Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
He had started to walk out of the room, when I called out, “Don Paganini.”
He turned, one supercilious arrogant eyebrow raised.
“I wanted to thank you for sparing my daughter and the woman. I know you could have so easily killed them. As a mark of my gratitude and an early birthday present, I have instituted a new program for you. You will be able to launder dirty money faster than ever. It will also save you millions of dollars every year. Let me show you on the computer. It will only take a minute and I think you’ll be very pleased.”
He looked impressed. “You remembered that my birthday is in a week. All right. Show me this wonderful program of yours.”
"Just a moment," I said and lowered myself to the ground.
Under the guise of re-tying my laces, I retrieved the special folding blade from the heel of my shoes. I went forward and threw an arm around him just as he neared the desk.
“Tommaso,” I called, and he turned to me, his expression showing surprise that I’d used his first name. Almost no one dared, but in his eyes were something else too: pure sexual excitement.
Smoothly, I slipped the knife into the inside of his elbow and slashed him all the way down to his wrist. His skin and flesh opened up like an ugly flower. The blade was so sharp and the movement so quick he didn’t even feel the pain until I had released him and stepped away.
Only then did he see the blood gushing out of him like I’d turned on a faucet. He was horrified. He looked up at me with amazement, as if I had betrayed him. Then his eyes filled of panic. A that moment he still believe something could be done to safe him. Then he stumbled and fell back into the chair. One hand flailed uselessly in the air.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “You will be dead before you feel any pain.”
His eyes bulged with fear. He opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish. He didn’t even try to call for help. He knew now he was done for. He died with his eyes open and staring, but without making another sound.
I stood just behind the office door and waited. In minutes his men had noticed something was wrong. They began to shout and run around frantically looking for him. They burst into the office, and with one leg forward at the right moment, I tripped the first guy. With the element of surprise on my side, I rammed my fist into the throat of the one behind him and retrieved his gun. With a single, well-placed bullet through the head, he was gone. Then I turned around to do the same to the other.
The silencers were very helpful since I didn’t want to draw any attention.
I knew my way around, but I only had a few minutes to get to the surveillance room, so I hurried over to it. There was a guard there who was, fortunately for him, napping on duty, consequently his death was painless and even quicker. I looked at the video feed. There were only a few men dotted around the building. I saw Arianna lying on a bed on the second floor. Now that I knew where she was, I plugged in my hard drive into the system. Almost instantly every screen became white noise. I waited for the malware to wipe off every retrievable footage.
Once the red light started flashing, I pulled the drive out, pocketed it, and walked out.
I needed a new start after this, and this meant that if the authorities or whoever took over the family from Paganini came over, there would be no trace whatsoever that I’d ever even been here. No need for revenge.
Quickly, I made my way to the second floor.
I saw no one until I reached the hallway. One of Paganini’s men who was guarding the floor saw me. His eyes widened with shock, but before he could reach for his gun, I had already broken his neck.
She was in the second room on the left. The door was locked so I went back to the still body of the guard and found his keys. Hastily, I opened the door and went in. She was so still she looked dead, but she wasn’t. She was asleep and so high on drugs she couldn’t open her eyes properly. I could hardly believe this emaciated waif was Anya’s mother and had once been my wife. She woke up and babbled some gibberish.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she mumbled. She had lost a lot of weight and I carried her easily into the elevator. I went down to the garage and stuffed her incoherent body into one of the SUVs. As ever, the keys were in the box by the garage doors.