Assassin (31 page)

"But we don't even know why he wanted you gone. Maybe you can talk to him, get him to rescind the order," Rain hoped. "That's what you said you were going to do," Rain reminded her.

Case looked away. She'd known the instant Rain had told her that Carlotti wanted her dead that there was nothing she could do to change his mind. Even if he found out Case was innocent of whatever he thought she'd done, he would still have to follow through or else lose face.

However, she was still curious as to why he'd ordered her termination, so she walked back over to the sitting man. She also knew her actions might help placate the undercover agent for a little while longer.

"Why did you intend to have Rain kill me?" she asked without preamble.

Antonio snorted and rolled his eyes in disgust.

"You know why," he said.

"No, I don't. Tell me," she ordered.

Antonio looked like he was thinking of refusing, but Case flipped the gun in her hand and held the butt ready to whack his knee. He shrugged as though he wasn't afraid of her, but he still gave her what she wanted.

"I know about your overseas accounts. You didn't really think you could hide something like that from me, did you? I don't know who's been paying you, but I don't stand for traitors in my organization," Antonio said contemptuously.

Case stared at him for a long moment and then slammed her fist into the top of his desk in anger.

"God damn it, you stupid fucking paranoid idiot!" Case swore. "Shit!"

Rain was a little confused as to what Case's response meant, so she just asked.

"Is it true?"

"No!" Case said angrily.

Antonio huffed at her denial and the look on his face said he didn't believe her for a second.

"The money was from you, you asshole," Case said derisively. "I was just laundering it and stashing it someplace safe in case I ever had to get away. I would have kept working for you indefinitely, if you hadn't pulled this shit on me. You should've trusted me..." Case paused as she realized this line of conversation wasn't going to get her anywhere. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "Okay. I know you can't rescind the order. So, who knows you intended to have me killed?"

Antonio looked blank, and Case realized he wasn't planning on telling her. Case tried another approach, the truth. Or at least part of it.

"Look, if I can take out all the people who know about the order, then maybe I can leave you alive and just disappear. It's your only chance, and you can always find replacements. Otherwise, I just start going after everyone, starting with you."

Antonio was obviously not happy with Case's proposed deal, but it didn't take him long to realize he didn't exactly have a choice. He nodded.

"All right. But you have to give me your word that you'll let me go after I tell you," he insisted.

"I give you my word I'll let you go," Case promised.

With that settled, he started naming all the people he'd discussed her death sentence with. Case was glad it was a small list, though it included all of Antonio's sub-bosses. It was less than a dozen people, including Doc and Rain, and Antonio was confident that his people hadn't discussed the subject with anyone else since he'd ordered them not to. Case wasn't so sure, but she knew that they'd bring their seconds with them to the meeting she had planned, and since those were the people she figured they would've most likely talked to, she decided it was a risk she was willing to take.

"All right. I want you to call a meeting at that warehouse on State Street for seven tonight."

"It's too short notice. Everyone won't come," Antonio argued.

"They will if you give them the impression you're going to be announcing their promotion."

Antonio thought it over and then nodded.

"Then make the calls," Case ordered. "And don't even try to use any coded language I don't recognize, or I'll just kill you now and hunt the others down one by one. You know I can do it, so don't fuck with me. Got it?"

"Yeah," Antonio nodded.

He dialed the number of the first person on the list and easily maneuvered him into agreeing to the meeting. He dialed the next number and started all over again.

CHAPTER 28

RAIN COULDN'T BELIEVE Antonio was going along with what Case was planning. Granted, his own life was on the line, but these were supposed to be his trusted associates, and he was selling them out just on the off chance that Case decided to keep her word and spare his life, which Rain was slowly realizing wasn't very likely.

As Antonio continued to call his lieutenants and arrange for their attendance at the meeting, Rain found herself watching everything with a strange detachment. She imagined herself trying to overpower Case to stop this whole thing from going any further, but she'd gone up against the woman only a day before, and the only reason she wasn't dead was because Case had somehow refrained from killing her.

