All Chapters of Mancini's Way: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I'd barely got enough of a glimpse of broad shoulders in a black V-neck black label with just a speck of white from the undershirt; his hand played with the glass he held between long tapered fingers. No doubt manicured to a high-gloss because for all his criminal mien the guy seemed to like his prissy comforts. Manicures every Tuesday, I'm a female and even I didn't have time to get that done as often as I'd like. I knew his itinerary by heart; aside from the mani-pedis he had a standing appointment every Thursday with one of the top stylists in the city to get his hair done. He bought all his designer suits, well the ones he bought in New York at least from the same high-end menswear design store heavy on the Armani and Gucci. He owns homes in almost every major city here and in Europe or his family does at least and those were only the ones we knew of. It was thought that his net worth was well above a hundred billion and counting; that's way too much money for someone so y

I could see that threw her since she wasn't expecting me to capitulate that easily. It was easy to since I had no plans on letting this farce go much farther but it was nice putting her through her paces. "I'm interested in renting out your space maybe having a private party for a hundred people or so." I looked at her for a minute before answering, let her sweat. "Sorry not interested." "Pardon?" Oh that ruffled your feathers did it sweetheart? "It wouldn't be cost-effective for me to do that; I make more money in one hour than I would by renting you the space for such a small number, unless you were willing to pay the premium plus overhead, plus the fee per person not to mention the liquor charge. So you see your little venture really doesn't hold any appeal for me." Chew on that agent Stone let's see what else you have in that bag of tricks of yours, her eyes smoldered for just a second before she got it under control.

Denise came back with the appetizer platter and a new glass for Cierra, it hadn't escaped my notice that she seemed a little out of sorts I'll have to have a word with her about her attitude around the customers. Cierra didn't seem too impressed by her either as I noticed a slight change in her body language. "So what's it going to be?" I questioned as soon as we were alone again. She took a deep swallow before lifting her eyes to mine; my gut clenched, there was definitely something going on behind those eyes of hers but even more than that was the pull I'd felt from the first moment I laid eyes on her photograph. She had something in her that pulled at the heart of me and regardless of the reasons for her being here I'm not going to stop until I'd explored all the possibilities. Let's hope we both made it out unscathed. "I'm not sure how to answer your question I don't think I've ever been put in such a position before." "What you're not accus

"What's up guys your wives kick you out or what?" "Funny bro...so?" Adrien dropped down on the couch while Jaxx went towards the minibar to get some sparkling water. He threw each of us one before settling next to Adrien on the couch. "So what?" Of course I knew what they were after but I enjoyed busting their chops every chance I got. "Don't fuck around bro we know you met with the undercover Fed last night how did it go?" It was always Jaxx's way to let Adrien take the lead, me I'm always the one stirring shit up and making them both crazy. "What, you didn't hack into the system to get a look at the report?" "She hasn't sent anything in yet I'm dying to see if she's as good as they say." "Jaxx you're rather quiet what's on your mind buddy?" "I hope you know what you're doing bro getting close to this chick; why didn't you just tell her you knew who she was and be done wit it?" "How do you know I didn't?"

I remembered Gracie's warning to not be too cocky going in, how that attitude had caused many others before me to fail. Looks like this one was going to take longer than expected. It was going to take all my considerable skills to bring down the great Mancini, if that were even possible. The question is did I want to? Yes I had a job to do but was I really doing that job if I let others dictate what I should believe? Something inside of me was very against the idea of his being guilty of the things we'd put on him; if he wasn't guilty of the list of criminal activities we suspected him of then what? Because when all was said and done Hank Mancini has been up to something for the past decade or more; problem is no one seems to know exactly what that was. I spent the next few minutes on the phone going over strategy with my boss while feeling slightly sick to my stomach. I had a weird feeling that I was about to embark on a very twisted journey full of pitfalls and stumbl