Free Hitman's Desire: A Bad Boy Romance by Megyn Riley

box of supplies from the storage area. Then I use the service exit and step into the back alley. There is a delivery truck parked with its loading bay doors open. Two men are unloading supplies and hauling them into the kitchen. I scan the alleyway for watchful eyes. Then I set the box down by the truck and sneak down the alley. There are many ways to get in and out of the Lexington undetected, and I know them all.
    On the street, I catch a cab. I keep an eye out, making sure that we haven’t been tailed. I don’t want to use a pay phone in front of the hotel. I’d be telegraphing my location. Pay phones are hard to come by these days. Nobody really uses them anymore. Everybody’s got a cell phone. After driving around mindlessly for 20 minutes, I find a payphone that works on the corner of 46th and 12th Ave.
    I pay the cabby and tell him to wait. I give him an extra 10 spot. But the fucker leaves the instant I step away from the car.
    This fucking city.
    I drop some change into the slot and dial the number. After a moment, a man answers the phone. It’s probably Petey, or Paul. They sound so much alike, I can never tell them apart. They both have double digit IQs.
    “Let me speak with Big Nick.”
    “Sorry. Big Nick is busy.”
    “Petey, is that you?”
    “Yeah, it’s me. Who’s asking?”
    “Petey, it’s Ryker. I need to speak with the boss man, now. It’s important.”
    “He’s in a meeting. I ain’t supposed to interrupt him during meetings.”
    “I don’t give a shit what you’re supposed to do. You’re going to walk in there and get him on the phone.”
    “You gonna make me? Tough guy?”
    “Petey, I like you. But I will come for you, and your whole fucking family. You know I will.”
    There is a long pause.
    “Hang on,” Petey stammers. “Let me see if I can pull him away.”
    I stand there on the street corner, looking out over the harbor. The lights from across the river glisten on the surface of the water. I hear the call of seagulls and the distant horn of a ship entering the harbor.
    After a few minutes, a gravelly voice picks up the phone. “Ryker. Where are you?” It’s Big Nick Capello.
    “I’m safe.”
    “I’ll send a car and some muscle to pick you up. Bring you in.”
    “No.”
    “You refusing my hospitality?”
    Nobody refuses Nick Capello.
    “Somebody just tried to kill me,” I say.
    “Word is you hit Falco. Without authorization. I imagine lots of folks want you dead.”
    “What about you?”
    “You work for me quite a bit,” Capello says. “Everyone knows that. Makes me look bad. I gotta shit storm to deal with because of you.”
    “I didn’t kill Falco.”
    “Who did?”
    “I don’t know. Dominic Finn, maybe. He was next in line.”
    “Finn’s taken control of the family,” says Nick. “He wants you dead.”
    “Of course he does.”
    “He also wants a war.”
    “Let me guess. You either hand me over to him, or kill me as a peace offering?”
    “I don’t need a war, Ryker.” Nick pauses. “Look, I like you, kid. You’ve always done right by me. “But if I gotta choose me, or you, I’m always gonna choose me.”
    I grit my teeth.
    “I’ll give you 24 hours to positively ID Falco’s shooter. You come up with concrete evidence, I’ll provide that to Finn. And I’ll have your back. You got my word on that. But after 24 hours, I’m sending people after you.”
    “Fair enough,” I say. “Serpent Syndicate just made a failed attempt.”
    “Finn’s got several contracts out on you,” Nick says. “So does the Commission.”
    I know Big Nick well enough to know that he placed a hit on me too. Business is business. He’s gotta look impartial if he wants to avoid a war with Finn.
    “My money says Finn ordered the hit on Falco. He’s got the most to gain. He’s making a big show of how determined he is to kill you. But if it comes out that he did kill Falco, he’s gonna have anarchy on his hands.”
    “I don’t know if I can clear my name