Bet you wish you'd brought your gun to bed with you, huh, Rat Lady? he thought smugly.
As he stepped into the doorway, he saw her in bed with the covers pulled up over her tits. Her panicked eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness.
To him, she'd never looked more beautiful.
“Trouble sleeping, Carla?” he sneered, accentuating the name. He found he actually preferred it to “Carolyn.” He held up the microphone and it swung on its wire slowly, back and forth, like a hypnotist's pendulum.
“Gio, listen to me,” Carla said. She was trying to keep her voice calm, but Gio could hear the fear quavering behind it and it excited him. “So far, you haven't done anything that can't be undone. You can let me go and I'll just disappear. But if you kill a federal agent, that's going to bring a whole new kind of trouble down on you, and you don't want that, believe me.”
“Wouldn't be the first time,” Gio answered casually. “Tell me something, Agent Carla. Are you scared right now?”
Carla hesitated, then said, “Yes.”
“Good. Do you want to live?”
Carla nodded.
“Don't fucking nod,” Gio snapped. “I asked you a question, and I want to hear you say the answer. Do you want to live or not?”
“Yes, I want to live, please,” Carla said softly.
Gio laughed. “'Please,' she says. That's nice. I like manners. Lower that sheet.”
Carla's eyes widened. “Why? What are you going to do?”
“This isn't about what I'm going to do, it's about what I'm doing right now,” Gio explained impatiently. “And right now, I'm giving you a chance to show me how much you want to live by doing what the fuck I tell you. From now on, there is no 'later' for you. There's only right now, represented by a yes or a no. Every yes means you get to live a little longer. Every no means you're finished living. Is that simple enough for you, Carla?”
“Yes.”
“I'm delighted to hear it,” he said. “Now, I told you to do something, and just this once, because I'm generous, I'm going to tell you again. But it's going to be the last time I ever repeat myself to you. Lower the goddamn sheet or I'll fill it with holes.”
With trembling hands, Carla lowered the sheet, revealing her perky breasts. Gio eyed them hungrily, relishing the way her small nipples hardened to pebbles. He'd always enjoyed the thin line between fear and sexual excitement, and this was the purest example he'd ever encountered.
“Very nice,” Gio said. “You have a gorgeous body, Carla.” He reached into his pocket and retrieved his cell phone, holding it up. His thumb pressed the camera option and Carla's half-naked body appeared on his screen. He clicked the button, taking a picture and saving it.
“Now here's what's going to happen,” he continued. “I'm going to hang onto this picture. Remember when I said you should come by my place sometime and see my stuff? Well, tomorrow night at eleven just became 'sometime.' You're going to dress up in one of your fancy suits, except this time, you're going to leave this fucking mic behind. And when you get there, you're going to do everything I tell you to, without questions or hesitation. If you don't show up—or if you disobey me, or fuck with me in any way—I'm going to make damn sure every wiseguy in America gets a copy of this picture, along with your name and your status as a rat. Your career as a Fed will be over.”
“Gio, I know you're upset, but please think this over,” Carla begged. The more rational and in control she tried to seem, the more Gio wanted to laugh at her for thinking she could somehow find a way out of this.
“Whatever you're planning for me, you know this won't work,” she continued. “How are you going to explain having a photo of a half-naked FBI agent? How are you going to make this look like anything except what it is...that you knew I was a Fed and let me go?”
“It sounds like you're making a solid case for me to just kill you now,” Gio said. “Is that what you want?”
“No, of course not, Gio,” Carla replied quickly. “But we're both in a tough spot right now, and I think if we try to stay calm, we can find a way out of it together. Gio, I know you're unhappy with your father. I've seen the way he treats you. I can help you. I know that's hard for you to believe based on how you've been raised, but I can, I promise. You can trust me.”
Gio saw what she was trying to do, and a wave of anger rolled through him. He stepped forward and delivered a hard smack to her right cheek, stunning her into silence. “That's for telling me to trust you when you're a fucking federal rat who deserves a bullet in the head.”