Even if she did manage to stop Case without killing her in the process, Carlotti would execute Case for what she'd done. Not to mention Rain herself for telling Case what Antonio had planned for the assassin. Then again, maybe she could arrest Carlotti.

Yeah, right. And I'm going to get him out of a house full of armed guards, how? Rain thought to herself sarcastically.

Rain closed her eyes, as though that could help her shut out the sounds of Antonio sweet-talking his colleagues to their deaths. Rain didn't want to be a party to mass murder, and there was no other way to describe what Case was about to do. Unfortunately, Rain's clinical mind couldn't escape the fact that if Case succeeded, the Carlotti organization would be finished and there wouldn't be a need for court proceedings that could go on for months and years with appeals.

The honorable part of her reminded her why the judicial system was split up, that no one was supposed to be allowed to play judge, jury, and executioner. No one should have that kind of power. But she played devil's advocate with herself and couldn't help but remember that only a few days ago, she'd essentially done just that with her brother's killer. There was also no doubt in Rain's mind as to Carlotti's guilt, while a court might decide there wasn't enough evidence to convict him.

"Great, I'll see you there," Carlotti told the man on the other end of the line and then pressed the off button.

"Last one and then you get another dose," Case said, and Carlotti nodded.

He was sweating and his hands were getting shaky from the pain, or possibly the loss of blood, he wasn't sure which. He pushed one of his memory dial buttons instead of the phone number itself and waited.

"Doc," came the gruff voice over the speakerphone.

"Doc, I'm having a meeting this evening and I need you to bring the spreadsheets for last quarter's shipping revenue."

There was a slight pause before Doc replied.

"Are you being audited?" he asked calmly.

Case frowned as she recognized a code phrase, but she didn't know what it meant.

"No, of course not. Everything's fine. I just want some numbers to back up my proposals for the meeting and you always have a way of explaining that shit," Antonio soothed his fears. "I had a brainstorm this morning and I want to make some immediate changes," he added.

There was another pause and then Doc spoke.

"Okay. I'll be there early to meet with you and discuss your plans before the meeting," he said and then the line went dead.

Case pushed the off button and then kicked her foot out, landing it squarely on Antonio's knee. She grabbed the front of his shirt as she pushed her gun into his cheek, and he screamed as tears filled his eyes.

"What the hell does 'brainstorm' mean?!" she yelled over his incoherent screams.

He could barely think, but he did manage to form a few broken words.

"It's just... a word," he sobbed, and she held him at arm's length so she could kick him again.

"What does it mean?!" she asked again and then Carlotti went limp as he passed out. "Fuck!"

"Stop, Case! Maybe he was telling the truth," Rain said, but Case ignored her.

Case slapped him several times, but his eyes barely fluttered. She let him drop back into his chair and looked around the room. There was a vase on one of the tables against the wall and Case went for it, removing the flowers as she came back. She poured some of the water over his head and he finally came back to consciousness. As soon as he seemed aware of his surroundings, Case started in again.

"What does 'brainstorm' mean?" she asked.

He stubbornly clamped his mouth shut and she punched him in the face.

"What the fuck does it mean?!"

When he refused to answer, she slammed her fist into his stomach and he coughed, almost throwing up from the blow to his abdomen.

"I can do this all day, Antonio," she threatened and reached down to squeeze his knee.

His scream gurgled out of his throat and then he passed out again. Case laughed, though there was no humor.

"Guess you can't," she muttered and started slapping him again before she poured the rest of the water from the vase onto his head.

"Case! Stop!" Rain said.

Rain moved forward to prevent Case from inflicting more damage to the man, but then Antonio opened his eyes, and Case stopped on her own. Rain stood uncertainly only a few feet away.

"What the fuck was the code word?" Case questioned and just lightly grazed her hand over Antonio's tortured knee.

It wasn't enough to make him pass out again and Antonio knew he wouldn't be finding oblivion anytime soon. The pain was excruciating and he just wanted it to end.

