‘Never heard of him, but if he’s actually a good assassin…’ Twilight frowned, though it was a little difficult to tell under the mask. ‘If David goes then John will probably grab control. David wants his son, David Junior, to take the reins, but he’s resisting. Jonny will use that and…’
‘That would be bad. Yeah, Red thought the same.’
‘You and her…’ Twilight stopped herself. Occasionally she confused Andrea and herself. ‘You seem to have an in with the Huntress. That where you’re getting your info?’
‘Yeah. That why you thought I was a lesbian?’
Twilight coughed. ‘She’s got a reputation. Okay, so what do you want to do about this assassin?’
‘Uh… stop him?’
‘Huh… Well, if you can pick up a car, it should be easy. Come on, I want to show you something.’ Twilight walked toward Penny, looking resigned, but expectant.
‘Sorry?’
Twilight unhooked her sword from her back. ‘It’s going to take ages to get there if I have to walk. You fly us there, I’ll navigate.’
Penny frowned, but she stepped forward as Twilight turned her back, wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist, and took off. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Uptown. Warren and twenty-first.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘You’re really not gay?’
‘No!’ Penny grinned. ‘Though… Hot young girl in my arms, her dressed all in PVC…’
‘That’s not funny.’
~~~
‘What am I looking at?’ Penny asked. She was ducked down behind the low wall which ran around the building they were on. Opposite was an apartment building with fairly large, open windows on the upper floors.
Twilight handed her a pair of binoculars. ‘Second window from the right, top floor. That’s David Tonaldo.’
He looked the part. Thin, slightly haggard face with a Roman nose and a full head of black hair, greying at the temples. He was slim, and did not look very fit, but the pin-stripe suit he was still wearing at almost midnight fitted him well. Expensive tailoring could do that for you.
‘Doesn’t look like he’s heard about the hit,’ Penny said. ‘He seems pretty… nonchalant.’
Twilight sat with her back against the wall, her sword resting in her lap. ‘You’d be nonchalant if you were sitting behind an inch of hardened, armoured glass. Two windows over Jonny’s taking a meeting.’
Penny swung the binoculars over. ‘Shit!’ She almost dropped the binoculars in her haste to get them away from her eyes.
‘Yeah, he’s a real charmer.’
Swallowing, Penny lifted the glasses again. John was ‘taking a meeting’ with a woman, only she did not look especially happy about it. He had her chained to a bed, spread-eagled and naked, a ball gag filling her mouth. There were red lines on the skin of her chest and they had probably been made by the long, curved dagger that John was holding.
She could see the resemblance between the brothers, just about. John was more filled out, heavier, definitely more thickly muscled. There was no grey in his hair and his face was fuller, but the nose was the same. He was not wearing a pin-striped suit. He was not wearing much of anything.
‘D-does he do this kind of thing often?’ Penny asked.
‘Maybe once a month. He picks the whore on their payroll making the least cash. If they’re lucky, they walk out with scars.’
‘And no one stops him! I mean, all it’d take is a video camera.’
Twilight grunted. ‘You’d think. They got him on film a couple of years ago. Got the girl to testify. When it came to court, the defence brought up her line of work and stated that she had agreed to the gig, and been well paid for it. Jonny got a hundred hours of community service for procuring a prostitute, and the girl wound up in Chesapeake Bay.’
‘Shit,’ Penny mumbled, scanning across the windows. There was one with the curtains drawn. ‘What goes on in that one that they don’t want people to find out about?’ she mused.
‘That’s Lena’s room,’ Twilight replied. ‘David’s daughter. She prefers keeping her private life private.’
‘Oh. We still don’t know whether they know about the assassin.’
‘No… I might be able to find out.’
‘How?’
‘Let’s just say that Red Huntress isn’t the only one with contacts.’
Penny smiled at the smaller girl. ‘Does this mean we’re working together?’
‘Yeah… We’re working together. I’ll get back to you when I know more.’
‘Need a lift somewhere?’
Twilight got to her feet, all lithe grace, cat-like almost. ‘No, thanks, I’ve had enough girly hugging for one night.’
