The Mark of Cain (9 page)

“So how tall is Hot Boy?” Crystal asked once Hara
had moved off her and back onto their battered old couch. The couch was so ugly
that the previous tenants had abandoned it there. Stuffing was coming out of
the brown and white flowered cushions everywhere…no matter how much Hara sewed
it back in. However, she was grateful that it didn’t have a stench about it.
Especially since it was the only real piece of furniture in the room—other than
the couch, they only had a small, second-hand TV on a cheap particle board
cabinet and some really cheap neon blow-up chairs that Crystal adored, but Hara
secretly thought to be a little tacky.

Throwing her friend her best disapproving glare,
Hara said, “His name’s Inac, not Hot Boy.”

“You knew who I was talking about so what does his
name matter?”

“It’s disrespectful. He’s our new boss.”

Crystal’s eyebrows shot up. “Hara, I never thought
you
would be the one sleeping with the boss.”

Hara’s face felt hot when she said, “I’m not
sleeping with him. We haven’t even kissed.”

“Do you dream about him?”

She wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.

“I thought so. Look, if you like him, just tell
him.”

“I practically did! Remember? I told you I asked him
if he had a girlfriend or a wife!”

“Wow, you’re so forward and blunt,” Crystal said,
her voice oozing with sarcasm. “Look, you have to be direct with guys.”

“I would have, but he got all upset and kicked me
out!”

“Of course he did! You brought up his dead wife and
baby, for crying out loud.”

“Actually, what’s weird is that he didn’t seem too
upset about that. When he suggested that she killed herself, and that he’d
found her body, he was using the same tone of voice as someone talking about
the weather. It was when I talked about how blessed I’ve been in my life that
he got weird. And then, it was when I asked about his family that he became
upset and pretty much told me to shut up.”

“So he has Mommy and Daddy issues. Who doesn’t?” She
immediately flinched and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure that, had my parents survived
the fire, we would have fought too. Who knows the person I would have become
had I not been raised in an orphanage.”

“You probably wouldn’t be too different. You
might’ve actually
kissed
a guy, though,” she teased, squeezing one of
Hara’s gangly legs.

“Only if I grew up around guys I was attracted to.”
She wasn’t like Crystal. She wouldn’t kiss a guy she wasn’t interested in just
because she “needed some.”

“Well, Hot Boy is totally sexy. I know that if you’d
grown up around men like him, you might not be so,
so
…” she said, a
naughty grin on her face that was daring Hara to ask her to finish her
sentence.

“So what?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but
she’d been raised to be polite.

“So
virginal
,” Crystal answered wickedly.

“Ah!” Hara yelled, laughing with disbelief. Crystal
was just so open about everything. And she loved to embarrass Hara; constantly
calling her too innocent and naïve.

“You’re more innocent than a baby straight from the
womb,” she’d once told her.

“Hara, Hara, Hara,” she said now.

“Crystal, Crystal, Crystal.”

“You really need to make-out with our new boss.”

“I don’t want it to just be physical. Right now I
know nothing about him as a person so I won’t be kissing him…no matter how much
I might want to.”

“What are you talking about?! The guy saved your
life! He’s your own personal hero; your knight in shining armor. He got
shot
saving you. He almost died for you. What more could you want?”

“Just because he risked his life for me doesn’t mean
that I know him.”

“You know plenty. You know that his wife killed
herself after their baby died. You know that he doesn’t speak to his family.
You know that he’s brave and would do anything for you. You know that he’s
rich. Plus, on top of all that, he’s totally hot!” As far as Hara knew, Crystal
hadn’t even seen Inac, so to call him hot just made Hara shake her head.

“And that’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t mean
that I
know
him. I don’t know how old his baby was, if it was a boy or a
girl, or even
how
it died. I don’t know why he’s so defensive about his
family. I know that he smiles and flirts, but he seems to do it at a distance.
When he does, it hardly ever reaches his eyes. And he doesn’t seem to let
anyone in. He didn’t even have
one
visitor at the hospital other than
me. I think he’s really lonely but won’t admit it.”

“Well, his wife committed suicide. He probably feels
partly responsible and is afraid to get close to someone again.”

Hara shook her head again, trying to clear out the
confusion that had taken root in there.

“I just wish he didn’t act like he does. One second
I feel like he wants to go on a date with me, but the next he’s completely
aloof.”

“You know what you need to do to get him to quit
playing games and to finally make a move?”

“What?” She was more than willing to listen to
Crystal when it came to men. Despite how teeny she was, Crystal had been making
emotionally unavailable men beg her to be exclusive since she was twelve. If
anyone could get Inac to finally say what he wanted, it would be her.

“You need to make him jealous.”

“How so?”

“By pretending to date someone else, dearie.”

“I could never do that.”

“Why not? You want him, don’t you?”

“You know I do.”

“Well, sometimes you have to play hardball to get
what you want.”

“I’m not going to use someone. That would hurt their
feelings.”

“Hara, dear, sometimes you have to hurt other people
to get what you want.”

“Well
I
won’t. There has to be another way.
Besides, a relationship built on lies won’t ever work. What happens when he
finds out?”

“He’ll be flattered that you wanted him so badly.”

Hara just rolled her eyes. Sometimes Crystal was so
hopeless.

“Any other ideas that
aren’t
dishonest?” she
asked as her fingers wandered aimlessly along the velvet surface of the couch,
wondering if the sensation was anything like what it would be like to do the
same to the black stubble on the top of Inac’s head.

