by Amanda Boone
“It’s how we met.” She winced as someone tried to open the door, and then slammed into it from the outside. “Here we go.”
The men who burst into the room hurried toward the unconscious Charles, and were followed by a short, reed-thin man with a scarred forehead and a big, ugly grin.
“There you are, Simon Denning,” the little man said. “I am so happy to meet you at last, but I think you will not be the same for Umbra.”
“Think again.” Simon quickly shot each man around Umbra before he aimed at the assassin’s head. “Hands where I can see them.”
Umbra pulled out a large pistol. “Can you see this?”
Without thinking Anna threw her dagger, which landed in his thigh with a meaty thump. As he screamed and stared down at the blade Simon shot the pistol out of his hand.
“Anna, collect all the guns, if you would,” Simon told her as he moved to stand over Umbra. “Now, old chap, let’s talk about the visit you’ll not be making to Hawaii.”
* * *
Forty-eight hours later, Anna walked into Simon Denning’s office with a tray of freshly-brewed tea. “Gentlemen, would you care for some sandwiches? I can order in anything you’d like.”
“Thank you, no, Anna,” one of the London agents said. “By the way, your old boss sends his compliments. I think after this op, he may even have Simon drop an extra pound in your pay packet.”
Anna left the men and went to tidy up the kitchen and finish her filing. The London agents had thoroughly debriefed her and Simon over the weekend, but she didn’t mind. Umbra had been neutralized, along with his plot to kill the American president, all of which had been a major blow to the cartel.
Simon escorted out the agents and then regarded Anna for a long moment. “My office, now, please.”
She went in and sat down, helping herself to a cup of tea as Simon vented.
“All this time you were an MI-5 operative, sent to babysit me.” He paced around her chair. “I can’t believe it. Why?”
“I wasn’t sent to you,” she corrected gently. “I fled here after Gareth died because I couldn’t do my job anymore. They simply asked me to help you maintain cover by being your secretary.”
“You could have told me, Anna.” He crouched down in front of her chair, trapping her in it with his arms. “Why didn’t you?”
She hated the truth, but he deserved to know. “Then I would have had to admit that Gareth died because he borrowed my car one morning. The bomb that killed him had been intended for me.”
Simon studied her face. “Then you weren’t just a data analyst for MI-5.”
“Gareth was.” She couldn’t help caressing his cheek. “I was his section chief. I’m sorry, Simon. You’re right. I should have said something a long a time ago.”
“I’ve never allowed myself to be involved with any woman for long.” He stood and walked to the window. “I never wanted to put anyone in danger. Especially you – and now you tell me you running a section for MI-5. Anna, you must have as much training as I do.”
“I do. I’ve also made some very bad enemies.” She rose and went to him. When she touched his arm, he dragged her up against him and kissed her thoroughly. Once he finished she gasped, “Simon, we really shouldn’t.”
“I know.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I have as many enemies as you do. But you’re done with MI-5, and I’m rather tired of getting tied up and shot. So, I think we both should retire from field work. Anna, if you’re willing, we can make a real go of it.”
“Oh, I’m willing.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “And I’m yours, Simon. Always.”
THE END
The Hitman’s Hunger
Bound to the Alpha Billionaire
Book 6
(Can be read as a standalone book)
By: Lucy Wynand
The Hitman’s Hunger
Chapter One
“Do you have plans tonight, Mr. Riley?” the flight attendant asked after she intercepted him outside customs.
T.J. regarded her with his skeptical, mismatched eyes. As petite and blonde as he was big and dark, she had been eyeing him since they left Paris. His Southie accent and leather coat always made him stand out from the Manhattan suits in first class. Since sex with him made rollercoasters look tame, however, he had rules: no nice girls, no fashionistas, and absolutely no one he might accidentally break.
“Yeah, I do.” He wondered if he should tattoo his chest with one of those measurement signs that read: “You must be this tall to take this ride.” Might make his life simpler. “Sorry, babe.”
She tucked a business card in his shirt pocket. “My number, in case you change your mind.” She sauntered off with as much sass as her pencil skirt would allow.
