The Hitman's Secret

Ch. 17: Hard Conversations

VALENTINA

Val spent the next several days avoiding the hitman at any costs.

Sometimes, when she knew that Matteo was at the mansion, she tried to stay in her bedroom as much as possible. Other times, when her humiliation bled into hurt, Val left the house entirely and sought refuge with Allison and the girls. They'd had two slumber parties in the last four days.

When she couldn't escape the mansion and the risk of running into Matteo, Val kept her head down, focused on preliminary plans for her luxurious fight club. The project quickly became the most important thing in her life. Her saving grace amidst the crumbling remnants of everything she'd built that summer.

But she couldn't do it alone. She needed the help of someone with intimate knowledge of the underground fighting rings, and only two men qualified. Matteo Costa and Bastian Allesi.

So, Val contacted Bastian and asked for a meeting.

She didn't choose him out of spite for Matteo. At least, that's what she told herself every time traitorous doubt crept into her mind. Bastian was, after all, more qualified, having participated in the underground fights more recently than the hitman.

If Matteo chose to take offense to her choice, well, she didn't care. Why should he take offense, when he so clearly didn't regard her as more than a way to scratch an itch?

On the morning of her meeting with Bastian, Val returned to the mansion after another girl's night with Allison. Luca left her at the door, returning to the guard's wing to sleep for a few more hours, but espresso and excitement coursed through Val's body despite the early hour. She speared straight for the library, where the meeting would take place.

Since Lara moved into the mansion, Val's father scarcely rolled out of bed until after eight in the morning. And yet, as she neared the library, she heard his distinctive, gruff voice coming from the sitting room.

"Amore mio, will you please calm down?" Leonardo drawled, sounding exhausted.

Val frowned, her feet slowing until she hovered on the other side of the wall, directly beside the sitting room's cracked doorway.

"Calm down?" Lara echoed, surprising Val. Her father's girlfriend liked to sleep in until noon, even before she got pregnant, and she'd never heard Lara raise her voice. "She's welcomed him into our lives and he wants our son dead! I won't calm down until we're safe."

A long, exasperated sigh. "We don't even know if the man you saw works for McLeod. Or if he was even following you."

Oh, fuck. Val's heart surged into her throat. Someone was having Lara followed?

"He was following me," Lara hissed.

Val dared to peek around the corner, just in time to watch Lara cradle her slightly swollen belly in both hands. Pity clenched in her gut, and she quickly turned back around. How could she fault a mother for worrying about her unborn child?

"I'm not convinced," Leonardo countered, dismissive and agitated. Val had been on the receiving end of that tone more times than she could count. "Besides, we've been exceedingly careful since you returned from the Hamptons. How would anyone know your movements?"

Lara scoffed, and the venom in the sound nearly made Val flinch. "Let me think. Who has the most to gain from the death of your heir and just so happens to have unrestrained access to our family's affairs?"

Val froze, ice spindling through her heart. Surely, she couldn't mean...

"Valentina is harmless," her father defended. "She certainly wouldn't target her family."