‘I’ve got a boyfriend, y’know?’ Penny told her. ‘Really, not into girls.’
Twilight gave her a grin as she stepped behind the structure that housed the stairs up to the roof. ‘Later,’ she said.
Frowning, Penny got to her feet and hurried after her, but the ninja had done her stuff again. She was nowhere to be seen.
~~~
Andrea stood under the shower in her apartment, letting the water run through her hair and wondering what she was doing.
First there was Cygnus. How the Hell had Twilight ended up working with someone almost as unsubtle as Ultranova the Flying Flash Bulb? Okay, so the girl could be sneakier than she seemed at first glance, and she did make up for a few things that Twilight lacked… Actually, maybe teaming up with Cygnus was not such a bad move. She could see the tactical advantages. Hell, if all she did was hide behind the blonde when the bullets flew it was something.
The Tonaldo thing was harder to come to terms with. She wanted to bring them down, and this other gang clearly wanted to do the same. She wanted David Tonaldo dead, and yet she was trying to stop an assassin from killing him. Let this freak do the job, watch the family crumble, and then she would be free of the suit, and the mask…
No, she knew why she was doing that too. It had to be her who sank the Tonaldos. She had to be the one who watched David squirming on the end of her sword before finally expiring. There was no way she was going to let someone else decapitate the family and rob her of her revenge.
Turning the water off, she climbed out of the tub and towelled herself off before heading into the lounge. There she found a little princess phone she kept in one of the drawers of the desk she used for her computer, and checked the charge and the messages. There was one message from a couple of days earlier and she gave a bleak little smile before punching the button to dial the number it had come from. It answered after two rings.
‘Hey, yeah I’m available this weekend… Tomorrow? Sure. Around eight…? Seven, okay. Should I bring an overnight bag?’ She listened to the reply and then said, ‘Okay, see you then.’ Then she disconnected and threw the phone back into the drawer.
20th September.
Penny had decided that she would patrol instead of going to the Den this week. She had decided to fly over Uptown on her patrol area as well. Okay, so it was unlikely that the assassin would try for Tonaldo at home, but maybe she could spot him making observations. The guy was going to do that, right?
After stopping two muggings, thankfully without any clinging victims, what Penny got was a conundrum, and something of a surprise.
She was overflying the Tonaldo apartments when she spotted a taxi pulling up outside it and a young woman stepping out. She was not absolutely sure, but the hair and general body type were right. What was Andrea doing walking into the building?
~~~
There were new guards on the fourth floor. Andrea walked to the end of the corridor where the elevator up was and had to be checked over by two men who seemed to be taking far too much enjoyment out of their job. Usually it was just a quick pat down, but these guys went through her bag, used a portable metal detector on her, and then insisted on a pat down.
One of them was getting seriously enthusiastic when she said, ‘Does Mister Tonaldo know you’re feeling up h
is daughter’s guests?’ That cut his ardour considerably and the other man escorted her up to the top floor.
David was walking past the doors as she stepped out of the elevator and she stopped in her tracks. For a brief second she was worried that her disgust and hatred would show on her face. It was not like she had not been this close to him before, but you could never tell…
‘Andrea, right?’ he asked, pausing.
‘Yes, sir, Mister Tonaldo.’
‘You’re here for Lena?’ His accent was pure Brooklyn, despite the name. The Tonaldos had been in America for generations.
‘That’s right, sir.’
‘Staying the night?’
Andrea nodded, not quite trusting her voice to answer him the right way.
‘Come see me in the morning. I’ll have something extra for you.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Andrea said, and then she hurried away when the old man moved on. She slipped her coat off before she got to the rooms Lena spent most of her time in. Beneath was a short, very short, pin-striped black dress with a heart-shaped cut-out at the front and an oval at the back. It showed a lot of flesh, the lower slopes of her breasts, but especially her long legs. Lena had a particular fondness for those.
