The Night of Seven by Nadia Siddiqui (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📗

been working on this case for two years,” Cruz admits to Nathan, “The uniforms searched the dead man’s body already, thankfully. I just needed proof that the Carilles family was involved, but they have been covering their tracks almost perfectly this entire time. Honestly, if that note wasn’t stamped with the Carilles’ personal family seal...I don’t know if we would have ever linked them. Thankfully, this new little hitman that they seem to have imported from somewhere else was stupid enough to keep the letters. Don’t be surprised whatsoever if you don’t find any record on him at all. The Carilles are infamous for recruiting average joes to do their dirty work because they are least likely to be missed. Usually have bitter wives at home that are far happier with a settlement check than their husbands to remain living. That I know for a fact.”

Nathan’s brows lift, “That’s harsh,”

“That’s suburbia for you. Pretty faces for very unhappy people. I’m just glad to get the hell out of here. Really. I never want to set foot in Vegas again.”

Nathan laughs. “I think I have to agree with you. Big city life...just isn’t going to be for me.” At least that much, he thinks that he can say for certain. If the company lets him retire, he thinks that he will probably be very happy up in a little cabin in the woods somewhere that he can just keep to himself. Perhaps he can get a dog; he’s always liked the idea of having a dog.

It’s such a strange feeling, knowing that he failed...but also that he succeeded. Nathan is interested to know if the company knew that this might happen; did their vision, if it was in fact a vision, predict that this might be a possible outcome? The time might be here that he finally has to start asking more questions. He might have to know if they put these visions in his head, or if that is simply the reason that they chose him. If he can be a part of the team that helps to stop bad things from happening to decent people, then he thinks that might be something that he wants to do. He might be happy doing something like that.

The cell phone in Nathan’s pocket feels heavy as he contemplates if he should text the company or not. Then, he decides that it will be better just to sleep on it and make his choice in the morning. Perhaps the solution will come to him in a vision.

Chapter Nine

M aximo

Shit.

No. Shit doesn't even begin to cover it.

What is he supposed to do?

How is this something that he is going to fix?

Maximo sits with his head in his hands, his elbows resting on the polished mahogany of his desk. Everything about his office was designed to radiate power. When the interior decorator asked him how he wanted things to feel, he had told her that he wanted it to feel like a lion's roar, that he wanted it to feel like finishing first in a race. Everything about him is designed to exude confidence until it is straight arrogance. He can’t help it. It is how he wants to live his life. His perfectly kept hair, his neatly manicured hands and beard, the designer suits, and the expensive imported leather of his shoes. Everything about him is designed for power, for strength. He runs a wildly successful casino, and he drives the best, fastest, most expensive cars. Truly, Maximo has everything that his power-hungry seven-year-old self had ever dreamt about having.

At least until tonight.

Nobody can get this rich without a little bit of help, not coming from the family life that he has come from, not when his parents gave him nothing. Maximo has worked and scraped and clawed himself into the life he feels that he deserves, and now, because of tonight, that is all going to be ripped away from him.

Those wealthy benefactors are going to be removed; he is no longer going to have the money that he needs to keep this place afloat because he wasn’t able to make good on a promise. It was just one little girl, the life of one stupid bitch, and his whole life is going to come crashing down around his ears? How does that happen? What could he have possibly done to even deserve this! He is Maximo. He is respected. He is beloved by his employees and feared by his many enemies.

Or at least he was.

The secret that nobody knows about him is that since he was a teenager, Maximo has been working his way up the mafia radar. He has been working toward a position in the family that he loves so much. They have always held him just an arm’s length away. They keep their distance from him just enough to keep him lapping at their heels, just enough to keep him begging for more, always just one or two more errands away from an actual title. Now, sitting here, he knows better. He can’t put into words how he knows that he has been nothing but a joke to them. He doesn't have words to explain that it took today, this failed mission, this failed act to know that they are going to dispose of him; he just knows that they are going to. He doesn't even think that they are going to waste time. There will be no fanfare. There will be nothing of honor to his removal. They will dispose of him and slide in somebody even more compliant than himself into this position. He knows this.

Maximo slowly slides the many large gold rings from his fingers and places them on the desk one by one. He loosens the silk of his tie to where it doesn't feel so much like a noose anymore; he doesn't feel as if