My only reaction is to narrow my gaze as a hint for him to continue.
He chuckles and sips his wine before going on, now with a serious expression. “You’ve been paying attention to my targets, so you already know my motivation. Slowly destroy my father little by little, targeting everyone he works with until he has nothing left to give but his own life—the same life he robbed my mother of.
“But I’ve been paying attention to you as well, and you operate just as methodologically as I do. That deal in Louisiana? The two biggest investors who ended up with that worthless land were men who laundered money partially with my father’s help.”
He grins before continuing.
“I’m sure they thought they were pulling one over on you by operating under the guise of shell corporations,” he laughs softly, but with dark eyes glued to mine. “When the predator becomes the prey…”
I take a leisurely sip of wine. “If there’s a point to these musings, I certainly hope you plan on getting too it soon. I have a date, as you well know.”
He laughs. “Ah yes, the lovely Miss Sloane Alexander. I wonder what it is she’s after? Her timing is interesting, no? Right on the heels of poor Fabian’s untimely demise.”
He’s managed to pique my interest, but I don’t show it. Of course, the coincidence isn’t lost on me. It’s the only reason I’ve moved her to my hotel. The question is, what does the Pirate know that I don’t.
“I have a proposition for you.”
“I’m all ears,” I say in a sardonic voice.
“I can tell you what I know about your date for the evening, and you leave my father for me to deal with.”
“Whatever I need to learn about Sloane Alexander, I’ll learn, if I haven’t already. More importantly, I’ll get it straight from her lips—in one way or another.”
“Why not get it straight from mine? Granted, it wouldn’t be as enjoyable. But then you wouldn’t have to mix business with pleasure. It would be a waste to multitask with someone so,” he eyes the wine in front of him, “delectable. If she’s this good at selecting wine, just think of what other palatable qualities she brings to the table.”
“It would be wise for you to reverse course right now before you find yourself headed down a path you’ll regret.”
His lips broaden into a smile in an attempt to irritate me.
“As for your father,” I say, changing the topic, “I would think you’d be pleased with my interest in handling him myself. Among your many exploits, I don’t recall murder being one of them.”
That wipes the smile off his face. “There are worse things than death, as many of my victims have discovered.”
“But death is very satisfying all the same, and usually warranted.”
“Right,” he muses. “I suppose at this point, we’ll never discover the body of Heinz Boettcher.”
“If the rumors are true, I doubt his family would have wanted an open casket at his funeral anyway.” I’m dancing around the suspicion that he’s so blatantly flung before me. I’m not stupid enough to admit to anything.
Heinz Boettcher was the hired assassin who killed my mother. It took some…persuasion to get the name from certain individuals. Once I had it, he moved further to the top of the list that the Pirate is correct in assuming I’ve created. And yes, I am saving his father, along with one other, for last.
Monsieur Boettcher’s remains are still lying somewhere in the forest near the border of Germany and Luxembourg. When I left him, he had one deep stab wound to the gut, one of the most painfully slow ways to go. From there, I allowed nature to take its course, leaving a feast for the scavenging creatures.
“I may not be as well-practiced as some men when it comes to taking out my vengeance by lethal means,” the Pirate continues. “But what I lack in experience, I make up for with motivation.”
“I also have motivation—and experience.”
“You also have a missing piece to the puzzle that is Sloane Alexander.”
The fact that he keeps bringing her up must mean that he has some bit of information that he knows I don’t. I have a wealth of resources when it comes to learning what I need to about any and all things. But even I have my limits. Just as I have an advantage when it comes to murder over my tablemate, he has an advantage when it comes to getting information.
“We’re in Monte Carlo. How about a bet?”
“I don’t gamble without knowing the odds,” I say with a wry smile.
“Make it a deal then,” he says with a smirk. “If you appreciate the information I give you about Sloane Alexander, you leave my father for me to deal with.”
I consider him for a moment, sipping my wine to ponder that offer. As insatiable as my desire is to personally handle my business, there is something enticingly poetic about a father being murdered at the hands of his own son.
“Tell me what you know,” I say, noncommittally.
He stares at me for a moment, no doubt wondering if it’s worth showing his hand.
“Jan Vorster.”
Well played, Pirate.
“Go on.”
The subtle smile on his lips tells me he knows he has my attention. “That’s who she met with prior to booking a flight directly to Monte Carlo—on a one-way ticket. And we all know whose favorite henchman Monsieur Vorster is.”
Gabriel Fouché, the man at the very top of my list—right next to the Pirate’s father. Gabriel is the man who ordered the hit on my mother.
“Exactly,” he says, reading my mind.
I give nothing away in my expression. “The question is, how do you know this, and what do you know about that meeting? A meeting even my own sources weren’t aware of—yet.”
“Don’t go too hard on Jaques for failing to pick up on that little tidbit. The problem is, you’ve been focused on Sloane when you should have been focusing on her brother. Theodore Alexander is a rare specimen.
