decided to interfere.”
    I stayed seated. “I can do a lot more than retrieval.” The words came out of my mouth before I had decided to say them.
    Mama Lorenzo looked down at me quizzically, as though wondering why I was still talking.
    “I could launder money for you so effectively the IRS would never find it.” I stared straight ahead, focusing on the smooth, varnished grain of her desk. “I could break people out of jail for you. I could, uh, take care of people for you in ways they’d never see coming. Please.” The “What Would Arthur Think?” voice was screaming inside my head, because offering any of those things to this woman, offering to be an assassin for her, this was definitely Not Okay and I had officially crossed into the dark side. I didn’t care.
    Mama Lorenzo hesitated. “That is good to know,” she said finally. “I shall keep that in mind in case we need such…services…in the future. But I’m afraid it can have no impact on the present situation.” She stepped around to the side of her desk, clearly showing me out.
    Shit. I couldn’t kill her, and I couldn’t bargain with her—my mind scrambled—
    I needed time. Time to think, time to plan, time to come up with some way of fighting. Time to find more options, before Mama Lorenzo’s men went and broke all of Checker’s fingers and smashed his face in with a baseball bat.
    I stood up. Mama Lorenzo’s stilettos put her flawlessly made-up face almost a foot above mine, but I stood very still and very quiet and met her eyes, staring that superlative composure down. “Okay,” I said. “Fine. Your honor might dictate you go after a friend of mine. But I’ve got honor, too.” Or something like it, something that might better be called the desperate selfishness of someone who was too fundamentally lonely to give up her only two friends to the leader of a crime syndicate. Time. Just get some time. “If you touch Checker, his business, or any of their clients, then I will declare war on your entire family and all of your operations. Personally. And you will be the first one on my list.”
    Mama Lorenzo’s expression twitched. I knew why: what I was saying didn’t make sense. She had too obvious a solution. All I was doing was throwing myself in between Checker and the Mob as a target that needed to be taken out. My threat was a pointless act.
    Except that it would keep her away from Checker until I could come up with an actual plan. And all I would have to do would be dodge Mafia hitmen for a few days while I figured out that plan.
    Stupid, stupid, stupid, railed a voice in my head. I ignored it. Fucking Checker.
    “I could have you killed right now,” Mama Lorenzo said.
    “Try,” I answered, baring my teeth.
    We stood, gazes locked, every passing second heavy with what might happen next. The moment stretched, suffocating, a struggle