T.J. spotted Arthur Lecourt waiting outside the international arrivals gate. Although he wore a chauffeur’s uniform, the small, wiry man didn’t hold a name sign. Nor did he allow T.J. to elude him.
“Please, Mr. Terence,” Lecourt said as he appeared beside him and tried to keep up with his long strides. “He only wishes a word.” When T.J. didn’t reply he added, “I am authorized to use force if necessary.”
“That’d be entertaining.” He glanced at the older man and saw strain lines bracketing his thin lips. “Your hip giving you grief again, Arthur?” he asked, slowing his pace.
“The arthritis. They want to replace it.” He watched T.J. pick up his duffle from the luggage carousel. “He gave me the Taser, Mr. Terence.”
Because he liked the old thug, T.J. followed him out to the limo parked illegally at the curb. The back window lowered and another voice from the south of Boston said, “Get in.”
“No.” The only way to deal with his father was in words of one syllable. “What?”
“Get in, Junior, and I’ll tell you,” the elder Terence Jamison Riley said. “Or don’t, and Arthur will Taser you, throw you in here, and I’ll be late for my three o’clock class.”
T.J. got in the limo and sat across from his father. “Class?”
“Yoga.” As elegant in Armani as a reformed mob boss could be, Terence popped a piece of nicotine gum in his mouth. “Your mother thinks it’ll help with my anger management issues. I don’t mind so much. The girls are pretty, and hooboy, so flexible.” Terence gave him the once-over. “Why you over here? Work?”
The old man looked tired, so T.J. took pity on him. “What do you want, Pop?”
Terence shrugged. “Same old. Give up this spy shit, come home and work for me. I’m legit now, remember?”
T.J. rolled his hand.
His old man sighed. “Your mother wants grandbabies. We’re not getting any younger, you know. Your sister Margaret’s doing that test tube thing, but it ain’t working out. Her and Jack are talking about adopting.”
T.J. rolled his hand again.
His father rubbed his eyes. “Look. You come home, marry a nice Irish Catholic girl, and knock her up. It’ll make your mother happy. She’s happy, I’m happy. I’m generous when I’m happy, Junior.”
T.J. looked over the seat. “Arthur, drop me at long-term parking, will you?”
“Do this, and I’ll write you back in the will. I’m worth ten billion now, boy, and – you’re bleeding?” Terence jerked aside the collar of T.J.’s shirt to glare at his bandage and then him. “You got shot? And you didn’t say anything?”
“Pop? I got shot.” As Arthur pulled over T.J. grabbed his duffle.
“Love to Ma.” When the car stopped he climbed out and didn’t look back.
T.J. walked to a black SUV with a license plate that read HOT4U2. He input the security code on the door panel keypad and threw his duffle in the back. Once inside he took keys, a wallet, a cash bundle and a smart phone from the glove box. As soon as he touched the phone it lit up and buzzed.
“Yeah?” he answered it as he started the SUV’s engine.
“Central is bloody pissed with you, Terry,” a friendly British female voice said. “Consider yourself severely r
eprimanded for that cock-up in Paris. Why are you in America?”
“I’m taking some personal time, Ash.” T.J. reached under the seat for the untraceable handgun tucked there. He popped the fully-loaded clip to check the rounds. “Thanks for the nine.”
“Can’t have you scampering about unarmed, love. There’s extra ammo in the boot.” Ashley’s tone turned crisp. “We have a vastly unpleasant situation brewing in Berlin. It will likely go critical by Monday. That’s all the time we can spare you.”
“Understood. Appreciate it, doll.” T.J. ended that call and dialed the number to his old boxing gym. When a gravelly voice answered, he said, “Where we at, Mike?”
“They stashed her in a brownstone in Roxbury,” his former trainer said. “Some whorehouse for pervs run by a Spanish woman. She’s got some Eurotrash managing the whole business. But Terry, you need to turn on News Chat AM. Turn it on right now.”
