The Hitwoman and the Chubby Cherub Read Online Free

breathing. I guess that means I’m paranoid.”
     
    “I think it means you’re a good mom.”
 
    “That’s debatable,” I muttered thinking about how Megan had inferred I was letting Katie down.
     
    After we’d gotten our bowls of chocolate pudding and spoons, Delveccio and I sat down at the most private table in the back.
     
    He picked up his bowl and held it in front of his face, waiting for me to do the same with mine.
     
    I lifted it, unsure of what was going on.
     
    “To making new, sweet memories,” he declared, clinking, more like clunking, the plastic bowl against mine.
     
    “Here, here,” I agreed.
     
    Once he’d started to eat, I asked, “Have you come up with any extra work for me?”
     
    I needed it because Aunt Susan was having trouble paying for my mother’s stay in the mental health facility she resided in.
     
    “Answer something for me first,” Delveccio said, pointing at me with his plastic spoon. “And don’t lie to me. If you lie to me, I’ll know it.”
     
    I nodded, but then looked down at my pudding, worried about what he’d ask.
     
    “Did you hire the Cupid Killer to take out Belgard?”
     
    I looked up at him, surprised by the question.
     
    “There’s nothing wrong with that, if you did,” he continued. “Smart move, really, hiring a third party so that suspicion didn’t fall on you.”
     
    “I didn’t,” I confessed quietly. “I had nothing to do with his death.”
     
    Delveccio considered that information thoughtfully.
     
    I didn’t tell him that I had witnessed the other kill by the man known as the Cupid Killer. I’d seen him kill a restaurant owner, but he hadn’t seen me. At least that’s what I hoped.
     
    “Disappointing,” Delveccio said finally.
     
    “Disappointing?”
     
    “I’d hoped you’d been the one to bring him town. Knowing you’re not…” He trailed off as though lost in thought. “It’ll make your job more challenging.”
     
    “Job?” I perked up hopefully.
     
    Delveccio nodded. “It’s simple. I need you to whack the Cupid Killer.”
     

Chapter Four
     
    I stared down at my chocolate pudding trying to keep my expression neutral.
     
    The last thing I wanted to do was go after the Cupid Killer.
     
    For one thing, the last time I’d been given the assignment to kill another assassin, Gary the Gun, the situation had involved a naked man in a kitchen, Doomsday, and dragging my murder-mentor-now-lover Patrick Mulligan out of a burning house.
     
    For another thing, the Cupid Killer had knocked off Kevin Belgard, the guy I’d suspected was responsible for my sister Darlene’s abduction years before, so how bad could the killer with a bow be?
     
    Delveccio tapped his spoon against his pudding bowl impatiently. The movement made his obscenely garish pinky ring glitter like the ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. “He meets your…requirements,” the mobster said.
     
    I looked up at him. “Because he killed a cop?”
     
    Delveccio leaned closer. “I thought you had a beef with Belgard.”
     
    “I do. I did.”
     
    “Yeah, well he might have deserved what he got, but Fern didn’t.”
     
    “Fern?” I’d been following the coverage about the Cupid Killer, specifically the stories by crime reporter Jack Stern, who’d shown up at the B&B’s door about five minutes after the call had gone out on the police radio that Belgard’s body had been discovered. He hadn’t written about any female victims.
     
    “Fernando Cardinale. Old friend. Salt of the earth guy.”
     
    “The restaurant owner?”
     
    Delveccio nodded approvingly. “Good to see you stay up on the biz.”
     
    I didn’t tell him that I’d witnessed Cupid murdering his old friend. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
     
    The mobster squinted at me. “You say the damnedest things.”
     
    I shrugged. “You said your old friend died. I conveyed my condolences.”
     
    “He didn’t die. ” Delveccio said the last word as though