“Hey,
you’re
the one who said that he was
coming on strong when he thought Eric was your boyfriend, right?”

Stilling her hand so she could concentrate on what
Crystal was getting at, she said, “Yeah. But what does that have to do with
anything?”

Instead of answering her, Crystal asked, “And that
he sort of stopped hitting on you once you told him that you
didn’t
have
a boyfriend, right?”

Hara now understood what Crystal was trying to get
at. If she wanted Inac to ask her out, she would have to give him a little
competition. Or at least make him
think
he had competition.

“But how do we do that without hurting someone
else?” she asked, hoping Crystal would follow her train of thought.

“Well…he owns the club….”

“So?”

“So maybe that means he’ll spend a lot of time
there.”

“So?” Her mind just didn’t think the same way
Crystal’s did.

“So just be totally extra flirty with everyone else
and ignore
him
.”

“Won’t that make him give up?”

“Nope.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s rich. That probably means two things.
First, he’s competitive, which has led him to succeed….”

“And the second thing?”

“There’s nothing he can’t have. If you make him
think that he can’t have
you
, he’ll work harder to prove that he
can
.”

In theory, it sounded good. She just didn’t know if
she could do it. Knowing her, she’d probably end up begging forgiveness for
being so rude for shunning him.

Patting Crystal’s knee as she stood up, she said,
“Thanks for giving me some ideas. I’m gonna go think now.”

Crystal just smiled at her before turning back to
the TV.

***

“Santoni, my man, what brings you here?” Inac asked
the thick-necked giant walking into his hospital room early the next morning.

Inac was a good 6’6”—and six millimeters, if he
wanted to be
exact
—and two hundred and sixty pounds or so of solid
muscle. As it was, they didn’t atrophy when he didn’t use them, so he never
weighed less than that. Santoni was even larger in stature at a minimum of 7
feet and at least three hundred forty pounds on a skinny day. That fact in and
of itself had made him Inac’s go-to guy for anything and everything. People did
as Inac ordered when such an intimidating man was there to hurt them however
Inac wanted them hurt.

He’d found Santoni on death row for murder about
twenty years ago, right after Micah had quit to go straight after murdering
Hara’s family. He didn’t usually let people “quit,” but Santoni was better and Inac
was in such a good mood over the girl’s death that Micah had been given that
rare reward. Of course, it was a reward that, over time, Inac had decided was a
liability, which was how Micah had found himself in the midst of a tragic and
fatal car “accident.”

Inac now found himself wishing that Micah was still
alive so that, upon finding out that Hara was alive as well, he could have made
the man sorry he’d failed him by sending Santoni after him. The car accident
had let him off too easily….

Feeling Santoni’s eyes upon him, Inac tuned back
into the here and now, suppressing his rage and anger for a long dead man.
Instead, his attention went back to his current right-hand-man.

With his head shaved close so that he didn’t have
any stubble, large tanned muscles made larger from the tight black muscle tee
and black slacks he wore, and a teardrop tattoo in the corner of one eye,
Santoni looked every bit the cliché of the murderer that he was. In exchange
for his life, Santoni agreed to work for him. If Santoni ever went against him,
though, he knew he’d be dead within moments. Or, worse, have a drawn-out death
like Inac exacted upon those who crossed him.

“Couple things. First of all, how ya doin’?” Santoni
asked in his deep bass once it was obvious he finally had Inac’s ear.

“I’m good. Did you really have to hit an artery when
you shot me, though?”

With a smile that made him look less like a murderer
and more like a little boy, he said, “We both know it wouldn’t’ve killed ya.”

“I know. You’re still lucky that it actually made
everything go better than planned, though. The girl was here waiting for me to wake
up,” Inac said, returning the smile to show how proud he was that things were
working in his favor.

“That’s good news.”

“Yes, it is.” Losing the smile, he said, “Just make
sure that she never sees us together. She’s not dumb. She’d put two and two together.
I doubt there are many men your size in this city.”

“I know, sir. But I had to come.”

The way he said it made it obvious that he was
coming with less than stellar news.

“What?” Inac grumbled, his good mood now gone.

“It’s the Israeli Prime Minister, sir.”

Inac felt his heart beating faster with anger. He
was sick of the kid—really a sixty-something-year-old man—not playing by the
rules.

Exasperated, he asked, “What’s Aviv doing now?”

“He’s refusing to cooperate, saying he’ll no longer
be a part of the Mokolios. Also, he’s giving the go-ahead to build more Jewish
properties in East Jerusalem, even though you ordered him to leave it to the
Palestinians so they can have their own capital to worship in.”

Inac couldn’t help but laugh. “And he actually believes
he has a choice?” He was laughing so hard it actually brought a tear to his
eye.

“What would you like me to do, sir?”

All business, Inac said, “Ready the jet. We’re going
to remind him exactly who’s really in charge and what I’m capable of.”

“And the team?” Inac had his own team of elite
soldiers within the Mokolios. Though Santoni wasn’t a soldier, he was their
team leader since he was the one Inac trusted the most. He was loyal, not only
out of fear, but because he
liked
Inac and the job. One couldn’t beat
that combination when looking for someone who would dirty their hands so Inac
wouldn’t have to. This way, he had minimal effort with maximum results. It was
nice after thousands of years of doing things the hard way.

“Have them stand by with plans for kidnapping every
member of the prime minister’s family. If he doesn’t comply, we’ll need to act
quickly.”