Read From Manhattan with Revenge (The Fourth Book in the Fifth Avenue Series) for Free Online

coffee?”
    “Hot.”
    “Does ‘hot’ mean ‘burned’?”
    “We don’t burn our coffee.”
    “Can you guarantee that?”
    “No.”
    “Do you have an egg selection?”
    “All that’s hot is the coffee. And the
toast.”
    “That sounds limited.”
    “It’s complimentary.”
    “At these prices, it isn’t.”
    “The Holiday Inn Express offers reasonable
rates that help you stretch your dollar. Will this be on your credit card?”
    “Cash.” Carmen gave her the money, took
the change, and pocketed the card the woman swiped earlier.
    “That’s the key to your room.”
    “I gathered that.”
    “Fourth floor. Take a right at the
elevator. Have a lovely stay.”
    “Will I see you at breakfast?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “It’s on me. I’d love to sit and talk.”
    “Have a lovely stay, ma’am.”
    “I can’t imagine I won’t.”
    She didn’t, not that that surprised her.
If she thought last night that a walk in the city would help to clear her head
because she couldn’t sleep, then what took place because of that walk made
sleep impossible.
    Since at least the bath towels smelled of
bleach, she covered the top of the bed with them before lying on top it.
Spocatti encouraged her to think beyond Katzev and the syndicate. He wanted her
to consider all her hits before assuming it was them. She trusted him, so she
thought it through.
    When she told the men last night to tell
Katzev to fuck off, neither looked bewildered at the use of his name. They just
fired back at her, which told her two things, neither of which provided a
concrete answer. If they were well trained, they wouldn’t have reacted at the
mention of his name. Let her believe what she wanted to believe, especially if
Katzev wasn’t involved. On the other hand, if Katzev was behind this, the same
was true. Show no knowledge of his name, which they didn’t. Doing so would only
tip her off.
    Is it Katzev?
    She didn’t know. Before she and Alex left
for Bora Bora, they warned the syndicate that if they came after them for
killing Laurent, they would send everything they knew about them to the press.
    Admittedly, that wasn’t much of a threat
because the syndicate worked behind a cloak of privacy that was fairly
airtight. Katzev and the syndicate knew that. Still, as with any
threat—and if they were indeed behind this—they took it seriously,
tracked them down, killed Alex and nearly her.
    With the syndicate, everything was handled
over secure lines. E-mail addresses were constantly changed and associated with
accounts in third-world countries. Whenever they paid her for a job, it was
from a numbered Swiss bank account with no name attached to it.
    In the seven years she’d done jobs for
them, she only saw Laurent twice. First, when he courted her to work for them,
and then at the end, when she helped to kill him. She’d never seen Katzev or
any other members of the syndicate. With the exception of Katzev’s fake Russian
accent on the other end of a phone, everyone associated with the syndicate was
foreign to her.
    As much as she respected Spocatti, she
knew in her gut that it was Katzev and the rest of the syndicate who were
behind this. They had a direct reason to come after both her and Alex. They
wanted their revenge for the loss of Laurent and they got it. At least partly.
    But how did they learn they were there? If
Jake was legit and he was friends with Alex, it was possible that Alex told him
where they were going and that Jake sold the information to the syndicate. It
also would explain why he sold her out last night.
    Start at the beginning.
    Before they killed Laurent, why would the
syndicate want her and Alex dead? Alex worked with them more often than she
did. Did he stumble upon something he shouldn’t have? Something that
incriminated the syndicate? Did they think he shared the information with her?
It was possible, but how did they find out? She knew Alex kept an apartment in
the city, but the syndicate also knew that and