“You better tell me that this is about him.” Alaric’s voice was clear, but he could see from the angle of the photos and how she was centered in each of them that this call was about her. No women. No kids. That had been his rule since he’d started with Infinity Consulting, which contradictory to its name specialized in endings, and didn’t consult anyone about anything.
“It’s about both of them, actually, and don’t you dare hang up on me. Hear me out.” Luca snapped out the words as if he was racing the end button on Alaric’s end.
“Talk.” Alaric was tempted to hang up, potentially hard enough to crush the phone. Let Luca try and track him then.
“The client attempted to make a deal with the man in the picture, Gianni Formato. The deal was declined and the client wants Gianni eliminated.” The tension in Luca’s voice eased as he kept talking and the line was still open. Alaric didn’t have a problem with what he was saying so far, he could remove Gianni from the picture with ease. Tapping open the third document to cover up the pictures of that woman he saw the floor plans of a three story - plus basement - villa in Milan, Italy. Exterior pictures were below the floor plans, there was a heavy-duty gate in front of the driveway and the garage, but that gate came right up to the surface streets. All the windows had security bars, and to most people it looked like a fortress, but Alaric’s mind was already clicking away at an entrance strategy.
Then his mind screeched to a halt as he tuned back in to what Luca was saying.
“- just bring the girl back to the client, and all done.”
“What?” Alaric tilted the laptop towards his body as a man and a woman left the café and walked past him. “You know my rules, Luca.”
“Listen, the client doesn’t want a hair touched on her head. In fact, he’ll be pissed if she’s hurt. That leaves me with an extremely short list of people I can send in with moral fiber that are also within range to have this done tonight. In fact, that list is you. Just you.” Luca’s voice was deadly serious.
“I’m not a delivery boy.” Alaric’s hand was gripping the strap of his messenger bag hard enough to make his knuckles go white. He couldn’t raise his voice, couldn’t draw attention to himself, but he didn’t want to be involved with the elegant socialite in those pictures.
“Alaric, if you turn this down I’m just going to have to call someone else within range, and no one else within range has the same,” another pause, “values, you have.”
Hello back, meet corner.
“I will not hurt her.” Alaric spoke it quiet enough that only the sensitive microphone angling down from his ear could pick it up.
“Is that a yes?”
“Tell me the rest.” Alaric sighed and leaned back against the cold chair, and he reached a hand for his tea out of habit but the cold air had turned it into an unsatisfying waste of tealeaves. Over the next fifteen minutes Alaric finished reading through the documents, all of it the bare minimum he needed to know to do the job. Most of the information Luca transferred was about the when and the where. They usually had plenty of time to plan these things, but this had to happen tonight, between midnight and four am.
“He’s paying two million, and another half a million upon delivery. It’s a pretty nice pay day for a few days of work.” Luca was back to his happy self on the other end of the line, and Alaric could almost see the smile as Luca talked while his hands moved over the keyboard in his computer cave. All those screens flashing information at him while he handled the navigation of their invisible ship to keep them all afloat.
“The client is going to have to cover all my expenses. This kind of turnaround is going to cost money.” Alaric had pulled up the internet to start looking at flights to Milan, it was going to take him at least five hours to pull out of Toulouse and get to Milan, get a car and gear up. That was all before he could even scout the place in the daylight.
“I don’t think he’ll have a problem with that.” Luca had already checked out of their conversation. The contract had been assigned, and he had others to call, other moves to make.
“Alright Luca, I’m on it.” That is, as long as no one asked him to hurt the girl he would be.
“That’s my boy, Alaric. Call me when it’s done, and you have her, so I can update the client.” Luca’s end of the call clicked off, and Alaric started turning off the program and unplugging the cables. It was a matter of a few minutes to book a flight under an alias to Milan, he found a hotel just far enough from the target to give him some breathing room, but not so far as to be unreachable if there was fallout. He grabbed his phone again and called a car dealer he had worked with before. If he was going to have to leave with the girl, he was going to be able to do it fast and in a car he knew he liked.
As he clicked the laptop shut and sat back his eyes tracked the winter sunlight as it continued painting the clouds. Luca knew his rules and he hoped that out of respect for their relationship he wouldn’t put him in a bad situation. Luca knew why he had the rules too – and the memory bobbed to the surface, his mother’s face flashing in front of him. Her eyes open, but unfocused.
He scrubbed a hand over his face and settled into work mode, there was no room for reminiscing about old tragedies right now. Compartmentalizing his brain he tucked all the messy things away, his childhood, his mother’s death, all the rage he felt at thinking of it. There was only his current assignment and the steps it would take to complete it. No room for emotions in all of that.
When he slipped the laptop into his bag he realized the girl’s name hadn’t been on anything and Luca had never said her name. It was better that way, personal details led to distraction.
He reached in his wallet and laid a few bills under the plate his ruined tea sat on. Crossing the bag over his chest he climbed onto the Ducati motorcycle and started it up, rolling away from the café and back towards his hotel. The streets were still mostly empty in the morning and he picked up dangerous speed on the small streets, but it cleared out his head as he tilted his body carefully to handle the turns, focusing on the balance, and the acceleration, and not the lives he’d take in the next twenty-four hours.
It was better not to think about it.
Stay tuned on social media and sign up for my mailing list to keep up with when ‘Tara’ Book 2 of the Daughters of Eltera series will be released!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Bene is a best-selling author of erotic fiction. Her writing has been described by readers as "dark in a way that turns you on", and she definitely takes that as a compliment! She has a terrible mouth that often gets her in trouble but comes in handy when she's writing. She loves to write strong female characters and dominant male characters in stories that take readers for a walk on the dark side.
When she's not attached to a keyboard, she likes to read, drink wine, do yoga, binge on Netflix, and enjoy life with friends/family. She lives in Texas, and no, she doesn't own a horse or wear a cowboy hat, you'd have better luck finding her on the dance floor downtown. Seriously.
Jennifer would love to hear from you! She does her best to keep readers up to date via social media, and tries to always respond when readers are nice enough to message her!
Check out her website - http://jenniferbene.com/
Find her on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/jbeneauthor
Follow her on Twitter - http://twitter.com/jbeneauthor
Books by Jennifer Bene
Dark / BDSM Erotica:
Security Binds Her (Thalia Book 1) (Amazon #1 Best Seller in BDSM, and Romance Erotica!)
Striking a Balance (Thalia Book 2)
Salvaged by Love (Thalia Book 3)
Of Fog and Fire (Part I & II)
Taken by the Enemy (Blushing Books)
Dark / Paranormal Romance:
Fae (Daughters of Eltera Book 1)
Tara (Daughters of Eltera Book 2) (Coming Spring 2016)
BDSM Novellas:
The Invitation
The Rite
Christmas
at Purgatory (Thalia Extra #1)
Reunited
Anthology Appearances:
The More The Merrier (Menage / BDSM Erotica)
The Darker Side of Love (Dark / BDSM Erotica)
Twist (BDSM Erotica)
The More the Merrier 2 (Menage / BDSM Erotica)
MÉNAGErie (Ménage Boxed Set)
Fae Page 34