T.J. switched on the twenty-four hour news radio station, and listened as publishing mogul Brian O’Hara finished giving his statement to reporters.
“We would do anything to save this brilliant, brave young woman’s life,” O’Hara said sadly. “But we have seven children. If we pay this ransom, then they will instantly become targets. We can’t allow that, so we will pray for her. It is our hope that God, not money, brings her home again.”
“Cheap prick.” T.J. shut off the radio and put the phone to his ear again. “How long we got before they kill her?”
#
Bound and gagged, the hostage could do nothing but watch as the madam shut off the radio and paced around the room. The busty brunette muttered under her breath in Spanish as a slender European man named Benton watched.
“Consuela, darling, calm yourself,” Benton said. “All is not lost.”
“Isn’t it? Your father is a stingy bastard, Sarah O’Hara,” the madam raged as she dragged Sarah up from the floor. “And you, you are worthless to me now.” She pulled a dagger from her robe.
“Kill her, and you really do have nothing.” A slender man who had shown surprising strength when he’d snatched Sarah, Benton seemed bored with the universe. He lit a thin brown cigar and examined the glowing tip as he exhaled smoke. “We’ll simply have to get creative.”
The madam turned on him. “You heard that tight-ass. He won’t pay a penny for her. I’d have to drug her to make her into a whore, and then she’ll probably kill herself like half of them do. So how do you make something out of this, Benton?”
“We find someone who will pay for her.” Benton came over and inspected Sarah. “She’s pretty enough. She might even still be a novice. Surely there are gentlemen in Boston who would be delighted to enjoy such a young, tasty morsel. We send out invitations to the right clientele and sell her to the highest bidder.”
“And what happens if she escapes? She goes straight to the police. Then we are all going to jail.” Consuela made an impatient sound. “Don’t be an idiot.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean sell her as a slave, darling,” Benton replied. “We allow the winner to use her here, in our little dungeon. We can even film it. Torture and rape porn is quite profitable, you know.”
Behind her gag, Sarah swallowed hard. She’d expected to be killed right away. Now that she was facing a fate that might be worse than death; she needed to think about ways she might kill herself.
“Yes.” The madam’s mouth stretched into an evil mirror of the slender man’s smile. “But there is something that will make us even more money.”
Chapter Two
Sarah sat hunched over as far as she could to feel the heat from the fireplace. The madam had stripped her of everything but her bra and panties before cuffing her to the metal chair. If she didn’t get warmer soon she’d start shivering. She refused to do that in front of any of the men being brought in to inspect her.
She also needed a way out. Everything sharp from the room had been removed. If she tried to bolt they might shoot her, but only to cripple her. Uninjured she could still put up a fight. The prospect of being raped while she slowly bled from a gunshot wound made bile surge in her throat.
The next bidder escorted in stood tall and bulky-looking in black leather and expensive shades. His dark hair spiked out around a hard, rugged face that might have been handsome once. Now a nose broken too many times and a scattering of thin white scars all but shouted career criminal.
“Why I gotta come in here?” the thug demanded in a thick Southie accent.
“So you can inspect the prize, dear boy,” Benton said, making an elegant gesture. “Allow me to introduce our very poetically-named Sarah O’Hara. She is twenty-four years old, enjoys cheerleading, strawberry daiquiris, and long walks on the beach.”
As the thug removed his coat Sarah inspected him again. With his build and bone structure he definitely looked stronger and more dangerous than all the other bidders combined. If he won her, she wouldn’t stand a chance.
“She is also the sadly unloved daughter of Publishing’s misery prince Brian O’Hara,” Benton was saying. “As you can see she’s healthy, drug-free and mostly uninjured. Possibly virginal, too, although we can’t guarantee that. She dislocated our resident physician’s jaw when he tried to check. You’re a profession assassin?”
The thug grunted. “Hitman, yeah. So?”
“Rather convenient, considering.” Benton took out a stop watch. “You have five minutes to inspect her – and please, no pre-auction violations. Really not worth having your fingers crushed.” He started the stop watch and stepped out of the room.
