Free From Manhattan with Revenge (The Fourth Book in the Fifth Avenue Series) by Christopher Smith

I’m
here if you need me. So, I expect to hear from you. Soon.”
    The line went dead.
    She clicked off the phone and handed it to
Babe, who gave it to Max, who walked across the room with it and placed it in
its cradle. Vincent never would set her up. She knew that. She trusted him as
if he were her brother. She looked at Babe and then at Jake, who were looking
at her as if they didn’t know how she would react.
    She trusted no one easily. But she had to
listen to Vincent. When it came to her, he’d never be responsible for holding
out the noose that took her life.
    She sat down in one of the red chairs.
    “Babe, if you have coffee, perhaps all of
us could talk?”
    “I have my private McAdoo blend,” she
said.
    “I had a feeling you would. I assume it’s
strong?”
    “It’ll blow your head off.”
    “That’s not what I want to hear right now,
Babe,” Carmen said.
     

 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER TEN

 
    When Max brought a tray with a pot of
coffee, cups, saucers, cream, sweeteners, and cookies on it, he placed it on
the table between Carmen, Babe, and Jake, and offered to pour.
    “I’m fine,” Carmen said. “Thank you.”
    She poured herself a cup, took it black,
sipped it, decided she liked it, and chose a short bread sugar cookie from the
platter. With the exception of the cheese and cracker she ate earlier, she
hadn’t eaten today. She bit into it and leveled Jake with a look.
    “What’s your real name?” she asked.
    “Fred.”
    “So, Jake,” she said. “Why don’t you fill
me in on what you know? Why were Alex and I targeted?”
    “You’re end-of-cycle,” he said.
    She knew what that meant, but she wanted
to push him to see how much he’d reveal. “And what does that mean?”
    “Isn’t it obvious? Even before you killed
Laurent, they were finished with you. They thought you knew too much and it was
time to invest in other people as skilled as you.”
    “Too much about what?”
    “No idea.”
    “You must have some idea.”
    “I don’t. But they think you know too much
about something. Maybe them. Maybe something they did. Maybe something Alex
did. Who knows?” He leaned forward and poured himself a cup of coffee. “But now
that you’ve killed Laurent, they also want you dead for murdering their
colleague. Maybe even especially because you killed him and dared to challenge
them. All of their resources are pointed at you right now, Carmen. They want to
send a message to the other agents working for the syndicate. Fuck with them,
meet your death.”
    “How many are on me?”
    “Best guess? Another agent recently told
me that the syndicate employs about seventeen people. Give or take. Probably
more. Before Alex died, that included you, Alex, me, and the two men who died
last night—the one whose chest I crushed, and the one hit by the truck.
With us out of the picture, that would leave about a dozen or so. That said, no
one knows for sure.”
    “Why are you out of the picture, Jake?”
    “End-of-cycle. They’re cleaning house.
Apparently, I also know too much, though I’m not sure about what and I don’t
have time to find out. I want out of this city and this life. Time for a
change.”
    “Here’s what doesn’t make sense to me,”
she said. “If the syndicate wants you dead, why did you agree to work for them
last night? Why were they on the phone texting you about my whereabouts?”
    She looked at Babe, who was looking at
Jake with a furrowed brow.
    “Am I the only one who finds that odd? Do
you, Babe?”
    “I do.”
    “So, why don’t you explain, Jake? How are
you a target one day, then their champion the next?”
    “I’m hardly their champion, Carmen, but
I’ll tell you how it went down. The two men hired to kill me last night proved
that the syndicate wants me dead. I needed to buy time and figure out a way to
get out of the city safely. Because of what you did to Laurent, I thought I had
another shot with them and took it. After the guy who chased me