She knocked twice on the door, heard an answer from inside, and went in. There was the lounge with its expensive furniture and Lena sitting on the sofa, a glass of white wine in her hand and nothing but a G-string on her body. She was a blonde, a natural one as her mother had been, and blue eyed, small with a generous pair of breasts with sensitive nipples which she liked having sucked. Andrea knew that because she had been fucking her for the last seven months.
Lena bounced to her feet, and her breasts kept moving after she stopped. ‘Andrea! I’m so glad you could make it. I’ve missed you so much.’ Her smile blanked almost instantly and she pointed at the small table beside the door. ‘Your envelope is on there, as usual.’
Andrea did not look. Instead she stepped forward, hips swaying as she prowled closer to the blonde. ‘Let’s not worry about that right now,’ she purred. Her hands caught Lena’s waist, slid back and down to cup her ass, and then she was pulling their hips together. Lena let out a whimper, cut off as their lips met.
~~~
‘There’s a lot of new security,’ Andrea said softly.
Lena was snuggled against her side, basking in the afterglow of an hour of sex. There would be more later. Andrea kept Lena coming back for more by making sure she gave value for money.
‘Poppa’s worried,’ Lena said. ‘He won’t tell me, of course, but I’ve heard the odd rumour. Someone’s trying to kill him.’
Andrea kissed her brow. ‘I thought that was an occupational hazard.’
Lena giggled. ‘No one has the guts to kill Poppa. Anyway, this is different. Some aborto assassin.’ Andrea kept her muscles from tensing by force of will. Italian had some particularly offensive slang for Ultras. ‘A gunman of some sort,’ Lena went on, ‘so there’s the metal detectors and the searches. It’s stupid. It’d be suicide trying to get him in here.’
‘Better safe than sorry though, right?’
‘I guess. He’s still going to that charity ball next week.’
‘The children’s charity?’
‘Inner city kids getting a new start, or something like that. I think it’s called “Nuovo Inizio” actually. That’s new start, but in Italian. Kind of ironic considering that Poppa sells them drugs.’
Andrea felt her jaw muscles tense and covered her feelings by stroking a thumb over Lena’s right nipple. Lena let out a moan. ‘Enough talk,’ Andrea whispered. ‘I don’t think you screamed loud enough last time. I think you might be going off me.’
‘No!’ Lena whimpered, and Andrea stroked her thumb across the rapidly swelling flesh again. ‘I’ll try harder. To show you I’m not.’
Andrea’s thumb and forefinger closed around Lena’s nipple, tightening slowly. ‘Yes, you will.’
21st September.
David Tonaldo sat behind the huge oak desk in his office and watched as Andrea crossed the thick carpet toward him. He looked relaxed, at ease with the threat hanging over him. There was an envelope on his desk, thicker than the one she already had in her bag.
‘Andrea Morgan, right?’ he asked. He was smiling slightly. Not a full-on smile, but it showed in his eyes as well as his mouth.
‘That’s right, sir.’
‘I met your brother once. He was family, y’know?’
Andrea felt the knot in her stomach tightening and fought to keep it off her face. ‘I’m sure he appreciated being thought of that way, sir.’
‘His loss was… unfortunate.’ He slid the envelope toward her. ‘This is for you, though. You keep my daughter very happy. I’m glad we’ve got another Morgan carrying on the family tradition.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ She took another step forward and reached for the money.
‘You understand… no one outside our family is to know that Lena… what she prefers to do with her time.’
Andrea looked up into his eyes. The smile was gone, replaced by ice. No, no one was to know that Lena was a ‘rug muncher.’ That was why Poppa paid for the most expensive whores he could get to attend to her, and why he vetted every last one of them before they were allowed in.
‘I understood that when I first came here, sir. I’d never betray Lena like that.’
Tonaldo nodded, taking his fingers off the envelope and sitting back. The smile had returned, a notch brighter than before. ‘Good girl. You’re her favourite. Keep it up and there’ll be more like that.’
Tucking the money away in her bag, Andrea returned his smile. ‘Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.’ She turned and walked away from him. She needed, more than anything, to be out of here and home. Then she could stand under the shower for an hour and hope she felt clean afterwards.
