“You’re insane!” His voice started to get louder, and he didn’t care that she was one dangerous girl; it wasn’t even the question of the money anymore. The change in the deal she proposed wasn’t something easily arranged. A dead body was always something difficult to conceal. It didn’t matter whether they would have dumped him in the sea or taken care of him in an alternative way. Their connection to the murder wouldn’t have been difficult to establish.
“We didn’t agree on being charged twice for the service, so I guess I’m asking a fair exchange. You are going to have more money than you asked for, and I’m going to get rid of a nuisance that starts to get quite annoying, to be honest.”
Shaking his head, in the desperate attempt to find a solution, Aldo turned his eyes to look at the clear surface of the sea. For a moment, he remained to listen to the waves lapping against the boat, letting his mind rest for a bit.
“It’s too dangerous,” he muttered.
A long pause of silence broken only by the water battering against the side of the boat and the far chattering of other fishermen, preparing for the evening, fell upon them.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but he immediately closed it as a couple of fishermen passed by. One of them waved to Aldo and greeted him, to which he replied with a nod and a smile.
Aldo followed them until he was sure he couldn’t hear what they were talking about. “Come with me, it’s not safe to talk here.”
Without waiting for her reply and expecting to be followed, he headed to the deck. “This is going to be too risky for us. It’s no more a question of money, it’s rather that neither of us wants to be connected to a murder. We all have our lives, and smuggling a person, which is a European citizen, between two countries isn’t a problem, but helping someone in getting rid of a corpse, is a fucking big problem. I don’t need to explain this to you!” he hissed.
She smirked at him. “You look sexy when you get pissed, Aldo. It would be a pity if I needed to get rid of two corpses, instead of one.” She came closer to him, whispering into his ear, as her hands searched for his skin under the oil-tainted shirt.
She was sure there was an easier way to get what she wanted, noticing the way Aldo always stared at her. He would have gone through hell and back to have the chance of holding her naked body, teasingly showing from the short dress she was wearing.
He closed his eyes, deeply inhaling the scent of her skin, counting the times he wished to have her as close as she was in that moment. She was dangerous, and perhaps that was what attracted him the most. When she promised death, it was something she wouldn’t have failed to deliver. He was certain that when she promised pleasure, it wouldn’t have been a joke—she’d be damn serious.
As her body almost glued to his’ through their clothes, his arousal overwhelmed his reason, desperately trying to warn him of the danger lurking in the promise of pleasure. Slowly his hand lifted her skirt, caressing her soft skin traveling up to her panties. It was too late, and he knew he fell into her trap. If he didn’t want to be a victim of the ‘mantis,’ he had to do what she was asking, even being an accomplice to the murder of her father.
“I can be very generous with those who are loyal to me,” she whispered, holding her naked body to Aldo’s.
He barely heard her words, and he already regretted his weakness. He knew she wasn’t supposed to stay. She was there like the morning breeze, easy to rise and easy to disappear, unless she would have turned into a storm, burying her victims to the bottom of the sea.
Opening his eyes, he glanced at her, “I still need to call Alec, but I consider it quite unfeasible for you to join us on Monday. We need to be coordinated to the millisecond.” His voice barely a trembling whisper.
“I knew you were a reasonable person. Call me when you have an answer, don’t let me wait in vain.” She stood from the bed and quickly dressed, ready to leave the place and return back to Rome, where she would have set up the trip with her father.
“This is no longer only up to me. You know Alec, and he has his schedule. Be prepared to hide in the Italian territory for another month or more. You know better than me how these things go.”
Aldo remained for a moment to think about what he agreed to, and the more his mind regained clarity, the more he felt he’d acted in haste and was ashamed of how he handled the situation. He wasn’t alone; there were the members of his crew who would have traveled with him.
“The only consolation is that none of us is an innocent angel from heaven,” he smirked, shaking his head as he slowly dressed. “We’ve been taking care of many other side jobs, besides fishing. We all have our unpaid dues with the law, but this time...”
He stood and peered outside the window to the horizon. “...This time, we’re dealing with a homicide.” The creaking noise of the wooden structure of the boat rocking with the waves reminded him of the reason why he preferred to stay away from people and sought refuge at sea, where he didn’t have to deal with the craziness of humanity.
CHAPTER 11
Time mercilessly slipped
