Page 13 of The King's Boy

I had no idea what Spencer was feeling, and I doubt I would ever find out. I had no way to get into contact with him and he had no way to get into contact with me since. I had called his cell phone, but the number had been disconnected. Plus, I had finally moved out of the hotel into my own place.

I did leave a message at the hotel in case he decided to check.

I hoped he did.

I doubted he would.

"King," Malloy started as he walked into my new office. "I just spoke to someone back in Dublin and I may have a lead on the woman that tried to stab you at the bar."

"Oh?"

There had been no sign of the woman since that night, but there had been a couple more attempts on my life. One shooting and some poisoned food.

I had been lucky to survive both of them, but I wasn't stupid enough to think my luck would continue. At some point, someone would probably get me. My plan was to get them first.

"She is a hired assassin that goes by the handle of Katrina. She is new to the game with only two kills attributed to her."

"Who?” I asked.

Malloy blinked at me. "Who what?"

"Who did she kill?" I clarified.

"Oh." Malloy glanced down at his cell phone. "One was a businessman in London and the other was a judge in Atlanta, Georgia that had recently presided over a custody case. The police believe the mother hired her after the father got custody of their kids."

Those were pretty random incidences.

"She's freelance then?"

"Looks that way," Malloy replied. "My contact told me that she hasn't made enough of a name for herself to be an exclusive contract killer."

"So, the likelihood of one of the families hiring her to kill me is pretty low. Which means someone else wants me dead." Freaking fantastic. "Is there any way to track who hired her?"

Malloy shook his head. "This stuff is pretty hush hush, King. Most of it is done on the dark web in secret chat rooms. Those are really hard to track."

"Put some feelers out," I directed. "Someone has to know something."

It was a bit of a relief that it wasn't one of the main families that had hired her to kill me, but that didn't mean I could let my guard down. Someone still wanted me dead.

"We could always hire someone to assassinate the assassin."

A burst of laughter shot out of my mouth. "As good as that sounds, I'd rather capture her alive so that we can question her and find out who hired her. If we take her out, another one will just take her place."

I wasn't going to dismiss the idea, however.

"I'll nose around a bit and see if I can discover who is out for you."

"You do that," I said before reaching up to rub the bridge of my nose. A headache was beginning to form between my eyes. It felt as if it was gearing up to be a doozy, too.

I dropped my hand and glanced at Malloy. I would have preferred to go take a nap or a long soak in my tub, but business was business. "Have you got everything set up for next week?"

"Yes, but I am not comfortable with you only being allowed two guards."

"That is the rule for these things, Malloy. You know that."

I wasn't thrilled with the idea of meeting with the heads of the other mob families in New York City without an arsenal behind me, but this rule had been established over a hundred years ago. It wasn't like I had a choice.

"It's a stupid rule."