"It meant... I wasn't... alone... And... I couldn't speak... freely... And... I needed... backup," Antonio got out as he gasped through the pain.

He wished she'd just cut off his leg. It would hurt less.

"How soon will they be here?" Case asked in alarm.

He was about to open his mouth to answer, but the doors burst open and half a dozen men rushed into the room. Case pushed Carlotti down behind his desk and grabbed at Rain as she dove to join him. She came back up firing and brought down three men before she had to take cover again. She heard a sound behind her and turned her head to see Antonio trying to crawl away. She slammed the butt of her gun onto the base of his neck and knocked him out. She turned to Rain. The woman had two of her guns out, but she was looking at Carlotti's unconscious form with a frown.

"What the hell are you waiting for? They don't take prisoners!" Case yelled at the woman, as she switched to two new guns with full clips so that she could offer more counter fire.

"We've got Carlotti! We could use him as a hostage and get out of here!" Rain shouted over the sound of gunfire and bullets hitting wood and plaster all around them.

Case looked at her like she was insane.

"Are you stupid? They'll kill Carlotti themselves and just say it was us, then elect a new boss! Why do you think he was trying to get away?!" Case yelled back.

Rain's shoulders slumped as she realized Case was right. That kind of thing had happened several times throughout the mob's infamous history.

"Fuck," Rain cursed under her breath and leaned around the side to offer a few rounds to their assailants.

Case popped up over the top of the desk for just a second and then fell back again. Six men had entered the room in those first few seconds. She'd killed three while Rain had just sat there. That should have left three, but she'd just counted seven. Case knew Antonio always kept a compliment of two-dozen men on hand just in case the cops or the Feds ever decided to try to bust him.

Case peeked again from another angle and narrowly avoided getting her face blown off. There were fourteen now.

"Doc must have called the guard station and alerted them. Shit," Case swore. She turned to Rain again. "We've got to take them out before Doc arrives with reinforcements."

"Nice idea. You got a plan to go with it?" Rain questioned, as she fired off eight more shots, only landing two of them, but the men went down.

"Yeah. Take them down as fast as you can and make sure they stay down," Case ordered as she followed through on her own words and killed two men with three shots.

"That's easy for you to say. I'm not the one who never misses," Rain replied, but she brought down another pair of guards with only four shots that time.

They both ducked behind the desk at the same moment. They could hear the bullets impacting on the wood, along with a slight metal thrum as they ran into the steel reinforcement. Case reloaded her guns while Rain did the same. She looked over at Rain.

"You go right. I'll go high. Aim for the targets on the left and I'll take the right," Case said. Rain nodded in acknowledgement. "Go!" Case yelled.

As Rain dove around the side of the desk and fired across the room at the men on the left, Case stood up and used both of her guns to take out individual targets on the right. She felt a bullet graze her hip and then another burned her arm, but she dropped four guys in half as many seconds before hitting the deck herself. The afterimage of the room imprinted on her mind's eye to let her see that Rain had removed only one target, leaving three.

The firing stopped and Case took a quick look. All she caught was a glimpse of one of the men retreating.

"Fuck!" Case said as she jumped up and ran after him and his friends. She called back over her shoulder to Rain. "Stay here and watch Antonio! If anyone comes through those doors, shoot 'em!"

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"To clean up," Case said and then closed the heavy doors behind her.

Rain looked over at Carlotti's unconscious body.

"Great, just fucking great," she mumbled.

CHAPTER 29

CASE MOVED DOWN the hallway at a healthy pace and only slowed when she came to the first intersection. She carefully looked around both corners and then moved towards the center of the mansion.

Before she could get to the next junction, eight guards came around the corner led by Doc, and she shot him and two of the guards before they even had a chance to register her presence. The other six scattered back behind the corner for cover, and Case quickly ducked into a nearby room. There was an exit at the opposite end, which led to another room, and Case ran through the next room until she was at another door. She'd basically circled around behind the men in less than ten seconds.