Read Online Game On (The Bod Squad Series Book 1) by Gabra Zackman - Free Book Online Page B

accessing the world’s secrets. He became a latter-day Midas, able to turn any business into gold. While becoming a renowned international consultant and advisor, he also became the go-between for Pierre and the Italian to expand their business to unforeseen shores. And that’s when the worm had begun to turn. What had once been simply a lucrative career for Chuck had turned dark, his days filled with the knowledge that his actions were contributing to far more than money laundering. Once he began to see the truth, he sought to expose the very men he had once helped. And when Pierre realized what was happening, he told the Italian. The rest was history.
    “There is one more thing,” Tyka said. “Your father wanted you to have something, something very important. He hid it for you somewhere only you would know. He said, ‘Tell my boy I love him and I’m proud of him. And tell him to find a lady to love—a bride who can weather all that he is.’ He was very specific about this. Do you know what this means?”
    Chas coughed with discomfort. “I have no fucking idea. That’s more than I heard my old man say in one sitting in all the time he was alive.” He paused for a moment. “What did you do for him, anyway? I mean, how did you meet?”
    Tyka inhaled a long draw of her cigarette and smiled. “Mr. Palmer. I met your father because I am an assassin. One of the best, if I do say so myself. I met him because he wanted me to kill the Italian. Unfortunately, we were too late.”
    ‡‡‡
    PIERRE LOOKED AT his watch and sighed. He had an instinct for mistrust, and it was flaring right now—and its focus was Chas. He had had the same feeling about Chas’s father shortly before the shit hit the fan. Chas was up to something, he was sure of it. In addition, Chas was late, something Pierre hated most of all.
    He reached under the table as the din of conversation continued to rise and fall and pressed a small red button sharply three times. Within thirty seconds the door swung open to reveal a woman in stilettos, fishnets, and a glittering red corset. “May I help you, Monsieur Descartes?”
    The conversations around the table came to a grinding halt. “ Oui, madame .” Pierre beckoned the woman close to him and murmured something in her ear; she then responded in kind, her voice inaudible to the rest of the men. They continued to speak for a moment or two in lowered voices. Pierre loved the fact that none of the thugs who worked for him would dream that this was the mysterious G—Gabriella, the second cousin and silent partner of the Italian. She had the intelligence and ruthlessness to murder each and every one of them if she needed to, and in her head were the locations and phone numbers for every single member of their organization. She was the one in charge of dispatching the members of their cell to their specific operations. Pierre always referred to her as the G Spot. But only in secret. Pierre knew that if Bruni ever heard him talk about his cousin that way, Pierre would be killed without a second thought.
    “We are tracking him now,” G said into Pierre’s ear in flawless French. “We have eyes and ears around him. He is in an underground café with a woman, a very attractive woman. Not surprising, no? We will follow him when he comes up, and if he goes anywhere other than straight back, we will notify you immediately.”
    “Hmm,” Pierre said, “so maybe it’s just another woman.”
    G smiled. “Well, Monsieur Palmer does like to . . . play . . . in the afternoon—but during a meeting? He usually waits until the night.”
    Pierre smiled back. “Well, you would know.”
    “Yes,” G said, like a cat that had swallowed the canary, “but he doesn’t. Know who I am, that is.”
    “Yes, I rather enjoyed the idea of you in a mask . . . and nothing else. . . .”
    They both laughed, then realized the entire room was staring at them. Pierre cleared his throat, then continued at full