A Very Merry Hitman (Holiday With a Hitman #2)

13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sweet, but twisted. Does that make me a candy cane?

Sitting in Elliana and Theo’s living room, Aileen looked between all the people she loved—arguing about her safety.

As if she wasn’t sitting there at all. As if she was a lovely piece of furniture taking up space.

“This is not up for discussion, Dante. She will stay with us until we figure things out. And she will not be going to that gala tonight,” her mom snapped after Dante dared to say that she would be safe with him.

“Do I get a say in this?” Aileen asked, her tone dry. Last night her parents had tried to tell her she wasn’t going to the gala tonight (and so had Dante) but there could be a benefit to her going. One she needed to talk to them about.

When five pairs of eyes turned her way, she kept her focus on her mom—the real bulldozer. “Because I like the idea of staying at Dante’s. Nessa can stay with us too.”

Her mom gritted her teeth, but her dad placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, squeezed.

“Maybe Nessa stays with us?” her dad asked in that quiet way of his. “She has a room there already and we’d planned on a couple Christmas activities.” Then he motioned to Aileen that it would get her mom off her back if she agreed .

Her mom looked over her shoulder at him. “What was that?”

“Nothing, love.” Then he kissed the top of her head.

“Fine, Nessa can stay with you. I can’t imagine she has an issue with that. And she doesn’t have any more practices until after the New Year, so nothing will seem off to her,” Aileen said. Because she didn’t want her daughter privy to any of this mess. “Now let’s please hear what Elliana has to say.” She gave her sister-in-law a beseeching look, hoping she’d get things back on track.

As always, Elliana took over smoothly. “I can’t get a clear image of that second Santa from any nearby cameras—because there weren’t many. And the cops have found nothing on him so far. Theo and I have been scanning Aileen’s photos and pictures—and her ASMR videos online. Nothing is pinging. A couple emails from weirdos, a few trolling comments, but all really generic and from around the globe. None of the trolling comments are local. And the commenters leave the same crap on other creators so it doesn’t feel targeted. Even that recent nasty email you got,” she added, looking at Aileen.

Well that made Aileen feel a lot better even if she was annoyed by the weird emails.

Elli continued. “But I have run the phone records of Adam Jackson’s old gang partner, Leo Myers. He has two phones that I know of and one of them has received a lot of calls from a burner. That could just be drug-related stuff, but I’m keeping an eye on it. As far as the Duponts, they truly do seem to be in town for the holidays. I haven’t found anything odd in their browsing histories, their phone records, their financials, nothing. By all accounts, they’re here visiting friends.”

“I still don’t like it,” her mom growled. She was a petite, unassuming redhead, but she had a steel backbone and was shockingly brutal when necessary. Years ago, before she’d gone freelance, she and Aileen’s dad had worked for the government. All black ops stuff. Because of her mom’s unassuming appearance, she’d been used as bait more often than not—and her targets had always paid the price for underestimating her.

“I know, Mom, but I don’t want you…doing anything to them.” Aileen had no love for the Duponts. And after what they’d pulled, she would never let her daughter meet them, even know who they were, because she wanted separation from them. To pretend as if they didn’t exist. But if her mom killed two elderly people, she couldn’t handle that. She didn’t want that on her conscience.

Her mom simply sniffed.

“I’m serious.”

“Well we should at least attend the gala, get eyes on them,” her mom insisted.

“You mean threaten them,” Aileen said.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Elliana said before Lorna could respond.

“What?” Aileen turned on her sister-in-law.

“No, not threaten them, but get eyes on them. Maybe make contact, get a feel for the real reason they’re in Miami, if there is another reason. I know what I’ve found online, but talking to them face-to-face might go a long way in giving you peace of mind,” she added to Aileen’s mom.

Nope . “No way is my mom going.” Her mom was a lot of things, but she had no finesse. She was a sledgehammer and this situation needed diplomacy. “But I will.”

Everyone looked at her with varying levels of “hell no” expressions. But too bad.

“I’m not saying I’ll go alone. That would be insane. No, I mean sort of undercover. As myself, but with a date.” She hadn’t told Diego she wasn’t going yet—because she’d been naked and distracted with Dante all last night. And a little this morning. So Diego likely still assumed she was going and she wanted to use that to her advantage. “And Elliana, I know you can get an invitation if you don’t already have one.”

“I…was invited,” Elli grumbled. “I responded no, but it won’t be a problem to change that, considering how much I already donated.”

“Good, then. It’s settled.”

“Nothing’s settled,” Dante growled.

He’d been fairly quiet until now, surprising her. They’d spent the night together—but still no full-on sex because apparently he was intent on driving her crazy with need…and then Elliana had asked them to come over for a meeting.

“It’s not a terrible idea,” Elliana murmured.

Aileen shot her a dry look.

“No, I mean…it’s good. And of course Dante will be there as backup to keep an eye on things.”

“Why can’t I be her date?” His tone was neutral enough as he looked at Elliana, but Aileen could feel the waves of energy rolling off him and wondered if everyone else could too.

Were they obvious or was this just her getting caught up in her thoughts?

“Because then you guys are officially linked together. If she goes with Diego, who is not a killer for hire, then she’s just linked to some random guy she likely won’t see again. If someone is watching—meaning, the Duponts—they won’t find a connection between Aileen and Diego other than a superficial one. No one should be aware that you two know each other—you’re perfect backup that way. And I’ve got a good cover you can use to attend. You can go as one of my international employees, just use a fake ID and I’ll let the coordinator know I need some extra invites. This’ll be easy.”

Dante’s jaw ticked slightly, but he eventually nodded. “Fine.”

“Good, everything’s settled then,” Elli said, shooting Aileen’s mom a hard look.

Much to Aileen’s surprise. And her mom didn’t say anything, another surprise. Or maybe it wasn’t a surprise. For some reason her hard-ass mom seemed to have no problem letting Elli run the show. It was… Well, she wasn’t sure what it was. And Aileen wasn’t sure how it made her feel.

Okay, lies. She felt a teeny tiny bit of jealousy that her mom struggled to let Aileen out from under her wing but never questioned badass Elli. She sometimes wondered if maybe her mom wished Aileen was different, more like Elli. Hell, sometimes Aileen wished she was more like Elli.

“And you and I are having a spa day,” Elli continued, looking at Aileen.

“Wait… Are you serious?” Aileen asked at the same time Dante said, “Absolutely not.”

“Look, this is the most exclusive place in the city. Literally no one gets in without going through security. And it’s women only. Aileen and I will be fine.”

“It’s secure,” Theo added. “I’ve already fully vetted it and done some runs against their security.”

“See?” Elli looked positively pleased as she squeezed her husband’s leg. “This place is perfect. And Aileen…you need a manicure, pedicure and probably some other things. You deserve to be pampered. Plus we can get our hair done before the party because you know I’m not doing that shit myself.”

She knew that Elli hated that kind of stuff but Aileen didn’t, and getting pampered sounded wonderful. Even if she didn’t want to be separated from Dante. If they were on limited time, she wanted to make the most of every minute they had together. “Okay, that’s fine with me.”

“I’ll drive you two,” Dante growled, clearly not a fan of the idea, but at least he wasn’t pushing back.

Well, at least not in front of everyone, but she had a feeling he wasn’t done with his objections.