The hitman loomed over Sarah, and then slowly removed his sunglasses. His right eye glittered a brilliant blue, and his left a vivid green. “Look familiar yet?”
Sarah didn’t know any killers with complete heterochromia, but that didn’t mean anything. As he crouched down in front of her she could smell him and hated herself for liking his scent. She flinched when he reached out to touch her face, and then tried to yell as he tugged down her gag.
He clamped his big hand over her lips to muffle her shriek. “I can wait for that.” He put his mouth by her ear. “It’s me, Rah-Rah. T.J. Terry Riley’s son. Remember, from grade school?”
Sarah nodded, and when he drew his hand away, whispered, “FBI or PD?”
He grinned as if she’d made a joke. “You’re still a riot, Rah.” The smile faded as he examined her bruised cheek. “You okay? Any of them mess with you?”
“Not yet.” She glanced at the door. “T.J., you have to get me out of here. Will you untie me?” If he would do that much, she could brain him and jump out through the window.
“I’m working on it, sweetheart. Just keep your eye on me, and be ready to move fast, okay?” He replaced her gag and kissed her brow as he stood up and slid on his shades.
A moment later Benton stepped back inside. “Before you join the others, I must inform you of the special conditions involved in this sale.”
“What conditions?” T.J. demanded.
The European walked over and stroked Sarah’s head like a fond pet owner. “If yours is the winning bid, you will have all night to fondle, torture and otherwise violate our dear girl in our dungeon. But to protect me and my associates, you will be filmed while you’re amusing yourself.”
T.J. grunted. “Anything else?”
“Oh, yes.” Benton smiled with serene benevolence. “At dawn, you must kill her.”
#
As T.J. entered the private bar he noted that the competition had dwindled down to two. Benton’s special conditions had chased off everyone except a career knee-capper with crazy eyes, and a middle-aged woman dressed in a pink twin set and pearls. T.J. sat at the table between them and stretched out his long legs.
“My, aren’t you a big boy?” Twin Set said, scanning him with an admiring eye before giving her salt-and-pepper coiffure a discreet pat. “Made, or freelance?”
“Loser,” the thug on T.J.’s other side said. “The chickie is mine, man.” He leaned over to eye Tw
in Set. “And what’s with you, church lady? Winner’s supposed to rape her, and you ain’t even got a dick.”
Twin Set heaved a regretful sigh. “Oh ye of little imagination.”
The bordello’s madam came in with a struggling Sarah and shoved her to her knees in front of T.J. and the other bidders. “You are all ready, good. We will open the bidding at five hundred.”
“Dollars?” the thug asked, laughing the word. “Shit, we’ll be here all freaking night.”
“She means five hundred thousand, dear,” Twin Set advised him as she raised her hand.
“Six hundred,” T.J. said, watching Sarah’s face. She’d outgrown her freckles and pigtails, and he didn’t remember her eyes being quite so dark brown. She also seemed very focused for a terrified hostage, which made him wonder if they’d drugged her.
From that point the auction continued briskly. The thug grew angrier with every opposing bid, and when Twin Set offered two point five million for Sarah, he jumped out of his chair.
“What are you, FBI or something?” Before the woman could reply, he turned on Consuela. “This is bull. She ain’t got that kind of cash on her.”
“She does in the Caymans,” Consuela told him.
“You’re still using currency, dear?” Twin Set clucked her tongue at the third bidder. “Where do you buy your weapons? Wal-Mart?”
T.J. saw Sarah shift on her knees, bracing herself for a blow. When she turned her head to watch the thug he saw the two birthmarks under her right ear that she shared with her father. Vampire bites, she’d called them when they were kids. Although she hardly resembled the little girl he once knew, she was definitely Sarah.
“I have two point five,” the madam said once the other bidders stopped bickering.
“Three,” T.J. said.
Consuela’s eyebrows rose. “I’ll have to see some assurance of that, amigo.” She watched as T.J. removed a sizable blue diamond from his pocket and handed it to her. “Flawless?” When he nodded she gave it back. “The bid is three. Do I hear three point five?”
