Assassination 101

Lesson 2: Rope

Lesson 2: Rope

Emilio, Gio and I were all dressed to the nines, ready to intrude on a banquet that was taking place tonight. Luckily, this banquet was in Rome — where we lived — so there wasn't a massive rush to get ready and fly out on time for a last-minute mission.

My Italian was perfectly fluent which one would expect considering I had grown up here almost my entire life but apparently my English accent wasn't even remotely audible when I spoke. I sounded like a native which made my job ten times easier because people were always suspicious if you didn't sound like a local.

I remembered when I moved here and didn't speak a word of anything but English. It was like learning how to talk all over again but now I was fluent in German, Spanish, French, Polish, Italian and English thanks to Luca and his persistence. More recently, I'd been working on some non-European languages — most prominently Hindi, Russian and Korean — as well and I was making decent progress with them but I wouldn't call them anywhere near perfect just yet. I was only seventeen after all.

Tonight we were members of high society ready to enjoy a luxurious meal together.

Step one was complete: infiltrate.

The next move was slightly more tricky: locate our target — Matteo Marcelo, world-renowned musician, at least that was how the public viewed him; in reality, he actually ran a minor crime organisation — and gain his trust.

Normally, we wouldn't get involved in such small affairs. It wasn't our job to deal with every public enemy that arose. That was what the police were for but, just last week, Matteo made a grave mistake. He hijacked a shipment of ours and killed two of our own in the process.

He definitely didn't realise which family he was messing with but that didn't matter anymore because it was much too late for him. He'd be dead before sunrise.

The task was simple, seduce Matteo, lure him away from the others and then strike. Usually, this was where I'd step in and ask him to dance, seeing as the music had just changed to a slow waltz as per our request but he didn't swing that way so it was Emilio's time to shine.

Gio and I had posed as a rich couple and Emilio was my supposed cousin who had never been very lucky in love until tonight when he spotted Matteo sitting alone, staring sulkily into a glass of red wine.

It was almost amusing to watch Emilio try to flirt but he was somehow pulling it off well enough. He had that boyish charm about him with messy brown hair that covered his forehead and mischievous light brown eyes which were brought out by his tanned skin.

Matteo wasn't bad looking either with a similar appearance to Emilio only he was slightly taller with cropped black hair and a less muscular build. At first glance, they seemed to be the same age but that wasn't the case. Emilio had just turned twenty last week and Matteo was nearing thirty-two but you would have never been able to guess that from a first look. This man definitely took care of himself and it was probably with the money he made from his secret 'business'.

I couldn't be seen watching the two of them so I decided to turn my attention to my 'boyfriend' Giovanni. It was not a difficult part to play seeing as we'd had to do it numerous times and we were already dating in our real lives — the only difference being that our version of dating was not the usual approach, in fact, it was far from that — making acting a piece of cake.

"Everything is going according to plan," I told him lowly pretending to make a flirtatious joke to any potential onlooker by painting a sultry smile on my lips.

He nodded in agreement, letting out a light chuckle, playing the part. "Within the next hour, he should be able to get him alone. He'll signal where before he leaves. You got everything?" he asked so quietly no one else would be able to hear.