“My pleasure,” I say.
She raises up to a sitting position and reaches her hands behind her head to unroll the scrunchie from her ponytail. Then tosses her head a single time, and ah, the joys of youth: every hair falls magically into place. Except for one tiny wisp that’s hanging over her eye. I reach up and smooth it to the side.
We kiss again, a quick peck, and she says, “You haven’t asked why Lucky would allow that man to feel me up at the restaurant.”
“No.”
“How come?”
“I try not to judge people.”
“You just execute them?”
“I’d like to dress it up nicer than that,” I say, “but…”
“It is what it is?”
“It is.”
We kiss again.
“Can I ask you a question?” she says.
“Of course.”
“Promise you won’t try to read too much into it?”
“I’ll try.”
“How much would you charge to kill Lucky?”
27.
“Under normal circumstances what would I charge to kill your husband? Or are you asking what I would charge you?”
“Both.”
“Under normal circumstances, that’s a hundred-thousand dollar hit.”
“And for me?”
“Is that what we’re doing here today? Making a contract?”
She gives me three short, quick kisses.
“God, I love your face!” she says.
I wait for her to answer my question. She finally says, “I don’t want you to kill Lucky.”
“No?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why’d you ask?”
“I’m trying to understand you.”
That surprises me. “In what way?”
“I’m trying to understand how you place a monetary value on other people’s lives.”
The woman lying on the bed with me today is far shrewder than the girl I met yesterday. Today’s woman is probably smarter than me, which is a plus, if we’re in a relationship. But right now we’re on a bed in a hotel room, and there’s fire in my pants. I want yesterday’s girl to put it out. I sigh, realizing today’s woman is waiting for me to answer her question about how I price my hits.
“There are a lot of factors that go into the equation,” I say.
“Such as?”
“His prominence, how hard it would be to kill him, if there was a specific time and place you needed it done, and if you require a specific method.”
“Of killing him?”
“Yes.”
“So it could cost more.”
“Or less.”
“Interesting.”
“How much to kill Carmine?”
“Excuse me?”
“Carmine Porrello, crime boss, western region.”
“I know who he is.”
