The little girl stuck her tongue out and flipped Donnie off from behind her parent’s back.
“Little shit! Kids these days got no respect. Hey I think she had a Barbie backpack too,” Joey joked, making Donnie howl with laughter. We ignored them, focussing on our plan. We couldn’t allow anything to distract us from our mission. The awful elevator music increased my anxiety to the point that I jumped against the back wall when the elevator dinged and the doors opened onto the sixth floor. The goons stepped out of the elevator and led us down the carpeted hallway.
Ulyssa and I looked at each other and unbuttoned our jackets.
We continued down the hall towards the elaborate wooden doors that guarded the suite entrance.
We silently slid the guns from their holsters, disarmed the safeties and pointed them at the goons. They opened the giant double doors, leading us into a long marble foyer. A second layer of designer doors blocked access to the interior of the penthouse. I used my left hand to close the doors behind us, sealing the four of us in the marble hallway.
This is our only chance. No telling what’s waiting for us on the other side of those doors.
I slid my Hello Kitty backpack off my shoulders and jammed the gun into Joey’s back. Ulyssa did the same to Donnie and warned, “That’s far enough guys. Put your hands on the wall and spread ‘em.”
Both guys raised their hands and leaned against the wall.
We sat our backpacks on the table and reached forward patting down their waist with our left hand keeping the guns wedged into their backs.
“Look what I found?” Ulyssa said, lifting Joey’s jacket, pulling a gun from the back of his pants. She looked at the side of gun. “45, huh? Wouldn’t be my first choice!”
She laid it on the black onyx foyer table.
“Why are yous doing this? Are yous cops?”
“No questions!” Ulyssa barked.
“It’s not personal, it’s just business,” I added.
“Now put your arms behind your back!” Ulyssa demanded. She grabbed the twist-ties out of the Barbie backpack and tossed me one. We slid the twist-ties over their hands, using our left hand to pull them tight around their wrists.
“Turn around,” I said, turning them to face us.
“Where’s your gun?” I asked, pointing my gun in his face.
“Holy shit!” His pupils dilated as he recognized the weapons. “Those are Desert Eagles XIXs with suppressors! You’re not cops! Who are you?”
“Keep asking me questions and I’ll duct tape your mouth shut!” I said, pulling the duct tape from the backpack.
“Damn! We should have checked your backpacks.”
“Don’t make me ask you again. Where is your gun?”
He lowered his eyes to look at his left armpit.
“I’m going to reach in and get it. Don’t try to be a hero. I don’t wanna hurt ya.” I grabbed the gun and stepped back next to Ulyssa.
“Anymore weapons you want to tell us about?” We tucked their guns into the front of our pants. “No? Okay, let’s go see a man about some money.”
We pushed the second set of doors open.
“Which way?” Ulyssa asked.
They walked up to the door on the right and waited patiently while we turned the handle leaving it slightly ajar, but not fully open. We stepped back behind the goons and nodded at each other. We leaned back, kicked the door open and shoved the goons inside, keeping the guns trained on their backs.
Nicolo was seated behind a black onyx desk in front of a wall of windows.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” he asked, laughingly as the goons stumbled up to his desk. “Yous let these two funny guys get the jump on yous?”
“Funny guys?” Ulyssa asked, shoving Donnie to his knees, popping the gun behind his head executioner style. “Does this look like a joke to you?”
I followed her lead, shoving Joey to the ground.
Joey and Donnie started whispering a prayer. “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
They both flinched when Ulyssa and I echoed their Amens.
“Whoa. Whoa,” Nicolo shouted. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Why don’t you put your guns down before you hurt somebody? I got some fresh cannoli here.”
“We’ve been playing your games for the past two weeks and we’ve had enough,” Ulyssa growled. We kicked the goons onto their stomachs, grabbing their guns from our waistbands raising all four of them at Nicolo.
I leveled the barrel at his chest, marking half-a-tac down from his gaudy gold medallion of Saint Avellino.
I need a clean kill. No mistakes.
“Why don’t you give us our money, so we can be on our way?”
“Holy shit!” he cursed, scooting back in his chair. “Are those Desert Eagles? Look, look, here’s the money.” He shoved an envelope forward on the desk.
“Does that include our bonus?” I asked.
“Bonus?” he asked, frowning in confusion.
“Yeah, I think we’ve earned a bonus. An extra ten thousand should cover our logistical costs,” I explained, looking at Ulyssa. “What would you say?”
Ulyssa grinned and added, “I think that’s fair. We provided quality work, finished on schedule and avoided public suspicion. Besides that’s what he was going to pay the other assassins anyway.”
“Enough with the bullshit! I relent. You two are something else.” He reached down making us readjust our guns on him.
“Relax, I’m just getting your bonus,” he said, pulling a stack of hundreds from a drawer, counting out the bills. He stuffed the extra cash into the envelop. “I really brought yous here so I could pay you and because I may have another job for you? Now why don’t yous sit down for a chat?”
We looked at each other and shook our heads.
“Wait til yous hear what it is before you say no. The pay is good and you won’t even have to kill anyone.”
“Nothing personal Nicolo, but business dealings with you have brought us nothing but trouble,” Ulyssa said. “Thanks for the offer, but I think we’re going to take it easy for a little while.”
I leaned down and patted the goons. “Sorry about scaring you guys. We’ll just call it even for trashing our trailer. Stop by for mochas sometime. I’ll make you the Hazelnut kind next time.”
“That’d be real nice. Thanks for not killing us!” Joey said, his face smashed into the floor. “Yous are real class acts.”
Ulyssa snatched the envelop and we backed toward the door.
“You’re not even curious about the pay?” Nicolo yelled.
“$60,000?”
We shook our heads and kept walking.
“$80,000?”
Our footsteps slowed.
“$100,000?”
We stopped walking and Ulyssa asked, “That’s a lot of money for not having to kill somebody. What do we have to do?”
“Be a bodyguard for three weeks,” he said.
“Who are we guarding?”
“I can’t tell you until you agree to do the job.”
We shrugged and turned to leave.
“Fine. Fine. It’s for my daughter. I need two talents I can trust. And it’s obvious that you girls know what you’re doing.”
We walked back into the office. “We’re not committing to anything until we know all the details,” I said, sitting down with the guns in plain sight.
Ulyssa grabbed us a couple of cannolis and sat down next to me adding, “Start talking.”
Table of Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Fat Assassins (The Fat Adventure Series) Page 28
