the devil wears a suit and tie • billy russo

chapter 13

Isabella's operation was going well, and Dinah was still totally oblivious to her true intentions.

"If I didn't know any better," she sighed as she flipped through the file on Frank Castle that she had innocently plucked from the other woman's purse, "I'd say you're using me to get to Frank."

The other woman deflected, "I think that's a bit of a stretch."

"Is it really?" Iz cocked an eyebrow, "I mean, it's what I would do."

"Is it?"

"Except I probably would've gone for my husband instead," she tossed the files down on the chair where she sat and got up, "There's no shame in working with assets. I understand how it goes, so there's no reason to lie to my face, especially when you're such a horrid liar."

"How do you even know I'm lying?"

"You're deflecting and hiding your face behind a screen," Iz pulled on what she had been wearing the night before, "Do you know what game my twin and I used to play constantly as kids?"

Dinah rolled her eyes, "What?"

"Two truths and a lie. Granted, Finn won most of the time, but I still caught him pretty regularly, and if you knew my brother, you'd know that's no small feat."

"I'm sure your mom loved that."

"She was proud of our skill. Sometimes to mix it up we'd play it in a different language. Finn always beat me when we were playing in Arabic, and I always beat him when we played in Russian."

"Look at you two, just a couple of smart little sociopaths."

"You know it," she smirked and left the other woman, glad yet another encounter was over. She felt emotionally drained. What started out at a fun game was starting to weigh on her. Billy was right—she was a married woman, and within the next year or so she would probably be a mother. She didn't mind messing around with Dinah, but staying over seemed to cross a sort of line. The first thing she did when she got home was take a shower in a vain attempt to wash away what she'd done.

"Are you okay?" her husband asked as she got ready for the day, carefully applying her skincare regimen.

"I'm fine," she smiled up at him, "don't worry."

He pulled up a chair to her vanity and sat down beside her, "You just look sad."

"I'm not sad," she took his hand and gave it a squeeze, "I promise."

"Iz, we've been together for almost five years, I know when you're lying."

"I didn't like staying over last night," she finally said, "I felt awful about it the entire time."

"So don't do it again, we've learned plenty from what you've already done. Just ghost her."

She looked up at him with watering eyes, "I can't, in order to protect our family I have to stay close to her. I need her to trust me."

"You don't have to do anything," he frowned and brushed the tears from her cheeks, "We'll just call off your end of the operation and rely on the bug in her office. She talks so damn much in there, it won't be a problem."

She shook her head, "But we have to keep making ourselves useful or Rawlins is going to come for us next. We don't have a choice."

"We are making ourselves useful. We're providing him with manpower."

"If Dinah turns on us because I couldn't keep her under control, then we'll be the new weak links, and you know what happens to the weak links," she pursed her lips, "I'm just trying to keep us safe until this situation is figured out. Once it is..." she lowered her voice, "I'm going to talk to my mom and Finn about having Rawlins dealt with. If he disappears quietly, no one will know. He's practically ghost."