I confronted Greco.

It wasn’t something I'd ever really had the need to do before, but I needed answers, and he was where all my information was coming from anyway.

"I don’t see the problem."

I stopped my pacing to send him an incredulous look. I was sure I'd explained myself well unless he just wasn’t listening? But he didn’t say more, just stared back at me, and I took a deep breath.

"I've been working for you for a while. Not every mission goes well, but I've never had it this bad before."

"Isn't it just two, though?"

"Two in a row and the one that I just barely completed. There might have been a witness but I'm almost sure he was armed and he didn’t get to see my face. Out of pure luck because the idiot was incompetent enough I could hear him coming. I'm not exactly careless. This many flukes worries me."

He still wasn’t saying anything.

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

I started pacing again, my nerves getting the better of me. I would have held myself still no matter if it killed me if there were any other people in the room, but Greco had made the decision to excuse everyone else when I walked into the room. It was one of the parlors in the mansion, with large windows that had the curtains drawn even though it was dark outside. It had a good view of the water, especially during the day, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the view just then.

"So, what exactly are you suggesting? That I'm giving you false information?"

I froze in place, facing away from him. The thought had crossed my mind, of course, only I couldn’t think of why he'd lead me into these situations on purpose. Usually, he sent me after people he wanted dead enough to hire a hit on them, which didn’t happen often, surprisingly.

I only killed people that tread on Greco's toes or were starting to get out of line. No nice, innocent people would do that to a mafia boss, so I never minded taking the jobs. Usually, he told me the reason, or I heard from one of his men, or the people I was sent to kill when I had to get up close and personal. I liked being undercover, and I loved my job as a hitman, strange as it would seem to many.

But I knew better than to tell him I was suspicious of him, even for a second. Greco was a stickler for loyalty; he would not appreciate it.

"If I thought that, I wouldn’t have come to ask you. I was thinking more of a leak somewhere. I know even in the tightest organization there is a possibility, and it’s the only thing I can come up with. Because lately, it's starting to look as if my marks are expecting me, even waiting for me."

Except for this last one, because he was most certainly surprised. But I remembered, he hadn't tried to run off exactly, just glanced around like he was looking for someone. It was possible I moved too fast for them and that was why because I hadn’t taken the time to fake an alibi like Greco wanted most of the time. And the guy I got to drive me, I'd had to drag him along with me instead of waiting for him to do whatever the hell else he wanted. But it only gave me a minimal head start, so I wouldn’t bank on it being useful all the time.

"Only three people know when I'm going to have someone offed, two of them are in this room, and the other is a man I would trust with my life, he's been with me longest in this business. Maybe the guys I'm sending you after know they've done something wrong and they've heard about all the other people I've worked with that ended up dead after they… crossed me."

I slowed my pacing as I thought it through. It was actually very plausible. Most of them were kept hush hush, but I was sure news traveled in the underground circuits. Most of these guys had hands in several pies so that kind of news couldn’t be kept hidden for long.

"Maybe you're right," I said slowly. "But what do I do about it? If I meet my mark and I think the situation can be compromised, can I turn away and go after them later after some recon? Like with the other two, I've been keeping an eye on them for the next chance I get."

He shrugged, looking entirely unconcerned for a man that paid me a lot of money for each mark he gave me. "Do whatever, so long as you get the job done. You haven't disappointed me yet and I know you don’t plan to. I'll tell you when one of the names I have for you is someone I need to be taken out quickly, but other than that." He shrugged again, leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs. "You can make them sweat for all I care. It would serve the bastards right."

I knew better than to say anything to that, nodding along. It was the best I was going to get out of Greco, any more and I might begin to annoy him, I could tell just by looking at him.

While talking to him, I started to think about the woman that I saw at the wedding. Elda, my mind supplied helpfully. It had been over a month since the day, and I found myself thinking of her often. Usually, I was alone, and I shoved the thoughts away because there was no use thinking of someone I would likely never see again.

But the more I looked at Greco…

"There was a woman at the wedding…" I started without thinking.

His eyebrows arched, surprised at the sudden change in topic, but looking blandly interested. He waited for me to go on.

"There was a woman at the wedding that had the same eyes as you. I was just wondering if she was from back in Italy."

Because her accent had been more obvious than mine, and it was easy to pinpoint, seeing as how I was subjected to it a lot around my boss. I didn’t know if he was originally from Italy and just moved to the US, or if his parents had been old-fashioned enough to make him learn the language and the accent was just there, but I was sure he'd gone there on at least a couple of occasions, though I'd never been.

I also didn’t make the habit of asking my boss about his personal life, beyond what he wanted me to know when he introduced me to his family, as an afterthought, while telling them I was new security joining the ranks.

"Hmm." His brow furrowed lightly. "What woman exactly?"

"She was in a black dress, brown hair and eyes. I don’t know when she left, but she was still there when I went out."

She wasn’t with the rest of the guests, but I didn’t clarify that for him. I peered at his eyes, trying not to show the extent of my interest.

So, that was where the feeling came from.

I remembered thinking her eyes looked familiar. Brown eyes were very common, I had them even though mine were darker than hers, but I was sure, the more I looked at him, the more that familiar feeling came back to me. I had perfect memory; I could remember perfectly how her eyes looked like.

"Do you mean one of my cousins?" he mused, more to himself than truly talking to me. "I have to admit, I have more than I know all that well, and quite a few of them were there with my other relatives." He shrugged again. "I met them before at my eldest son's wedding. It's not something you should be overly concerned about."

I read it for what it was, a warning to keep away from his family, even though he didn’t know the why of my question. I let it drop, anyway, my mind going off on a distracted tangent.

Who exactly was this woman?