Hunter Killer - Alex King Series 12 (2021), A BATEMAN [urban books to read TXT] 📗

of physiotherapy and recuperation ahead of her. He also had a picture of the man and his woman. He uploaded it into his cloud before he died and while my computer expert was hiding funds and losing money trails, he retrieved this photo.” Fortez paused, took his eyes away from the glorious view of the lake and stared directly into her hazel eyes. “And now that young lady sits in front of me, unarmed and with a head full of vengeance…”

***

“La merde!” Durand shook his head. “We need to call the police!”

“I’m on it,” Thorpe said and dialled 113, Italy’s national police emergency number. She walked away from the others as she spoke.

Ramsay took out his phone and called Big Dave, then cursed as he failed to get through. He tried again, but still there was no connection. On the third attempt he cursed loudly and threw the phone into the chair beside him. He then thought better of it and dialled again.

“The police are on the way,” Thorpe announced as she hurried back to the screen. “I just hope they can get there in time…”

***

Caroline smiled. She was quite calm and confident and held the man’s stare. “You are an intelligent and resourceful man, Signor Fortez. And you know all about retribution, and how it eats you up, gnaws away at your insides. But once someone makes up their mind to kill you, you can’t simply let it go. They will find a way. You decided that my fiancé could not go on living, and you will never let it go…”

“And you’re here to implore me to lift the contract? I must admit, it was a bold move on your behalf.” Fortez laughed raucously. “You may be a fool, young lady. But you have a big set of balls!” He made a gesture with his hands as if they were wrapped around an imaginary pineapple each. “Enormous!”

Caroline shrugged, unperturbed. She was looking him directly in his eyes and her tone was unwavering. “So?”

Fortez continued to laugh as he placed both hands flat on the table. When he ceased laughing, he looked at her quite seriously, his fingers drumming slowly and impatiently on the table. “No, my dear, I will not be lifting the contract. In fact, as we speak, colleagues of Marco’s are on the way here to take you away.” He looked at the bodyguard, who sneered back at Caroline. “So, you will soon see how effective Italian ex-soldiers can be. And after that, perhaps the contract will be served to these same mercenaries. Perhaps I should have looked closer to home and not used that slimy snake oil salesman Milo Noventa? But he was the expert in the dark web, and that was where I was advised to go for anonymity… for all the good that has done me. Now that my boys are dead, and my empire has crumbled, maybe the old-fashioned way is the best way, after all? In the old days, you just held onto a man’s wife and child and told him he’d get them back after they killed the person you had a grievance with. The job got done, and you were up to your eyes in alibis when the hit was carried out. If it went wrong, you slept safely in your bed. It was a win-win affair.”

“From a man like yourself, I’d have expected no less.”

Fortez smiled. “What did you hope to achieve? To get near enough to me to kill me?” He paused. “You were searched. My guard enjoyed it. His hands on your soft skin, lingering between your legs, at your wonderfully pert breasts. I certainly believe there was no weapon hidden there…” he laughed. “Perhaps I should check for myself…”

“You really are a loathsome man. Your son died having taken a fifteen-year-old girl hostage. That’s the same age as your eldest granddaughter.” She smiled when she saw the flicker of annoyance, or perhaps concern in the old man’s eyes. “Yes, I know all about your family. But tell me, what sort of man condones this action? You sit there like you have this self-righteous higher authority when you are in fact nothing but a crooked businessman who has profited from spreading fear and reaping the success of others. Your sons did this, too. But they branched out into drugs and weapons and sex trafficking… things that cause people great pain and anguish... and you sit there, staring out on this beautiful view with thoughts of murder and head full of lies and retribution. An old man, not long for this world, who is practically a prisoner in his own home, because he has been neutered by his opposition and spared only to be humiliated further. Whose last thoughts are bitter and twisted and vengeful.” She paused. “Your sons were killed because they took a wrong path. And you have trodden that same path for far too long.”

Fortez smiled, but it was mirthless and thin, and his eyes bore nothing but contempt into her own. “The time for talking is over…”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Caroline replied. She placed her hand on the nearest of her crutches and moved it a few inches until the rubber foot lined up just above the man’s ample stomach, then she twisted the handle. There was a colossal gunshot and a fist-sized hole appeared in the man’s sternum. He grunted, his eyes wide and his mouth open in surprise and disbelief. And then the wound started to bleed like a hose with the tap turned on halfway. She pushed out her chair and aimed the crutch at the bodyguard. “Easy… put your right hand on your head!” She shouted. “Take out the gun with your left hand. Fingertips only. Toss it towards me…”

The bodyguard stared at the dying man, his eyes transfixed on the open wound. Behind the blood and mess of shredded flesh and bone,