24th September.
Twilight looked uncomfortable standing in Red’s office. Red sat behind her desk with June sitting meekly beside her. The brunette had more or less insisted on coming along and Twilight was not sure why, but she was not questioning it. Cygnus stood there with Twilight, in audience before the senior heroine in the room.
‘I did some research,’ Twilight said. ‘The ball is being held on a boat, a luxury yacht belonging to Andrew Donovan, Ultranova. The plan is to cruise out from Pier Eleven…’
‘Take a slow cruise out into the bay,’ Red continued, ‘around Poplar Island, and then back. I’ve got an invite. I wasn’t planning on going since Fridays are generally pretty busy.’
‘Huh, well it seems like the only time the assassin can hit Tonaldo is on that boat. He’s the kind who likes a challenge. He’ll take him in the bay, somehow. My guess is he’ll shoot from Poplar Island.’
Red nodded. ‘That’s where I would shoot from.’ She looked upward at the longbow mounted on the wall above her. ‘Of course, he’s got a lot more range he can work with.’
‘My research says he likes an AWM long-range sniper rifle,’ Twilight agreed. ‘He could hit someone on the boat just about anywhere along the route.’
‘Well yeah,’ Penny interjected, ‘but Tonaldo’s not stupid. Your Name won’t want a window in the way at that kind of range. He’ll want to hit Tonaldo in the open and it’d be kind of stupid to go out in the open.’
‘Yeah, he’ll need an accomplice,’ Twilight agreed. ‘There’s gotta be someone on the boat working with him. Someone to lead Tonaldo outside and spot for him.’
Red sighed. ‘All right. June, come here after work tomorrow, we’re going shopping.’
‘We are?’ June replied, blinking.
‘If you’re going to a fancy ball, you need a fancy ball gown. I suggest you trail the boat, Cygnus…’
‘Wait,’ Penny said, ‘you’re taking June along on this?’
‘Two pairs of eyes are better than one. We can keep watch, spot if Tonaldo is doing anything stupid. She won’t be in any danger. I don’t plan to be either.’
&
nbsp; ‘Okay, so I tail the boat and run interference if needed,’ Penny said, not sounding entirely convinced.
‘And I’ll be on Poplar Island,’ Twilight said. ‘If I’m lucky I’ll spot the sniper before he takes a shot.’
27th September.
Red had, in fact, bought two gowns. June felt a little like an appendage as she walked about the huge yacht moored at Pier Eleven wearing a figure-hugging, quite sheer, silky dress which showed a lot of cleavage and was split to the hip on the right side. It was black; Red’s matched perfectly, but it was red, of course. June was following along meekly, though she had to admit the appreciative looks she had got from Red earlier, and the ones she was getting now from a number of the men already on the boat, were not unwelcome.
‘Red, long time, no see.’
June looked around to see a man standing a few feet away. He was tall, well-built with a wind-swept mass of blonde hair. She did not immediately recognise him without the white costume.
‘Andrew,’ Red said. She was smiling, but there was a slightly wary tone in her voice. ‘This is June, my partner.’
Andrew Donavan, Ultranova, affected a hurt expression. ‘How is it that you manage to get all the most beautiful ones to yourself?’
‘I actually stay with them longer than five minutes. It’s a nice boat you have here.’
He smiled. ‘It is glorious, isn’t it? Please, make yourselves at home.’ He leaned toward June and the smile became more mischievous. ‘If you’d like a tour of my private quarters, don’t hesitate to ask.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind, sir,’ June replied before following Red toward the large, rear cabin. She waited until they were out of earshot before saying, ‘Partner?’
‘He’d have been after you all night if I hadn’t staked a claim,’ Red replied. She glanced back at June, a smile playing over her lips. ‘Besides, we’ve been seeing each other for long enough. You don’t mind do you?’
‘I didn’t think you thought of me quite that way.’
‘I’d ask you to move in with me, but Penny needs you. There’s Tonaldo.’ She nodded toward a man and woman standing together near one of the two bars occupying the rear corners of the room.
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